Ed Sheeran: One Man and One Guitar; Rocking A Football Stadium

(C) PipPepPop

     Ed Sheeran brought the singing crowd at METLIFE Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. to their feet with only a guitar and a loop pedal. Sheeran played packed shows on both Friday and Saturday night, September 21^st and 22^nd, in the support of his 2017 release, ‘Divide.’ Tour openers included Anne-Marie and the band Snow Patrol, which Ed thanked for taking him out as the band’s opening act in 2012. Upon taking the stage Friday night, Sheeran thanked his fans of all ages, from kindergarteners to grandmothers. Sheeran confessed this is his first large outdoor stadium tour and the largest venue he’s played in the New York City area, citing previous concerts at more intimate indoor venues like The Cutting Room and Radio City Music Hall.

(c) PipPepPop

Sheeran opened with ‘Eraser’ where he layered his vocals to create a rich harmony. The artist briefly explained how he could make music with one acoustic/electric guitar. The technology allows Sheeran to record as he plays or sings a few bars, then repeat the recorded piece while he adds concurrent tracks on top. While looping a cacophony of rhythms and harmonies in the bridge of ‘So in Love,’ Sheeran went from a single voice to a chorus of Sheerans in about a minute flat. 

(c) PipPepPop

 

Sheeran, a self-professed “awkward concertgoer” brings a level of theatrics to the stage. He seamlessly transformed his demeanor between tender love songs like “Thinking Out Loud” and edgy Eminem-style raps like ‘Don’t.’ The songwriter’s true performance is in playing his guitar. Sheeran changed guitars multiple times during the show, although most of the guitars were small acoustic/electric Martin models.  Sheeran cemented his status as a prolific guitar player while tacking his 2014 hit, ‘Bloodstream.’ The stage, bathed in fuzzy red light, pulsated with his driving guitar beat. As the lights intensified and video footage of Sheeran became more erratic, Sheeran looped at least 5 separate rhythms that mashed up into a musical storm. His voice echoed and reverberated on the words “…Tell me when it kicks in” over and over as his chilling tri-tone repeat of “Ohs” looped in and out.  

(c) PipPepPop

   














     It was through his cover of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ that Sheeran introduced a third side to himself. With his guitar dangling from his neck, he sang the often covered jazz standard a capella, with the slightest hint of a guitar strike looped in to keep the beat. The artist showcased a side of himself that was completely different from his radio hits. His voice was soulful and free, similar to his control of the stage.

     Sheeran paid homage to his Irish background with two songs from the Divide album. Before launching into the bouncy ‘Galway Girl,’ Sheeran told the crowd. “Don’t be like me at a concert. Get up and dance. Encourage the person next to you to dance.” He took on the role of balladeer for ‘Nancy Mulligan,’ a song he wrote about his grandparents who met during World War II and fled their Irish hometowns to marry. Taking inspiration from his own life, Sheeran dedicated ‘Perfect’ to his fiancée, Cherry. He took the romantic ballad and sped it up to a mid-tempo ballad. The artist asked the crowd to bathe the stadium in cell phone light as Sheeran strummed and sang about dancing in the dark.

     Sheeran’s ability to talk/sing has led to some of his biggest hits, including 2014’s ‘Sing.’ The song was a crowd favorite, partly due to the easy to sing chorus. Sheeran announced ‘Sing’ and the crowd responded back with a syncopated soccer-like chant. For his encore, Sheeran performed two more songs where he sang/talked. He came out to sing ‘Shape of You’ in an NFL jersey split down the middle, half NY Giants and half NY Jets, to honor the teams that call Metlife Stadium home. His closing number was ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ from his first album, (+). This song went on nearly 10 minutes while Sheeran rapped about everything from using a loop pedal to proving his worth to his admiration for singer Damien Rice. Catch Sheeran on the Divide tour in the U.S. through November 10^th or join him in Europe and Africa in the spring of 2019.  ‘Divide’ is available on Atlantic Records.

