Concerts you have attended?

HecticArt

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That lineup just played a Rally By The River here in Toledo. I wanted to go, mostly just to drink beer outside and listen to a band like we did back in the day.

Didn't make it, but some friends did. They said that it was good. I'm guessing that they don't travel with their own sound system.
 

memebag

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Oct 11, 2008
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Most concert sound is crap. The best sound is in small venues. Houston had a place called "Walter's Downtown" that closed recently. A tiny club in an old warehouse that hosted bands most people have never heard of, but the sound was perfect.
 

scotchandcigar

All I wanted was some steak
Feb 13, 2009
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Yeah, this was a club venue with house sound that was poorly setup.

I've been to several venues where the stage and forward seating is covered, but open further back. In many cases, the sound has been excellent with a top notch band like Steely Dan or Dave Mathews Band. But it's pretty rare.
 

JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
Oct 11, 2008
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My first Couch Tour is about to commence:

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JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
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I really enjoyed the show last night. Well worth $25 for 3 solid hours of entertainment (3.5 if you count the set-break). In fact, I liked it so much I bought a pass to tonight's show too. Yesterday at my place there were a couple hiccups in the stream. Nothing bad or long, but still annoying. Tonight I'm at my Dad's place so I'll see if it was my internet causing the problem or the stream itself. Either way I can see myself watching a bunch of these shows during this summer '18 tour.
 

JHDK

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Most concert sound is crap. The best sound is in small venues. Houston had a place called "Walter's Downtown" that closed recently. A tiny club in an old warehouse that hosted bands most people have never heard of, but the sound was perfect.

Yeah, this was a club venue with house sound that was poorly setup.

I've been to several venues where the stage and forward seating is covered, but open further back. In many cases, the sound has been excellent with a top notch band like Steely Dan or Dave Mathews Band. But it's pretty rare.

What are your thoughts on outdoor venue sound? I've found that stadiums usually really suck and those places with a lawn section that are specifically made for concerts are better. The best one I've ever been to was The Mann Center.

Screen%20Shot%202016-06-29%20at%209.39.24%20AM.png
 

memebag

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What are your thoughts on outdoor venue sound? I've found that stadiums usually really suck and those places with a lawn section that are specifically made for concerts are better. The best one I've ever been to was The Mann Center.

Screen%20Shot%202016-06-29%20at%209.39.24%20AM.png

Large volumes are hard to fill with clear sound. You can add more speakers, but they overlap and muddy the sound. Plus you get phase cancellation. Ideally you'd have just a couple of speakers, but they have to be so loud to fill the space that the people closest to them are deafened.
 

JHDK

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SETLIST: PHISH, FRIDAY 07/27/2018
THE FORUM
Inglewood, CA
SET 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Everything's Right, Rift, Wolfman's Brother, How Many People Are You, Horn, Water in the Sky >Twenty Years Later > Sand

SET 2: Blaze On > Down with Disease[1] > Simple > Ghost > Bouncing Around the Room > Mike's Song > Slave to the Traffic Light

ENCORE: Sleeping Monkey > Weekapaug Groove

[1] Unfinished.

SETLIST: PHISH, SATURDAY 07/28/2018
THE FORUM
Inglewood, CA
SET 1: Julius, Suzy Greenberg > Timber Ho!, Soul Shakedown Party, Kill Devil Falls, 555, Your Pet Cat, Tide Turns, No Men In No Man's Land > Bathtub Gin

SET 2: Gotta Jibboo > Fuego > Birds of a Feather > Meatstick > Soul Planet > Wingsuit > Cavern

ENCORE: Sparkle > Character Zero


Ok, so like with many of my posts I'm sure most of you won't care but that's not going to stop my ranting.

Friday was better than Saturday. Set 2 is usually the jam-heavy set of the show and last night they played Soul Planet into Wingsuit and both those songs suck. Soul Planet's lyrics are so dumb there is a fan theory that it is a joke of a song done on purpose. Most of Phish's jokey are very clearly jokey, like The Mango Song; "You're hands and feet are mangoes, you're going to be a genius anyway"...and stuff like that. Soul planet has lyrics like:

The animals and trees on the soul planet
They're all you and me on the soul planet
There's a slow stream of power on the soul planet
And the power is love on the soul planet

Eek, that's bad. Same goes for Wingsuit. They both had good jams last night but to make up for my initial dislike of the songs, those jams have to be killer. So those 2 songs I don't like took up like 20 mins of the show.

Besides that it was fine. Cavern is a great song and it was playful cause Trey forgot a verse and did a good job of laughing it off with the crowd.

And Your Pet Cat in the first set had a great jam as always. And Fuego was straight fuego as always.

Overall it was a fine show but Friday was better. My critique of Friday was Horn and only because they didn't deliver it with the same punch I've grown to expect. A better group of songs and jams on Friday. Saturday had some great moments but didn't all come together as a whole.

