A KILLING AT RED ROCKS

Second show of the week as I wind down the summer concert season. Attending with me were my daughter (15 y.o.) and son (12 y.o.), the first enjoying the show, the second having to be forced to attend, probably preferring to stay home and play video games. I suspect he'll appreciate the occasion at a later time in life. I drove home from work, picked them up and we drove west to the foothills where Red Rocks amphitheater is located.

One of the best concert venues available . Seating is located between a pair of cliff walled rock formation jutting up into the sky, a natural amphitheater. The seating faces east overlooking the lights of Denver. Half way through the show the orange moon rose above the eastern skyline.

First up was Broken Wreckords, someone I had never heard of before. An ok warm up to the main act, the sun setting and the sky turning to darkness. But everyone here was waiting in anticipation for the main show. This was a good opportunity to start getting stoked up, the tequila slowly taking effect.

Sean Kennedy writes:

The Killers are synth-pop chameleons. Though possessing their own sound in lead singer Brandon Flowers’ powerful voice, they wear their influences proudly as devotees of the Cars, Morrissey, Bowie, the Beatles, Pet Shop Boys, U2 and Queen. Bowie, in fact, was quoted after seeing them live as “…having just witnessed the history of rock and roll in one show.” A compliment — however, embedded in it may have been a jab at the Killers’ mastery of incorporating influences into their sound.

Flowers took a few minutes to catch his breath, exclaiming, “We’ve been spending time at sea level, I’m feeling it up here!” He proceeded to climb a large rock next to the stage to serenade us with “Bling (Confession of a King).” It was easy to forget about how long it took the band to come onstage during “Somebody Told Me” and “Change Your Mind.” Flowers hit his stride, seemingly adjusting to the altitude on “Mr. Brightside.”

He moved like a boxer, sparring between the microphone stand and the keyboards. During “Help Me Out,” with the crowd chanting the lyrics, “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier,” confetti cannons exploded from the stage, glitter showering over the heads of the first 20 rows. At 10:45 they came back for an encore with “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.”

Hot off the Lollapalooza tour, the Killers were at the top of their game at Red Rocks, a venue that grants magic for some and rips away the veil to reveal the mediocrity of others. Watching the orange half-moon rise above the stage halfway through the show, it was clear the Killers were among the former.

Read the full review here, along with some great photos from the show:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2009/09/11/live-review-the-killers-red-rocks-amphitheatre/

The Killers put on a great performance, being disappointed only when the music came to an end after their encore. They are definitely one of my favorite bands of the day!

WEEZER AND BLINK 182 ON THE GREEN

The summer concert season continues, this week being the climax with three concerts planned. The weekend was spent masking doors/windows/gutters and then painting the new siding on the front of the house. It took longer than I anticipated due to the fact I'm burning out on the project and afternoon rain showers always seem to interrupt what I'm doing. In a couple weeks I should have the trim painted, officially ending the summer residing project. I can't wait!

Sunday night was spent with my daughter at Fiddlers Green, an open air amphitheater located in a suburb south of Denver. Four acts were scheduled this evening, the first of which I don't know the name of because they were on for only a half hour while the people streamed into the amphitheater to find their seats. The second act was Taking Back Sunday, an American rock band that originally came out of Long Island, NY. I recognized a few of their songs, but their main purpose was to warm up the audience for the two main acts to follow.

Weezer was up next, the alternative rock band out of California that began their musical career back in 1992. I really like their sound and regretted being too drunk to see their whole show last time they came around years ago. Not this time. Although tequila was available, I made sure to pace myself such that when they hit the stage in their white jump suits, I was primed and dancing in the isles! Although I had a ticketed seat, I spent most of the second half of the show in the aisle where there was ample room to groove to the music. I was loving it!

The last act of this nights concert was Blink 182, another rock/punk band out of California that also formed in 1992. I love their high energy sound, having played it numerous times on the truck stereo during my winter "party on the pass" on nights before a ski day. Their music is one sure fire way of getting pumped up. They also put on a fabulous performance, keeping me dancing for the remainder of the evening. Many enthusiastic fans in the audience. A great show headlining two of my favorite bands.

