What was the last concert you went in 2016?

Hi,

Yeah fantastic, I' m now playing Neil, Live In San Francisco 1978.

as you know I am big fan of Neil's since Buffalo Springfield but that was rupee best gig I have seen him art and the sound quality was out of this world. It was all, and even more than, I ever expected a true master.

I stood next to a guy who was following the tour from USA and UK, was at Glasgow and Belfast this week and he rated the Leeds gig as the best of the lot!

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

See you at the Bad Company gig if not in The SORG.

Richard

p.s. I have a bad back after standing from 5 o'clock when I joined the que in the rain until the last note after 11 pm..... But worth it to be right up front, standing dead centre of the stage with no obstructions.

Please ignore my typos... But you get my jist!

I have to rate last night as one of the best ever in 37 years of going to gigs. Big fan also, Springfield, CSN&Y for nearly 40 years

We'll have to catch up 

My last concert in 2016 was Coldplay in Manchester - June 5th. A wonderfully warm, sunny and dry evening listening to Britain's nicest band!

Great, great concert.

Very lucky indeed...wish I had been there. ..just about to launch into a  Tidal retrospective commencing with Barstool Blues��

I have just had quite a week, starting with Opera North’s semi staged Das Rheingold & Die Walkure at Nottingham on Monday & Tuesday. We stayed at the same hotel as many of the cast, so we enjoyed breakfast surrounded by Gods, Giants & Nibelungs! On Tuesday afternoon we had the honour of sharing the lift with Brunnhilde.

On Thursday we had a total contrast with WNO Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci at Birmingham Hippodrome (I booked this last July otherwise we would have been at Siegfried).

The lead tenor who was to sing in both operas had hurt his back & so was replaced by Peter Auty, who fine & got the biggest cheer of the night.

On Saturday we were back up to Nottingham for Gotterdammerung.

This picture (not one of mine) is from Act 3  of Walkure with Kelly Cae Hogan as Brunnhilde, who we had a brief chat with in the lift on Tuesday & the wonderful Lee Bisset as Sieglinde who I have previous heard in this role at Longbororgh.

Altogether a wonderful week of live music, with one of the longest & loudest standing ovations I have ever heard at the end on Gotterdammerung.

Elton John at Leicestershire County Cricket ground last night.  Fortunately we didn't get the predicted cloudburst.  Really good set list mixing old favourites with two tracks from the new album.  He was in great form, as were the band, whom he nearly forgot to introduce after a run-in with venue security.  The only downside was the most bizarre ending ever - after the two song encore Elton and the band went off - no bows or anything.  Never come across that before.

Field Day 2016 (Victoria Park, London)

Took place over last weekend (11-12 June), despite the rain.

Saturday:
Deerhunter - liked the music, can't get my head round the vocals
Yeasayer - ditto
DIIV - fabulous, motorik, see them live
James Blake - not quite my thing musically but his sound engineer (a personal mate) did the most fantastic job of creating a soundstage with space and depth

Sunday:
The Thurston Moore Band - Thurston is indie rock royalty and still rocks
The Ben Watt Band featuring Bernard Butler - Bernard still has it
Goat - psychedelic Swedish world/tribal insanity - unmissable
Moon Duo - Ripley Johnson's side project rocks and buzzes
PJ Harvey - just a little tiny bit in total love with her

Anyone else go

Saw Ben Watt and Bernard Butler at the Wedgwood Rooms in Southsea last week. Fantastic gig (more people should have been there though). Butler sure can make a guitar sing. 

Check out the album Fever Dream and see if you can catch the band when they get back from the Rest of the World.

Ha. You missed my post saying that I was there too. It's a shame I missed you. 

Bernard Butler! Wow. that's a name from the past. :0

I remember picking up his 'Poeple Move On' with a power ballad 'Stay'.

Hungryhalibut posted:

Ha. You missed my post saying that I was there too. It's a shame I missed you. 

I was at the back to the right of the mixing desk with my lady Nigel. As you say, excellent gig that would have been appreciated by many more.