I had fun watching both nights and look forward to doing it again next weekend.

 
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IdRatherBeSkiing

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Unusual for 2 concerts to have completely different set lists. Usually a band will make only minor adjustments if any to their list day to day.


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JHDK

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Unusual for 2 concerts to have completely different set lists. Usually a band will make only minor adjustments if any to their list day to day.


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Not with Phish (and jam bands in general). That's part of their appeal. It would be shocking if they played the same song 2 nights in a row, unless they purposely left it unfinished one night and then closed it the night after.

Last year they did 13 straight nights at MSG (The Baker's Dozen) and didn't repeat any songs.

Usually during each tour they have a few favorites that get played every 4 or 5 shows. Sadly it seems Soul Planet is one of those tunes for this tour. It was last played on 7.17.18 during their Lake Tahoe show.
 

HecticArt

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A band has to try hard to make live shows sound good. Usually the problem is that each venue needs different speakers and arrangements. That's rough for tours. They rent all that equipment to work with their stage show and then hope that they have a setup that works for the typical venue. Most venues are set up for sports, and not acoustically engineered for concerts.

Tom Scholz from the band Boston, used to run around inside arenas with a sound meter and would drive the stage crew crazy making them adjust things.

Ya just gotta hope for the best, and settle for what you get.
 

scotchandcigar

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Feb 13, 2009
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Yesterday there were a couple hiccups in the stream.
As I get older, that happens a lot.

The worst sound in my region is the Boston Garden. It's horrible for concerts. Like I said, we have many dedicated venues that are shaped like a horn, with an open back, and the potential is there for great sound. They are all small, seating a couple thousand.

Springsteen and Dave Mathews Band are 2 that do multiple nights with mostly different setlists.
 
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JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
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Spent $63 to get a 3 day pass to the Alpharetta GA Fri-Sun shows. They do that buy in bulk thing where each show is $4 cheaper if you buy them all together. Tonight is the show I was thinking about driving to. For much less money I will still have a good time watching it. Last night was very good.

SET 1: First Tube, No Men In No Man's Land, Ghost, All of These Dreams > Back on the Train, Free > Martian Monster, Tube > 555,Walls of the Cave

SET 2: Tweezer > Blaze On > Prince Caspian > Carini > Simple > Winterqueen > Harry Hood

ENCORE: More

Interesting no Tweezer Reprise encore. They usually always encore with it when they play Tweezer in the second set.
 
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JHDK

Release Robin's Bra
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I know I've taken over this thread lately and I won't make it all about Phish forever. The summer tour ends on September 2. They have 12 shows to go and 9 of them will be webcast. I'm really getting a kick out of watching these shows. It feels a bit more special than watching a football game or something like that since those are expected to be on TV, but not so much with concerts.

Last night was good:

8.04.18
Alpharetta, GA
SET 1: Bouncing Around the Room, Chalk Dust Torture, Fuck Your Face, Wolfman's Brother, Things People Do, Lengthwise ->Maze, Waiting All Night, Divided Sky, Character Zero

SET 2: Crosseyed and Painless > Soul Planet > A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > Piper > Possum > Slave to the Traffic Light

ENCORE: The Squirming Coil

Gotta love the Talking Heads cover and while I was bitching about soul planet before, it had a really good jam last night that made up for the awful lyrics. Squirming Coil encore was nice. The 3 other members leave the stage at the end of it and Page, the pianist finishes the show with a solo.

Tonight should be rocking. Looking forward to comparing all 3 shows.
 
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IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
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Saw the Eagles last night in Toronto. Absolutely amazing. Once of my best concerts.
While waiting, I read that Bob Segar was resuming his tour. Found he wasn't coming to Toronto but was going to Columbus on a weekend next January. Bought tickets. Cheap seats (in US$) but for 3 of us with fees wound up a bit of cash. But he has been on my bucket list for a while and now we will be going.

Next concerts for me are Lynard Skynard + 38 Special and then Culture Club (with Boy George). Both in August.

The 38 Special + Lynard Skynard concert is tonight. Also on the bill: ZZ Top!!!
 
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HecticArt

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I've seen ZZ Top and 38 Special (Not together) back in the day. ZZ Top used to put on a solid show.

We saw KC & the Sunshine Band last night downtown at our riverfront. They just renovated the riverfront park, and it's really nice. We hadn't been to a show there yet, and the weather was nice, so we decided to go. For $10 tickets, we didn't really care who was playing.

It turns out that at 67 years old KC actually delivers. I'm not a fan of the music, but he's got a strong voice, good stage presence, and the band was REALLY tight. There were 14 people in the band. I was impressed.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
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We saw kc & the band at a company xmas party several years ago when the company had a bigger budget.


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