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[alady]

I saw Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls last night at Ravinia. Melissa opened, which I didn't expect. She sounded great and played all the hits. Amy Ray still sounds great but Emily is sounding a little warbly/elderly. They also played all the hits and the singalongs were epic. Ravinia is lovely but damn such a pain in the ass to navigate. But, it was a beautiful night and the vibes were immaculate so it was all worth it.

Also might have been my longest stretch between performances of a band, last saw the Indigo Girls almost exactly 27 years earlier (at Lilith Fair in Milwaukee, August 19, 1997).

[zircona1]

^ My wife and her friend are going to that tomorrow night in STL.

[chvrchbarrel]

pretty much a perfect ravinia bill, wish it was coming to KC. haven't seen either.

[chvrchbarrel]

This Childish Gambino show is insane. I'd had a long day yesterday and was planning on leaving after a few songs, since I had the option, but I could not pull myself away from the floor. Amazing production. See it if you can. I don't think it's selling particularly well, so keep an eye out for tickets to drop in the upper levels if you're on the fence. I'm only a moderate fan and I had a blast.

[borracho]

my brother went to the opening show in okc sunday night and said the production and lights were nuts. he's not a big fan so some of the songs weren't familiar but between the production and crowd energy he loved it.

they ended up curtaining off the upper level here and moving people down.

[krentist]

What's up with the Gambino tour not selling? I thought he was huge? Did he just take too much time off and flop on the comeback?

I've never thought his music was particularly good, even the acclaimed stuff (Awaken, My Love, This is America), but I am surprised to hear sections are being curtained off.

[chvrchbarrel]

Our sections being curtained off were slightly less about it selling poorly and slightly more about sightline issues that AEG somehow never considered / misunderstood when building the show (the level of incompetency here is staggering and has been a big topic of conversation here over the past 72 hours).

They had to move everyone out of certain upper level sections for a small variety of production-related reasons, and curtained those sections off to dress the house. There are other times when upper level seats are obviously relocated downstairs because of ticket sales (Arcade Fire 2014 being the first tour that comes immediately to mind as doing this in basically every US arena), but the Gambino show teetered on the line of selling just well enough upstairs (in KC) that the relocations wouldn't have been necessary. Our upper sideline sections were all open.

With that being said, the way the tour is choosing to relocate the seats is downright stupid. I would hope that its an early kink that they'll work out as they keep kicking this can down the tour; as I've said, the second day of a tour is the worst day to be, so a certain amount of it comes with that. But I did hear chatter about re-pricing upper level inventory to move it once relo's had finished.

We looked pretty damn good last night in terms of crowd fill, and we had just a hair over 8600 in the house, which is basically 50% cap for an endstage show like Gambino's. It dresses well, but there will definitely be cheap tickets down the line.

[Pale Hose]

I was able to get to Wrigley in time for Rancid's 5:55 start time, but unfortunately I missed all of the Linda Lindas. Please send my regards.

Tim & Lars both seemed genuinely pumped to be playing Wrigley. I wonder if this was their first time playing baseball stadiums? They had a 35 minute set and played all the hits. They brought out CM Punk before closing with Ruby Soho, because why not?

The Pumpkins hit the stage at 645 and played an hour-long mostly greatest hits set, with a few new songs and deep cuts sprinkled in. Billy & James both took time to appreciate that they were playing Wrigley, after cutting their teeth playing the clubs that surround the ballpark. It was a nice homecoming.

Green Day emptied the tank on this tour with the Dookie and American Idiot album sets. It was such a treat to get all of the deep cuts from those albums, most of which I was hearing live for the first time. They did seem to lose a little steam towards the end of American Idiot, I can't help but think Dookie would have been better served for the second half of the set.

Green Day seem to be intent on playing these high production package stadium tours. I'll be curious to see what tricks they have left up their sleeve after this one.

[scoots]

The Green Day show in Denver is thankfully on a Saturday, so we'll have an easier time getting there early to catch The Linda Lindas. Honestly mostly pumped to see Rancid - it'll be my first time seeing them.

[concertgoer]

I've been to a ton of Green Day shows and that was my probably my second favorite one behind the Metro show two years. Getting to hear Dookie and American Idiot in a full was awesome. Pumpkins also were on point. So much better than their set at Riot Fest a few years ago. Overall a great night.

[monasterymonochrome]

Speaking of high-production package tour - I wholly endorse checking out the current Missy Elliott / Ciara / Busta Rhymes tour!

