April 23, 2004

• Can't think of a best right now (I really don't get out enough). But most disappointing was seeing Dylan at a big festival they have this time of the year in Atlanta (Music Midtown). He doesn't really sing anymore, just kinda says the words. It might be several lines in before I realized what song he was singing, even if it were something I could sing and play myself.
• It really sucks when someone of his status can't perform well anymore. I half expected somewhat the same for Rod Stewart (not in the same league, mind you) who had top billing at a concert I went to (not my favorite) and only went to to see Santana. I was completely surprised at the fantastic show he put on, his professionalism and the fact that he sounded far better live than I ever would have expected.
• One candidate for my best is another set of old men of a certain status, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their tour like four years ago, at Philips Arena in Atlanta. Neil Young gives his performances all he's got, and they (fortunately) all concentrated on older, great material. No good story, though.
• Youssou N'Dour and the Super Etoile de Dakar, Womadelaide, 1992. Woah, party Africa. Nothing like his commercial disks.
• Best: Fishbone at the Antenna Club in Memphis, 1988. The whole club was bouncing. bOuNcInG! Runner-up: The Upper Crust at El Matador, New Orleans, 2000. This peasant was impressed. Worst: Van Morrison at Tom Lee Park, also Memphis, 1999 (I think). I love Van's music, but here he was drunk and belligerent, constantly berating his band and generally acting like an asshole.
• Clem Snide, Bowery Ballroom, July (?) '03. Patrick Park opened. Amazing venue, quiet show, enough room to sit on the floor if you wanted. Beautiful.
• Oingo Boingo followed by The Pretenders. US Festival, 1982 (?) or 1983. Dust. Opiated Thai-Stick. My daddy's borrowed Caddy. I was barely 20. I was not in debt. I was a fool. Rock on, young man!
• Naked Raygun at a small tavern on 63rd street on the southwest side of Chicago. We were pissed off that we had to pay three dollars cover to get in. We didn't even know Raygun was playing there that night .The bartender (Mike) just said the three bucks was for "the band". We just about crapped our pants when we saw them lugging in their gear. Unfreakingreal show. They played forever.The place was called Over Easy (I think). I'll be damned if I can remember the year.
• Loads of dissapointing ones in my life but the top three - 1) Seeing the Saddlecreek showcase at CMJ a couple years ago: Desaparacidos, Now It's Overhead, The Good Life, Rilo Kiley, Cursive, Bright Eyes. Basically musical chairs for bands, since they're all in each other's bands. There was a lotta love in that room that night. (You know when the first band smashes their guitars at the end of their set that it's going to be a good show.) 2) Seeing the Faint (also on Saddlecreek) - they never play in the US, but when they do they come with a multimedia extravaganza! They had video projection made especially for each song - and a couple hundred people dancing their asses off. 3) White Stripes - Can't go wrong with a free lunchtime concert in the summer (when you're right at the front). Especially when the Man cuts the power and Jack White has to serenade you a-capella. Honorable mention for most memorable performace goes to Propagandhi's last tour a couple years ago since it started at 4 pm and I got accidently punched in the stomach. Punk Rock! It's sad, I don't go to shows like I used to anymore. Getting too old for that stuff now, I guess (23, snort). But, must give a shout-out to the new getting-the-band-back-together Braid tour, w00T!
• guided by voices at the drink in vancouver, october 2003!
• My first ever. Blackpool, 1971, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Tarkus. Emerson climbed inside his Hammond organ to play it at one stage.
• Man, Oingo Boingo takes me waaayyyy back. One of the best concerts for me around that same time was U2 touring for their 'War' album. It was at the lush Paramount Theatre in Seattle in 1983. Incredible accoustics, bare-bones show and at a time when they were still naively passionate and very young. I'm so old.
• Argh - Oh man, I haven't thought about Over Easy in like 10 years. What an anomaly that place was. I can't imagine where the band played. I've been in bigger broom closets. You catch any of the Big Black shows at the west loop legion hall? My vote for best concert: Either seeing REM as an opening act Pre Murmur or Replacements in a Pizza Parlor at the U of I. (Bob wore a diaper, polished off a bottle of jack during the set and was still blazing). I lived right behind the Metro mid 80's/early 90's and could bore you all with stories from a lot of great shows.
• They Might Be Giants at the Carefree Theater in West Palm Beach (spring '02) was rad as hell. I also have fond memories of Rainer Maria and Rilo Kiley playing at Churchill's in Miami around the same time.