Drawn to the bikes in the window across the road as we left!!

Last night I was at what I think is now in my top 10 gigs of all time, John Grant @ Royal Albert Hall.

For those who don't know him, I would recommend a listen to the album "Pale Green Ghosts" (try GMF or Glacier depending on your mood) - he's got this great mix of singer-songwriter with slabs of electronica thrown in, giving his songs an angular edge  which perfectly matches the mood.

Anyway, last night the Hall was packed and rose as one to salute this guy. Guest appearances by Cate Le Bon, Richard Hawley (another genius) and - wait for it - Kylie Minogue, on an incomparable version of "Glacier".

Where Dreams Go To Die; Queen of Denmark. Mars; It Doesn't Matter to Him (great even without Sinead O'Connor), delivered with transparency and charm.

This is one to tell the grandchildren about (if and when they ever arrive - it's some years off yet). A magical evening...

kuma posted:

Bernard Butler! Wow. that's a name from the past. :0

I remember picking up his 'Poeple Move On' with a power ballad 'Stay'.

Ah, Bernard Butler - he's still got it. Love the song "Woman I Know" from that album.

Something about him and Ben Watt together worked surprisingly well - moved me to tears in fact.

Fangfossflyer posted:

"What can I say except that Neil just gets better and better, that I was blown away at was probably  the best yet ever and what a set list!"

I was at Neil Young's Glasgow gig, and I completely agree with your comments. This was one of the very best gigs I have been to in over 40 years of concert going.

The performance of the entire band was stunning & the sound quality was also superb at the SSE Hydrp Glasgow. I'll never forget their live version of "Down by the water" - absolutely stunning, and blew away my doubts about Neil's ability to play electric guitar.

It was quite a week with the equally fantastic Bonnie Raitt at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall the previous weekend (again with fantastic sound quality) and Neil Young sandwiching Bruce Springsteen at Hampden Park.

Two of the best concerts I have ever been to sandwiching by far the worst concert I have ever attended. Like quite a few others, I walked out of the Springsteen concert after 4 or 5 numbers. Absolutely unbearable sound quality! I will never again go to a concert at Hampden Park. In fact I will probably never again go to a stadium concert anywhere again.

Still, with that one exception, the old fogeys (sorry Bonnie, but I do love you) have been exceptionally good lately (including Fleetwood Mac at the end of last year and Brian Wilson earlier this year. Roll on the Who and Bad Company.

Longborough Opera last Thursday for my first Tannhauser, with Neal Cooper in the title role, who, I learn from the programme, is the nephew of our ex. Heavyweight  Champion, Sir Henry Cooper!

With Anthony Negus conducting and an excellent cast, musically it was very good & apart from a rather odd mixture of costumes, the production was fine as well.

The picture shows a member of the orchestra calling people in for the 3^rd Act by playing a tune from the opera, as they do in Bayreuth.

This isn't the program she played but she wore the same gown.

Julia Fischer/Muti/CSO:

Program
Beethoven Violin Concerto

Brahms Serenade No. 1

My first experience with Fischer's fiddling. In my book, Heifetz's commanding performance is the one to beat mainly because he's the only one who can compete with a large dense orchestra. I was looking forward to this as the score hasn't been played at the Orchestra Hall since Mutter played it 10 years or so ago.

Fischer certainly a fine player. Technically superb there was no botched note in the entire program but came off rather academic and less of bravura cadenza. One can be impressed with her finer delicate style but for me, I want gutsier, more dynamic outer movements. Also romantic gentle middle movement Fischer made a less of an impact than what I am used to with Heifetz. ( where a minute he comes on, my attention is pinned down to his performance even tho the notes are scarce, he can bring me down to tears. ) Unfortunately no such connection was made with Fischer.

