I know that seems like a good problem but I seriously have been seeing a lot of live music and I’m good for it. Old bands I love when I was young and some I never really listened to but knew and went to see them just because! I think still out of the whole year so far – Soundgarden and A Perfect Circle take the cake for best overall shows, however Blues Traveler utterly kicked a huge pile of ass and I was happy to see them even though they did a 2 night bit and I just went the first.

I saw Dream Theater and Trivium last and was quite impressed with both – upcoming Anthrax with Testament and Death Angel, then The Foo Fighters, Tori Amos, and a newer band that I’m really liking these days: Trampled By Turtles. This has been an excellent year for seeing local music and discovering such wonderful artists like The Family Crest and seeing other excellent bands like Making Dinner and numerous solo acts. The open mic scene surely allows me the chance to see a lot of wonderfully creative and promising artists – I meet so many cool people going to those.

Since moving to California 6 years ago, I’ve seen more like shows than I had in my previous 34 years combined! It is an amazing benefit to be in San Francisco and have all the places in the bay area that are within a short drive to see awesome shows. I saw Tool 5 times the first year here and will go as many as I can within 2 hours drive 🙂 I have to have standards!

Primus is another benefit since Les is local and they play so many shows are here and I saw Helmet in some little dive in Oakland recently and was blown away! Alice In Chains was amazing as well as Mastodon and the Deftones! I could keep going, but I just wanted to post this and say this is truly a privilege to live out here and have such amazing resources for live music from not just the big names but all the new and upcoming artists.

PS – I saw Rush for the first time ever this year and I was not let down. I only wish they had played Show Don’t Tell.

Brent