Eric Burdon & the Animals

Last week, thursday October 6, 2011, I went to see Eric Burdon and the Animals at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. I was excited to see the show since I knew a few of the songs they sang and I had seen them performing on television when they were younger. Some of the songs I knew were "House of the Rising Sun", "Don't Let me be Misunderstood", " We Gotta Get Out of this Place", and "it's My Life. I was talking to a few women outside the concert that were older than me and they had never heard of them. Here's some background information on the Animals. The Animals were big in the 1960's. They are considered part of the British Invasion. There were five members of the band, Eric Burdon was lead vocals. The other four musicians played drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards/ organ. The band split up and reunited in 1977 and in 1983. The Animals were induced into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2003 the band had a falling out when it was discovered the original drummer, John Steele, owned the rights to the name The Animals. Burdon disputed it but lost. The concert began at 8:00pm and we got in and seated with time to spare. We were seated on the ground floor center stage about 15 rows back from the stage, right on the isle. I normally don't like sitting on the floor because it seems like there is always the tallest person sitting in front of you, or the loudest person sitting behind you. The worst is when there is a very bad smelling person sitting anywhere around you. This time I had a giant sitting in front of me and his weird strung out girl friend was sitting beside him. They were both rough looking but she had short bleach blonde hair in two high pigtails with a terribly crooked part. She spent most of the concert out of her seat but when she was in her seat she was hanging out into the isle. There were no smelly or loud people which was good. When the show started all the musicians just walked up on stage and began playing. There were no hellos or welcome to our show, just music. They started the show with some bluesy song, which I came to find certainly wouldn't be the last. About 85% of the concert was blues. The other 15% of the concert was him butchering all the songs I knew. When he sang the songs I, and just about everyone else, knew he basically talked through them, he wasn't singing. The parts of the songs that he did sing he was completely off on the timing. Some people just haven't figured out that people come to see them to hear them sing their songs they way they have heard them for the last 50 years, not some butchered version of it. I can uderstand him changing it up a few times because that gives the song a nice variety but he did the same thing every single time. It was too much. Another thing he did too much of was yelling, screaming, and making strange noises into the microphone. It was like it was his first time hearing himself sing into the microphone. In every song when there was a break from the singing he started making strange sounds or screaming. It got rather annoying.it was like giving a small child a microphone. The child would have done exactly the same thing he was doing. I would have thought the desire to do that would have diminished after hearing yourself sing for so many years. Here's the funny part. He still had a very strong voice and when he sang it was great. His voice had not weakened over the years like many of the other artist I have seen. His voice was powerful but he didn't use it to his advantage. Instead he used it to make strange sounds and scream and yell. He could have sounded exactly like the original recordings of his songs but he didn't. I was very surprised by his voice but even more surprised when he didn't use it to sing. His musicians had skills and they certainly used them. The drummer played a driving beat, and the guitar played played some impressive licks but the keyboard and organ player was the best in my opinion. Anyone could tell he was classically trained. He played some difficult solos on both the organ and the keyboard. He played two completely different things with each hand at the same time, one hand on the keyboard and one on the organ. He was great. Overall, the concert wasn't too bad. Eric Burdon still had a powerful voice but he didn't use it to sing his songs. There was a nice selection of very experienced musicians accompanying him on stage. The concert featured too many blues songs for my liking. Someone after the concert said he played a lot more blues that he normally does. Maybe he was just blue that day.

The Guess Who Concert

The Guess Who is by far one of my all time favorite bands. They are amazing on all scales. My scale system goes like this. I have three scales, friendliness, overall sound, and stage presence/ performance. The overall sound is pretty well self explanatory. If they sound good they get a good rating, the better they sound the higher the rating. The stage presence/ performance is the show they put on. For example, in the Rain concert the musicians dressed up in costumes like the Beatles. This category does not mean they have to wear costumes, if they dance around and get the crowd going they can get a good rating, like the Village People. If they just stand there like Danny of Three Dog Night they don't rate very high. Now, the friendliness scale is how friendly they are to fans and people in general. A lot of times after a concert I have the opportunity to meet the musicians. I have met the Guess Who, America, Los Lobos, Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge, the Lovin Spoonful, John Secada, and the musicians that perform with Bonnie Tyler, and others. I have seen the Guess Who perform twice, once at Magic City Casino in Miami and once at the Pompano Beach Seafood Festival. Both shows were both amazing, which actually is quiet surprising since people in general usually remember good things to be better than they actually were and they end up disappointed when it happens again because it wasn't as good as remembered. I got to mee and talk with them both times. Leonard, the keyboard/ organ player of the second generation, remembered me from the first time we met. They were all very friendly, they didn't have that "I'm better than a rockstar" attitude that a lot of musicians have. I got them to take a picture with the band I photograph, Viva. The first time I saw the Guess Who perform I only knew a few of their songs like "No Time" and "American Woman". Almost every song they played I enjoyed listening to. The second time I watched them perform, which was at the Seafood Festival, I knew every song they played. What I really enjoy is they don't play any new songs, I wouldn't mind maybe one or two. Each show is different, even though the play the same songs.

