The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Nabubrush on March 29, 2007, 01:35:46 am
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Sooooo - what's the single best show you've ever been to? Let's hear some info about it! Was you tore up? Paul, did you hang out with the band and get photos? Inquiring minds want to know. I love to hear show stories, and I'll share my own. Apologies if this has been covered in a specific thread, as opposed to just referenced to. Cort, if you want to link to it and slap me down, go ahead.
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I'm going to cop out and post a link to a journal entry. I wouldn't actually say this was the single best show but it was definitely the weirdest.
http://www.last.fm/user/CortJstr/journal/2006/04/13/115265/
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Your name is Kyle? I had no idea.
Your favorite could be this show. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsrWHycG7O0) Whoops, more liquor is necessary.
We're going to see this guy (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=107084231) tonight. Hey, he's from Baltimore - you guys are down with that, right?
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Single best show? Hard to say.
Segovia was awfully good, but it was late in his life and early in mine so I probably didn't appreciate him as much as I could have. Same thing with Miles.
Bob Dylan in Nashville in '81 was very memorable. My last Dead show found me in the front row no more than 8 feet away from Jerry. Chuck Berry in the quad at Wash U (man was I wasted that night...). My first Dead show (man was I wasted that night...). Frank Zappa was an excellent show, as was Pat Metheny.
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Single best show? Hard to say.
Segovia was awfully good, but it was late in his life and early in mine so I probably didn't appreciate him as much as I could have. Same thing with Miles.
Bob Dylan in Nashville in '81 was very memorable. My last Dead show found me in the front row no more than 8 feet away from Jerry. Chuck Berry in the quad at Wash U (man was I wasted that night...). My first Dead show (man was I wasted that night...). Frank Zappa was an excellent show, as was Pat Metheny.
The main point of this was to collect folks that I hate. A-dub, even though you share my last name, I hate you. Zappa, Dead, Dylan, etc. . . . ugh.
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The main point of this was to collect folks that I hate. A-dub, even though you share my last name, I hate you. Zappa, Dead, Dylan, etc. . . . ugh.
OH NOES! Some imaginary dude on the internet doesn't share my musical taste! However shall I proceed in this sorry vail of tears!
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OH NOES! Some imaginary dude on the internet doesn't share my musical taste! However shall I proceed in this sorry vail of tears!
Whoops. No, basically my point was that you saw Zappa live. Yeah, I can never do that.
You saw Jerry live.
Yeah, that's never going to happen for me.
What else you got? Keith Moon? Jimi Hendrix? John Bonham? Shannon Hoon? Kurdt Cobain?
At least I saw Pig Champion.
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I also saw Richard Manuel about a week before he hung himself.
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I also saw Richard Manuel about a week before he hung himself.
Wow. That's cool and all. I don't want anyone to feel bad. I saw SRV about a month before his heli crash. We went down to the show (Stevie and Joe Cocker). We got tix for a reasonable fee. I was standing there maybe 10 feet from the master himself, and after Joe, the security detail wandered off and we moved up - I was about five feet from him. Don't know if you like guitar, but that fucker tore it up. I was standing about 5 feet from him just ripping it up, with fragments of his pick shooting everywhere. God I miss him . . .
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My show-going experience is not exactly extensive, but I saw Ben Folds live when he played my college. It was an excellent show; he played "Fred Jones Pt. 2" and did not play "Brick," to my delight and the deep anger of the loud dude standing next to me.
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Oh man.
So many many great shows.
Elliott Smith did a free show in Albany in the summer of '00 that completely punished. Such a depth of soulful sadness, man. Fragile and glorious out there in the crassness of a Dunkin Donuts summer fest.
Both times I've seen GNR were basically religious experiences. As was Roger Waters doing "Dark Side".
Cursive in a community college gym was killer because the setting was just RIGHT.
The HORDE at Saratoga where King Crimson was the opening act and only a few hundred of us cared... that was magic in a completely different way. As though there were pearls being scattered at our feet while the pigs were buying nachoes and waiting for fuckin'... Lenny Kravitz or Rusted Root.
I enjoyed the hell out of the HORDE where they had... Ben Folds Five and Beck and Primus and Neil Young and... that's just a motherfuck*ng great line-up.
My first concert, Ozzy with Ugly Kid Joe and Motorhead holds a place in my heart because I saw my mom get a contact buzz on complete accident. That was pretty rad.
Bowie singing "Heroes" at Jones Beach Long Island just before his set was cut short by the tailend of a hurricane as if he was challenging God to TRY and stop the awesome. Bowie finished the song.
But...
I saw Adrian Belew play a little blues club in Long Beach with my brother, this winter.
And... that dude is fuck*ng AMAZING.
And even more amazing when you plunked yourself down in the second row and are watching him do things PEOPLE JUST CANNOT DO and... there it is. Eight feet away. Holy shit, y'know?
Belew in Long Beach, yeah. Best show I ever seen.
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I saw Adrian Belew play a little blues club in Long Beach with my brother, this winter.
And... that dude is fuck*ng AMAZING.
Yes. Yes he is. And he's from Kentucky.
Also, I saw Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz in a similar venue in about 1985.
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My favorite show ever was when I got to see the Legendary Pink Dots on my birthday one year when they played at the ... fuck, I can't remember the venue. It's a small place, a coffee house, they probably don't even do concerts there anymore... dammit.
Anyway, I think it was my 15th birthday or something, which was 1993. And it was in Denver. I should ask my younger sister, she probably knows.
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Yes. Yes he is. And he's from Kentucky.
Also, I saw Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz in a similar venue in about 1985.
Bill played with Ozzy.
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More good shows:
Asleep at the Wheel in a big bar/concert club.
Todd Rundgren in the same sort of place.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band in the convention center of the hick town I grew up in.
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My favorite show was probably The Musical Box, a Genesis tribute band, doing a recreation of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour at the Tribecca Film theater. Exact recreations of the original stage sets and Peter Gabriel's costumes and all. They played it again a year later and I saw it again. Blazed trees next to the Hudson river. Anyone actually see Genesis?
Also good was Medeski, Martin, and Wood doing a halloween show at Hammerstien ballroom a couple years ago. Had these performance artists flying around for a set, John Medeski wore a costume of Shiva, the Hindu god, and the finale had a costumed marching band walk through the crowd around the entire venue while playing.
Also Rush at Radio City Music hall. And I got to see Roger Waters play Dogs at Madison Square Garden, he smoked cigars and played poker with the band during the dogs barking section.
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Pixies a couple years ago was pretty awesome. It was basically something that wasn't ever going to happen, but it did.
The Flaming Lips at Sasquatch last year was a religious experience, even though it was so recent. The day got hailed out (It chased Neko Case off the stage). Ben Harper's fans were complete asses, and he was the headliner of the night. He turned out to be an ass too. He wouldn't give up his spot to the Lips, ended up secretly headlining the show. They told the promoters that they'd stay as late as they needed to, or could by law, but the tired, cold, shivering folks out there would get a show.
It was awesome. Since it was a festival, they had pretty close to 20,000 people, and then Wayne got them all singing Bohemian Rhapsody at 1am.
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When I saw Morrissey it was pretty much a religious experience. The whole show felt completely surreal, as if there was no possible was that he was on stage in front of me. I was maybe 10' from the stage and he sounded so amazing. Only thing that ruined it was when he left the stage in the middle of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" because of people rushing on stage and grabbing at him. Fuckers.
Winner in the category of Show I Enjoyed A Great Deal At The Time But Probably Would Not Care So Much For Now? Rage AAgainst the Machine in '96. I was a pretty angry youth at the time, and they fit perfectly with that.
Most amazing show recently? Comets on Fire at the Black Cat in DC. So fuck*ng awesome. I didn't appreciate their newest album until I heard it live. So rude it hurts.
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One day at lunch during my senior year at high school, a couple of my friends discussed plans to go to a George Clinton concert that night at Centennial Park. I was a dork throughout most of high school and did not know who George Clinton was, but I had made the decision earlier that year that I was going to start living dangerously, so I asked if I could come along.
