Bootsy regaled us with some stories last week of cool ass shows he saw back in the day: U2 and Radiohead at First Avenue. Got me thinking are there shows you saw that were classic? Me, I saw Replacements at their 5 night 7th Street Entry gigs to promote Tim. Also the Replacements at Riot Fest was pretty special and Lydia Loveless shows April and November 2014 was pretty epic. But what other famous concerts or shows do you wish you had seen live? I have a couple.
Beatles at the Cavern Club – Seeing one of those shows, especially right before they became huge, would have been so cool. The atmosphere, the fact that no one was doing what they were doing. Saying you saw The Beatle at the Cavern would be instant cool cred.
Alan Ginsberg reciting Howl for the first time at Six Gallery. Here’s the backstory. If I could go back in time, this is one place I would go.
Sex Pistols in Manchester – A hundred people saw them and all started bands we all know: The Clash, Joy Division, The Smiths, The Fall, Buzzcocks.
Elvis at Overland Park Memphis. Just 25 days after That's All Right Mama was recorded, this generally considered Elvis's first concert and just maybe the one place you could say Rock and Roll was born.
Dylan Goes Electric at the Newport Jazz Fest. Did people boo or not?
Guided By Voices in Dayton, Ohio early 1990s. Oh to be at one of those shows when only a few knew.
How about you?, What show/concert/performance do you wish you could say “I was there maaaaaan?”
* Crown on the Ground - Sleigh Bells - Treats
* Journey - Heartless Bastards - Restless Ones
* Telling Ghosts - Puscifer - Conditions of my Parole
* Mysteries - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
* Fitter Happier - Radiohead - OK Computer
* Let Her Rest - Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
* Watermelon Ascot - MewithoutYou - Pale Horses
* Leave it All Up to Me - Screaming Females - Live at the Hideout
* Midwestern Nights Dream - Helen Money - Arriving Angels
* 1 - Gabriel Saloman - Adhere
I don't know about famous shows, but I bought tickets to a SOAD / Mars Volta show in Chicago when I was in grad school, and then something else came up and I had to miss it. I feel like that would have been quite the experience.
01. Dream Evil - "Evilized", Evilized
02. King Diamond - "The Girl in the Bloody Dress", Give Me Your Soul... Please
03. Mastodon - "Joseph Merrick", Leviathan
04. Hypocrisy - "Soldier of Fortune", End of Disclosure
05. Slayer - "War Ensemble", Seasons in the Abyss
06. Ensiferum - "Warrior's Quest", Demo II
07. Tristania - "Simbelmyne", Beyond the Veil
08. Candlemass - "Devil Seed", King of the Grey Islands
09. Equilibrium - "Im Fackelschein", Turis Fratyr
10. Megadeth - "Sweating Bullets", Countdown to Extinction
Never having really been a concert goer, I would say I most likely haven't been to any shows like that. Closest, I guess, would be when Metallica played in MN for the first time in a real long time back in 2000. But the opening acts were Sevendust and Kid Rock, so, uuuhhhhh, maybe not such a classic concert...
CT, in 1986 I saw Megadeth in a venue that held about 500 people in Washington DC. That was amazing.
That would be awesome. I wish I could go to shows, but the metal scene in Madison seems to be pretty close to non-existant, also kids.
Which ones, the ones at home or the ones at the show? 😉
Was MN in 1995 or 1996 the previous time that Metallica had played?
Because I was there. Doesn't seem like so long before.
I could be wrong, but I swear I remember the hype being that they hadn't been around in awhile.
I had the Kid Rock scourge when I saw Monster Magnet touring off Powertrip. I didn't see it then. I still don't see it.
Most famous--hands down--would be Prince's First Ave concert that was used for Purple Rain. College roommate (Atticus from my old blog) worked there and on the film. Left 2 or 3 frantic messages stating, GET DOWN HERE! YOU'RE ON THE $#%^@! LIST! They only let 500 people in, all were guest list. You've seen the movie. It was incredible.
Free I was at 4 of the 5 'Mats shows in the Entry, including two in one day. The all ages matinee where they were the greatest band in the world, and the ID show that night that ended in a drunken brawl after about 40 minutes.
Saw the first local appearances of Uncle Tupelo and GBV, both at the Uptown. UT opened for The Jayhawks and were amazing. Bee Thousand had been out about a month or so, but hadn't become the sensation that it would become. I remember moving about freely that night. They also RAWKED. They played Weed King and Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox, songs I'd never heard at the time. I would get the Vampire on Titus/Propeller double disc shortly thereafter.
Lucinda Williams in the Entry back in '90 was another incredible night of music. Emmylou Harris with Spyboy (Buddy Miller on guitar) at First Ave on her Wrecking Ball tour 95-ish.
