1) There were times that I was so busy with work this year that I forgot to buy food, let alone concert tickets...
2) I don't discover as many new artists as I used to, so the pool of concerts worth seeing has greatly diminished...
3) Most of the aging acts I see over and over and over - Bowie (7x), The Who (8x) - took the year off - maybe they were touring nursing homes instead of popular NYC venues...
4) MJ was on my must-see list when I was heading over to London, and we all know how that turned out...
5) I may have seen more shows and just don't remember. If that is the case, please let me know if I attended a concert with you in 2009!
Here was the set list for 2009 - let's hope 2010 sees more concert-going activity!
Air Supply, 20 Feb 2009
The year started out with a soft rock bang as we saw these Aussie "rockers" at the Nokia Theatre Times Square (my first time there). This evening can be blamed on the bucket list we started at 4am at Brandy's Piano Bar in January - who ever thought they would actually be touring when we declared them a must-see event? Ruffo, Cindy and I had a great evening - they sang every one of our favorites and we got to meet them after the show, where they were freely giving out autographs, kisses and hugs.
Little Russell is my favorite, but the other guy kept sneaking into our picturesFranz Ferdinand, May 2009
This band hit the scene when I was living in London and back in 2004, Jihan and I vowed we would see them live some day. Thanks to Stub Hub for making this dream come true! Although I am getting way too old for standing-room only concerts - and the elbowing, pushing, bumping and foot stepping that come with them - this show was fantastic. The Scottish cuties rocked all of our favorites and played almost the entire new album.
Spinal Tap: Unwigged & Unplugged, May 2009
Thanks to my brother's absent-mindedness, I inherited his 2 free tickets to this show at the newly restored (and fabulous) Beacon Theatre, and what a great show it was! I tried not to rub it in but had to tell him all of the highlights from the night: songs from all of Christopher Guest's movies, lots of witty banter in between songs, and a stunning rendition of "Saucy Jack" (which we just downloaded for our Xbox Rock Band - naughty, naughty, naughty). Ruffo was such a sport for coming to this show with me, especially since she has never seen "This is Spinal Tap". We'll have to remedy that in 2010.
Steely Dan: Takin It To The Seats Internet Request Night, 11 Aug 2009
Back at the Beacon again, this time for my second time seeing Steely Dan and to drag Ruffo to another concert. Steely Dan was never known for being a live band or enjoying the tour scene - painfully obvious when Donald Fagen told an audience member to 'fuck off'. He was as annoyed as I was that people were shouting out requests at an all request show. We all were given the opportunity to vote for the set list online after we purchased our tickets. I tried to vote for 'Dirty Work' 20 times, but was only allowed one vote per song. Luckily, a few others must have voted for it, too, because it was played alongside all of my other faves.
Ray Davies, 20 Nov 2009
A fantastic show that I gushed about in a previous post:
http://lowhitesbargrill.blogspot.com/2009/11/music-melodies-memories_21.html
and, surprisingly, the only concert Dave and I made it to together this year. He's obviously gotten a lot better at saying 'no' when I buy tickets to a show he's just not that interested in.
There were two shows I would have liked to have seen but missed out on. The first is Kylie Minogue. Jihan and I talked about seeing this show when we first heard about it, but I blame the launches of www.ivillage.com/entertainment and www.ivillage.com/food for this totally falling off of my radar. The second was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame anniversary show. I came so close to winning a pair of tickets but ended up with two bottles of Top Chef wine instead. Hardly makes up for the chance to see Lou Reed and Simon & Garfunkel, but will come in very handy when celebrating the start of 2010.