We got there more than an hour before he came on, because my friend's girlfriend knew someone the band that was opening for the band that opened for the support band, or something like that, which was the only reason she had come with us. Whatever band it was that he was in sucked, and they played a fairly long set during which I became quite bored. It being a large outdoor concert we were able to just hang out after they finished until George himself came on. I visited the site where the bomb went off during the Olympics, which failed to cure me of my boredom. When I got back, I was introduced to this older guy the aforementioned girlfriend knew, as well as his obnoxious female friend with whom he spent the next half an hour trying to hook me up. I got the idea to escape and walk a block over to the Westin Hotel and ride the glass elevator up to the 73rd floor, but I didn't want to go on my own and by that time I had lost track of where the one guy was who I knew would be interested in a thing like that. I eventually found him, but by then there were only ten minutes or so until George Clinton came on, so we had to nix that idea. As you can probably imagine, by this point I was royally pissed off. I was starting to develop a headache. A light rain began to fall.
Then George Clinton and Parliament, who I did not even know existed until that afternoon, came on. They opened with Maggot Brain. It blew my mind.
I left that concert a changed man. In part that was from a psychosomatic "high" off secondhand pot smoke from a guy with a bowl standing a good six feet away from me, but mostly it was because I had found the Funk. That concert was basically a watershed moment in my life.
I saw him play Centennial Park again the next year, before the sponsors backed out and they stopped doing concerts there. I unfortunately missed him at Music Midtown, where he apparently brought one of those backflipping circus dogs on the stage with him for Atomic Dog, and then played through a fuck*ng thunderstorm until the power cut out and nobody knew whether it was because of the weather or because the set had gone on way longer than it was supposed to. Ain't no party like a P-Funk party. But that one concert is the one that changed my life, and that I will remember always.
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I got head during a dave mathews concert, in a corporate luxury box, while drinking a beer at the age of 17. Nothing will ever beat this. Ever.
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Me, sitting in my small apartment, drinking ice water while my brother watches PBS ironically in the background beats this story, Ennewhy. Every story previous in this thread beats this story. Every story that will probably comes after it probably will beat this story.
All of these things do not involve listening to Dave Matthews and therefore are better.
I could not receive a blow-job while Dave Matthews was playing.
I would be so disappointed at living in a world where there is a Dave Matthews that I would lose my erection.
It would be like... Doctor Doom takes over the world? Ends poverty and hunger and war? Is beloved by nearly everyone? Loved and respected and honoured as the god-king he thinks he is?
But Reed Richards is still out there drawing breath, so it means nothing.
This is how I feel about Dave Matthews.
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I've seen so many great shows.
Let's see...
First Show: Paul Revire and the Raiders (5 years old)
Best Show: Too Many, can't decide Here's are some of my favorite shows)
Queen, Utopia, SRV and Jeff Beck, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Living Color and Bad Brains, ZZ Top ('76), Kiss ('75), Alice Cooper, Broken Social Scene, Tool, Flaming Lips and Beck, Black Crowes, The British are Coming (Eric Clapton, Jimi Page, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Lane, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Paul Rogers, Jan Hammer, Ian Stewart), The Who (2000), Weird Al, etc...
Shows most likely to make you jealous because you didn't see it and it'll never happen again:
Queen
Ozzy with Randy Rhodes (twice)
Stevie Ray Vaughn (before he was famous)
AC/DC (with Bon Scott)
Shows I got the Most Fucked Up at:
Van Halen (Whiskey, Mandrax, Weed), I passed out in the bushes outside the venue for a little while.
Ozzy (Beer, Acid, Speed) I didn't see God
John McGlaughlin, Paco Delucia, Al Dimiola on St. Pattys Day (Green Beer, Hurricanes, Weed) I used to drink a lot.
Loudest Show: Pat Travers and Rainbow
Worst Show: April Wine with Point Blank and Frankie and the Knockouts
Shows it sucks I missed:
Led Zeppelin ('77), Wings ('76), Zappa
My favorite concert story. It involves the April Wine show I mentioned as my worst show. Well it was only the worst show from a musical standpoint, man do those bands suck it up but hard. Otherwise it was one of the greatest concert going experiences ever. I went with my friend George (http://www.paulmcrae.com/images/Miscellany/Misc/75_MAVERICK/Bobby-George-Paul_circa1980.jpg) (that's George in the Middle drinking Ancient Situation). I was supposed to go with my little sister Annette (http://www.paulmcrae.com/images/Miscellany/Misc/75_MAVERICK/Hi_Annette_circa1981.jpg), but she got sick. I didn't even want to see this show at all, it was her idea so what the hell. I took her to quite a number of shows until she got old enough to go on her own. Anyways, she couldn't go so I called my friend George and we went. We arrived at the venue and as we were walking from the parking lot to the entrance when a guy approached us and said he needed like 3 dollars more for a ticket. He pulled an American flag out from under his shirt. I was like wow, that's a really nice flag, i'll give you 3 dollars for that. The deal was made and we continued on to the venue. As we got around to the front where the turnstiles were George noticed that the flagpole was missing a flag. Hmmm, so we hightailed it back to the truck and stowed the flag. I've still got that flag btw. We get into the venue and find our way to the seats. Right behind the fuck*ng soundboard. This sucks, we can't see a damn thing. However, there is a dude standing there with a 2" stack of tickets. He says, where are your seats. Right here we say. Ok, here, take these instead. Only about 30 rows closer. So close we scared the band to quote Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Ok, we've located the seats it's now time to get beer, check out the t-shirt stand and see if any of our friends are here. Well no one we know likes April Wine so no. George goes into the restroom and while he is in the stall a bottle rolls in from the next stall. He picks it up. OMG, it's filled with Mandrax. The owner was in the next stall nodding. Whoops! So we get back to our seats wash a couple of mandy's down with beer and settle in for the show. No pot, but things are working out pretty damn good. On comes Frankie and the Knockouts. Boy do they suck in a profound way. We were amused though because we were sitting directly in front of the biggest Frankie and the Knockouts fans in the whole world. Two 13-14 year old girls, pimply and fat. They had their Frankie and the Knockouts T-Shirts (handmade), signs saying We Love You Frankie. And they screamed the entire show. They left when Frankie did. Meanwhile a dude came and took his seat beside us. This guy was by himself, but he brought enough weed for the entire row. He started lighting joints, taking one hit and passing them down to us. By the time the joint came back to him he had lit another one. Within a few minutes George and I both had our own joints to toke on and we were starting to feel alright. Point Blank came on and they were so bad. They had a big hit with a song called Oh Nicole. I hated that song so much. God it was even worse when cranked up to 11. Along about this time I was starting to feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof. When they launched into a guitar solo which consisted basically of one guitar player standing at one edge of the stage playing a long sustained single distorted note for many seconds followed by the other guitar player doing the same thing on the other edge of the stage I got up and walked to the stage and flipped him off until he walked away. They finally quit and a few buzz filled minutes later April Wine comes on. If you've never heard April Wine consider yourself lucky. They are a poor man's REO Speedwagon. They had a couple of decent songs on their early albums, but they were almost entirely schlock by this point. They're big hit at the time was a song called Sign of the Gypsy Queen which I dearly hated. I told George if they play that song we gotta leave. Fortunately they played it about 4-5 songs in. We bailed and took our fucked up selves home.
Ah, but that's not the end of the story. At about 3 am the phone rang, my father answered. It was the Texas City Police Department wanting to know if he has a son named Paul McRae. Well yes, yes I do was his obvious reply. Well Mr. McRae, we have your son in our custody. Uh, I don't think you do, my son is in his bed asleep. Are you sure Mr. McRae? Well yes I am, but let me check. Opens door to my room. Are you in here Paul? Huh, what? Yes i'm here, what do you want? The Texas City Police are on the phone and they say that they have you in custody. I don't think it's me. It seems that in my drunkedness I lost my wallet and it was picked up by someone. Someone who tried to pretend they were me when they were arrested for DWI. The Texas City Police sent my wallet and all it's contents back to me.
The end.
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hm. um.