Too many to recap. Now I'll be thinking of shows all day.
A former co-worker was at one of the shows used in the movie. She said that you couldn't make her out in the audience.
I haven't seen the movie in ages, but I'm pretty sure you see my jean jacket from the back at one point.
Made me hunt down some Emmylou from that tour. She would have been about 50 years old then. That night I thought she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9N5MGRPV0I
50-something Emmylou Harris was amazingly gorgeous.
I also have a friend at the Prince gig for Purple Rain. He's wearing sunglasses and you can see him between Princes legs in the opening concert shots ( that sounds more salacious then it was)
Yea, Emmylou was definitely hawt.
I think the only disc I have of hers is Roses in the Snow, which is great.
I've mostly cleared-off and re-done my iPod playlist because we're going on a long road trip to South Carolina in March and I wanted a more family-friendly (in both language and sonics) set of music, so that the CDs and mixes that I've heard over and over and over aren't the main source of tunes. So: a lot more "Greatest Hits" and a lot fewer full albums.
a. Swainson's Hawk “Male Scream or Alarm Call” (Cornell Master Set)
1. Grimes “Life in the Vivid Dream” Art Angels
b. House Sparrow “Chatter Call” (Cornell Essential Set)
2. Ha Ha Tonka “Arabella” Lessons
c. Anhinga “Immature Calls” (Cornell Master Set)
3. Grimes “Flesh without Blood” Art Angels
4. Colin Stetson “Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes” New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges
d. Parasitic Jaeger “Calls” (Cornell Master Set)
5. Palace Music “West Palm Beach” Lost Blues and Other Songs
6. Emot “Widow's Balcony” Make You Electric
7. Matthew Dear “Soil to Seed” Black City
8. Matthew Dear “Her Fantasy” Beams
9. Sturgill Simpson “Living the Dream” Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
T. Colin Stetson “In Mirrors” New History Warfare Vol.3: To See More Light
Well, that doesn't appear to be very varied... Looks like I'll need to add some more to it. Maybe even some of EAR's music that I don't really care for.
Also, that's a quarter of the bird songs that came up before I got to the tenth song. That won't matter for the ride, though, as I'll just toss a few in the main playlist and shuffle through that. (I have a smaller playlist of things like Ryoji Ikeda and Aaron Dilloway that my family won't like. Particularly EAR, who can hear the 44.1 kHz tones that are Ikeda's bread-and-butter. [Most people can sense that frequency, particularly when it ceases, but can't really hear it.])
Some of my more memorable are:
BB King & Ray Charles at the Hollywood Bowl
Weird Al Yankovich & The Monkees at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater
Yes on 9012Live tour in St. Paul Civic Center
Gary Burton Quartet at Concordia College (met him afterwards)
Maynard Ferguson at NDSU
GTR at the Wiltern Theater in LA (recorded for King Biscuit Flower Hour)
Yellowjackets at the Main Street Stage in Downtown Disney at Disney World
One I wish I could have seen was the Yes Union tour, which was presented in the round; it was during my 4-months unemployed and I couldn't justify it.
1. “Cherry Pie” Katzenjammer A Kiss Before You Go
2. “In My Life” Johnny Cash American IV: The Man Comes Around
3. “Dixon’s Girl” Dessa A Badly Broken Code*
4. “Go Long” Joanna Newsom Have One on Me
5. “Take” Low Long Division
6. “The Promise” Sturgill Simpson Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
7. “Liquid Smooth” Mitski Lush
8. “Hotel” The Antlers Familiars
9. “Shame” Mitski Retired from Sad, New Career in Business
T. “Crazy” Lydia Loveless Indestructable Machine**
*Hey, this was #3 in my list from last week also. Weird.
**One of my very favorite album-ending songs.
I don't get out much, but these both stand out as being particularly great concerts:
-REM at Midway stadium in summer 1999 that ended with a thunderstorm and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It." (I think this show has been discussed here before, and a bunch of others were also in attendance.)
-Lydia Loveless, The Turf Club, November 2014
I wouldn't even know where to begin with concerts I wish I'd seen. I do enjoy everyone else's cool concert stories, though.
I only saw R.E.M. the once at Target Center in 1995. Third Row!
That's where my love affair with Sonic Youth began.
The only show of theirs in the Twin Cities that I missed from that night was the second (21+) show at First Ave that fall. I was at the first show.
So you were at the Quest show where the dude from Wolf Eyes split his head open with a mace? Me too!
I was there.
Somehow I missed that injury. I was on the balcony for most of their set, more or less right above them.
I think I went to that show alone. Some other band I couldn't care much less about took all my SY-fan friends to the mainroom.
I think Dilloway was still in the band at that point. Years later, I listen to him more than SY.
