With my daughter back in town, she took up offers to join me at Citifield and Madison Square Garden on successive days. The Mets, in an afternoon game without any input from their “Polar Bear” parked a record six shots over the fence; not bad to attend a record breaking game and of course a victory, 11-1 over the D-Backs. The next eve we took in a concert billed as “Peter Frampton Finale - The Farewell Tour” at the Garden. Marisa told me it was the best ever concert. It pleased me and yes I concurred with how she characterized Peter’s singing and his playing (and that of his band); she said most bands do not sound as good live as on record. I certainly rank it a great show.

I “release” top ten concerts “blogpost” at the end of each year. I post each to the Commentary section of my website. My 2018 post represented the eighth straight year of such postings. I ranked a show featuring Peter opening and also sitting in with the Steve Miller Band #8. I mulled over some of the other shows I attended so far this year, Squeeze which I covered in my Black Coffee blog. I shared the setlist for excellent shows by Jim Messina and John Fogerty and also noted the other shows that I plan to attend in a previous blog. Am I ready to declared this the best of the year? Am I ready to declare it the best ever? Was it better than the 2011 Peter Frampton Beacon Theatre show where he not only reprised Frampton Comes Alive on its 35 Anniversary but covered tunes included in the recorded concert that the producers incredulously left off the original double Live LP, including Nowhere’s Too Far (for My Baby), Just The Time of Year and White Sugar (but later included on the 25^thAnniversary remaster); that show Marisa’s brother Jonathan attended with his dad.

View the Frampton set:

Baby (Something's Happening)

Lying

Lines on My Face 
Show Me the Way

The Lodger

Georgia (On My Mind) (Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra cover)

Me and My Guitar (Freddie King cover)

Same Old Blues (Freddie King cover)

Breaking All the Rules

Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden cover)

(I'll Give You) Money

Baby, I Love Your Way

Do You Feel Like We Do (includes band intros) 10:42

Encore:

Four Day Creep (Ida Cox cover) (Humble Pie)

I Don't Need No Doctor (Ray Charles cover) 
(Humble Pie)

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover)

What about The Stones, Bruce, Eagles, numerous Poco, Zeppelin, Tull, Yes, the Allmans, The Faces, Bad Company, Moody Blues, Billy Joel, Clapton, George, Jackson (Browne), Dylan, The Band, CSNY/CSN/Stills-Young/Stills/Young, Airplane, Creedence and Fogerty? And many others. In some cases, double, triple and quadruple bills might justify special status. And then there were the MUSE concerts. I find it tough enough to just subjectively list an annual best of. Do I really need to consider a best ever over five decades of attending satisfying and often amazing shows?

Still special to attend some excellent shows with both of of my kids. We actually started early, Sunday, January 24, 1993 to be exact. Pete Fornatale’s Sunday Show 10th Anniversary: POCO’s Rusty Young & Paul Cotton, Dion, Tom Paxton, Richie Havens, Suzanne Vega, Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers, at The Ritz.

I take solace in the memories. Many of them! And special!