I can't beat any of these.
most important shows, to me:
the first concert I went to that I can think of, Paul McCartney not that many years ago.
the first really rocking concert I went to, Foo Fighters in like 8th grade
the first punk rock show I went to-- really punk-ska-- was Murphy's Kids, Las Cabriolas, and others at Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte. It changed my life. THE BAND ARE RIGHT THERE, DUDE! AND WHEN THEY FINISH, THEY JUST WALK OFF THE STAGE! my friends were less impressed-- and thought I was lame.
best live shows: every time I saw Andy and the Jivers, my friend's ska band. They were... awesome. Their last show was incredible. a couple of hundred kids show up, and know all of their songs. they're playing their hearts out. I'm there with my then-new girlfriend, who had never been to a ska show before, and is skanking hard right next to me. the band's parents are there, staring at these hoards of kids singing along to their kid's songs. they play punk-ska, 1st-wave style ska, 2nd-wave ska... Specials covers, originals, a jazzy improv number....
it was beautiful.
Kodan Armada-- I am sad, because at the time I didn't really appreciate hardcore punk. however, I liked them the most out of the bands we saw that night, and I bought a single and a t-shirt. the t-shirt is one of my favorites, but it's tiny. the single is awesome. my friends got chased off by a cop because they tried to steal a traffic light (the pole had been knocked over by a car)
benevento-russo-duo-- Joe Russo is the best drummer I've ever seen. I wanted to die it was so good.
spencer yeh of Burning Star Core-- made noises with his mouth/throat which I didn't think were possible. i was hypnotized utterly.
the talk, the sammies, various other Charlotte bands-- never particularly amazing. The sammies were ruined by The Walkmen, who they were opening for. The walkmen were a lot less loud, but made my ears hurt more than any music ever has. I think their treble was too loud.
built to spill-- pretty awesome.
rjd2-- I didn't get the appeal. It was cool, though-- I shook his hand.
bunnygrunt: pretty cool.
man man: awesome. the lead singer liked my facial hair, and they all came to our party afterwards (this was at WashU)
tomorrow: Tilly and the Wall? Has anyone ever heard them? It's 5$, so, I am going to go.
upcoming: son volt, GZA, decemberists, others which I forget
last day of classes: Reel Big giraffe and OKGo-- I like ska, but... I don't know.
I feel that I'm forgetting something awesome which I saw... but I don't know what it is.
Aug-- I am planning on seeing Chuck soon. Hopefully.
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Eagles of Death Metal the other week were pretty fuck*ng awesome, and a great crowd to go with it. Queens of the Stone Age on the Songs for the Deaf tour, with Lanegan was a real treat. But I guess it's hard to beat seeing The Cat Empire at the Spiegeltent, which is a nice small, atmospheric venue, in which they have some real history.
Crooked Still were great live though, worth a mention is anyone who can mosh while playing the cello!
Off to see Tinariwen tomorrow night, which I'm hoping will be as goodas they are on disc.
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I was at the Radiohead show stoned out of my head that Paul mentions. However, while Radiohead was amazing, the opening band, Supergrass, is one of my favorite bands of all time. About 200 people where there in a venue that fits (I don't know, Paul probably does) maybe 7000. I yelled for them to play a song right after they started one and the quit the song they started and played the song I yelled. The guitarist did this extended solo and after it faced my and gave me a thumbs up sign. After their set they threw a drum stick my way, but at that point more people were there and it went right over my head to the row behind me.
I also saw an amazing Jonathan Richman and Flaming lips show, one at a tiny venue one at a zoo, that were pretty amazing. I am really drunk and it is 7 am so that is all.
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Most amazing show recently? Comets on Fire at the Black Cat in DC. So fuck*ng awesome. I didn't appreciate their newest album until I heard it live. So rude it hurts.
I saw the Foo Fighters at the old Black Cat. It was cool to see them in such a small venue. They played their eponymous album in order to start the show and later on Dave took over drumming duties for a couple of songs.
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I saw the Foo Fighters at the old Black Cat. It was cool to see them in such a small venue. They played their eponymous album in order to start the show and later on Dave took over drumming duties for a couple of songs.
Curses. My friend, his brother and I saw them in Newcastle a few years back, and while it was a good gig, it was too big, and it was after they released the first of their albums I don't really care for. We did whoop prodigiously when they finished on This is a Call though.
I think we tried to demand he play Skeeter Thompson too, but to no avail.
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To this day: Paul is still not afraid of the fuck*ng police.
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G.G. Allin at A-CAP in 1989 (maybe early '90). It was an exquisitely entertaining 75 seconds. (No, that's not a typo.)
Springsteen in Lexington, Kentucky in 1979. I got a contact high from the girls smoking pot in front of me and I fell asleep for half the show. (I was nine, leave me alone.)
And, believe it or not, Barry Manilow. Somewhere in Jersey, early '90s. Dude can turn it out.
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They are a poor man's REO Speedwagon.
Huh. I always thought REO Speedwagon were the poor man's REO Speedwagon.
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I got head during a dave mathews concert, in a corporate luxury box, while drinking a beer at the age of 17. Nothing will ever beat this. Ever.
I almost took away a can for this. Then I realized I was just being jealous, and that would be wrong.
Then I realized it wasn't about the head in a luxury box, it was about you being at a Dave Matthews concert.
Then I reminded myself that I just admitted to seeing Barry Manilow and I should probably just sit on my hands about the whole thing.
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First show I ever saw was Judas Priest on their Defenders of the Faith tour in 1984. I think Great White opened for them - or some other minor Shark-themed metal outfit. I think the wildest show I ever saw was KISS, who had WASP open for them. That was quality from beginning to end - although it was in KISS's no facepaint era. Coolest show was in one of SF's little clubs (maybe Slim's?) where I saw some funky band I'd never heard of that tore the lid off the place. It turned out to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing under some random name they made up all incognito. At the time ('89 or '90?) it wouldn't have made any difference since I didn't know who they were, but they earned a new fan that night.
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Then I reminded myself that I just admitted to seeing Barry Manilow and I should probably just sit on my hands about the whole thing.
My parents took me to see Donnie and Marie in 1986 at the Concord Pavilion. In my defense, we were being visited by friends from Australia with little kids - that was going to be the angle I would have used had I run into anyone I knew. I would like to have been able to say that their musicianship was astonishing, despite the pablum they were dishing up, but that would be a lie. The only redeeming part of the experience was being able to chill out on a blanket over grass and have a picnic with family and friends. Which is pretty redeeming.
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When they launched into a guitar solo which consisted basically of one guitar player standing at one edge of the stage playing a long sustained single distorted note for many seconds followed by the other guitar player doing the same thing on the other edge of the stage I got up and walked to the stage and flipped him off until he walked away.
For the win.
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the one I forgot: The Phenomenauts in Charlotte NC. About a year ago.
Most amazing "show" ever. The music itself was pretty awesome-- punky rockabilly-- I danced like hell. my friends had never seen skanking/moshing/whatever-the-fuck in person, and were confused. They had costumes and crazy lights and sang through bullhorns and had audience participation and... it was great.
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I was at the Radiohead show stoned out of my head that Paul mentions. However, while Radiohead was amazing, the opening band, Supergrass, is one of my favorite bands of all time. About 200 people where there in a venue that fits (I don't know, Paul probably does) maybe 7000. I yelled for them to play a song right after they started one and the quit the song they started and played the song I yelled. The guitarist did this extended solo and after it faced my and gave me a thumbs up sign. After their set they threw a drum stick my way, but at that point more people were there and it went right over my head to the row behind me.
Actually the Radiohead show I mentioned was the one I saw in London. I've seen Radiohead 4 times and the one you and I both saw is the least of those experiences. I think that Supergrass started early because I was one of the people who showed up late and missed the entire thing. If I am late to a show it's because of a problem. I like to watch the openers and I certainly wouldn't have given Supergrass a miss as they are a good band.
I knew the answer to the question about the capacity of the venue at one time, but I am uncertain of the answer now. I think 12,000.
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I saw the Foo Fighters at the old Black Cat. It was cool to see them in such a small venue. They played their eponymous album in order to start the show and later on Dave took over drumming duties for a couple of songs.
I saw Foo Fighters open for RHCP. They don't really do much for me, too generic.
That was the show that Christina Ricci, Chris Rock and Rick Rubin watched from the side of the stage. They sat right behind the stage monitor the entire show. I was basically looking down on them from my seat at that side of the stage.
