The other blog of Miguel Pereira » concerts

Coldplay in Dallas – Superpages Center

Miguel Pereira — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:07:03 +0000

What a show these guys put up. I am not a particularly fond bloke of their music, but they do have some good tunes and I do like the way they arrange lyrics and prose. But now, I have to admit and kindda admire them. These four Brits do know how to interact with their audience.

Their showed kicked off around 8:45PM when the Sun was already saying goodbye to the Superpages Center (formerly known as the Smirnoff and Coca-Cola respectively) located somewhere in the south-east Dallas area. Coldplay treated us to the full array of their “classics” such as Yellow, Shiver, Clocks, and Politik -my personal favorite: I can’t help the shivers down my spine on the verse “give me strength, reserve control, give me heart and give me soul“; of course they flamboyantly played songs from their latest album, of which I have to admit…don’t like all too much. Perhaps I just gotta give them another year until I start to like them. Who knows.

Of the memorable moments: they did run up to two mini-stages setup right in the middle of the audience. One of them on the right side of the numbered seats area -for fancy people- and another one to the left by the lawn. Of which I was able to take a couple of decent photos and some OK video footage -some of which you can watch right here. Another conspicuos moment arrived when they rendered they own tribute to Michael Jackson by playing their own, brit-pop version of Billy Jean -Chris just missed grabbing his crotch and doing the moon-walk.

They vowed good-bye to the audience after almost two hours of music to the return for a little speech and two more songs. That marked the closing of a very interesting concert @ the Big-D. On our way out, we were treated with a free CD with a handful of their songs.

Here is some of the footage I was able to take during the concert. Enjoy!

There are a few more left for me to upload. Stay tuned for more to come shortly.

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Concert Alert: Rata Blanca in Dallas

Miguel Pereira — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:26:15 +0000

Rata Blanca in Dallas April 11th 2009

For those of you that grew up listening to glam during the 80′s, this is a magnificent opportunity to re-live those times -but in Spanish! Rata Blanca is/was -I had no idea they were still around- the signature glam / big-hair band in Argentina during a good part of the late 80′s and mid-90′s. And as it turns out, they’ll be playing the Palladium on April 11th 2009 here in Dallas.

Here is a little 101 on them from a Wiki entry:

The band was founded by Walter Giardino after he left V8. Rata Blanca played together for about two years before their debut on August 15, 1987 in the theater “Luz y Fuerza” in Buenos Aires. They later took part in the “Halley en Obras”, along with other bands: Alakrán (“Skorpion”), JAF and Kamikaze, in 1988. That year they made their debut album with two hits: “Chico Callejero” (“Street Boy”) and “El Sueño de la Gitana” (“Gypsy’s Dream”).

In 1989, Hugo Bistolfi joined the band and then Saúl Blanch left, to be replaced by Adrián Barilari. With that arrangement, the band made its second album Magos, Espadas y Rosas (“Wizards, Swords, and Roses”) They released two records between 1989 and 1994 called “Guerrero del Arco Iris” (“Rainbow Warrior”) and “El Libro Oculto” (“The Hidden Book”). Both Bistolfi and Barilari decided to leave, being replaced by Mario Ian on vocals and Javier Retamozo on keyboards. With this line-up they released Entre el Cielo y el Infierno (“Between Heaven and Hell”). Later that year, they were invited to play in “Festival Monsters of Rock” in São Paulo, Brazil, along with Ozzy Osbourne, Therapy?, and Alice Cooper. They released yet another album with new singer Gabriel Marian and keyboard player Javier Retamozo (Hugo Bistolfi left to form the band Alianza with singer Adrian Barilari) called “Rata Blanca VII”, the group disbanded in 1998. They regrouped in 2000 (with Barilari back on vocals and Bistolfi on keyboards) to tour Latin America. In recent years, they have released three more albums, El Camino del Fuego (“The Path of Fire”) in 2002, La Llave de la Puerta Secreta (“The Key to the Secret Door”) in 2005, and El Reino Olvidado (“The Forgotten Kingdom”) in 2008. The lyrics to La Llave de la Puerta Secreta were inspired by The Da Vinci Code.

The band is heavily influenced by British hard rock bands like Rainbow, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, as well as by Yngwie Malmsteen.
Walter Giardino has had successful collaborations with Spain’s Mägo de Oz.

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Coldplay & Eric Clapton round Dallas in ’09

Miguel Pereira — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:28:12 +0000

Clapton & Winwood in Dallas 6/23/09

Yay! Already got my tickets for Clapton’s concert on June 23rd. Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood will be performing @ the American Airlines Center of Dallas on 6/23/2009. This tour was inspired by their initial performance at the Maddison Square Garden in New York. Here is a quick promo-excerpt:

After a stunning collaboration at the Chicago Crossroads Guitar Festival in July of 2007, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood announced three eagerly anticipated concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Those shows featured the artists performing together in a varied set list with Blind Faith, Traffic, and Cream classics and solo hits from each artist. Critics acclaimed the shows as historic and some of the best Clapton Winwood work ever. The tour promises more of the same collaborative musicianship that made these men legendary award-winning artists.

