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Oh, Robbie! Reviewing the Robbie Williams “Take the Crown Tour” in Krieau Stadium Vienna

Time to go what we had come to Vienna for — one of music’s “superstars” and a once in a lifetime chance to see Robbie Williams perform live on his Take the Crown Tour. It was time to be entertained by the best in the business.

Time to go and see one of the stars my romantic heart had grown up with and with whom I had developed a connection.  Robbie had owned a little piece of my heart from the Take That days and at times he sung the words I needed to hear with the voice of an Angel.

Our tickets cost 118 Euros  for seats in the stadium –rather than the pit — cheap in comparison to the UK concerts which were our other main option.

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Music as it Should Be: Depeche Mode at Optimus Alive 2013 in Lisbon

I have posted before about one of my reasons for loving Portugal — access to music of all kinds and genres, classical, traditional fado, international superstars, innovative festivals, bands large and small, old and new, intimate venues, outdoor venues — the range is incredible from Rock in Rio every two years in Lisbon to the classy Music of the World every summer in Sines.

In the summer months, the large beer and mobile phone companies ply for our trade, and the kudos of hosting international pop and rock acts over the long weekends in June, July and August.

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The Led Zeppelin Celebration Day Review

For a long period of my life, including my early teens, I was not much interested in music of any form other than the classical music that my grandmother enjoyed. It was not until sometime early in high school that I discovered a copy of Led Zeppelin IV among some cassette tapes that my father had purchased at a garage sale — this was 1991, after all, and you found a lot more cassettes at garage sales than almost anything else musically speaking. It was one of the most powerful musical moments of my life and I am pretty sure that it changed my life for the better as I might not have nearly the musical taste I have now if I had not discovered the tape.

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Phish Plays Jones Beach

It has been nearly two years since I last saw the band Phish perform live and it was also about eight years after I saw them for what I was certain was going to be the very last time — I thought that they had broken up for good. I was back at the Jones Beach Amphitheater, only this time I had one of the worst seats in the place. I was just a bit irritated at first — I bought the ticket directly from the band’s tickets by mail service and I thought that after seeing them for 17 years that I would get assured a better seat than this.

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Experiencing The Mountain Goats Live

When I first started listening to The Mountain Goats in 2009, my co-worker who introduced me to their music would play a live recording of theirs, in part to introduce me to what it would be like to go and see them live. The recordings intimidated me because many of the songs had fans singing along with the songs, sometimes singing just as loudly as chief singer John Darnielle. I asked him if it was a regular occurrence to have everyone in the audience singing like that — he said that it was. I couldn’t help but think it would be awkward to be one of the few people in the audience to not be able to sing along like that and he assured me that it would not be an issue.

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Wattstax and Understanding the 1965 Watts Riot

Wattstax is a musical documentary hosted by Richard Pryor that challenges you to propel your common morality back in time to test it against a known event for values conditioning.  Who are you and what do you believe?  Would your burn down your neighborhood to make a political point?  How are you protected from the hangman’s noose?

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Lenny Kravitz Blues Infusion

Lenny Kravitz is one of our most pure misunderstood geniuses. 
If more people “got him” — Lenny would be the most popular Blues-infused musicians working today.

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