seanpjam

Right in the RED ZONE

on U2, 2009 Sep 17

What a fantastic show, a few of the techies enjoying the show avec Phillip et moi, je suis bien content que j'etaie au spectacle.

And what a show it was.

No treat let me tell you.... But great show once it started

on Guns N' Roses, 2002 Nov 29

Well the previous night was the opening of a scary evening at the ACC when Axle decided to show up over an hour late.

However it was a great show with the Ti@#y CAM going around the arena. Lots of beautiful mountains GMAO!

Correct concert date

on ZZ Top, 1976 Jan 9

Billy mentioned that "It might be cold outside, but it's gonna get hot in here tonight!" Billy goes into even more detail about Precious and Grace and how he and Dusty picked them up hitchhiking between San Antonio and Houston. He said that "the closer we got the uglier they got" and he mentioned how they had just been released from the Texas State Penitentiary and they wanted to "kick up their heels a bit". Billy asks the crowd if they had a good New Years, and also mentioned that the crowd made them feel good "as if we were in our own back yards". The version of Blue Jean Blues is just absolutely beautiful. It's slightly different, perhaps for the Canada January winter, and mentions how the girl that stole his blue jeans walked out into that "white stuff ya'll have up here" (in reference to the snow, as it was snowing outside during the show). This show is often listed on Internet sites with an incorrect date of June 1st, 1976 but this was in no way a summer show. The correct date is January 9th, 1976.

Attendance and review

on Elvis Presley, 1957 Apr 2

23 000 See Elvis. Late Show 15 000. His Largest Ever.

Crowds estimated at 8,000 and 15,000 persons jammed Maple Leaf Gardens last night as Elvis Presley gave his first and second Canadian shows. Col. Tom Parker, Presley's manager, said the second-show crowd was the largest Presley has ever faced in a personal appearance. I think Toronto audiences are terrific,' Col. Parker said.

But if the Toronto audience was the largest Elvis has ever faced, to all reports it was also one of the quietest and best-behaved audiences ever to watch Elvis in action. Members of the troupe said the whooping and hollering and shenanigans just didn't compare to what they had seen in other cities. However, they gave part of the credit for this to the 90 special constables on duty and to the alert Gardens' staff. Whenever a youngster bounced up in his seat a policeman would reach over and plunk him down again. This sometimes gave the Gardens the appearance of a large jack-in-the-box, but it seemed to have the desired effect. Two women fans were ejected late in the second performance when they tried to break through 20 policemen and as many Maple Leaf Gardens' attendants to reach the stage. Frankie Trent, who leads off th Presley show with a tapdance routine said he had heard a lot more heck ling than was usual in most towns.'But the kids didn't screech and run around as much as they did in other places,' he said.

Same Everywhere

Elvis himself didn't notice anything different about Toronto teenagers. "Teenagers are the same everywhere," was his only comment, but although Toronto teenager may have been quieter and better behaved than teenagers elsewhere, they managed to disappoint anyone who came to hear Elvis sing.

From the time Elvis, dressed in his all-gold suit, walked on stage and smiled until he gave his last bump nearly an hour later, nearly every teenager in the place screeched, at the top of his lungs. Despite a good public address system Elvis managed to get across only the occasional note that the audience could hear. However, this didn't seem to matter to most of these present.Every time Elvis reached out his arm in one direction or turned to smile in another, all the crowd in that section would screech with ecstasy. One girl got out of her seat and ran down the aisle. Col. Parker and a few policemen pulled her away as she tried to clamber onstage and touch Elvis.

The radio show

on Honeymoon Suite, 1984 Aug 30

Formed in 1982, this show was recorded in Pittsburgh, PA for WDVE-FM radio, when Honeymoon Suite was on its debut 1984 U.S. tour. Initially, this show aired on the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio concert series, and features tracks from the group's first album.

Review found on the net, but the STUB is mine

on U2, 1985 Mar 28

submitted by doug
This was my first U2 concert. I was 20 years old and had been a fan of U2 since War was released. It was coming close to final exams at McMaster Univ. in Hamilton Ontario, but I didn't care, I so wanted to see U2 live after missing the boat on previous shows.

A group of us went. I think there was 8 of us and we had seats at the far end of MLG. I remember the excitment building while we were sitting in the seats prior to the show (when you're 20, everything is more intense isn't it). I remember the show being absolutely incredible. The feeling of everyone in that arena coming together that night as one. The one thing I will NEVER EVER forget was that U2 closed the show with 40. Everyone in Maple Leaf Gardens was singing along to the chorus. Bono finished and left the stage, but we kept singing the chorus, then Adam left, then Edge, but Larry kept playing the drums and we all kept singing. Finally Larry left, but we kept singing the chorus. The lights went up, they started playing some very mellow music, but we kept singing the chorus. We were all walking up Carleton street outside the arena, STILL singing that song, walking down the middle of the street.

