Posts Tagged ‘concerts’
Upcoming shows…
Lots of great shows coming to the area. So many that I have to pick and choose a little more carefully to be able to afford the ones that I really want to see.
Tomorrow night I am heading to San Antonio to see Loudness. Saw them back in 2006 and they were great. RIP Munetaka Higuchi.
Next Friday is Orange Goblin and Naam(!!!). I’m not a huge OG fan but I’ve never seen them. Naam, however, has become one of my favorite bands. This is part of the Chaos in Tejas music festival.
There’s also the M.O.D. reunion show in late June that I am fortunate enough to be a part of as Milano asked my Motorhead tribute band to open up.
I just bought tickets earlier this week to see Armored Saint and Hirax at the Key Club in Hollywood. Should be a fun show. I’ve never seen Armored Saint and saw Hirax for the first time 2 years ago. I’m really excited to see Saint.
Odin is doing a reunion show in August at The Whisky and I’ll be heading out there for that one as well. I love Odin. Always have. Do a search for them on this blog site, you’ll see my inner fanboy. haha
September sees Return To Forever coming back to Austin. I got to see the first of their reunion shows a few years ago and it was quite mind-numbing. Unfortunately Al Di Meola isn’t on the tour, but Frank Gambale is a competent enough player to handle the duties. We get Jean Luc-Ponty this time as well!
Concert Review – Al Di Meola 4/3/11
I’m the first to admit that I haven’t bought anything by Di Meola since his 1996 “…Plays Piazzolla” CD. For me, 1983’s “Scenario” was my last favorite of the “electric era” and all those before it were all great. Al is the man. He’s got it all: technique, feel, speed, originality. It wasn’t long after 1983 that he went more acoustic than electric style and really put out a lot of the world music stuff. It just wasn’t my thing. Sure it was Al playing some good stuff, but I loved that classic fusion analog stuff from the 70s and early 80s that he did.
I mentioned in another post about seeing Return To Forever a few years back and how great it was and also about missing a Di Meola show in Norfolk because he canceled the day of the show. Luckily he didn’t cancel tonight.
Tonight’s show at the One World Theatre proved once again that this is one of the greatest places to see a show. Great seating, great sound, intimate. I was fortunate to score 2 seats on the center aisle, 2nd row and we had no one sitting in front of us. Perfection. My guitarist, Doug Morrison, attended with me.
Al comes on at about 6:10PM, says hello to the crowd, cracks a joke or 2 (Is Willie still here?”) and they go right into their set, opening with a song called Fire On Babylon. He was on the acoustic for almost the entire set until they went into Midnight Tango and he strapped on his Paul Reed Smith and played electric for the end of the set and for the encore. He was great. Period. His band was awesome (standup electric bass, drums, rhythm acoustic guitar, drums, percussion, accordion) and filled with all non-Americans except for his percussionist. The real standout member was his accordion player, Fausto. I’m rather neutral on how I feel about that instrument in general, but this guy was quite incredible. The whole band was. Al put down the shred on both the acoustic and electric like only he can do it. He picks almost every note and his precision is incredible. It was quite exhilarating to be sitting 10 feet from a musician that I have respected for about 20+ years now.
Even being unfamiliar with most of the material from tonight’s show, it didn’t really matter. It was as I expected and more. I’m looking forward to his next tour already.
I grabbed a setlist from the stage and this is the what was listed as “1st Set”. There was another set to be performed at 8:30PM and I wonder if it was going to be any different.
- Fire on Babylon
- Brave New World
- Misterio
- Double Concerto
- Turquoise
- Oblivion
- Full Frontal Contrapuntal
- Capouiera
- Midnight Tango/One Night Last June
- Race With The Devil On A Spanish Highway (encore)
Odin! Odin! Odin! Odin! pt 2
I am a happy boy right now.
Odin is doing a rare show on August 27th, 2011 at the famed Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood. 
I’ve been a fan since 1986 and wanted to catch their last reunion show but missed it. My concert ticket is bought and now I just need to book my flight and I’m set. This has been a long time coming.
If you like some great hard rock, I also recommend Shawn and Jeff Duncan’s band DC4. It’s killer rock and roll by a great bunch of dudes. You can read about my trip to LA to see DC4 from 2009 here.
Damn, I’m a happy boy right now.
2011.
This year is already shaping up to be a great one for seeing music. As I queefed about a few days ago, SxSW has some cool stuff to see this year, but there’s so much more.
On my plate between now and May:
- Colin Hay (Men At Work)
- Al Dimeola
- Destruction/Heathen
- Motorhead
- Heart (maybe)
Not to mention the local acts that I enjoy seeing on a regular basis as well. Mixed in all that will be my main band with Doug Morrison and hopefully we can get the Capricorn USA (the Motorhead tribute) going again. I’m sure there will be some stuff this summer in San Antonio that I’ll want to attend and am always game for going back to Virginia to see something cool at Jaxx that may not be playing around here.
Upcoming shows
Sorry, haven’t posted much lately. Busy with bands and work and such.
Here’s what’s coming up on my concert calendar:
Iron Maiden/Dream Theater – tonight!
Concrete Blonde – 6/19
Scorpions/Ratt – 7/23 (never seen Ratt, so this is going to be cool even though I am not that big of a fan.)
Asia – 8/22, original lineup!
Black Crowes – 9/25
Saw Helstar last week, review pending. Dee Snider was in town last night but I couldn’t make it. :(
The Metal Files 
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