Austin City Limits 2009 (Pearl Jam)
10-04-09
Yes ACL is a three day event, but when your favorite band is playing, you sort of forget about all the other great music available.  Friday we didn’t make it into Austin from Houston early enough to catch Coheed and Cambria, so we hung out and enjoyed the great weather while Thievery Corporation finished up.  We listened to a bit of Kings of Leon, but after a trip into town we headed out a little early.  We did catch a little Yeah Yeah Yeahs while waiting for the shuttle out, which was a treat.  Saturday it started to rain and be crappy.  We listened to some Mos Def which was mediocre before the ground turned into mud.  We ate a Best Wurst and listened to Devotchka who were full of energy and put on a decent show.  Dave Matthews Band was the headline band for Saturday, but after being bored by his performance, we headed on over to watch Ghostland Observatory who rocked it.  Two people creating such complex music, with laser light shows, and a guest appearance by the UT Marching band on stage.  It was good.  Sunday I wanted to just avoid the mud all together and stayed in to have enough energy to watch PJ and then drive back to Houston.  The mud was still crazy, but PJ can’t really disappoint me.  They mixed the music with both old and new.  Alive was awesome as usual.  The only things missing were Black and Yellow Ledbetter.  Eddie Vedder appeared to be drunk and he brought out guest singers, which is pretty normal.  Ben Harper came out as did the singer from Jane’s Addiction, whatever his name is.  If you aren’t singing Jane Says, I do not know who you are.  Overall the music was better than the mud.

Incubus
8-21-09
It has been too long since I’ve seen a real rock concert.  Don’t get me wrong, Kenny Cheney was a great showman but Incubus was by far the best concert I’ve seen since…who knows when.  They opened with hits and keep the hits rolling and rolling.  If it was a song played on the radio they played it.  It’d be easier to tell you songs they didn’t play (Warning and Talk Show on Mute).  I bought some presale tickets by preordering their greatest hits CD.  The seats were great and the 3 people next to us never showed up so there was plenty of room.  The sound was decent and the weather was great.  Having not heard anything good about the opening band, we showed up an hour and a half after opening and arrived within a minute of Incubus taking the stage (perfect timing!).  The smell of weed, the hands in the air, the crazy jumping fools, the dancing girls, the screaming fans, this was a concert to remember!  ACL in October has a lot to live up to.

Kenny Chesney Keith Urban LeAnn Rimes Gary Allan
8-16-08
Has it really been two years since a concert?  For starters, I splurged on floor tickets.  The Reliant Center is big and I didn’t want to just go watch the jumbotron.  We sat pretty close which made this an awesome experience.  However, the sound echos too much in the arena.  We got there just in time to hear Gary Allan sing the only song I know, the Vertical Horizon song, Grey Sky Morning.  LeAnn Rimes sang and it was okay.  I like her much better now, but still not that much.  Keith Urban was who I really wanted to see and he was great.  Kenny however was also spectacular.  He had great energy, but didn’t sing She’s Got It All.  I had a great time at the show, but I think I’m done with coutry music for now.

Rascal Flatts
6-18-06
I finally returned to the Woodlands for another concert. I though I went here more than once, but I’m not sure. The time I do remember was for Pearl Jam back in the day. This time I went to my second country music concert in a row. Apparently Michelle Branch is part of a country band: ‘The Wreckers’. We didn’t show up in time for that, but we did catch a little of Gary Allen. Rascal Flats hit the stage at about 9pm and it was quite the show. They had an expensive setup of lights and monitors, and kept the crowd a big part of the concert. There were jokes told, a version of ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Summer of 69′ as well as all of their big hits. They did a wonderful job and thank goodness we spent the extra money and got seats instead of lawn since it rained on and off all weekend. The white guy next to me seemed like he was having a great time. A couple of Astros players were also in attendance (Roy Oswalt and Adam Everett). Overall it was a great concert.

Martina McBride
3-4-06
You’d think I’d have seen a country singer’s concert by now. I do remember almost going to see George Strait in highschool, but that fell through. Anyway, Martina played at the Houston Rodeo and I was invited to go. We sat in the middle seats so it was pretty far away from the stage. Actually everybody was far from the stage because there were no ‘floor’ seats for this concert. A handful of people got to stand in the dirt of the rodeo, but not many. It was also weird how the stage circled around, so nobody had seats that always faced the stage. The sound was better that I thought it would be, but in a stadium environment, you’ll always get the echo effect. She played some old country song remakes but finished it off with all the hits I knew. Her passion when see sings really makes her show worth the ticket price.