• Flaming Lips and Cake at the Berkeley Amphitheater two years ago. Summer, open air, smallish venue, room to lean back and enjoy the show. Worst ever was Smashmouth in Santa Cruz -- the band was great, the crowd sucked.
• [observes that mmmuttly has been to some good shows] unfortunately, i've only been to a few concerts in my life at all (due to particular tastes and shortages of money)
• My best concert was definitely my first one ever. I went to see Korn with a buddy of mine. We drove 5 hours and stayed in a hotel. It was my first time ever moshing and I got to see my absolute favority band of all time and they lived up to all my expectations. I went away in awe.
• Oasis and Travis @ Radio City Music Hall, 2000. - or - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in Greenwich, Conn., sometime around 1995.
• Public Image Ltd., the Sugar Cubes and New Order at Sandstone Amphitheatre in Kansas City, The b-52's with the Judy's in Houston and Stanley Clarke and George Duke also in Houston in which myself and my other suburban friends were exposed for the first time to...how can I put this...there were maybe 50 white faces and we were stupid and scared for no reason. (not to be racist, just wanted to set the scene...shit that didn't sound right either...never mind) Also Devo at the Univ. of Houston, The Police...U2 at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas, good lord what memories..
• mmmutly - You're one of the few people I've ever met who know about Over Easy. Do you remember the Giant Indian at 63rd and Pulaski? Well, if you stand in front of the florists on the south side of 63rd and look up at the Indian, you'll get a nasty surprise.
• The Cramps
• Sorry... that should have been: The Cramps The Jockey Club, Newport KY 1986, "A Date With Elvis" tour (Once that page featured some snaps from the show) Lux, the band's lead singer, sported a gold lame suit that tour and would perform a striptease. At the JC, nearly naked, he climbed up the PA stack and attempted to crawl inside the ceiling with the mic jammed into his mouth, while house security chased him around. Antics aside, it's the only show I've ever been to where the bar ran out of alcohol. The crowd was also wildly eroticized as a direct result of the band's performance, a rare event at mid-80s punk shows. Fantastic show. kooky quoting bug
• mwhybark--I'm glad you added some scenes to that, I was going to ask, as I have never met anyone who had seen the Cramps. In Kentucky, no less.
• Best:July 31 1997 Foo Fighters & Radiohead at the Plaza of Nations. I won tickets to an E.M.I industry gig where Radiohead and the Foo Fighters performed in a smallish (<1000) club. Runner Up: June 1 1992 - My Bloody Valentine at the Commodore Ballroom. My Ears are still ringing.
• I also saw the Big Black farewell show at some unknown place in Newport - a giant pseudo-victorian "whorehouse". Everyone knew it was their last show, and the place was packed with the finest hipsters from the length of the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Prize for most bad-ass was the guy that had a circular saw blade attached, flat, to the back of his leather jacket, like biker colors or something. When he turned and you could see that his hand had been amputated it was a visceral shock. Sonic Youth in '85 at Cosmo's Pizza in Indy with some help from our good brainfriend Lucy. Sun City Girls opening for JFA at Ricky's Canteena in Bloomington in 1984. Jason Webley's release party for Against the Night, 1999. I played the show, but it was still amazing Jason's second death. (self-link, sorry).
• Argh - I was only at Over Easy a couple times. I was still in college downstate when it was in it's prime. I was also quite the chemical dump in those days and have a lot of, um, blurry memories. I was mostly a northside Gingerman & Augenblick kinda guy. Also used to go to Dreamerz a lot when Wicker Park was a scary ghost town.
• By chance, I happened into a smallish club in Philadelphia c.1995. I walked away a bluesier, happier, hip-hoppier man. Thank you, G-Love & Special Sauce. I also followed a local band, Mary Adam 12, during my days at Ohio State. They're music was mediocre, but I didn't care... I had the hots for the lead singer. But alas, I never had the nerve to say much to her other than "Good show."
• My Top five, in no particular order... Fishbone, The Ritz, NYC 1986. I was 15, two-tone and lovin' it. Following Lush the summer of '92. Four shows in four cities that happened to be along a roadtrip route across country that summer. Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson were and are still, total babes. Depeche Mode/OMD 1988 Jones Beach. The only thing that would've made it better would have been a New Order double bill, as they were touring around the same time. Ken Ishii, Twilo, NYC 1999. Not so much a band as a really good DJ and the start of a really bizarre relationship. Creeper Lagoon, some dump in Hoboken, New Jersey, 2001. A band I'd never heard of before blew me away. Being less than three feet from the stage just made it that much cooler. Worst show: Lotsapalookas, 1993. The car my girlfriend and I had sunk a great deal of time and love into restoring was stolen while we were in the fields watching lackluster bands on a rainy day.