Caught it on Monday night at Barclays Center. I know the tour as a whole didn't seem to be moving loads of tickets (it was on the LN $25 sale for some dates), but they sold out Barclays in advance. I've seen a bunch of big shows there lately (Janet Jackson, Lauryn Hill, Madonna, Nicki Minaj) and the energy is always through the roof. Ciara went on at 8:00 for a 45-ish minute set. Gotta be the singular best opening set I've ever seen. She had her own stage set-up feat. a giant ramp/screen that she and like 10 dancers were continually twerking / doing gymnastic-level routines on. Her voice was amazing, moved through probably 12-15 songs in her limited time. And she brought out ELLY THE ELEPHANT (!!!) to do a dance routine halfway through the set. I was only a very casual fan of Ciara before that set, but she totally converted Emma and me. Next was Busta Rhymes who Emma and I caught a few year ago in Prospect Park for a Biggie birthday celebration. Busta rules - dude exudes magnetic energy on stage. Like, I was just as engaged during his crowd banter as during his songs. Also did about 45-50 minutes of mostly hits. Brought out Rah Digga for a song, then his son Trillian (and about 20 of his friends) for another track. Finally he brought out LL fuckin' Cool J to do the Flava in Ya Ear remix (RIP Craig Mack) and the place went absolutely bananas. Busta did some of his trademark mile-a-minute verses, and of course dropped "Scenario" before wrapping up. Always a great time, would happily see him again.

Then it was time for Missy - arena was buzzing. We all had these light-up wristbands the venue handed out at the door. Those started lighting up in sequence, the house lights went down, and we were off. Now - my expectations were fairly middling, based on reviews of her past shows. And some of those critiques carried into this set too (medleys of half-finished songs, occasional breaks), but they were faaaar overshadowed by the incredible production and Missy's palpable energy herself. The visuals were simply insane. Massive screen behind her with an outer-space theme. Honest to god felt akin to The Sphere visuals at times - very immersive and well done. Missy had a fleet of like 20 backup dancers going nuts the whole time. And holy shit her outfits were on point. Best style of any star I've seen - hands down. The set had about 27-28 songs, and ran lightning fast = from start to finish was probably like 70 minutes. After doing the first 15-20 minutes straight through, she took breaks probably every 3 songs or so, but each one lasted maaaybe a minute or two and usually resulted in a costume change while her dancers did more cool shit on stage. A massive step-up from, say, the Nicki show I saw this year where her breaks lasted like 5-10 minutes. Her voice sounded killer, the hits were plentiful. The whole thing felt like a massive party with its foot on the gas. Could it have been longer? Yeah probably, but I felt like I got well more than I expected and there's something to be said about crushing for an hour and change versus having middling energy for 90-120 minutes. Oh yeah! Lil Kim came out for a pair of tunes, including the "Ladies Night" remix. Quite a night for iconic remixes. We (and the crowd) fuckin' loved it.

Overall - an awesome experience, very much recommended. Don't miss this tour.

[doso]

Love that Ciara brought out Ellie lol

[doso]

This is the first summer since 2017 that we haven't purchased a membership for the Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series at the bandshell in Prospect Park. It has been something I've looked forward to every year since I moved here, but I felt pretty underwhelmed by the lineup this year, especially since they drastically reduced the number of acts compared to last year, but kept membership pricing the same. Figured I'd attend a few shows here and there while battling it out for the free seats, but between COVID, multiple work trips, and other miscellaneous shit, I hadn't attended a bandshell show all summer. Oh, and the weather for most of the past 2-1/2 months has been either ungodly hot, ungodly humid, or both. Not my jam.

Well, the dew point has been relatively normal this week, Meshell Ndegeocello's previously cancelled show from Aug. 2 was rescheduled to tonight, and this became the de facto final free show of the season, so I made my way over there. The vibe was pretty excellent - I arrived after any line had died down, had some time to wander around a bit, grabbed a beer and some dumplings, found an aisle seat in the back corner, and enjoyed the sounds of crickets as the the sun set and the band came onstage (with no opening act).

Ndegeocello was celebrating the release of her new record which is some sort of tribute to James Baldwin, but she opened the show with about 30 minutes of other tunes, singing lead, but not playing bass. Then I think she played the new release in its entirety. If not, then she must have performed most of it. There were a lot of spoken word segments in between songs, mostly featuring another woman reading what I assume were James Baldwin passages. Not what I'm normally looking for in a concert, but her readings were undoubtedly thought-provoking while stirring up a range of emotions. Ndegeocello played bass on almost all the songs, but only sang lead on... maybe a third of the tunes? Her two backup singers handled the rest.

