Janet's Smiles

Q is for One Night of Queen

Posted on April 19, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Unfortunately we never saw Freddie Mercury with Queen. We have seen Queen with Adam Lambert twice and thought they were great.

One of the offerings at the Mountain Winery was “One Night of Queen,” a tribute band. We love the music so we decided to check it out and honestly Gary Mullen and The Works do a really good job. While Gary does not 100% look like Freddie, he is almost spot on with his mannerisms and singing style. The crowd was really into it.

As I mentioned yesterday I am running out of space here so I am not including as many pictures but I wanted to add this video to show you why we love the Winery so much. A lot of the performers are like this where they go out into the crowd and sing with us. High fives are given all around and the venue is really so nice.

There was an intermission between Hammer to Fall and Flash. Gotta have time to get refreshments, right?

Date: 7/24/2022
Venue: The Mountain Winery
Artist/Tour: One Night of Queen
Setlist: – Note, there was no actual setlist printed for the date we saw them but this is from a couple of nights later and is typical of the songs they were singing on the tour.
One Vision
Tie Your Mother Down
Somebody to Love
Under Pressure
Now I’m Here
Killer Queen
I’m In Love With My Car
I Want to Break Free
Ay-Oh
You’re My Best Friend
Hamer to Fall
Flash
Another One Bites the Dust
Don’t Stop Me Now
Seven Seas of Rhye
I want it All
Keep Yourself Alive
Fat Bottomed Girls
Bohemian Rhapsody
Radio Ga Ga
Back in Black
Mony Mony
Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Okay. One more day to squeak through and then I have Sunday to try to figure out how to finish this A to Z without paying for more space. Also, my views are looking kind of wonky. I’m wondering if that’s part of the problem too.Hope you hang in there with me!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, concerts, Gary Mullen and The Works, Mountain Winery, music, Queen | 16 Comments

P is for Pretenders

Posted on April 18, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Chrissie Hynde and her band, The Pretenders, was the opening act for Stevie Nicks. I try to see Stevie whenever she is around and we are sometimes treated to great opening acts. This was no exception.

We are back at SAP Center in San Jose this time. We stopped at the Louisiana Bistro before the show. Sadly this establishment closed down and we miss it. I’m not really into Cajun spices but this place had a little of everything. We try to get to the venue early since the traffic from our house down to San Jose can get kind of backed up.

And we had reasonable seats too. I did know a lot of her songs and she was a very personable performer, really reacting to and interacting with the crowd.

Here’s some of Brass in Pocket.

I love it when the songs sound just like they do on the radio. Makes it much easier to sing along.

Date: 12/14/2016
Venue: SAP Center, San Jose, CA
Artist/Tour: The Pretenders/24 Karat Gold Tour
Setlist:
Alone
Gotta Wait
Message of Love
Private Life
Down the Wrong Way
Hymn to Her
Back on the Chain Gang
I’ll Stand By You
My City was Gone
Holy Commotion
Stop Your Sobbing
Don’t Get Me Wrong
Mystery Achievement
Middle of the road
Brass In Pocket

So now I have a real problem. As I was trying to get my next post ready I ran into a snag in that I HAVE NO MORE SPACE FOR PICTURES/VIDEOS on my WP unless I upgrade. So now do I give in and upgrade again or do I take the time to go back to some of my older posts and delete them? GRR. I have to finish this A to Z so I may have to bite the bullet. I was not ready for this.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, Chrissie Hynde, Concert, Louisiana Bistro, music, Pretenders, SAP center, Stevie Nicks | 15 Comments

O is for One Woman Show

Posted on April 17, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Most of the time the shows we see are well-known artists from our 70’s and 80’s rock genre. Every once in a while my husband will read about someone in the paper and get intrigued. This is what happened with Tash Sultana.

