What was your last concert you went to ?

Erased Tapes 5th Anniversary Concert with British Expeditionary Force, Nils Frahm and Winged Victory for the Sullen.

A most amateurish event all except for Nils Frahm who was excellent. From the queue outside the venue to the amplification and changeovers between sets, this was amateurish. 

Nils Frahm was excellent. Wish he had been on for longer.

Another excellent evening of early Genesis, by cover band Los Endos, Billingshurst Village Center. 12/5/12

They even had a substitute singer as their regular guy has done his back in.

Last night I heard Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. They played Dietrich/Schumann/Brahms, Bartok and Busoni. The playing was absolutely brilliant, a lesson in how to handle a violin and such accuracy of intonation, even when it got fast and frantic. Communication between them never faltered. I met the artists afterwards and got a new copy of their Shostakovich disc signed.

It was also a cure for jet lag as on Saturday I heard Lyn Harrell play the Elgar concerto with the NZSO in Auckland Town Hall, another performance to remember. ..and last Wednesday the NZSQ gave an excellent concert of 'middle' Beethoven quartets. It's been a week of it.

Ron Sexsmith at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver. Great concert. We were 4 rows back, centre. (We even had a spare seat either side of us, although the rest of the venue was sold out. Just lucky, I guess.)

Ron was in fine form and played a comprehensive set. A tight band who were prepared to let the songs shine out, rather than show off. Really enjoyable. Support act was the underrated Pete Murray from Australia.

(Not my picture, and not from the actual concert we attended - same guy and same guitar, though)

The Skatalites at the Academy in Newcastle.  Danced myself to a standstill.  Brilliant night.

Regards

Nic

Bramwell Tovey - conductor

Jan Lisiecki - piano. A 17 year old from Canada. Mom must be very proud!

Repertoire

Mascall - Manitoulin

A contemporary North American work. I found this one difficult to enjoy, to be honest. The composer made a brief appearance for some applause at the end.

Schumann - Piano Concerto

This was better but perhaps not dynamic enough for my taste. Very pretty, though.

Strauss - Ein Heldenleben

This was the best one. Our friend Beth had a great English Horn part, too.

Coldplay at the Emirates on Saturday 2 June.

A real energetic show, with many delicate moments. Stadiums are difficult places to perform in, but they certainly know how to rock them, plus a very unique way of involving the audience and thereby creating something that made it feel quite intimate....in a strange way. Eben the rain didn't stop them....no canopy on the stage!

Next Keane in a somewhat smaller venue De Montfort Hall.

Elvis Costello june 2nd Aarhus Denmark.

A goodshow, but at lleast where I was terrible sound, too loud, and only the drums really got through! whoever was supposed to be responsible for the sound, really should find another job, something that cannot spoil others enjoyment!

Claus

I was top tier to the left of the stage and fairly straight on.

The sound for me was good, and did not disappoint, but the breeze also played a part. The two support acts sound came and went because of that!!

For me the sound was better than Florence and the Machine at the Royal Albert Hall, where her voice was excellent, but the orchestra sound was indistinct and muddled.  

Ojai Music Festival

5 concerts starting Friday night, Leif Ove Andsness music director of Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.  WOW!!! Festival known for adventurous music, outdoor setting, new bandshell that's like the old one but bigger and better, great plastic fold down seats instead of hard old wood benches.  They did some serious works as well as familiar, but those with a twist. There was much humor added too.  Sunday evening concert they did Adams' Shaker Loops, when the group left the applause was incredible, they all dipped to their knees and raised their hands and waved goodbye. John Luther Adams Dark Waves which was 2 pianos memorializing the Tsunami with a growing wave of dense sound then trailing off, and Stravinsky Rite of Spring with 2 pianos, Leif and Marc-Andre' Hamelin with encore of Stravinsky Circus. When they sat at the pianos, they pulled out green balls and put them on their noses and tried not to laugh.  Birds joined in during daytime and flitted around the stage.  Sun was intense and 85* mid-day. I can't post my 1 pic but the link below of the event and people/pieces.

http://www.ojaifestival.org

Al Dimeola...in Seattle...a superb show as usual, while he may have slowed down a bit he is still mighty good!  His encore though was a medley of his "electric" early days where he showed he still has the speed thing going if he wants to. 

Aldo Ciccolini, Déodat de Séverac and Debussy (Préludes, book one), at the Lille Opera House. Wonderful - standing ovation. Incidentally - Lille's very close to England, just in case...

Excellent gig by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, RAH, 18th Jun '12.

We had a restricted view, but had un-restricted enjoyment, normal caveats about RAH acoustics though. Certainly worth the wait to see him, maybe the years catching up to his voice, but several thumbs up for this one.

Yes, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers at The RAH was excellent last night!

I thought Tom Petty was very good last night. There are a lot of four stars reviews out there for the show - Telegraph, Guardian, Times, Evening Standard and I reckon they get it right.

Looking forward to the five star stuff Thursday night with Bruce........

