Found a good site for researching concert reviews. I found some on the current Bob Dylan tour and decided not to spend the dollars based on some of information I found there. Check it out at www.concertfan.com

Wow, what a show. The Rolling Stones are a great band and in their 60’s can still rock out. Mick has a ton of energy, the stage was huge, the video was clear and the song selection was excellent. The Stones played mostly classic starting with Jumping Jack flash and ending with Satisfaction. While a highly enjoyable show, I much preferred the Roger Waters show last week for pure musical enjoyment and concert experience.

Dave Mathews opened for the Stones and he seemed in WAY over his head. He sounded great, but doesn’t take up the stage like the Stones do. Also, the quality of the sound system was not great which hurts Dave much more than the volume rock of the Stones.
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I never saw The Wall tour but I did catch Momentary Lapse of Reason in ‘87 (part of a major band trifecta: Pink Floyd, REM and U2 in four days). After experiencing Roger Waters and his band last night at the Key Arena in Seattle, makes me wonder how great the spectacle was that I missed.

The show last night is in one of my top five of all time - it was so incredibly good. More than just the 10 piece band with Roger (3 guitarists - 2 of 3 were excellent, 3 black female singers, 2 keyboardists, sax player and drummer/percussionist), Roger’s piercing voice, Adoring crowd in the packed house, near perfect sound at high volume, various fun adds like 10 minutes of confettie/a flying pig with anti-bush propoganda/a flying astronaut and the video screen - it was the entire interaction of all the elements in a visual and audio tempest.
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Saw Los Lobos last night (Aug 9th) at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle with Minus 5 opening up. I’ve never seen them before, but have always enjoyed their radio play music although have neverr actually bought a CD. My overall impression was that they are a super tight band and can rock the house, but song selections and some of their cuts from the new album coming out were weak as was the opening band.

We spent the entire opening set in the beer garden as Minus 5 was lame. The singing was like bad asphalt on a hot day and the energy was low. When Los Lobos came out, they played a new song from their soon to be released album first (which was not bad) then rolled into “Don’t Worry Baby” which got the place dancing. They played the Who’s “My Generation” which I thought was horrible because the main lead singer does not have the voice to pull that off and they played some slow songs from their new album that put me to sleep.
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I recently had the pleasure of catching Brandi Carlile at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle on August 2nd. Interestingly enough, this was not her first time at the zoo this year as she made a guest appearance with the Indigo Girls singing Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) solo and then singing the Michael Stipe part of the wonderful “Kid Fears”. Anyhow, Brandi was really wonderful as she has a very unique voice, is a local NW performer and had a tight band.

She sang a full selection of tunes from her first (and only) album including Hallelujah again as a solo for the second encore. Although her guitar playing is nothing spectacular, it fit’s her tone and tempo just right. She was very personable and thanked the crowd for making this her largest show ever.
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I went to Dimitreo’s Jazz Alley in Seattle last night to see Dr. John. I’ve always loved New Orleans music and Dr. John in particular, but have never seen him live. I must say it was a real treat. Jazz Alley is an intimate dinner theater with max capacity of 400, decent food, ok cocktails but great music!

Dr. John’s singing voice sounds as good as ever. The three piece band with him we tight, on target and fantastic. I especially enjoyed the guitar players clean, soulful playing. They played crowd favorites like Right Place Wrong Time, Such a Night and Tipitina. He also played some cuts from the album he put together to support the victims of Katrina - a strong theme throughout the night.
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