I've never seen anything like it since.

Tomorrow I'm off to see U2 in the 360 concert at Sky Dome. It's been almost 25 years since that first U2 concert in the early spring of 1985 - I'm 45 now (sigh)- still a fan, and feeling excited about seeing U2 again.

Tomorrow, I will be 20 again, if not just for a little while.

REVIEW from CANOE live

on Green Day, 1997 Nov 19

In another time, Green Day's energetic singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong might have made the perfect court jester.

He certainly showed he knew how to whip a crowd into a frenzy last night as more than 1,000 Green Day fans were treated to a rare and raw club show by the Berkeley-based trio whose muscular punk sound has sold 20 million albums.

Green Day last played in Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens two years ago to a crowd ten times the size of last night's rowdy bunch.

So maybe Armstrong's silly shenanigans -- including the use of a Tickle Me Elmo doll to get a clap-along going, impersonating both Marilyn Manson and a heavy metal handbanger, inviting an audience member up on stage to play guitar, and dressing up in a half-dozen shirts, a toque and a bra thrown from the crowd -- were inspired by the small room.

Or maybe it was Green Day's mini-concert in the alley behind HMV earlier in the day.

Whatever the reason, Armstrong was definitely pumped from the get-go as he, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool took the stage to the strains of Devo's Whip It.

"I am the Karate Kid!" he yelled after someone tossed up a T-shirt which he promptly wrapped around his head just two songs into the evening.

Both older favorites Geek Stink Breath, Chump, Longview (which began as Manson's The Beautiful People) Brain Stew, Basket Case, and new songs, Nice Guys Finish Last, Hitchin' A Ride, The Grouch and Scattered, from their latest album, Nimrod, followed.

But in the end it was Armstrong's seriously playful sense of humor, something getting harder to find in music, that set Green Day's performance apart from so many other shows this year.

It definitely goes down as one of the funnest evenings of music, if nothing else.

"I remember some of you from about four years ago," he teased the crowd at one point. "You guys were like 14 with your mom and dad saying, 'I like your band.'

"Now you're 18 or 19 and you're completely f--ed up! I'd have to take full responsibility for that!"

My only regret is that Green Day didn't play more of the more interesting, experimental stuff from Nimrod.

Here's hoping the band is saving that material for a bigger show, expected to return to Toronto next year.

Pearl Jam rocks locals at Gardens from CANOE live

on Pearl Jam, 1996 Sep 21

Concert Review: Pearl Jam


Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto - Sep 21, 1996

Pearl Jam rocks locals at Gardens

By PETER VAMOS -- Jam! Showbiz









If the members of Pearl Jam demonstrated anything Saturday night - other than how to put on one hell of a show - it's that they know how to play to their audience's local sensibilities.

And so it was that six songs into their outstanding set before a sold out Toronto crowd, Eddie Vedder stepped up to the microphone and asked those seated at the back of Maple Leaf Gardens if anyone could see his T-shirt.

"This here shirt's a circa 1978 Neil Young and Crazy Horse tour shirt. We've got some friends who are Canadian," he said as the crowd erupted into a head crushing cheer. "Apparently more than I thought."

And so the tone for the evening was set.

Vedder, along with guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Jack Irons, put on a show that was both relaxed and entertaining.

From the opening cords of Release through such songs as Tremor Christ, Animal, Jeremy and Habit, Pearl Jam freely weaved tracks from all four of their albums.

Few of the faithful lucky enough to get tickets (they were sold out in 20 minutes) should have left disappointed.

Vedder seemed downright playful as he wandered the front of the stage showering the sweating throngs in the mosh pit with water from a plastic bottle or bounded about the stage with gleeful abandon, at one point nearly bumping Ament into the drum kit at the rear of the stage.

Not even blowing the opening lyrics to Even Flow could dampen the apparent performing rush that seemed to have hold of the singer.

"You'll never hear us do this anywhere else," he said later as the fans' screams erupted yet again. "Wait a minute, you haven't heard what it is. I might piss on you."

What Vedder did, in fact, was demonstrate that he'd done his home work before coming to Toronto. "We're going to get (Toronto Maple Leaf enforcer) Tie Domi into this song," he announced to the delight of over 15,000 in the crowd. The band then began playing Not For You with the opening lyrics: "Restless souls, enjoy your youth / Like Tie Domi hits the truth..."

Through more than two hours Vedder's voice was powerful enough to vibrate your insides while the rest of the band played song after song with power and precision, never noticeably missing the mark.

