Meme attempt

[lynxreign]

I was thinking there are concerts I really wish I'd seen. Some of them it'd be completely impossible for me to have seen, like the 1939 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert with Benny Goodman. Others are concerts where I saw the equivalent, for example I saw Sonic Youth in the early 90s, so other concerts from that era really don't count. I'm going to list the top 5 concerts I wish I'd seen with an arbitrary date of 1980 as the cutoff. I was young then, but could have been taken to a show by a parent or older relative. I did see Benny Goodman around that age. Sure, it is a bit of a stretch, but 12 is my arbitrary age.

1) Siouxsie & the Banshees around 1980. Is this the reason my arbitrary date is so early? Maybe. I never saw them, but the early stuff is my favorite. Their shows were supposed to be amazing.

2) The Talking Heads before 1986. I never did see them, though I've seen spinoff groups. Again, their early stuff is my favorite.

3) They Might be Giants any time before 1989. I've seen them a TON since then. I've probably seen more shows by them than by any other band, but I'd like to have seen one of their first shows.

4) The Soft Boys around 1980. They broke up in 1980, but they're one of my favorites. Sure, I've seen Robyn Hitchcock frequently, but it isn't the same. Heck, you could append any early Robyn Hitchcock show to this one too. Anything before say 1986.

5) Vagiant... wait, I'm seeing them Friday. Never mind.

5) Mudhoney around 1992. Piece of Cake is a great album.

Sure, there are lots of acts that vie for that last position and I may revisit this at some point, but that's where they stand today.

Should I have only listed bands I'd never seen? Early TMBG and the Soft Boys are very different from what I actually ended up seeing. Maybe the idea would be better with never seen bands only, though.

Anyway, what bands are on your list?

Comments

[artemis44.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Oooh, I saw TMBG in 1987 (maybe 88) in Austin, with the boy I semi-affectionately called "the peanut-head boy" - somebody spilled a beer on me, and we (me and peanut boy) made out a bit, then on the way home he gave me an autographed Matt Groenig book made out to "My RocketQueen", since that was his nickname for me (from the GnR song, of course, which actually wasn't that flattering, eh?)

Ah, yes... good times... :)

[artemis44.livejournal.com]

Oh, and bands on list? A quick scan comes up with the following (many before I was born/old enough to go to concerts):

1) David Bowie, preferably during the Ziggy Stardust tours, as well as the Thin White Duke

2) Laurie Anderson, mid-80s: The show I had tickets to but was cancelled due to her illness (throat issues, I believe?) Just cuz I hated giving back those tickets!

3) The Go-Gos, early 80s: Another show we had tickets to but which we couldn't go to, also for illness? We went to see The Tempest at the movies instead, and were VERY bitter when the Molly Ringwald character complained about missing what???? That's right, a GO-GO's concert!!!!!

4) Simon and Garfunkel (and a whole mess of other hippie bands/singers), late 60s-early 70s. Yes, my mom saw them all, but I didn't, and that stinks.

5) The Metallica/Guns and Roses double concert (though not the one with the violence, thank you very much)

6) Queen w/Freddie Mercury

7) Elton John before he was a caricature of himself (for me, pre-candle in the wind, the princess version, your timeline may vary)

8) U2 in the late 80s or early 90s (heck, any time really, but that'd be my first choice)

9) Melissa Etheridge, any of her first few tours (saw her once, it was a GREAT show)

10) Almost anyone else I like, as I rarely go to concerts (other than David Bowie, Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac, and of course, Depeche Mode. Oh, and Joan Jett for some reason.)

Now, concerts I wish I'd never seen:

The Victory Tour
Crystal Gayle and Eddie Rabbit (my first concert!)

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Heh, I should do one of concerts I wish I'd never seen and one of concerts I'd love to re-experience.

I did see Laurie Anderson in the mid-90s. She was awesome.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

I saw her in Northampton - I think it was the Bright Red tour. Very awesome, although there was no single moment during the show to match the first time I ever heard Laurie Anderson: 12 years old, big radio shack headphones, upstate college radio, somewhere around midnight just when I thought the station was going off the air. There was a long stretch of the near-silence that is dead radio air, and just as I was about to switch off my stereo, "From The Air" kicked in and my hair stood on end.

[head58.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this question this morning on my way in, actually. I was listening to a The The album and I said "Damn, I really wish I could have seen them live." And then I remembered - I did! D'oh! And just now I had the same thing happen with Soul Coughing! My brane is off today. Next I'll be saying "I wish I'd seen Barenaked Ladies before they hit it really big..."

Matthew Sweet, Belly, and Bob Mould are my biggies I wish I could have seen back in the day. I wish I could have seen The Smiths, but really by the time I was going to shows they'd broken up. Same for The Clash. Oh, and I know you'll mock me for this but I wish I'd seen Prince back in the day, before he became all religious and stopped doing all his raunchy stuff. And I wish I'd seen Dynamite Hack or Wheatus, but those are pretty far down on my list.

