Next Saturday Nadia and I will watch The Police live in concert at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). While looking for news, information, set lists, and videos of the current tour I found two interesting things:
Tracking Tours
First, the place to go to for the low down on The Police's 2007-2008 tour is this blog. It contains set lists, reviews, and videos and is, basically, the perfect way for us to get all psyched-up for the upcoming concert.
While I was there, by the way, I discovered that other bands' tours have been documented in a similar fashion. And after going through those sites, I now really want to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert as well.
Wolfgang's Vault
Second I discovered...well, a gold mine of live music in the form of Wolfgang's Vault, the largest online collection of historical concert recordings (and musician interviews). Ranging from concerts performed between 1960 and the late 1980s (so far), the Vault lets you stream thousands of hours of audio for free over the Internet (though you need to register with the site first) and the number of artists up there is immense. I've just spent the last couple of hours listening to Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Police, Peter Gabriel, and Tracy Chapman to name just a few. This site is awesome! :)
FYI: Bill Graham (originally, Wolfgang Grajonca, hence the nickname which then became the site's name) was a music promoter who virtually invented the modern concert business in the 1960s [1]. Graham died in 1991 and, in 2003, an entrepreneur by the name of Bill Sagan bought Graham's entire archive of music and memorabilia for over $5m. He's since starting putting all of the audio bits online (legally, of course) where anyone can access it. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.
If there's only one website you visit this week -- and assuming you're a big music fan -- make sure it's this one.