Seeing singers signing songs

In the last year or so, Suzi and I have made the “amazing” (as in, it shouldn’t have been amazing) discovery that any musician on tour who we like will probably come to the Boston area at some point.

Which is why we’ve seen Sugarland, Josh Groban (with Idina Menzel), Mumford & Sons, Leslie Odom Jr. with the Boston Pops, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves.

I gotta tell ya … it hasn’t sucked.

One of the latest things going around the Twitter machine is asking people’s concert history through the following questions.

First concert:

Last concert:

Next concert:

Best:

Worst:

Have seen most:

Haven’t seen but want to:

OK … I’ll bite.

First concert — Starship at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. I was a teenager, and it was in their “We Built This City”-fueled comeback.

Cutting Crew was the opening act. Remember when Cutting Crew was a thing? If you’re younger than your late 40s, you probably don’t.

It also was the first exposure to a problem I’ve had ever since, which is that if I don’t know a song, a lot of times it sounds just like noise.

Last concert — Kacey Musgraves at Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion in Boston. It was a week after we saw Maren Morris at the Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT (we had missed her show at House of Blues in Boston), so yeah, that was a great couple weeks for concerts.

Next concert — Sara Bareilles, Oct. 11 at Agganis Arena in Boston. The three songs we saw her do in New York were a nice tease, but now we’ll get to see the whole thing.

Best — This is a tough one, because I go to concerts of people I like, so I’m always going to be happy unless something drastic happens.

There are too many good choices, but I’ll go with Sugarland because they’re my favorite band and I wasn’t sure I’d ever see them perform.

Worst — Same problem, especially since I’ve never had this experience.

Worst concert: Frank Sinatra – ~’93, passed out drunk, on stage half way through the show. 😡
Who have you seen most: REM or Jimmy Buffet
Who have you not seen but want to: Too many to choose

— Fr8 Dog (@MD11Fr8Dog) September 24, 2019

However, even though might be unfair to judge them, since they’re usually young and trying to establish themselves (with the exception of Idina Menzel), there are opening acts that make you want to know more about them.

For instance, there was Maggie Rogers, who got the Mumford & Sons tent revival rolling, or Kassi Ashton, who opened for Maren Morris.

And then there’s Weyes Blood, who opened for Kacey Musgraves. Not only did her music not seem the least bit interesting, she didn’t seem especially interested to be there. Maybe looking bored as hell is her aesthetic, but it was a real turnoff.

Have seen most — We have seen Josh Groban three times, as he has progressed from a great talent until a great, fully formed talent.

In fact, if had brought out Jennifer Nettles to sing with him in Boston instead of a week or so later in a little barn called … Madison Square Garden … I might have said that was my favorite concert.

As it is, when PBS shows the Garden concert, it’s an automatic remote-stopper.

Haven’t seen but want to — Unless the songs at Times Talks count, it’s Sara Bareilles until Oct. 11.

Other than that, I’d probably say Taylor Swift, but I’m not sure how much desire I have to spend the kind of money it would take to sit in the last row of a football stadium with 65,000 or more of my closest friends.

What about you? What’s your concert history? Leave something in the comments, or write up something of your own! I’d love to see it.

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