Coldplay Dallas 7/21/09

And Coldplay will be performing about a month later, July 21st, at the SuperPages.com Center -former Smirnoff & Coca-Cola venues- in Dallas. I am still not completely sold on their latest work but I do respect it. Besides, this is going to be my first Coldplay concert and I couldn’t let it pass.

All in all, good times ahead despite the rough economic situation. What would we do without this spectacular artform called muic?!

Rock on!

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AC/DC @ American Airlines Center in Dallas

Miguel Pereira — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:27:30 +0000

AC/DC Dallas 2009 Concert

You can chalk my first concert for the year 2009: I finally witnessed the Australian hard rock in their full glory -or whatever they’ve got in them at age 50.

AC/DC’s line up: Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), Angus Young (lead guitar), Brian Johnson (vocals), Cliff Williams (bass guitar); Phil Rudd (drums) have been rocking the world practically since 1974 -amid a few lineup changes.

The Dallas show was part of their Black Ice album day view tour which kicked off its United States leg on October 28th 2008, and is part of a 42 show effort on their part. The album, Black Ice, though not my favorite did offer some good material for the concert. However, their older material: Shook You All Night Long, Thunderstruck, Back in Black & many others were the icing on the cake for me that night.

Always electrified, Angus, knew very well how to play and please the crowd. The American Airlines Center, which had the show sold out within days of the tickets going on sale, didn’t seem to be fully packed -at least not how I expected it to be. He was outfitted with the signature school boy attire that’s so unmistakeably AC/DC by now.

ACDC Live 2009 – TNT

In my opinion, their performance was flawless and left no good material unturned -which is so refreshing on a band that has so much of it at its disposal. Kuddos to AC/DC: KEEP ROCKIN’!

[[Show as slideshow]]

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Aussie Floyd Show: Is it worth it?

Miguel Pereira — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:11:30 +0000

Australian Pink Floyd - Dallas, TX (2008)

I have to admit I had never heard of these guys before. Hence my shock when I received my Ticketmaster weekly newsletter letting me know Pink Floyd was going to be in town. I thought to myself: “WOW! I’ve either lived on a dream all these time thinking it was 2008, or someone has discovered how to resurrect the great legends of yore!”.

Excited solely by the fact that someone was going to play in town under the Floyd moniker, I rushed to buy tickets without giving it a second thought.

It wasn’t until the date was actually nearing that I started doing some research on the act itself and their members. At first I thought: “Well, its probably going to be a light & laser show with a Floyd album playing from a master tape or something, BIG DEAL!”. Then I started to stumble across reviews and articles and YouTube footage from live venues. Suddenly, I was feeling hopeful. The Australian Pink Floyd Show dates back to 1988, in Adelaide (Australia) that the spark of chance did set the wheels in motion for the present 12 members of this ensemble. The Aussie Floyd, headed by Steve Mac (vocals / guitar), Jason Sawford (keyboards), Collin Wilson (vocals / bass guitar), Damian Darlington (vocals / guitar) & Paul Bonney (drums), and with a little under two decades playing together with most of the original lineup intact, there was still hope for a good show.

We arrived at the arena a few minutes before the scheduled time. By the time we found out seats, the lights began to dim and the crowd -a pretty packed Nokia Centre- started to cheer. All of a sudden the intro to “In The Flesh?” began to rumble on the background. The light show kicked off and it was ON. The Australian Pink Floyd Show had hit the stage. One after another, the entire “The Wall” song line up came and went, accompanied by ‘aussie-flavored’ media projected on the screens above stage showing pink kangaroos. Everything seemed to be spot on: every note, every light arrangement, every clip mimicking the original The Wall footage -even the ocassional whiff of pot from someone’s freshly lit joint seemed just right in this ambience. Two hours later -and an intermezzo included- they sealed the deal: they had performed the entire album in flawlessly. I could tell the crowd had gotten what they came -I did too, and then some.

The aussies left the stage. I knew they were coming back, maybe for just a couple more songs. These guys had been on stage for what seemed to be a hair shy of two hours, they should’ve been exhausted. All of a sudden the unmistakeable intro to “Wish You Where Here” cut through the auditorium, then a single acoustic guitar started to play the intro when the lead vocalist / guitarist took on the stage all by himself. A second acoustic guitar followed shortly after, playing through the 3 minute song effortessly. “This is it!” I thought to myself, convincing me that this was the perfect cap for a terriffic concert. I was mistaken.

The Down-Under Floyd played through what seemed like half of the other best-known Pink Floyd album: “Dark Side of the Moon” -which coincidently was the theme of their previous tour / show. another 30 minutes of heaven passed me by, and it was finally over. We made our way out of the arena and into the parking lot. I kept thinking to myself “What are the odds!? I think I just heard the best Pink Floyd concert ever!” Kuddos to the Australian Pink Floyd Show. They may not be the original -neither are we in the ’70s anymore!- but they certainly lived and exceeded my expectactions. They are now on my watchlist of bands to go see. You should check them out too!

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