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Aerosmith, Long Beach Arena, 1987, Permanent Vacation tour. I spent two nights working the pit. My job was to follow Tyler side to side and make sure no one snatched him off the stage when he leaned over to the fans.
I saw Aerosmith in '78. Had you been working this show your job would have been to keep Steven Tyler from falling off the stage when he leaned over. He was so fucked up. Joe Perry too. I'm not even sure Perry was even playing at all. They headlined the "Texas Jamm" the day before in front of about 100,000 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. They may have been a little bit hung over.
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G.G. Allin at A-CAP in 1989 (maybe early '90). It was an exquisitely entertaining 75 seconds. (No, that's not a typo.)
You'll go see G. G. Allin, but you're afraid to post a picture on a message board.
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Huh. I always thought REO Speedwagon were the poor man's REO Speedwagon.
Or to tell that joke another way, April Wine makes you really appreciate the good work that REO Speedwagon was doing.
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I think the wildest show I ever saw was KISS, who had WASP open for them.
The first time I saw Kiss, Styx opened for them. Huh?
I was totally into Kiss when I was 14.
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the one I forgot: The Phenomenauts in Charlotte NC. About a year ago.
Oh yeah the Phenomenauts are great. They tour in an artcar (http://www.punkmusic.com/springman/press/phenomenauts/thumbs/van.jpg).
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Sorry for the length of the post, but here goes:
First show: the Rolling Stones, Meadowlands Arena, November 1981. I bent my father’s arm up behind his back to take me. We scalped tickets in the parking lot. Tina Turner opened. The Stones were just good, and the crowd was dead. Except for the two guys in front of us doing coke off a MasterCard – they thought they were onstage with the band.
The two shows that I keep coming back to as my favorites:
-George Thorogood and the J. Geils Band at the Garden, February 1982: Thorogood worked the crowd really hard. Then a marching band came onstage playing “Centerfold” to help celebrate that evening’s birthday boy, J. Geils himself. Peter Wolf was a maniac; the band was on fire; people were throwing Jackie Wilson albums onstage. There were two boys standing behind me who couldn’t have been a day over nine years old. During the encore of “Centerfold,” they jumped onstage. Peter Wolf just gave them the mic and rebopped around while these two kids went “na-NA-na-na-na-nah” in front of 20,000 people. Probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a show.
-The Replacements, City Gardens, Trenton NJ, August 1985. My then-favorite band, at the height of their powers, playing an all-ages show at a dive bar I had to drive three hours to get to. Bob missed the first three songs. Paul spit in his face, then they spent about thirty seconds destroying Deep Purple’s “Woman From Tokyo,” and then it was the greatest rock band I’ve ever seen playing their hearts out. I stood right in front of Bob the entire time, and my right ear was pretty much only there for decoration for the next 24 hours.
The heaviest shows I’ve ever seen:
-Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio, Meadowlands, summer 1982
-Neil Young and Crazy hoss, LA Forum, spring 1991
-Judas Priest with special guest Iron Maiden, twice in 1982
The scariest shows I’ve ever seen:
-Butthole Surfers, the Ritz, I think 1989. Last show of their tour. By the time they were done, people were fuck*ng onstage, parts of which were on fire. The most terrifying pit I’ve ever been in; the only experience like it was almost drowning in the Pacific in Mexico.
-The Violent Femmes and the Pogues, Pier 54, 1989. The Femmes were great. And then the Pogues went on, and suddenly fistfights broke out everywhere.
-Nirvana, Lakeland Florida, 1993. Up front stage left, in front of Pat Smear. General admission floor. The fourth song was “Breed,” and when Dave Grohl started the escalating snare figure, I could feel the energy in the building jump. When the band hit it, I caught a foot in the chops and spent the rest of the show trying not to get killed by crowd-surfers.
Other great shows:
-Prince, Worcester Centrum, 1988: just a routine night for him and his best-ever band, but completely awesome for me.
-Radiohead, Wiltern Theatre, 1997: back when they wrote songs and played them on guitars.
-Danny Gatton, The China Club, 1990: this show made me want to become a much better guitarist.
-Eric Johnson, The Bottom Line, 1990: this show made me put down the guitar for about four years. Example ( I’m at the center table baked out of my mind ) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHjDHdu8IQM&mode=related&search=).
-giraffebone, twice in the 80s: both times they were godhead.
-Leo Nocentelli and Ziggy Modeliste from the Meters, Luna Park, 1994: relentless funk bad-assery. Plus Joey Lauren Adams was dancing next to me the whole show. And I was tripping on mushrooms.
-Paul Weller, Avalon, a few months ago: he tore the place down, and I only knew two of the songs he played. Example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJOZ28Jc5yM).
-B.B. King, Avery giraffeer Hall, late 80s.
-The Rolling Stones, Staples Center, Halloween 2002: better than I’d ever hoped they could be.
-Sonic Youth, Whisky-A-Go-Go, 1990.
-Naked Raygun, I don’t even remember the name of the club, NYC 1989.
Interesting double bills:
-De La Soul / Ofra Haza / George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars, Palladium (NYC), 1989.
-The Rollins Band and GWAR, Palladium (Hollywood), 1990.
-Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the Breeders, the Palace, 1994.
-Billy Squier and Queen, Meadowlands, 1982.
-Public Enemy, Murphy’s Law and the Beastie Boys, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, 1987.
-The Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, Ice-T and 2 Live Crew, Payday, 1989.
-A party at Hampshire College where I could swear the Flaming Lips, Primus and NoMeansNo played on the same night. I may be getting two parties at the same venue mixed up for some reason ( cue sound of bong bubbling ).
Shows I’d wished were better:
-KISS, with Accept opening, Radio City Music Hall, 1984. I should have gone when they wore make-up.
-Public Enemy, New Year’s Eve 1989, at the World, an abandoned building on the Lower East Side masquerading as a club. PE didn’t come out until 2 A.M. Then they would kick ass for a song or two, and then Chuck D would lecture us about politics for ten straight minutes. And that’s how it went. The sun was coming up when we left, and not in a good way.
-Aerosmith, with special guest Guns ‘N Roses, Boston. The traffic getting into Great Woods was so bad that we missed all of GNR’s set, except for Slash’s guitar solo, “Sweet Child O’Mine” and “Welcome to the Jungle.” Then Aerosmith, my favorite band in seventh grade, came out and played their hearts out and…I just didn’t feel anything.
-Smashing Pumpkins, Palladium ( Hollywood ), around Halloween 1993.
The two that got away:
-Led Zeppelin, Madison Square Garden, fall 1980: as I understand it, Zeppelin had signed the contracts for five nights at the Garden when Bonham died. This would have been my first concert, because I would have bent my father’s arm up behind his back to take me.
-G.G. Allin, his last show. My then-girlfriend Laura and I were in Manhattan that day and I thought it would be funny to take her. I’m glad I didn’t, because she probably would have (sensibly) dumped me and then I would not have my wife or child.
Somehow I managed to not mention the three times I saw Van Halen. Or the Pistols, or the Ramones, or the Pixies, or Springsteen.
Some other time, perhaps.
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The scariest shows I’ve ever seen:
-Butthole Surfers, the Ritz, I think 1989. Last show of their tour. By the time they were done, people were fuck*ng onstage, parts of which were on fire. The most terrifying pit I’ve ever been in; the only experience like it was almost drowning in the Pacific in Mexico.
-The Violent Femmes and the Pogues, Pier 54, 1989. The Femmes were great. And then the Pogues went on, and suddenly fistfights broke out everywhere.
Ok, this thread was already making me feel this way but somehow this clinches it - I really did totally waste my youth.
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Events always conspire to prevent me from going to shows. Even those I've bought tickets for. Events are mean.
But I did have a fine ol' time seeing Arlo Guthrie last year at a festival I was stewarding, especially as I hadn't heard Alice's Restaurant in years.
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My first show was Styx in 1978. The opening act was The Babys, who were good.
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-Eric Johnson, The Bottom Line, 1990: this show made me put down the guitar for about four years. Example ( I’m at the center table baked out of my mind ) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHjDHdu8IQM&mode=related&search=).
Yeah he plays a lot of notes, but it doesn't move me whatsoever. It's all technical brilliance and no soul.
