Rush!
Son and I shall be heading for O2 Arena on the Tuesday  
I last saw them at the gig in Birmingham that became one of their live albums (A Show of Hands?) Time before that was the Signals tour, and the time before that was the Exit Stage Left tour - the first proper gig I ever went to.

I am very much looking forward to this!

I was somewhat distressed to be told there have been 10 albums since the last one I listened to (Signals).... Gulp

Good for you David, it will be a bit different from last tome you saw them, but I am sure you will love it.

There's an interview Geddy & Alex did with Planet Rock this week on YouTube, well worth a watch and gives away a few secrets about what to expect. Also, did you see that the Who's keyboard player / backing vocalist is joining them so that Geddy can concentrate on bass and vocals.

Makes me think of that John Peel quote...

“Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don’t have any surface noise. I said, ‘Listen, mate, *life* has surface noise”

 

It's sad isn't it.
Luckily shiny CD gems are still made. Folk it ain't but I laid my hands on a few Thin Lizzy box sets which are fantastic - as items, and in sound. However I wonder how many they make. These go for collector rates within months of release. Yet, they feel like last of the Mohicans.
At my Roots aan de Zaan gigs whenever I book an act also selling vinyl at their merch table, the LP's are the things that sell. It never fails to puzzle me 😂

Somewhat appalled at myself, but I appear to actually be going to see Rush after all.  The Sunday at the Co-op.  As far away from the stage as it is practically possible to be.  £112.  Utterly ridiculous, but what the hell...I can pretend to be 16 again (my age the last time I saw them)...

If anybody is interested in the songbook, here is the listing on eBay.  Happy to deal either on there or directly if anybody here wants it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/257379839039

Indeed he did! He opened with “Cassidy” by Bob Weir and closed with a GD song whose title I forget but is at setlist.fm

Did he play any Grateful Dead?

Sunday night I saw Warren Haynes at the Paramount Theater. He played solo, without a band, for two hours. He mixed Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule tunes with solo compositions and a smattering of well-chosen covers, including a magnificent rendition of "He Ain't Give You None" (sounding very much like Van Morrison). Because of the format, we didn't get a lot of guitar solos. This was clearly his intention, though maybe a few shredders in the audience would have been disappointed. Some of the shows from this tour are streaming on nugs.net, so I recommend a listen.

Monday night we saw Emmylou Harris at the same venue. Although it was billed as an evening with EH, it was in reality a guitar circle with Emmylou, Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp, performing the music of Guy Clark. I was unfamiliar with Verlon and Shawn, both of whom are skilled players and singers with long-standing connections to Guy. Their stories and choices of material were clearly honed over years of performance. Emmylou was kind of tacked on. She added high harmony to a number of songs, told stories of her own, and contributed verses to some tunes (aided by lyric sheets). Altogether, it was a loving and musically rewarding tribute to a mercurial songwriter.