Entries Tagged 'Concerts' ↓

Nostalgia tours are always a dicey thing.  You always run the risk of seeing a group where someone (usually the singer) has completely lost it, making you embarrassed to be there.  This is why I was on the fence about seeing Ratt and Extreme at the outdoors Crossroads venue in Kansas City this past Thursday.  I think it was the summer of 2001 when I went to go see a “Voices of Metal” show at the Missouri State Fair that had Stephen Pearcy in the lineup.  It was bad - possibly the worst show I have ever seen.

On the other hand I saw Extreme twice during their heyday and they were really good.  I don’t think I would have gone to just see Ratt, but the chance to see Extreme again convinced me.

The venue itself isn’t too bad.  It’s attached to a restaurant with a great beer selection so I was able to grab a piece of pizza and a beer before the show started.  I think I read somewhere that the concert area holds around 1500 people, so it’s a decent size.  I would estimate around 700 people were there that night.

One of the interesting things about these ‘hair metal’ shows is that you get a lot of people dressing up like they did 20-25 years ago with varying results.  A few guys still had their long hair and the women brought out their tight fitting outfits and ultra-high heels.  The floor of the venue is covered with wood chips so it was amusing to watch them try to walk with their heels on.  The other thing is that a few people brought their kids which I always hate - it reeks of a dad trying to prove to his kids how cool he is.

Something nice about Crossroads - things were priced incredibly reasonable.  Sodas were $2.00, my slice of pizza was $3.75, beer was $3.00.  I’m so used to being screwed when I go anywhere these days it’s nice to see something like this.

Anyway, the show started around 8:00 with openers Swirl, a hard rock band from LA and whose sound fit in nicely with the rest of the nice.  They were still a little rough around the edges, but they had a lot of good songs.  They were good enough to warrant picking up the album.

They played maybe around 40 minutes and after a quick stage setup Extreme took the stage.  Despite the relatively small size of the crowd, they put on an incredibly good show.  Their sound was great and they put a lot of effort into putting on a good show.  Gary Cherone’s voice still sounds as good as it used to and Nuno hasn’t lost a step in his playing.  Based on my memory, here’s what they played (not in order):

Decadence Dance
It(’s a Monster)
Star
More Than Words
Play With Me
Rest in Peace
Am I Ever Gonna Change
Cupid’s Dead
Hole Hearted
Take Us Alive
Get the Funk Out/Wanna Be Startin Something

Pretty good set list and the highlight was the cover of “Wanna Be Startin Something” at the end of the set.  It’s one of those things that wasn’t expected and the band just nailed the song.  ”Take Us Alive” was another unexpected but great choice since it’s probably the best track on their latest album.

Extreme’s set went a little over an hour and Ratt went on stage.  The first couple of songs (”Tell the World” and I don’t recall the other) were really rough.  Stephen Pearcy’s voice sounded terrible and it was down low in the mix.  However, after that rough start the sound improved quite a bit.  That being said, the sound didn’t get that much better.  The band as a whole was pretty sloppy and Pearcy’s voice is in pretty rough shape.

Some of the songs I remember them playing:

Tell the World
Lay It Down
City to City
I Want a Woman

They also played the entire Out of the Cellar album in order, except for saving “Round and Round” for last.  Their entire set lasted about an hour and a half.  Their performance wasn’t as bad as I expected, but not as good as the last time I saw them as a band (maybe around 1999 opening for Poison).

I’m glad I went, but I doubt I’ll be going to see Ratt again unless they have another good opener.  It’s too bad because they have a lot of great songs and there’s potential there for a great show.

I told myself I would write this up within a day after the concert, so here it is nearly three weeks later.

Within the past year and a half or so, I’ve seen Queensryche three times now.  In early 2008 they played the Voodoo Lounge in Kansas City with Don Dokken opening with an acoustic set.  Queensrcyhe played a great set, playing songs from all their albums with a lot of lesser-known tracks thrown in.  Everything clicked for them that night and the crowd was really into it.

Back in the fall they played a radio station’s Halloween concern with Tesla.  The crowd was absolutely insane and their set focused mainly on their hits.  A good show, but not as good as the one before.

When I heard they were coming again in April I wasn’t sure if I was going to go.  For some reason a lot of shows had been booked on the same night - Lamb of God/Children of Bodom/God Forbid which would have been nice to see, and also Reverend Horton Heat in Lawrence which would just be down the street for me.  I decided on Queensryche mainly because some friends were going and also due to the set that was planned.  Queensryche had posted on their website that the tour would consist of songs from three of their albums:  Rage for Order, Empire, and their new one, American Soldier.  Rage for Order has always been my favorite Queensryche album and has always been woefully under-represented in concert, so that clinched it for me.

