Tag: Seattle

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Dirty Honey @ Neumos, Seattle WA – February 21, 2020 (Birthday Show!)

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to write this but I think by now that’s the most familiar theme of this whole private-esque blog thing I got going on here.

This show was a real last minute kind of plan. My sister and I share the same birthday (although we’re born 2 years apart). She lives in Indiana and was coming in town for a week for our birthday. I think she’s been in Seattle the past 3 years so it’s become something of a tradition.

Anyways she mentioned she had wanted to see a good rock show when she was in town. I had actually just heard a song or two of Dirty Honey and when I was looking through the Stranger I saw that they were just so happening to play Neumos the same day as our birthday.

I wouldn’t call myself a super fan by any means but I figured it would sell out quickly because from what I heard I compared these guys to Greta Van Fleet, and although I haven’t seen those guys I’d heard they sold out everywhere they played.

I bought me, Alyssa, and Kayla all tickets and created an invite on Facebook to hopefully get a bunch of my friends out and about to see the show. Luckily everyone agreed and we were all set for an amazing time.

We went down early and grabbed some drinks at Chop Suey. We waited until we had a bit of a crew, then went on to The Unicorn for drinks there. Its crazy to think at this time the COVID-19 outbreaks were beginning to happen but no one really took it seriously at this time…anyways….

After the unicorn we headed to the Runaway which is the bar right next to Neumos. Alyssa is not much of a drinker and she was really wanting to get in there. I was still chatting it up with everyone who was showing up so she went on in without me. I wish now I woulda went with her because I missed the first couple songs of the first band, The Amazons. She also was able to get her merch signed by Dirty Honey which is super cool. She described the guys as down to earth and really nice! Now I have a signed record thanks to her! Very cool to have as part of the collection.

Anyways my sister and I were pretty wasted. I was towards the back right of the venue and definitely was doing some dancing. I really liked the Amazons although I can’t say nothing jumped out at me. Their set seemed super short but who knows it could have been the alcohol. At this point every time I turned around I was getting a free beer from Paige, Cody, or Collin.

Dirty Honey came on and I was very surprised at just how good they sounded live. His voice was maybe even better live than recorded, which is saying ALOT! The guitar solos were insane and they really put on a great show. I can say that my whole group was dancing and everyone was having a great time. There was literally a few times I just had to stop and look at someone in disbelief at how great either his voice was or the shredding was.

They did two great covers which fit their sound. Last Child by Aerosmith and Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. Kayla loved it! Led Zeppelin is both of our favorite bands. Was a great birthday for both of us for sure.

The ended the show with Rollings 7’s which is no surprise as it’s likely their best song. What a great way to bring in 31. I hope next years birthday is just as good. Would highly recommend seeing these guys live to really get a feel for what a real rock show is like….and should always be like!

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The Who – October 19th @ T-Mobile Park Seattle

I may have waited too long to write this unfortunately as my memory isn’t the best. What I can say this was the best show I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been to hundreds and hundreds of shows.

When this show was first announced I bought tickets for both me and Alyssa. They were relatively cheap, especially when compared to tickets of the same caliber (looking at you Rolling Stones and Pearl Jam). Alyssa wasn’t much looking forward to the show since it’s only 2 of the original members but I told her they were legends and we needed to see them.

In typical fashion we went down a bit early and grabbed a drink at the central saloon. We walked up to TMobile Park (what used to be Safeco Field) and went to our seats. I actually didn’t drink too much. Not sure there was an exact reason but I just wasn’t feeling it. Some of my friends made it out to the show but were in different sections so I actually didn’t get to see them.

Liam Gallagher was first and was underwhelming to me. I found the show to be very boring. I’m not sure he moved at all. He just stood with his arms behind his back, leaned forward, and singing into the microphone. His new songs were nothing special, and the only highlights for me at least were Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova.