Very soulful and jazzy music. I want to say almost hushed, but it wasn't necessarily that. More chill, I guess. Band was good, but they were never afforded the opportunity to cut loose. Overall, an above average night thanks to the attentive crowd, the weather, and the environment. I wouldn't have felt great about paying to see it, but for a $5 donation at the gate, it was 100% worth it. Fingers crossed for a less arty/more recognizable lineup next summer.

[thebosma]

Will echo the positive comments about the Gambino show. He can really command a room and the new stuff, which I thought was just alright on the record, works a lot better with the big showy stage elements. I also appreciate that he does a 25 minute block of the early hits, the crowd went insane for it and I think that was probably the only thing that I felt was missing from the first time I saw him. The production on this tour is big and fun and if you have even a passing interest in his music you should really consider grabbing a cheap ticket. Also it was pretty full in the arena with some small but notable pockets of open seats in the 100 level where it was pretty clear the platinum seating price structure was in effect. They also for sure had to relocate a couple of sections because I remember seeing them for sale initially but there’s no way you would have been able to see anything behind the giant laser pillar, no idea why they would have sold those tickets lol. All in all great night!

[chvrchbarrel]

Aug 15, 2024 6:25:44 GMT -6 thebosma said:

Will echo the positive comments about the Gambino show. He can really command a room and the new stuff, which I thought was just alright on the record, works a lot better with the big showy stage elements. I also appreciate that he does a 25 minute block of the early hits, the crowd went insane for it and I think that was probably the only thing that I felt was missing from the first time I saw him. The production on this tour is big and fun and if you have even a passing interest in his music you should really consider grabbing a cheap ticket. Also it was pretty full in the arena with some small but notable pockets of open seats in the 100 level where it was pretty clear the platinum seating price structure was in effect. They also for sure had to relocate a couple of sections because I remember seeing them for sale initially but there’s no way you would have been able to see anything behind the giant laser pillar, no idea why they would have sold those tickets lol. All in all great night!

would you like an upper management position at aeg touring

[thebosma]

Aug 15, 2024 7:21:03 GMT -6 chvrchbarrel said:

Aug 15, 2024 6:25:44 GMT -6 thebosma said:

Will echo the positive comments about the Gambino show. He can really command a room and the new stuff, which I thought was just alright on the record, works a lot better with the big showy stage elements. I also appreciate that he does a 25 minute block of the early hits, the crowd went insane for it and I think that was probably the only thing that I felt was missing from the first time I saw him. The production on this tour is big and fun and if you have even a passing interest in his music you should really consider grabbing a cheap ticket. Also it was pretty full in the arena with some small but notable pockets of open seats in the 100 level where it was pretty clear the platinum seating price structure was in effect. They also for sure had to relocate a couple of sections because I remember seeing them for sale initially but there’s no way you would have been able to see anything behind the giant laser pillar, no idea why they would have sold those tickets lol. All in all great night!

would you like an upper management position at aeg touring

Does that mean I could be your boss? If so, yes

[chvrchbarrel]

smashing pumpkins were fine last night. the hot dog at starlight is still undefeated.

not a very remarkable show, maybe i have finally hit somewhat of a critical mass on seeing them? but i know i am too stupid to quit. they're very tight and listening to JC drum is pretty much worth getting out to the show. i do not understand the hired-gun guitar player at all.

pumpkins covering U2's 'zoo station' is like something concocted in a lab specifically for me, so i enjoyed that. i was possibly the only person at starlight losing my shit. cherub rock is still one of the best songs of all time.

[llamaoftime]

I caught a bluegrass band called Mountain Grass Unit last night, very young guys, probably all around 19-20, but man they can play. Very Billy Strings influenced even down to covering "Pyramid Country" and doing a few traditional covers in a similar style. But honestly their original tunes impressed me the most, they have some bangers. There were multiple tracks from an upcoming EP that were very very good, I'm excited to listen to that when it's out. They really hit a groove by mid set and the whole second half was a blast. Whole thing was about 90 minutes, and I could have definitely listened for longer. Excited to see where these kids go because I think they will go places

[krentist]

Silverada was fucking awesome at Joe's last night. New tunes sound killer, no surprise that Eagle Rare is the best of em. It was like maybe 1/2 or 1/3 full but the people who were there were total heads so the energy was live. no clue how they don't sell it out (gotta be the name) but I'd see them every August for the rest of my life. Definitely one of the only good bands and absolutely one of the best live bands on the planet.

