Krüde is a sucker for seeing and hearing live
music. All kinds of live music. If it is entertaining, I’m there. This has
been the case for over 40 years. At my current age of 55, I find myself
picking and choosing the shows I see with more discretionary care i.e. I
want to see the best of the best these days. No exceptions.
So, when a bevy of my favorite bands were booked to be in
the NJ/NY area, I jumped into action. This means buying advance tickets.
Shit
I really dispise Ticketmaster and all of its
satellite businesses. They make buying tickets way worse. Ridiculous service
fees and a crappy website make ticket buying a nightmare. Using weird barcodes
for venue entry sucks as well. Paper tickets are much better. But I digress.
The artists more than make up for the Ticketmaster hassle. In spades.
Triumph was the first show of my current concert run.
It was their first New Jersey appearance since 1986 at the Meadowlands
Arena. They kicked major ass then. And major ass today rocking Camden, NJ.
Only difference now was that they added a few extra musicians to fill out the
sound. They played all the classics such as Magic Power, Never Surender,
Somebody’s Out There and of course Fight The Good Fight. Since it is
a Triumph show, the pyro displays were top notch. All in all an amazing
comeback for a legendary Canadian band. Bravo!
A week later I saw the legendary David Lee Roth. He
is currently touring the USA performing only vintage Van Halen material.
DLR was in great spirits and his showmanship and sense of humor really shined
through. His voice is mostly shot from many years of touring. But Dave was
smart enough to hire not one. Not two. But 5 background singers to help
fill out the vocal sounds. Add to the stew a stellar band rock veterans. And a
full night of vintage Van Halen classics. Damn. DLR was great. He played
deep VH cuts such as Little Dreamer, DOA, Drop Dead Legs and all
the usual VH hits. Great fun it was to be there. Crowd was hot for the gig the
whole show
And a few days after the DLR show was the immortal L.A. Guns.
LAG was booked into a 600 seat theater in NJ. Kinda strange seeing LAG
perform in a place that has all seats. For the past 8 years I’ve seen LAG, they
have played in general admission clubs. The theater was about 2/3 full. And the
show was over by 9:45 PM. No opening band. LAG were their usual live excellence
while playing a few new numbers mixed with classic older songs. Speed, Cannonball, Lucky
MF were some of the newer tracks played. Over The Edge, I Want To Be Your
Man, Sex Action were some of the oldies played. The NJ crowd was totally
into the show from start to finish. Great rock n’roll by one of the best live
acts today.
Live music should always be live music. If it ain’t
all live, it sucks. The ticket prices for these shows were very reasonable.
Concession (beer) prices were shitty everywhere. All in all, nothing beats the
experience of seeing a great musical act do their thing on stage. Live music is
my panacea….
Love
Peace
Soul,
KK