Another GIGSoup Concert Review: HAIM at Radio City

(C) PipPepPop

Happy Cinco de Mayo! While some people were enjoying Mint Juleps and Margaritas, I was enjoying some live music from the exceptionally talented sisters of HAIM. Check out my GIGSoup Concert  review of HAIM at Radio City Music Hall! The trio of sisters play all of their own instruments and they take dance breaks. 







FALLING: Haim at Radio City

(c) PipPepPop Alana and Danielle Haim

(c) PipPepPop Este Haim

LITTLE OF YOUR LOVE:
HAIM at Radio City

Concert Review: Hanson Comes Home for the Holidays

(c) PipPepPop

   On November 29^th, Hanson’s ‘Finally It’s Christmas’ tour stopped at the PlayStation Theater in New York. This show was the second of two nights at the theater, which was lit with festive white Christmas lights. Audience members showed up their holiday best, in a sea of red and green with the jingle of bells. The brothers played original and standard songs, opening with their new song, ‘Finally, It’s Christmas.’ The song was a retro-inspired throwback; Isaac and Zac supplemented their guitar and drums with a vocal bass line while Taylor played piano and sang lead vocals. The song is off their new Christmas album of the same name, released in October. Hanson released their music video for the new song earlier on the same day as the concert. The band, now celebrating their 25-year anniversary, expressed gratitude to the fans and promised the show would include songs from their now 20-year old Christmas album, ‘Snowed In.’


     The pop group added their own take to a number of classics and pop Christmas standards as they welcomed the intimate crowd to their family Christmas party. The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based trio was backed by 3 additional musicians, filling out the rock and roll portion of the show with a saxophone, bass guitar and synthesizer. Each member of the band took turns singing leads and verses of the songs. Hanson’s versions of Stevie Wonder’s ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ and Chuck Berry’s ‘Run Rudolph Run’ paid homage to their original singers, full of rocking guitar riffs, do whop harmonies, and dance-worthy drum solos. The band’s own rockabilly song, ‘Til New Year’s Night’ kept the party going when Taylor took a piano solo that reminded many in the audience of Jerry Lee Lewis.  Eldest brother Isaac introduced The Beach Boys’ ‘Little Saint Nick,’ offering his thanks and gratitude to the Wilson brothers for inspiring their family band. Hanson’s version of the surf rock song was brassy and rhythm-filled, reminiscent of a James Bond movie theme.  

With Mark Hudson. (C) PipPepPop

     The center of the show encompassed holiday ballads and tender vocal arrangements.  Another original song ‘At Christmas’ has not been played live since the band’s ‘Snowed In’ television special 20 years ago. The brothers crowded around a microphone for a Capella arrangements of ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Joy on the Mountain,’ a combination of ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’.  Each brother seamlessly switched off conducting duties and clapping a rhythm for the songs, each guiding the beginnings and endings of phrases in his own style. The multi-instrument playing siblings traded their main ones for several songs, with Taylor switching to drums and Zac to the piano. The group almost began playing another song instead of The Eagles’ ‘Please Come Home for Christmas.’  Isaac offered an apology for almost ruining the mood before re-tuning his guitar. He confessed they almost began Darlene Love’s booming ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ during their melancholic section due to the similar song titles.
 

A Capella (c) PipPepPop

     As promised, their cover of Love’s song came later in the show as they took the mood to a euphoric level. The band went into a break as Taylor led the crowd in repeating “Christmas.” His brothers harmonized “…Baby please come home,” as Taylor challenged to bring the song out into the streets. Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’, included on the new album, got the Hanson treatment and a loud echo of the chorus from the crowd.  A surprise moment of the show came when the band’s longtime collaborator Mark Hudson joined them onstage (with jingle bells) for a blues-inspired version of The Beatles’ ‘Wonderful Christmastime.’ By the end of the set, the rocking organ solo on ‘Here Comes the Claus’ almost brought down the house.  The band’s encore echoed the feeling of the party wrapping up for the night. They played two songs, Elvis Priestley’s ‘Blue Christmas’ and one of the most covered Christmas songs, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’



Hanson’s ‘Finally It’s Christmas’ is out via S-Curve Records.
See more concert videos on my Youtube Channel, TheLiveMusicGirl.

