Tesla will be at the Taft Theatre Friday August 8th........:ylsuper: These guys simply ROCK!!!!

 

Tesla at The Taft Theatre (August 217) - Taft Theatre

 

Def Leppard's Phil Collen is producing their new album, and he wrote the following song and appears in the video.

 

I saw the U2 show as well.

 

I've got the following on deck thus far to round out the year:

 

Incubus/Jimmy Eat World - Lakewood Ampitheatre @ Atlanta, GA 07/08/2017

 

Metallica/Avenged Sevenfold/Volbeat - Suntrust Park @ Atlanta, GA 07/09/2017

 

Graham Nash - Lexington Opera House @ Lexington, KY 08/01/2017

 

Drive-By Truckers - The Forum @ Hazard, KY 09/24/2017

 

Gov't Mule - Mountain Arts Center @ Prestonsburg, KY 10/09/2017

 

Foo Fighters - Rupp Arena @ Lexington, KY 10/21/2017

 

Surprised the wife with tickets to see The Weeknd in South Carolina the weekend of 10/28 but she says we can't go so I have to sell those tickets. Apparently she has something huge planned for me that can't be cancelled. So I'll keep you all posted on that.

 

I think I said this elsewhere on here, but the huge something is a long weekend (Thursday - Monday) in Seattle complete with tickets to watch the Seahawks play the Texans. I'm no longer upset about the Weeknd tickets.

Mrs. Lawnboy got tickets for the Tesla show at the Taft yesterday, front and center.26 rows from the stage. :ylsuper:

Though it's a wet rainy morning, I woke today still basking in the glow of the wonderful slice of Rock n' Roll Heaven that I was drenched in last night at MOTR on Main in OTR compliments of happy hippie rocker Timothy Showalter, and brainchild of his Philadelphia based band Strand of Oaks.

 

The night was kicked off by a short set provided by said band's phenomenal guitar player Jason Anderson warming the large crowd up by demonstrating his own personal low key brand of songwriting. His approach was easy going and affable, engaging and inviting the audience to participate at his prompting with light-hearted quickly learned sing-along phrases.

 

I arrived early enough to have the pleasure of meeting Tim to thank him for making a stop in Cincy, and discussing what music lovers do best, our love of music, and comparing our common interests in other artists, and how moved we are by them. He had toured for a month with label mates, and a folky favorite of mine from North Carolina - the little known Bowerbirds who I got to hang with on their multiple visits to the area, and it was cool to share notes with Tim of our love for them. He was a joy to meet, and has an infectious peaceful good positive energy vibe about him. He has no ridiculous ego, and was seen moving around excitedly chatting with anyone and everyone. His realness only aims to display that he's just one of us, and is excited about music just like we all are.

 

Immediately following Anderson's short set, Strand of Oaks took the stage, and though Tim is understandably front and center, and the main draw, his entire band of 4 counting himself is so incredibly solid and talented.

 

For starters his guitarist Jason, and recent addition to the band is no doubt the missing piece of puzzle for Strand of Oaks' sound to have gone from good to great.

 

Song after song his dynamic prowess was on display where you knew that you were in the presence of not just a run of the mill picker. Dude stands out.

 

The drums and bass were professionally and exceptionally tight and solid, and Tim was in great spirits, and also in great voice delivering his goose bumpy awesome rockin' songs with themes that often described growing up loving music, and never wanting to lose the feeling, along with growing in life, and moving along to a more positive place being kind to one another.

 

A couple tunes in they grooved into what I'll describe as what I'd consider a Verve-like tune, or their "In-a-gadda-da-vida" with their psychedelic epic song "Taking Acid and Talking to my Brother" that moved and grooved in all it's trippy transcending way, drenched in groovy psychedelic guitar trippiness.

 

With that they lead right into their crowd-pleaser "Radio Kids" that recalls the joy of a teen excited about being turned on to all kinds of great music, and wanting to get that feeling back.

 

Midway through their set, Tim announced that he had made a new friend that day meeting a singer/songwriter in the crowd named Kevin Milner, a complete unknown, who next week will be having a tumor removed from his chest with a 50/50 chance of destroying his vocal chords. He invited him to the stage to play a couple of his originals where Kevin giddily described how incredible this feeling was to be able to share his tunes with a packed house when normally he plays to 3 people.

