I realy don't mind

... if his voice is not as good as it used to be.

Yesterday I went to a concert here in Bergen. Jethro Tull. Yes they show their age, the band is > 40 years old now (the only original and original-1 album members left are Ian Anderson himself and the guitar player Martin Barre), and yes they played mostly songs from the first 5 albums (5 from Aqualung). They still played extremely well, they were in touch with the audience, and looked (and sounded) like they had a good time. Lots of humour - they didn't take themselves all too seriously. Ian Anderson was surprisingly energetic on stage (more than last time I saw them 7 years ago)


All in all, a very nice experience. Oh yes: They did play excerpts from "Thick as a Brick".

BTW: They're touring Europe now. Here are the tour dates: http://www.j-tull.com/tourdates/index.html#tull.

BTW 2: I didn't get any money for saying this.

A sidenote: Two days before, the Eagles had a concert in Bergen, I didn't go there. The reception was somewhat lukewarm - the band didn't seem like they had fun on stage.

(sorry for the typo in the heading)

Ian Anderson has done appearances on Bob and Tom a few times. He's a remarkably witty guy, aside from the musical talent. The appearance I heard most of was supposed to be a 20 minute promo stop for a tour (or new album or some such), and they kept Ian there for almost 2 hours just talking about "stuff". Fascinating guy. Supposedly, he's a world-class horticulturalist, too (that's for you, magerette).

I think he tours every 5 years, I always get the impression.

Haven't seen him yet, though.

The Eagles are touring now, too.

A friend of mine is a lifelong Tull fan, and he dragged me along to see them once. It was a great concert, and I also didn't mind that his voice was a little thin. It was like witnessing a love affair between Ian Anderson and his audience.

From what I hear Jethro Tull always put on a great show. In the early '70s they opened for Led Zeppelin when they toured the US, and everyone who saw them said Tull outperformed them by a mile.

Of course, Jimmy Page and maybe some of the others were stoned out of their minds at the time too. A few years ago I was introduced to U2's road manager, who happened to have been Zeppelin's assistant road manager back then. He claimed to still be under contract and unable to comment on some of the shit those four pulled when they were on tour. But he made it clear there was plenty of it.