Concert Review Site

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!

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.