Concert Review Site

Lucy Vodden who inspired the song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds passed away just the other day. She was Lucy O’Donnell back in the 60s when she was a classmate of John Lennon’s son. There was a picture that looked odd, but Lennon told his son that it was his classmate Lucy and she was in the sky with diamonds. The song grew up from there. Many people believe that the song was a reference to drugs but everyone involved has always contended that it was a image from Lennon’s son. Vodden had been ill for quite awhile with lupus and succumbed this week at the age of 46. She wasn’t particularly fond of the song herself and quickly stopped telling people that she was the Lucy of the song when she was a kid.

When Miley Cyrus started her current tour, it was clear that it wasn’t about Hannah Montana. It’s the world of being a younger adult concert musician now. She has been slowly transitioning from her previous incarnation to the more mature style. She’s doing a good job of it too. Her songs are all about that theme of transforming life and becoming something different. It’s very interesting indeed. The reviewers have enjoyed her new performances a lot, since she is so talented. There is something a little odd about it, like watching your younger siblings growing up. But she’s one of the top performers in the world right now and it’s not just for young teens anymore.

Leonard Cohen was sick this week when he was performing in Spain. He apparently fainted onstage while performing and for the promoters it is a little bit of a crisis. Don’t worry, he’s ok. He was just ill and maybe the stress of performing was too much that evening. Cohen is a great performer and this kind of thing doesn’t happen often.  He is 75. He was taken to the hospital and just had a stomach complaint, according to promoters. He is expected to perform just fine on Friday and then he has a little break before his next performance in Florida later on. The show must go on, as they say, so hopefully it will continue onto the next few months.

It’s been a few days already, but I wanted to give you an update on the U2 tour throughout North America. The group has been one of the most popular around the rock world for many years now. Their current tour has wowed a lot of people. It’s not just their ability to play or their style of music, but they have been able to make a huge show of their stadium concerts this year. Of course, you expect stadium concerts to be big and flashy, this one has caught a lot of people by surprise. In Chicago they had to remove the grass on the field and replace it after U2 left, because their “Claw” and its deconstruction had so damaged it that they couldn’t keep it. The Claw itself is a major piece of equipment, and it gives the band a lot of options for how they’re going to play the music, with different levels available.

We don’t talk much about Dave Matthews here on this site, but there’s no particular reason for that. I just haven’t seen all that many reviews for his tour lately. But Variety came out with their official review of the show and it is absolutely glowing. It’s as though they just discovered his music and really love it. It was definitely a fun couple of concerts at the Greek Theater, and the band showed all their best artistry and talent over the course of the evening. Those who thought this band couldn’t bring it anymore are wrong, it would seem, because they have had staying power like few jam bands have been able to. It’s going to be interesting to hear their next album, because either they will be headed back to their previous style or they will be continuing their new style (which is more like the way they started out the band). Keep an eye and ear open!

Now that Billy Joel and Elton John are in the running for the longest tour ever. It’s not as long as many of the top soap operas in the world, but it’s still a long-running tour. They have been playing their great songs and it’s a fun time for everyone involved! You can hear things like Uptown Girl, Crocodile Rock and all these other great songs during their shows too. Some of the critics say that they aren’t as good as they used to be, and that Billy Joel in particular hasn’t got the same talent that he once had. He’s still an amazing pianist though and sings really well. I don’t know what those people’s problem is. Maybe he’s not as dexterous as before, but it’s still a lot of fun to hear these two play their music in the way that only they can!

The band Franz Ferdinand is still around. They bill themselves as the “most evil band in Scotland” but it’s not that edgy. They have the existentialist twist that you’ve come to expect from this group, but we haven’t been able to find much evil in it. Unless you find themes of romantic boredom and existentialism to be particularly evil, that is. But otherwise there’s nothing much exciting going on there. A lot of people really like the music and the style, and it does have some fun attached to it. It’s not a bad band or anything. Just they need to work a little harder at getting themselves better billing or edgier songs, depending on what it is they’re trying to accomplish.

Nine Inch Nails is retiring. Perhaps you already know that. This is a band that has been quiet over the last few years, but it’s going to be sad to see them go anyhow. They have been one of the best bands over the course of several decades and it’s going to be a lot of fun to see them one last time. Trent Reznor, the face of NIN, has decided to retire the band and they are doing a final tour of shows for people in places all over the country. But there’s a catch. They are playing almost entirely at small venues that people don’t really know much about and that this band could have sold out several times in a row. But they wanted to have their final shows a little more intimate. And they do a good job of showing the kind of music that this band has been playing over the many years that they have been out there. They have music from back to “The Crow” and their grunge music of the 90s and the alternative music that came right after. It’ll be very sad not to hear them put together new music. But we can also hope that they will bring it back sometime later. It’s not expected that they would do that, but it’s certainly possible!