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limmo-- I hate you.
I mean... I love you.
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Daaaamn, Limmo!
Prince is fuck*ng amazing. I love him so much. I was working at the Pepsi Center in college to help support a community service group I was in (APO). I was within arms-length of him. My hands could span his waist, he's ultra tiny, and he had the huuuuge stadium hair. I was in awe.
Prince + Maceo Parker = teh win. I had forgotten how good that show was.
The show that never was: I missed out on Erykah Badu because my tool crap-dude ex made us miss the show. He didn't want to drive downtown and find a parking spot on Capitol Hill. Wah, fuckin' wah. What a jerk. I'm so glad I'm no longer with him.
HOWEVER...I did get to see a fuck*ng incredible show at Red Rocks in Colorado...possibly the best venue EVER. I got to see Ozomatli, Common, and Erykah Badu. The sad part about that evening was when Common was trying to sing a love song to Erykah, but she was uncomfortable with it and started yelling "They tried to tell us that Jah was dead, but JAH NOT DEAD, JAH NOT DEAD, JAH NOT DEAD!" while the band and the entire crowd was like, "WTF!"
It was still one of the best shows I've gotten to see. Talk about a gorgeous summer night and dancing. Hell of awesome.
I got caught in a mosh pit when I was trying to see the Thrill Kill Kult and Korn opened up for them. I got thrown to the floor, trampled, and my glasses were ripped off my face and stomped into oblivion. That sucked. I was 16.
Oh! I also loved seeing the Pietasters and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
And the Ramones... they were really good. That was also when I was 16.
And Mephiskapholes! I love ska.
All of the shows I've seen have been in Denver.
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I have a bootleg of a Prince show from MSG in 2004 with Maceo and am now kicking myself for not going to see him when he played in L.A. ( He played at the Staples Center, my second-least-favorite venue here. Oh well. )
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I have never seen a band at an interesting venue. This comes from not living near them and hating crowds too.
I did, however, see the Squirrel Nut Zippers at an outdoor festival where they were the closing act for that night, and the generator behind the stage caught fire, so they played "Hell" acoustic in front of the flames. And they could actually still play, which is awesome and totally the reason why I don't go to more shows.
I have also been close enough to watch Bela Fleck's fingers move, and they go too fast. Too fast. They do things that most fingers can not do.
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Yeah he plays a lot of notes, but it doesn't move me whatsoever. It's all technical brilliance and no soul.
Hmm, this quote just made me ponder, is there a difference between playing emotionally and playing soulfully?
I saw EJ at B.B. King's club which holds maybe a thousand max, and he played an entire solo acoustic set. There is no doubt he can play emotionally, but perhaps you're right about playing soulfully. But is this soulfullness is mere matter of tasteful choices, or can soul be revealed by shedding a seemingly pretentious attitude? Hm.
These are the questions that keeping me on the internet at night.
Had a dude named Tony Furtado open up for him, also playing totally solo acoustic set. Dude really rocked, but I am still yet to follow up and uncover more of his music. Played this smokin, virtuostic, country-blues style and sang raspy southern blues. Maybe I'll look for some tracks on the weekend.
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Pogues in Birmingham, last December.
I still have the bruises and a dicky leg from all the pogo-ing, and some lass tried to bite my ear off, and that is why it was awesome.
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I got caught in a mosh pit when I was trying to see the Thrill Kill Kult and Korn opened up for them. I got thrown to the floor, trampled, and my glasses were ripped off my face and stomped into oblivion. That sucked. I was 16.
That totally sucks, but I think it was god's way of telling you it is never wise to see Korn. Sorry, koRn? Yich.
Show that never was: John Cale. I can't remember why I didn't get to go in the end, but I was quite looking forward to it...
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I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about others' experiences in this thread. It's been great to live vicariously through you all.
In no particular order...
Okay... all the New Kids on the Block concerts I went to. NOT because of their music *shudder* but because I was 13 and in love with them and every show (I saw them 3 times) was an event with my then-best friend Amy. Fom ordering the tickets on Ticketmaster to picking out what to wear, to the drive down (bless our parents for withstanding the sometimes three-hour drive with us listening to NKOTB at full volume and squealing the whole way), to the sheer adolescent bliss of being in the same (giant, yawning, cavernous arena) room with these famous, attractive (of mediocre talent at best, but skilfully marketed as a product) young men.
Musically, pretty devoid of anything. Nostalgically, priceless, and therefore worth mentioning.
Also:
The two times I saw Dave Matthews it was early on in his career. Late enough that he was already uber-famous (they were arena shows), but early enough that his stuff was still new. I have since fallen out of fascination with the DMB because all of their music sounds the same. However these two shows were a good time. The first time Ben Harper opened; the second time Maceo Parker opened (I think, I may be confusing this with another show... more on this later). Notably, I remember Harper and Parker more keenly than DMB. Maceo blew my mind.
Part of the reason the Maceo show was so great was, well, it's Maceo Parker. But also a friend's band, Phat Phunktion (http://www.phatphunktion.com/modules/news/), was opening for him. PP is an amazing group of musicians, and it was awesome to see them in what was for them at the time such a huge show. I remember PP, I remember Maceo; but I can't remember if they were both opening for DMB or if that was a separate show. Goes to show you how un-memorable DMB was. ;)
I saw Seal at an outdoor concert in 95 or 96 and it was an outstanding show. Every song he sang was moving and the production quality (lighting design, etc) was just gorgeous. Everything enhanced the performance without being gimmicky. It was just a beautiful experience all around, and I was transported. The music was immersive and everything else fell away except for what I was hearing and seeing and feeling (emotionally and tactilely) at the time. And I didn't have any kind of mind-altering substances in me at the time. The show itself did that all on its own.
Pretty much any show I've seen at my alma mater's Memorial Union Terrace (http://www.union.wisc.edu/terrace/) ranks up there. The band names, save for a few, are gone from my memory (thank you cheap beer in a paper cup), but the fuzzy memories are awesome. I got my first mosh pit black eye at a show there, I think at a Little Blue Crunchy Things show, which is funny because they're not a band one typically moshes to. I suppose it was more like a "skank pit" (that sounds horrible), although they're not really ska either. I took an elbow to the eye. It was awesome.
In the enjoyable but not necessarily molecular-structure-rearranging category: Queensryche, Rush, The Cranberries, Harry Connick, Jr (twice; once with orchestra, once with a small jazz combo), Wynton Marsalis (utterly disappointing), U2 (outstanding, during the Pop Mart tour, but it was a huge arena experience and therefore somehow "less". From a visually artistic standpoint, the lighting design was fabulous).
Totally disappointing: Sting. Quite possibly the biggest letdown ever. It was business as usual for him and I sort of felt like I was in the doctor's office rather than at a concert. I realize that for musicians, performing is their job, but for the rest of us it's entertainment. If I want to watch someone doing a job, I'll go down to the local widget assembly plant and get a visitors pass.
I saw KISS maybe 10 years ago at our local arena. I went because I sort of felt like they were one of those phenomena one has to see in life--like the Grand Canyon or the World's Largest Ball of Twine. For me it was an exercise in cultural anthropology. They were no longer in makeup, and they were sorta fat and old. Their fans were too, but many seemed not to have realized it. Women still tossed their bras on stage--women who should not be removing their bras in public (I think there were seismic disturbances as a result). The performance of "Beth" was positively geriatric. Honestly, I felt like I was at an open mic event at a nursing home. But they still had cheesy pyrotechnics as they hobbled around. I'm glad I went, although I remember none of the show per se. It was a cultural experience.
To return to concerts that actually changed me, Itzhak Perlman. Outstanding. I think I held my breath through the entire performance. What struck me was that he was so humble; he just came across as a regular guy. He spoke briefly with the audience before each piece, and he was just this soft-spoken dude, kinda portly, and then he started to play and you just knew you were in the presence of a Presence. He became the music. It was unbelievable.