My friend and I were on the floor, maybe 3 or 4 rows back, right in front of him. I was surprised he kept playing with all that blood. I'd just gotten back from Ontario and visiting J for the first time a couple days before that show, and I went down with the guy I did my radio show with. It's the only time we ever went out of town for a show together. We went and ate at Leaning Tower of Pizza after the show and crashed on a hot upstairs floor with no bedding or pajamas that night. Those were the days!
I was at that REM show. I didn't see you, right?
Nope. You were chasing some girl. 😉
My own sister was that show, and I never saw her either. But my friend and I did run into a group of her high school classmates. Funny how before the days of cell phones and social media, it was totally up to chance whether you'd see someone or not at events like that.
Quite. I think it made those kinds of things more enjoyable, and the connections more genuine.
Those losses are probably acceptable in light of the benefits.
Heh, sooo guilty.
I saw The Hold Steady with FTLT in Buffalo, and that was a pretty awesome show. It rained all day right up until the Hold Steady went on. They played a few songs from the then-upcoming "Teeth Dreams". Then I saw them about a year later at a invitaiton-only show in Austin. Maybe 100 people there.
Childish Gambino at SXSW. Did "Because the Internet" for his set, then his encore was "Camp". Then he came out and battled for a second encore. The only bad part about that day was I walked about 10 miles going from show to show.
01. “Casimir Pulaski Day” – Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
02. “Fate Of the Human Carbine” – Cat Power – What Would The Community Think
03. “Proof” – Ramona Falls – Prophet
04. “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” – Wille Nelson – Red Headed Stranger
05. “Look Around” – tUnE-yArDs – Nikki Nack
06. “On We March” – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Social Network
07. “A Man Needs A Maid” – Neil Young – Harvest
08. “Rest” – Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again
09. “100 Years” – Dr. Dog – Fate
10. “I Will Return” – Warm Ghost – Narrows
I dunno. A bunch, I guess.
I have quite a few show-related regrets. The biggest was the first time Franz Ferdinand played in Minneapolis. We had that record at the radio station and my co-host and I played it constantly. I badly wanted to go to the show and never had the money for tickets. Once I did it was sold out. That same weekend Mclusky was playing the Entry. I didn't go because I couldn't get FF tickets. I was griping about it that night to a friend online who told me he had a ticket that was going to waste he would've given me if he knew sooner. Dammit. Mclusky broke up after that, to boot.
Beyond that it's basically just a list of bands I wish I'd had the chance to see: Butthole Surfers, Hot Snakes, the pAper chAse, UGK, Les Savy Fav are the ones that come to mind right away.
I've share this before, but I was slated to go to a Who farewell tour concert, with The Clash opening, in Mason City [Cedar Falls, actually] in the early 1980s. But my buddy bailed on me because he couldn't get out of work, and it was his friends we were supposed to meet up with who had the tix. That's a major regret. I've been giving him sh!t about it for close to 35 years.
I honestly don't know if I could handle a Butthole Surfers concert.
I saw Butthole Surfers at Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis before it got fixed up, sometime in mid-80s. It was a freaky show.
1988
http://thisaintthesummeroflove.blogspot.com/2015/04/one-from-archives-042988-butthole.html?m=1
I'm willing to give it a shot, especially now that they're older. I'm pretty bummed their reunion shows never came close.
One of my good friends went to see them at the EMP in Seattle, and he mailed me his wristband and the setlist. That was pretty rad.
1. Big Iron -- Johnny Cash -- Unearthed III: Redemption Songs
2. Daydream -- Smashing Pumpkins -- Gish
3. Don's Gone Columbia -- Teenage Fanclub -- Thirteen
4. Party For Your Right To Fight -- Public Enemy -- It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
5. Skippy [Alternate Take] -- Thelonious Monk -- Genius Of Modern Music
6. White Trash -- Fred Eaglesmith -- Ralph's Last Show
7. I'm A Little Airplane -- Jonathan Richman -- Action Packed: Best of Jonathan Richman
8. Heavy Crown -- Guided By Voices -- Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow
9. Nite Club -- The Specials -- The Specials
10.Too Drunk To Dream -- Whiskeytown -- Faithless Street
B1. Did I Tell You -- Yo La Tengo -- Prisoners Of Love
B2. Burning Love -- Elvis Presley -- Top Ten Hits
Coolest concert I've attended: Wilco in Palatine, IL in 1997. In a community college auditorium. My wife and I were sitting in the third row next to Tweedy's then 2 year old son and wife. Son started crying halfway through the show as he got sick of wearing his big protective headphones. Tweedy then performed 2-3 songs with his son on his lap.
Most recent: Prince at Paisley Park last week.