Another GIGSoup Concert Review: Gavin DeGraw at the Wellmont Theater

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I've been to many Gavin DeGraw concerts in a selection of intimate venues. These concerts are special and standing room gets you close to the stage. I love being close to the stage and up in the action, but there is one more thing I enjoy at a concert: sitting in the seat I paid for. Gavin DeGraw's RAW tour blended the intimate, stripped-down in front of the stage experience with the joy of sitting in my seat in the balcony. Check out my GIGSoup concert review to learn more about his stop at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, N.J.

Another Concert Gig Review: Sugar Ray

Mark McGrath lead singer of Sugar Ray, left.  (c)PipPepPop

(c) PipPepPop

Check out my latest GIGSoup concert review for Sugar Ray, live from the rain-threatened streets of Downtown Stamford, CT. There was a great chunk of 90's nostalgia as the band explored new songs, hits from the 14:59 album, and other band favorites like The Ramones.

Photo caption: McGrath grabbed a shamrock guitar for 'Answer the Phone.'

The One: The Backstreet Boys Residency in Las Vegas

At TRL, 2000 for the Backstreet Boys
(c) PipPepPop

  Some people go to a concert once a year. Some go to a concert a couple of times a year. Other people get in the car and drive somewhere  to see their favorite band. I hopped a plane to Las Vegas to see The Backstreet Boys, and I'm so glad I did it! I came, I saw, and I rocked my body right at the Axis at Planet Hollywood on St. Patrick's Day. Today is BSB's 24th anniversary, according to the timeline on their website and social media channels. On this day, Brian officially had joined the band and cemented their place in history.

 

(c) PipPepPop

     I began my BSB journey back in 1998. I was a 4th grader and I was obsessed with the song Quit Playing Games with My Heart. I still may be obsessed because that song rocked at the concert. While the audience was in no danger of getting carded, the crowd around me swayed and screamed like a bunch of teenagers. My friend gave me a shrug when the girl next to us yelled "The Call! That's my JAM! That's my song!" **

     The BSB has been a part of the cultural zeitgeist for well over 20 years now. They ruled the pop charts and MTV's video-heavy Total Request Live countdown show. In a related note, live shows like this are getting new life later this year. I want it that way is consistently on the top song lists. Rolling Stone's list of top boy band songs of all time (including acts like the Jackson 5 and the Monkees) ranked the 1999 classic, I Want it That Way, as its 5th entry. While they're never taken home the coveted Grammy award (7 time nominees), they have won countless fan awards such as MTV Video Music Awards, Billboard Awards, Kids Choice Awards and Teen Choice Awards. They're also left us pondering what exactly it means to "want it that way" or why the "loneliness is tragical." As of early April, BSB proved they still have it. They were back, taking the stage at the ACM Awards  with friends Florida Georgia Line. The septet performed their new single, God, Your Mama and Me and everyone enjoyed it. Then they music changed and all 7 guys launched into Everybody (Backstreet's Back) complete with dance moves. I have never seen Tim McGraw so into a performance before. He and his wife Faith were like a young Taylor Swift, dancing and singing in the front row.

A Vegas Take on Suits. (c) PipPepPop

     The concert was filled with memories. Nearly all of the songs from the self-titled Backstreet Boys album were played, even forgotten favorites like Darlin' (with Kevin's sexy talking intro) and uplifting ballad, Anywhere for You. We were dancing in our seats during the Euro-pop hit, Get Down, which lends itself to AJ's bad-ass rap portion. There was a heavy amount of dancing in the show, and it was more impressive than all the other BSB concerts I've seen combined (6 or 7), with the possible exception of NKOTBSB. The "chair dance" from As Long as You Love Me was perfection.  There were fedoras present during the mid-tempo ballad, All I Have to Give. The songs from Millennium and Black and Blue were represented, bringing the boys and their 10 dancers together for driving dance tunes like Larger Than Life, The Call and the not heard enough Get Another Boyfriend. , and subduing the crowd with sweet songs like Drowning and Incomplete. The only song from the non-Kevin years performed was the heartbreaking and haunting song, Undone. I have been listening to this non-stop. The show concluded with Everybody (Backstreet's Back), which you can find following the below link to you Youtube channel. We made some new memories that night and I will not soon forget this show.