• Best 1: R.E.M finally played Glastonbury 1999. Best 2: Radiohead at Glastonbury 1997. Best 3: The Clash, Brixton Academy 1982. Best 4: The Undertones, Hammersmith Odeon (can't remember when) and Islington Garage last September, though Feargal is sadly missed. Best 5: I Am Kloot - somewhere in Manchester sometime in 2001 Best 6: a random African band called Virunga at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club sometime in the early 90's I could go on ... I won't Saddest: Aztec Camera supporting Killing Joke ... which joker thought that one up?
• I think I've got three favourites. One was Mogwai, early 2003. They played an absolutely storming concert, then for the encore they played the entire 20-minute noisefuck of My Father My King. The lead guitarist was rocking out so hard he broke four guitar strings. This finished, naturally, in a huge five-minute wall of torrential static. My mate was trying to get me to leave, but I insisted on staying for the whole thing. Another was Explosions in the Sky, 2002. This was before the (relative) success of their new album, and they played in a room approximately the size of a large matchbox. Still, they managed to transform the place into a room the size of the universe. It's hard to describe how transcendental the music was that evening. It was also the only recorded performance of the "reverse windmill" - keeping your strumming hand still and swinging your guitar around your head wildly. Third was actually last night: British Sea Power. Like Joy Division with stuffed animals. They fucking rocked the joint. Then they ended with a 20-minute spazz-fest, when they all swapped instruments around and broke things and went crazy, all to a pounding 4/4 rhythm, and then the 10 foot tall dancing bear came on (well, it wasn't real) and they all fought it off with mic stands and pieces of foliage. Fucking immense.
• Best: Illusion of safety/Daniel Mensche, even though I forgot to bring my earplugs. Worst:Yngwie Malmsteen, awful but at least it was for free.
• Blur, just after Parklife was release, at Manchester (UK) Academy. Coolest use of sigarette by any bass player ever.
• I hope it was to poke it in his eye.
• I saw David Bowie a few years ago at the Area 2 tour. I never thought I would have the chance to see him and it blew my mind. He played all of my favorite songs and rounded off with Ziggy Stardust as his encore. I also really enjoyed the Toadies concert I was at back in the day, best twenty bucks I've ever spent. I went to a 3 hour Metallica concert for free because they put on the free shows after Hetfield got injured during the Sanitarium tour and missed a few dates. I had really good seats in the first row of the balcony directly across from the stage. The speaker stacks were in my face and I couldn't hear for two days after the concert. Worst concert ever was two days ago [self-link].
• KISS!! I was 10. "Last night we were driving down . . . Route 301!!!. . " *crowd goes wild*
• GREAT thread. Best: AC/DC at the Rosemont in Chicago, 1986. Second row center. Dey rokked gud. First Runner Up: Juliana Hatfield at Cicero's Basement in St. Louis, 1992 (I think). Beauty and the beast in a club, baby. Second Runner-up: Steely Dan at the Riverport Amphitheatre in St. Louis, 1994. By Far The Worst: REM on Monster tour. Between the rambly drunken political rants, the wild out-of-tune-and-syncness, and lame ass setlist, I should have stayed home and listened to Document. Best Show I Never Saw: Sonia Dada at the Pageant in St. Louis. The date turned out to be the same night as my company's Christmas Party, to which attendance is, well, not *required* exactly, but no one ever misses it, there's open bar and tons of free food, and they hand out annual bonuses. I gave the tickets to a pal. He called me the next day and said it was one of the best shows he'd ever seen.
• Juliana Hatfield is awesome. I saw her new gig with Freda Love from the Blake Babies and Heidi Gluck called Some Girls. Hottest rockingest chick band ever!
