RustBlog

Arlo Guthrie

May 9th, 2006, 8pm
Massey Hall

Placeholder post to nag me to write a review of the Arlo Guthrie concert I saw.... =D

Played for about 2.5 hours, including a 15 minute break and a 30 minute version of Alice's Restaurant...

--R.

2006 Concerts

Date	Artist	Venue	Comments/Fly-in-the-Ointment
Jan ??	Blue Rodeo	Massey Hall	2nd row seats, Jim side!
March 3rd	Blind Boys of Alabama	Massey Hall	I totally forgot about this concert.
March 11	Billy Bragg	Opera House	The Incredible Hulk
March 22	Dream Theater	Massey Hall	So apparently I like Prog Metal...
April 15	Tony Levin	Rochester NY
May 9th	Arlo Guthrie	Massey Hall

Nazareth

September 11, 2005
Lee's Palace (Toronto)

Ok, it's only 2 of the original band members, and I was never a fan back in the day, but CHRIST these guys can still put on a show. They played for about 500 people in a fairly-crowded Lee's Palace on a Sunday night and hit the stage around 10pm.... and effing rocked! The show was energetic from the first to last, and they clearly were having a gas playing.

Fly-in-the-Ointment: That Polish guy who shoved his way repeatedly to the stagefront, tried to hand the band beers (Labatt's Blue, omg) and then started shouting at them during a lull where the lead singer was trying to banter with the crowd, provoking a 'Will you shut the feck up?' from him. I don't know what he was on but he was shouting 'Do you like Polish man? I am fan, two years, NAZARETH....' at least that's what it sounded like.

Even the roadies were fun - one of them handed a set list, drumsticks and guitar picks to this short guy standing at the front before the show started, who had a disposable camera and clearly was the #1 Nazareth fan (Polish Lunatics excluded) there that night.

And on the way out, I saw a girl carrying an iguana, inside the club. And I don't smoke.

wow.

--R.

2005 Concert List

My 2005 Concert List

The most up-to-date list of concerts I have seen or will see in 2005.

Date	Artist	Venue	Comments/Fly-in-the-Ointment
Feb 19th	Joe Cocker	Casino Rama	Twitchy hands, great singer.
Mar 6th	Keren Ann	Horseshoe	Very intimate show!
Mar 29th	Greg Keelor	Lee's Palace	Doing shots with the bartender, not a brilliant move :(
Apr 4th	Duran Duran	ACC	Gave ticket away :/
Apr 18th	Ani DiFranco	Hummingbird	Gave ticket away :/
Apr 25th	Motorhead	Docks	That guy who just wouldn't stop talking to me!
Apr 30th	Uncle Funk	Keegan Ale	Meeting Tony, Jerry, Jesse, and INSANE SHANE MCKANE!!!
May 21st	Gordon Lightfoot	Massey Hall	Home movies I got!
Jun 5th	Judas Priest	Molson Amp	woot
Jun 7th	Alanis Morissette	Hummingbird	I almost drowned in estrogen...
Jul 5th	Mark Knopfler	Molson Amp	His voice isn't what it used to be. Sad.
Jul 6th	Robert Plant	Molson Amp	Goddamn, I forgot how good he is live.
Jul 7th	Femi Kuti	Opera House	Joe, The Human Dance Machine!
Jul 12th	John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers	Phoenix	Shook the man's hand
Jul 14th	Bruce Springsteen	ACC	Rules....Rules.... RULES!!!
Aug 3rd	Iron Maiden	Molson Amp	Kicked ASS |..|/ \|..|
Aug 11th	Meat Loaf	Casino Rama	"'59 Mercury" Encore
Aug 15th	Def Leppard	Molson Amp	The boys loved the crowd, and got love back.
Aug 22nd	Alice Cooper & Cheap Trick	The Docks	The Dead Crowd && being sick
Aug 26th	Blue Rodeo	Molson Amp	Idiots talking behind us
Sep 6th	Elton John	ACC	That luminous jelly dildo that kid was waving
Sep 11th	Nazareth	Lee's Palace
Sep 15th	George Carlin	Casino Rama
Sep 16th	U2	ACC
Oct 1st	Tony Levin Band	Keegan Ales
Oct 2nd	Steve Hackett Trio	Hamilton Place
Nov 5th	Slippermen (Genesis Tribute)	Opera House
Dec 3rd	The Musical Box	Massey Hall
March 3rd, 2006	Blind Boys of Alabama	Massey Hall
May 9th, 2006	Arlo Guthrie	Massey Hall