Coldplay at an outdoor show was great too, not because of the music necessarily, although that was very enjoyable, but because of the circumstances. A friend had a bunch of extra tickets and rounded up a crew of friends and acquaintances the day before. We figured, "What the hell, why not?" and headed down to the venue. We only knew my one friend in the group, so we met a bunch of new people that day, which was fun. They had gotten there early and had set up a little grill and stuff, we all brought things to cook up and eat, a bunch of beers, frisbee, hackey-sack, etc. So we spent the afternoon with essentially total strangers, barbecuing and playing lawn games, chatting, generally chilling. Then we spread out our blankets and watched the stars and listened to the mellowness that is Coldplay. For all I know they could have just been playing a live album over the sound system. I didn't actually pay attention to what was happening on stage. I was lying on the grass looking up at the sky and just letting the music happen around me. Nature was the show and it was beautiful.
Lollapalooza, 1993. It was my senior year in high school. The local top-40 station was broadcasting live from outside the building from where the local college station was broadcast. This in itself was funny because the top 40 station was, well, top 40 (yeesh), and the college station was really alternative, in the truest sense of the word. The top-40 station was giving away tickets to Lollapalooza so my good friend and I skipped our first period class to go down to the site and try to get tickets. The DJ's said we had to do something to earn the tickets and so we dug around in my girlfriend's car for several moments trying to find inspiration for what to do to get our tickets. We were both in drama club and figured we could make an event out of anything, with the right props. We finally settled on a box of Kleenex and agreed to eat the kleenex to get tickets. This seemed to satisfy the DJs and so we each ate a couple of kleenex each. It wasn't bad.
Prior to the show there had been massive flooding in the outdoor park where the show was to be held, so they moved it to an indoor arena. The mosh pit was insane, particularly for RATM. I'm a tiny person (5' 2" and about 110 lbs), so I kind of felt like I was going to be killed, which was awesome in that scary way. I held my own, sorta. During Arrested Development the crowd pressed in so tightly that I got pinned up against the barrier and couldn't breathe. Also, a guy behind me kept copping a feel. At first I thought it was just because of the crush of the crowd, but then when I realized his hands were actually groping my boobs, he got an elbow to the nuts. By the time Primus came to the stage I was exhausted, but in the awesomest way possible.
The absolute best show of my life, though, was giraffebone at a small venue in Chicago in, I think, 1995. Again it was one of those things where the experience surrounding the show outweighs the show itself (although the show was pretty awesome). A guy I was into but not yet dating, and pretty much all his friends, arranged the details. There were probably 15 of us in all. We piled into several cars and drove down to Chicago. The best part was that I had no idea what would happen. All I knew was that at such-n-such a date, we were going down to Chicago to see giraffebone with some people. The road trip itself was a blast--the kind of stuff people talk about on a road trip in their early 20s is the stuff that makes me glad to be alive in this place and time. We had booked a suite in a little boutique inn in the middle of the city. To this day I have no idea where the hotel is or what it was called. It seemed to me like it was this nondescript brownstone building in the middle of a residential area. We had to have two of the guys check in and then go around back to sneak the rest of us in with all our stuff (which included several coolers of beer). We bummed around the neighborhood for a few hours. I don't remember what we did for dinner; seems we either ordered pizza or found this little dive Chinese place... but it escapes me. Then we started walking to the club. I had no idea where we were going so I just followed the crew. That was the best part--not having any idea what would happen next. It seems we walked for something like 20 blocks or more, and then all of a sudden we were in this teeny little music theatre that looked like its heyday had been showing vaudeville acts in 1910. The opening act was Weapon of Choice, and I totally got my funk on. They warmed up the crowd and the guy I liked was starting to put the moves on me.
Then giraffebone came out and it was the most insane rocking show ever. Again, I felt as if my death was imminent. The pit was insane, but courteously so. Angelo was climbing around on the rigging, diving off the balconies into the crowd. I got thrown around, I thanked heaven for having the foresight to wear steel-toed shoes. I think I got drunk. When I wasn't being thrown about the theatre,there always seemed to be a cup in my hand. Well, okay. Moshing does make one thirsty.
The walk back to the hotel was pure torture. After all that craziness, my feet were killing me and the twenty blocks felt like a hundred. We all snuck back into our room via the back stair case and cracked open our coolers of cheap beer. I felt like I knew these acquaintances better, somehow. We were all crashed out on the couches, the beds, the floor, the foldout couch, wherever. And shortly after everyone passed out, me and the guy I was into had some pretty nice makeouts. :)
The next day we all dragged our hung-over butts to a local dive diner and filled up on greasy eggs and bacon, and then walked to the Field Museum to spend the rest of the day. We'd basically made a weekend of it, and it was so Zen because I was so clueless about the plans that everything was very in-the-moment for me.
That weekend is definitely one I will revisit often in my old age, after dementia has made the current time incomprehensible to me.
I had a similar experience going to see Noam Chomsky speak (I've seen him speak three times: twice for Linguistics--yay!-- and once for politics--yawn), but since that's a lecture and not a concert, I'll save it in case a "Favorite Lecture" thread comes up.
Okay. Shutting up now.
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Okay... all the New Kids on the Block concerts I went to. NOT because of their music *shudder* but because I was 13 and in love with them and every show (I saw them 3 times) was an event with my then-best friend Amy. Fom ordering the tickets on Ticketmaster to picking out what to wear, to the drive down (bless our parents for withstanding the sometimes three-hour drive with us listening to NKOTB at full volume and squealing the whole way), to the sheer adolescent bliss of being in the same (giant, yawning, cavernous arena) room with these famous, attractive (of mediocre talent at best, but skilfully marketed as a product) young men.
Musically, pretty devoid of anything. Nostalgically, priceless, and therefore worth mentioning.
This is how I feel these days about the very first concert I ever went to, an outdoor alt-rock-fest sponsored by the local alternative station, all with a wide variety of bands. I was 14 and went for the two main acts: Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth. (This was back when "Walking on the Sun" had first hit and people could still call Smash Mouth "alternative" with a straight face.) We had just moved to down, so I had no friends to go with but still wanted, piteously, with every fiber of my being, to go to this show... so I went with my mom.
The end results of that concert experience:
1) Wicked, wicked sunburn, because I'd just moved from Alaska and had neither melanin nor enough sunscreen experience to know when to come out of the damn UV.
2) My mother liked Sugar Ray more than I did. In fact, she still does.
3) The "mosh pit" was extremely half-assed, and yet my mother was still convinced I was going to die.
4) I remember almost nothing about the Smash Mouth set, but I remember the sets of the lead-up musicians much better, and most of them were far better than Smash Mouth anyway. In retrospect, I should have been fangirling more about the Refreshments than I had.
5) The next week -- my second week at my new middle school -- I wore the concert T-shirt and nearly got kicked out of school for the day because the shirt had the word "ass" on it.
Damn good times!
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That totally sucks, but I think it was god's way of telling you it is never wise to see Korn. Sorry, koRn? Yich.
Show that never was: John Cale. I can't remember why I didn't get to go in the end, but I was quite looking forward to it...
Yeah, I fuck*ng hate Korn - I would never intentionally see them, but they were the opening act. We were trying to get a spot close to the stage for when Thrill Kill Kult came on, and I figured that a mosh pit wouldn't get started for an opening band. I was wrong.
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Fom ordering the tickets on Ticketmaster to picking out what to wear, to the drive down (bless our parents for withstanding the sometimes three-hour drive with us listening to NKOTB at full volume and squealing the whole way), to the sheer adolescent bliss of being in the same (giant, yawning, cavernous arena) room with these famous, attractive (of mediocre talent at best, but skilfully marketed as a product) young men.
I've always been puzzled by this, from the time I saw film clips about the female fans of the Beatles. I remember seeing black and white footage of girls in shin-length skirts and saddle shoes, hands clutched together at their chests, eyes rolled back, shrieking and vibrating with ...something...
Passing out, crying, all manner of strangeness. I asked my Dad, what are they thinking about - what's in their heads right there? He shrugged, with the same look of confusion that I'm sure was on my face. "Bliss, I guess."
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'96, Fabulous Forum, Ozzy Osbourne with Korn as intro. There's a reason that this didn't make my list.
I think I was at this show. We must have missed Korn. The vibe in the arena was really grim and ugly, very different from the "fuckin'-A-let's-party-man" feeling of the metal shows I went to as a teenager. I remember seeing a few guys get into a fistfight, and then the lights went down and it was time to burn one while Ozzy's video intro played.
