We usually kick off the summer with a trip to Saquatch Music Festival at the Gorge in Washington. All the way from DC. I love love LOVE that venue.

I'm thinking of heading up to Saratoga Springs to see Bob Dylan play in August.

I've heard nothing but good things about "The Gorge". I'll have to make it out there one day.

It's a great place to see a show Katie.

Going to the San Jose Jazz Festival within 8 miles of home: http://festival2008.sanjosejazz.org/...doo-daddy.html
Looking forward to seeing Big, Bad Voodoo Daddy!

Saw John Fogerty a couple of weeks ago and he was great. One of our reviewers said it was one of the best shows he had seen.

I am jealous I don't live closer to Austin - I would love to go the ACLF. I've been to Austin (One summer in the 80's) and would love to return. It was like they had dropped upstate NY into the middle of Texas. Hills, water, greenery. I loved it.

Katie-Saratoga is a great venue. Enjoy.

We did go to the San Jose Jazz Festival just over a week ago. Was a quick light rail trip (15 minutes!) so more of a Stay-cation. The highlights were, Big Bad VooDoo Daddy and Manhattan Transfer. Lots of both indoor and outdoor stages.

An impromptu trip to Pittsburgh last week was reason enough to catch Neil Diamond in his one appearance in town. Fab, fab, fab.

Well, since the Great New York State Fair is going on right now here in Syracuse, there are many,many great concerts be put on...we've gone to 3 already..Friday-The Spinners
Saturday- Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Tuesday- Eddie Money
And these were the free shows!
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ted Nugent, The Outlaws, and others are also playing at the free concert court area..
the big concerts are Daughtry, Styx and Boston, Heart, Journey, and Cheap Trick, Def Leppard, Brooks and Dunn, and many other great bands..

Drove to Hershey (about a 100 miles) to see Springsteen with my sister. We'd seen him before, but not with the E-Street Band.
Wow. Easy to see why his live shows are legendary, and very different from the folk oriented solo show we'd seen before.
Our only regret is that we got there too late to get any chocolate!

The Gorge is an incredible venue. The stage sits on the edge of a cliff above the Columbia River. The acoustics are great.

Fans of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (the Ring Cycle) have to be the most obsessive fans in the world.

Whenever and whereever in the world it is staged in its entiretly, 50% or more of the attendees come from out of the country in which it is being shown - often from the other side of the globe. Internatioanl airfare, a week or more in a hotel, four 4 hours+ operas.

Not to discount the Tom Petty/Steve Winwood fanatics, but those Wagner fanatics are in a league of their own...

Just returned from our trip to the Gorge to see Tom Petty. Fantastic concert and the gorge is an incredible place to see a concert. However, it was also incredibly hot almost 40 Farenheit and it stayed hot all night. We were on the floor and while they were great tickets, there were just too many people around to get any relief from the heat. Also, if you're not camping at the gorge (where there are no trees to provide any shade) accommodations are quite few and far between. We stayed in Ephrata, which was about a 40 minute drive. So while I really enjoyed the concert and the venue, it would take a really rocking show to get me back. (Personal opinion of course).

Lenore-- sounds tiring but it sounds like it was worth it to you this one time.

By the way... my mom and I drove 3 hours back to NYC from Saratoga Springs after the Bob Dylan concert there earlier this month. I cannot tell you how exhausted I was at the end of that drive!

I'm not sure that I'd go there again without making a weekend of it.

what a fun thread! I can finally participate...

we spent the weekend in NYC to see Yaz. Yaz ? Yes, Yaz. The English synth-pop duo of Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet (love her voice). Saw them at the Beacon...

very fun to relive those memories

Saw Sugarland at the Indiana State Fair a couple of weeks ago (only about an hour from our home). Traveling to New Mexico in 2 weeks and going to the Clay Walker concert at the NM State Fair.

We are country music fans and saw Montgomery Gentry at Meadowbrook in Guilford, NH last week. We will be going to see Vince Gill at Hampton Beach, NH on Sunday. Meadowbrook is my favorite venue - outside, clean, and good seats are always available.

I saw Styx/Boston at Pier 6 in Bawlmer Hon!! Both were great, but Boston holds special memories for me. Only regret .... they did not play "The Man I'll Never Be."

Going to see Alanis Morisette in September at the Lyric Theatre in Bawlmer, too.

OK, it's not summer anymore, but I have traveled to three different states for musicals. Does that count? Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat in Boston, Miss Saigon in St. Louis and Evita in Sacramento, in June, July and August. All starring my favorite Broadway actor/singer Eric Kunze. In a few weeks I'll see him again in Grease in Orange County and for New Year's Eve we'll be in Washington, DC for his appearance in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Kennedy Center. It's crazy I know, but this has been the most fun I've had in ages.

His fansite is: www.erickunze.com