Better Than Ezra
6-5-05
Can’t believe how long of a gap that was between concerts. I guess I did see a couple of small live bands in between, but any ways. This one was at Carlos and Charlie’s, which was a great place to have it. Its right on Lake Travis and its a pretty small stage so you’re right up on the action. The weather was great and it was actually on a beach with real sand. They played a good set list, but of course with most live concerts, stayed away from most of their slow stuff. They didn’t play Closer but did play At the Stars as their only slow tune. They did a great job of including the crowd. At one point an audience member was asked to get on stage and help, by playing a cow bell no less. Since the real headliner was Collective Soul, the set list was short. We did stay for a few songs of Collective Soul, but they started to play some new tracks we didn’t recognize so we took off. I did find a killer parking space though. Free and only a few yards away.

Bebo Norman
9-20-02
Totally different crowd, but I still enjoyed it. Great stories, and a good sounding guitar. The acoustics didn’t have much trouble since the instruments were kept simple. Good performance at a great price.

Our Lady Peace
7-18-02
A good show overall. Once again I have to complain about the acoustics at Stubbs. I miss the days at Austin Music Hall, and regret not going to see Garbage at AMH. Anyways back to Our Lady Peace. Besides my personal need for more vocals it was a great show. They played EVERY song I knew except Thief. It would have been complete with that song. Well, they played 4am but he let the crowd sing the song and as good of a job as we did, I would have preferred that he sang it. The highlight of the show was a crowd jump Eddie Vedder style. Of course nothing beats the guitar from Starseed. It gave me chills to hear Starseed. Overall worth my bucks.

Jars of Clay
3-28-02
Can’t say that I’ve been a big fan of Jars of Clay. I listened to more of their stuff when I was younger. This concert was more of a gift to someone special who deserved to go see. The concert was cool though. They played enough of their old stuff that I wasn’t totally lost. Stubbs is actually starting to be an good venue. Its cool to have it outdoors cause you can actually breathe. Once again I forgot to take my ear plugs, but this concert was much more mellow, even the crowd was mellow. I didn’t realize how many members were actually in the band. They even broke out with the accordion.

Puddle of Mudd
3-12-02
Something to make my spring break a little less boring. Its been so long since the last concert, almost a year. It was at Stubbs, an outdoor venue that I enjoy, but I still miss the pounding shows at the music hall. I guess I’m too cheap to buy tickets go see those concerts now. A relatively new band, they didn’t have that many songs to play. It was a pretty high energy concert and the songs I liked did rock live as usual. I did forget to bring earplugs again. My ears don’t like the sharp tones that Stubb’s has. I’m not sure if its Stubb’s or if I’m just getting older haha. Anyhow, my opinions of this concert aren’t too exciting. It was a good concert and nothing more, nothing exciting, nothing to complain about.

Remy Zero
11-14-01
This wasn’t a real concert, but if anything it was better! It was an in store acoustic jam and record signing thing at Tower Records on the drag. Being so close and being able to talk to them was really cool. Being acoustic and so up close and personal made it worthwhile. Getting their autographs wasn’t too bad either. Beats paying money to see concerts.

101x Springfest 2001 (Oleander, Orgy, Offspring)
4-20-01
Wasn’t actually going to go to this, but Richard asked me about it so I went. Thought it would be cool to see Oleander again. The overall experience was sweet. We found parking a few steps in front of the entrance and got there just in time to take a piss and watch Oleander get on stage. The sound was much better than the last time I saw Oleander, and the crowd, mainly made up of high school kids, was short enough for me to see over their heads. It was pretty easy to get up front, but the dumbass kids kept trying to crowd surf. The crowd wasn’t dense enough do there were plenty of bodies on the floor. For some reason someone started flinging mud too, good thing I was wearing my black Oleander shirt (they didn’t even sell any Oleander shirts at the concert). I also noticed that the lead singer had a Sacramento Kings sticker on his guitar. It was a good conversation starter for when we met the band afterwards. We got their autographs and a free poster, which was pretty cool. Orgy was ok, not as flashy and exciting as I thought they would be. Offspring had a few spurts of entertainment value, but not much. The only song I wanted to hear from them was Bad Habit, so I could re-live my high school tennis trips again, and they played that to start out. So we left when Offspring was onstage, with no traffic problems. Overall, pretty cool. Though if it wasn’t for the autographs, wasn’t worth $26.

Oleander /w Saliva and Isle of Q
3-24-01
Started out 2k1 with a band I’ve neglected to see. So I drove my ass to Houston and saw Oleander. The Engine Room looked like a pretty cool venue. It was on the outskirts of downtown and had plenty of parking. Then the bands got on and the sound just sucked. The piercing high frequency was almost unbearable. The stage was small and the speakers were about 1/4 the size of the ones in AMH. Oleander did rock though. The lead singer was high energy and talked a lot with the crowd. They mixed old stuff with new stuff. The sound system did make the show less enjoyable. Another weird thing was the fact that there wasn’t an encore. After the first set, everyone just left. I don’t know if that’s an H-town thing, but I thought it was weird. The t-shirt was cheap and they gave out a little sampler cd with it. Overall a pretty good experience, just needed a better sound system.