At the show, 2017
(c) PipPepPop

** The reason I found this comment to be disturbing is that The Call is a song about cheating, and she screamed this directly in her boyfriend's face.

Read more reviews of the show on Ticketmaster. Mine is in there somewhere.
Read the Billboard.com review of the show.
See more of my concert footage on Youtube.

Mr. Misunderstood Live: All Hail Chief Church

The "Chief" backed by a choir. (c) PipPepPop

     Most artists do not play a double set on their tour. Eric Church is not like most artists and Holdin' My Own is not like most tours. Church is a tough guy and a gracious performer. He invites the audience in for a party, even taking a camera under the stage to pour shots of Jack Daniels for the crew when singing an ode to the famous whiskey. My only complaint about the show up front is that time is "just a suggestion" as my mom once remarked about a late-starting event. Church was once thrown off the Rascal Flatts tour for playing a too-long opening set. They gave the spot to Taylor Swift and the rest is history. The show was scheduled to start at 8 P.M. at The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the world's most inconvenient arena.  At about 8:30 P.M., Church came to the stage. He still beat some of my friends to the show. (They appeared a few songs in, apparently held up on a long beer line.) The show ended after 11:30 P.M., and for those who know the NYC subway late night schedule, it took me a long time to get to the train station and catch the last train home of the night.

(c) PipPepPop

As a performer, Eric Church is not much of a talker. He hides behind a pair of defining aviator sunglasses,his expression always looking tough. When he does talk, he makes it count. He spoke of travelling and life on the road like he was talking to a friend. I felt like we were in an intimate venue a she casually walked the stage, singing into a microphone with a guitar dangling down his back. He played hits from his 2015 album Mr. Misunderstood with it's blusey radio hits Kill a Word and Record Year, and the title track, a rocking  tune about making dreams and finding his place in the world.

 When you think about me, do you think about seventeen?

Do you think about my old jeep, and about the stars in the sky?

It's funny how a memory sounds like a melody;

Like a soundtrack to a July Saturday night... 

Springsteen. 

     My favorite part of the concert was when Church began his 2012 stadium anthem, Springsteen.  This song is a tribute to the great king of Jersey rock and songs about dreamers. Church goes into the traditional Bruce Springsteen-like "Oh" chanting during the song. In this live version, he also went into a verse of Born to Run, forever enmeshing the two songs in my brain. It's a nostalgia tune for an old flame, and it has the heart of the Boss. As the stadium swelled, I cheered, I sang, and near-wept at the perfection of the performance. 

Are You Busy One Year From Now?

   
     I am the first of all my friends to get excited about a concert announcement. If I really want to go to an event, the furious link sharing, venue debates, and messages that begin. The hype lasts about 2-3 days between the tour announcement and the pre-sale date with comments like "Does your sister want to go so we can get the 4-pack seats?" or "Are we all agreeing that we will stick with this unless the seats are over $70.00?" * If we strike out during the pre-sale it is not guaranteed there will be any trinkets left for general on sale, although I do fondly remember the Maroon 5 ticket miracle in the Fall of 2014.
   

McGraw at the 2014 "Sundown Heaventown"
tour (c)PipPepPop

    With all of this background knowledge, one might ask why I even bother seeing live music. Some people are addicted to drugs or gambling or drinking, but I am addicted to live music!  I am delighted to hear Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's announcement they are re-booting their 2006 Soul2Soul tour for 2017. On top of that, the country power couple is celebrating 20 years of  a as co-parents and marriage champions. What could be better than that news?  Tickets begin going on sale this Friday for concert dates. Yes, this Friday the 20th!