Muti's orchestra handling also could have been more upbeat rather than vast and voluptuous and that the repeats sounded too monotonous without much dynamic shadings. Interestingly, however, the CSO produced a warmish tone without their usual silvery edge in upper register from the string section. ( I wonder if the management did something different acoustically )

What I enjoyed more was the second half of the program, Brahms' Serenade No.1. Written when Brahms was younger, his first effort of orchestra work reminds me a lot of his later 4 symphonies. Muti/CSO drew beautiful colours and textures out of the score exposing many finer details adding to more interesting story telling than any of recordings I have heard.  He was also relaxed and seemed having a great rapport with the musicians. It seemed that his heart was more in it than the Beethoven program! :/

Now I am looking forward to Muti/CSO 4 Brahms Symphonies next seasons.

Hmack posted:

 absolutely stunning, and blew away my doubts about Neil's ability to play electric guitar.

Neil's electric guitar style, squelching and choking the neck while simultaneous applying random caresses to the strings as he does seems juxtaposed to virtuosity. The overall sound is somehow crude, but there is a deep artistry to be appreciated. One of the few mainstream rock artists that plays better live than in the studio (of course many of his studio recordings are more/less live takes). Probably my favorite live performer. Nice to see the positive reports of others here enjoying his concerts.

Muti/CSO: Bruckner

Symphony No. 9
Te Deum

Muti continues to surprise with tightly orchestrated 2 Bruckner scores for the Season Finale.

I've many 9th recordings but none by Muti so I was curious to hear what he'd do with it.

This was much more suspenseful and moving than Echenbach/CSO performance 3 years ago. Perhaps the 3rd movement did not have  that ethereal transparency yet he managed to extract a great deal of emotional involvement due to excellent timing and dynamic shading. Terrific performance by CSO brass which kept the colours without sounding ineffective within the score.

90+ chorus for Te Deum was just stupendous. I won't fool myself even for a second there is a hi-fi system which can duplicate the power of massed chorus.

Kuma,

wow, that must have been quite some concert.

Last night I went to the Royal festival Hall to hear the RCMSO play a programme of music by Stravinsky, culminating in The Firebird - a great fun couple of hours bookended by nightmarish Sunday public transport service.

Richard,

Sure it was one of the most memorable season finale I have attended.

It was such a moving performance, tears rolling down on my face. I love it when I connect to the music this way.

Incidentally, CSO premiered the 9th back in 1904 ( infamous Lowe's edition with cuts and "clean ups" ) and Te Deum in 1892. ( Bruckner was still alive! )

Here's the program. It followed Schumann's Symphony 1 without intermission! 

Speaking of a transport service, we almost missed the concert as LSD was so jammed but luckily we made it with a minute to spare.

Apparently, CSO founder Theodore Thomas was Bruckner fan and played the composer's work every time he had an opportunity.

But the US premiere of the 9th earned a scathing review by Chicago Tribune:

"We have endured four
of his symphonies in the last six years—please,
Mr. Thomas, is there not somebody else it would
be ‘good for us’ to hear?”

Ouch!

9th was not to be played for another 9 years. This time with Thomas' successor Frederick Stock in 1913.

Much better review this time by Chicago Evening Post:

“The absolutely magnificent playing of
the Thomas Orchestra* yesterday afternoon revealed
beauties that were hidden before, for we found it a
most impressive work . . . conceived by a man who
put his whole heart into what he was doing . . . brilliant,
poetic, solid, dainty, with endless variety of
tone color, elasticity of rhythm, and climaxes of
sonority that were gorgeous.”

* Back then CSO was known as 'Thomas Orchestra'

First night of the U.K. leg of Seal's tour at Birmingham Symphony Hall last night.  He started with Crazy and Killer and made his way round the auditorium, singing to and dancing with numerous members of the audience.  Also included was an acoustic set and cover versions of Hall and Oates Sara Smile and Mad World.  Worth every penny and highly recommended.

Joe Bonamassa last night at Colston Hall, Bristol. Packed venue where even seating in the rear half doesn't feel too far from the stage. Astounding show from an amazing Joe, a band who were on fire, and a fantastic set that ran for 90+ minutes (I guess) without a break. Content was a tribute to British Blues (Beck/Clapton/ Led Zep) plus Slow Gin. 

Steely Dan and Steve Winwood.

Hey, it was at Red Rocks.