The two shows I'm so incredibly glad I did see when I had the chance were the Ramones and Too Much Joy.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Saw a fine Matthew Sweet gig in Northampton back in 94 or thereabouts.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I could swear I saw Matthew Sweet back in 1992 or 1993 at the New Ritz in NYC in a benefit concert for WFMU. He'd have been on after John Zorn and before PIL and Big Audio Dynamite II.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a hell of a show. Zorn - with the Naked City? I've a fantastic bootleg of them, where at one point he starts haranguing the crowd, You know what? Fuck this band, we quit. Oh, your dismayed faces! We got four albums in the can, and the label won't put 'em out! Fuck that!

I support your meme, by the way, and spread it. Tomorrow, the world!

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I believe it was just Zorn, solo with a horn. Some really weird shit coming off the stage.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

That's our boy. Did he bring the duck calls, too?

I saw him a few times at Tonic in the late 90's, early oughts - once directing a game of Cobra, and once performing with Frith and a couple others.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

No duck calls, but he got a better reception than Sweet did. I think that says a lot about the kind of station WFMU is.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right... Sweet's pretty mainstream for WFMU. Not like Bon Jovi playing the Knitting Factory or anything, but you know what I mean.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Well, it was right after his first album.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Do you remember if he actually had Robert Quine playing with him, or did Quine only do studio work on the album?

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I honestly didn't pay much attention to him. After Zorn, everyone started talking and hanging out. They didn't start paying attention again until Johnny Rotten started yelling at them.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

That'll do it.

Gosh I would have loved to see Quine play live. I'd have put the Voidoids in there but I was too young during the Blank Generation tour, which is when I would have wanted to see them.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm right with you on the Voidoids.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

The only live recordings of the band I've heard from that era are almost unlistenable, but you can get a vague sense of the degree to which they ripped it up.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I'll not mock you for Prince, I know how you love him and from what I understand he put on a good show.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I think I saw Matthew Sweet. I'll have to do some research to be sure. See the comment I left to maps_or_guitars

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, I opened for Belly once! They played Bogie's in Albany, and I was playing in a post-Dinosaur-jr band called Bloom. Tanya Donnelly was cuter than a bucket of puppies, I gotta say.

[head58.livejournal.com]

So. Massively. Jealous. I'm a huge fan of Tanya, but not in a stalkery way, honest!

I've seen her twice at Ft Apache in Cambridge, in a little room with about 30 or 40 people in it, so I'm happy there. But this was more recently in her more mellow solo stuff.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

I recall the show being really good, if sparsely attended. I entertained fantasies but never really even got to speak with her, she was a little standoffish...

Ft. Apache throws/threw shows? I recorded a single there with Bloom.

[head58.livejournal.com]

They did an album release party/show for her (for Beautysleep in 2002), and one benefit show. I don't think they do them regularly.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. Sounds about right.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

There ought to be a law against musicians finding Jeebus. One of my best early show experiences was Fishbone during their Truth & Soul tour, and they kicked all sorts of ass. The second time I saw them was also pretty good. But then they got all christian and started hating on the gay, and in addition to becoming that kind of repugnant they also lost any element of edge that they ever had, replacing it with suck. I saw them touring with Salt & Pepa, and it was one of the saddest displays of the lame that I have witnessed.

[head58.livejournal.com]

At some point I'm going to have to tie down David Gahan of Depeche Mode and shoot him full of heroin and make him renounce Jesus so he can start making good music again, yeah.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

That's quite an image.

***

There are a number of musicians I can rank among favorites for whom their religiosity seems to have a good effect on their music - Cash, Mangum - but wow, there are so many who it just ruins.

[mekkasimian.livejournal.com]

AWWW, MAN! FISHBONE START HATE TEH GAY?

MEK KNEW BAND WENT DOWNHILL AFTER "GIVE MONKEY BRAIN" (MEMBERS GO CRAZY AND LEAVE: "CREATIVE DIFFERENCE"), AND "CHIM CHIM BADASS REVENGE" FAR TOO BITTER FOR MEK TASTE, MEK NOT LISTEN AFTER...

BUT "REALITY MEK-SURROUNDINGS" TOUR WAS MEK ABSOLUTE BEST CONCERT EXPERIENCE (WITH PRIMUS OPEN-ACT!).

LEAVE TO CHRIST TO TURN BAND WITH ANTI-RACISM MESSAGE INTO PRO-BIGOTRY PLATFORM?

=M=

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Alas, Mek, it is true. And I found Reality etcetera to be the tipping point for that horrid change. It came out prominently in their performance of NazTee May'en as they riffed on the "Me gay? No way!" lyric. Relatively innocuous as recorded, but I recall they took it a bit far live.

Now, I saw Primus when they were touring on Suck On This, and THAT kicked all kind of ass. Hampshire Halloween. And I saw the chick that set up that show on the side of the stage during Primus' whole set. And so did Les, and I do believe he sang "Tommy the Cat" directly at her.

I rather suspect it worked.