     When I looked to see where my local shows would be, I discovered the last stop on the tour is at Brooklyn's Barclays Center (sigh). (For various reasons, I have had bad associations with attending events at the center, but that is a story for another time). The date of that tour-ending show? It's October 27th of next year! Let me remind you, we haven't even passed this October 27th yet.  I'm a bit shocked the tour would announce dates over a year into the future. While I can't see this show going in sale yet, I have reached the point in my life where I like making plans, but I don't like paying for tickets and arranging my entire October a year from now around this date.  I enjoyed seeing Tim (or Timmy McGee as my friends lovingly call him) in 2014, and I committed to that show 2 months out, which is more than reasonable. I'm certainly not going to "Live Like You Were Dying" and commit to pricey concert tickets a year in advance.


* I wish I was joking about the prices. The cheapest concert tickets I purchased this year were $20.00 lawn seats for Daruis Rucker (during a ticket discount sale) and it rained on our uncovered lawn seats. See my recent piece on the difficulty to even procure concert tickets and the accompanying skyrocketing prices.

CMA Fest- Like the Awards But With More Music

     A month ago, ABC showed its broadcast of June's CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock. The event kicks off summer in Nashville with a week of events and concerts. Basically, it brings today's biggest country stars on one stage in a stadium for the coolest weekend-long country music festival.This event  began in 1972 but has taken off in the last few years as country music has become entirely more mainstream. There are various CMA events in Nashville and many opportunities for up and coming artists to show off their talents (but that's not getting airtime yet). I've been to a few CMA-sponsored songwriter events and they are fantastic and highly recommended. This link is for my video of Brett Eldredge playing a CMA event on the cusp of his first single "Don't Ya" taking over the radio. 

     CMA Fest has become a big deal in the last few years. Tickets for the 2017 fest are already on sale for next June. The T.V. airing of the concert is part of ABC's lead-off to the CMA Award nominations, which broke last week. Please note, Jason Aldean has been snubbed. Yes, this huge concert is just a halfway point in the year between CMA award shows. For November 2nd's 50th anniversary awards show, we can look forward no further than usual duo Carrie Underwood and  Brad Paisley. 

Not CMAs, but some country awards won by Dierks Bentley (c) PipPepPop

Not CMAs, but some country awards won by Dierks Bentley (c) PipPepPop

CMA Fest Best Performances:

1. Luke Bryan

Luke began shaking his booty for his new song "Move", which is always reason to celebrate. But during another song, he showed off his guitar skills only to be shown up by banjo god Keith Urban. Keith then guitar battled and jammed with Luke's band. 

2. Lady Antebellum  and Cam

Lady A has been taking a bit of a hiatus this summer while they spend time with their babies and pursue other projects, but their moving collaboration with Cam was delightful. The trio joined Cam on her ballad "Burning House" and brought tears to our eyes.

3. Carrie Underwood

Carrie greeted fans while performing this spring's "wife-turned-murderer" ditty, "Church Bells." For her newer single, she soloed on the harmonica and explained a crime for the ages in the "Chocktaw County Affair." 

4. Hank Williams Jr., Chris Janson, Justin Moore
I've seen 'Ol Bocephus before and I was not particularly excited about it. But these guys had a very upbeat (an not overly redneck) 'ole ruckus on stage with a full brass section backing them. Rolling Stone called Hank the top act to see at the fest. 

Don't Get Your Tickets Here

Jason Aldean from the last row
at MetLife Stadium (c) PipPepPop

     Back in March, I lamented on the blog about how hard it is to get good concert tickets these days. Don't worry, getting tickets has not gotten any easier. You still probably don't have your pick of seats during pre-sales, let along the actual ticket on-sale. But, due to the recent Curt Schlesinger et al. v. Ticketmaster settlement, they may be a little cheaper to loyal concertgoers. Essentially, Ticketmaster was sued for their outrageous and "excessive" fees (finally). I cannot justify paying $75.00 for tickets in the very last row of MetLife stadium, but I paid it last summer to see Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney.  Tickets on the floor were at least $300.00 and standing room only. Where is the benefit in that? But I digress...