That man was the neediest performer I've ever seen. After almost every song, he would exhort the crowd to go crazy. His requests got more outlandish as the night wore on, till he was saying things like "I feed off your energy! I want you to go reeeeeeeeeally reeeeeeeeally super super extra fuck*ng CRAAAAAAAAZAAAAAAAY!"
I must have been high, because during the first encore one of the guys I was with asked if we could leave.
ME: We can't leave yet, man! They haven't played "Paranoid"!
GUY: Jim, they opened with "Paranoid."
ME: Oh. (pause) Perhaps we should leave then.
So we left.
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That totally sucks, but I think it was god's way of telling you it is never wise to see Korn. Sorry, koRn? Yich.
Show that never was: John Cale. I can't remember why I didn't get to go in the end, but I was quite looking forward to it...
I remember you talking about the Cale show - your friend or somebody had tickets, and you couldn't find him to get them or something like that.
I saw SRV with Joe Cocker in Anchorage a few months before he died. His brother came on and played a few songs with him. We weren't even going to go, as we didn't have any money, but the brother of a friend of mine happened to come into town that day and prevailed upon us to go to the arena and see if we could pick up tickets. We found a fellow who was willing to part with three tickets together, row 6 in the middle, for a payment by personal check. We watched Joe Cocker and after his set finished, the security folks wandered off to the sides of the stage, and we rushed up. I could have grabbed his guitar had I wanted to. That was pretty off the hook, growing up in Alaska and only getting to see Metallica, Scorpions, BOC, Thorogood, etc - then getting our minds completely blown by one of the greatest guitarists of my age.
My first Metallica show was cool because I went straight from my brother's wedding. I blew off the reception. I was still wearing my tux at the show, surrounded by everyone in their shredded jeans and Iron Maiden t-shirts. I was epically high, because everyone wanted to smoke out the lunatic in the tux. About halfway through the show, one of their stacks went up in flames and no one budged. They finally shut down and put it out.
Al Green in Seattle was cool because it was my wedding day and because shit, it's Al Green. The consummate showman.
I saw a band called Maktub here in Portland - that was cool because it was the first time I saw a band that was actually making it where I knew someone in the band.
Pixies, Frank Black, White Stripes, James Taylor (I know, I know) - all very solid musically.
Eagles was a fun show - they sounded like shit (hey guys, your career is based on melodic singing and you've all destroyed your voices) but then Joe Walsh came out for an hour of his solo shit and he was wearing a three-foot tall ballon animal hat. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Misfits was alright - it's always nice to see a band where you can hear everything they've ever recorded in the course of one set. Also, Dez and Marky Ramone played, so it was sort of like a American punk Cream, if such there can be.
Eagles of Death Metal opened for the Strokes and made them look pretty shitty. RHCP opened for Pearl Jam - same result, and I like Pearl Jam, but this show was cool because all three of my brothers went to it with me, after seeing the Bolts play the day before.
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Foo Fighters, Weezer, and Hot Hot Heat played here last fall - I really wanted to see the show but it was the night I went back to work. The White Stripes played with Hot Hot Heat the night before and the night after I saw them, but my night was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who make me kind of tired.
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I saw Ozzy with Randy Rhodes, twice. I thought Randy Rhodes played some overdubs on those records, but after seeing him live, apparently not. Also, Ozzy was once a vital man.
I saw SRV about a year before he died with Jeff Beck opeining for him. I was a big SRV fan, but I was actually more eager to see Beck with Terry Bozio on drums. They were brilliant, but I gotta tell you, when Stevie plays, you feel it. I mean, there is hell of emotion in his playing.
Concert I am sad I missed, Lynyrd Skynyrd. I had to make a choice. Being 14 years old, my Dad would only allow me to see one show in the span of a week, not two. So I chose to see ZZ Top on Thanksgiving Day 1975. I figured I could just catch Skynyrd the next time around. Of course we all know what happened. I have seen the re-formed Skynyrd 3-4 times and they are pretty good, but it would have been nice to see the originals play.
I'm comforted by the fact that ZZ put on one of the best shows i've ever seen. It was their World Wide Texas Tour and of course it was the last show of the tour homecoming. This is the tour where they had live rattlesnakes, buzzards and a longhorn steer on stage with them. The first half of the show they wore western suits that were bedecked from head to toe with rhinestones. For the second half they changed into casual clothes. They blew the roof off the sucker. Here's why, Billy Gibbons can play the shit out of the guitar and Frank Beard is a killer drummer. Dusty Hill lays down a solid foundation. And they seemed to be having a ball when they were playing. Billy and Dusty had a huge stage to roam around on, but they're microphones were only about 5-6 feet apart.
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I kind of related thing; I have a pretty good friend who is (in?) a one man band called El Paso Hot Button. He has played all over the country, but is like a 20 year old from Newcastle Oklahoma (look it up on Wikipedia, or take my word that it is a horribly conservative small Oklahoma town). One time he opened for John Cale and I went to that show. I left before Cale even came on. The asshole fucked up the Happy Mondays.
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Did anyone ever get to see James Brown in the flesh? Damn, but he could work a crowd like playing a piano. (Something he never learnt to do, apparently)
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my friend/the GM of the radio station is from Augusta Georgia. He is really upset, because he always just said "whatever, I'll see James Brown some day..." and now... he's dead.
And he couldn't get his friends to go to the funeral, either. He didn't have a car.
This is why I am seeing Chuck Berry as soon as possible.
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He's from St. Louis. I wonder if he still lives there.
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yeah, he does I think-- he plays a few times a year at the restaurant I went to today for lunch. He played there while I was out of town on spring break.
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Be careful if you go to the bathroom at the venue.
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my friend/the GM of the radio station is from Augusta Georgia. He is really upset, because he always just said "whatever, I'll see James Brown some day..." and now... he's dead.
In 1994, I got offered a free ticket and road trip to a Grateful Dead concert. I thought about it, but I'd just started a new job with weird hours so I was kind of tired that weekend. Besides, I thought, it's the freakin' Grateful Dead. When can't you go to a Dead show?
Moral: When that next Culture Club reunion tour hits your town, go.
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Chuck Berry is something else. He is a total sex machine. I don't know how he does it, well, I mean, aside from being Chuck Muthafuck*n' Berry, but he is a total babe magnet.
When I worked the G8 Summit in Denver in 96 (or maybe it was 97? I don't remember), Chuck Berry was part of the entertainment lineup, as was Eartha Kitt (the embodiment of cool elegance) and a host of others. Chuck spent most of his time backstage chasing Eartha Kitt (no joke, when she came out of her trailer in her smokin' hot red velvet gown for dress rehearsal, he nudged the sound guy and said, "I'm gonna get me some o' that!)... literally, he was chasing her. She, elegantly, refused.
Not to be denied, later at the after-party, I walked in to see Chuck Berry at a little banquette surrounded by hot babes. Like, bikini-model hot. And they were all fawning over him and it looked awfully sincere.
It was something else; really, something to behold. It was like they had to reserve two trailers at the venue: one for Chuck and one for his Game.
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My first real concert was Gov't Mule last September. I got so high I fell over twice right up near the stage. My boyfriend was pissed but everyone else just kind of thought I was funny.
I haven't really been to a "best concert" yet, as I've been going with my boyfriend so it's more his taste (redneck, stoner, hippie etc) than mine (mostly 60's rock (we have that in common - he's seen Paul twice and I'm so jealous) and weird stuff like Badly Drawn Boy).
I mean, all the concerts I've been to have been hell of good times, but nothing that's really mine. I've seen Gov't Mule, Widespread Panic (several times), String Cheese, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Donna the Buffalo, and Ratdog (Bob Weir). As I said, not precisely my taste, but close enough and certainly enjoyable. Expanding my horizons and all that.
I had high hopes for Bob Weir, whom I saw in Greensboro on the 24th, but that was kind of disappointing.
The best story I have was when I went with my boyfriend and his mom to New Riders of the Purple Sage in October. We were going to smoke pot in the car beforehand, and his mom was scolding us, and then she was like "Give me that" and took several hits. Then she had several beers and I had to take care of her/hold her up for the rest of the night. Except sometimes she got away from me and ended up with a huge bruise on her chin from falling into chairs.
