Posts Tagged ‘prog rock’
Yes & Toto Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, Ausgust 26, 2015
Last night was filled with a bunch of bad ass musicians playing great rock and progressive music. I could end the review right there, but we’ll keep going. I scored the VIP/meet and greet when it was first announced because I’ve always wanted to meet Chris Squire and Steve Howe. Unfortunately shortly after I got my ticket, Chris announced he wasn’t doing the tour due to health issues and subsequently died. Terrible.
Since they didn’t offer a refund and the pass was non transferable, I went through with the show.
Toto was the opener and while I respect them and love their hits, I’m not a huge fan. Having never seen them before, I was a bit excited to see them. Toto is a band, like Yes, who has seen some real loss. RIP Porcaro brothers. A big plus is having Steve Lukather in the band. I was tempted to buy their meet and great instead of Yes’ just to have Lukather sign my Alice Cooper From The Inside CD.
Toto’s set started promptly at 7:30 consisted of their biggest hits Hold the Line, Rosanna, Pamela and Africa. I was pretty much lost on the rest of their set, although they sounded amazing. I was impressed with Steve Porcaro’s vocals more than anything. His range is still amazing. Lukather’s vocals sounded good, too. His playing was solid. His solo at the end of Little Wing was pretty amazing.
One thing that was really cool was that they had the legendary Lenny Castro on percussion. What a treat!
The whole band sounded great and they had their original bassist back in the band as well. David Paich only sang Africa, and he was having some issues. I don’t think it’s an easy song for anyone to sing in general. They were good but I doubt I’d go out of my way to see them again unless they were part of another great bill like last night’s. The played a full 90 minute set and I was really hoping to hear 99 and Georgy Porgy, but oh well.
After a 30 minute changeover, Yes came on at exactly 9PM with a tribute video to Chris Squire with his signature Rickenbacker bass lit up in the middle of the stage.
They opened with Don’t Kill the Whale and followed up with Tempus Fugit from the Drama album, probably my favorite album by them. They went through America and Time and a Word, which I had never seen them do. It sounded great. Jon Davison does a great job on lead vocals. Billy Sherwood is handling bass duties and holds his own, but there’s only one Squire. The band is certainly older and a bit slower, but they sounded great. I love watching Steve Howe’s facial expressions and cues making sure that Alan White was ready for a break or whatever. Just like last time, it’s obvious that Alan has lost a few steps in his delivery, but he still played fine.
Seeing Steve play Owner of a Lonely Heart was quite weird. You could see that he didn’t care for it. They extend the end, though, and he gets to rock out with his own solo which was quite awesome. The whole show was except for the drunk girl next to me. We were on the front row. She and her boyfriend showed up with 2 songs left with Toto and she had a purse full of airport liquor bottles of vodka. Towards the end of Yes’ set, she was wasted and kept flipping off the band while they were playing complaining that they should be closer to her near the end of the stage. She looked over at me during the encore, Starship Trooper, and said, “Sorry. Am I bothering you?” I looked at her and her boyfriend, shook my head and just said, “You’re an idiot.” After the band finally walked off stage she turned to me again and said, “You should add me on Facebook.” I just said, “Not interested.”
They stumbled out and we went side stage for the meet and greet. I was shocked that they had about 70 people. Tour manager rambled off some procedural stuff and a few rules about how you can shake hands with anybody except Steve Howe. “No hand shakes, fist bumps, hugs, pats on the back etc.” I asked of we were at least allowed to look him in the eye and he and the crowd laughed.
They were cycling everyone through the line twice. First time for your picture with the band and the second to get stuff signed, 2 items only. As I got in front of them for the photo, Geoff Downes says, “Cool jacket, but I don’t know any of those bands except for Judas Priest.” Jon Davison stated that he loves their metalhead fans.
I was near the end of the line and when we got to the signing part, I was going to have them signed the poster given to us as part of the VIP swag and have Howe, Downes and White sign my Drama CD. All of the guys were very laid back and signed the poster. Everyone got to spend a few moments at the table. When I got to the 3 that were on Drama, I mentioned to Steve and Geoff that I had seen their Asia reunion show a few years back and that I had the CD cover with me. Steve said, “That was a fun tour. Where’s the cover?” I mentioned the 2 item limit and he smiled and just said, “I’m running this show right now, let me have it.” haha. Sweet! I finally got in my truck at 12:15AM for the 75 mile drive home.
