Drivin N Cryin at 37 Main

Yes 37 Main in Johns Creek has finally opened with Divin N Cryin rocking the opening nite festivities!  The band channelled Led Zeppelin through Lynryd Skynyrd and the jam packed crowd loved it.  What a great facility 37 Main is too.  One side a large bar with dueling pianos, the other a great rock hall with a fabulous sound system!

Bruuuuuuuuce!

The Boss and the E Street Band came to Lakewood and it was a River of rock!  The legendary Springsteen and the E-Streeters tore thru almost three hours of music opening with the Clash and not stopping til the final encores of Shout and Highway to Hell!

Springsteen played one of his most epic Atlanta dates on a beautiful spring evening.  He started by saying "the river, the river, the river" and his nine songs from that iconic 80's album were the most he's played from it in years.  Selections for Darkness, Wrecking Ball, High Hopes (Tom Morello on guitar rules!) and of course Born to Run rounded out a raucous tour thru that rock and roll river.  

Bruce proved it all nite, that tramps like us, baby we were born to run!

Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited Tour at Symphony Hall

The great Steve Hackett came to Symphony Hall for a two hour non-stop prog rock feast.  Playing every era of Genesis, Steve and his expert band rocked it all.  From Musical Box to Supper's Ready through Los Endos, Hackett showed why he is one of rock's greatest!

Crosby, Stills and Nash at the Fox

The sixties returned to the Fox and of course Rockman was there with his partner in crime Mr. Jimmy!  Great long show from CSN who don't hit those high notes all the time, but get em when they need em!

They played for almost three hours mixing up the classics with a bunch of eclectic solo stuff particularly from David Crosby's new album, Cros.

Graham was great and Steven Stills remains one of the greatest guitar players alive!

They finished super strongwith Almost Cut My Hair, Wooden Ships and a rare Suite Judy Blue Eyes!

Next up Steve Hackett the guitarist from Genesis plays Genesis Revisited as Symphony Hall.

See ya at the show!

It's 2014 and Rockman is back...Ratdog at the Tabernacle!

Sorry fans got, a bit worn out from last year's 30 concerts/30 rounds of golf.  But I'm back for 2014 to share the rock with you as finally the snow is gone and the rock is on!

Kicked it off with Bob Weir and Ratdog reprising the greatest of the Grateful Dead last nite at the Tabernacle.  The young and the old (including yours truly) were out last nite for the final show of Ratdog's spring tour and it was one of the best set lists of the tour!

Some serious guitar power chords like Pink Floyd meets Lynyrd Skynyrd!

Set 1:

Help on the Way
Slipknot
Don't Let Go
She Belongs to Me
Lazy River Road
Little Red Rooster
Ashes and Glass
Promised Land


Set 2:

Peggy-O
Victim or the Crime
THE WEIGHT
Samson and Delilah
Terrapin Station 
The Other One
Space
MORNING DEW
Sugar Magnolia

Encore:

Broekdown Palace (Fare thee well…)

A very tight first set with a blazing dueling slide guitars on Little Red Rooster

The second set was insane:

Terrapin (of course this is Atlanta) into the Other One into Space into Morning Dew into Sugar Magnolia, crazy.. .ATL got one of the best set lists on the tour!

Onward to CSN at the Fox next Saturday!

2013...It's On!!!

Rockman is back and ready to go in 2013!  The first foray into the fray was last nite at the Tabernacle for the long awaited return of Keane!

Tom Chaplin is one of the purest singers alive and he let it all hang out last nite in a hundred minute show that covered all of Keane's best.

The rest of the band were epic with fabulous keys, drums and bass propelling Keane to the rafters of the Tabernacle.  What a fabulous start to 2013 for Rockman and his crew of Sneppisito, Mark Z and Garito!

 Next up Dweezil Zappa and Gaelic Storm at the Variety next week. 
See you at the 2013 shows!

The Musical Box and The Lamb

For the 45th and final concert of Rockman's record breaking 2012, I returned with the Silver Medalist Mark Snepp (a brilliant 16 shows) to the Variety Playhouse  for the Musical Box's Genesis approved recreation of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway!

The Box did a stunning performance of The Lamb using Genesis's original slides and costumes from the 1973 Lamb tour.

It was so great that this was my second time this year to see this great show.  Let's hope they come back with Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound!


Time for Rockman to rest and to celebrate the holidays.  It was great going to the show with all of you this year and special congrats to our Bronze Medalist Don with Honorable Mentions to Mark Z, Jon, Jeremy and Roger for mutiple nites of madness!  Also special thanks to all the good people who provided me with seats including Brian, Brandon, Jimmy and Bernie and anybody else who made this amazing year happen. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all. See ya at the show...

Heat of the Moment

Caught Asia at the Variety playhouse with a great crew of classic rock fans.  They played the hits and their new XXX album too.  4 great classic rockers whom age have not diminished!

There's only one queen and that's Madonna!

The Queen came to the ATL last weekend and she ruled supreme.  Not an early riser, Madonna came on at her customary 10:30 to present a show that was a dance combination of The Wall and Quadrophenia put together!

The show was filled with joy, violence, lust, light and sound.  A true overload for the senses as Madge brought her MDNA tour to town...

Flying drummers, voguers, strippers, snipers, and a cast of thousands provided a spectacle for the ages!

You gotta have Heart!

Caught the Wilson sisters and their excellent band at the Fox!