[teekoh]

Holy shit 2h15m Krallice set. Phish-heads listen to Krallice challenge.

[scoots]

Seeing Tyler Childers at Folsom Field was so gd incredible. Great set. That backdrop and the acoustics were perfect - really regretting not pulling the trigger on seeing The Dead while they were doing their thing there.

Anyway, me scream singing Shake the Frost is going to be one of the highlights of the year.

[lollaman44]

Went to Smashing Pumpkins last night at Riverport. The lawn was closed and got a $45 “zero” t shirt about 30 years too late.

The wrestling show in the concourse was dumb and fun. The $18 beers were just dumb.

I think James blew an amp and Billy did an acapella landslide and then part of an acoustic rocket. Cool!

Also, Jimmy is the shit.

[llamaoftime]

I saw Sierra Ferrell last night. Second time, I saw her early last year in a much smaller venue. Makes a lot of sense she's blown up. They've added a drummer to the band since I last saw them, it was full bluegrass style last time. It definitely gives a fuller sound, but it also made the set feel a little more rehearsed and rigid than last time. I also would have expected that to take the energy up but it was more subdued this time, overall a slower paced show. I think because of that it was a step down, but she still sounded great and some of these songs are just really good. And she had an incredible cover of "Me & Bobby McGee" that really was a highlight of the night.

Though this was also an outdoor show on a 100 degree day in Houston and that was pretty brutal, I generally like this venue but it's a lot nicer in the Fall! That definitely contributed to me liking the show less.

Still think she's on a trajectory of blowing up to be huge and the fuller sound is probably good for them going that direction but I do hope they bring some energy back and get a little looser as they get used to this band configuration. She's still very worth seeing overall, though I'd recommend an indoor show if it's summer.

[Pale Hose]

I didn't have "Glory Box" on my Incubus setlist bingo card for tonight, but I was definitely here for it.

Morning View is not a strong enough album for an album play tour. The hits still hit though.

First time at Allstate Arena since before the pandemic. That arena still sucks, but I'll be back in a couple weeks.

[thebosma]

Waxahatchee show ripped last night. I was thinking that would make the choice to split her set at riot fest a bit easier but unfortunately it actually made that decision way more difficult. She did all of the new album and most of the previous. Sucks for the Cerulean Salt heads but I kind of love the new style and hope she never goes back. Also Spencer Tweedy was very good on drums. Another great night at the sylvee

[krentist]

So nice to get a Waxahatchee set without the moron chompers who were at the Bottle. 365 sounds sensationally good live.

[kb]

wook achievement unlocked: traveled to see king gizzard & the lizard wizard in Detroit Friday and Cleveland Saturday. the venue Friday was so unprepared plus it was an acoustic show, so kinda weird night all around. Saturday fuckin ruled besides GA bleachers being oversold. highlight was when they were at peak metal/derangement and a luxury cruise floated by right behind the stage. not sure why so many (or all?) of these shows are on the water, but i'm here for it.

i didn't see any ice cold fatties either night but the people watching was exquisite. excited for this weekend's show!

[mookie]

Aug 26, 2024 11:41:12 GMT -6 kb said:

wook achievement unlocked: traveled to see king gizzard & the lizard wizard in Detroit Friday and Cleveland Saturday. the venue Friday was so unprepared plus it was an acoustic show, so kinda weird night all around. Saturday fuckin ruled besides GA bleachers being oversold. highlight was when they were at peak metal/derangement and a luxury cruise floated by right behind the stage. not sure why so many (or all?) of these shows are on the water, but i'm here for it.

i didn't see any ice cold fatties either night but the people watching was exquisite. excited for this weekend's show!

I haven't looked over the setlists yet, are they pretty much just completely mixing everything up, or are they doing like blocks of the good metal stuff and then blocks of the jammy stuff?  

[kb]

Detroit was an anomaly but Cleveland definitely started out jammy, proggy in the middle and ended with metal.

[Kamera]

Aug 25, 2024 12:25:58 GMT -6 thebosma said:

Waxahatchee show ripped last night. I was thinking that would make the choice to split her set at riot fest a bit easier but unfortunately it actually made that decision way more difficult. She did all of the new album and most of the previous. Sucks for the Cerulean Salt heads but I kind of love the new style and hope she never goes back. Also Spencer Tweedy was very good on drums. Another great night at the sylvee

I believe Katie on record saying she plans on converting Cerulean Salt and other pre-Saint Cloud albums into her current alt-country style for future tours.