Life of Steve

Bon Jovi/ Daughtry Concert

I took the wife to see Bon Jovi in Concert this past Saturday. (I took a couple pics with my phone camera) It was a pretty good show. Pittsburgh people go somewhat crazy for Bon Jovi anyways so you can always count on an excited crowd that is into the show. He played a good mix of old popular songs from the 80's (back when I was a kid) and some of his newer songs as well.

It seems now that I am older I like to minimize the hassle as much as possible related to concerts. For example, we decided to get down to town pretty early to avoid any potential traffic or parking hassles. We parked in a garage that we could easily get on the highway home a 15 min or so walk away from the arena. We had a leisurely dinner at Six Penn Kitchen in Downtown Pittsburgh with a couple of Crystal's friends from High School who were also going to the concert. After Dinner we walked to the Mellon Arena, found our seats, did a quick pre-show restroom run and walked back to our seats at the exact moment Daughtry took the stage. Perfect timing as always!

Our seats were right around where I wanted to sit too. Thanks to an American Express Cardholder Pre-Sale I managed to get 2 sets of 2 seats for the Mellon Arena. I sold the two ones I didn't want on the internet and we took the two I wanted which were on the side of the stage about 8 rows back. Now that I am older this is where I like to sit. From the side of the stage the seats are elevated (Not like the floor seats) and since the wife and I are shorter I can actually still see if a tall person is standing in front of me. In addition, I don't have the desire to bang into a bunch of crazed fans on the stage floor seats of the show. So I was very happy with the seats. One thing that amused me was seeing two girls who kept getting kicked out of seats that were not theirs. I suppose they were just trying to get a better view but for a sold out show this trick just isn't going to work. You are better off sitting in the seats you actually bought, sweetie!

We also avoided all the traffic on the way out. After about a 15 minute walk back to our car we were on the highway back home. Nice and smooth.

All in all a pretty good concert. I don't get to many concerts lately but this concert was fun. Nostalgic too.

Pearl Jam Concert –6/23/2006

I went to see Pearl Jam in Concert this past Friday. Now I know that Pearl Jam has been in the spotlight in the past for the political tint that they have given their music lately. Yes, their latest music leans toward the Left but here is why I enjoyed the concert.

Because it was good.

That’s right. I don’t need to get political commentary from my music because I have so many other places and people to attempt to brainwash me. Think C-SPAN, Fox News, Air America, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, etc ad nauseum.

Entertainers, here is what you need to focus on to be successful:

Entertainment.

Yeah, you heard that right. Pearl Jam is a talented musical group that plays great music. Sure there are lots of no-talent has been artists who try to make up for the lack of quality entertainment by pandering to the views of the audience but the quality (or lack thereof) is too much to hide. It always comes out in the end.

Eddie Vedder talked to the audience about voting (for the All Star Game) Also mentioned that some Republicans may have helped him write his latest song/songs. He also mentioned that he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about Pittsburgh (After we beat the Seattle Seahawks in the previous Super bowl.) He wasn’t preachy but he was entertaing and I could appreciate that.

This concert also had a very good choice of songs. The last time I went to see Pearl Jam they really focused on the newer music. The problem with that is that the most popular music from Pearl Jam is the older songs. This time they played a very good variety of the best songs they had (old and new.) My friend Rich remarked that is was like listening to a Greatest Hits Album.

The only 2 complaints I could think of (and they are not political I think) is that for some reason the arena did not allow my friend to bring his umbrella in and also stopped serving beer at 9:30PM (Pearl Jam took the stage a little after 9 and the concert ended close to Midnight.)

Other than that I enjoyed the concert and would go to listen to them again.

Train Concert- 04/20/06

I have been a fan of Train for a long time. I liked them since their first CD came out. This was the first time that I took the opportunity to see them live. A couple of observations:

-I was not very familiar with their more recent music but my fiancée was. So it was fun to hear new tunes that I liked that I was not aware of. (This is probably due to the fact that my ipod has replaced broadcast radio in my world.)

-They try to involve the audience a lot during their show. This was a pleasant surprise because I always thought of their music being too mellow to pull this off. However, they did it well.

-Train is much better live and is much more musically talented than I realized. The advantage to seeing a live show is the artists can work in more drum and guitar solos. In addition, they can play some songs differently than recorded (ex: play a song acoustic, etc) They can also play covers of songs they like by other artists. Train played a few covers that night: “Dream On” –Aerosmith. “Going to California”-Led Zeppelin ( I was wondering how well they would handle the Robert Plant vocals but it sounded great!)

-I was wondering if you had to be in a couple to attend the show. Looking in the row in front of me I counted 3 couples and we had another couple to my Left. I didn’t realize a date was required.