 

What came next was something that I'm sure that no one could've anticipated with his beautiful acoustic guitar playing, and a voice of a pure angel singing a heart tugging poignant song that left the crowd in tears. As he plucked the last note to this song the audience erupted into massive applause and cheers knowing that they just heard something incredibly special. The joy on Kevin's face only made the tears and cheers run more wildly. The band improvised with Kevin on his next moving song that they had just learned, and brought the house down once more. If his tunes weren't incredible enough, the energy from the band, and them blowing it up to magnificent proportions on the fly also left the crowd in complete awe.

 

Kevin left the stage with every member of the audience reaching to touch him and to pat him on the back for having given us such an incredible experience that none of us will ever forget.

 

Tim returned to the mic with tears in his eyes saying that if he never played another show again for the rest of his life, what he had just witnessed he will never forget as being one of the most moving and amazing things that he has ever seen.

 

I was thinking inside "Wow, now how do you top that?", and the band smartly went into their epic and moving song "JM" (one of my personal favorites) which is an ode to the late singer/songwriter Jason Molina, and a tune with a vibe much like Neil Young's - Cortez the Killer.

 

They closed their set with 3 more tunes including the trippy "Everything" and ended the show with their first well known tune "Goshen '97' where again he discusses being a teen and discovering and listening to rock and roll in his bedroom where the crowd knew right on queue to loudly sing the repeated fist pumping lyrics "I was lonely but I was having fun".

 

They jammed this last tune out in extended form to a big finish, and the crowd slowly drifted off knowing that they had just witnessed a legendary show which already would have been so, but the added magic of Kevin Milner's two song moving interlude only made it all that much sweeter. When it's clear to all from the vibe of the band that it wasn't just another night on stage in just another town, there's a consensus by all, band included of a mouth dropping WOW!...

 

And so it was....a great night to be alive rocking and rolling in Cincinnati. The feeling brings to mind the 80's Triumph song where the line goes "I'm young now, I'm wild, and I'm free...got the magic power of the music in me". :ylsuper:

I'm heading to the Incubus show at Riverbend on 7/27. They are a phenomenal live band. I'm also checking out Nickelback at Riverbend on 8/9. Before you judge, I won free tickets through Sirius/XM through a subscriber contest.

 

So did I, they must give them out like candy. Gave mine to a friend who is a big Daughtry fan.

I saw Rod Stewart & Cyndi Lauper at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls this past Friday night, great concert! They will be at Riverbend this coming Friday so if you're a Rod or Cyndi fan you will not be disappointed:ylsuper:

This one really intrigues me, and the Opera House is gorgeous. Have never seen Nash live (or CS&N for that matter). Sounds like you're in for a classy legendary show. :thumb:

 

It was a truly great show. Graham's voice was flawless, even at 75. My only disappointment was that he didn't play "Simple Man", which has been a staple of his live set for 45 years and holds a special place in my heart... But ultimately the show was still great without it.

 

Graham Nash Concert Setlist at Lexington Opera House, Lexington on August 1, 2

It was a truly great show. Graham's voice was flawless, even at 75. My only disappointment was that he didn't play "Simple Man", which has been a staple of his live set for 45 years and holds a special place in my heart... But ultimately the show was still great without it.

 

Graham Nash Concert Setlist at Lexington Opera House, Lexington on August 1, 217 | setlist.fm

 

That must have been heavenly in the Opera House to just chill back and listen to the good vibes of a legend like Graham Nash. I bet that whatever stress you might've had ceased to exist for a couple of hours and kept you high all the way home. I'm envious man, that had to be awesome. :thumb:

I'm a little late in submitting reviews for two awesome free Fountain Square shows that I attended on Wednesday and Saturday night, but better late than never.

 

Wednesday night is Reggae night on Fountain Square, and with the weather absolutely perfect this one was massively attended to enjoy the happy peaceful jammin' sounds of the Jamaican group "The Talking Dreads" who wonderfully mixed traditional Reggae tunes with Reggae versions of Talking Heads songs.

 

Comprised of both men and woman musicians and singers from Jamaica... 7 in total... and also including a female Japanese keyboardist, The Taking Dreads is fronted by the dreadlocked awesome vocals of a male singer who goes by the stage name of Mystic Bowie.

