Last June,
Liz, Dave, Al, Ryan, Gina, Lethy and I caught Journey at PNC.
The tailgating was pretty epic with sangria, burgers, flip cup… and beer sprints.
Thankfully I don’t think I have any pictures or video remaining.
It was a great time though!
Archive for the ‘concerts’ Category
In Spring we learned Hanabi from Aaron and Michelle, with Steve after going to Storm King.
We also celebrated Lethy’s birthday in Manhattan for a weekend. We went to Rock of Ages on broadway, did touristy things, and ate great food. Sadly Lethy had to skip the Mets/Yankees game on the Monday (she had a final exam).
This summer was busy with lots of little things, but only 1 big trip really (see later post).
After she finished her semester, Lethy spent 2.5 weeks in Venezuela on the beach with her family.
Much jealousy, no pictures, and payback awaits in October anyhow 😀
In June we saw Boston and Cheap Trick with Liz and Dave at PNC.
I honestly didn’t realize how many Cheap Trick songs I actually know.
Throughout the summer we did various grilling at Nyack with my parents.
In July, Alex and Victor came to stay with us for a month with Ada and Madison visiting for a couple of the weekends.
One weekend, we went to Nyack and took them out kayaking and did some grilling:
In August, we saw Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails with Steve at PNC.
Soundgarden sounded good, but had a pretty short setlist, especially by their standards. They talked up every song with a story or tidbit, but not to the same amount they would as a headliner. NIN was more like a techno dance party than a rock show, interesting, but not something I’ll need again.
The following day we had a company party at Restaurant X with live music in a jazz style. It was fun!
Throughout late July and early August, Lethy had her teaching certification exams. But after her final one she went to her friend Claudia’s baby shower.
We got my dad tickets to see the Eagles for his birthday.
First we went out to dinner at Seven Bistro which was quite good.
Then off to the show. No opener, just three sets.
The opening section was mostly older and slower songs.
They introduced most songs with a story which was great. Some introductions were live and some were recorded and shown on the screen.
As the night went on they progressed through their catalog and on to more rock based songs. In the end, they played pretty much everything one could hope to hear.
Joe Walsh is a real character, he had a lot of fun making jokes, funny faces, etc.
The most important thing in my opinion is that they were clearly enjoying themselves and so did we!
The weekend after we returned from Europe, we went out to PNC in NJ with Liz and Dave to catch the Uproar Fest.
We arrived kinda early and watched some of the 2nd + 3rd stage acts. No one was super impressive, but we walked around and tried a few different beers and did a lot of people watching.
Early in the day, there was definitely a high percentage of people there who were dressed/behaved in… unique? ways. Obviously as more people arrived for the larger acts, that density decreased.
Coheed + Cambria were pretty good. Their set was relatively short, but their songs are pretty long. They played a bunch of songs I know, so that was good.
Jane’s Addiction were easily the most entertaining. Perry Ferrell is always … odd … in a good way. He seemed to be having a lot of fun. Their stage act now includes 2 scantily clad dominatrix inspired women who dance together around the stage. It was a little distracting at times. Dave Navarro (guitar, also of RHCP) looked like himself. Shirtless, head down, just playing out the songs without too much interaction.
Alice in Chains were the headliner and seemed a little out of place after the highly interactive show given by Jane’s addiction. They sounded great, they really had the bass pumped up and the grind aspect of their musical style was in full force. It was LOUD. They only played 2 songs off the new album, which was nice. The new album is OK, but everyone is there for the old stuff.
This Setlist doesn’t look complete to me – but they did NOT play No Excuses (sadface):
We got to see Soundgarden again – – and its always a real treat.
The line outside was several blocks long and temps were in the single digits.
Luckily we were about midway in the line and got in just a couple minutes before they started to play.
They seemed really excited to be playing new material and also bringing back older songs that haven’t been played in decades.
And of course, they sounded fantastic.
I won’t drag on and on, but the setlist was great, their music was great.
All pics here.