Champagne Supernova sounded weird or different. It made me wonder if he had to sing it different due legal issues with Noah. Regardless it was cool to see these Oasis songs live…songs I’ve partied to and have been part of my life since I was in high school. But to be honest it just felt like a money grab, with no emotions and nothing exciting to make me ever want to see it again. That being said his voice did sound good, so there’s that.

After that the main event, The Who came out and just blew everyones minds. Pete Townshend was extremely funny and him and Roger Daltrey seemed to get along famously. They started the set out with a shortened run through of the album Tommy which was amazing.

Completely unknown and unexpected for both me and Alyssa was the fact they were using a complete orchestra. This may have contributed to it being the best show I’ve ever seen. The sheer emotion conveyed by the orchestra, in combination with the complexity of the songs was just something I’ve never seen before. When you combine that with Pete’s excellent guitar playing, and Roger’s absolutely emotionally charged voice, it gave sheer goosebumps to both me and Alyssa.

After Tommy they ran through some other songs and went to a band-only portion. The band only portion was good, but I definitely missed the orchestra, that being said, transitioning to a band only part was good for the concert as a whole because it mixed it up and really highlighted their performance as well as the performance of the orchestra as a whole.

After 4 or 5 songs they then brought the orchestra back on and also a surprise guest…Eddie Vedder! This may have been the single greatest moment I’ve been able to catch live. Tough to narrow it down, but this is definitely top 3.

Eddie seemed happier than I’ve ever seen him, and put on one hell of a performance on the song “The Punk and The Godfather”. Luckily I was able to capture this on video which I’m posting below. Sorry for the shitty quality in advance!

After that Eddie went off stage and they played Love Reign O’er Me. This song also hit me harder than any song I’ve seen live. When you add the orchestra and brass to the emotion in Roger’s voice, as well as the screaming guitar, I literally had tears in my eyes and full on goosebumps. There was a member of the audience in front of me standing up and just losing it, grabbing his head and waving his arms like a crazy person. I’ve never seen someone so affected by a song in my life. I looked over and Alyssa was crying. This was truly something to always remember.

They ended the show with Baba O’ Reilly and brought out an amazing violinist who just shredded all over the place. After the show was over (and it was a long one! maybe 3 hours?) Alyssa and I proceeded to buy shirts and posters. We were absolutely blown away and it made The Who possibly my favorite band of all time. I would absolutely see them again, and I just wish I could have seen them back in the day with Keith Moon and John Entwistle. If you get the chance you absolutely need to see The Who while they’re still around. Video I took below!

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Rolling Stones – Century Link Field – August 14, 2019

This was a show I thought for sure I would never witness. For Christmas 2018 Alyssa surprised me with tickets to see the Rollings Stones in May and I was beyond thrilled. One of the founders of rock and roll (as I think of rock and roll) and I was going to get to see them?! The only way it could have been better would have been if they were tickets to see Led Zeppelin. I was ecstatic.

May came along and Mick Jagger suffered some heart trouble. They had to delay the show and I feared the worst. The same thing happened to my Ozzy Osbourne show and his was delayed a year. I ended up selling those tickets as I could use the cash (and to be fair I had already seen him with Black Sabbath at Tacoma Dome a couple years back).

Luckily for everyone involved it was delayed until August 14th and we got to keep our tickets. The price of the tickets were insane and we were relegated to the back section! The back section at a rolling stone show though is better than a front section at other shows as I came to find out.

I left work and came straight to Alyssa’s. It was a rough day so I wasn’t in the best mood but I was excited and wanted to get down to that area of town and have some drinks with my girlfriend and get into the show early. Our uber driver ended up being the worst driver ever and took us an extremely long way to the stadium. Me and Alyssa were flustered and walked 6 or 7 blocks to the Central to grab some pre show brews. I believe we grabbed a coors and a shot of tequila. It was pretty packed with other rolling stones fans so after the drinks we headed towards the stadium.

On the way in we spotted a merch booth and nabbed some shirts and merchandise. It was a relief that the line wasn’t too long. It also felt good to grab some tour merchandise on what could possibly be their last tour. We headed indoors with almost no line (unbelievably!) and grabbed some burgers, food, and drinks. Alyssa was treating me extra special as this was my Christmas present from 2018. We were having a great time after dealing with the stress of just getting there.

