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Upcoming (and past) concerts
Gonna see DIIV later this month, St. Vincent in August, and Interpol in November.
I saw TOOL earlier this year, and they were awesome, but man, their new songs and album are so much more "Ehh" than the others.
What concerts have you gone to or will go to this year?
I just got back from seeing the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer at the Glasgow Hydro tonight, that was great. Sixth time seeing the Pumpkins and they've yet to let me down, just such an incredibly solid band of musicians. First time I ever saw Weezer and they were superb as well!
I'm gutted I never got a weekend ticket for Download festival this week, the lineup looks absolutely insane, probably the best Download lineup I've seen in years. Couple of my friends are going so I could've joined them but it's such a large investment of time and money to do a festival now.
I've got Trivium and Bullet for my Valentine playing their Poisoned Ascendancy tour in January at the Hydro and I'm probably gonna grab a ticket to go see Pantera in February, that would be a bucket list band to tick off.
I saw both Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins separately last summer. It was the second time I saw Weezer (first was in 2001) and the first time seeing the Pumpkins. Weezer was great and the audience rocked. All ages represented. The Pumpkins were good but too loud. To the point of indiscsernability. I like loud music. A lot. But poor mixing and muddled sound make it hard to enjoy the show. They had a great stage presence and excellent audience interaction, though.
That's a shame that the mix was off, every time I've seen them they've been loud but not so loud it's to the bands detriment.
I noticed that as well the other night, there were all ages there, great to see younger Gen Z, and Gen Alpha getting into these bands as well.
Grabbed a ticket for Pantera, couldn't resist, can't wait to see them, 15 year old me would be super jealous.
Also grabbed tickets for Enter Shikari supported by Teenage Wrist in December at the Glasgow Barrowlands. I haven't seen Shikari since like 2007 when I was 17 years old on their Take to the Skies tour so I am so fucking excited to see them again, they've been a consistently great band for me over the years. I loved Teenage Wrists last album, Earth is a Black Hole, it was definitely my album of 2021, had it on repeat for weeks!
Then I grabbed a ticket today to go see HEALTH at The Garage in October. Got into these guys through a friend early lockdown in 2020 and I've loved them since, although I loved their work in the Max Payne 3 OST without realising it was them. Saw them in 2022 and they were outstanding so very excited to see them again.
Basically from October 2024 - February 2025 my gig calender is stacked.
While I'm normally very non-plused by festivals, I pulled the trigger on a set of 4 Sound Summit tickets for October. Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett are huge draws for me and the addition of Skyman is awesome! My partner loves The California Honey Drops so it was an easy sell. We have 2 friends who are already taking the 2 additional tickets and my sister reached out to see if I would want to go and has tickets as well. Sounds like we'll have quite the motley crew!!!
Courtney Barnett is still the greatest live performance I've ever been to. I love her music, but what she did with Tell Me How You Really Feel (her most underrated album IMO) was insane. The concert felt like a metal show - which is very different than her usual sound or even how the studio album sounds - and she had more charism, energy, and swagger than Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger in their prime combined! It was so unexpected and so incredible!!!
Otherwise there are a ton of great artists coming to the area like Mapache, Ty Segall, and Damien Jurado. I've seen them all before but they put on great shows and I'm really excited for them. I'm also going to try and sneak in a trip to Pioneertown to see Drug Dealer, but we'll see as that is quite the jaunt.
I know there has been a lot of talk about concert pricing, but it feels like this year tickets prices about doubled. I caught Mapache in 2021 for $10 and they are nearing $50; same with Black Lips $15 in early 2020 and they are $35 now.
Just a little over a week away from seeing Rammstein live for the first time, expecting one hell of a show (and some singed eyebrows) for that one!
Otherwise, it's been shaping up to be a good year for gigs so far. Been to three shows already, with Enslaved and Misthyrming being the highlight sets so far, and hoping beyond hope to somehow snag last minute tickets to an already sold out Chelsea Wolfe gig in October.
I was at their concert in Blegrade 3 weeks ago, it was my first time as well and man was it spectacular. I watched videos of their performances online but they can't do it justice. After the end there were fireworks (which I'm not sure are related) at Belgrade's castle and their tallest tower had Rammstein's logo on it as I was walking to my hotel.
I got a regular standing ticket, and was next to one of the towers. I'd recommend sticking around those if you don't have a fire pit ticket.
Hope you enjoy as much as I did!
Good shout on sticking by the towers! I had originally hoped to nab a Feuerzone ticket but those disappeared immediately.
I see Archspire in two weeks, they're headlining. The last show I went to they opened with Signs of the Swarm and Entheos for Whitechapel. I'm stoked to see the full show, but after a scary twelve hours last year where my left ear was muted I will keep my protection in the whole time, lol.
After that I have a comcert in July for "Downhill Jam," q locally founded band that plays cover songs of THPS soundtrack music, which promises to be kinda fun. Apparently my brother worked with their bassist at a previous job which I found hilarious.
I'm considering another Whitechapel show in October, and am keeping am ear out for other shows.
