Sammy Hagar at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Kansas City

I saw Sammy Hagar out at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Kansas City (which is in Bonner Springs, actually). 5 miles from my house.

Sammy Hagar's good, but, too much of a party atmosphere for my tastes. But with $10 lawn seats and no charge for parking, it was worth the price.

Now, it was billed as Sammy Hagar and the Wabos (his backup band) plus the Other Half, which is Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony (from Van Halen), along with Sammy's back up band minus bass player Mona. So, when the Other Half portion of the show started, with a rather interesting and bizarre Michael Anthony bass solo, it occurred to me, before they moved from the bass solo to the first song, that with Michael Anthony getting billing, that they probably aren't going to just complete ignore the David Lee Roth years and only play Van Halen songs from the Hagar years. And, sure enough, very first song in that portion of the show was "Running With the Devil". Michael Anthony did the lead vocals. And sang them at least as well as David Lee Roth, in my opinion. I enjoyed that song. After that it was all songs from the Hagar years of Van Halen. Which is fitting.

There were several favorite Sammy Hagar (including Van Halen) songs of mine which he didn't do. I would have liked to hear "I've Done Everything For You", "Three Lock Box", and "Dreams". Or at least one of the 3. But none were done.

One good thing about Sammy Hagar, at this shows and past shows, is I don't get bored or turned off. With Sammy Hagar, I feel like I'm more a fan of some (several) of his songs than I am a fan of him. Still, in between those particular songs, which seemed all to scarce, was good enjoyable music.

I'm glad I went. But I can't see myself paying much more than $10 for a Sammy Hagar show.

Racing the Tide, the new Elders CD

The only problem with the new Elders album is trying to figure out what to listen to next after one's done listening to it. How can anything else live up to that? The guys done did good.

Sometimes I just listen to it again.

There are so many little things I've noticed and liked on the album. Too many little things for me to remember and note them all. The one thing most deserving of comment, in my opinion, though, is the harmonies. Very nice. I like that it's not singer plus anonymous voices, nor singer harmonizing with himself, but rather really being able to hear and notice the different voices, and yet still having a really nice blend.

I do keep noting instrumental stuff too. Some really good playing. No, not just good playing. But they came up with good stuff to play. Good songs, good arrangements. Sheer perfection.

Darn good songs, too. About half the album are my favorite songs. And the other songs aren't far behind.

There ain't one bad thing about this album.

It's available now from the Elders website and at Elders shows. Available in stores later this month.