After sitting in our seats for a bit Willie Nelson’s son, Lukas Nelson kicked things off for the stones. He has a great voice and sounds very much like Willie. All things being said he put on a great show. I had listened to him before the show and wasn’t that impressed but live he really proved me wrong. That being said the music isn’t something I remember. I would describe it as your typical American folk rock music. Lots of C-D-G kinda chord music. But still a good time and Alyssa really liked it.

Before the Rolling Stones Show at Century Link Field in Seattle

Next up was the Rolling Stones! They came out strong and played Street Fighting Man which was an unexpected start (I was gambling on Start Me Up) but it was the right call. From the moment they came out I was absolutely stunned at the sheer energy of Mick Jagger. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone work the stage like he did. Closest I can come up with is Adam Levine and he’s half Mick’s age.

We were towards the back so after a few songs I was really wanting to get better shots of them other than the big screen as they were just so far from me and hard to see. As if they knew (and only after 5 or so songs) they moved forward to the circular stage in the middle of the stadium. They played a couple of acoustic songs I didn’t recognize but I loved it.

After the acoustic break they played Sympathy for the Devil which was awesome. Mick Jagger had a glittery jacket on and a top hat and was spinning around in circles. It truly seemed like something out of the movies. After that Keith Richards sang a few songs. This was the low point of the concert for me. I was really excited to see Keith live but life been tough for him. He just doesn’t have the energy, although you could tell he was having fun.

They ended the show on a string of hits which I remember as start me up and brown sugar. They then had an encore and came out to play two more (which were Gimme Shelter and Satisfaction.) It was the perfect end to a pretty perfect night and Christmas present. I would normally take this time to recommend a song and tell you to check out the band but everyone knows the Rolling Stones. Before the Show I had been jamming the song “She’s A Rainbow” non-stop but they never got around to playing it. Anyways.

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Pearl Jam – August 10, 2018 – Safeco Field

This one was a dream come true. it also was maybe the most expensive concert I’ve ever paid for.  Tix were around $130 a piece…for the cheap seats! Still I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to see one of my favorite bands, and also one of the last remaining grunge bands around.

When I was in high school I never really got into Pearl Jam. I always thought they were kind of cheesy.  Maybe thats because my timeline involved bands like Nickleback and Creed? Anyways, that all changed when I formed the first band I was in, Po’ brothers.  I was 21 and kind of a mess.  I was living at my friends house down on Allentown road and bought a kegerator. I’m pretty sure I was just cruising on credit cards and beer and playing lots and lots of music.  It was around that time me and Collin started hanging out all the time and one of the first bands we both got into together was Pearl Jam.

We used to make fun of the way he sung but also genuinely got completely into every facet of the music.  Still to this day “Corduroy” is my favorite Pearl Jam song and it relates directly back to these times in my life. Lots of parties in the garage, lots of empty kegs, and lots of guitar playing were had to this song (among other things I’m not going to write on the internet).  Anyways, I’ll quit my preamble by simply saying this music is a timestamp for me so my expectations were very high.

Alyssa and I met up with Paige and Jake at his house to have a few prefunk beers before the show.  We decided to leave super early because we were afraid the line would be insanely long.  I’d been to Safeco before to see Tom Petty and the line was insane, we figured Pearl Jam would be worse.

Luckily for us we were wrong! We showed up and pretty much walked right in. I have no idea how that worked the way it did but I’m not going to question it.  The merch lines were a different story though and went on for what seemed like miles.  I really wanted a poster to remember the show by but my patience is notoriously low and there’s just no way I could force myself to sit in a sweaty line for an hour or more. Long story short, we made our way to our seats and took a quick pic before hand

The show started off with 2 songs I’m not really into “Oceans” and “Footsteps”. They’re both slower so I can see why they started off with them. It was also kind of a cool atmosphere with how the night was just beginning. It kind of put a calming but anxious mood to the whole show.  I was on the edge of my seat absorbing it in as best as I could (from miles away).  The backdrop of the stage was amazing with these lights raising and lowering in the background. It was cool, I wish I could explain the feeling I had watching it but the closest I can say is that it was a feeling of “togetherness”.  The kind of feeling I’ve only ever had at a Grateful Dead or Dave Matthews show. It’s how you know you’re surrounded by tons of people who are into the same thing.