One Woman Show is the way I describe her because she plays all the instruments for most of her show. She does have a band accompanying her but only for one or two songs. She starts playing an instrument and then sets it on a loop and moves on to another instrument, sets that on a loop and keeps going until she has the whole show in motion. She uses a lot of flashing lights too, reminiscent of ELO. In fact, there was the warning on the screen to let us know about that.

While my photos aren’t great because we were up in the balcony, here’s a review of the show that night where you can see some better ones. My hubby actually got a brief video. It doesn’t really show how much she moves around between the different instruments but you can kind of get the picture.

Date: 7/22/2022
Venue: Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
Artist/Tour: Tash Sultana/Terra Firma
Setlist:
Big Smoke
Mystik
Cigarettes
Pretty Lady
Greed
Willow Tree
Coma
Notion
Jungle
Blackbird

I think “Jungle” was the song that my husband found on YouTube that made him want to see her in the first place. In the video you can see her stepping on different pedals and then using the keyboard to add more sounds. It was very interesting to watch and she certainly is constantly in motion but not knowing any of the songs, it was kind of hard to get into. It was definitely a new experience. If we saw her again I think I would get closer seats. This was kind of a last minute thing so we had to take what we could get.

What do you think? Ever seen anything like that before?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, Fox Oakland, music, Tash Sultana | 16 Comments

N is for Night Ranger

Posted on April 16, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Night Ranger was the opening act for Foreigner and Journey. That was a great show, made better by the fact that we went with some friends and had a tailgate before we went in.

No video for this one either. It was in 2011 so I probably wasn’t thinking about recording, just taking pictures. I did turn this into a mini-album for our friends. It was one of the first paper bag albums I ever made.

I think it turned out pretty good, don’t you? Once again, I only knew one song, Sister Christian.

Date: 10/15/2011
Venue: Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA
Artist/Tour: Night Ranger/Eclipse
Setlist:
Lay It On Me
Sing Me Away
Roadhouse Blues
High Enough
When You Close Your Eyes
Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
Sister Christian
You Can Still Rock In America

That’s it for today folks. Hope you are enjoying the show.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, concerts, Foreigner, Journey, music, Night Ranger, paper bag album, scrapbooking, Shoreline, Sister Christian | 9 Comments

M is for Mariah Carey

Posted on April 15, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

And so we begin week 3 of our A to Z challenge! Seems to be going pretty well so far. I haven’t noticed too many new visitors but I haven’t actually been very good about searching out new ones myself so…

Today we have Mariah Carey. She is definitely not someone that I would pay to see on her own but she was the opener for Lionel Richie, who I love!

She didn’t change my mind about her, still not someone I’d go see more than once. Fun fact though, just as she was starting to break out in the late 80’s early 90’s my husband was working at a local Warehouse Records and she came in to promote her album. I did like her red dress. No video today. Guess I was saving my batteries for Lionel.

Date: 7/21/2017
Venue: Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA
Artist/Tour: Mariah Carey/All the Hits Tour
Setlist:
Love Hangover/Heartbreaker
Shake It Off
Touch My Body
I Know What You Want
My All
Always Be My Baby
Don’t Forget About Us
One Sweet Day
All I Do
It’s Like That
Vision of Love
We Belong Together
All I Want for Christmas Is You
Hero

Honestly, the only song I remotely knew was Hero and the Christmas one, which she sang only a snippet of, and Love Hangover which isn’t even her song! Still, she helped me fill a letter in the A to Z so there is that! Happy Monday all.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, concerts, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey, music, Oracle Arena Oakland | 13 Comments

L is for Cyndi Lauper

Posted on April 13, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Hey there A to Zers, another week down! I’m ashamed to say I haven’t even visited the main A to Z blog myself, have you?

Once again we have an opening act that was almost as fun to see as the headliner. Almost I say because the headliner was CHER!

Cyndi Lauper was very chatty with the crowd and talked about her relationship with Cher. Their mothers were friends so they have known each other a long time. She had a lot of jokes and stories to tell but it didn’t interfere with her show.

