Concert Review Site

Last week, two of classical music’s brightest stars came out to shine in an exciting performance of 19th century music. It was one of the first sold out concerts to have happened at the Hollywood Bowl on a Tuesday night in years. And why not? The people in the crowd got to hear Placido Domingo conducting the LA Philharmonic and Yo Yo Ma playing the Dvorak cello concerto. It was a beautiful concert too. And then at the end, Ma and Domingo did Massenet’s Elegy together. Just them without any further accompaniment. It was just fantastic, and the critics agree that they did much more daring music than might have been otherwise expected of these two on a Tuesday. They did serious classics rather than easy pop music or anything.

The Stone Temple Pilots have just announced a large reunion tour and it’s going to be a lot of fun to see them back together again after all these years. In fact, there are Stone Temple Pilots tickets available for the first time in a long time. They haven’t worked together since 2003 and haven’t released an album since 2001 Shangri-La Dee Da. Apparently, their talent is so great that they couldn’t stop from getting back together again. Their new tour begins on Oct 2 in Mobile Alabama. The dates that have been announced so far take them to more than 2 dozen cities between the beginning of October and the beginning of January. It’ll be interesting to see them together again and see if their musical sensibilities have changed much in the 8 years since then.

As summer turns to fall, I always have to think about the folk songs of the Great Lakes. The reason for this is that it’s this time of year that I first became acquainted with that kind of music and started to learn the songs. It’s also fitting because it’s got that cool breeze, just like the lakes themselves. One of the foremost singers of this music is Lee Murdock, who plays in small venues most times of the year. He just enjoys singing at libraries, museums, small festivals and markets. During the winter, he plays his Christmas Ship concert series, which is always a treat. His music is well done and his backup band is very talented too. I enjoy his music often, and have listened to some of it very recently indeed. Look over Lee Murdock’s schedule and see if he is playing anywhere near you sometime soon.

As you all know, Michael Jackson passed away almost two months ago now. There has been a lot of controversy, as there always is, about his life and now about his death. There is the perennial discussion of whether the judgement in the civil case was justified or not, as well as a settlement. At the same time, there are issues about whether his personal doctor had given him an overdose of a medication the night before he died and whether it was on purpose or what. He will be buried in just a few days. But one good thing that’s happening is that there is a movie about his preparations for a comeback tour. This is the tour that was supposed to happen this month, but he never made it. The documentary takes people behind the scenes and features footage from the rehearsals that were going on. It’s an insight into the inner workings of such a concert as well as his own life at the time. The film is called “This Is It” and it’s supposed to be very good, but it’s only running for a short time this fall. Make sure to catch it if you’re a fan!

Well, it’s not a big surprise to see this piece of news today. Aerosmith has decided to cancel the rest of it’s AeroSmithOne tour due to a variety of unforeseen situations. The biggest of these is that Steven Tyler fell off a stage last week and broke his shoulder, according to band sources. Unfortunately that puts him (and the rest of the band) unable to perform and tour. The band had about a month left on their current tour, but it will not be finished this year. Perhaps they will go back to those places next year, but nothing about that has been discussed yet. How did he fall off the stage, you ask? He was dancing around trying to entertain the crowd and the rest of the performers after a technical glitch put the show on hold for a moment. It appears that it was slippery and he slipped off. At least he’s not horribly injured, but that’s still no fun for him!

Whether you know Paul McCartney from the Beatles or from Wings, it doesn’t matter. Sir Paul is one of the biggest musicians in the world right now. Plus, the concerts that he is doing right now are all solo gigs. He has been writing music on his own for many years and many of his songs are some of the most recognizable in the world! The music world has a lot of different star and McCartney is one of the biggest of these in the world. We would love to see him perform this year in concert. You might have seen him on various talk shows, like Letterman or Colbert in recent months, and he’s performed the best songs of his career before packed houses all across the country. Get your Paul McCartney tickets today and enjoy one of the best musicians.

The American Idols Live concerts have been going around the country now for a week or two. It started in New York and featured all the best singers from the TV show. But interestingly, it wasn’t really about all of them or the eventual winner, Kris Allen. It was about Adam Lambert. Lambert was the character of the year on the show and he was one of the most creative singers that have ever been on the show. He sang some songs in a way that no one would have thought of doing it. Allen hasn’t been able to get himself at that level of attention, he doesn’t have the same kinds of fans. But he has a lot of talent. As a result, between those two and all the other singers, it was a very impressive live show.

Steely Dan is going back out on the road. They are well known as one of the best bands of the last few decades. Maybe they aren’t well known amongst everyone in the world like U2 that we talked about earlier this week. But there are a lot of people who are interested hearing their music and seeing them in person. This is why they have found themselves on tour once again. Their show is a little edgier than before. They usually sing songs that have a strong emphasis on lyrics that aren’t the most upbeat, but are very touching and emotional. But now they are starting to sing some of their pieces in a more impressive way that is more explosive and a little bit more raw. People really enjoy Steely Dan and you too can also see them in person in the next few months during the rest of their tour.

When U2 hops around the world, it makes sense that they might have some difficulty with some of their different performances. They are still playing great. But after a lot of gigs in a row in cities all across Europe so far, they were apparently a little tired during their recent performances in Sweden. The Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg is one of the biggest places that they will perform in this year. Meanwhile, Bono had some trouble with his vocal cords, because he’s tired out. And he wasn’t able to sing as well or get the audience in on the action the way that he usually does. Most people probably didn’t notice, just the people who see U2 on a regular basis. It was otherwise a great performance with fantastic music. American and Canadian U2 fans will like this show when it gets to North America in a few weeks. For now, they’ll just have to envy the people in Europe.