Next song up was Nothing Man and thats a song I know all the words to and am super into. This is where it kind of kickstarted with me.  I had had a few beers and was enjoying singing along.  The next couple of songs were super rocking and eventually they got to Corduroy.  I was extremely excited, I can’t even tell ya.  It was better than I could imagine.  I was just surprised with how much all the members were running around the stage and getting into these more rocking songs. I mean I knew Pearl Jam put on a hell of a show, and I know it’s nothing like when they were younger, but still I was impressed.

To be honest I could ramble on about the rest of the set but I’m just not going to.  It would take me longer than it’s honestly worth.  Each song was amazing, with some clear highlights jumping out like Daughter, Better Man, and Even Flow.

Eventually towards the end of the set is where things got real interesting.  Eddie came out with an acoustic and covered Tom Petty “I Won’t Back Down”. It was amazing seeing everyones lights out and the quality of his voice.  You could tell Tom meant a lot to him and apparently he had been at the same SafeCo field show I was at to see Tom last time he was in Seattle.  This part of the show really stuck out to me.

After this they went into even a string of other cool covers.  “Crown of Thorns” by Mother Love Bone was a huge surprise and probably a historic once in a lifetime rendition. I remember looking at Alyssa like I’d seen a ghost. I couldn’t believe what we were witnessing.

After that amazing song they went into some cameo appearances and covers. They at one point brought out Kim Thayil from Soundgarden and Mark Arm from Mudhoney.  Eddie was pretty drunk at this point and told a long winded story about how his younger brother liked Mark Arm better than him.  Mark Arm came out and simply said “Awkward..” It was pretty hilarious.  They then covered some Iggy Pop and MC-5 which was of course amazing.

At this point the concert had probably went on for 3 hours. The stadium turned the lights on but Pearl Jam kept playing. Like I said, Eddie was wasted and honestly sounds like Ozzy up on stage. I was confounded as to how he could still sing like he was, cause it sounded perfect.  Alyssa was kind of bummed at how wasted he was but she admitted he sounded perfect singing.

They closed the night with a cover of Baba O’Reilly, which I thought was really cool since The Who is Eddie’s favorite band, and the last song was Yellow Ledbetter which Mike McCready of course killed.  It was the perfect ending of the night or me. That song brings me back to being 11 or 12 and riding in the truck with my favorite uncle Troy.  Since he went on to become and alcoholic and leave his family…the song brings me back to a better, happier time.  Just the sound of the first few chords gives me almost instant happiness. Like I said, it was the perfect ending.

Afterwards we made our way out into the throng of people and waited for a good hour or so for a ride home, but I gotta say, it was the best concert I’ve been to all year and probably top 5 concerts I’ve ever been to in my life.  All in all a great, great time and money well spent. Below is a video I snagged of their cover of Mother Love Bone. Enjoy!

 

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Rest In Peace – Chris Cornell

I and many other were devastated to find out the news today that Chris Cornell passed away.  My soul hurts to even comprehend that one of my favorite artists and lyricists took his own life.

We could go on making assumptions as to why he did it, or for the conspiracy theorists we could go on for hours about possible situations as to how he died. The fact remains at the end of the day that the world lost an incredible talent and, I like to think, a genuinely “true” artist.

He wrote in a deep and heartfelt way that you just don’t hear much anymore.  Turn on the radio and most songs are boiled down to a repeatable braindead chorus and soulless verses.