The order of the three albums wasn’t hard to guess - they started off with Rage for Order.  The first thing I noticed is that Queensryche has now become one of those bands that adds extra people on stage - since the departure of their latest guitarist they’ve replaced him with a non-member guitarist and a guy playing keyboards and guitars.  In almost every case where this happens it bugs me.  They didn’t need anyone previously, and the addition of the extra people makes it feel like I’m seeing Queensryche featuring Geoff Tate instead of Queensryche the band.

Despite my gripe, everything sounded good.  They played six songs from Rage then started with the songs from American Soldier.  I only had the album for a week or so before the show so the songs hadn’t grown on me, but the songs from it sounded much better live than the studio versions.  Unlike a lot of older bands, the crowd seemed to be into the new material which is cool.  Geoff Tate even made a comment about it and you could see that he appreciated it.

Finally they wrapped up the show with songs from Empire.  Even though there are certain songs that you know they’re going to have to play (”Silent Lucidity”, “Jet City Woman”, and “Empire”) they still pulled out some songs that I hadn’t heard them play in a while.  For the encore they played “Take Hold of the Flame” and “Empire”, wrapping up a great show.

Here’s the complete set list:

Neue Regel
The Whisper
I Dream In Infrared
Screaming In Digital
Walk In The Shadows
I Will Remember
Surgical Strike
Sliver
The Killer
If I Were King
Man Down
Dead Man’s Words
Home Again
The Voice
Best I Can
The Thin Line
One And Only
Hand On Heart
Silent Lucidity
Jet City Woman
Anybody Listening?
————-
Empire
Take Hold Of The Flame

Out of all the hard rock bands that were big in the 80s, Queensryche is one of the few that can still pull it off and don’t feel like a nostalgia show.  They’re still putting out new material and the shows don’t feel like they’re just going through the motions.  They played for over two hours, which is nice considering a lot of bands like to pack it in after just an hour and a half.  Three times in a year and a half may be too much in too short a time, but I’ll definately check them out in the future.

My wife is a big fan of exotica, so when we found out that Waitiki was playing in Lawrence as part of the Retro Cocktail Hour’s 500th episode she really wanted to go.  I admit that I was hesitant - while I like listening to it, I wasn’t sure that an exotica band would really translate into a live experience.  A lot of that music is pretty low key so my main concern was getting bored during the show.

Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about.  I don’t know if this comes across on their albums, but Waitiki puts a lot of energy into their show and their music has more of a jazz influence than what I’m used to hearing.  Their setlist was a combination of covers and originals, with the highlight of the show being “L’ours  Chinois” which blended exotic sounds with classical music.

A lot of their songs had a definate Frank Zappa vibe happening with them.  The big similarity was the use of a vibraphone but also that the songs tended to go off in unexpected directions.  This is probably due to similar influences, but it’s something that I don’t pick up from other exotica recordings.

A nice touch to the show was the use of tiki decor in Liberty Hall and also the expanded drink menu.  For this occasion the bar had five different tiki drinks available.  My wife noticed that the drinks were made with high quality booze which is interesting because I would think most people wouldn’t notice of even care.

Overall a great night.  We picked up their latest CD so I’ll be spending some time with that and posting my thoughts.

Waitiki’s website has some good videos of the show.

This past Saturday was the Metallica show at the Sprint Center downtown.  The last time I saw them live was on the Guns & Roses/Metallica debacle back in 1992.  Since then I had kind of lost interest in them but with the new album out I figured I would see them again.

The show started at 7:00 and I decided that I wasn’t going to be late because I had heard good things about opening act The Sword and wanted to catch their whole set.  That being said, I kept my late streak alive by getting to my seat around 7:15, only seeing about half their set.  I had left the house on time, but between the returning Kansas State fans clogging up the I-70 toll plaza and the 20 minute wait outside the Sprint Center for security, it just wasn’t meant to be.

This thing with security at shows has gotten out of hand.  There were metal detectors set up and you had to empty out your pockets like you were at the airport.  I passed on seeing any shows at Sandstone this past summer because their security process is such a hassle (30 minutes last time I was there).  It looks like the Sprint Center has the same problem.  I don’t know if it’s due to the perceived unruliness of Metallica fans or what.  The thing is that this is one of the more well-behaved crowds I’ve seen in a while.

No cameras were allowed at all.  Most shows allow smaller digital cameras but not here.  I’ve never understood what the deal is with taking pictures anyway.  I understand no recording, that’s fine because they may want to see you something down the road, but what harm is it to take pictures?

Also I think the show set a new record for how far away the bootleg t-shirt guys were from the arena - easily half a mile away right as you got off the freeway.

