h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was going to call this thread "Who's been rocking your world" but I thought that sounded a bit sad and pathetic and might alienate people who werent into what you might call rock music.


I wnet to see boysIImen, for a band with a daft way of writting their name they werent as bad as Id imagined they would be. The headline act was a blaoke called Brian McKnight who Id never heard of, he was actually quite good, not that Im sayig if I havent heard of them they must be rubbish but I guess his profile doesnt match his talent. His stuff is Luther Vandross silky smooth soul favoured by "the Ladies" but there was enough good music in what he did to keep me happy. Plus obvioulsy I was in a rom mostly populated by a few thousand sweaty over excited women, all in all, well worth the ticket price.

Recently... I haven't been to any concerts *recently*, but I did get to see a few bands when I still lived in Berlin, Germany.

Among those bands were:

Rammstein - nice fireworks and exploding stuff on stage. It was an indoor concert but that did not stop them blowing stuff up.

Depeche Mode - always great to see, I guess. However, the show was a little uninspired, the typical Best-Of kind of thing.

Bruce Springsteen - great. Nothing else to say. If he was not the Boss, he would be god.

Jean Michel Jarre - I saw him twice. One concert was open air, and it was awesome. The other was indoor and somewhat less awesome. Wooly sound, poor selection of songs (all songs were good songs, of course, but Oxygene 7 does not work quite as well as Oxygene 4 onstage...)

Among those bands that are less well-known and do not charge quite as much were:

Sophia - one of my favorite shows. Not at all like the perfectionist approach of the likes of Jarre or Rammstein (where everything is planned out beforehand and there is almost no variation between shows), but almost minimalist. Just some lights and the rest was good songs. One of the highlights was when after the usual set of two or three encore songs the audience would not leave so the singer had to come back and play two songs he had not even rehearsed. He forgot the lyrics after the first chorus, tried again and messed up again, so he dropped that song altogether and did a different one... Great!

Stone Sour - a metal band and a side project by a number of guys from the band Slipknot. Loud and dirty. Nice. A highlight here was when the singer did an accoustic version of the "this is for the girls" kind of song on the album which he interrupted at one point to include a few lines of Metallica's Sanitarum.

Monster Magnet - another metal band. And yes, they did smash their guitars at the end.

Scala - a Belgian girl choir that sings their versions of pop and rock songs. It was one of the few concerts where there were actually seats. It was a good thing I sat apart from the couple I came with: they could not see me wipe a tear from my eye as the choir sang "Somebody" by Depeche Mode.

There were more, but I am just gonna shut up now, okay?

Y.

Apart from accidentally coming across a quite good modern jazz band outdoors recently I haven't realy seen any live music for years, however if I could see some acts live it would be these, and in this order~
.
!) Luthor Vandross (clearly not actually possible). The late God of smooth soul.
.
2) Alicia Keys, in my humble opinion one of the best soul singers we have at moment, actually make that THE best!
.
3) Loudon Wainwright III, one of my all time favourites for last 30 years.
.
4) The Magic Numbers, 'cause they make you smile!

I went to see I'm From Barcelona a couple of weeks ago. They're a bunch of crazy Swedes, behaving in a...erm...crazy Swedish way! All in all, a good night out.

RF

On Wednesday night, I saw Within Temptation. They're a bit like Evanescence or Nightwish, and I enjoyed the gig. It was around the levels of the best nights out at rock clubs here in Manchester, but boosted by the knowledge that I was seeing them live.
Before that? I'd have to think, but it would probably be an awesome concert by Muse at the MSN before Christmas.

What was I thinking?! I meant MEN Arena, not MSN!

Just booked my tickets to see Bjorn Again in December...Wheee!

RF

I recently went to see Us And Them - a surprisingly brilliant German Pink Floyd tribute band. The Gruesome Twosome loved it

After that we saw a bunch of 14 year olds in our village doing heavy rock covers (AC/DC, Led Zep, Deep Purple etc). It's a bit strange to hear a pimply 14 year old belting out Whole Lotta Rosie! Quite fantastic though, I hope they keep at it.

I recently went to see Voltaire perform his gothic acoustic satire. NOt only are his songs hilarious ones performed with skill and gusto but the man is a wonderful teller of tales. He toldthe story of his visit to the Star Trek Experience and his probing by a Borg. And his Easter story the punch line of which is his son exclaiming "Jesus is a Zombie?!!"

He has a Myspace http://www.myspace.com/voltairenyc

Not been to anything recently, but last year I went to see Chris Rea at Newcastle. Having been a great fan of his, this was my first and last chance to actually hear and see him live. Because Chris comes from the North East of England (Middlesbrough)the theatre was packed out with his enthusiastic fans and the atmosphere was magical.

What a fantastic experience and what an outstanding musician! Wow! If you have never listened to some of his later blues music it's well worth doing so. Wonderful!

Not been to anything recently, but last year I went to see Chris Rea at Newcastle. Having been a great fan of his, this was my first and last chance to actually hear and see him live. Because Chris comes from the North East of England (Middlesbrough)the theatre was packed out with his enthusiastic fans and the atmosphere was magical.

What a fantastic experience and what an outstanding musician! Wow! If you have never listened to some of his later blues music it's well worth doing so. Wonderful!

Wow, you went twice

I have not been to any concerts in about three years. I did have tickets to see Depeche Mode (again) in Berlin, but due to financial shortages needed to resell them For the same reason, all plans to see Metallica had to be scrapped. I furthermore missed Sophia when they came into the region and generally failed to see everyone

Y.

Saw Roky Erickson (with his band the Explosives) a week and a half ago. It was a helluva show, and Roky really wailed. And tickets were dirt cheap, too.

Reddyfreddy and I saw Charlotte Hatherley last week doing a small acoustic gig. It was smashing.

Peter Gabriel at WOMAD was mind blowing. Great band, great music, great man, small stage. Wonderful.

I saw http://www.emilieautumn.com/ live at the Underworld in Camden a little while ago, that was fine old display.
Gutted that I shan't be seeing Tool at the Brixton Academy.

Saturday nights out up here consist of a knees-up contra dance in a large barn.

Last Saturdays band was called 'The Possum Knockers'...

Excellent stuff!

alec.

Gary Numan a few weeks ago, Charlotte Hatherley last week, and next week...The Hoodoo Gurus.

RF

Soon, Sept 4th to be exact, Hayseed Dixie. Hopefully, Seasick Dave after that followed by Apocalyptica nearer my birthday (well you have to have a birthday gig - t'was Seth Lakeman last year and Magnum the year before)

I hope you mean Seasick Steve, not Seasick Dave.

I'm going to see him too in October.

RF

I accidently heard a whole load of folk music on a visit to Warwick when they were having a festival with all sorts of bands from blues to occordian and bell ringers, there was also a lot of morris dancing and lots of real. Surprisingly for me I enjoyed it a lot. Im now of the opinion that rave music and and folk have a lot in common. They are forms that arent restricted by "classical" style and becuase they are both best enjoyed under the influence.

Infact replace those wooden sticks with glow sticks and you could be at a warehouse party.