Motorhead with Reverend Horton Heat, Nashville Pussy

The Fillmore Charlotte

Sept. 11, 2009

The Deal: Motorhead, Reverend Horton Heat, Nashville Pussy and a whole lot of speakers hit the Queen City.

Heart w/ Tonic

Uptown Amphitheatre

Sept. 6, 2009

The Deal: Classic rockers bring along radio favorites.

The Good: Tonic is one of theose bands who you've probably heard, but can't name one song off of the top of your head. It's the "Ohhhhh yeah... I know that song..." factor. So, of course, there was a big sing along during "If You Could Only See."

Heart hit the stage with "guns blazing." Nancy Wilson walked out to the front of the stage (sadly, the only time any band member strayed far from their microphone stand) and kicked off the opening riff to "Barracuda." Not a bad start to a set that lasted roughly an hour and a half.

Ann Wilson's voice may have cracked once or twice, but damn if she doesn't have one of the best female voices in rock. She also found a moment to play flute on "Love Alive."

Nancy spent plenty of time jumping up and down and kicking out a leg in true rock style as she ripped through a cover of Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song," and their own "Crazy On You."

Adding in a cover of The Who's "Reign O'er Me" that showcased the vocals once again, the band's encore included a cover of Zepplin's "Going to California" (with the name changed to Carolina) before a show-closing "Magic Man."

The Bad: If you saw Heart open up for Journey last year, you pretty much saw the show they played on this night. The good part is they sounded just as strong as they did a year ago.

The Verdict: It's always great to go to a show thinking you'll know three or four songs by a band and then know most of the setlist. Heart's catalog runs deep and is worth checking out.

Heart setlist

Barracuda

Never

Kick It Out

Straight on for You

Love Alive

Mistral Wind

Immigrant Song

Back to Avalon

These Dreams

What About Love

Alone

Reign O'er Me

Crazy On You

Encore

Going to California

Magic Man

Down w/ The Melvins, Haarp, Evil Army

The Fillmore Charlotte

Sept. 5, 2009

The Deal: Supergroup Down brings along The Melvins, Haarp and Evil Army for heavy metal gig at The Fillmore.

Incubus w/ The Duke Spirit

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Aug. 12, 2009

The Deal: Incubus roll into town in support of their recent Moments and Melodies CD, bringing along The Duke Spirit.

The Good: The Duke Spirit performed a 45-minute set that showed off the band's energy and had some people hooked though the amphitheatre appeared to be half-full.

The crowd looked like it doubled by the time Incubus hit the stage and kicked it off with a power trio of "Pardon Me," "Nice to Know You" and "Anna Molly." Singer Brandon Boyd - sans those plugs in his earlobes - gave an intense performance as he sang a good part of the night's set with his eyes closed or making small hand gestures in the air or against the speakers as if hallucinating.

While the energy level remained high for a good portion of the band's hour-and-a-half set before the encore, they found time to slow it down for an acoustic "Drive" and "Make Yourself" before playing a stripped down "Dig" with Boyd on a conga and drummer Jose Pasillas slapping away at a box drum. Guitarist Mike Einziger was

The band's encore was made up of "Punch Drunk" followed by a high-energy cover of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."

The Bad: With so much material to choose from, it's sad that the setlist was basically the same as the previous night in Virginia Beach. However, when you're promoting a greatest hits album, I guess you have to stick with your greatest hits.

The Verdict: The band was in fine form, so you'd have to guess that the time off did them some good. Everyone seemed energized by the music and Boyd seemed to be intensely tuned into the lyrics he was singing. A sonically solid performance all around.

Incubus setlist

Pardon Me

Nice to Know You

Anna Molly

Stellar

Megalomaniac

Circles

Love Hurts

Just a Phase

Drive

Make Yourself

Dig

Redefine

Warning

Oil and Water

Quicksand

A Kiss To Send Us Off

Wish You Were Here

Aqueous Transmission

Encore

Punch Drunk

Let's Go Crazy

The B-52s w/ Snagglepuss

The Fillmore Charlotte

Aug. 11, 2009

The Deal: Athens, Ga., new wavers surf into The Fillmore as Charlotte's Snagglepuss nabs the opening spot.

