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 ).
-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.
-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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Topic: Jimi at Isle of Wight? Bad Brains at CBGB's in '82? (Read 16547 times)