The best part was during the encore - the band was playing "Rainy Day Woman" and I turned around during the chorus to see her yelling "EVERYBODY MUST GET HIGH" and then taking a hit off a HUGE joint. We met the band after that, and while the boyfriend was occupied, she got away from us again. She's tricky. But at least we've bonded now.
Another amusing memory was when the boyfriend took some mushrooms before seeing Panic in Charlotte, and ended up spending half of the first set and the entirety of the second set with his head in my lap, freaking out. The funniest part was when he looked up at me, very calmly, and said "Rachel...am I dying?" I said, "No, you're okay." and he said "okay." and didn't mention it again.
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before seeing Panic in Charlotte
Most of my High School was probably at that show.
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Most of my High School was probably at that show.
It's a little fratty and immature, the vibe at their shows, and I can see why people hate on it, but that's kind of why I like it. It's different from what I'm used to.
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oh, I mean, sorry if that came across as kind of a dick thing. I just saw the name of my hometown and a band that people there liked, and made the connection.
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Dude, I think that lady just called you fratty and immature.
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oh, I mean, sorry if that came across as kind of a dick thing. I just saw the name of my hometown and a band that people there liked, and made the connection.
Oh no, you didn't. I mean, I don't know how you feel about the people in your high school, so I thought I would explain my feelings towards the atmosphere there *just in case*. And I don't think you're fratty and immature, you seem like a very nice young man. I forgot you were in high school actually, which is part of the reason I mistook your statement a bit.
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oh, no, I'm not in high school. And I certainly was not at that concert. But I was in high school last year, and was surrounded by guys who thought was really Rad to smoke pot and listen to jam bands.
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Well, to be fair, don't blame pot on that one.
You could be curing cancer and donating your patent to a war orphanage at a Phish show and...
I would still have to have a long conversation with you to determine if you are Rad or not.
Many very Rad people have gone to Phish shows? But they are not in the majority there.
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But I was in high school last year, and was surrounded by guys who thought was really Rad to smoke pot and listen to jam bands.
Ah, you went to school with EXACTLY THE KIND OF GUYS I LIKE.
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The best shows I've seen in the last few years were Akron/Family and Shellac. I Love A/F's records but they are about 10 times better live, and Shellac played my a set that I might as well have hand-picked as it contained all of my favourite songs of theirs (including earlier stuff I really wasn't expecting to hear, such as Wingwalker and Billiard Player Song). Before that, Sonic Youth on the Murray Street tour was pretty awesome (the only time I've managed to get to see them), Neil Young's solo Greendale tour was great though truth be told I'd have rather seen him with Crazy hoss. I've seen the Flaming Lips about 8 times, and they've been great every time, but somehow I think it would be better if I'd only seen them once so that the show seemed more spontaneous, rather then knowing pretty much exactly what was going to happen each time.
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As much as I love Neil Young i've only seen him perform once. I am ashamed of this.
That one time was killer awesome though. He had Booker T and the MG's as his backing band and it was so good. If you like Booker T and the MG's, last I heard they were working as Joe Walsh's backup band.
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If you like Booker T and the MG's, last I heard they were working as Joe Walsh's backup band.
Wow. At that rate of descent, soon they'll be backing up Carrot Top.
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Wednesday.
This week.
I am seeing GZA the Genius.
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If you like Booker T and the MG's, last I heard they were working as Joe Walsh's backup band.
For some reason, my Sirius box decided that I like Booker T so much that any time one of their songs is playing on the network that I get an audible alert, putting them on the same level as SF Forty-Niners football. To my knowledge, I've never consciously heard the band play, let alone setting an alert. My wife denies any involvement. The mysteries of AI.
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GZA was alternatingly awesome and disappointing. It was worth putting off starting a paper, though.
He kept stopping halfway through songs.
he started... at 10. The show was supposed to start at 8. I'm not sure if there were opening acts, as we got there late. he stopped at 11.
he had a DJ, whose job seemed to be to press a button at the start of each song to turn on the beat. Occasionally he changed the volume.
he told us to stay in school. "a dummy ain't worth shit." He went on a thing about how minimum wage hasn't even doubled in so long, while "let's say a Cadillac-- the price has quintupled! sextupled, even!". He said "what is it, like 8 dollars an hour?"
the guy who was rapping with him got us to all yell "Wu-tang" when he went off, but he didn't do an encore.
Then he said "he'll be out to sign CDs and shit,"
which also did not happen.
so, yeah. Let's be honest though, his rhymes were extremely tight.
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so, yeah. Let's be honest though, his rhymes were extremely tight.
Like his arse by the sound of things.
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My best show ever was giraffebone at the Golden West in Albuquerque, circa 1994. ROOOOOOOOOOOCK, oh man just ROOOOOOOOOCK. I helped carry the singer around while he was crowd surfing. You know how in the early-90s heyday of moshing, that there was a very different vibe in a mosh pit depending on whether people were actually into the music, or if they just wanted to fuckin MOSH man because MOSHING is SO COOL. At this show, everyone was into the music. So insane, so fun.
A very close second: Jeff Buckley at the 9:30 Club in DC, I guess that would be early 1995. The first show he did there, not the second one. The place was full, but during a pause in "Hallelujah," the club was completely, utterly silent. No chatting, no clinking of glasses, not a goddamn sound. He was just that riveting. Of course, when he came back the second time, he was much more popular, and a similar pause was marred by some jackass going "WHOOOOOOOOOO!"
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A very close second: Jeff Buckley at the 9:30 Club in DC, I guess that would be early 1995. The first show he did there, not the second one. The place was full, but during a pause in "Hallelujah," the club was completely, utterly silent. No chatting, no clinking of glasses, not a goddamn sound. He was just that riveting. Of course, when he came back the second time, he was much more popular, and a similar pause was marred by some jackass going "WHOOOOOOOOOO!"
Fuck + you.
I'm gonna see Bad Brains next month when I'm in town - I may have mentioned it. I'm sure it will pretty much be more reggae than hardcore at this point, but I've dreamed of seeing Bad Brains since about 1983, so after 25 years I'm entitled.
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They killed. They absolutely killed. I was as close to HR and Dr. Know as I was to SRV back in the day. So, so, so on time.
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I am apparently going to see the Allman Bros with Ratdog in early August, and after that, Dave Matthews Band.
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I am apparently going to see the Allman Bros with Ratdog in early August, and after that, Dave Matthews Band.
It's so hard to know how to respond to that. Good luck?
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I saw the Allman Brothers in about 1985. They were good, but I wasn't much of a fan at the time.
I am now.
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I am a big fan of the Allmans, but they are so far removed from the band that made those killer albums 30+ years ago...
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The Alman brothers were my first concert. I hated them, and hated the concert. Sorry.
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Willie Nelson was my first concert.
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wait, I'm sorry. I missed the part where YOU SAW BAD BRAINS.
I am going to brutally murder you. The concept is that I will say "YOU LIKE BAD BRAINS, HUH FUNNY BOY?" and then crush you between a series of huge speakers blasting "Pay to Cum." Then I'll pee on you. (you always gotta throw in that part.)
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Are you talking to me Dan?
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no. nabu.
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wait, I'm sorry. I missed the part where YOU SAW BAD BRAINS.
I am going to brutally murder you. The concept is that I will say "YOU LIKE BAD BRAINS, HUH FUNNY BOY?" and then crush you between a series of huge speakers blasting "Pay to Cum." Then I'll pee on you. (you always gotta throw in that part.)
I gotta say, I didn't expect that reaction from you. Especially about Bad Brains - it's not like I was talking Danzig or GWAR or Slipknot.
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..that... that was the joke.
I was kidding!
I am bad at pretending to be mean.
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Fair enough - but I hope you don't actually think that any time I endorsed murder on this board I really wanted someone to be killed. Everything I say is a joke, with the exception of flirtation and attempts at seduction. Those items are deadly serious and always intentional.
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He's too young for you, Nabu. Even if he looks fetching in a dress.
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Yeah - you gotta be old enough to drink to ride this train.
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Yeah - you gotta be old enough to drink to ride this train.
Can. Duly noted.