Def Leppard with Poison, Cheap Trick

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Aug. 8, 2009

The Deal: It was the return of the '80s/'90s hair metal as Def Leppard brought along Poison and Cheap Trick for a wild night of rock.

The Good: The night started out with Cheap Trick and I'm not sure if it's good or bad that guitarist Rick Nielsen is so proficient in throwing picks. I swear that, at times, it's as if he's throwing a pick after every strum of the guitar. (He once said in an interview that he averages throwing out 500 picks per show.)

Next up was Poison, who performed for roughly an hour during their hits-packed set. The older-skewing crowd sang along to every word as the band hit the stage to "Look What the Cat Dragged In" — though it looked more like "Look What the Cougars Dragged In" as plenty of women screamed for the Rock of Love star Bret Michaels. Michaels acknowledged the success of the show at one point and, again, the crowd went wild.

Guitarist CC DeVille did all he could to entertain the crowd with rampant guitar licks and an extended solo after "Your Mama Don't Dance." The band also took a moment to thank troops and videotape the crowd during "Something to Believe In." And the hits were all there, for the most part — "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," "Unskinny Bop" and the closer, "Nothin' But a Good Time."

Def Leppard ran through an hour-and-30-minute set full of hits of its own — "Rocket," "Love Bites," "Animal," "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me" among them. The band made good use of the three level stage as a massive LED screen backdrop zipped through the years to start of the band's show. It's been a long 30 years, but there's still plenty of energy in the group.

The Bad: Note to Poison — You shouldn't sell booty shorts that have "I Want Action" written on them if you aren't going to play the song during your set. I was also surprised that they left out "I Won't Forget You." Def Leppard's biggest omission was "Let's Get Rocked."

The Verdict: I'll put it plainly: Cheap Trick's set was about the same as I'd seen before — consistent, yet short. It was the first time I'd seen Poison in 20 years and the band looked like they still have fun in every moment they're on stage. I hadn't seen Def Leppard before and while the set is certainly smaller than the old days, they still have the chops to pull off the songs vocally and musically. All in all, it was a reminiscent night of times gone by.

Poison setlist

Look What the Cat Dragged In

Ride the Wind

You Mama Don't Dance> CC Solo

Fallen Angel

Something to Believe In

Unskinny Bop > Rikki solo

Every Rose

Talk Dirty To Me

Nothin' But a Good Time

Def Leppard setlist

Rock Rock Til You Drop

Rocket

Photograph

Too Late For Love

Nine Lives

Love Bites

Rock On

Two Steps Behind

Bringing on the Heartbreak

Switch 625

Hysteria

Armageddon It

Photograph

Pour Some Sugar On Me

Rock of Ages

Coldplay w/ Elbow, Kitty Daisy & Lewis

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Aug. 7, 2009

The Deal: Coldplay bring along a few British mates — Kitty, Daisy & Lewis and Elbow — for latest tour in support of Viva La Vida.

Tool w/ Tweak Bird

Bojangles Coliseum

July 29, 2009

The Deal: Tool brings along Tweak Bird for visit to Charlotte at sold-out Bojangles Coliseum.

Jason Mraz w/ G. Love, K'Naan, Bushwalla

Uptown Amphitheatre/Fillmore

July 28, 2009

Photos coming soon!

The Deal: Jason Mraz and G. Love move outdoor show at Uptown Amphitheatre into The Fillmore after heavy downpour.

The Good: The concert was supposed to happen at the Uptown Amphitheatre, but rain came pouring down part-way through K'Naan's set. As people scrambled for shelter from the thunderstorm, a stage was slowly put together inside the neighboring Fillmore. Though roughly 4,000 tickets were sold for the show, only 2,000 would get into The Fillmore — a lot of people left in the rain and 1,800 stuck around. I also heard that lawn ticket holders were told they could not get into The Fillmore. What those in attendance got was a 45-minute, solo acoustic set by G. Love and a nearly two-hour acoustic, full-band set by Mraz. (Mraz was only scheduled for an hour and 15 minutes for outside, but I guess the three-hour wait was worth it for those who remained.)