Smashing Pumpkins – the farewell concerts (Chicago)
11-29-00
Kick ass show. Sorry to see them go. Exciting, not just the concert, but going to Chicago to see them. The United Center was pretty cool. They had the old hardwood from the old court, and the Jordan statue was pretty neat. The concert was all I thought it would be. Being the “next” to last concert and all, emotions were high. They played a long set and jammed out as they always do. Overall a great experience, even T-Spoon, an interesting African American male on the train.

Pearl Jam
10-14-00
Hooray for the Pearl Jam Fan Club. They hooked me up totally with some seats that could not be beat. Not only were they ten bucks but they were so close it was sickening. Pearl Jam did a roller coaster job in my eyes. Playing the old stuff I wanted to hear like Black and Yellow Ledbetter, as well as Last Kiss, but missing Off He Goes, and then going down by playing the crappier stuff of Binaural like Evacuation. The show did rock and though annoying, the people sitting by us didn’t seem to be as bad as the people sitting next to Colin. They did finish with a rocking version of Yellow, but man I just couldn’t dish out the cash for the t-shirts.

Travis /w Remy Zero
9-27-00
BOOM. This was the loudest concert I’ve been to. Stubbs was a pretty cool venue, but man was it loud. Stupidly nobody had ear plugs at this one and we pretty much suffered from the over powering music of Remy. Like last time we saw Remy, we didn’t stay for the anchor band. Though I really wanted to see Travis, I had too much homework to be out so late on a random Wednesday night. Heard Travis busted out. It was good to see Remy Zero again, but I was unhappy that they choose to blast the music so loud. I didn’t notice before, but their CD also is pumped pretty high. Which is why I suppose they chose to do it live also.

A Perfect Circle
9-15-00
Awesome concert. They don’t have that many songs, so it could have been longer, but here it was quality over quantity. The environment was as cool as always at the music hall. Finally a concert where we were up front, close to the band. Paz wore her fish net outfit as she did at the NIN concert, and this time we were actually close enough to see that she did indeed have something under it to cover her…parts. No complaints except for the fact that we came out of the concert totally wet from just sweat. Been so long since I’ve had that happen it was weird.

Stone Temple Pilots
6-7-00
Kick Ass. Scott Weiland is a crazy fool. Made the concert rock. Our seats where close, but on the side. Kind of like watching the concert backstage. The sound hurt a little from our seats but the venue wasn’t big enough to prevent us from hearing the goodness. The Bronco Bowl is a neat venue to say the least.

Nine Inch Nails /w A Perfect Circle
5-23-00
Amphitheaters, the venue of the future. Seems South Park Meadows is going to be one also. I personally don’t like it cause its so big, me and Richard had to use binoculars to see Paz. Yes A Perfect Circle opened for NIN. They didn’t sound as good as I wanted them to, but hey, they’re just the opening band. We’ll see them later in September. NIN had good energy and played some old hits. What I wanted, since I wasn’t totally happy with the Fragile. Good high energy concert, but I just wish we were closer.

Smashing Pumpkins
5-14-00
The Heavy Metal Machine didn’t let us down. He played a nice set. Played my favorite songs. James Iha also did a kick ass job. As a bonus, it was at the Austin Music Hall, a small venue for such a good band. Good to see SP keeping the music where it should be, with the fans. After the concert some of us waited to meet Billy. I’ll have to agree with Colin that he has the softest hands of any person on earth. Its kind of scary. I didn’t really have a question for him, so I just shook his hand

Lisa Loeb
4-12-00
She is awesome. I have so much more respect for her after seeing her in concert. She made everyone feel like part of the show and her musical talent shined thru. She even took random requests from the crowd. A totally fun and refreshing concert change from the usual hard rockin stuff.

Splender /w Ginger Mackenzie
4-??-00
I lost my ticket to this concert, so I’m unsure about the date. They did a good job of pumping up the crowd. What surprised me was that the lead singer is black. Never watched their videos so it kind of shocked me. Ginger Mackenzie opened for them that night, so that was an added bonus.

Vertical Horizon
3-31-00
It was a long gap between concerts, but this one was a good return to it. They performed well and got the crowd into it. Besides the fact that I didn’t have a date and we went with people who did, and the girl behind me who threw up, this was a good concert. He showed off his guitar skills from the 80’s and the songs were nice. The speaker sounded a little funny, and the beer was too expensive, but it was still fun.

