What was your last concert you went to ?

The Raveonettes at the Village Underground in East London (great venue).

They were phenomenally good, especially when Sharin strapped on her bass...

"Sharin"!!??

Sharin Foo. That's her name. She is Danish.

Saturday 8th Dec, Shepherds Bush O2, Sawdoctors, on their 25th anniversary tour.

As usual a musical party with selection from most of their back catalogue. Fun to watch a couple of hundred(?) people  having a ball, even a couple of (big) guys in dresses, am thinking bet.

Bloody loud ears still not back to normal. Minuses? 2 or 3 cases of beer coming from levels 2 and 3.

Sunday 9th Lunchtime at Pizza Express Jazz Club. Antonio Forcione trio with Jenny Adejayan on Cello.

So good , consummate performances. Short set 70 minutes ish but worth seeing and hearing. Fortunately Sawdoctors having done my hearing , but not enough to not enjoy AF. Love the Jazz Club , we had a table a at stage edge and it was like the band was playing just for you.

Anyone who enjoys guitar music and hasn't seen Antonio, should do so soon.

VSO (A small "Chamber Orchestra" style sub-set - strings and harpsichord only) at the Chan Centre (University of BC).

Dale Barltrop leader/violin

Piazzolla

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Vivaldi

The Four Seasons

http://www.vancouversymphony.ca/concert/12SPEC04/

Philip Glass live performance of Koyaanisqatsi at The Barbican, 14 December.

PG Ensemble were augmented by the Britten Sinfonia and the Trinity Laban Chamber Choir, about 80 musicians in all, playing live along with a screening of Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi.

A mesmerising performance, the choir in particular sending shivers down the spine, and a real privilege to see Philip Glass performing this piece as part of his 75th birthday celebrations.  One slight niggle - the screen was about a quarter the size that it should have been for a properly immersive experience - gave it a whiff of Spinal Tap - but that soon evaporated when the orchestra were in full swing.

It was an outstanding performance. Third time I have seen Koyaanisqatsi live, but this time with the full orchestra.

It was the next night though that was utterly mind blowing. The Philip Glass Ensemble in the small Union Chapel venue playing music from 1969 onwards. How they play this stuff is quite frankly beyond me, incredible musicianship and timing.

The encore of Spaceship from Einstein on the Beach was stupendous.

Lady Gaga in Vancouver. Spectacular show, but the pop-psychology between songs was painful, and the sound fairly ordinary (but listenable). I'm not a fan of her music, but my wife likes her, and loved the concert.

Kanda Bongo Man at the Tunnels, Bristol last night. A must see if you like Soukous (hot dance music from the Congo) - only about 100 people in the audience and cheap at £10. Great musicianship and a great show.

Aimee Mann Royal Festival Hall, Monday Jan 28th.

A very good show , Aimee's voice a little recessed in the mix, when with band, we might have been a few rows too close.  On solo tracks it was fine. She was on good form, a mix of songs from Charmer and oldies. Usual resident drunks trying to hold a "shouted" conversation with her, most amusing.

Excellent band , looked like Tom Petty on bass (it wasn't).

Tom Leo support act , a sort american Wilco Johnson , punkish singer songwriter, quite entertaining.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn and assorted other hits - Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern.

Big venue, only 1200 tickets, so plenty of room. Lacked a little atmosphere in a way, but it was lovely all the same. 5 star reviews every where you look and in the afterglow of the show I think it is all rather fabulous. I cannot stop playing Kraftwerk albums :-) The 3D visuals were great and the band all looked like Robots.  The good news is I get to see it all again next week with a night of The Mix 

..I saw EM the Jazz Trio of Michael Wollny.....pretty amazing..

Nice. I have not seen Wollny yet, must do sometime soon.

Calexico last night at the Bristol Academy. Really excellent show and well worth catching - they are touring the UK right now.

Calexico: Brighton, Corn Exchange 19/02/13.

What an excellent show, best part of 2 hours, tight, audience and band seemed to be having a great time.

Sound was pretty good too, we were just in front of the mixing desk, during the first number a lady from the audience had words with mixing desk man, he fiddled with something and it sounded a lot better, maybe just lowered the maximum a little.

9/10.

Richard Thompson, BBC TVC. See "Your 2013 Concerts"  or the RT "Electric" threads for more.

The Mavericks at the Royal Concert Hall Glasgow as part of Celtic Connections, 22nd January.

A fantastic concert accompanied by my 2 sons, pity I had aggravated my damaged Achilles tendon as everybody was jumping about but me.

Does Rigolleto at Met HD broadcast count, it was really a great performance 

Richard Thompson, Brighton Dome, 22/02/2013.

Well if Al Bowlly is in heaven , I certainly was for 2 hours. 

Part 2 Tuesday. 

Keith Jarrett solo piano in the national Concert Hall in Dublin.

I don't know why I expected a Van Morrison type grump whose performance could end precipitously depending upon crowd reaction.

Judging from the hushed silence that descended when the lights went down I wasn't alone in my opinion.

What we got, in between some breathtaking improvisations, while not quite Leonard Cohen, was quite a bit of witty banter and comments. "I'm becoming a sit down comedian".

3 standing ovation encores later he went to a vocal mic, tapped it to see it was working......what was he now going to say after stories about his improvisation, Robin Williams backstage.........

a silence, we waited............"thank you"............. and he walks off.

An amazing evening which I won't forget, what live concerts are all about.

SJB

Glad to hear he is in a good mood. Seeing him Monday night. Last time I saw him for a solo show we all got told off......

Should be an interesting evening! Looking forward  to it!

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Richard Thompson, Barbican, 26/02/13. Another excellent gig, as good as last Fridays, this one had a great cover of White Room, and the first few notes of Badge by the bass player. Unfortunately not joined by any other family members as had happened on Monday.

Hey Kuma,

That's a pretty clean photo. What did you take it with? 

Yo-Yo Ma is really amazing. I was totally awestruck when I saw him back around '86 when in high school. So great to see him continuing on such a diverse path, between soundtrack work, bluegrass  and I'm sure a ton of other things (I really don't follow him). A total living treasure on the cello. I'm envious.

But I have been able to see both Edgar Meyer and Joshua Bell on separate events playing very intimate shows at the Pantages theater in Tacoma, south of Seattle. Really special.

By the way, my last show was Rush for their Clockwork Angels tour. 

Connon