 

With the perpetual thick scent of ganja in the air, the huge happy dancing crowd made certain that Fountain Squre was the place to be even thought the other "Party on the Purple" was going on at the very same time on the same evening.

 

While I pondered which event to attend, the infectious joy being had at this one made me know that I had made the right decision.

 

These nightly concerts on Fountain Square are becoming more and more popular so much that the attendance is becoming mind blowing.

 

 

 

Which brings me to Saturday night, where though the style of music was much much different, the drunkened jamming rockin' joy was no less in full effect.

 

As a pre-Riverfest Party, WEBN welcomed to town the spot-on rockin' sound of the Ultimate AC/DC tribute band "Thunderstruck" who rocked the stage to a massive drunk crowd of 20 somethings to 50 somethings playing 3 hours worth of AC/DC tunes from both the Bon Scott era as well as the Brian Johnson era fronted by a lead singer who looked and sounded like both, with a young guitarist from Rhode Island doing his best Angus Young impersonation.

 

No body in attendance cared one bit that they weren't the real band as they kept the hot tunes coming one after another creating a sensation of truly being at a real AC/DC show. The heavy riffs, the familiar screams of the vocals, and the thunder of the drums pounded out with accuracy everyone's favorite AC/DC songs where the crowd sang along knowing every word while collectively getting more drunk by the minute so much that only a few people even noticed that I was wearing my black AD/HD shirt.

 

Even when you thought the band couldn't expire any more energy they came back to the stage to jam out 3 more songs threatening to play all night, and powerfully ended the show with the cannon shooting sounds of "For Those About To Rock".

 

After the show the band jumped into a photo booth so the crowd could snap photos of them, and no one noticed that I crashed the photo session jumping in the booth right up front with forked fingers rocking my black AD/HD shirt. I would have just loved to see the looks on everyone's faces when they sobered up by morning and looked at their pictures from the concert and wondered who the hell was the guy with that shirt!!! LOL!!!

 

Caught a stunning performance last night from these Bloomington, IN guys "Dizgo" at the relatively new impressive and attractive club Octave in Covington on Madison Ave, while touring their 2017 debut release "State of Constant Motion".

 

Have checked this place out a couple of times now, and what a refreshing impressive young 20 somethings crowd of pleasant peaceful happy psychedelic electronic hippy types that had me feeling uplifted and alive to be around their positive energy and good vibes.

 

With them also came a sense of innovativeness both in spirit and in forward thinking with an all around no-angst accepting and welcoming attitude towards all.

 

Really had me concluding them to be a fine example of what's right with this world, while giving me hope for the future.

 

The band itself kept the tasty fresh jams pulsating for a good couple of hours accompanied by a visually stimulating tasteful and colorful laser light show.

 

Though surrounded by the tight groovin' rhythm of bass and drums w/ an electronic sheen production, guitarist/vocalist Andrew Pickel looks to be the glue that keeps this unit together with his brilliant clean and dynamic psychedelic spacey guitar playing and vocals that just feel funky fresh and natural without ego, or an attempt to steal the spotlight.

 

All the elements of their sound blend beautifully as a cohesive unit where throughout their performance they would seamlessly on occasion toss in flourishes of Pink Floyd DSOTM themes along with also a nod to Rush's Tom Sawyer when they began one of their jams with its mesmorizing explosive intro.

 

All in all their entire performance was an extended jam of ear and eye candy to delight the senses. They weren't trying to be rock idols on stage, but merely an extension to the audience where them as well as all of us were just a groovin' and dancin' to all of the delightful freshness that they were serving up.

 

The show's warmup was provided by the tasteful electronic mixing of the Bloomington, IN DJ/Mixer Kaleidoscope Jukebox

 

Dizgo - Right Place Right Time

 

This jam builds to where about the 5:20 mark his guitar grooviness begins to take flight.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD1OaDDOYcU

Kaleidoscope Jukebox

 

I know that I already posted Dizgo playing this tune live, but this Live in Studio performance of "Right Place Right Time" is just too groovy for words...I just had to share it.