Dave Matthews Band
7-25-99
Hard to get tickets, and we even got seats up front. Too bad when we got there we saw that the crowd had taken over and the reserve seats were now GA. The concert wasn’t bad and we didn’t really loose too much by having chaos. Once again however I did not like South Park Meadows.

101X Fest
4-23-99
101X lost a lot of respect here. They decided to leave the awesome sound of the Music Hall and move to South Park Meadows to sell more tickets. To say it in a word…sucked. Dovetail Joint, Eve6, Flys, Collective Soul, Stabbing Westward, Lit, Blink182…all the bands were there but they’re performances were rushed and the acoustics just sucked ass. Could have been so much more.

Semisonic /w Remy Zero
1-30-99
Remy Zero kicked as an opening band. We didn’t even stay to watch Semisonic. For some reason the night seemed kind of lazy in my memory. It was very crowded as I recall. Not too many memories about this one.

Creed
8-30-98
A little bigger venue this time. Creed was a very popular band by now and this concert rocked. Fuel opened for them and I enjoy the high energy of them. This was my first experience crowd surfing. It was fun, but not what I thought it would be. The concert was really good though. Creed put on a show. The sound was good and the lighting effects were done very well. One of the best concerts.

TooL
8-7-98
Not the best concert I’ve been to. Had some crappy tickets in the seats and not in the pit. It was a short set, and in my opinion it was cause someone threw a shoe at the stage. The best thing I got out of this concert was a TooL necklace. Just too far away from stage to enjoy this one.

Smashing Pumpkins (Benefit Concert)
7-12-98
Good concert in Houston at the Aerial Theater. We got there late, and missed a lot of the good stuff. I’m personally not a huge Adore fan, so this concert wasn’t the best for me. The reviews and raves of all the SP fans out there is that this Houston concert was the best concert of the Adore tour. Tickets were a pretty penny at $40, but it was for charity.

Pearl Jam
7-5-98
No words can explain the joy. Camped out for tickets, got decent seats, and Pearl Jam kicks ass all the time. Personal favorite, but I’m biased. Rodman’s showing was cool and the only thing lacking was Black and Yellow Ledbetter. The final song could have been better, but I just can’t say too many bad things about a PJ concert.

101X Springfest 98
4-18-98
An awesome concert. So many good bands played at this one, and I personally like the Austin Music Hall’s acoustics. Off the top of my head, I can name Athenaeum and Fuel played. I enjoyed Fuel’s performance. Big Wreck also played and afterwards they wandered in the crowd. We got to meet them and got a few autographs.

Third Eye Blind
4-11-98
Would have been a good concert. Our Lady Peace opened for them. Too bad I got kicked out of the music hall for having a camera. Oh well..

Marcy Playground
2-12-98
Who wants sex and candy. I went to this show cause I didn’t get to go to 101X’s xmas bash where they played that year. I found that I don’t really like the way they play. I enjoyed the songs I like on the CD, but the rest of it wasn’t good and the performance was nothing to scream about. Hearing those few songs was nice though.

Creed
10-30-97
This was before Creed got famous. We ventured to a club, and got in for 8 bucks. Cheapest concert I’ve been to. Not that it was even a real concert. Creed was so no name that they were just playing a club. No tickets, just cover charge to get in. The place, which no longer exist, was the Electric Lounge, and held maybe 50 people max. It was just cool being so close to the concert. Never felt anything like that before or after. The concert became better as Creed gained the recognition they deserved.

Rage Against the Machine
9-6-97
Ouch. The best word to describe that concert. Two hours before show time and the moshing was already tearing me up. The only way I survived this one was that I was just within reach on the water hose they sprayed ever so often. Toughest concert I’ve ever been to. As proof I bring forth Richard’s concussion. He got messed up bad. The concert was fun, but I spent a lot of the time fighting to stay alive rather than listening to the music. Traffic was really bad afterwards. Took the longest time to get out of that.

Lollapalooza 1997
8-3-97
To the best of my knowledge, this was the last Lollapalooza. It was my first concert, and a pretty good one at that. The line to get in was the longest line I’ve ever seen. Worse than Disney World. The most memorable performances were by Snoop Dogg and TooL. It was an all day event and being outside all day was a pain, but it was worth it. Snoop put on a show. The funny thing was when he got on stage you could actually see the marijuana smoke cloud rise up from the crowd. TooL also did a great job. Richard caught the drum stick from that performance, which was pretty tight. We left during Prodigy’s performance since most of us were tired and didn’t like them that much anyways. Good concert, with a nice mix of performances.