• Taking a wild shot in the dark here, but Blaise - you don't happen to own a "blur: are shite" t-shirt, do you?... Favourite gig: probably the Hidden Cameras, ICA, London, last summer. Twee folk-pop, but with men in gimp masks and Y-fronts dancing on either side of the stage. Fantastic. The crowd went wild. Other contenders: Belle & Sebastian in Scarborough, 2001 (coincided with their worst album, but that was the tour where they decided there was nowt wrong with actually being a bit rock'n'roll - wee Stuart playing Phil Lynott's old transparent bass like some crazed rock demon); Eels, Cambridge Corn Exchange, 2000 (all-seated gig, and we were sat right at the back. Which was a fucking long way away. Any band other than the Eels, that would have been annoying, but for them it just seemed to fit perfectly); Pulp, same place, 2001 (Jarvis drew us a monkey afterwards); and probably loads of other, smaller gigs that have blurred in the memory, but would surely come back with crystal clarity at the right prompting. Most disappointing: Roxy Music, Wembley Arena, 2001. Not so much for Roxy themselves, who stuck to a fine set of the proper, early stuff (Eno was sadly missed, but his replacement was a very pretty lady, so hey ho). No, the reason it was so appalling was the audience, at least 75% of whom were treating it like it was some kind of office away-day to see Les Mis or Phantom or something. This is Roxy fucking Music reforming here!! Obviously, me and my friend were the only people in the entire place under forty; but I'd expected at least some of the crowd to remember that, back in the day, they were once glam-rock aliens. But no, no, they were accountants, and accountants they would stay. Arsehole in front of me was on his mobile phone throughout the entire show.
• Top 5 (Hard to narrow it down, could have been top 25): 5: The Who at Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, 1982 This was my first ever concert experience. Open air, general admission (festival seating). Wild. 4: Punch The Clown at The Blind Pig, Cleveland, last summer Not really a concert, just a local rock & roll band in a club but that place was rockin'. 3: Neil Young & Crazy Horse at Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, 1986? The opening act was just Neil and an acoustic guitar, The main act was Neil & Crazy Horse for a loud rockin' evening. Perfect. 2: Tribute to John Lee Hooker, Madison Square Garden, New York, 1990 Huge collection of blues & rock legends, including Hooker, Willie Dixon, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Joe Cocker, Huey Lewis, Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, Mick Fleetwood, Al Kooper, Johnny Winter, John Hammond, Johnnie Johnson, and the late Albert Collins. 1. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Toronto, 1988 Stevie was at the top of his game. His playing left me breathless and exhausted. I can still remember almost every song, almost every note. Oh, and Darshon, I saw U2 on the War Tour too, so you're not the only old timer here.
• Juliana Hatfield is awesome. I saw her new gig with Freda Love from the Blake Babies and Heidi Gluck called Some Girls. Hottest rockingest chick band ever! Oh, DUDE. As recipients of my MofiMix will learn, I am waaaay into hot-rockin' chick bands.
• A toss up between 1) Screaming Trees, London Astoria, 'Dust' tour. Passed out in pit, picked up by big bloke under my arms, armpits bleeding profusely. 2) Tomahawk, again the Astoria, first album tour. 'God Hates A Coward' performed from behind a gasmask-esque microphone facehugger. 3) Depeche Mode 'Devotional' tour, Wembley Arena, 'Never Let Me Down Again' and 'Stripped' done awesome justice. 4) Hopesfall at the Barfly. Just awesome.
• my first concert: rolling stones, spartan stadium, east lansing MI, 1995. voodoo lounge tour. cannot stress enough how much these old guys rock. not only was it my first concert, but it was the first show ever played in the stadium - and they haven't had another show there since. students got tickets way early, so we had pretty good seats despite a snafu with getting the tix (i had a surgery scheduled for the morning they went on sale - and my brother went to the wrong building to pick them up, the moron... even though i was fronting the money for like 6 seats. whatever. he eventually paid me back.) caught 'em again at the silverdome for the bridges to babylon tour - again, damn. they kicked the hell out of most bands half their age. really, really enjoyed the wallflowers at hill auditorium in ann arbor (98 i think). small venue, great opening acts, they all just looked like they were having a good time. some of the bands played mix'n'match during the sets, walking on and jamming with the wallfowers near the end. plus i'd been working right across the street, and parked on the other side of the building - so getting there and getting out again was the easiest i've ever had for a concert.
• oh have to mention - bras thrown on stage during the second stones concert. they were like twin parachutes... 40- to 50-year-old women but still tossing the undies at the band. crazy. but we were close enough to see charlie watt's smirk without looking at the big screen... he just seemed so amused to be on stage with those other guys, him in khaki slacks and a polo shirt, the rest in leopard-print spandex, fake fur, the usual rock star garb. charlie watts cracks me up. think that was the last tour he went on with them.