Dion Warwick Concert

A few weeks ago I went to the Dion Warwick concert at the Hard Rock Live. Before the concert I had never heard of her. I knew a few of her songs, after asking which songs she did. We got our tickets. They weren't bad seats, they weren't great seats but that's only because the ladies behind us kept screaming. They would only scream when nobody else in the entire arena was screaming which made it that mush louder. Their screams were ear piercing screams, nothing compared to the sound of the entire crowd screaming and cheering. They were horrible! Here is some background information on Dion. Dion was born in 1940. She had 56 singles that were charted in the top 100 between the years of 1962 and 1998. She is ranked #2 by billboard magazine. Aretha Franklin is #1. A few of her greatest hits include "Just Walk on By" and "I Say A Little Prayer For You". The stage had a drum set, two sets of keyboards (one on each side), a sitting bass player, and a baby grand piano in the center of the stage. When Dion first took the stage she began introducing herself and talking about a few different things. It sounded just like Tina Turner on the beginning of the song "Rolling On The River". Her voice was soft and scratchy. It sounded very weak. The concert started out great! She played a few songs that even I knew. Her voice sounded like she was straining, and by the look on her face anybody could definitely tell she was straining. Near the middle of the concert she decided she was going to introduce someone very special to her. She went through this whole long introduction. She was talking about her son. He was originally her drummer when he was a kid. Then he decided he wanted to go back to school and he did. One day he decided to sing and boy oh boy can he sing. I would go to a concert just to watch him. He was amazing. What's funny though is that he does not sing for a living. He is a police officer. Dion convinced him to go on tour with her and sing a few songs with her. They did a few duets together and he sang a song solo. He was wonderful. What a nice surprise. When they finished singing a song she decided it was now time for her to do a few new songs. When I say a few that actually meant about 5 or 6 very slow sappy love/ heartache songs. I'm all game for those kind of songs but when you play 5 or 6 of them in a row that it's just too much. I wasn't the only one thinking that. A couple hundred people got up and left in the middle of the concert. They just couldn't take it anymore. We sat the and endured it. When she finished doing her new songs everyone woke up again and she started playing the originals again, the songs we came to hear her sing. She brought out her son a few more times and introduced her band. Overall, the concert was good. It got a bit boring around the middle but she recovered in the end with a few of her hit songs. The ladies behind me drove me crazy but that had nothing to do with her. I enjoyed the concert.

Three Dog Night

Last week I went to see Three Dog Night in concert. I have seen them before so I wasn't too excited, but I always love to go to concerts so I was still excited. The concert was at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood. We showed up early and got our tickets. They were the tickets for our favorite place but they were very good tickets. We were 7 or 8 rows back from the stage. I could see the sweat on their faces. Three Dog Night Started in 1968 and originally had 3 lead singers, they were Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. Now, Three Dog Night consist of Danny Hutton and Cory Wells. Chuck Negron has his own band now called Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night. In the recent concert I saw the original guitar player was also still with them and the keyboard player has been friends wi them since the 1960's. The drummer was the newest addition of the band. He has been with them for the last two decades. Not so new if you ask me. The band sounded good. It was a bit loud since we were seated so close to the speakers, but it was much quieter than I expected. Luckily this time we didn't have screaming girls behind, beside, or in front of us. I will talk about them more in a few other concerts I attended. Nobody sat in the seats directly in front of us which was fantastic.the seats were great. The songs they played were all very good. Some older bands that still tour love, for some silly reason, to sing their newest additions. They just don't realize we did not come here to hear you new songs. Ok, maybe one or two is alright so they can promote their new CDs, but 5, 6... It starts getting very old very fast. The band started playing and then Wells and Hutton ran up on stage and the crowd went wild. They both started out the concert just standing in front of their microphones. They hardly moved. By the end of the concert Cory came to life but Danny was still quite motionless. They both sang great, there were a few notes they couldn't hit anymore but I've heard much worse. They started to sing the song "Mama Told Me Not to Come" and after the first verse Cory started telling us a story about one of their fans. The fan had came up to them and told him the song "Mama Told Me Not to Come" was the grandaddy of all rap songs. He asked the fan what he was smoking and if he could have some. ( Apparently they were big in the drugs, when people tell me that I always ask " Who wasn't?") he went back to the band and asked them if they could make a twenty first century version of the song. The band came back five minute later and the sounds of records scratching can be hear over the speakers and then the beat of a drum machine. Cory walks to the back of the stage and picks up and puts on a few thing. Everyone burst out laughing when he turned around. He was wearing a white cap turned to the side, some bright purple glasses and a huge chain. The other band members except Danny put n brightly colored hats. Cory started doing that gangster walk to the front of the stage and let me tell you. He started rapping, then he was rapping to "Mama Told Me Not to Come". It was hilarious and let me tell you... He pulled it off perfectly, I was amazed. When he finished rapping they went back to the original version and finished the song. They played a few more songs they said they were going to play a new one. They said this one is for the children around the world. The six of them sang archapella " The Cry of the Children". It was phenomenal. I have never heard people sing like that in person, only on the computer or through the phone. They went flat a few times but it is really hard when you have that many people singing, normally it's four. Overall, I was very impressed by the concert, it is now one of my favorites. It is a must see.