     Ticket "processing" fees (which average from $15-$20 dollars on top of the seat price) were the brunt of the spoils in this case. There is also a second reward/class for the ridiculously  high fees for USPS delivery. As a whole, Ticketmaster has charged as high as $8.00 to ship regularly ordered tickets (not overnight or a week before the show kind of deals) via US mail, a service which used to be available for free. This led to the ride of free PDF print-at-home tickets, which are their own fun pain in the butt. I have also been to a concert where my friend left the tickets at home and we had to download an app for our phones to get into the concert, and keep the tickets up on our phones every time we left the area to get drinks or go to the bathroom. As much as the technology was supposed to make out lives better they're not making concerts easier, yet. Maybe in the future, we can get retinal scan tickets!

     Tickets purchased from October 1999 through February 2013 make you eligible to be part of the lawsuit's class and should guarantee you something back. On bright side in this whole deal,  Ticketmaster has done all of the work for us. I logged into my account the other day to check out my cut of the $45+ million dollar settlement. I have 11 pairs of general admission ticket vouchers (good through June 2020) and 11 sets of $2.25 credits to use toward ticket purchases. Before you plan to take 20 of your closest friends to the lawn seats, keep in mind there are restrictions, as suggested by Yahoo! News earlier this week. General admission vouchers are only allowed to be used for events at Live Nation venues. The tickets are redeemable for floor general admission or lawn GA tickets to these events, and up to two vouchers at a time (totaling 4 tickets). USPS shipping codes ($5.00 each, I had none of these because I wasn't  going to pay to ship tickets) can be used two at a time for USPS shipping, and these deals cannot be used with other tickets.

Live Nation site screenshot, 6/23 (c) PipPepPop

     The ticket site for Live Nation began posting events early Wednesday and as of Thursday night, all available vouchers through November are sold out (at venues across the country). I am curious to see how the next few months go, when the novelty wears off and people forget about the ticket vouchers they have sitting in their account. Maybe I can get some tickets then! In the meantime, I'm going to see how we can convince them to put pre-sale e-mailed codes directly into out accounts too. I have scrambling at the last minute to find phrases like SUNSHINE or DEEJAY and plugging them in to try to get tickets. I also hate clicking on the images of Trucks or waterfalls to prove I'm not a robot. Hmm.. maybe ticketing robots is the way to solve all of this frustration....
 For more information, visit the settlement website: http://www.ticketfeelitigation.com/

The (Ticket) Struggle is Real

     I love going to live events! I enjoy taking in theater, hockey games, and live music. Much to my dismay, I am finding this more and more difficult to do. I was recently looking for tickets for not one but two concerts and I found out that clearly humans have little to no chance of getting seats (not even decent seats) for a show.

John Mayer 2007 @ MSG

     If one does want to get tickets, be prepared to shell out big bucks (upwards of $75.00 a ticket in most cases for a terrible seat). To compare, I went to see John Mayer at Madison Square Garden in the Winter of 2007, nine years ago. My friends and I (three ladies waiting for Your Body is a Wonderland)  paid about $40.00 per seat in the 400's section (which does not exist since the MSG remodel), but it was a second or third row in the upper upper most spot of the stadium. The seats were OK, but with a camera zoom lens we could see John pretty great! The crowd was in good spirits and the music was flowing, so we had a blast. 

      In the Winter of 2010, I attended John Mayer at the Garden again. This event was legendary!

John Mayer @ MSG in 2010.

        I still have a photo of it up at my desk to remind me of the amazing night. I also happened to be the night a major snowstorm hit NYC and almost shut down the city. But I digress, back to the story of how I scored these amazing seats. I sat on my computer refreshing the page over and over again at 10 am on the day-before pre-sale. I got the pre-sale code simply for buying the album, not join any silly fan club or having a special credit card or any other nonsense that's available now. My friend was in disbelief because I called her with the news: we were sitting on the floor, in row E (read this, 5th row on the floor). She thought there must be some kind of catch. Maybe there were double letter seats before the single letters? She was wrong and we did have amazing 5th row seats. The catch? We paid a flat $90.00 to sit about 12 feet from the stage. The concert was like a dream, the kind you do not want to wake up from.  First of all, I felt like I was at some kind of exclusive party. Second of all, we got a private floor-only bathroom and our own concessions and merchandise stands! We will never, and have never had seats close to this good since then.