• The Divine Comedy in the summer of 2002. I had seen them several months earlier at an 'exclusive' show at Joe's Tavern in New York. The venue sucked, the band was off, it was a disapointment. I had been looking forward to seeing them for about six years, since whenever Casanova came out. A few months later I was flipping through the Voice and saw that he was coming back. The show was at a good place in Brooklyn and Neil had a different backing band. He was just off his supporting tour for Ben Folds (I hadn't wanted to pay to see Ben, so I skipped that) and gave the most wonderful performance I have ever seen. Full of energy and very funny. He played some songs off the then forthcoming Absent Friends and some great covers. I'd highly reccomend catching a show of his to anybody who has the opportunity. Feel good happy fun music.
• I haven't been to that many concerts, but two really stick out in my mind: 1) Toadies at the Troubador on a psychedelic drug after cutting an ex-boyfriend completely out of my life. I was right at the stage. They played for two hours at high energy. The rush!! Oh the rush!! 2) Foo Fighters at the Universial Ampitheater. I got pit tickets and had been wanting to see them for a couple years. I missed seeing them three times before I scored the tickets. I was in the second row and I touched Dave Grohl after he went into the crowd and needed help back on stage. The concert was awesome. It was all the more special to me because I went with my boyfriend/now fiance and we were so happy to be there together. I also went to a comedy "concert" last year that was three years in the making. I got 2nd row seats for me and my friends to see Eddie Izzard at the Wiltern. He was hilarious and we saw lots of fun Hollywood people there (but I got better seats!) We waited after the show to get him to autograph our stuff and talk to him. That will be life-long memory too.
• I almost put a Toadies song on the CD you will be getting shortly, Kimberly. I ended up culling it so I could add some variety. Fes- I look forward to having you in a future MoFiCD swap group.
• The Barenaked Ladies. Just last year. Second time. Damn, but they put on a fine show. I'm still young, and haven't had much opportunity or $$$ to make many more. Hordefest '98 also had BNL, plus Ben Harper, Blues Traveler, and some others. Tragic that I was too young to appreciate it.
• 1) Phish, 1999?; Alpine Valley, WI 2) Pearl Jam, 2001?; Alpine Valley, WI 3) The Roots, 1998?; the Rave; Milwaukee, WI 4) Paul Simon, 2002?; Summerfest; Milwaukee, WI
• dickdotcom: I am so jealous of your Clash show. Fes, sciurus: I went to high school with Freda. I agree, Some Girls rock. At the show here in Seattle, though, the opener, Indy's The Pieces, stunned the audience. Vess and Heidi are unstoppable.
• yeah, The Pieces are FIERCE. Indy used to be just a jump away from where I grew up.
• Oh yeah, I should add Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 at Green's Lounge, Memphis. This was juke joint in the HOOD, and the band was more than a little freaked out over the regulars. Beer was sold by the quart ($2.50!), ribs sold on the patio ($3 for a half-slab!), and they had a dancing hippy in a cage (somebody lost a bet, I guess) and it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.
• Yo Yo Ma in 1993, Orchestra Hall Minneapolis. I worked in ticket sales hell and snagged a pair of soloist-side box seats, then afterwards used my keys to go backstage and meet him. He's a very nice man and an incredible cellist. U2 Achtung Baby tour was surprisingly good. The Pixies opened but did not want to be there. Kanda Bongo Man, First Ave, Minneapolis, 1992. Fun and exhausting. His band played for 3 hours nonstop and you could tell they'd be able to go all night. The Alarm in Edmonton, 1988. The Violent Femmes in Sioux Falls, SD, 1986. I try to catch El Vez and GBV when they're in town because they always put on great shows.
• Bjork Seattle last year on a pier in the harbor. It was amazing. The opening act Bonnie "Prince" Billy, however was very odd and din't quite fit with the mood. The set was short but truely amazing.
• Weezel, BNL never fail to please! Have seen them twice and am a real fan of theirs.
• Best ever: The Verve at the Phoenix in Toronto in 1997. Incredible. A small club they played just around the time Bittersweet Symphony was going huge. Tickets were being sold (supposedly) outside for $150 when the face value was around under $20. I got in for free because a friend knew the bassist. Best last year: Interpol with Franz Ferdinand at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh.
• I've only been to a total of 4 "mainstream" concerts. In chronological order: Aug 1997: Rolling Stones, Bridges to Babylon. THE Carlos Santana was the opening act. Holy shit, that was a show. Dec 1997: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, touring with the Walking into Clarksdale album. Sure, it's wasn't really Zep... but Page played Dazed and Confused, and turned it into a 15 minute solo. Oct 2002: Foo Fighters at the Wiltern Theater in LA, the day that One by One was released. I was a couple of days away from being laid-off from the company that I was working for (I knew it was coming), and it was a great release. Mar 2003: Foo Fighters at Universal, with my baby. The Transplants were the opening act, and some asshole punk mosher kept trying to dive into me with his elbows extended. I think he got a clue that I would hurt him if he tried it again.