They played all the hits and some hard tunes from their new one "Frantic" in a rockin albeit short set.

Quadrophenia Live

Saw the Who play Quadrophenia and More at Gwinnett on Monday,

what a multimedia rockin extravaganza!

Roger and Pete and the gang played the entire Quadrophenia from start to finish. 

It was like the Who's version of the Wall.  They had a fabulous band replete with a horn section and the incredible drumming of Ringo's boy Zak Starkey.  They encored with many Who classics. With the Who, you won't get fooled again...well done boys!

Living in the Limelight!

Rocked it out with Rush at Verizon Ampitheater for the Clockwork Angels Tour!

Rockman's 40th show of the year!

The band was tight as always and featured tunes from the new cd.  They even had a string section for the second set making it like Rush meets ELO!

All the classics were played too, they just get better every tour!

Off to the Who and Heart this week.  See ya at the show!

Ladies Nites!

Spent a couple of nites with the women of Rock and Roll!  Kicked it off with Alanis Morrisette at the Tabernacle.  She played a bunch off her fine new album and all the old hits. She was backed by a rockin band that sounded like Led Zeppelin.  Alanis is back!

Then the very next nite it was Rockman in NYC!  Caught Aimee Mann at Town Hall in Times Square.  Another rockin show with the Charmer doin her thing entertaining me and my NY and NJ freinds in a final calm before the storm...

Jam On Atlanta

Spent the weekend jammin' with Gov.'t Mule and the Mickey Hart Band.  Great shows both playing long into the nite. First the VIP at the Tabernacle for the Mule, a long bluesy rockin show.

Then the next night Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead brought his band to the Variety Playhouse playing your favorite Dead cuts insterspersed with Floydian jams.

Australian Pink Floyd

Went to the APF show at the Fox on Saturday, another great nite from the Aussies!

The "Worlds Greatest Tribute Band' brought their three tractor trailers worth of sound and lights and played some great Floyd.  They did quite a bit of The Division Bell along with all the greatest hits and oldies like "Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "One Of These Days" ending with The Wall suite of "Comfortably Numb and "Run Like Hell".

Rockman is off to a weekend of jammin with Government Mule and Mickey Hart.  See you on the dark side!

David Byrne/St. Vincent

Saw the David Byrne show with Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent).  A great show and great to see David Bryne has aged well and is still rocking (just like yours truly)!  Unusual setup as Bryne has teamed with Annie Clark of St. Vincent, a guitar shredder and fun singer to produce a new-wave fest based on their current album Love This Giant.  They had drums, keyboads and eight horn players parading around the stage like it was halftime at a football game, very interesting and very good.

They played some good Talking Heads too, burning down the house! Next up Australian Pink Floyd!

Thick as a Brick

Saw Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson play Thick as a Brick Parts 1&2 last week.  A classic show from a classic performer!

They began with the original classic album replete with visuals, actors and some great rock 'n roll.  A medieval rock opera in the mode of Tommy or The Wall.  The big suprise of the evening was Thick As A Brick Part 2.  It is a new masterpiece!  A great story for modern times!

They encored with Locomotive Breath, awesome!  A splendid time was had by all....

Music Midtown Seattle's best!

Rockman was at both nites of  Music Midtown (of course) and what a show!  Friday nite was blown away by the Avett Brothers, what a great mixture of bluegrass and rock!

Then the Foo Fighters came on and tore it up.  What a drummer Taylor is!  And Dave and the boys played a high octane set for their deveoted fans:

A real highlight came at the end when Dave's hero Joan Jett came on and blistered through "Bad Reputation" with the Foos!

The next day was a marathon day of music leading up to the reason Rockman was there, Pearl Jam.  Kicked it off with a suprising performance from LP.  The girl can really sing and it was a fun set before we got down to the heavy stuff:

Garbage came on next and Shirley and the boys all dressed in black slayed it.  A sonic treat of old and new songs that really got you sweating in the heat:

After that over to the smaller stage for a raucous set from MTV stalwart Adam Ant.  He had a fabulous band with two drummers and festive backup singers.  The indian garb has been replace by the Johnny Depp/Pirate look and the old were young again this afternoon.

My man Sneppisito and I rested , fed and port-a-pottied during Ludacris and Neon Trees sets and moved down to the big stage for the amazing performance of Florence and the Machine.

The banshee and her heavy duty band played a marvelous 75 minutes with the sun setting on the big stage and the clouds floating behind her art deco stage.

After some fun mashups by Girl Talk we were ready to finally see Pearl Jam!

What a great show!  It was like the Beatles at the Cavern Club, 24 songs in 2 hours.  There was no time for the long jams, this was getting in as many faves as possible and what a setlist!

Why Go
Save You
Animal
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
Corduroy
Got Some
Amongst The Waves
Wishlist
Better Man
Do The Evolution
Even Flow
Know Your Rights Clash Cover
Nothingman
Supersonic
Jeremy
Porch

Crazy Mary

Given To Fly
The Fixer
Rearviewmirror
Unthought Known
Black
Alive
Rockin' in the Free World Neil Young Cover

The only sad thing is the band ran out of time, with Eddie begging for 10 more minutes so they could play Yellow Ledbetter, but the curfew won out.  Eddie ruled, McCready was insane playing the solo from Alive behind his back, Jeff rocked the bass, Stone the guitar and Boom the keys.  And of course the engine driving it all, the incredible Matt Cameron!

We love ya Pearl Jam!  Thanks for finally coming back to the ATL!