Anyway, after The Sword finished their set I swear it was only ten or fifteen minutes before Down hit the stage.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from them, but they got the crowd worked up and were a good opener.  During their set the singer asked the crowd who would be coming to see them next time they came through town.  After the crowd cheered he said he would believe it when he saw the ticket sales.  I think depending on where they play in town I would probably go to see them.  They were good enough that I’ll pick up one of their albums.

I think they finished their set around 8:20 - 8:30 and after the generic speech by a local radio guy Metallica started right at 9:00 - it seemed very precise.

Here’s the setlist from livemetallica.com:

That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Harvester Of Sorrow
Ride The Lightning
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
Until It Sleeps
Wherever I May Roam
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Last Caress
Motorbreath
Seek and Destroy

The setlist is okay.  Not enough surprises and too predictable but the crowd really got into it.  Being at the show reminded me that I don’t like “Ride the Lightning” and if I never hear “One” again it will be too soon.

I wasn’t that crazy about the round stage setup.  Each band seemed almost like a random gathering of people on it, just running around.  The other thing is that I am really glad I didn’t pay extra for access to the floor.  Besides all the jack offs you have to deal with it seemed like you are only getting part of the show regardless of where you are.

On the plus side, the band sounded great.  This was my first time at the Sprint Center and the sound quality for all three bands was good.  “Harvester of Sorrow” was a nice choice, and I never get tired of hearing “Last Caress” or “Sad But True”.

It may be due to my age, but I felt like there was definitely something missing from the show, some excitement or surprise.  I had a good time but at this point I probably wouldn’t go see them again.  Maybe I’m just tired of the big arena shows, I just feel like I have a better time at smaller, more relaxed venues.  But what the hell do I know, it seemed everyone else there was having a great time.

So October 19th was the annual Freaker’s Ball, this year with Queensryche and Tesla.  I’ve lived in Kansas City for over ten years and have never been to one.  Every year they have a pretty good lineup but they’re usually outdoors which doesn’t sound so great in October.  This year’s event was at the newly remodeled Midland Theater in downtown KC so I figured I would go.

The show started at 6:00 on a Sunday which pretty much guaranteed I would be late.  I missed about fifteen minutes of local band The Leo Project.  They reminded me a little of Staind, in a good way.  They put on a solid set - nothing bad about it but just not my thing.

Next up was Mini-Kiss.  A couple of the guys I met up with had gone to a meet-and-greet earlier with Tesla and they had heard Mini-Kiss do a sound check which surprised me because they came out and played to recorded music.   The vocals were live but you could even see that their instruments weren’t plugged in.  You know, I hate hate hate pre-recorded music like this.  Even stranger, they plugged in their instruments to do some non-Kiss songs and sounded pretty good, but they eventually went back to the recorded music.  The whole thing was odd and the novelty wore off about ten minutes into it.

When Tesla’s set started things began to get ugly.  We were on the floor near the front and the crowd started getting thicker which really wasn’t a surprise.  What was interesting was how much drama was going on during Tesla’s and Queensryche’s set.  A lot of near fights but some non-typical stuff started happening.  One woman, wearing a fishnet body suit and denim shorts, was being chased around by her husband who wanted to go home.  Every time he got near her she would duck down and crawl across the beer-soaked floor to get away from him.  He was so intent on catching up to her that he nearly got into several fights in the meantime.

Another entitlement-minded mother decided that her eight year old son needed to be at the front so she pushed her way up so he could be pressed up against the barrier.  Oh yeah, and mom’s t-shirt said “Slut” on it.  Nice.

There were another half dozen strange situations going on that I couldn’t turn away from so I admit I wasn’t paying complete attention to the concert.  The vocal mix on Tesla was low and didn’t sound that good.  Tesla’s a band where I like a lot of their songs but others I’m just lukewarm about, and they played a lot of those songs I’m not crazy about like “Hang Tough”.  I can’t stand that one.  They played a lot of songs off their new album which are pretty strong, especially “So What”.  I like it when these bands resist the urge to become an oldies act.

Queensryche sounded a lot better.  They had a stripped down stage set up that was pretty striking.  Their set was good but they were a lot better when I saw them headline another show earlier this year.  A lot of the same songs were played as the last time I saw them, including two off of Rage for Order which is always a good thing.  I haven’t seen a setlist posted anywhere but I don’t believe they played any songs off their first two albums which is surprising.

Overall a good time.  As a side note, the remodeled Midland Theater looks good, but I would still be wary of going there in the summer.  I’d like to think they would improve the air conditioning situation there but it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t.

98.9’s website has some nice pictures from the show.