    In the summer of 2013, my friend and I saw John Mayer again in a large, open-air venue in Hartford, CT. The seats were in the second section back and while still closer than the first show, still so far away. We paid $70.00 for these seats and were disappointed because it was not as good as the 2010 experience. But we barely managed to snag these seats due to increasingly difficult measures from Ticketmaster.

Luke Bryan Ticket 1st Day Pre-Sale

    First of all, Ticketmaster is the only major ticketing site to buy first chance tickets. Sites like STUBHUB sometimes grant a last-minute deal, but it's rare to see seats for anything there for the actual face value. After successfully battling each layer of Ticketmaster's elaborate process, (logging into your account, selecting the correct date, choosing only images of hot dogs, clicking "I'm not a robot" etc..) , you begin your queue in line while someone is nabbing all of the tickets, leaving something like the photo below. This (LEFT) is a screenshot for last week's pre-sale of a Luke Bryan concert in Atlantic City. On the first day of pre-sale, only single tickets were left in sections. How could all of the seats in a row be selected except single seats on the ends? Even stranger than that, why are single seats left in the middle of sections? or even stranger, in the middle of sections?

Luke Bryan Seats Left 3 Days After Sale

     Are there any seats left for the actual sale date? My assumption at this point would be no if you're planning to go to the concert with another person. So, why are all the tickets disappearing in pre-sales? Clearly internet geniuses and spambots are taking them for scalpers. Plus, the ridiculous number of pre-sales give some people special privileges over the average Joe. It's very disheartening also that to go to a show, you have to shell out $100 bucks per seat. This is not a casual night out with friends, it's a commitment that can cause lots of issues and friendship fights.  What do the good people get left with, higher prices (the 200's section seats here costs $79.00 plus $16.00 in fees, totaling about $95.00) Plus, if you have a carload of people who want to go to the show, you might as well plan to get different seats spread out all over the venue, because you will not be sitting together. If you're lucky you might be able to secure two seats together. This stress, this lack of availability, and this high price makes every concert a long shot dream instead of a fun night out. Let's find a way to make the concerts about the music again! #ConcertsForAll

Oh My Mraz!

#JasonandJane

     Rarely would I call attending a concert a trans-formative experience,  but I definitely just had one. I just saw Jason Mraz last night, and I really saw him! The show was in a small intimate venue with his all-female opening act/backup band Raining Jane. I've seen Mraz before, at open air venues in the summer, at Madison Square Garden, and next week I'll also see him at Radio City Music Hall. Nothing will top this show!

Stories with Mraz

    My friend and I attended the show at Lehman College in the Bronx as part of Mraz's 5 Boroughs tour. He is playing all 5 boroughs in the next two weeks and the significance of this is that large scale artists play many different venues on Manhattan and even some in Brooklyn, but they rarely appear in the Bronx, Queens (aside from Citi Field) or Staten Island. Our seats were 13th row, center, about 15-20 feet from the man himself, and the acoustics were unreal! Jason's voice was so pure, and he was able to connect with the audience in such a natural way. He told stories, including a great one about how he came to write "The Dynamo of Volition." It was part of an online songwriting group  challenge Mraz regularly participates in, and his phrase for the week was "Blind Man's Bike," and the rest was history.

See my video below of Jason singing duet "Lucky" with four lovely females!

I'm Getting Too Old for This.... A Concert Trip

Ah summer, that glorious time of year when we all flock outdoors and listen to music. I chose several fun concerts for this summer season (The Backstreet Boys, Gavin DeGraw, Tim MgGraw and Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan to name a few), but I could not be more excited to see Keith Urban live and in my field of vision. But myself any my two friends had spent quite enough on concert tickets by the time this August show was going on sale, so we opted to get some lawn seats and head to upstate NY for the show. We once got hurricane-like rain sheets on us during a Train concert, so we fully understood what we could be signing up for if it rained.

