SMF

drmoss_ca wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:13 am... Best experience was a four nighter - the first Ring Cycle in Canada to mark the opening of the new opera house in Toronto. What an experience - to have ~16 hours of music, costumes, acting, sets, all spread over five days. You spend the days trying to make sense of the story and what it might mean, attending lectures, and thinking, talking and dreaming of nothing else. You enter a weird state akin to to the delusional mood of pre-psychosis, aware your mind has been taken over and occupied by something alien. ...

Yeah, I gather Wagner pioneered the idea of making opera a fully immersive experience.
But who's got time for sitting through all 16 hours of it?
Anna Russell explains it all in 28 minutes, with “The Ring of the Nibelungs" (An Analysis), performing and singing all the parts by herself.
Badda-boom badda-bing!


She's a hoot.

Best Concert Experience that I totally missed because I didn't even know about it until a week later, even though I lived only one block away from the (small and intimate) venue - Ashley MacIsaac (a kickass fiddler) at George's Roadhouse.

20th of December, year 2019. I watched My Chemical Romance, my favorite band, play together again.

Back around 1990-1991 when I was in college I went to one of the best concerts I'd ever experienced. Members of The Specials and The Beat (or the English Beat as they were known here in the USA) toured as The Special Beat. It was amazing and loads of fun. I actually just found a video of the group performing at a different venue.

https://youtu.be/-RP0nqPpx6Q

I just remembered this one.
John Lee Hooker at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (Halifax, NS), Nov. 21, 1975.
See pages 13 and 14: PDF of Dalhousie Gazette archive copy
He sorta' limped onstage, sat down on a chair, and proceeded to turn it up to 11.
Allen Ginsberg was in town too? I was not aware of that.

Well, when I go to concerts, usually mellow is not my vibe. I liked Leonard Cohen, but I did not want to sit in an ornate place and not be able to get up and move. However, Earth Wind and Fire rocked it. We have an old theater that is refurbished, the Orpheum, and it seats about 2000 maybe. EWF was great and you could stand up and sorta move it. I watched Harry Connick, Jr. there and while he is a showman, a more intimate club-like venue would have been better. As for me, think of say Journey, with the amphitheater or arena experience.

Well, I turned 60 about a week ago. Daughter wanted to know what to get me. I don't need things, especially since the birthday is close to Christmas. One year, a step-daughter got us concert tickets to Tom Petty and another year, she got us cooking classes at Sur La Table. This is what I desire. So daughter got me a gift card to Ticketmaster (and as an aside, I pay about $20 a ticket for handling fees and the ability to get my ticket on my phone, it would be more $$ for them to mail it or use say UPS). So, tickets today for James Taylor and Jackson Browne went on sale and I got decent tickets. Now, this is not going to be one of those concerts that will get me jacked up, but it will make for a nice evening. It is on a Saturday in June, so I can head out around 4 or so, meet friends for drinks, make dinner and then go listen to a concert.

I am at the age where standing for two hours on the floor of the arena is not appealing (but give me a hardup classic rock band, like Def Leppard and I will!!). So the floor and the seats to the side of it were not an option.

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense Tour at Forest Hills Stadium, Queens NY.
Talking Heads at their pinnacle!

Barry wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2020 8:19 am Back around 1990-1991 when I was in college I went to one of the best concerts I'd ever experienced. Members of The Specials and The Beat (or the English Beat as they were known here in the USA) toured as The Special Beat. It was amazing and loads of fun. I actually just found a video of the group performing at a different venue.

https://youtu.be/-RP0nqPpx6Q

The English Beat are a blast.
I saw them THIS SUMMER (original lead singer but some new members).
Very enjoyable show!

Sam, I've always wondered who were those people standing up through the entire concert while jumping around screaming and holding their arms up in the air! I've just presumed they were the pre-teen girl would-be groupies! I can't imagine a 60 year old guy out there.
I have read where the Beatles quit having live concerts relatively early into their active years because they couldn't hear themselves trying to perform with all the non-stop screaming. (just kidding you). Enjoy the concert!