2016 was a year of great loss in both the musical and cultural worlds I have enjoyed over my lifetime, but I still managed to see some GREAT shows over the year and knocked out some more bucket list events that I never thought I would see. Here are the top five as I see it:
1. The Cure at Ridgefield Amphitheater in May:
When The Cure announced their tour early in the year and that it would include a small-ish venue in Las Vegas and would also be skipping PDX, I pounced on a ticket to Vegas as soon as possible. The show in Vegas was incredible and induced me into buying a scalped 14th row ticket for the show at Ridgefield, which was scheduled after I booked Vegas and roughly a month before the show. I'm not a die-hard Cure fan, but what I witnessed was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. I had no indication that they'd be THAT awesome and the Ridgefield show blew the Vegas one away in every measurable aspect. Really deep cuts, spanning their entire career in a show lasting over three hours with no real intermissions! Completely amazing and I am so thankful I jumped on this!!! They rank as one of the top 10-to-15 bands I've seen in my life.
2. Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman at Schnitzer Hall in November:
Two hours of flawless YES music from the third row! Simply amazing and I credit Trevor Rabin for making this show as good as it was by not only being an amazing, ripping player, but also by not playing politics and agreeing to only play three songs from his own "80's era" and allowing the group to largely explore their 70's material. We got most of 'Fragile' and four true YES epics (Perpetual Change, And You and I, Heart of the Sunrise and Awaken). By the end of the show, my eyes had welled with tears of joy, but also a bit of sadness, in that we are witnessing the window of this progressive era of music and level of virtuosity close.
3. VOIVOD at Dante's in June:
Like The Cure, I have always admired sci-fi thrasher's VOIVOD, but I have never been a diehard fan. The time I saw them at Satyricon in the late 90's was just "okay". What I witnessed at this show, at the edge of the stage in front of bassist "Rocky" was a completely revitalized band at the height of their powers, having the times of their lives during their third career act/arc! Just like The Cure, the set list was pretty much everything you'd want to hear, spanning their entire career. And their energy was just off-the-charts. FUN!
4. SLAYER, Testament and Carcass at Roseland Theater in March:
You could have colored me skeptical coming into this show. I had seen SLAYER six times in the height of their power in the late 80's-early 90's but watched the quality of the band decline over the last 20 years as Kerry King has assumed greater dominance over the band. What would they be like without Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo and with a hobbled (from headbanging) Tom Araya? GODDAMNED AWESOME, that's what! With Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph in tow, they proved that they're pretty much still the machine they've always been live. Completely vicious and stunning in every way. I even checked out the album they were touring on afterwards (the first without Jeff) and was surprised that it was pretty good. Maybe I've been too tough on KK all this time. They are a lot more clinical and stoic than VOIVOD, but as far as the 80's metal goes, they are THE KINGS.
5. Discharge and EYEHATEGOD at Dante's in October:
Again, I wasn't expecting much out of this, but man this show was off-the-hook fun! The band calling itself Discharge these days was so tight and it was so cool to see those songs performed live. The guy they have singing now really sells it! A great frontman. And speaking of which, seeing EYEHATEGOD with Randy from LAMBOFGOD was like seeing the band 20 years ago. I never miss an EHG show and this was the best one since Joey passed away a few years back.
Other rippers - Stephan Pearcy of RATT, The Soft Moon, Lycus, Abbath/High on Fire, Tony Visconti/Woody Woodmansy playing oldest Bowie, John Carpenter X 2 (in PDX/NYC), Naplam Death X 2 (PDX/Vegas), Magic Circle/Iron Man in DC, SLEEP x 2 (DC/PDX), Migration Fest (Krallice!), Fabio Frizzi, SWANS x 2 (LA/PDX), Gorguts, Black Sabbath
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Last edited by Mr Red on Fri Dec 23, 2016 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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