I saw Blind Guardian earlier this year, they were great. They only played a couple of their new songs (Which I'm not a big fan of) and played heaps of their old stuff so I thought it was great.
I'm really looking forward to watching Amaranthe live for the first time in a couple of months.
Went to a Miku Expo tour stop back in April, and it was a lot of fun. Just bought tickets to the new Babymetal tour later in the year.
I'm on the fence about seeing BEAT - it's Adrian Belew and Tony Levin doing 80's King Crimson, but Stevie Vai is doing (Fripp-endorsed) Fripp and Danny Carey from Tool is doing Bill Bruford. This happened right as I discovered Discipline, which is probably one of the best albums I've listened to in the past few years... I'm not sure I need to see a lot of stuff I'm not as crazy familiar with, it's all very technical pattern-oriented new wave that I don't know if I need to see it live, and Stevie Vai isn't my style. Also money. But then Discipline fucks, and I don't know if I'm gonna get another chance to see Tony Levin doing stuff like this... And it's right before I'm gonna be in baby mode, so it'd be nice to get to a concert. Hm.
I saw Gary Clark Jr. earlier this week. His recent album was made during covid and explores a variety of genres and so his concert is a fun eclectic mix. He still does some of the best blues in the biz, and at my venue they had the cameras focused on his hands the whole time so you could see all his solos, even from the mezzanine level. The A/V was also on point, which rounded out the experience for me.
I felt the same when the album came out. But after listening to each song 10 or 20 more times, they really, really grew on me. I now consider Pneuma and A/Decending to be among their top 5, and every single song to be above average. But it certainly helps if you're a drummer (or base player).
The album seems to be a bit of an acquired taste, the same way TOOL itself can be an acquired taste.
I just saw Liturgy a bit ago. HHH is both extremely pretty and very very talented. I have the image of her bent over noodling on the guitar burned into my brain, truly an awesome concert. Black metal really is incredible live, something about the tremolo picking and blast beats really lend themselves to being felt and not just heard.
I have tickets to see Paul McCartney for the first time, which I'm very excited about. I also have tickets to see Keane, I've seen them before and loved them!
Just saw a Motion City Soundtrack show, which is always a lot of fun singing catchy tunes and rocking out with a bunch of die-hard fans.
Next concerts I've got lined up are The Decemberists, Weezer's "Blue Album" 30th anniversary tour along with Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr., and finally Opeth in October for their upcoming North American tour. I've only seen Weezer out of these, so everyone else will be a surprise!
I went to a festival almost 2 weeks ago and saw a bunch of acts I don't normally listen to:
Trampled by Turtles
Wynonna Judd
Dwight Yoakam
Lord Huron
Hozier
Noah Kahan
Counting Crows (long ago me certainly)
It was super fun overall, (despite the constant rain)
Lord Huron has a few good songs, they hold a special place in my household because they were one of the first vinyls we owned for our record player. Sometimes their songs can sound a little samey but I really like The Man Who Lives Forever
Been knocking off some favorites lately!
Upcoming:
The one I’m most excited for is Kacey Musgraves in November! Far away but I’m counting down the days.
I saw Charley Crockett a few years back at Merlefest in NC. First time I'd heard them play and it was one of the highlights of the show.
Going to see Judas Priest in a few weeks. It is amazing such an old heavy band is still going strong. Their latest albums shows they still got it.
Mystery Skulls is doing an anniversary tour for his Forever album, playing it cover to cover. (Along with some other tracks.) Luis is the most chill guy I've ever met - did VIP with him once before and we're doing it again. It's just amazing how he's the complete opposite of ego. And he puts on a great show!
I'm going to see Nicki Minaj in July, I expect her to be late and do a mediocre performance considering her latest concerts, and tickets are non-refundable so yeah.
I really wanted to see Coldplay as well this month but they sold out immediately as the ticket sales opened (with 110k people in queue for them) so I get tickets. People seemed to enjoy them a lot, and the visuals looked amazing.
This years plans:
We just saw Modest Mouse and The Pixies with Cat Power opening. Modest Mouse is my favorite band of the early 2000s, and The Pixies is my favorite from the 1990s. Both were absolutely excellent. The Modest Mouse setlist was very good. The Pixies were great despite their age and though I hate that Kim Deal wasn't touring, it's understandable. Both were loud and rocked the house. Hard. Cat Power was good, but I'm not a big fan.
Next weekend we are seeing Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, and Alison Krauss as part of the Outlaw Music Festival. Kind of Last Chance to See tour, IMO. Looking forward to it.
Then later in summer/fall we have tickets for Rob Zombie, Ministry, and Alice Cooper; and then The Violent Femmes. Really looking forward to Ministry and The Violent Femmes. Rob Zombie is a bonus, and I'm curious about how theatrical Cooper's performance will be.
I saw Mr. Bungle a few weeks ago and KMFDM a few months ago, both were great as expected. I don't have anything upcoming, but I'm always looking.
I'm not a frequent concert-goer, but I'm going to see Relient K next weekend for the first time in 16 or 17 years. I'm curious what it will be like. I'm not at all who I was when I was last listening to them, but then again neither are they I suppose.