Category Archives: concert

Rick Springfield and Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo at Starlight

May 6, 2017 Steven Leave a comment

For the second time at Starlight Angie and I saw Rick Springfield followed by Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo in concert. This opened up our 2017 concerts, we have like 10 planned (we might have a problem…)

Here is how the very minimal stage was setup:

This was taken about 15 minutes before showtime we noticed the unusually high amount of empty seats, we blamed this on both being May 5th at Starlight (at bit cool) and Garth Brooks having one of his seven 2017 shows at Sprint center on the same night.

Here is Rick on stage doing his thing, the two white blocks on each side were the projection screens which they did use for both sets:

Here is a closer view of the projection screens in use (Starlight up till now hasn’t used these much during concerts):

Pat and Neil played a pretty simple set, four in their band:

I thought she sounded great, her vocals on “We Belong” were impressive and clear. Neil on the other hand was, well, a bit off vocally I thought. There is no doubt the man can shred on his various guitars (including “Pain”):

Overall it was worth doing a second time, however I think if they all come back I might try to talk Angie into a dinner out or something.

Me and my Angie (she is wearing her 35th Benatar concert shirt, we didn’t see any others):

concert

Dream Theater at The Midland

November 7, 2016 Steven Leave a comment

My entire family went to Dream Theater perform their double concept album “The Astonishing“. Besides the moron in the back shouting “Revolution!” every oh 8 minutes this concert was near flawless.

Not many concerts I have been to don’t want you (even hound you a bit) to not take any pictures. The highlight one on this post I had to sneak like a criminal. Kinda weird but I guess it’s because they put so much into their stage design.

This is my second time to see Dream Theater Sam and I saw them at Starlight on their “A Dramatic Turn of Events” tour in July 2012.

The artistry of the musicians in Dream Theater is hard to beat, from their spot on sound to their inventive scores they really are something to take in if you enjoy music and watching musicians be musicians.

Me, Angie, Molly and Sam:

concert, music

Rob Thomas and Counting Crows at Starlight Theater

September 27, 2016 Steven Leave a comment

Headed out to Starlight Theater to see Rob Thomas open for Counting Crows on a really great cool night to visit Starlight.

The first act was K Philips & The Concho Pearls I had a hard time getting into them, the lead singer kept giving facts about his life that were super depressing. Father currently in rehab, his wife left him, etc. Rock it man, bring the passion and energy not bring down the vibe – geez.

Rob Thomas came on with a bolt of energy and kept it going belting out his and Matchbox 20 tunes, which my favorite was “Fire On The Mountain” well done sir, well done!

20160927_192711_hdr — Rob Thomas on stage

A 30 minute set change and out comes Counting Crows, I am excited been looking forward to seeing these guys for several years. I immediately notice the set seems a bit bare, but that maybe is just “artistic”.

20160927_212652_hdr — Counting Crows on stage

The lights behind these guys seem to be designed to block out any way to actually see, like blinding mechanisms to distract from the truly awful moans/rambling coming out of Adam Duritz. The band was great good energy and keeping up with Durtiz randomness was impressive to watch. I did like the jam like sessions where Duritz would invite up Rob Thomas and his band, K Philips and The Concho Pearls something like 20 people on stage – was neat to watch.

For the next 70 minutes or so Angie and I sit and wonder what the hell is going on. Duritz is sometimes scating, sometimes just rambling changing words to songs everyone else in the audience is singing. It was truly bizarre we couldn’t tell if he was being “too cool to sing these tired songs” or just inebriated in some way. At this point we are glad we got $20 tickets on Groupon.

Overall Rob Thomas wins this, hands down.

concert, music

Steve Martin and Martin Short at The Midland

September 24, 2016 Steven Leave a comment

Angie and I went to see “An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of our Life” a “concert” I guess of Steven Martin, Martin Short and Steep Canyon Rangers at the Midland theater.

Most of Steve Martin’s jokes were well thought out and took a minute to get. Martin Short danced around with his hand acting like his man parts. So really two different kind of things mushed together. Seemed weird to me but Steep Canyon Rangers were interesting to listen to.

20160923_220641_hdr — Steve Martin, Martin Short, and the Steep Canyon Rangers on stage

concert, meh, music

Tesla, Reo Speedwagon and Def Leppard at Sprint Center

August 27, 2016 Steven Leave a comment

Wife and I went and saw a (what I thought anyway) was a strange pairing: Tesla, Reo Speedwagon and Def Leppard.

Tesla

Was hoping these guys would bring it and show the other two how to do it. Ah, well, Jeff Keith seems like a serious goofy guy and the band well they did play their music – I would not say they brought their A game. A disappointing set of about 40 minutes.

Reo Speedwagon

Ok, I admit it. I was expecting these guys to be like the Yes experience (old men shuffling around) – color me surprised. These guys were awesome, showed those Tesla whipper snappers how to bring your A game. Well done gentlemen, well done. Their set was just about an hour.

Def Leppard

I will be the first to admit I am not the biggest Def Leppard fan. I wasn’t expecting much – I was sorely wrong. These guys had great production quality, graphics were excellent, sound was a bit overdriven I thought. Still they did about 80 minutes with a 2 song oncore. Oh and watching the marvel that is Rick Allen is something.

Me and the misses (yes I am wearing my coveted Dream Theater 2012 tour shirt):

20160826_194051

concert, music

Demi Lovato & Nick Jonas at Sprint Center

August 7, 2016 Steven Leave a comment

Molly and I went to go see “Future Now Tour” last night at Sprint Center which had Mike Posner opening and (I guess?) Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas headlining.

As far as performances Mike Posner should be headlining soon, clear talent passion and stage presence. No doubt Demi can sing but she tends to Christina it up a bit. Nick well I guess he is pretty, the ladies seem to like him.

This concert had several firsts concert wise for me (and I have seen dozens of concerts).

So much advertising; Macys, Honda, Guess. Many commercials placed before and during set changes.
An actual car for an advertisement down on the GA floor. A Honda Civic which Honda customized for/with Demi was down on the floor behind the mixer board area.
Two headliners? I could not tell who the actual headliner was as both Demi and Nick played about equal songs, together and shared the same set.
People positioned up in the lighting bars. After Mike Posner a middle section of lights came down and three people crawled up into some harness looking seats to operate spot lights. The lights then went backup and those folks sat in those seats for the duration of the night (nearly 3 hours).
Spotlight crew sitting in the lights.
A video wall that spanned the entire arena. The video wall was likely the biggest I have seen in person and certainly the largest I have seen at the Sprint Center.