• winnipeg...1970-71 led zepplin, iron butterfly, pink floyd, black sabbath, alice cooper, frank zappa, others... i missed the great joplin, arriving there one week too late! footloose, fancy-free and chronically stoned. ah...the good old days.
• jim_t, i was hanging from a balcony about ten feet above jimmy page while he was playing and suddenly i got this hedonistic urge to lick the sweat of his body. luckily i was with people who called themselves friends. i was sure he would have gotten into it if i could have jumped down there to him.
• gspm, that's just reminded me - I saw Franz Ferdinand last autumn as well, before they were big and famous and editing the Guardian and stuff. A mate asked me along, it was free, one of those things. I think that's the gig that confirms I wouldn't make it as an A&R guy. I thought they were... okay. Nothing special, y'know? I preferred the support band, the name of whom I can't remember for the life of me. Hmmm. Not a great anecdote, really. I should probably shut up and get back to burning MoFiSwap CDs (with Franz Ferdinand on them, obviously...)
• Alright, I’m gonna put it out there and show my age and my total unpunk-rockness: Ozomatli at the Hollywood Bowl. I’d never heard of them before - they were the opening act for Santana, and were outstanding. There was a conga line at the Hollywood Bowl for crissakes. Tony Bennett, again at the Hollywood Bowl. Yummy, juicy retro-goodness. In a similar vein, Harry Connick Jr., back in the ‘When Harry Met Sally’ days. The USC Marching Band played him offstage for the encore. And, because I can’t stop myself, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in their days back at The Derby in Silverlake. Last of this genre, the Brian Setzer Orchestra rocks the house in fine rockabilly form. The Eagles New Year’s Millennium Concert at The Staples Center. Yeah, The Eagles. They are perfect live; we tail-gaited before the show with a bottle of Dom Perignon and some smokable substances. It was a fine way to start the new century. Bruce Springsteen ‘Nebraska’ era. Again at the Staples Center – it was the very first show at that venue. Some folks in the very last row of the stadium were approached by Bruce’s entourage and kicked up to front row seats. Everything you’ve heard about his live shows is true – he rocked your mom for 4 ½ hours. Brian Wilson As a gift, I took my (now) ex-boyfriend to a benefit for The Carl Wilson Foundation. He was thrilled to death, and Brian was in good form; but what killed me was the surprise special guest, Eric Clapton. I nearly lost my mind. Paul McCartney Back in the US Tour – I know, I know – but there’s something about seeing the songs you’ve known & loved your entire life played live – his voice was still there and it’s still the best money I’ve ever spent on a concert. I melted my lighter on ‘Let it Be’. Eddie Izzard I was that friend!!! And the top of my head came off. Apologies for the length – I’ve got to see some great things!
• dxlifer--YOU are my idol.
• Pigface, 2001, at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. They're an industrial "supergroup" -- that is, made up of people who normally don't work together -- and their whirlwind tours only take a month to see the country. It's shocking they can keep up such energy at every stop. Sure, they play the same songs on every tour, but damn, are they worth seeing over and over again. Einstürzende Neubauten, late 1998 or early 1999, at La Luna in Portland, Oregon. Touring for the Ende Neu album. I don't actually remember much of the details of this show, but I remember an amazing energy permeating the venue while Blixa Bargeld poured gravel over drum snares into barrels and other such Neubautenish things. Marilyn Manson, early 1997, at the Salem Armory in Salem, Oregon. Touring for the Antichrist Superstar album. I know it sounds bad, but consider this! I was 16, it was my first show ever, and I was drunk on Pabst Blue Ribbon. The greatest concert moment of my life was when the lights went completely out for a minute or so while the synthesized organ of Cryptorchid played, and at the end, the lights flashed back on in time to the first two beats of Antichrist Superstar. The entire stage set had been redone, and Manson was standing up on a podium, shaking a fist in the air, and just looking fucking awesome. I was standing at front and center stage, and knew I'd never see showmanship like that again.
• Space Kitty—At a Clapton concert (From The Cradle tour, wish I had been old enough to truly appreciate it) we were approached by roadies who gave us front row (side) seats to replace our nosebleed seats at the old Omni in Atlanta, "complements of Eric." Good stuff.
