My personal favorite was Dream Theater on the Systematic Chaos tour, July 2007. Everything about the show was perfect - the venue, the crowd energy, the setlist (almost perfect - we didn't get Blind Faith), and the band. Jordan's keytar solo brought down the house, and hearing both parts of In The Presence of Enemies was incredible. I also had my two best friends with me - one on each side - and we got to sing our hearts out, together. I've seen Dream Theater on every tour since 6 Degrees (2002), and I was lucky to attend the awesome show at Radio City Music Hall in 2006 (where they filmed the Score DVD), but the Dodge Theater show in July '07 blew it out of the water.

Close seconds - Rush, Vapor Trails Tour 2002 and Def Leppard, Tucson Convention Center, 1993 (most fun I've ever had at a show).

(As for the shows in the original question? I think the Freddie Mercury Concert for Life (circa 1992-93?) trumps LiveAid)

That's Brandi Carlile with the Indigo Girls @ the Rialto Theatre. Awesome!

I've been plagued with a headache since about midnight last night. It is Not Fun. I thought I had advil with me, but it's apparently at home. ARgh.

In happier news, summer plans roll on. Tomorrow night, my neighbor and I are going to see the Indigo Girls @ the Rialto. I haven't seen them since they came to Luther in 1994 (ish). I'm not a huge fan, but they put on a good show, so it'll be a fun way to spend an evening.

My new laptop came last week and seems to be working just fine. I haven't had a chance to sit down and import all my backed-up files from the old machine, but my existence is largely web-based, so I'm not missing much. I'm debating dressing it up w/ some stickers or...something. I've always been a bit of a purist, preferring to keep things pristine in case of resale, but I seem to be keeping my laptops until I run them into the ground, so I might as well have fun w/ 'em in the meantime. There's a Guster bumper sticker that's been sitting on my bookshelf for a long, long time. I think the new machine needs it. Maybe a NaNo sticker or three, too. We'll see :)

Finally, continuing my tradition of travelling insanely long distances to see Rush in concert, I just booked a flight to Raleigh-Durham in July. I'll be hooking up with boilerbonehead and his gf (yay, free lodging) for some sightseeing and a show. Should be awesome. I hope the humidity doesn't kill me. I'm fine w/ heat, but have never experienced 90+ degree temps + near equal humidity. We'll see how it goes. I predict many pictures of me looking wilted.

edda, are you anywhere near Raleigh? I have no sense of scale or driving distances in the east, but if you fancy a road trip, lemme know. The schedule is still pretty open, and there's this really neat looking museum exhibit on Pompeii in Charlotte. Also, our charlotte hotel is right near a movie theatre, so there could be a superhero movie screening worked in. Oh, and a Ruby Tuesday restaurant. Good times!

In general news, the summer heat is officially here, and we've got record or near record highs all this week. My boss came in earlier with a bright red face, dripping sweat. It was 106-ish then. I sucked it up and hit the track at Pima College for 3 miles of running/walking last night - it was 97 when we started, 93 when we finished (after 10pm!). They should have awards for that kind of fortitude. It's brutal.
My current running shoes are entirely worthless right now, and have moved beyond "broken down" and into "instant injury" range. Sore arches, sore joints, sore ankles. The shoes are a deathtrap and I'll be procuring a new pair this weekend. Hopefully the ankle twinges will fade with proper footwear. Runner-folk here know of which I speak.

Anyhoo...got a couple more hours to look busy here @ work, and then I get to run myself ragged with errands tonight. The fun never stops ;)

Hope you're all staying happy (and out of this !@%^(* heat!).

I'm exhaused to almost the point of delerium, but have to hop in to comment that this is probably the best DT show I've ever seen. Still a touch too much Jordan wankery, but really - the sheer geekery of the keetar (one of those strap on keyboards shaped like an electric guitar) almost makes up for it.
The re-imaginings of some classics off of Images & Words were brilliant, and the encore was absolutely stunning. Would have like a couple more songs to squeeze in there, but once I heard the final chords, I knew it was over...and that was ok :)
They've really improved their use of vids, and the ants were a fun touch. I think they should have been selling stuffed ants @ the merch booth. I ended up a super-cute charcoal grey ringer tee w/ the Majesty logo and a purple Phoenix. Seeing as they haven't been to Tucson since the Awake tour (circa 1992), I guess I'm stuck going to PHX to see them...so the t-shirt design is extra appropriate.
As always, very fun watching all the air guitar and keyboard playing in the audience. I have a feeling the majority of those folks really do know what they're doing. DT tends to attract people who actually know how to play their instruments.

Extremely awesome concert, and everything from the visuals to the lighting came together perfectly. The Dodge Theater is a fabby place to take in a show.

Whew. Two days til Rush!

In geekier news, I have now maxed out my USB ports on ye olde laptop. This is significant because Dief's got quite a few more than average PLUS I've got a 4-port hub. So there are currently 7 things attached to my computer, and 6 of them are in active use. Wowzas. Addicted to memory sticks much? Naaaah.

Dream Theater presale tickets just went on sale at 10am (5 minutes ago). Through a lovely quirk of fate, I managed to catch Craig at his desk and he's ordering tickets as we speak.

Systematic Chaos, here we come!

Wednesday, July 25th - Dream Theater. Friday, July 27th - Rush.

Craig said it best:
Wednesday AND Friday?   <head implodes>

I can see the blog entry already!
" July 28th: 6 AM.    I'm deaf.  But happy. :)  "

Dinner for two - $20
Tickets to the show - $25
Parking - free
Sharing a special musical experience w/ the bf - priceless.


Please tell me someone out there in internet land got a recording of the "$2 t-shirt" song! (They improvved a song about the singer finding a great $2 t-shirt on 4th avenue, and on trying mole' for the first time. That's "mole-eh" in the mexican chocolate sauce stuff sense, not the burrowing mammal sense)

Goooooodnight everbody!

Just caught this from a DT community here - http://www.mp3.com/albums/20120685/summary.html

Apparently, it's the entire album.  Even at a measly 64 bitrate, you can hear how awesome this show was!

I'm off to bed, but will report back after giving it a more thorough listen tomorrow...

Lemme know what you guys think  :)

Ok, why is it No One has mentioned the fact that Depeche Mode is on tour??

Sheesh. To think I almost missed out on tickets...

That is all.