Chris wrote lyrics like the following:

Summer nights and long warm days
Are stolen as the old moon falls
My mirror shows another face
Another place to hide it all
Another place to hide it all
And I’m lost, behind
The words I’ll never find
And I’m left behind
As seasons roll on by

I mean…this is what we lost today.  We lost a “Picasso” of the music world.  He was unreal at the lyrical level, vocally he was best of the best, and to top it off he was a once in a lifetime songwriter crafting hit after hit.  He put Seattle on the map and he did so much for so many musicians and music fans out there that got through life on words and songs that he wrote.  He literally helped to  inspire, shape, and in many ways, define a generation.

Now as I sit here and listen to his music I can hear in the lyrics that the writing was on the wall this whole time.  Maybe thats why his vocals and his singing ability are unmatched.  He poured every ounce of his pain and his feeling out there for the world to enjoy and he was suffering the entire time.

I think we can all agree the world is worse off without Chris in it.

I only wish he knew what the rest of the world now knows.

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Seattle Local Playlist – Spotify

For all you Seattle audiophiles out there I’ve created a rough grab bag of some local tunes with bands I’ve seen or played with over the years.  There are many, many more I need to add so please if you have suggestions leave a comment and I’ll try to get them added quickly.

Some favorites of mine to check out are the Wimps, My Goodness, and Hobosexual. All of these bands rock though and it constantly reminds me as to why I live in Seattle.  It’s so great to be part of such an awesome local music scene.

Check out the Spotify Playlist here:

 

 

 

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LP at the Tractor Tavern – Seattle – May 12th, 2017

About a year ago, one of my good friends first showed me LP through a youtube video of her singing her hit “Lost on You.” I’m unable to pass up a terrible pun, so needless to say this track was not “lost” on me.

After maybe 30 seconds of listening I already had goosebumps.  Since then I’ve been a loyal listener, and when I saw LP tickets going on sale at the Tractor tavern for around 20 bucks I immediately snagged one.  It’s a good thing I did because it sold out almost immediately.  To cut to the chase, LP is undeniably one of the best singers I’ve ever heard and maybe one of the best singers ever. The fact it wasn’t sold out immediately and that I could even snag one is beyond me and quite frankly a tragedy of epic proportions.

Fast forward to show time…Some friends and I got an uber xl and hiked it all the way to Ballard from West Seattle. We were welcomed to a very packed house at the Tractor. I immediately headed to the bar and grabbed a cold Montucky (Light beers are beers too).  Service was great, not sure how with how many people were there.

We arrived just in time because the opener Josiah and the Bonnevilles went on after my first couple swigs. At first listen, I groaned thinking “Here we go, another Bob Dylan folk singer” but I was very surprised to find out that wasn’t the case.  Granted, he’s definitely all about acoustic guitar and harmonica, but he’s got his own style and his guitar playing is phenomenal.  The Bonnevilles also weren’t present, so it was just him up there. His songwriting is great and my friend Paige even tried to buy his CD.  Unfortunately they were 15 bucks so she made up her mind to just stream it. I know its always good to support when you can but 15 bucks is a little much. Thems the breaks I guess.

After Josiah, LP made us wait a good long while before she took the stage. I WAS PUMPED to finally hear her song “Muddy Waters” blare from the PA’s.  I unfortunately didn’t have the best spot in the house, I was between the bar and this huge pillar so I was constantly craning my neck.  She did a great job of working the stage and walking from one end to the other so everyone in the packed room could catch a glimpse of the show.

The rest of the show was honestly just a blur of me smiling at how amazing her voice is and when I thought she couldn’t top something vocally she ALWAYS proved me wrong.  The notes she can hit are absolutely insane.

She “ended” the night with “Lost on You” and the whole crowd went absolutely nuts.  After the song LP walked off the stage for maybe a minute, but because the crowd was so loud we definitely didn’t have to wait long for the encore which was another 2 songs.  You really just need to listen to her and find out for yourself.  Why are you even reading this… Use your first world Internet powers and click on a link to listen to both Josiah and LP now!  Do it!

 

LP – Lost On You

 

Josiah and the Bonnevilles – Cold Blood