• ah, thanks, darshon. it was just luck that all these bands were touring then and just really starting out, in some cases. actually the pink floyd concert was the most awesome due to the new audio tecniques they were using. i can't remember the name of the song, but as we sat in darkness, there was the sound of a fly buzzing all around, then loud footsteps chasing it, then the flyswatter seemed to land right on top of your head just before the lights came on and the music began. i listened to it later on earphones but it wasn't as effective as it was in the auditorium.
• Low, in a church in Brighton, 2003 Damon and Naomi, in Colchester, in 98 or 99 Do Make Say Think and Godspeed You Black Emperor, in Colchester, 2002 Mogwai, in Colchester, in 97 or 98 Silver Mt Zion, at the Scala in London, 2004 Fugazi, in Brighton, in 98 or 99
• dxlifer--so was that with Syd Barrett?
• good question. i'll ask my buddy that was there with me. he has the memory for names and details.
• Decided on my best concert for sure—Victor Wooten in a small venue (can't remember the name . . . was it the Variety Playhouse?) two summers ago. Wonderful long show, a band of mostly his family members. His older brother is absolute incendiary with respect to guitar, and he's definitely the best bass player I've ever heard. Constant excitement about what he was going to pull out next. On the turntables was Speech, who was very cool too. Story: Someone had put a beer bottle on the edge of the stage, and Victor motioned for someone to take it off. But a drunk woman thought that he was inviting her up on stage, and she got up and started "dancing"—a huge security guard carried her off; poor woman was so confused.
• Sleater-Kinney somewhere in Atlanta in 2000 or 2001 rocked my world. They were loud, hot, and fun. The worst was the Cocteau Twins (maybe at the New Vic?) in Chicago in the early 1990s. The music wasn't the problem. I dunno what exactly I was expecting them to look like but considering how light and airy their music was, I wouldn't have been surprised if they appeared as angels descending from the sky to serenade us. Instead, on the stage there were these three overweight frumps with lousy haircuts. It's a stupid thing to get hung up on and it certainly didn't matter to me in the long run but at the time it was really shocking.
• Ah, Mackerel, I don't want to know what they look like! I have an image in my head that I don't want destroyed. Maybe it's best to go with your eyes closed. I have to agree, though, as much as I hate to admit it, image is a powerful thing. It's like you have to hear the music from a different perspective once you've seen the reality. I've always appreciated the Cocteau Twin's mystique and music, especially throughout the nineties.
• darshon, my buddy says he was in the washroom smoking dope all night and can't remember who was at that concert. he thought i was doing the same in the women's. /maybe i was after that flyswatter came down on my head...last thing i can remember.
• Ramones, May 5, 1990. Probably one of my greatest and worst days so far! So the Ramones finally manage to swing through Wilmington NC again (they played 2 years before, but at the time I lived in farmland USA: South Dakota). Finally, the chance to see one of my most-loved bands! They played at the local dive-of-a-club, The Mad Monk. At the time, I drove a real-life police car [sans flashing lights]. I was the chosen driver for the evening (i.e., I was the only one with a car, typical high-schooler stuff). I picked up two of my friends and off we went! The parking lot of this tiny club had minimal parking space. Driving this boat of a car made fitting in extra hairy, but somehow I managed. Before we made our way in - - - Molly pulled a pint of TEQUILA from a bag she was carrying. Oh boy! We all took several shots, it was around 7:00 p.m. Have no idea what band opened, it surely didn't matter to me at the time. Enter the Ramones!! Never in my life have I experienced such untamed, raw, wild energy... The crowd was uncomparable to any I had experienced in this club before [and for that matter, have never experienced since]. From the second they began, every body in that place was jumping/thrashing/twirling in unison. Totally incredible! Total strangers suddenly became best friends... everyone was injected with primal fun emotion. It was not a short set by any means, they kept it coming: "...the KKK took my baby away..." "...the blitzkrieg bop!" [wish I could experience this again!] Coming down off that show was not fun... The throngs of wild club-goers made way to their cars. The chaos of the show simply transferred to the parking lot. Some unlucky kid was struck by a car as he tried to cross the street alongside the club. Gridlock ensued... We sat in the parking lot for at least 40 minutes. Finally, the queue of cars began to trickle out. My big boat required manueving again to get out - - I had to back up a bit. The rear window was fogged up... someone (who turned out to be one of my friends) parked their car in the lane directly behind my car - - and the trailer hitch that was attached to my car made a nice puncture into the side of this car. I didn't realize what had happened, neither did any of my passengers. 