I was happy that we had seats kind of higher up for this because at one point Cyndi stopped what she was talking about and looked down at a guy in one of the front rows and called him out for taking pictures! She said, “Are you filming me right now? You’re missing what’s happening right in front of you because you’re doing that! Put that camera away right now!” Or words to that effect. I’m sure if we had been sitting closer she might have been talking to me! Here’s how I scrapbooked that event.

The pictures aren’t that great but I do have a video. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” right?

I should learn how to take some stills from the videos because a lot of times they are so much better than the pictures I can take. Still, they are not for publication, just for my scrapbooks so… Also, kind of proud of myself for holding the camera so steady during this song because you know I wanna dance!

Date: 07/02/2014
Venue: SAP Center, San Jose, CA
Artist/Tour: Cyndi Lauper/30th Anniversary: She’s So Unusual
Setlist:
She Bop
I’ll Kiss You
Witness
All Through the Night
Into the Nightlife
Sex is in the Heel
Time after Time
Money Changes Everything
Girls Just Want to Have fun
True Colors

Okay, did you survive the week? I’m going to try to get around to some new folks this weekend. It’s raining here so there’s not much to do outside and who wants to clean house? See you Monday with “M”.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, Cher, concerts, Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just WAnna Have Fun, music, scrapbooking | 12 Comments

K is for Kool and the Gang

Posted on April 12, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Kool and the Gang were the opening act for Van Halen. This was one of those concerts that my husband wanted to see more than I did. I’m glad we went though since Eddy Van Halen is gone now.

I enjoyed Kool and the Gang more than Van Halen I think. They really had the place up and rocking. This has also made it into the scrapbook.

I mean, who can’t dance to Celebration? No video today, sorry.

Date: 06/03/2012
Venue: Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA
Artist/Tour: Kool and the Gang/A Different Kind of Truth
Setlist:
Fresh
Tonight
Emergency
Misled
Too Hot
Hollywood Swingin’
Jungle Boogie
Ladies Night
Get Down On It
Celebration

Short one for this letter but at least it’s up. One more this week and then a break on Sunday. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, Celebration, concerts, Kool & the Gang, music, Van Halen | 17 Comments

J is for Journey Through Time

Posted on April 11, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

We have seen Journey at least 7 times by my counting and I did write about them in a previous A to Z challenge but this time I’m using a different iteration. Neal Schon got a few of the former band members together and did a spin-off called “Journey Through Time.” That’s who we went to see and this time we took our daughter with us! It was a fun night at a new to us venue, The Fox Theater in Oakland.

While waiting to get in I was intrigued with the old communication equipment that was still in the hallway. I am not sure what all those levers were for but it was interesting. Once inside the venue was full of great things to look at.

Neal Schon put together a group of musicians including former bandmates, Gregg Rollie and Deen Castronovo, Marco Mendoza (from Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy) and Chris Collins. They played lots of songs from all of the Journey albums, including the first three. They also played some Santana songs since both Schon and Rollie were with Santana. Deen Castronovo had been the drummer for Journey for a while but then he got into some drug-related problems. This was one of his first times back on stage and he appeared very grateful.

We had general admission tickets and thought that we were going to have to stand the whole night but there were some tables and we were early enough to be able to grab one. A couple times during the show people came up to us and offered to pay us for the seats! We could have made the money we spent on the tickets back – LOL.

