By David Thomas
July 20, 2004
Concert reviews as a fan
The life of a music journalist involves many sacrifices. Chief among them is
the fact that you really can’t be a fan of any group. Second is the fact
that you can’t drink alcohol when reviewing a concert. At least I don’t.
So the chance to catch a few shows as a fan instead of as a critic is quite
welcoming. What follow below, therefore, aren’t really reviews but fan critiques
since I imbibed alcohol freely and didn’t take such good notes.
VAN HALEN
July 19
United Center
Chicago, Illinois
Some people love Sammy Hagar, some people hate him. All I can say is that he did
a great job leading VAN HALEN last night. The tickets for the show are the
first I’ve actually purchased in a long time. They were a birthday gift for my
new fiancé and I won’t mention how much they cost because she reads this
column. However, to say both tickets, with TicketMaster charges, came in over
$200 would not be an understatement.
Regardless, I had never seen VAH HALEN and it was a gift so it was well worth the
money for the tickets and the $7 beer. Immediately the group pulled the fan
favorite card with “Jump.” However, it was quite sad to see four rapidly aging
men all dressed in the same clothes they’d been touring in for years playing a
song called “Jump” when none of them could actually jump that impressively. The
playing was also a bit jumbled during this first tune and I was worried. This
could be horrible.
Luckily they were saved with Hagar-era tracks like “Runaround” and “Poundcake”
and the arena was a rocking. But every time there were a string of good tunes,
the group went into “solo” mode. First it was bassist Michael Anthony, then a
drum solo from Alex Van Halen, then two horrible solo songs from Hagar and
finally a ripping guitar solo from Eddie Van Halen that was awesome for the
first five minutes and tiresome the next ten. It was also strange to see Hagar
signing T-shirts, posters or whatever was thrown towards stage mid-song.
I’m sad to say it was very cool to hear all the hits and the band did sound
good, especially Eddie. He may look like a strung-out heroin addict but he can
still rip the solos. I was even surprised by how good all those old riffs stand
up over time.
I won’t go into how bizarre the make-up of the crowd was. There are just too
many jokes about bad style to list. As the night ended and we walked out of
the United Center, it was hard to keep the songs out of your
head. “Unchained,” “Why Can’t This Be Love” and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” were
definitely favorites and you just couldn’t review a show like that sober.
BIG BOI
July 15
House of Blues
Chicago, Illinois
Last week we lucked out and got free tickets to see Big Boi of OUTKAST fame
play a solo show at House of Blues. It was an easy sell since the House of
Blues in Chicago is one of the best venues to see a show. It’s intimate, has
good sight lines and great sound. Strangely the show was sponsored by American
Express, that’s how we got the tickets, and there were AmEx banners everywhere
as well as a huge video set-up with movie-quality cameras filming the entire
show.
I saw OUTKAST on the first tour in support of Stankonia and was blown
away by perhaps the best live rap group on the scene. Big Boi by himself was
definitely above average but of course couldn’t compare to the duo. But I will
give the artist his due, his voice sounded good, there wasn’t a gigantic crew
on stage rapping every other word over him and there were live musicians on
stage. That’s unusual.
Song’s like “The Way You Move” from "Speakerboxx" made appearances and so did a few OUTKAST tunes like “Ms. Jackson” and “So Fresh, So Clean” that didn’t
sound too different with the absence of Andre. It was impressive to see a rap
concert done with such musicianship and high quality of sound that is often
missing in a live setting.
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