Saw Kenny Loggins last night, he was decent and had me dancin', but really, he mostly reminded me of some good old music and of how much I miss the sax in rock. Where have the Al Garths and Junior Walkers gone?

(sax at about 1:45)

 

Well, since I saw these guys on Friday night in their home town at the ACC (Air Canada Center)...



You can imagine that Rush will be on my playlists for the next little while (not that they are ever off it for very long actually).

If you are a fan of the band, you will not want to miss this tour. They played through their history, starting with songs from their last album, and going right back to the first album as the night went on. They played plenty of favourites (Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio, YYZ) and also some you don't see often live anymore, such as Cygnus X-1: Books I & II, Xanadu, most of 2112, Jacob's Ladder, Natural Science, and for the first time ever they played "Losing It" from Signals live, with Ben Mink on the electric violin (who played on the original recording). I think that might have been a one time only performance of that one though...not sure.

Here is the set list from Friday night:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rush/2015/air-canada-centre-toronto-on-canada-1bc911cc.html

It was a great 2.5 hours of music mostly from my youth. They did take a break part way through - the guys are getting up there in age, but it's amazing to me how Neil Peart can still play for that long, with a small drum solo and a full one sprinkled in there along with some very long songs...

It was also sort of cool that as they went back in time through the music, the stage was slowly stripped of extras, so at the end it was just the band and their instruments, much like it would have been over 40 years ago. This is probably their last big tour - see them if you can!

Cheers, Al

 

Burt Bacharach and his gang at Glasto.

 

First concert I ever saw was Rush! 2112 tour.. Seems a long time ago... Love Rush and how they've evolved their music to stand the test of time... Also nice to hear they played a lot of classics

 

Anything from Glastonbury on BBC at the minute, while BBQing in the garden. This is the first year that I've missed since '06 (apart from when they take a year off) and its driving me bonkers!

 

Was great to see such a wide range of ages enjoying BB &Co.

 

We were out doing some scouting for rocks (new thread coming) and I had Monster Truck on in the car. Saw these guys for the first time a couple of years ago and they are great. They hail from The Hammer (a.k.a Steeltown, or just plain old Hamilton, Ontario)....

This song is getting a good amount of airplay on the rock stations.

 

I was actually travelling up the Rush catalogue before the week-end, chronologically from the beginning. I got as far as Hemispheres. But with The Grateful Dead kicking off their short tour in my part of the State of California, I went to archive.org and started listening to my first show, at the Henry Kaiser in Oakland, 9/12/85. "Fade Away" playing in my ears now...Really miss Jerry, and Brent too.
Saw them a few times when Jerry was still alive, so I didn't try to get tickets for the current tour. Heard it was a great show!

 

It still amazes me how good his lyrics are...

 

This

 

Well it's been a good week for music for us...

On Tuesday we saw U2 at the Air Canada Center (ACC) in Toronto and this is the first time I've seen them after being a fan from the beginning. 35 years after Boy first came out and they did not disappoint. The stage itself was pretty amazing, with the stage shaped so that there was a long walk out into the crowd. Above that long walk was a large screen, that the band could go inside. Not just for visual effects, but they also had instruments in there including a drum kit.

Played many great songs from their catalogue, and plenty of early songs, which are my favourites. About 2 hours 20 minutes of actual playing...

Couple of quick shots of the main stage on the right, and you can see the large screen in the left of this photo:



And them inside the screen playing a song:



Then yesterday we went to Big Music Festival in Kitchener. A full slate of bands so some smaller bands to start with like The Modern Hearts (missed most of their set), then we saw The Mohrs again (longer set this time and they were great - met up with the band again which was great), then another Canadian band called The Glorious Sons - they played an awesome set. This track has been getting a lot of airplay here the last while:

Next up were the band Extreme...to be honest they seemed very out of place at this festival. When they took the stage it was our time to go for food and beers, and most everyone else followed suit. Kinda felt bad for them as most people didn't seem interested in them, but hey that's music!

The band that we enjoyed the most (aside from The Mohrs) was Monster Truck. Just straight ahead rock.



I included a link to a song they have as a "hit" above in another post, but here's a classic from them:

Then Jane's addiction played, and they were good - not a huge fan but I like quite a few of their songs. The show was a bit strange - at one point girls hanging from hooks? Okay...



The night ended with Soundgarden, and they were great. Played all the hits...



So what's on my playlist today? Not sure to be honest!!

Cheers, Al

 

A little Shirley Bassey at the moment.

 

Can't go wrong with Burly Chassis

 

Listening to AC/DC's High Voltage.

It rocks.

 

Waking up and shaving to the album Deguello by ZZ Top. "Dust My Broom" at this moment to be exact.

 

It saddens me that I'm just discovering this band now. Would have been nice to have added them to the Life of MMMD soundtrack back in 1985.

 

Lots stuff this week
Dave Gray
John Coltrane
Chick Corea- summerjam bootleg
Foo Fighters
Metallica- and justice
Radiohead, ok computer
Neil Finn
Ute Lemper
Ralph Towner
Eric Clapton
Yoyo Ma
Steve Earle, the Low Highway (amazing album, his best I reckon)

 

Just finished a mountain bike ride with our son...so we roll up into the driveway and my wife and daughter are on the front porch singing "Cherry Bomb" by the Runaways...and they actually sounded pretty good!

Tew kewel fer skewel!