Recent Concerts You've Enjoyed

Thought this might be a fun thread and a way to find out about acts on tour.

My wife and I saw the Smoke Fairies at the Tractor Tavern last evening as the opening act for Rasputina. The Smoke Fairies are a 'folk blues' duo from Wales and have been described as "Bob Dylan's dream." I thought that their debut release "Through Low Light and Trees" was one of last year's best. It was just the two principles singing and playing guitar. Really terrific concert with excellent acoustics and thankfully not too loud.

If you are ever in Seattle, the Tractor Tavern is a great venue in the Ballard neighborhood. Very fun people watching...I think my wife and I were the only ones without tattoos! I got to chat with them after their set and had my LP signed. I love the lilting Welsh accents!

Here's a video of "Hotel Room" from their debut LP:

[video]

 

It’s David Byrne . Cool concert to have been there Marty.

Typo corrected. Thanks!

 

Saw Sierra Ferrell at Pier 17 in NYC. Right on the water with the Brooklyn Bridge looming large right behind the stage. Great venue and she’s an excellent entertainer.

 

Hall before the concert, image truer to the real colors. After the concert:









Bruckner Symphony #8, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta, conductor

My friend Jeff (jeff1225) had the great idea that we should hear a concert at Walt Disney Hall when I would visit him in California. On Sunday, Nov 8, with us both being Bruckner fans we went to this concert, a great close to my visit.

Bruckner's Eighth is 80-85 min long, with the Adagio alone lasting almost half an hour. It is hard to conceive this monumental work being accompanied by something else in a concert program, and accordingly it wasn't.

An almost 90-year old Zubin Mehta was leading the LA Phil in one of the very best concerts I have ever experienced! I enjoyed this tremendously.

I know the music of Bruckner Eight intimately, but nonetheless I was reminded just how great and superbly composed this monumental symphony is. Mehta has an incredible feel for the enormous long-range architecture of the music which has those gigantic arches of development and intensification as they are rarely found in music. To my ears his interpretative vision was flawless. The orchestra played wonderfully, with superb tone. The sound was powerful, and at the same time all the complexities of the score were presented in the most transparent yet naturally flowing manner. Walt Disney Hall has amazing acoustics, which can compete with the famous Boston Symphony Hall (and the great Jordan Hall of the New England Conservatory), which I am used to.

There were only a very few minor timing problems which could also have been an issue of communication between the orchestra and a conductor who now understandably conducts with sparse hand movements.

The prolonged ending of the symphony must be one of the most majestic endings in all of music, and it was executed in the utmost thrilling manner. It was followed by prolonged applause with standing ovation.

 

Manu Katché

It was a superb show. Love every minutes of it.
He was very generous musically and interacted a lot with the audience.

 

Mäkelä, CSO wrap the year with bracing contemporary works, Beethoven and Schumann

Chicago Classical Review » » Mäkelä, CSO wrap the year with bracing contemporary works, Beethoven and Schumann

chicagoclassicalreview.com

At the reception after the concert I told Klaus that this was a very memorable Beethoven 7th. I told him that my other memorable Beethoven 7th was Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Boston at Tanglewood many years ago.

 

Big weeks at The Tractor Tavern! Enjoyed Damien Jurado, Pearl Charles and The Rose City Band.