Roger Waters, The Wall Live at the O2 Dublin - May 23, 2011

Words are not enough to describe the show earlier today at the O2. It was the most technologically advanced show I have ever seen. Probably the best sound I have ever experienced and overall one of the most fantastic live experiences any rock concert goer will ever have. According to some critics, this is probably the most ambitious rock tour ever conceived.

We had everything from the headmaster puppet to the walking hammers and even the now classic flying pig.

Similar to the concerts in 1980, a wall is built during the first part of the show only to be brought down at the end of the show. The wall is used as a screen where a multitude of CGI graphics and cartoons from original movie are shown. I would like for someone to explain to me how it works. Every time a new brick is added, a couple of seconds later images start to appear on that brick. It is incredible. I'm sure there will be a DVD at some stage, and it will be worth getting. I suspect that, contrary to what happened back in 1980 where the band lost a significant amount of money, this tour will make a lot of Money for Mr. Waters.

The only thing missing was the voice of David Gilmour on Comfortably Numb!

The setlist is the same as the live shows in 1980, with a couple of extra songs not on the original album:

Set one

In The Flesh?

The Thin Ice

Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1

The Happiest Days Of Our Lives

Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2

Mother

Goodbye Blue Sky

Empty Spaces

What Shall We Do Now?

Young Lust

One Of My Turns

Don't Leave Me Now

Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3

The Last Few Bricks

Goodbye Cruel World

Set two

Hey You

Is There Anybody Out There?

Nobody Home

Vera

Bring The Boys Back Home

Comfortably Numb

The Show Must Go On

In The Flesh

Run Like Hell

Waiting For The Worms

Stop

The Trial

Outside The Wall

Rush live at the O2 Dublin - May 12, 2011

Yesterday I was given a masterclass on how to produce and perform a rock show. Rush, the Canadian power trio finally made it to Ireland. For me, it was a long wait... Over 25 years since I first discovered their music. It was either Tom Sawyer or Red Barchetta. Whatever song it was, it was from the album Moving Pictures. It was worth the wait! It couldn't have been scripted better. The Time Machine tour, is the tour where they are playing the whole of Moving Pictures, non-stop.

The setlist was exactly as expected, and for the people outside looking in, this might sound boring and predictable, but for most Rush fans is what makes the band so exciting to watch. While you may know what song is coming next, you still don't know what to expect. And when you get a chance to see performances of songs like La Villa Strangiato... There are no words that can quite describe the experience.

The attention to detail is extraordinary. The movies at the beginning and end of the show are just fantastic. The "Jesus Mary and Joseph" from O'Malley was received with a chuckle from the audience. The moving lightning rig was amazing. And even things like the sampling of Aimee Mann's voice in Time Stands Still, or Alex Lifeson playing the bass pedals for the keyboard solos in Subdivisions and Red Barchetta. Fantastic!

I have been playing the bass as a hobby for many years, so being able to see Geddy Lee perform live, was a treat in itself. Wow!

It wouldn't be a Rush concert without the drum solo. There are no words to describe it! I'm sure this will be released as a live DVD at some point, so my advice is to go an buy it.

For those interested in the guitars, Alex played manly Gibson Les Paul's, many of them with tremolos. The PRS's are long gone, although he did use one for one of the songs. He used a 12 string acoustic (Martin I think) for the intro on Closer to the Heart. He also used a strat and a tele for a song each and finished the set with a white Gibson ES-335.

Geddy, used a couple of Fender Jazz Basses, both with maple necks. Not that common these days, but I have to admit that I much prefer maple over any other neck on my bass. It is incredible the sound that he gets out of that thing!

As for the chimpanzees, they played an Epiphone Les Paul, and a Squire Jazz Bass!

The picture is from Alan Moore's Audioaperture flickr's stream.

Preview - Rush live at the O2, Dublin - April 12, 2011 Dublin

I've been a Rush fan for the last 25 years or maybe more. I've never had the chance to enjoy their live experience first hand. If their live albums, DVDs and hundreds of reviews are anything to o by, it is an amazing experience!

This will change on Thursday!

Here is the expected set list to wet the appetite:

• "The Spirit of Radio"
• "Time Stand Still"
• "Presto"
• "Stick It Out"
• "Workin' Them Angels"
• "Leave That Thing Alone"
• "Faithless"
• "BU2B" (from Clockwork Angels)
• "Freewill"
• "Marathon"
• "Subdivisions"

Intermission

• "Tom Sawyer"
• "Red Barchetta"
• "YYZ"
• "Limelight"
• "The Camera Eye"
• "Witch Hunt"
• "Vital Signs"
• "Caravan" (from Clockwork Angels)
• "Love 4 Sale" (Drum solo)
• "Closer To The Heart"
• "2112 Overture / The Temples of Syrinx"
• "Far Cry"

Encore:

• "La Villa Strangiato" (with polka intro)
• "Working Man" (with reggae intro and Cygnus X-1: Book I outro)

Just google and read any review from a blog to get the picture!

Databases on the iPhone / iPod Touch - Updated!

Back in August of 2008 I wrote a post about some database applications available for the iPod Touch / iPhone. You can find the original post in this blog somewhere.

I think it is time for an update. As there have been a lot of new apps added to the App Store over the last 2 years, some of which are worth exploring.

• First of all a quick update. FMTouch has come down in price significantly! It is now only €7.99. It makes it a lot more accessible. Still I haven't gone for it.
  
  
• I still use CSV Touch as it is a very simple way to carry data around. With good search capabilities. However, CSV touch forces you to have a essentially a materialized view of your data as you can not perform any joins between different tables. You can think of it as carrying a number of reports on your iPhone.
  
  

Since I want to play around with SQL, I have looked at a few options. Note, there are a lot more options available these days, including things like HanDBase or AppCreator that let you develop more application like forms on the iPhone, or even clients that let you connect to corporate databases and keep copies of the data on your phone.

So to choose, I ran a search for sqlite on the App Store, and after reading about the different app features I settled on SQLite Editor as it seems to have the most features available. I am only starting with it, but so far, so good.

As always, comments are welcomed!

Julie Feeney in New York 2011 - Video

Julie just posted this beautiful video on YoutTube. It has live excerpts of Grace and Love is a tricky thing as well as a fantastic live version of Impossibly Beautiful.

Worth checking out.



Google Arbutus Yarns for some more fantastic videos

Justin Bieber.... seriously?

After months of inactivity I am not so happy to report that the next live show I will have the pleasure to attend will be... Justin Bieber... seriously... imagine the reasons. Needless to say that I will not be posting a review or the setlist.

Thankfully the summer is approaching with vintage shows like Foreigner / Journey, Rush and more importantly, The Wall.

In the meantime, here is a link to an Interesting new track from And So I Watch You From Afar, directly through the Swear I'm Not Paul Music Blog.