Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo So who did ya see in concert last night?

Cool! I didn't know there was a Folk Arts festival in Cambridge.

It was a Blues weekend for me. I started off with a tasty half rack of ribs and the Shawn Kellerman Band on Friday night. Pretty good.

Listened to a few local acts on Saturday afternoon including a 13 year old who played a pretty mean guitar!! Caught Rockin Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks: another old guy (late 70s) who still sounds pretty damn good.

The next set was the Derek Miller band. These guys started out really good and then the keyboardist went down. I went home for a while because of rain and when it didn't let up, I gave up for the night.

Sunday was great! Started of with Deborah Colman. The best set of the weekend was Ronnie Baker Brooks. This guy just played with so much energy. On a couple of songs he kept changing pace from soft and slow to strait ahead hard. On the last song he wandered out into the audience. The guy was playing riffs with his left hand while shaking hands and giving high fives.

Next up was David Clayton Thomas with his distinctive voice. He did some old classics, some blues covers and some new stuff. Had a 5 piece brass section backing him, which was nice.

The last set was a tribute to Mel Brown. Mel has a special place in the festival because he lived in the area and is the only act to have played every single year. He closed out the last two and last year he played with an oxygen tank in tow. The last set stretched out from 1.5 to almost 2.5 hours. The guys on stage didn't want to stop and the audience didn't want to go.

All in all it was a great weekend!!

First day back on the PC since AC/DC last Thursday. What a show. I think it goes down as my best concert ever as far as showmanship and pure addictive energy goes!!

From the first few seconds when the giant fiery locomotive crashed through the back of the stage and watching Brian Johnson smile as he took his first gaze out on this tour's record breaking crowd of 80,000 pumped fans and never stopped smiling for the rest of the concert....to Angus Young's antics and what had to be a 20 minute guitar solo of epic proportions.... to the final cannon blasts of "For Those About to Rock, We Salute You".... to the parting fireworks display.....

I have to say, this was the show of a lifetime for me. Love the music or not, it was Pure Energy.

I guess what you're saying is AC/DC was electrifying.

Yes, I called it incorrectly, it is the Mill Race. One of the venues is an amphitheatre backing onto the Grand RIver, and was constructed in part of an old mill.

http://www.millracefolksociety.com/

Last Monday (BC Day), we caught RZA from the Wu Tang Clan in Whistler.

I was not aware of the free 'smoking' attitude in Canada. I had a good time probably from the contact high alone. You surely wouldn't see that happen in the SF Bay Area.

Snerk... sure you won't.

OK. Exhausted. Just finished attending a concert almost every night of the two week long Arts and Cultural Festival I helped organize for the Canada Games.

The post is a bit long but the final night deserves some web press. Continue only if your interested.

I've seen too many acts to list but I was able to enjoy some of our best PEI performers in almost every genre including traditional fiddle & step dancing, Acadian, folk, bluegrass, jazz, classical, Rock & pop.

I have to say that for me the highlight was actually a surprise. On the last night we ended up with two venues. I had put together a rock show with some of our best young bands and also a Multicultural show at the Local arts guild. I ended up at the Multicultural show as Producer/stagehand as our hired folks were busy at the rock concert. I knew I liked the rock bands for the night but I was very glad I chose the Guild show to work.

It started with Aboriginal Drumming group "Mi'Kmaq Thunder". I have heard Aboriginal Drumming before and it can become tiring to the uninitiated but these guys played ever so slightly modernized songs written by members that actually sounded surprisingly good.

We then had Chinese Dancers do their first dance of the evening in very colorful costumes. My first live experience of this nature.

Then we had "Ra on Je Na" a traditional Korean percussion troupe. Also my first experience of this type outside of TV or movies. Such simple instruments but able to make very complex music. Amazing.

They were followed by a group of young TiQuanDo artists doing a demonstration set to music. Imagine my surprise when the music turned out to be Micheal Jackson's, Beat It.

I then helped carry to the stage a Yanquin. A low seated table with piano liked strings that are struck with bamboo reeds with soft mallets on the end. Again, I recognized the sound from TV but had never seen the instrument played. WHAT a MESMERIZING SOUND. This is truly a beautiful instrument heard live and amazing to watch the artist. I would best describe it as sounding a bit like a Harpsichord but played thrash guitar style with amazingly fast coordinated wrist movements with the bamboo wands.

After the break, we had the final Chinese Dance called, in English, Walking the Road to Tibet. Very colorful with extended sleeve costumes and large flowing movements. Very cool.

We then had African percussionist "Israel" playing drums and other instruments. He is actually fairly accomplished musician and his two CDs can be found Here.


Finally we finished with an up and coming but very popular band called "Count & Cuban Cocktail". Extremely FUN music is how I best describe it, but it's better described as Cuban dance rhythms, sometimes infused with an American beat. I hope they succeed as it's great stuff.

That was Friday night, Saturday, I crashed after a very tiring but entertaining two weeks.

My wife and I attended the Porcupine Tree concert at The Moore Theatre in Seattle Tuesday evening. It was the start of the north american tour promoting the new cd "The Incident". The first part of the concert was the 55 minute song cycle from cd #1 of The Incident. The second half of the show was made up of various songs from their catalog (no spoilers here). If you get a chance to see them in concert it is definitely worth it.

My girlfriend and I saw Heart the other night (well actually on Saturday). Those Wilson girls can still sing. I enjoyed the concert immensely, I just wish it was a little longer than what it was. I had fun though!

U2 Sunday night in Foxboro. Great show as always. The drive out of the stadium was a nightmare as always.