Least favorite: Deerwood opening for Wilco around 2001 or so. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
Biggest disappointment: Ozzie with Alice in Chains opening. Cancelled the day of the show. Had friends from all over coming to the show. I had purchased all 8 tickets and hadn't been paid. Ticket price was refunded but Ticketmaster kept their fees on each ticket. I ended up spending more than I would have actually attending the show.
What year was that? AIC mk i or post-Layne AIC?
1992. Definitely with Layne. Pre Dirt? It was close.
I've said it before, and it seems ridiculous in retrospect, but Jewel in 1996 or 1997 was one of the best shows I've ever been to.
I went to the 1995 and 1996 Edgefests. 1995 was pretty great, it was rainy and had been.
Dave from Monster Magnet climbing on top of the crowd barricade, gave away his (broken) guitar, got pelted with mud in a Jesus Christ Pose.
KMFDM getting rained out and spontaneous mud-wars in the pit during the break.
Bush before cynicism would make it harder to enjoy their nonsense-lyric take on Seattle Grunge. I was up front and the sky was dark and the band lit up and they seemed huge. I crowdsurfed a bunch.
The first time I'd see the Ramones, and the first of three times over two years I'd see them on their iAdios Amigos! farewell tour.
Ah, but 1996 had Balloon Guy, and Iggy Pop slithering through a power outage. (Iggy Pop must have a snake for a grandparent, yes?)
Fishbone at First Ave in 1996. Touring off Chim-Chim's Badass Revenge, which didn't really appeal to me until I saw that it was optimized for concert experience after two of their main songwriters (Christopher Dowd and Kendall Jones) left.
Angelo Moore sang from the tops of the speakers and jumped to the crowd, which held him up, and sang from as far back in the room as his mic cord would allow him.
From what I understand, he more or less did this nightly for two decades. I can't imagine he didn't have chemical help. I wonder when they're coming through town again...
Lollapalooza 1996 in Des Moines was so cool. Soundgarden sang "Blow Up the Outside World" and the audience started throwing the corrugated discs that pizzas (the cheapest available food) came on.
Then later some guy threw a mud clot at Metallica, hitting Jason in the head and they stopped playing and threatened to quit the show completely.
Ha Ha Tonka's set at the Bloodshot BBQ was my favorite of their concerts.
Time travel? I'd love to have seen Bonnie "Prince" Billy's "Funtown" show with the Picket Line on some farm outside of Louisville. The bootleg recording is a blast and they actually went and recorded a bunch of songs in that style in studio.
Biggest disappointment? Wu-tang Clan dropping out of it's co-headline tour with Rage Against the Machine. I still went to the show. The friend I was going to go with was broke and got his money back.
Atari Teenage Riot opened, so that was something.
Almost missed SY opening for Flaming Lips at the State Fair because of a horrible deluge of rain. Probably my least favorite SY concert due to the venue and the fact that they were opening and following a lot of rain. Stands were at most 30% full and with assigned seating it was like they were playing for us on the other side of a river.
Worst:
Well, Ariel Pink opening for Animal Collective at Triple Rock was painful at every level, though I'm sure that's what Mr. Pink was going for.
Lollapalooza `94 was one of my good shows, though it's also my regret show because there was sooooo much coolness going on that I just wasn't aware of. Also had to leave in the middle of the Pumpkins set because junior high.
I had plans to go to that with friends and then Nirvana dropped out and Kurt shot himself and I was just down on things when it was actually time to buy tickets, so when my purchasing friend talked about how maybe he didn't want to go, we all decided to stay home. He ended up going with another group's extra tickets.
It would have been my first concert, so I was also
wussyreluctant to ask my folks for permission for such a thing.Instead my first concert was Stone Temple Pilots with special guests Meat Puppets and Jawbox that same summer at Roy Wilkins.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGtr32MxVfo
Other cool shows I've attended;
Black Flag at Duffys circa 1982
X at Guthrie Theater 1982
U2 at RFK Stadium 1987
The two Sturgill Simpson shows in 2014-15 including one in London
Neil Young at Northrop
Rock For Change 2000 (Bruce, Neil Young, REM, Bright Eyes, John Fogerty, others)
I saw the B-52s at Northrup in 1981 or 1982. That was a great show. I don't think Ricky Wilson raised his gaze from his shoes the whole show, however. A few years later, saw Eddie Murphy on his red leather tour, with Beastie Boys as the opening act, somewhere in the Cities (Civic Center? I dunno). Eddie was awesome. I didn't "get" the Beastie Boys.
Saw Joan Baez at Wolftrap in 1987 or 1988. Very enjoyable show.
also, the Suburbs were practically the house band at the alma mater while I was there. Saw them several times at Sayles-Hill. Raucous, sweaty, dancey fun.