 

Seriously ambitious jams for these guys' debut effort.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bydIqhBQYQs

Fountain Square's nighty free summer concerts is a gift that just keeps giving, and and if this great weather summer hadn't already proved enough in providing great jammin' shows night after night, the city outdid themselves by inviting the veteran KISS tribute band Strutter to town Saturday night to blow downtown Cincinnati up!

 

This was the real deal people with Strutter paying close attention to every last detail necessary to brilliantly give the illusion of being at a real and explosive KISS show.

 

With the stage stacked with shiny silver amplifiers on both sides 18 in all, and the drum kit set high up on a riser, and the whole band head to toe in complete authentic KISS wear with no stone left unturned they rocked the square to perfection all of the band's party rockin' anthems for nearly 3 hours that had the audience on their feet pumpin' their fists and singing along.

 

Every nuance of every band member was emulated so well that it would've made the real members proud.

 

Late in the performance after wooing the crowd with such a dead-on dynamic performance even drummer Peter Criss alone took center stage to sing the crowd pleaser ballad "Beth" to heart tugging perfection, mannerisms and all to teasing his fingers through his hair and moving his head exactly just like the real Peter Criss.

 

While watching the band and observing the crowd, I thought that I was seeing double when I noticed a man in the audience in a black hipster sports jacket w/ jeans, jet black hair and shades looking exactly like the real Gene Simmons. I'm still not even certain, but he looked so believable that it had me thinking that it was indeed him, and for their final number Paul Stanley said that we would like to invite a special member of the audience tonight to join them on stage for their last number, and sure enough, up jumps who I'm guessing was indeed Gene Simmons to sing with the band "I Wanna Rock N' Roll All Night", and by the dead-on vocals and appearance it was either him, or a serious look-a-like. :idunno:

 

Each year the shows on the square are becoming more and more incredible, and massively attended that it's become a no-brainer for the city to just keep bringing it, and that's such a reward to the whole town who can regularly look forward to keeping their summer nights filled with great live performances and downright fun. Even on work nights shows are completed early enough to get home and get to sleep, and wake energized with music in your soul ready to face the day's work.

 

Who needs to wait for the weekend when you're guaranteed great music night after night throughout the summer on the Square? Great job Cincinnati in putting your name on the map as being a true party rockin' town.

 

We enjoyed the heck out of The Avett Brothers after the Reds game last night.

Any Tri-state area EDM & hip hop fans out there need to know that there's a serious hot spot in Cincinnati's northwest of downtown area on Central Pkwy in a super awesome old brewery named The Mockbee.

 

The whole club is two huge basement typed stone walled archway tunnels, one side with bar and lounge with the walls filled with cool edgy trippy artwork, and the other tunnel of equal size w/ stage and sound where the DJ's go to work pumping their crowd pleasing dance worthy bass thumping electronic jams.

 

Many nights throughout the week tons of hippy trippy EDM 20 somethings can be found taking in the delights of all of this underground grooviness, and often times at no cover, and Saturday night was an exceptional night of party jams for a $15 cover with 5 DJ's headlined by the 28 year old nationally known mixologist psychedelic nerd geek sound genius from Dayton, Oh Yheti pounding out his mind tripping dubstep ear candy that had the packed house in high party spirits dancing and groovin' to all of the surprise trippiness that he came prepared to deliver along with a vivid light show that bounced off the tunnel walls and everyone's florescent painted faces.

 

To add to the color many attendees could be found with lighted hoola-hoops or swinging lit-up groovy sand bags on strings, or even wearing blinking lighted finger tipped gloves. On hand too were a handful of artists painting music inspired groovy florescent works of art right on the spot.

 

The whole affair was one non-stop jam to trip your senses with happy pleasures all amongst a peaceful happy no-agnst crowd of beautiful art and music lovin' youth joining together in cohesive positive energy form with only one aim to enjoy life, music, dance, art and each other.

 

Even in such a packed space everyone politely moves through the crowd with respect for each other not to barge around with no concern for others like you might see in some drunken fests of inconsiderate numb skulls where rudeness abounds.

 

No...here the vibe is to be cool to one another because no one wants anyone to come around to spoil this slice of peaceful groovy heaven. Leave your ego at the door, understand the one rule to be peaceful and respectful, and come on it and have a great trippy dancin' time.