Taylor Swift - Wednesday 26th August - Staples Center, Los Angeles

Taylor Swift & Selena Gomez

Another family presale grab - The last night of Taylor Swift's 5 sell out nights at the impressive Staples Center in LA. I've only been here for sporting events previous, so it was good to hear such clear sound quality even from our position at the back in the gods. Free wristbands were also attached to each seat which provided a controlled light show during the show - very clever.

Support came from Vance Joy (pleasant enough) and Haim who's version of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" was spot on (and very heavy!)

Taylor is promoting her "1989" global mega-album. I've got to say, I don't think it's her best work, but it mainly worked well in a live environment (I think it helped that she's been on "repeat" on the car stereo since we booked). One thing she has instigated during the tour is a run of special guests each night. I think it fair to say being the last night in LA we got the best of the bunch.

Smelly Cat!

First up was Taylor's friend Selena Gomez, duetting on her recent hit, "Good For You". Later, Taylor introduced "a friend who normally only plays coffee houses - Phoebe Buffay!", which led to Lisa Kudrow duetting on the Friend's "classic" - "Smelly Cat" complete with mass audience participation!

Last up was probably a great coup as special guest - Justin Timberlake. The shrieking from the audience was deafening! The show overall was impressive. Musically I preferred the older stuff - "Mean", "Love Story" and the heavier version of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". A predictable sing-a-long of "Shake It Off" bought a fab evening to a conclusion. I think Taylor is a great role model for her young fans and I think she'll be enjoying pop mega-stardom for a while yet.

Kids verdict - "Awesome!", "11 out of 10".

Setlist
Welcome to New York
New Romantics
Blank Space
I Knew You Were Trouble @Info[Remix]
I Wish You Would
How You Get the Girl
I Know Places
Good for You (with Selena Gomez)
Mean [Acoustic]
Clean
Love Story [1989 Remix]
Smelly Cat (with Lisa Kudrow)
Style
Mirrors (with Justin Timberlake)
Bad Blood @Info[Remix]
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together [Rock Version]
Wildest Dreams @Info[contains an element of "Enchanted"]
Out of the Woods
Shake It Off

Ludacris - Saturday 6th August - Angels Stadium, Los Angeles

Ludacris and band in the middle of the "Angels Stadium".
Those keen enough could queue to get on the diamond.

Errr...an unexpected "treat". Whilst on hols in the US, it transpires that some of the baseball teams do what the racecourses in the UK do and put musical acts on after the sporting entertainment. So after seeing the Angels well and truly thrashed 5-1 we had the delight of seeing the "multi-award and multi-grammy winning hip-hop artist and actor".

I must be honest and feared the worst - this isn't likely to be my cup of tea at all, but as my son was keen to stay - and within reason I'll try any music once - we decided to give it a go. 

Now I'm not wanting to offend anyone who likes this style of hip-hop or thinks that Ludacris is the best thing since sliced bread, but at the end of the first song, my son says "Can we go now please?" whilst covering his ears. So we did, as the 2nd and 3rd songs played whilst we made our way out of the stadium (with several thousand others!), I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the tracks. Lots of bass and shouting is a fair description.