Day 79: Concerts I've Seen

Hi again everyone!

Today, rather than focusing on one band, or genre, I'll be talking about the concerts I've seen to date, and what I thought of them. For the most part, I'll try to go in chronological order, but my memory for when things happened isn't the best.

Ozzy Osbourne

There aren't many bands that I'd have been happier having as my first concert. I saw Ozzy around 7 years ago, when I was still a really big fan of his music (as I've mentioned, I've since started to like his stuff with Sabbath more). I remember listening to an interview with him on the radio on the way there, in which he talked about how he'd stopped taking drugs, started doing exercise, etc. The concert itself was really good- he had a lot of energy, and was singing well, and there was all the excitement that goes along with seeing one of my favourite singers live. The month or two leading up to the concert, my mom kept joking about how he'd be old and washed up, on stage with a walker, barely able to walk, let alone sing, so seeing him doing that well was a pleasant surprise for everyone.

April Wine (x2)

Technically the concerts weren't back-to-back, but I don't remember either one too clearly. We did get some really good seats though- I believe we were in the second row back for the second concert- and the band was quite good. I'll be honest- I wasn't a huge fan of April Wine before the concert (of course, I knew some of the hits), but I've since gained respect for them. I still don't listen to them often, but when I hear their stuff, I like it.

Led Zepagain

No, not Led Zeppelin unfortunately- this was a cover band. When my brother found out, he lost interest, so I ended up taking a friend from school instead. Personally, I didn't think the concert was that bad- this was before I knew Zeppelin though (I only recognised 2 or 3 songs). My dad, who was obviously much more familiar with the band, said the singer wasn't great- he could hit some notes but not others- though to be fair, that's to be expected when singing Robert Plant stuff. The good news is, I liked the songs themselves, and I've since become a fan of Led Zeppelin.

Alice Cooper

I have some mixed feelings about this one, honestly. Alice Cooper has always been one of my favourite singers, and we were lucky enough to be close to the stage (at the time, I joked that we were close enough to clearly see him, yet far enough not to see how old he was). The problem was, the band was loud, and the acoustics were pretty bad... Combine that with the fact that we forgot earplugs, and it made it hard to hear him singing at times. That said, he did a great job singing some of the classics, and it was really cool seeing the execution scene in person- plus, it was my first time seeing the whole Frankenstein monster bit, so that was neat.

Black Sabbath

Man, I really lucked out with this one. Black Sabbath was playing in Calgary on my birthday (also conveniently Easter), so I flew out there to see them. The concert was great- the band was much further away than, say, Alice Cooper, but the acoustics were better, and they all did a good job. I was slightly disappointed that Bill Ward couldn't be there- I've heard stories about heart troubles, contract conflicts, etc., but I'm not sure what to believe. Either way, the band was good. I still think I had no business seeing them, though- they first played together in the late 60s, so for someone my age to see them in the mid 2010s, 40+ years after they broke up, is just unreasonable.

Roger Hodgson (of Supertramp)

This was a weird one. Not the concert, but the events leading up to it. When I was young, my dad once told me that when baking, you always had to put on music, and he put on Breakfast in America. Jump ahead like 10+ years, and I'm making a birthday cake with my friend for her mom, and complaining loudly about the lack of Supertramp. I put some on when I got home, and saw tour dates listed for Roger Hodgson. I told my dad, and he seemed interested, so we ended up getting tickets. We ended up with decent seats, and the concert was really good- despite his age, he still sang well, and I heard a lot of songs I liked, which I started listening to more. I think one of my favourite things about it was how much he interacted with the audience- between every song, he'd stop and chat with us a bit, sometimes even answering people in the audience when they shouted things.

Anyways, that's all the "proper" concerts I've seen, so that's gonna be it for today. Hopefully you enjoyed today's post!