Just got home from the Killers.

Boys night out and some male bonding for my 19 year old son and me.

Absolutely brilliant. I really enjoy their music and Brandon Flowers is a great showman.

Let downs were: the support act - yawn, the tanked up tw*t making a nuisance of himself near us, TSB Arena - rubbish acoustics.

Been to far too many concerts to list, a bit an an eclectic list of overseas performers I've seen (in no particular order) include:

B52's, Kiss, David Bowie, Eurythmics, Motorhead (met Lemmy and Wurzel), Berlin, Uriah Heep, Tina Turner, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, Willie Nelson, UB40 (Samoa, got to be backstage), Iron Maiden, Ace Frehley, Alice Cooper...the list goes on.

The big problem in Wellington is a lack of decent venues:
- Valhalla is quite small
- San Fran is a good mid-sized venue
- James Cabaret is gone (shame)
- Bodega is gone (shame)
- St James Theatre is a good mid-large size venue but is very heavily booked for events other than concerts
- TSB arena is a good larger venue but if the sound tech isn't on their game it develops an irritating shriek
- Westpac Stadium great large venue (with a decent sound set up) but can't be used much (thanks Thorndon residents)

More recently I've been doing a bit of roadie work to help some friends out so have got to be backstage for Fuel, P.O.D. and will also be helping out at the upcoming Seether concert.

Simple Plan - Power Station. 

Wanted to love it, am a reasonable fan though I haven't heard much of their latest album and this tour was promoting that. I was disappointed that after taking 16 years to get here they didn't do more older stuff. They were on stage for around 1 hour and 40 minutes which is reasonable for what I paid.

Glad I went, probably wouldn't go again unless I was sure their set would include considerably more older music. 

cshwone: Totally agree The Killers killed it. But the acoustics. I don’t know how bands can even bring themselves to perform there. We really need a good venue designed for music.

Saw them in ChCh on Tuesday night. Fantastic show, like, really, wow.

But yes, the acoustics. The arena is just so tinny with so much high end - it just buried the vocals for me.

Celine Dion last night. Last night of the tour.

I have seen a considerable number of concerts and performers. She is, without doubt, the best. It's not really even close. Her voice is flawless and almost without peer for both range and power.

I have seen her 4 times. O2 arena last year was probably the best largely because it has the best acoustics of any arena we have been in. Spark Arena is terrible by comparison. 

Lots of high points, but To Love You More with the Violin played live as well, extraordinary!

Having front row helped too. 

10/10.

Her opening act is the amazing Veronic DeCaire who is also extraordinary and pretty funny. Saw her last time in O2 as well.

10/10 for her as well.

5 Seconds of Summer. Really enjoyed their first 2 albums, haven't heard much of their latest album which is what was touring. I felt out of place, I was outnumbered 1000, to 1 by young teenage girls. The screaming from them kind of ruined it for me. It had been a long time since they had been last time, and they really only played 3 songs from their earlier stuff which was disappointing. 

For me it was 5/10

Taupo Summer Concert. Went soley to see Toni Childs who was *amazing*. Her voice was every bit as good as on her albums and she played quite a bit from Unison and then some of her new stuff. Very impressive, made it worth the price of entry and the long drive for sure.

Totally Amped to see Phil Collins next week in Christchurch. Was fortunate enough to secure front row center seats!

Last concert I went to was I Am Giant.

Loudest concert I've been to, and I've seen Metallica, Disturbed & Slash...was epic though. Shelton Woolwright is a machine. 

Have some friends going to Phil Collins, that will be awesome I'm sure. 

networkn:

 

Taupo Summer Concert. Went soley to see Toni Childs who was *amazing*. Her voice was every bit as good as on her albums and she played quite a bit from Unison and then some of her new stuff. Very impressive, made it worth the price of entry and the long drive for sure.

 

 

 

Totally Amped to see Phil Collins next week in Christchurch. Was fortunate enough to secure front row center seats!

 

@networkn How was Roger Hodgson?  

Saw him in Wellington back in 2010 and really, really enjoyed it.

floydbloke:

 

networkn:

 

Taupo Summer Concert. Went soley to see Toni Childs who was *amazing*. Her voice was every bit as good as on her albums and she played quite a bit from Unison and then some of her new stuff. Very impressive, made it worth the price of entry and the long drive for sure.

 

 

 

Totally Amped to see Phil Collins next week in Christchurch. Was fortunate enough to secure front row center seats!

 

 

@networkn How was Roger Hodgson?  

 

Saw him in Wellington back in 2010 and really, really enjoyed it.

 

Roger at Taupo was fantastic, SuperTramp is one of the best.

Cyril

Sorry I can't really comment. Supertramp were never my thing and we were there only for TC. It was so hot, that while we would have liked to stay, it wasn't really fair on the kids, so we took them to the lake for a swim.

Went to Slash w/Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators last Saturday at the Spark Arena. 

Have been a long-time fan of MK and am obviously a fan of Slash, but had never seen the other three guys in the band before. 

This show was great! Sadly, it was Anniversary Weekend, so it was a small crowd. That didn't deter the crowd from having a good time though. 

Slash was the master of the 15min guitar solo and the band backed him very well...great musicians in their own right. And of course MK has one of the best voices in rock. 

8/10

Went to the Green-stone event at Gibbston Valley wine estate in Queenstown a couple of weeks ago, Toni Child's, Aussie Crawl and Super tramp.  Good concert albeit a bit damp.  However, when you are paying $8 a can of beer, that equates to $96 a dozen, it is a bit of a rip and blatant price gouging.  When a normal dozen costs roughly $22.   Its no wonder people dream up ingenious methods of smuggling alcohol in or pre load to the max.