We saw him in Vancouver. Same thing, great show, terrible sound (at least at our seats).

See you there Lontano, then off to Manchester for Friday night 

The weather forecast is not looking too good!

Pearl Jam, Manchester M.E.N. arena 20 June.

(Which I did finally manage to get to, and a friend took the spare ticket.)

Setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/...ngland-2bdf1c76.html

Not as good as the last time I saw them, but they were really superb that time. Some great tracks in the set, but (for me) some duds, some covers that were probably great for the band to play, but frankly since we don't see Pearl Jam here that much, not as good as their songs. Seven tracks from the first album (definitely crowd pleasers). Apart from the lovely 'Just Breathe' the tracks from 'Back Spacer' were just tuneless thrashes, but I think that album is very weak.

As for the good tracks, 'Release' was an amazing opener, 'Evolution', 'Corduroy', 'Insignificance', 'Immortality', 'Nothingman', quite a few others.

The main set was only just over an hour, but then two encores each just over 30 minutes, but that is how they often play.

I sound negative, perhaps this is more due to the venue, some of the people around me, and the sound. We were on the upper tier, sat behind a bunch of drunk ***holes, not aggressive, but just thoughtless idiots, and the sound was poor.

In the first encore we decided to go up to the back rail at the very top of the arena, and wished we had just gone there the whole show, great (if distant view), far clearer sound, and no idiots. I would recommend to anyone at these big arena gigs just walking to the back rail, and seeing if it is much better there.

I am getting to the point in my life where just seeing a band, if I have to pout of with a lot of discomfort is not enough. If I pay £50 or more for a ticket, and £4, for a drink, I want to have a pleasant experience, and not just be herded around like cattle is some vast pen. Bands like Pearl Jam are not going to play beautiful old converted cinemas, or predominantly classical halls, so either festivals or arenas are the only choice, but it is a choice that I will think twice about, and very much so if only the higher tiers of the venue are the only tickets available.

Rush still tempt me for next year (if I can find tickets nearer the time), and there are a handful of bands I will consider seeing in these places again (Pearl Jam, NIN/Trent Reznor, and most of the others have either split or stopped touring).

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band Sunderland 21st and Manchester 22nd June.

Well just finished drying out after 2 days in the pouring rain, never seen weather like it tbh, especially not in June, but I have to say it was worth every minute of soaking that I got, Bruce was on fire for both shows, and in typical Bruce fashion the rain actually stopped for the gigs.

Both nights had very different set lists, with Sunderland being a real classic night with a selection of songs that had a real working class feel, if that makes sense, but the Manchester show was a real party atmosphere driven by songs like E-Street Shuffle, Bobby Jean and Cadillac Ranch, both shows were classics though, but it was Tenth Avenue Freeze Out that stole the show thanks to the very touching Clarence tribute that bought tears to many of the crowd, me included.

I've seen Bruce 50+ times but he never ceases to amaze me that the older he gets he just seems to get better and better, I think he is enjoying himself more than ever at the moment, which can be seen in the length of the setlists.

Anyway, a week to recover then off to Paris to do it all again 

Darmstadt Orchestra in the company of Oboeist Albrecht Mayer who played beautifully the Ralph Vaughan Williams concert for oboe followed by 2 encore of a piece of music clearly derived from the famous J.S.Bach Air and the Bach sinfonia from Cantata No.156.

Overall a very enjoyable performance

Full program attached

http://www.staatstheater-darms...12-8-sinfoniekonzert

Joe Bonamassa Accoustic Project, world premiere @ Montreux Jazz Festival, 29th June 2012

Wow ! I didn't know the guy that much but he surely knows his bits. Stunningly he had on stage 8 different guitars or so surrounding him !

The accompanying gang was composed of 4 very versatile and talented players from all corners of the world playing a wide range of accoustic instruments: second guitar, banjo, mandolin, luth(?), viola(?), fiddle, upright piano (saloon-style...), harmonium, accordion and many percussive instruments. From the words of Joe, they had known each others for only 4 days before this premiere ! Well, you couldn't tell...

I'm not familiar with Joe's repertoire, but the music was very enjoyable (even if not that much to my liking, but the very diverse arrangements made for it), the playing impressive and the crowd as well as the guys on stage seemed all very happy to be here.

Apparently this band will tour for almost a year, so they will come near you sooner or later and if you're into Joe's music or accoustic blues, go see them you won't be disappointed.

Taj Mahal Trio was playing before them (hawaiian shirt and Panama hat de rigueur), and Philipp Frankhauser afterwards (new to me: he holds the most selling blues record of all times in Switzerland; ahem...). All in all a very fine night.

Maurice

Guns n' Roses in Basel 27June12. I wasn't expecting much, but it was excellent!!  Axl is the only one left, and he had 3 guitarists on stage!  They played for 3 hours and my ears were ringing for 2 days.

Played all their old stuff + alot from the new album.  

It was nice to feel young again