EltonJohn

September 6, 2005
Air Canada Centre, Toronto

Started with 'Pinball Wizard', which is funny because a couple years agi I saw The Who (well, Daltrey and Townsend) beat the living bejeezus out of that song on the same stage. Sir Elton did a more pop version of it, but he's not Roger and the guitarist for Elton is not Pete. Still, it was a heck of a concert - he came on around 8:10 and basically played over 2.5 hours, leaving the stage a few minutes before 11 after his finale of Crocodile Rock (which drove one of my companions nuts as it's her #1 fave song) and... mind gone blank on the last song. (Argh.)

No major fly-in-the-ointment tonight - maybe the kid 15 rows ahead of us who was constantly waving what looked like a multi-hued jelly dildo in the shape of the CN tower (with an attached flashlight handle). If I knew what it was I'd find it online and post a link....

His drummer was apparently his original from the 1969 Elton John band. Bad with names, shoot me.

Good show, but oddly Elton leaves me a bit cold. Oh, his voice doesn't do the high squeaky range now. My friends loved it.

--R.

P.S. We all sang 'Hold me closer, Tony Danza' REALLY LOUD during the chorus and laughed.

Blue Rodeo

August 26, 2005
Molson Ampitheater, Toronto

Ok, another summer means another concert by Blue Rodeo at the Molson Amp. Once again I got tickets early thru www.bluerodeo.com, and once again I got an extra ticket since I figured I could find someone, and once again it went unused....

The concert itself was pretty good. Not the best BR concert I've seen, but pretty good. The opening act was Matt Mays and El Torpedo, and they are a pretty decent band, mostly from Dartmouth, N.S. They came on maybe at 8pm, and played for 40 min or so (I wasn't really paying attention to time). I picked up Matt May's CD at Best Buy today, haven't listened yet.

Once BR got on stage, they let fans zerg the railing, so we went from benig in the 2nd row (the seats left of center) to '2nd row with 3 rows of people standing in front of us'. We could see Greg and Jim though so it was ok. I had to stand for some of the photos.

The 'Fly in the Ointment' was the idiots right behind us, who yapped constantly during songs. That and the woman on my right whose laugh could probably be used as a crowd control device, or to cut sheet metal.

Photos of the concert: link

Greg blew the lyrics to 'Side of the Road' a couple of times. I think I got a short .mov of it before the batteries gave out.

--R.

Gordon Lightfoot

Massey Hall, Toronto

Just got back, managed to record him singing 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' and 'If You Could Read My Mind'. Played two sets, I scribbled down the playlists, and did 2 encores.

Great man. More to come.

Quicktime MOV of 'If You Could Read My Mind' (note: 45 MB): link

Playlist:
Set 1
------
1. Never Too Close
2. Don Quixote
3. Minstrel of the Dawn
4. The Harmony Song
5. In My Fashion
6. Christian Island
7. Ghosts of Cape Horn
(I may have missed a song here)
8. Cotton Jenny
9. I Used To Be A Country Singer
10. Sundown
11. Ribbon of Darkness
12. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
13. Spanish Moss
14. Shadows

(Break)

Set 2
------
1. Waiting For You
2. Restless
3. Clouds of Loneliness
4. Let It Ride
5. Couchiching
6. If You Could Read My Mind
7. Baby Step Back
8. Early Morning Rain
9. Song for a Winter's Night
10. Bitter Green
11. On the High Seas
12. Old Dan's Records

(Exit)

1st Encore -- Canadian Railway Trilogy
2nd Encore -- Cold on the Shoulder


--R.