One of the more interesting moments came near the end of the set when Vedder tried to reach out over the red shirted security personnel lining the front of the stage, apparently trying to grab the hand of a fan up front, perhaps to bring on stage. After a few moments he abandoned the attempt and headed back to his microphone as the band broke into Alive.

But the highlight of the night had to be the final encore. At that point the crowd experienced a moment rare in the realm of arena rock shows as Vedder performed a slight of hand that would make Kreskin proud.

"Just keep the lights on. We're just hanging out here," he called to the lighting crew. And with the house lights on and the cooling strains of Black rolling over the crown and everything in plain view for one brief moment the cavernous Gardens actually seemed intimate.

And that, if nothing else - and there was something else - was worth the price of admission.

Late again by almost 2 hours another Canoe Live Review

on Guns N' Roses, 2010 Jan 28

OPENERS DANKO JONES AND SEBASTIAN BACH

How do you know you're at a Guns N' Roses concert?

You have to wait a really long time for the show begin.

And so it went on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre as a crowd of about 21,000 waited for frontman Axl Rose to begin just over two hours past the scheduled start time - would you believe at 11:25 p.m.? - following sets by homegrown opening acts Danko Jones and Sebastian Bach.

Somebody needs to grease Axl's wheels. Seriously.

Of course, waiting for the 47-year-old Rose is nothing new.

He made fans wait some 17 years for the latest GN'R release of original music, Chinese Democracy, which came out in November 2008, and for which Rose is currently touring the world, including some 13 dates in Canada in January and February.


While fans cooled their heels at the ACC, women in the stands - either in various states of undress or making out with each other - were shown to huge cheers but time dragged on and there were boos as the crowd's impatience grew.

By the time Rose and the latest lineup of Gunners - guitarists Richard Fortus, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and DJ Ashba, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman, drummer Frank Ferrer and one-time Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson - opened with Chinese Democracy's title track, it felt underwhelming.

Especially since Rose made his entrance in a wheelchair, wearing a black fedora over his red scarf and sunglasses (the fedora and glasses he eventually ditched), his blond hair now shoulder length and sporting a moustache, dressed in an unbuttoned shirt and jeans with a large cross and heavy necklaces adorning his chest.

"Sorry about the time delay," said Rose after that first song. "We got a little carried away .... last night. But anyway, we're here."

He even joked later that some local deejay had predicted the band wouldn't go on until 2 a.m.

"I'm early," he cracked.

Thankfully, Rose and company got the crowd quickly on side with the second song, an explosion-heavy version of the GN'R classic Welcome To The Jungle.

Other song highlights were no surprise: A fiery, explosion-laced version of Live and Let Die; the GN'R signature song, Sweet Child O' Mine featuring stellar guitar work by Ashba; the heartfelt ballad November Rain with Rose at the piano; the propulsive You Could Be Mine; a great cover of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door that included an audience singalong; the anthemic Night Train and the show-ending Paradise City complete with more explosions pink confetti and silver streamers. (It's 1:55 a.m when they finally leave the stage although Axl returns to take a bow with his band and distribute shots to some people in the crowd and throw flowers out into the audience.)

Less effective was much of the Chinese Democracy material save for the soulful mid-tempo rocker Street Of Dreams; the dramatic power ballads Madagascar and This I Love, the latter featuring Rose standing on top of Reed's piano.

On the plus side, Rose proved to be a non-stop man in motion, constantly running around his enormous stage that was adorned with large video screens and lighting columns, two circular staircases, three mini-catwalks, and elevating platforms for the guitarists to play on.

He also performed his trademark side-to-side dance moves and stomped his right leg so hard, it's no wonder he kept running off to a little black tent at the side of the stage where he changed his sweat-soaked shirts.

Rose was generous frontman too, sharing the spotlight with nearly all of his musicians who were given extended solos with special mention to Reed on a mirrored grand piano and the heavily-tattooed Ashba on a glittery black guitar.

Axl even performed his own instrumental piano medley of Elton John songs.

So far the best reported sidebar about this tour is that the Rose has banned Guns N' Roses fans from wearing Slash T-shirts or top hats (I'm pretty sure Ashba was symbolically wearing a squished one) at the shows.

The incredibly silly move has been denied by Rose's camp even though TMZ claims a member of the concert security team has confirmed it.

Rose and Slash has been at odds since the guitarist left GN'R in 1986 and then wrote about their feud in his 2007 autobiography.

Someone will have to ask the former GN'R axeman, who will release a solo album later this year, what he makes of it all when the guitarist shows up at Canadian Music Week in Toronto in mid-March to be a keynote speaker and play some tunes.

Or not.

Can't we all just get along?