They sang some songs I was not familiar with because honestly I became a Journey fan when Steve Perry joined the group and that was after the first few albums. To me, Journey is not Journey without him. Anyway…

Anyway You Want It

Date: February 23, 2019
Venue: Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
Artist/Tour: Journey Through Time
Setlist:
I’m Gonna Leave You
Look Into the Future
Just the Same Way
Kohoutek
Daydeam
Walks Like a Lady
Feeling that Way
Anytime
Lights
Still They Ride
Separate Ways
Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’
Wheel in the Sky
Trial by Fire
Stay Awhile
Mystery Mountain
Of a Lifetime
La Do Da
Lovin’ You is Easy
Nickel & Dime
People
Mother, Father
Any Way You Want It
Don’t Stop Believin’
Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen

We were thinking they might play On a Saturday Night, since it was, but they didn’t. Guess you can’t have everything, right? Okay, A to Zers, two more letters this week. Any guesses as to who my letter K will be?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Any Way You Want It, Concert, Fox Theater Oakland, Gregg Rollie, Journey, Journey Through Time, music, Neal Schon | 16 Comments

I is for “I Want You to Want Me”

Posted on April 10, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Hello A to Z friends. How is your week going? I have been trying to stop and visit everyone at least once during this alphabet journey but so far have only been able to keep up truly with my “regulars.” If I haven’t stopped by you yet, I’m sorry. If you are just making it around to me, this year I am again going through the alphabet via the artists we have seen in concert over the years. Occasionally, like today, I need to use a song title to help fulfill the letter.

“I Want You to Want Me” is a song sung by Cheap Trick. This is another one of those bands that I probably wouldn’t pay to see on their own but they have opened for a couple of other groups that we like so we’ve actually seen them twice.

The first time was in 2008. They were part of the show with Heart and Journey. They are one of those bands where you go, “Oh, I remember that song. Did they do that?” At least for me they are. This first show has made it into the scrapbook. By this time they had started using print at home tickets which are not really the same, are they? I had some background papers that I thought went really well with the set used by Cheap Trick with all the black and white checkerboards. I realize that I forgot to include a “selfie” from the Hooters yesterday! It’s kind of fun to see how we have changed over the years too.

The next time we saw them was in 2017. This time they were the middle act between Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience and Foreigner. Both of these were at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View.

I did a Facebook Live, something I like to do when I can to share the experience with my friends. Actually got part of “I Want You To Want Me.” Sorry for the poor quality but my equipment was not the best.

Still, you get the idea.

Date: 09/27/2008
Venue: Shoreline, Mountain View, CA
Artist/Tour: Cheap Trick
Setlist:
Hello There
70’s Song
California Man
If You Want My Love
I Know What I Want
I Want You to Want Me
I Can’t Take It
The Flame
Surrender
Goodnight.
Dream Police

Date: 09/02/2017
Venue: Shoreline, Mountain View, CA
Artist/Tour: Cheap Trick
Setlist:
Hello There
Just Got Back
California Man
Long Time Coming
Baby Loves to Rock
You Got It Going On
Need Your Love
Bass Solo
I’m Waiting for the Man
The Flame
I Want You To Want Me
Dream Police
Surrender
Goodnight.

They are actually going to be at Chase Center this September as the opening act for Heart. We haven’t gotten tickets yet but just might! What do you think? Shall we see them again?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A to Z 2024, Cheap Trick, concerts, music, scrapbooking, Shoreline Amphitheater | 14 Comments

H is for Hooters

Posted on April 9, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Happy Tuesday my A to Z friends. Are you ready for another event at the Mountain Winery? If you wonder why so many of our shows are there, it’s because a few years ago they started doing a “Loyalty Club” program where if you see 4 shows a year you get the special benefit of advanced ticket sales for the next season. So of the 6 or 8 concerts we go to each year, at least 4 of them are there. In reality, the tickets are mostly within reason and so we can usually sit up close, which is where I like to be!

For the letter “H” I’m using the “Hooters.” If you ask me to name a song they did, I’m not sure I’d be able to right off the bat but they were the middle act between Tommy Tutone and Rick Springfield. Once they started singing, I did indeed remember them.

I love the way they use the lights on the trees above the seats. If you want, you can watch the show from that section and still see the beautiful lights of the city in the distance. The Mountain Winery is way up on a mountain top with a gorgeous view of the surrounding area.

Here’s “And We Danced,” which we did!

Definitely a great way to get the crowd going to welcome Rick Springfield.

The Details: