5 Concerts, 10 bands, 13 Days
Whitesnake w/Supagroup @ HOB. 7/31. Less than 7 hours after returning to Cleveland I hit the House of Blues to watch 80s hair metal icon David Coverdale and the musicians who currently make up Whitesnake, courtesy of a free ticket. I went with fellow WRUWite Roger and we encountered a number of metal programmers past & present, including Mikhail, Ace & the lovely Heather of Goat Metal fame.
First was opener Supagroup out of New Orleans. They sucked hard. Forget you ever heard of them. Inbetween we watched the crowd, which was pretty much exclusively people who were 20-25 in 1985. Most of them had not aged well, but they still gave it up when David Coverdale came on stage. It was in many ways the "80s hair metal cliche night" but Here I Go Again, Crying in the Rain and Is This Love still sounded really good. The band was tight, the jeans were tight, and a good time was had by all. Glad I didn't pay for it though, and once was definitely enough.
On a side note, it would have been nice if the wayback machine could have brought Tawny Kitaen circa 1985 forward to add decoration. Oh well.
Susan Werner w/Eleni Kelakos @ Cain Park. 8/2. I used another free ticket and checked out the Frü-friendly show with Mike & Meredith. Eleni Kelakos, to put it bluntly, has no business appearing in front of anyone with a guitar. Her voice was pleasant enough, but she was an idiot and her distinctly limited banter went on way too long. Yech.
Fortunately the headliner redeemed the show. Susan Werner didn't seem to mind the almost empty theater and the songs from her upcoming album of material written to sound like the Great American soundbook were uniformly excellent. I came close to buying a CD, and if and when it appears at WRUW I expect I will put it in heavy rotation. If you like folkish material or female vocalists, you might want to check her out.
Bryan Adams & Def Leppard w/Randy Coleman @ Classic Park ( Eastlake Stadium ). 8/6. The ultimate guilty pleasure concert did not disappoint. butterandjelly and I arrived just in time to catch opener Randy Coleman. He actually wasn't too bad and if I had heard him at the Beachland Tavern or the Grog I would probably be writing very nice things about him, but his material and approach were totally ill-suited for a stadium concert.
Next up was Bryan Adams, who has been #2 on my "ultimate guilty pleasure" concert list for many years. Garth Brooks is #1, fyi. He did not disappoint. All of the hits were played, plus the mandatory song from the new album and the occasional early song that did not make it big. Karla got to ogle to her hearts desire. Good stuff.
80s Rock Icons Def Leppard closed out the show in style. I had forgotten how much fun their songs are. Stupid, yes, but fun. "Pour some sugar on me" is one of those songs I will *always* remember hearing in concert. Their video display was very intersting as well. It merged live on-stage footage with various special effects.
Sure, these bands knew their day was past, but they didn't care and put the pedal all the way down. I approve. There was also plenty of eye candy ( both genders ), and because the stage was set up in the outfield, I got to ( however tenuously ) walk on the field of a professional baseball stadium. It was a great night.
The Arrogant Worms @ Cain Park. 8/10. Mike & Meredith and I, plus Jen, caught this Frü-friendly concert at an almost empty Cain Park. The Arrogant Worms are yet another band from Kingston, Ontario ( home of Sarah Harmer, Luther Wright, Weeping Tile and many, many more ). Their material is much like the most ridiculously out there music played by Früvous, TMBG and other bands of that ilk. Their problem was that unlike those bands, they had no change of pace. *Everything* was really ridiculous. I laughed very hard during almost every song. This, combined with their relatively limited musical skills, made for a concert that was quite enjoyable but not one that inspired me to purchase CDs or to put them on the must-see list. If you like funny bands, or really punnish humour you might want to check them out.
Solomon Burke w/Nancy Red @ Cain Park. 8/12.
When I saw Mr. Burke in 2003 with the Black Keys it was a sold out show that rocked my world. I rated it the best concert I saw in 2003. This time around the opener was a very mediocre jazz quintet, and Cain Park was maybe 1/4 full. I guess everyone was there for the Black Keys last time, which was their loss.
Tim & I had a great time. Yeah, Nancy Red was nothing special, but she wasn't offensively bad. Solomon Burke may be old and so out of shape that he cannot stand up, but he still has the best damn voice in the
business and a really good horn section. If he wants to call himself the King of Rock & Soul I will not argue. The only real complaint I had is that it was pretty much the same show as last time even though only perhaps 50% of the songs were in both shows. He just does the same things and the same intros for different songs, which sort of limits my desire to see him again, even though it was still really fun.
Now I just need that vacation post and I should be up to date.