All in all a very good show. I would take the chance to see them again sometime. In addition, I will be picking up some of their newer CD’s to find some “new favorites”

“Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking at yourself out there”

-Drops of Jupiter. Train

Jimmy Buffet 6/26

So this Sunday I went to my first ever Jimmy Buffet Concert. I decided to tailgate with some friends who managed to get some last minute tickets (and knew some other people who were throwing the tailgate.) The tailgating extremes that people go to for this show was unlike anything I have seen. In addition to the usual grills, coolers, and chairs there were: Fake Palm trees covering makeshift bars, entire erected dance floors, people in grass skirts and wearing coconut bikinis. All in all the crowd was quite a spectacle.

The concert was held at PNC Park (as opposed to the Post Gazette Pavilion) for which I was glad since it is so much closer to home. However, there was some difficultly getting into the concert. The show was scheduled to start at 6PM and everyone seemed to decide to attempt to enter the field right before the show (To continue tailgating I suppose.) It took me 45 minutes to get into the park (I started at 5:30PM got in my seat at 6:15PM) Jimmy Buffet didn't start the actual concert until 6:35PM or so. But the people next to me didn't arrive until about an hour into the show. In addition, there were many people who called the local new channels and newspapers saying that they gave up trying to get in or that it was an hour after the show had started and they were still unable to get through the line.

The show itself I enjoyed. Despite not being a huge Buffet fan (and not a "Parrot Head") I liked throwing on my favorite Tropical gear, drinking a few Coronas, and listening to the mellow vacationy music of Buffet. I admit I didn't know every word to every song like some of the people around me, but I can see the appeal. Just being at the concert was like being on vacation. One thing I liked was during the intermission they put on some footage on the 2 big TVs of Buffet from years past. Including some of his appearances on Jonny Carson, Buffet in planes, on mountains, boating, surfing, etc. It really helped to set the mood.

All in all I did enjoy the concert. However, I am not prepared to join the Buffet Cult. I might listen to "Margaritaville" once in a while, but I won't be adopting the Parrothead Lifestyle.

The Clarks Concert -06/24

My favorite Pittsburgh Native Band "The Clarks" was actually playing in Pittsburgh for a change (Friday and Saturday Nights) and I decided to go (even though not as many people came with me as initally expected) The positive thing though was almost all the people I went to the concert with were hard core Clarks fans. Highlights included "Snowman" "Help me out" "Penny on the floor" (which was difficult for me to listen to) "Shimmy Low" "Better off without you" and of course "Cigarette." Of course I like so many Clarks songs that I always seem to come out of the concert thinking "They didn't play song 1, 2 ,3 5, 7 that I like." The Clarks play a big set of concerts in Pittsburgh every summer and this year they had not released a new CD but they did release a "Greatest Hits" disc with 3 new songs. They did play one of the new ones and although I don't remember the name of the song, I know I like it! Although there has been some speculation that The Clarks will break up (The lead singer has a girlfriend in Texas, who is pregnant if the rumors are true) in the interview they did on a local radio station, they said they would continue to play as long as the fans want them to. I sure hope they do!

The Black Crowes and Tom Petty

Decided to join the girl and her friends to see one of her favorite artists Tom Petty and also The Black Crowes who opened the show for them. The venue was the Post-Gazette Pavilion which is about 30 miles west of Pittsburgh (almost in West Virgina) and is really the only good outdoor concert venue around 'Da Burgh. We were also very lucky with the weather, which initally was looking very threatening (Storms predicted) but the weather held the whole night for great concert weather!

Traffic is usually an issue getting there (Since the Parkway West is the only highway we could reasonably take) but Jen knew a back roads way to get to Robinson and we got there with a minimal amount of traffic in about an hour.

Upon arriving we immediately broke out the beer and food to make productive use of our tailgate time before we would need to enter the Pavilion. After some initial difficultly in finding the girls friends who drove and parked separately we met up with them in a great spot where we could drop the blanket and watch the 2nd half of The Black Crowes set.

Being the music critic that I am (I guess it was all those years of playing and studying music under Warren S Mercer) I have to say that The Black Crowes were very impressive. This was the first time that I had heard them live and they sounded great. They also did some long musical improvs during certain songs that really illustrated their musical chops. I was really happy to have such a quality opening act.

Tom Petty also had a lot of crowd appeal. He played all the songs everyone wanted to hear. (I thought the girls I was with would lose their minds if he didn't play "American Girl" which naturally he saved for the encore) He also played a couple of songs I didn't recognize but still liked (always a good thing!)

As always I saw a couple of interesting sites at the event that I'll share. The lack of bathroom facilities made for long lines and lots of public uhhhh "displays." (I suppose it's good for the grass.) Naturally with so many people in close proximity you will see the usual fight. What I didn't expect to see was a girl fight where the one actually did get some teeth knocked out about 14 feet away from me. Walking back from my own "break" I also saw the occasional body just laying passed out in the grass (I hope someone came at the end of the night and took them home.)

Thanks to Jen's insight in getting us preferred parking (See I'm giving you credit Jen!) we got out of the parking lot very quickly and made record time getting back home after the concert. A very good time and I would recommend seeing these two great bands if they are coming to your town this summer.

Next up. Jimmy Buffet ! Yeah!

FYI The Pittsburgh Post Gazette also did a write up on this concert. Click Here to Read