1995 JACKPOT

A busy two weeks, much of it spent recovering from the flu that effectively took me out last weekend and most of the previous week. The usual chills, weakness, aches and pains. No H1N1 swine flu virus. For that I needed to have chest pains and be vomiting. Better luck next time.

I checked an old website and found out they had posted a bunch of new bootleg recordings from the Sammy Hagar era, most from 1995, a couple from 1993, one from 1988. These are all recordings that are relatively "new" in that they are not listed on the Van Halen bootleg discography website. It was like I hit a gold mine because the 1995 Balance tour shows are some of my favorite. Unfortunately for the band it was a time of doubt (they were being eclipsed by bigger names of the time) and paranoia (Eddie was drinking again, and was very suspicious of Sammy, not unlike what happened to Diamond Dave just before his departure). But you can't tell from the music because they were still performing well as a team.

After spending the week gradually recovering my strength, I was ready for the Friday night show with a new recording that I had downloaded and burned only a few nights earlier. Van Halen at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls (Cleveland), Ohio on July 18, 1995. A very good audience recording of the entire live show. What was different about this show is that they really mixed up the set list, starting off with "Amsterdam" and flipping everything around from that point on. Songs traditionally performed at the end of the show were performed mid-show, some usually performed in the beginning were thrown in at the end. Made for a unusual but very enjoyable performance. Cuyahoga Falls partied that night!

Their petty deceits

Led by greed and arrogance

There are no heros

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BZF03ZR3

NO PRETENDING WITH THE PRETENDERS

The summer concert series continues with a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens open space area near Chatfield Reservoir right up against the foothills. The line up for this evenings event were Juliette Lewis, Cat Power with the headliner being The Pretenders. A beautiful day with the music beginning at 4 PM and The Pretenders playing at 6:30 for no less than an hour and a half.

Juliette Lewis, American actress and musician, performed her style of rock on stage for a half hour, warming up the slowly gathering crowd. In 2006,Blender Magazine included her in their hottest women of rock music list while saying, "[She] delivered sonically varnished melodic punk replete with purring vocals and lyrics that bash porn, pharmaceutical companies and rotten lovers. (in no particular order)".

This is what she recently said about Van Halen:

“When I was 13 and I saw Van Halen’s “Panama” video, I was blown away. When Roth is crawling toward the camera singing, “I reach down between my legs and ease the seat back,” I was like, “Holy crap! I want to be that guy.”

http://www.vhnd.com/2009/08/21/juliette-lewis-wishes-she-could-be-david-lee-roth/

Cat Power is the stage name of American singer/songwriter Chan Marshall. She is known for her minimalist style, sparse guitar and piano playing, and breathy vocals. She kept the crowds entranced with some of her original songs sprinkled with many cover tunes from other artists, done in a unique way that made it difficult to tell who's song she was singing. You can tell she had some real fans in the crowd.

But the moment I was waiting for was for Chrissie Hynde to take the stage and perform her high octane blend of punk/new wave to an enthusiastic audience. She both looked and sounded great, even though 28 years had elapsed since I last saw her in New York. The crowd really showed their appreciation when she performed many of her well loved classics from the 80's, everyone getting up on their feet to dance. She can still kick ass.

The Pretenders' album Breaking Up The Concrete was released on October 7, 2008. It was their first Top 40 album in the U.S. in 22 years. The "Break Up The Concrete Tour" began in mid-January and covered most of the United States, with shows until the end of March. It then continued in Europe, with gigs in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Holland, France, Spain, Belgium, Scotland and England during the months of June and July, before returning for a new tour in Canada and the U.S. during August and September 2009. The work they put in on the tour showed this evening with a superb performance.

It's always a let down when the music comes to an end. The crowd disperses, the roadies begin to disassemble the stage. A line of red tail lights snakes out of the parking lot up towards the highway. I set up my lawn chair in the back of the truck with the stereo on loud, playing a live performance of The Pretenders back in 1981. To be honest, there was very little difference in quality between what I heard on the stereo from back in the day and what I heard this evening. A very memorable and truly enjoyable show. Can't wait for the bootleg recording.