Peter Cetera
Theatre at Westbury
June 23

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkZMJqpgG1f/

A couple years back, I saw that the band Chicago was going to play a free show in Coney Island.  I was like, great!  Chicago!  Coney Island!!  They play that ‘25 or 6 to 4‘ song that has one of the greatest bass-lines EVER!!!!  And so I did what I normally do and prepped the crap out of myself to know all the songs that they were possibly gonna play.  And oh man – what songs!  I knew like zillions of them!!!  But then disaster struck!  The wife got sick and we couldn’t go!!  And then I realized something even worse – Chicago doesn’t even have Peter Cetera in the band anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!  WHAT THE FCUK IS UP WITH THAT!!!!!

But wait, Chicago was going to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the 2016 ceremony was going to be at the Barclays Center!!!  Surely Pete and the boys could mend fences and come together for one night (The Talking Heads once did for the Hall!), right???  Apparently not, but I went anyways and Chicago with fake Peter Cetera still fcuking RAWKKKKED it!!!  But still, Chicago without Peter Cetera is like New York without douchebag Yankee fans – INCONCEIVABLE!!! 

And so I had a mission – see Peter Cetera live and HEAR the true voice of Chicago!  AND SO I DID!!!  FINALLLY!!!!

And after all that’s been said and done, Peter’s voice is just the part of me I can’t let go, cause

PETER CETERA IS FCUKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He still has got THAT voice, and THAT awesome hair, but who knew he had such biting humor!  And who knew that his Karate Kid II theme was a rejected theme for Rocky IV?????  SCREW YOU ROCKY IV!!!  YOU MISSED THE BOAT!!!

AND I WILL NEVER EVER MISS THE S.S. PETER CETERA BOAT EVER AGAIN – WHICH ENDLESSLY SETS SAIL FOR ENDLESS AWESOMENESS, ENDLESSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but if I could ask for one thing Peter – for next time – can you bring a horn section on tour with you?

Setlist – Save Me / Restless Heart / Baby, What a Big Surprise / After All (Cher cover) / Love Me Tomorrow / One Good Woman / Glory of Love / Stay the Night / If You Leave Me Now / You’re the Inspiration / Even a Fool Can See / Oh! Darling (Beatles cover) / Come Together (The Beatles cover) / The Next Time I Fall / Hard Habit to Break / Hard to Say I’m Sorry/Get Away

Encore – Feelin’ Stronger Every Day / 25 or 6 to 4

‘Found this great pic from my “Olivia Newton John” phase! Holy Moly!’

ps – I love Peter’s pics and comments on his website

Harry Styles
Madison Square Garden
June 21

Never had any coordinates set for One Direction, but my heart’s compass always pointed toward Harry Styles.  Not sure why.  I’m not a modern day boy band kinda boy, and yet I gravitate towards Harry and his… hair.  And then I saw him in Dunkirk, and was like, oh, this heartthrob is no dumbykirk – and oh, man, that hair!  And then I saw he was coming to Madison Square Garden and you can sit behind the stage for the price of 3 movie admissions and was like, well, why the hell not?  It would be like seeing the Beatles (sorta not really)!  It could be like an anthropology observation with today’s youth!!  

And so I binged his solo album over the last couple of weeks, and was ready to rock, but would Harry be ready to roll?  OH HECK YEAH HE WAS!!!  And I had never heard MSG louder in all my MSG going life!  Sure, I was probably the only straight man there over 40 AND without a daughter in the audience, but the girls’ ear-shattering shrieks at his every shimmy and shake were certainly warranted (and I may have even shrieked a bit meself)

Harry, may you nevers go out of Styles!

Setlist – Only Angel / Woman / Ever Since New York / Two Ghosts / Carolina / Stockholm Syndrome / Just a Little Bit of Your Heart (Ariana Grande cover) / Medicine / Meet Me in the Hallway / Sweet Creature / If I Could Fly / Anna / What Makes You Beautiful / Sign of the Times

Encore – From the Dining Table / The Chain (Fleetwood Mac cover) / Kiwi

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkVCHRYhcv0/

Depeche Mode
Barclays Center
June 6

REACH OUT AND TOUCH BUTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But what the fudge – you haven’t played ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ since 2014, and ‘People Are People’ in concert since June 18, 1988???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????  Depeche – what the mode??????????????

Still, you could have played boring songs about microwaved tunafish and it would have ROCKED THE FCUKING CASHBAR LIKE YOU DID ALL NIGHT AT BARCLAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me?  I couldn’t get enough!!

Setlist – Going Backwards / It’s No Good / Barrel of a Gun / A Pain That I’m Used To / Useless / Precious / World in My Eyes / Cover Me / The Things You Said / Home / In Your Room / Where’s the Revolution / Everything Counts / Stripped / Enjoy the Silence / Never Let Me Down Again

Encore - I Want You Now / Walking in My Shoes / A Question of Time / Personal Jesus

(yep, that’s me singing at the end :)

Franz Ferdinand
Brooklyn Steel
April 16

Best band of the 21st century?  I say Franz Ferdinand are.  I keep forgetting this fact, and then every 2-3 years they come back into my life and BOOOM – I remember how thick I am, and how much they fucking rule!

Gone is guitarist Nick McCarthy, but besides his good kicks and looks, the Archdukes didn’t miss a beat on their latest franztastic album – Always Ascending – or supporting it live at Brooklyn Steel, a venue new to me, but one I’d be happy to return to.  The only tiny misstep is that they didn’t play my new album fav ‘Lois Lane‘, which was featured at the show the night before.  Can’t win them all, but Franz Ferdinand wins me each and every time!

Setlist – Always Ascending / The Dark of the Matinee / Do You Want To / Paper Cages / Glimpse of Love / Finally /
Michael / Lazy Boy / Stand on the Horizon / Walk Away / The Academy Award / Darts of Pleasure / Take Me Out / Ulysses

Encore - Feel the Love Go / The Fallen / Huck and Jim / This Fire

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhp8BwSgVzU/?taken-by=thighmaster

Lorde
Barclays Center
April 4

Praise be Lorde.  Praise be we who bask in her brilliance.  Two albums deep, with the latest somehow surpassing her supreme debut.  My second-ish time seeing her, and she easily topped the previous outing.  How do you do it Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor?  You’re wise beyond your ears.  All the pop princesses of your age are so whatevs.net, but not you.  You seem like you are forever.  You seem like you could even front Nirvana (oh wait, YOU DID!! AND I WAS THERE TO WITNESS SUCH AWESOMENESS!).  How do you let things come out of the woodwork, and make them work so well?  May you only get green lights in life, and have no red ones to stop you

Setlist – Sober / Homemade Dynamite / Tennis Court / Magnets (Disclosure cover) / Buzzcut Season / 400 Lux / Ribs / The Louvre / Hard Feelings / Yellow Flicker Beat / Writer in the Dark / New York > Hard Feelings (St. Vincent cover with Jack Antonoff) / Liability (with Jack Antonoff) / Sober II (Melodrama) / Supercut / Royals / Perfect Places / Green Light

Encore - Loveless / Precious Metals / Team

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhLEAlChP00/?taken-by=thighmaster