Concert Stories #34: Eve 6

Eve 6 

Wisconsin State Fair 

August 9, 2008 

Age 25

The next night after seeing Sheryl Crow I attended the Wisconsin State Fair with my sister and her boyfriend and saw Eve 6.  This was the second time I saw Eve 6 and was surprised that they were not playing the main stage.  They were the headliners, but of the side stage sponsored by Cousins. I wish I had a shot of the venue because it was so small, normally it is were they have the dance and kids competitions...

Despite being on the smaller side stage, Eve 6 gave a great performance. I might be biased because I really like their music. While "Inside Out" maybe their most well-known song off their first album (for good reason, it's awesome),  the album It's All in Your Head is by far my favorite album.  I would specify a favorite song off of it but I can't because I love the whole album. To this day, 13 years after it's release, I still put it on when I am in a bad mood because it brings me out of that mind set.  Their set included all of their hits and was great and the crowd was thankfully full and enjoyed it as well.  

To end the super fun night we got to meet the band as well.  I get super weirded out by this stuff so I stood to the side as my sister got her picture with the lead singer Max Collins. She was thrilled!  

I would post the photo of her but the area was so crowded that my big fat head got caught in the corner of the photograph and I look way to creepy in it.

Concert Stories #33: Sheryl Crow with James Blunt

Sheryl Crow 

Openers: James Blunt and Toots and the Maytals

BMO Harris Bradley Center

August 8, 2008

Age 25

In 2008 I saw Sheryl Crow perform at the Bradley Center while on tour in support of her album Detours with my friend Shannon.  Crow is a great musician and has a good back catalog, but this was one of the more low key concerts I've been too.  My main takeaway of the concert was that it was a nice evening, she sounded great and I didn't get all sweaty dancing, so that was a positive.  

Opening for her was "Toots and the Maytals", who I barely recall as some sort of reggae band. Which may sound like an odd pairing with Crow, but it does match her laid back style.  Also opening was James Blunt of "You're Beautiful" fame.  He sounded good and did an okay performance.

Overall this was a nice pairing of different artists, but one could say it was not incredibly memorable, and that is okay sometimes.

Concert Stories #32 Mandy Moore with Ben Lee

Mandy Moore 

Opener: Ben Lee

Pabst Theater

September 30, 2007

Age 24

In 2007 Mandy Moore released the album Wild Hope, which was a departure from her past pop days.  I was a fan of her both musically and in acting beforehand, I mean A Walk to Remember and the song "Only Hope" from it? So good!  Wild Hope was a much more subdued album than in the past and Moore co-wrote every song in it.  My favorite song was by far "Gardenia", it really showed off her vocals and vulnerability in the music.  

When she came to Milwaukee to promote the album I was excited to see her with my friend Shannon.  The show was general admission and we got there early enough to score some pretty descent seats, although I remember the venue was not being extremely full.  Moore came out and sounded great live, she took her time with the songs and I felt really connected well with the audience.  Of course she also had to throw in a goodie from the past...."Candy", which was still fun to see live.

Opening for her that night was Ben Lee. I had heard of him before, but not any of his music.  He was surprisingly very up beat, even jumping into the crowd and running up the aisles to sing with the audience.  He sang a song called "What Would Jay-Z Do?", which was super catchy but I thought it was clearly a joke.  It was not though!  Sure enough that song was on his Ripe album.  Which I know because Lee was good enough that I went home and bought the album.

Here are some photos and video of that night:

The classic "Candy"

Ben Lee

very fuzzy sorry!

And here's when Lee started to jump out into the crowd

Concert Stories #31: Keith Urban

Keith Urban 

Love, Pain, + The Whole Crazy Tour

BMO Harris Bradley Center

July 26, 2007

Age 24

Keith Urban gave by far the best concert that I have ever been to, and I think that's saying a lot with how many I have seen!  Let me also back-up and explain that at the time, I knew two songs of his "I Told You So" and "Stupid Boy" off of his Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing album.  I was given the tickets to the show as a gift and even though I only knew those two songs, still the best concert ever.  

Why I loved this concert so much was that to start, the stage setup and the graphics that were used were my favorite ever.  The stage was seriously simple, a clean rectangle with his band on it and behind the stage was the projection screen that was the same size. I can be a person who needs balance, so while yes this is an incredibly small detail, it pleased my mind that the stage and screen were the same size.  I can not really explain the graphics, they were not anything ground breaking and were not played with every song, but they made perfect sense when used.  I am not a musician, but if I ever for some reason went on tour, I would want to know who was in charge of lighting and graphics for this tour because it was spot on!

Then of course there is the performance of Keith Urban.  His voice was amazing live and sounded exactly like his album, not an easy feat for many artists sadly, and he played with such joy.  I can only imagine what some performers go through in their personal lives and how hard it most be to go on stage and smile, even when they are not happy.  Sometimes it's not obvious to the crowd and other times it is painfully obvious, or I have seen performers and could tell they could not care at all about the audience, just running through the motions.  Keith Urban was none of that.  He was, to this day, the happiest performer I have seen on stage and he seemed genuinely gratefully to be doing what he does.  It simply radiated out of him.  Urban also was engaged with the crowd.  The stage had a long walkway out into the middle of the crowd and he utilized that so well.  I also discovered that I liked many more of his songs and ended up getting his older albums after that show.  

Now that I write this out it does seem a bit odd to me how much I love this concert and it is because of the visuals: great stage, amazing lighting, and seeing someone happy.  The music was great as well, but this was a great example of how having a great attitude can spread to others.

And as I finish I now will stop complaining to my co-worker about my other co-worker chewing so darn loudly, I am probably spreading my "annoyed" mood today and that's not a good thing.  Lessons learned every day!