The Eagles, July 22, 2013

Concert Details:

Bands: The Eagles
Location: Verizon Center

The Eagles

1. Saturday Night
2. Train Leaves Here This Morning
3. Peaceful Easy Feeling
4. Witchy Woman
5. Doolin-Dalton
6. Tequila Sunrise
7. Doolin' Daltion/Desperado (Reprise)
8. Already Gone
9. The Best of My Love
10. Lyin' Eyes
11. One of These Nights
12. Take It to the Limit

Second Set:

   13. Pretty Maids All in a Row

   14. I Can't Tell You Why

   15. New Kid in Town

   16. Love Will Keep Us Alive

   17. Heartache Tonight

   18. Those Shoes

   19. In the City (Joe Walsh)

   20. Life's Been Good (Joe Walsh)

   21. The Long Run

   22. Funk #49 (James Gang cover)

   23. Life in the Fast Lane

Encore 1:

   24. Hotel California

Encore 2:

   25. Take It Easy

   26. Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh)

   27. Desperado

This show was part of the History of the Eagles tour featuring both Eagles original guitarist Bernie Leadon and Joe Walsh.   I should start by saying, while I appreciate some of the Eagles music, I'm not a big Eagles fan, and am much more a Don Henley solo fan, but went to this show because my father is a fan and I bought him tickets and regardless of how I felt about the show, for Eagles fans it seems to have been the perfect show.  There was one peculiarity for me, primarily the inclusion of Joe Walsh songs in a History of the Eagles show,  but the prevailing theory seems to be that that's how they got Joe Walsh to agree to play on the tour.

The show was an attempt at turning an arena show into a private intimate show by playing the songs by the respective members almost as solo sets moving back and forth between each member.  They all performed as if they were at the top of their game still and put on a almost three hour show running through their greatest hits, most of which are known to anyone who ever listened to a classic rock radio station in the 90's.

Interlaced between the songs were videos telling a bit of their history as a group that had been together for a large part of the last 40 years.  As there were Joe Walsh songs, I would have personally liked some Don Henley songs dropped in as well, but again, according to Eagles fans I talked to, the show was perfect.  Unlike most bands which choose to go out huge and loud in a strong way, the Eagles chose to close out their show with Desperado and unlike most bands which close on a slow song and fizzle out, they used it to fade away in glory.

Fun.: July 20, 2013

Concert Details:

Bands: Fun., Tegan and Sara
Location: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Fun. setlist

1. Some Nights (Intro)
2. One Foot
3. Walking the Dog
4. All Alone
5. Why Am I the One
6. At Least I'm Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)
7. All the Pretty Girls
8. It Gets Better
9. Barlights (Rock and Roll Part 2 snippet)
10. Carry On
11. The Gambler
12. You Can't Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones Cover)
13. We Are Young
14. Take Your Time (Coming Home)

Encore:

   15. Some Nights

   16. Stars

Tegan & Sara Setlist

1. Drove Me Wild
2. Goodbye, Goodbye
3. I'm Not Your Hero
4. Back In Your Head
5. The Con
6. Where Does the Good Go
7. I Couldn't Be Your Friend
8. I was a Fool
9. Now I'm All Messed Up
10. Living Room
11. Alligator
12. Shock to Your System
13. How Come You Don't Want Me
14. Feel It In My Bones
15. Closer

This is a case of a band that may have gotten a bit bigger than they are ready to deal with.  Don't get me wrong, Fun. put on a great show but they just seemed barely able to deal with the crowd they were handed, a sold out show.  One problem they had, was a disorganization in their setlist, in what I at least felt was a little disjointed such that the show reached a climax in the middle of the show instead of peaking at the end and then leaving on a high note.  In retrospect, for me the highlight and most memorable part of the show was Tegan & Sara.

Tegan & Sara, the identical twin canadian indie pop duo has some of the most fun and exciting stage presence of any band I know of, ripping through their setlist song to song, taking turns taking control of the show with equal skill, both playing multiple instruments.  It turns out I knew more songs going into the show than I expected and thoroughly enjoyed the show and left the show looking forward to going to see them again as soon as possible.

On the show initially being over I felt that Fun. would be a band I would want to go see over and over again, but with time that feeling diminished.  Fun. has a slew of well known songs and put on an pretty decent show and really got the crowd into their show.  At a lot of shows at pavilions, the show could be ruined by rain, but with the simple line "I'm so over the people not getting rained on", the lead singer Nate Ruess was able to put a spell on us so that we didn't even care it was cold and raining with a feeling of April instead of hot and humid as one would want and expect from July.  They moved through their songs with speed and grace but what limited them in their show was the choice of where to put their key songs.  They went out into the encore on a high note with We Are Young followed by a lesser known song and then came in quietly to the encore with Some Nights but while Stars is a good song, it is slow and doesn't have the warm, open crowd feeling of their other songs, so it felt like a diminished finale that they could have avoided with a later placement of their more well known songs to a crowd that was their to hear what they knew of this young band's career.

Paul McCartney: July 13, 2013

Concert Details:

Bands: Paul McCartney
Location: Nationals Stadium, Washington, DC

1. Eight Days a Week (The Beatles)
2. Junior's Farm (Wings)
3. All My Loving (The Beatles)
4. Listen to What the Man Said (Wings)
5. Let Me Roll It (wings)
6. Paperback Writer (The Beatles)
7. My Valentine
8. Nintenteen Hudnred and Eight-Five (Wings)
9. The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles)
10. Maybe I'm Amazed
11. I've Just Seen a Face (The Beatles)
12. We Can Work It Out (The Beatles)
13. Another Day
14. And I Love Her (The Beatles)
15. Blackbird (The Beatles)
16. Here Today
17. Your Mother Should Know (The Beatles)
18. Lady Madonna (The Beatles)
19. All Together Now (The Beatles)
20. Lovely Rita (The Beatles
21. Mrs. Vanderbilt (Wings)
22. Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)
23. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (The Beatles)
24. Something (The Beatles)
25. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles)
26. Band on the Run (Wings)
27. Back in the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles)
28. Let It Be (The Beatles)
29. Live and Let Die (Wings)
30. Hey Jude (The Beatles)

Encore:

   31. Day Tripper (The Beatles)

   32. Hi, Hi, Hi (Wings)

   33. Get Back (The Beatles)

Encore 2:

   34. Yesterday (The Beatles)

   35. Helter Skelter (The Beatles)

   36. Golden Slumbers (The Beatles)

   37. Carry That Weight (The Beatles) 

   38. The End (The Beatles)

I should start by saying that I am not a fan of The Beatles.  It's not that I don't understand their importance in the scheme of things musically, I am just not a fan of their songs when they sing them.  This seems counterintuitive as I went to a Paul McCartney show but it's only when the hold band sang them, I quite enjoy them when other people sing them or when McCartney sings them solo.

McCartney has not lost a single step since he started performing in the 50's and this was one of the best large venue shows I've ever been to with only one low point from me and some serious, unexpected highs.  With a catalogue of over 300 songs by The Beatles to choose from, plus his solo career, and Wings, there was little expectation of what songs would be heard short of maybe three or four that were absolutely expected to be played (Hey Jude, Let It Be and Live and Let Die).

He started strong with Eight Days A Week cutting through his catalogue and seemlessly moving between Wings songs and Beatles songs before hitting the first high with Maybe I'm Amazed, a highly emotional song written for his late wife Linda.  He then continued through the catalogue mixing in some unexpected songs including one that I personally love Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite! which is a song written by John Lennon and is a bit creepy and seemed to quite scare many of the people in the crowd.  The only true low point from me was not of McCartney's personal fault, but I hate, perhaps more than any other song ever written Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, so I had some difficulty dealing with it.

Before moving into his encore McCartney pulled out his big guns, first pulling on the emotions of the crowd with Let It Be and then playing hard and heavy with Live and Let Die with fireworks going off behind him followed by a crowd singalong to Hey Jude. 

The encore consisted of two part, eight songs in total to close out the over three hour, exhausting but fantastic set.  The fact that the man can still play like he once did is truly a testament to both his skill and talent. 

She+Him: July 12, 2013

Concert Details:

Bands: She+Him
Location: Wolftrap, Vienna, VA

1. I Wast Made for You
2. I've Got Your Number, Son
3. Together
4. Baby
5. Over It Over Again
6. Never Wanted Your Love
7. Take It Back
8. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (Karen Chandler cover)
9. I Thought I Saw Your Face Today
10. You've Really Got a Hold on Me (The Miracles cover)
11. Stars Fell on Alabama (Frank Sinatra cover)
12. Unchained Melody (Les Baxter cover)
13. Turn to White
14. Ridin' in My Car (NRBQ cover)
15. I Could've Been Your Girl
16. Don't Look Back
17. Rave On! (Sonny West cover)
18. Magic Trick (M. Ward song)
19. This is Not at Test
20. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here
21. In the Sun (with Camera Obscura)

Encore:

   22. Sunday Girl (Blondie cover)
   23. Sweet Darlin' Cover
   24. I Put a Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover)

I won't say much about this show because I don't want to be to negative about any show and I did not like this show at all and would prefer to never have to think about it again.

July 6, 2016: The Polyphonic Spree

Concert Details:

Bands: The Polyphonic Spree, Harper Simon

Location: Sixth and I, Washington, DC

1. Opener
2. Light to Follow
3. Hold Me Now
4. Younger Yesterday
5. Popular By Design
6. Two Thousand Places
7. Get Up and Go
8. Running Away
9. Hold Yourself Up
10. You Don't Know Me
11. Light & Day / Reach for the Sun
12. The Best Part

Encore:

   13.  A Long Day Continues/We Sound Amazed

   14. Wig in a Box (Snippet)

   15. Soldier Girl

   16. Lithium (Nirvana cover)

   17. My Umbrella (Tripping Daisies cover)

The opener for this show was quite a treat, Paul Simon's son Harper.  While he may not have the songwriting talent of his father, he still put on quite a good show. 

Unfortunately for him, shortly into the set for The Polyphonic Spree every other form of human existence is forgot and all you know is that you are now a member of the band, for at every The Polyphonic Spree show, every member of the audience becomes a member of the band.  As they did last time I saw them the show opened with the lead band hidden behind a white sheet which is slowly cut away to reveal the band, all of whom except the lead singer, Tim DeLaughter are in red flowery gowns (he's only wearing the design on his shirt).

The Polyphonic Spree are a hard band to explain without first knowing a little bit about them.  They are a band that has a range of 15 to 30 members including multiple string playing members that you normally would not see in a rock band as well as a group of backup singers, they are almost like their own little cult.  A cult whose only value is to have as much musical fun as possible.

They have a reasonably large catalogue of songs to choose from but almost always choose those that can be used to provide the largest energy exchange between the crowd and those on stage.

Tim isn't really a lead singer of a band, but a conductor of an orchestra that includes everyone who can soak in what is happening, frequently (as seen below) trying to evoke the type of magic that can only be found a truly wonderful show.

Not a lot of people I know listening to The Polyphonic Spree which led me to believe that they were not a wholly well known band who not many people had seen, but talking some of the others at the show I must just be in the wrong circles.  One girl I met had seen them around 15 times before that show and another couple was on their 11th show.

Musically, the band puts on a flawless show moving through their setlist with great exuberance, occasionally playing slower songs so as to recoup some energy to save it to expend all of their energy on their most well known song Light and Day, possibly their only song that is known outside in a main audience, possibly because of its use along with the bands appearance in the show Scrubs.  With the amount of energy they put into this song and the final song of their main setlist one who doesn't know the band would think they had nowhere to go but down, but I, like many of the members of the audience knew they had a few cards left to play.

They come back from the encore with two songs and a snippet, warming themselves up for what was to come.  For all of their own wonderful songs, their is no moment at this show, or moment at almost any show I've ever been to as when The Polyphonic Spree cover Nirvana's Lithium.  After asking for all the lights on as the opening chords of the song begin, the crowd sings with Tim the opening part of the song as it slowly builds, and builds it does.

As the first chorus hits, the whole crowd erupts, bouncing up and down like many of us feel to old to get away with anymore, but somehow it doesn't matter at this show.  The second verse begins and Tim descends into the audience, shaking hands and receiving pats on the back.  Once the second chorus hits he goes crazy with the audience, this time the crowd having erupted bigger than the first and staying that way through the third verse with Tim now conducting from the center of the audience while standing on a pew.

As the third chorus ends he instructs the crowd to sit down where they are and talks to us a bit buying time for us to maybe forget what the energy of the chorus was like and begins to sing, singing only half of a line of the next verse letting the crowd sing back the second half.  It's at this point the band begins to build back up and as the chorus rears its head again the crowd is back on their feet jumping up and down again with the combined energy of all previous choruses of the song.

From this point, there is only one song before the end of the show which was probably for the best as it would be hard for any band I've ever seen to exceed the performance of Lithium.  All I have left to say about this show is, when can I go back?

