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This is a list of all the concerts I've gone to. It's currently incomplete, but I hope to fix that as time permits.
| Band | Date | Venue | Went With | Comments |
| BB King, Buddy Guy | February 18 | Family Arena | Beth | Buddy Guy was great. He only played an hour, and didn't get to play all his good songs. BB King was terrible. He hardly played or sang – he mostly told stupid stories. It wasn't that he couldn't play, it's just that he didn't want to. When he did play, he made the guitar sing quite nicely. He also had some serious mic and sound problems for the first 45 minutes. |
| Jimmy Buffett | April 29 | Riverport (Verizon) | Beth | TBD |
| Band | Date | Venue | Went With | Comments |
| Zac Brown | December 30 | Family Arena | Beth | Excellent. |
| Band | Date | Venue | Went With | Comments |
| Jimmy Buffett | April 24 | Riverport (Verizon) | Beth Kayser | Good. Missed quite a few songs standing in line for food and drinks. |
| Van Halen | April 26 | Scottrade (Savvis) Center | Beth Kayser | Disappointing. Eddie's guitar work was quite impressive, and Wolfgang was good on bass. But David Lee Roth, although in good shape, seemed like a parody of his younger self. Alex's drum solo was okay, until they added a background track with cowbell and keyboards. There was also a keyboard track for "Jump" and "Panama", which seemed really lame. |
| Chuck Berry | December 15? | Duck Room (Blueberry Hill) | Beth Kayser | Good. Still has the magic, if not the finger dexterity. Played a little over an hour, which is about all you can expect from him these days. |
| Band | Date | Venue | Went With | Comments |
| Genesis | October 2 | United Center (Chicago) | Beth Kayser | Great. Had pretty good seats a few rows off the floor in the back corner. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Mike Rutherford. |
| Genesis | October 3 | United Center (Chicago) | Beth Kayser | Great. Had seats in row 30 on the floor, which was a bit hard to see the stage. Pretty much the same show as the night before (without the "Happy Birthday"). When the people next to us left, and dropped the tickets on the floor, we went and gave them to some people in the very top section of the arena. They appreciated getting to sit on the floor. |
| Poison, Ratt | August 2 | Riverport (Verizon) | Beth Kayser, Todd Masin | Ratt was quite good. Poison was okay, except when CC DeVille was singing. |
| Def Leppard, Styx | July 4 | Riverport (Verizon) | Beth Kayser | Somewhat disappointing. Def Leppard was nowhere near as good as the previous time I saw them. Missed most of Styx. |
| Police | July 2 | Scottrade (Savvis) Center | Beth Kayser, John Weber, Donna Weber | Somewhat disappointing. I felt that the band was not "tight", and the music often got chaotic before coming back together. Perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with their music, and that's how it's supposed to be. Sting's charisma was quite stunning though. |
| Band | Date | Venue | Went With | Comments |
| Eric Clapton, Robert Cray | September 18 | Scottrade (Savvis) Center | Beth Kayser | Good, but was expecting more. It just didn't seem to have much energy behind it. (I later found out that the band has been playing the exact same set for 3 or 4 months, and some other Clapton fans agreed w/ this assessment.) And I hate being so far away from the stage that I have to watch the video screen so much. But I loved watching their fingerwork, and observing the different styles of playing. I actually enjoyed Robert Cray the most, especially the 2 songs he played along with Clapton. Clapton's 2 backing guitarists were very good, and also had their own unique styles. Neither played with a pick. Doyle Bramhall II played a left-handed guitar, but strung like a right-handed guitar, and strummed upwards. Derek Trucks was only 27, and played a guitar tuned like a steel guitar. Lots of guitar talent on the stage – perhaps 4 of the top 100 of all time. |
| Live | August 12 | Live on the Levee (St. Louis riverfront) | Eric Kohring | Very good. The crowd wasn't quite as excited as I would have liked, but I was up near the front close to the people who were dancing. Ed Kowalczyk was climbing on the side of the stage to start the encore. He was about 25 feet in front of us then. We stood about 50 feet from the stage, off to the side. |
| Grand Funk Railroad | July 29 | Live on the Levee (St. Louis riverfront) | Laura Keller | Good. Weather was really bad up until 1 hour before the show. The crowd was good sized, considering that. The lead singer was previously with 38 Special, and sang their song "Second Chance" – which sounded more like a Richard Marx song. The drummer and bass player were original members. They played mostly their hits, which were good, but not great. |
| Def Leppard, Journey | July 21 | Riverport (UMB) | Laura Keller | Def Leppard was excellent. They played most of their hits from the 80s, and little else. The 2 songs from their new album were covers everyone knew, and very well done. They had the crowd on their feet almost the whole time. (BTW, Def Leppard's web site is very well done.) Journey was good. They had a 2nd-string lead singer, Jeff Scott Soto, who was not as good as Steve Augeri. Deen Castronovo (the drummer) sang 2 songs ("Open Arms" and "Faithfully") and was excellent. |
| Rolling Stones | January 27 | Savvis Center | alone | Very good. |
| Band | Date | Venue | Went With | Comments |
| Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band | December 31 | Casa Loma Ballroom | Laura Keller | Very good. Lots of fun, as usual. |
| Live | October 2 | Taste of St. Louis | alone | ... |
| Ozomatli | October 1 | Taste of St. Louis | alone | ... |
| Collective Soul | August 20 | Live on the Levee (St. Louis riverfront) | Laura Keller | Free concert on the riverfront. I liked a lot of their songs, but they did not translate well to a live concert. |
| Chuck Berry | August 5 | Argosy Alton Casino | Laura Keller, Sayaka Kaneko | OK. Only played 1 hour. There were some off-notes on the guitar; not sure if it was Chuck or his son, who played the other guitar. His daughter played the harmonica, which was very good. I was still able to see the magic of Chuck Berry – he was fun and funny, and still had his spirit and mannerisms. The venue was very poor; the accoustics were bad, mixing was bad, and there was no way for the crowd to stand up and dance and get into the mood. I'd like to see Chuck Berry at the Duck Room – I think that would make a huge difference. |
| Charlie Daniels | July 23 | Jefferson County Fair | alone | Good. Only played 90 minutes, and some of that was letting his band members play their own songs, as well as some gospel. Did not play Uneasy Rider or Trudy. Pandered to nationalist audience. Changed some lyrics to remove true shit-disturber image: "I get up in the morning; I get down in the afternoon". Still rocks hard for a 300-pound 60-year-old man though. |
| Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band | July 15 | Blues On The Mississippi | Laura Keller | Excellent. Lots of fun. Hot and sticky. |
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