I liked how the show was set up with two bands both playing full 90 minute sets. If Yes comes around again, I’ll go for sure.
Kansas Concert Review, Austin, TX, August 20, 2015,
The last time I saw Kansas was 2000 in Virginia Beach, VA when they were opening for YES. We had lawn seats at the amphitheater and it was started raining cats and dogs during Kansas’ set. It made the show less enjoyable. When YES came on, they moved us in seats at the back of the covered area as the show was lightly attended. I can’t say I enjoyed the show that much getting soaked like we did.
I got home from work yesterday around 5:30 and felt like I needed to get out and do something. I went to the ShowListAustin website to see if there was anything to spark my interest. The last 2 things on their list for yesterday were Weird Al and Kansas. I’m no big fan of Weird Al so I looked up the Kansas show and there were plenty of tickets available. I ended up in a box section all by myself which was just fine.
I’ve never been to the Long Center before and it was an average sized place with good sound. The venue doesn’t allows bottles, cans or food inside, so they pour your drinks in a cup with a lid and a straw. Seemed odd.
The band started promptly at 8PM with People of the South Wind and then when into Point of Know Return. Let’s be clear, Kansas are not young folks. Neither am I and their fan base surely isn’t young. I was certainly in the top percentage of “younger” folks and I’m 45!
The band sounded great albeit slower than the recordings. No surprise and no problem. The new singer, Ronnie Platt, sounded great taking over after Steve Walsh’s 2014 retirement.
The setlist consisted mainly of songs from “The Best of Kansas” compilation with some additions. Being in the box and not blocking any views, I stood up the whole show.
The highlights for me were Play the Game Tonight, Belexes, People of the South Wind and Hold On. I love that song and it has always elicited an emotional response and last night’s version was no different. Great song. Enjoyable show over all and was over before 9:30 so us older folk can get to bed at a decent hour. haha
Wishbone Ash Concert Review, Austin, TX 4/27/2014
Some reviews don’t need to get into a lot of details and this is one of them. Wishbone Ash, which is essentially Andy Powell and friends, played an incredible set at The Roost on far north Austin. The sound was incredible. There may have been 120 people there.
The plus for this tour is that they’re playing all of the album Argus. That album was my introduction to the band sometime in the late 70s through my brother. Just seeing the album cover takes me back to being a little kid sitting by the console unit stereo listening to this album with him. Argus was one of his all time favorite albums and it’s very special to me because of that. Hearing them play the album in order gave me a rush of emotions ranging from pure glee of the moment to sheer sadness in missing my brother. He would have loved it.
I did have Andy sign the book and the cd covers for Argus, Pilgrimage and their latest album, Blue Horizon. The whole band was great.
White Witch – S/T 1972
Here’s an odd one from my old vinyl collection. Danile and I were at Electric Smiles Records in Virginia 
Beach about 15 or so years ago rummaging through their $1 bins and I ran across both LPs from White Witch. They were automatically interesting for 2 reasons…band name and imagery. I bought them without hearing them. Why not? They were only $1 each. I think that was the same day we saw Pantera’s first 4 albums on LP as well, but they were like $15 each and I wasn’t into spending that kind of cash that day.
I had no idea what to expect from this band. Seeing that they were an early 70s band, I expected something sort of Sabbath-esque and maybe a little proggy like YES. Instead it’s a little more psychedelic with a few flashes of prog rock. Maybe a little Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash thrown in for good measure. Overall this first eponymous album is pretty good with some catchy chorus and musical hooks here and there. I bought the CDs for these several years ago and they apparently sell for decent cash on eBay these days. I sold their 2nd CD on eBay a year or so ago for $40. I preferred the debut album so I kept it. Now it’s in the stack to be sold with much of my CD collection and I am making the transition to going almost completely digital. Interesting that they toured with Alice Cooper. That would have been a cool show to see for sure.
So if you’re into the trippy 70s rock, I highly recommend that you download this. It’s been out of print for a few years. Read up more on the band here.
I really dig the guy’s vocals. He has a Barry Gibb tenor thing sans the falsetto. Favorite tracks are You’re the One, Don’t Close Your Mind, And I’m Leaving, Illusion (double bass!) and Help Me Lord. I do tend to skip over Home Grown Girl and It’s So Nice To Be Stoned. They’re both a bit goofy but pretty normal for the time they were written.
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