A couple of weeks back, we finally got to see Rod.

Lethy has been wanting to see him forever – his shows sell out super fast and the resale market for his shows is insane!

Stevie Nicks opened and did a mix of her own stuff with quite a bit of Fleetwood Mac mixed in – Landslide, Gold Dust Woman, Go Your Own Way, White Winged bird, etc. Unable to find a set list.

She seemed genuinely excited to be there and really grateful for all the applause and sing-alongs. She also joined Rod for a few duets, which honestly didn’t sound so great, but it’s the best photo I have of her so…

Rod had exactly the sort of personality you’d expect. He spoke and it felt like he was talking to you, not you and thousands of other people. His voice was good and his set was nice.

The central floating video panel was jaw droppingly sharp.

Can’t find his set list either, which is weird. He sang 5 or 6 songs I knew, but he did some other stuff I had no clue what it was. He explained that he was trying to sing some of the songs from the first time he played MSG in the 60s as singer for Jeff Beck. It’s nice to get a unique performance, but honestly I’d have preferred more hits.

Still, all in all due almost completely to his charisma, an A+ show.

Up next for us, Chris Cornell acoustic!

Monmouth is a lot further than I expected.

Venue was essentially a basketball court sized area with some upper level bleachers around the outside.

For once we got there early and perched ourselves right up against the barriers, front row, far stage right.

Some band called In this Moment opened. Or something like that. Music was OK, but the female singer did lots of “growl” singing and she could only growl one note. It got old fast.

Sevendust was the second opener. Musically they were good, but they were just fairly vile people. Lead singer had lots of face piercings and tattoos. He gyrated pretty much constantly. Despite good energy, the band as a whole had an obsession with spitting on the ground. Constantly.

Korn was the highlight of the night. Jonathan Davis can sing like a mofo. Overall they sounded great. They did lots of medleys to get all their hits in and even included covers. They had lots of energy, led by Davis. The usual bag-piping was cool to see up close. You really get an appreciation for just how long he is holding a note.

The setlists I’ve found online are wrong. They opened with Blind (ARE you READY?!??!) which was awesome and closed with a huge medley.

Disturbed had the headline slot. Their performance would have been fine if they didn’t kill every ounce of energy by opening with 5 new songs in a row. Add to that, towards the end of the set, the singer began to strain to sustain notes. I do have to say though, that his evil laughs were pretty awesome. His outfit though, was definitely suspect – essentially a mechanic’s onesy lol. Musically they were spot on – the drumming and bass was impressive – never out of sync.