August 13, 2023 Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor, Maine
Formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, they dropped the Dixie part in 2020, Kate really wanted to see them again. She and her mother had gone and seen them 20 years ago in Massachusetts and she had an awesome time. Kate's cousin Jesse went with as well, and her sister-in-law, they bought the seats right behind us.
It was raining quite hard when we got off the exit and they delayed opening doors for an hour and delayed the opening act by half and hour. It stopped raining before we headed down to go into the venue and it didn't rain again. It was a beautiful night.
The opening act, Wild Rivers, I had not heard of before, but they were decent. They are based out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I do think I heard the song they closed their set out with as it sounded familiar.
I had a great time at the show, but they played a lot from their most recent album and I'm more familiar with their catalogue of songs from their late 90's albums. I don't need to go see them again.
August 19, 2012 Darlings Waterfront, Bangor, Maine
11 years ago today Katie and I went to our first concert together. She had purchased general admission lawn tickets with a former coworker, Chris, and someone else was going with them. She said it would be great if I could go, the lawn tickets were sold out, but I figured I could buy any ticket and stand with them on the lawn area. However I found two lawn tickets on Craigslist cheap and bought those, I wound up selling the second ticket to another friend of Chris.
I had been to a few concerts before this day, I enjoyed them but it wasn't something I sought out to go to. I don't have regrets but I missed out on a lot of great acts that came to Maine over the years. I also didn't have anyone to go to shows with, that certainly has changed with Kate!
The real reason I wanted to go was petty jealousy. At that time Kate and I weren't really together, we were just friends, but her going to this concert with another guy, essentially, made me confront how I really felt about her. We rode up together and when I met Chris I quickly realized that I had nothing to worry about on the jealousy side.
We had a great time and enjoyed all four acts. I can't find Cracker's set list but I remember they played sledgehammer. Only regret was that I didn't buy the live recording that Blues Traveler was selling. The only other show we have been too since then where that was an option was Jewel. I think more bands should do that.
I did not return to this venue until September 2022 for Stevie Nicks and the venue has completely changed from what it was to what it is.
My Cousin-in-Law Jason and I made the journey south to Fenway Park to attend out first Guns N' Roses concert. They played not far from my house back in 1993 when I was 13 and my mom would not let me go. A couple months later and essentially did not reunite until 2016. Yes a version of GnR toured but with Slash and Duff it wasn't GnR. This show was the first opportunity that I had to attend a show.
It was originally schedule for July 21, 2020 but the pandemic delayed the show until August 3, 2021. We had seats on the side, but it was amazing, no one can tell me otherwise.
Before the delay Smashing Pumpkins was supposed to open for them, but post pandemic we got Mammoth WVH. They were ok, I couldn't really hear them that well and I'd never heard their music before.
We got down there, and eventually found parking, what was cool is they had official merchandise stands all around Fenway park. You didn't have to go to the show to buy merchandise, which is pretty smart actually. We bought t-shirts the traditions Appetite for Destruction logo tour shirts and swapped out leaving the others in the van.
Let's be honest, Axl doesn't sound like Axl from when I was a kid, but it's still Axl Rose, and Slash is AMAZING!! Duff is tremendous too. We got the new song Absurd, which was just ok. I was very surprised that we got the cover of Velvet Revolvers "Slither" it's a great song. I was very surprised to to hear Rocket Queen, I'm a big fan of that track.
Guns N' Roses
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Chinese Democracy
Welcome to the Jungle
Slither - Velvet Revolver cover
Double Talkin' Jive
Estranged
Live and Let Die
You're Crazy
Better
Rocket Queen
You Could Be Mine
I Wanna Be Your Dog
Absurd
Civil War
Dead Horse
Slash Guitar Solo
Sweet Child O Mine
November Rain
Knockin' On Heavens Door
Night Train
Encore: Paradise City
Mammoth WVH
Don't Back Down
Mammoth
Mr. Ed
Talk & Walk
Think It Over
You're To Blame
Stone
Distance
Epiphany
All in all it was a fantastic day finally seeing one of my all time favorite bands live.
My ex-inlaws both retired from City of Augusta and one of the perks they each received was two sets of vouchers for two free tickets to any show at the Augusta Civic Center. This issue is the Civic Center doesn't bring in many acts they would want to use the vouchers on.
When this show was announced June asked me if I wanted a pair of tickets, I thought why not I like Dierks Bentley. I was newly single though and it was a bit of a struggle to find someone to go with. I had been commiserating with someone I had gone to school with and invited her, we had a fun time!
I can't find the set lists or recall much about the two opening acts other then I enjoyed them.
I've been to the Augusta Civic Center for a lot of events, but this is my only concert.
May 7, 2005 MGM Grand Casino, Ballroom Las Vegas, Nevada
In 2005 my then wife and in-laws and I travelled to Las Vegas for a weeks vacation. We stayed off strip at a very nice time share. The night we arrived I called the Ballroom box office and said I wanted two tickets to on the night with the best seats available for the nights we would be in town. After a few moments in was the next day, so I bought the tickets.
We had a table about halfway up the seating area with a great view. Tom put on a hell of a show singing and dancing for a solid 75 plus minutes. Ladies on the floor area were even throwing panties at him!
It was excited to see a Las Vegas stalwart live on my first trip there.
Went to this show because it seemed like it would be fun, I was into country at the time and was a fan of Dierks Bentley. Miranda Lambert I knew from Nashville Star she came in 3rd place in 2003. Nashville Star was the country music version of American Idol.
The opening act was the Randy Rogers Band, and I really liked them a lot!! I even bought their CD and got them all to sign it. I can't find a set list but I do remember a few songs that they played, mostly off their first album.
It's funny because several years later Miranda has exploded and she was headlining a tour with Dierks as her opening act.
Back in early July Kate and I were at Fat Boy Drive-In in Brunswick for dinner when she asked if we could go to Bull Moose as she wanted to get a CD. I asked which band and she said The Heavy Heavy, I responded that I love that band. She said she thought they just played in Maine and I thought the concert was upcoming.
We checked their schedule and they had a show coming up on August 8th at Thompson's Point opening for Band of Horses and The Revivalist. Tickets, with fees were like $66 each and even though the venue is nice, the parking is terrible. Band of Horses is cool and we don't know enough of the Revivalist to spend that kind of money. Kate said, maybe they will be in the Albany are while we are there. I scrolled up ans sure enough they were set to play at Lark Hall in Albany on Thursday July 27th. We bought tickets straight away and with fee's it was $49.10 total!
We got downtown and found parking at the church for $6 just up the road from the venue a short distance. Doors opened at 7pm with a schedule start time at8pm, but Free Range went on a bit late.
Lark Hall was built in 1916 by the Daughters of the Eastern Star, I think they are linked to the Freemasons. The venue is gorgeous inside, the performance floor is on the second floor, with tall ceilings and mezzanine area. The floor holds 250 and the mezzanine 50, I would guess 75 - 100 people where there that night and they were treated to an unbelievable show.
While waiting we checked out the merch, Kate bought a t-shirt, I'm jealous as I REALLY like the white one but they only go to 2XL and I need 3. I did get a sweet pin for my pin wall here at work though!
We sat on one of the pews for the opening act, Free Range. They were decent, not my favorite flavor of music but they put on a solid set for about 45 minutes.
They Heavy Heavy are a Brighton, UK based band, their website boasts "The Heavy Heavy are a 5 piece retro inspired rock band, making the music the sixties forgot-with bombastic soul and peaceful goals." Kate once said there style reminds her of The Mama's & The Papa's, and I get that.
They took the stage and they sounded AMAZING! We were only a few feet from the stage, and you could just feel the music. The harmonies were outstanding. They played several songs that we knew form their Life and Life Only EP, and the ones we didn't were still awesome.
We danced, we sang with gusto, we had a tremendous time.
I'm not sure of the setlist, I found this one online and they are missing a track, but this seems correct.
1. Parakeets
2. Purple Flowers
3. Man of the Hills
4. All My Dreams
5. Go Down River
6. Dirt
7. All I Need
8. Real Love Baby
9.
10. One of a Kind
11. Miles and Miles
I could have listened to them play for hours. After the show Georgie Fuller and Will Turner, the two main members of the band went to the merch table, I bought their album and got that signed. Kate told them that Go Down River is her new favorite song, Georgie mentioned she saw us out of the corner of her eye singing with that song and how we so into the "I've got your back" line. She seemed excited that we were into the show. I regret not asking to get a photo with them, I won't forget next time.
I want to see them again so bad! I'd even go to Thompson's Point and deal with the horrid parking if we could make it work out.
I found this video on YouTube that someone made of the show, if you go to 5:47 mark of the video I pretty sure you can see the moment Georgie mentioned. You can see the silhouette of Kate and during that line it looks like Georgie is look right at us and she cracks a smile after the line.
I still can't believe we got to such an amazing band in such an intimate setting, it will be hard to top this show.
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