10 minutes later, just as I'm about to make my turn out of the parking lot - - a police officer suddenly taps my window with his flashlight, "Say, somebody just told me that they thought they saw you back into a car back there... mind pulling aside." AAAAGH!!! It was almost 1:00 a.m. now. I drank the tequila 6 hours earliers. I must have sweated a few gallons during the show. The last thing on my mind was worry about the alcohol. The cop asks me, "did you drink anything tonight?" And being the honest person I am, I said "yes." BUT WAIT just a minute officer, that was eons ago!! I just had the most fun of my life!!! I just saw the Ramones! Even the owner of the car I backed into showed up. He was a good friend. He begged with the cop to let me go. He didn't care about the small damage done to his car. TOO late! Enter the breathalizer. I blew the legal limit. On went the handcuffs. Devastation!! This was one month before graduating from high school. I'll never forget being taken "downtown" and being booked. The look on my mothers face as she came to pick me up at 3:00 in the morning. Suddenly the police station seemed friendly! I don't think I've heard my mom scream like that ever. It was total humilation! And the end result??? I got to go to court the week before graduation. The day after I graduated, I had to report to the county annex to serve my 24 hours, clad in bright orange jump suit... Hell, at least I got to have fun the night before!! Would I do it again???? Wish I could!!!
• thanks, sugar, for digging this up. I've been wanting to tell the world about this one, but couldn't find the appropriate space in which to do that Hopefully not my best, but this last weekend I saw, for the first time ever, a band I actually really like (never been much of a concert-goer before, always too broke). I was so excited I nearly peed, and when I got to meet the band I was so intent on playing it cool that instead of asking what a particular song is about, I asked if they know of another band from their part of the U.K. Just awful. At least I remembered to ask how they liked Coachello. It was Snow Patrol, by the way.
• Best would have to be Page and Plant, USAirways Arena, DC suburbs, 1995. Really incredible. Me and my peer group waited our lives for that one. They brought the experimentation and sense of magic that Zeppelin had in their prime (or so I've read) I saw them like 6 times when they toured again in 98, but the magic was gone by then. Page had cut his hair, thye played the same EXACT setlist every night and just seemed to be going through the motions (although Page and Plant going through the motions is still better than 99.9% of band on Earth) Interesting post-script: I was supposed to go the second show in DC in '95, but was dicked over by a guy who decided to just not show up to get me and give the ticket to his semi-girlfriend instead. All with my then best-friend in the car, who apparently said nothing while the switcheroo ws pulled. This chain of events led to growing unhappiness with my whole life in Maryland, eventually leading to me moving to LA and basically deciding the whole course my life has taken since then.
• Honorable Mention: The Who, 1997(?), playing Quadrophenia at Nissan Pavillion, VA. Awesome drum/bass solo on 5:15 by Entwistle and Zak Starkey. Camp Freddy, an all-star band in LA I won a contest to see last year I think. Featuring (at various points in the evening) Slash, Dave Navarro, Perry Farrell, Sebastian Bach (surprisingly talented), Matt Sorum, and Ron Wood trying to play "Paradise City" while obviously not knowing the chords.
• I am young and inexperienced and jealous :) So, the best free shows I've seen: Derek Trucks in Nashville -- he's buds with Bela Fleck and Jeff Coughlin, they showed up unannounced and jammed. Heard Arturo Sandoval a few summers ago, his music is pretty hot.
• KISS, when they played Baltimore in 1975. Besides experiencing the Rawk Ghods live, I got to sit smack in the middle of several groups of people passing joints around, so that became the second or third time I smoked marijuana, the first time I got really wasted, and the first time I unwittingly smoked PCP. But the older woman who insisted on blocking my view by standing on her chair when I could hardly sit up at all seemed to enjoy letting me feel up her butt; she was around 16, and I was but 12. A third set of memories of that event was of eventually finding my way to the bus stop, convincing a cop that he really didn't need to drive me to the hospital or the hoosegow, and making it home all by myself. (I'm still proud of myself, especially the last bit.) The runner-up was a Battle of the (local) Bands, also at the Baltimore Civic Center, two summers later: I didn't know the girl I got to a half-naked third base with in front of the stage was only 12, but then I was only 14. That was the first time I ever cheated on a "steady". Since I somehow lived to see 18 it's been all downhill. I blame the Republicans and Democrats.
• These are great stories!!