June 26, 2013: Joseph Arthur

Concert Details:

Bands: Joseph Arthur, Rene Lopez
Location: Ram's Head On Stage, Annapolis, MD

1. Currency of Love
2. Saint of Impossible Causes
3. The Ballad of Boogie Christ
4. I Used to Know How to Walk on Water
5. Wait for Your Lights
6. I Miss the Zoo
7. It's Ok to Be Young/Gone
8. Still Life Honey Rose
9. Black Flowers
10. King of Cleveland
11. Famous Friends Along the Coast
12. All the Old Heroes

Joseph Arthur is a musician that I have followed for quite a long time and while I really loved his album going into this show, I'm a huge fan of his early stuff, especially that of his first album.  For this show he only played one song not on his new album and started the show by playing his most recent album at the time straight through.  For someone that has been listening to him for nearly ten years, you would think this might be a let down, but it was anything but.

For a man that puts on a very minimalist show, just a bassist and a percussionist to join him on stage, Joseph Arthur can command the stage and put on a great show.  As a song-writer and poet he's got a quick wit who provides humorous commentary and jokes between and during songs.

He moved swiftly at a comfortable speed through each song adding guitar flourishes and solos were he saw fit.  The high point for me was the acoustic version of a song from his previous album that was released on the most recent album I Miss the Zoo a song that is a poem roughly sung/spoken to music, and something that I honestly wonder how long it took him to memorize.  It was sung beautifully with tremendously evoked emotions.

For a show that played none of the songs I was really hoping for, I did not walk away from this show wanting anything, the man is just as talented live as he is on his albums and I will attend his shows over and over in any capacity.  After the show he came out and talked to any fans who wished to stay and took time to not only sign things but also draw on them.  It was a good end to a great night.

June 24, 2013: The Rolling Stones

Concert Details:

Bands: The Rolling Stones

Location: Verizon Center, Washington, DC

1. Get Off of My Cloud
2. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
3. Paint it Black
4. Gimme Shelter
5. Worried About You
6. Street Fighting Man
7. Emotional Rescue
8. Doom and Gloom
9. One More Shot
10. Honky Tonk Woman
11. You Got the Silver
12. Before They Make Me Run
13. Midnight Rambler
14. Miss You
15. Start Me Up
16. Tumbling Dice
17. Brown Sugar
18. Sympathy for the Devil

Encore:

   19. You Can't Always Get What You Want

   20. Jumpin' Jack Flash

   21. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

I've always been much more of a fan of The Rolling Stones fan than a fan of The Beatles, although I've never thought they were that comparable of artists, as The Rolling Stones are much heavier, louder, more bluesy band than The Beatles.  Well that's exactly what they delivered heavy, loud, and bluesy.  They also delivered energy and beautiful.  While Keith Richards did not appear to have the energy of a younger man, although that may just be his more laid back style, it would not be difficult to mistake Mick Jagger for a man in his 30's.  Constructed as part of the stage was a tongue pit, with a walk way that worked its way around the crowd which resulted in Mick Jagger doing a considerable amount of running around and at no point did his singing suffer from it.  This is the concert I have paid the most for, in fact twice more than I have paid for any other show and it was worth every dollar spent, including the money I spent on my t-shirt.

They started off strong with crowd pleasing songs such as Get Off of My Cloud and moved through their stories catalogue seeming to me as if they were having maybe even more fun than we were.  They injected energy into their show early, which was impressive as the energy of the room was already very high, when they dropped into Gimme Shelter early,  personal favorite and I would imagine a favorite of many in the crowd.  An impressive group of backup singers providing the second level of singing needed for the song, at times dwarfing Mick Jagger as the song requires but together they were wonderful.

The middle of the show was strong, with the band moving cutting a swath through their large catalogue before closing out their main set with Sympathy for the Devil leaving the audience satisfied, exhausted but ready for more.  They delivered strongly with a guest chorus opened You Can't Always Get What You Want which is the perfect song for a reintroduction of the band back to the stage.  They followed that up to close out the show with strong, albeit predictable, well known songs.  Afterwards my first reaction was thinking that there was some song I was missing but looking over the set list later there was not much more that could have been asked for, and on the songs I wanted the most they really delivered.

Unlike most bands, I don't know if I'd see them again, but that's because of cost not performance, because they blew away all expectations I had of a band who was going through a 50th Anniversary tour and put on a show that I would have expected of most other bands at the peak of their career.