The Sunday evening show was perfection with no clouds in sight. Keith dazzled us with his Aussie accent and even braved it up to the lawn area to sing a few songs, tossing glow necklaces on his guitar and donning a fan's cowboy hat. He signed his guitar as he sweetly proclaimed "You Look Good in My Shirt."

   Here is my only complaint, the crowd and the general idea of the LAWN.  The event was at Bethel Woods, home to the legendary Woodstock Festival, so I imagine there has been some obscenely awful things that happened on that lawn over the years, but still, it was not the best experience. 

It might as well have said: prepare to spend 8 hours with some people, you're never going to see again . The crowd was pretty terrible. In fact they were downright annoying. But as it turns out, they would not be the worst concert crowd I found that summer. I'm well under 30, but I felt like a crotchety old woman yelling at a group of kids in front us that they needed to lower the young lady they were tossing around and dropping on the lawn. Most of my videos from the show have a silhouetted fist bumping guy in front of  us, preparing for a new reality show that I can only imaged would be called Jersey Sticks. 

   On top of  having to get to the lawn gate promptly a half hour before 5 so we could storm the lawn when the front gate opened, we also couldn't bring in our own lawn chairs to the show and had to rent a $5 seat at the venue. Food was available,e but we managed to bring our own sandwiches and salad for a picnic dinner. Did anyone get charged for food and chairs at the first Woodstock? Don't answer that, on second thought, I'm sure people got charged much more for that event. 

   When Keith took to the smaller and more intimate lawn stage, there was a mad rush of people over to the area (myself included), turning aside chairs, trampling blankets and generally running any semblance of common decency in the lawn. People were pushed and shoved to get to the tiny stage. I took a space behind a pretty tall guy and held my camera up, bracing for someone the size of a linebacker to tackle me. Thankfully, I returned with a slight crunch to my toe (thanks to my cowboy boots not too bad) and some great videos. I realized that night, as I proclaimed to my two friends, freshly 27 years old, I am way too old to sit on the lawn...even if the videos are this good.

Video courtesy of my private collection (c)2014. 

The Time I Saw Ol' Bocephus

USA's Playing House:
The Bocephus Disguise

     According to Urban Dictionary: Bocephus is a common nickname for Hank Williams Jr. Hank got the nickname from his famous father, who looked in the cradle and just called him "Bocephus." Bocephus is a common phrase airbrushed on 1984 Ford F-150s.

     I won tickets to attend the third day of a three-day country music festival in upstate New York. It happened to be on Father's day, so I got my trusty pop to be my plus one. We were hoping to arrive early afternoon after a family lunch and we would catch acts like Thompson Square and Thomas Rhett. The first two days of the festival had amazing headliner acts like Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, and our Sunday night juggernaut, ol' Bochphus.

View from the top of the ski slope.

     A long story short, we ended op getting very lost. My GPS on the phone was picking up signals beyond 1x data,  I think guidance was likely from spaceships. When we arrived, we were able to park nearby the camping area, outside of the ski resort t for no additional fee. Other told us they had paid $30.00-$50.00 to park their cars there. The staff managed to find two more bracelets to admit us in, and into the breach we went. Thank god for real bathrooms! We were also relieved to find there was still some beer.

Ol' Junior. 

     Just in time for the last set, we struggled to make a list of songs we knew from Hank Jr. We came up with the Monday Night Football Theme and the original version of "I Fought the Law." We were treated to renditions of songs by his father and Jerry Lee Lewis, we we were very much out of sync with the rest of the crowd. There were so many mud-stricken people there, dirty and drunk from three long days of partying, and covered in terrible sunburn. Halfway into the set, dad asked I wanted to head home, and I couldn't have been happier to head back to civilization.  I can safely say I would never have enjoyed Woodstock.

A Note About Duets: This is a duet!

Maroon 5's Adam Levine and Stevie Nicks singing leather and lace. Powerful stuff!