I used to be a big concert goer. My very first one was in 1979 in Bakersfield, Ca. I went to see Foghat. I had a blast. I also got to go to a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert in Dallas, Tx. It was an outdoor concert and it started to rain and he kept on jamming. I ended up leaving my sneakers in a oasis of mud. I have gone to quite a few. A friend and I were talking about old times and this came up. I have also gone to several Texas Jams which had several bands play. I saw Rush about six times that way..one of my favorite bands at the time. I saw Ozzy at one of them ..that was memorable because he passed out beer and used a fire hose on the crowd. I saw Pat Benatar and Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, Slayer and so many more..I endured sunburn on my scalp down to the tops of my toes. What concerts have you been to and who goes to them now? I am 44 and haven't been to one in 17 years.
March 5 I'm seeing Todd Snider at the Surf Ballroom for the second time (I interviewed him this morning over the phone for an article in the local paper), and March 6 I'm going to see the mighty Guitar Wolf in Chicago. April 10 marks the fourth Strapping Young Lad concert I've seen. I haven't been to a show for a while, and suddenly three of them pop up inside two months. Other shows I've seen:
EDIT: Odinn reminded me of a few others that I forgot:
Napalm Death
Nile
Dark Tranquillity
Dimmu Borgir
Nevermore
p**sing Razors
Rollins Band
Mother Superior
Wayne Kramer
Tanglefoot (4 times)
Dog Fashion Disco (3 times)
Type O Negative
Lacuna Coil
Soilwork
In Flames
Shadows Fall
God Forbid
High On Fire
Society 1
Tool
A Perfect Circle
Meshuggah
Rob Zombie (2 times)
Ozzy
Mudvayne
Exodus
Prong
Jerry Cantrell
Monster Magnet
The Cult
Samael
Cathedral
Snake River Conspiracy
Superjoint Ritual
Devil Driver
Anthrax
Slayer
Soulfly
Post Edited (02-25-05 12:25)
How was Jerry Cantrell's show? I missed the Alice in Chains generation by a few years (I was 10 or so at their prime in the mid-90's) and now that Lane Staley's dead, Cantrell is the next best thing I guess. He seems like a technical and rhythm based guitarist.
I've seen:
"Weird Al" Yankovic
The Faint
The Dresden Dolls
The Dead
and countless unknown local bands.
Not much, but at school in the western mountains of North Carolina, there aren't a lot of bands that just pop in the area. Although, Smilefest is nearby, and that features a lot of prominent bluegrass and hippies.
I also got to see Gallagher smash fruit at one of his comedy shows. He's still pretty funny considering he hasn't exactly aged like a fine wine.
Scott H.
Cantrell was great. At one point, a stage hand came out and stuck sparklers all over the instruments. Sort of an understated pyro show.
When it comes to music I'm a bit ecclectic, which is the case with my concert going as well:
Isle Of Q
UPO
Nickleback
Sevendust
Seven Mary Three
Jerry Cantrell (This was a few years ago when we still had a local venue)
Jettingham
Widespread Panic
Fear Factory
Mushroomhead
Lacuna Coil - Bro R, good to know someone else who has seen them
Far From Nowhere
Nonpoint
Slipknot
Edwin McCain - Wife forcing
There are many more that I can't think of right off the top of my head. We used to have a sweet venue right on the beach here in NC but it closed down about a year ago. Now about the best place to go is the House Of Blues in Myrtle Beach SC about 3 hrs away.
> Lacuna Coil - Bro R, good to know someone else who has seen
> them
Did they bore the hell out of you too? I mean, Christina is nice eye-candy, but that only goes so far. Best bands I've ever seen live are Tanglefoot, Dog Fashion Disco, Strapping Young Lad, and Napalm Death.
I hear Weird Al Really gives a show to the audience
How's Dresden Dolls? like I heard them on myspace and thought i stumbled some new indie band and turns out like everyone and there mom knows of them.
Never been to a real stadium concert. Actually, my first REAL concert will be next month, when the Eagles play the Air Canada Centre.
I used to see all my live music at a local nightclub, Lulu's Roadhouse, that booked in a lot of reasonably big rock and country acts from the 70s and 80s, mostly Canadian. Huge place, made out of a converted K-Mart. I believe they claimed to have the longest bar in the world.
Some of the better bands I saw there in the early 90s were April Wine (there practically every couple of months), Doug and the Slugs, Trooper, Stompin' Tom Connors, the Jitters, and a few others that escape me right now. The bands, with the exception of Stompin' Tom who was enjoying a resurgence, were on the declining side of their careers, but I was into their music at that time, so it was perfect.
Sadly, the place closed down a few years back. The city's big concert hall then tried booking the same acts for a while. It just isn't the same watching Styx in a hall built for the symphony.
I saw Metallica numerous times on their Black and Summer s**t tours...of course this is before they became sell-out b***hes. I have a Metallica tattoo on my arm from the Kill 'Em All album cover, now I just feel like cutting it off to get rid of it so I don't have people thinking that I still like those pussies.
Saw Pantera back in '96 along with White Zombie...I went there to see Pantera but the show that Zombie put on blew me away, it was nothing short of awesome, while at the same time the Pantera show sucked. Phil would stop in between every song to preach crap to us that nobody wanted to hear. They played like 90 minutes and only did maybe 12 songs.
Also saw AC/DC a few times...can't beat Angus and his antics.
I consider myself too old to attend concerts these days for the music that I like. Unfortunately I never could get to see a Slayer show. Slayer is awesome and I've seen concert footage of them and just wish that I could have seen them live. None of the people I hung around with would listen to Slayer so I was never able to get anyone to go with me.
Of course, there are the few concerts that I was dragged to that I would rather forget (keep in mind my taste of music as briefly covered above):
John Fogerty (however it's spelled)
Bonnie Rait
Bonnie Tyler
Heart
Weird Al had a little catch to it that made it a difficult concert to participate in. We all had seats. There was no front stage area for dancing (if dancing is appropriate for Weird Al) and everyone was sitting through the whole thing. Also, there were numerous kids attending the show, many of whom were brought by their parents, and, that put a damper on the occassion.
Dresden Dolls were a great show. I saw them at a place called Cat's Cradle in Carrborro, NC (next to Chapel Hill and UNC Tarheels). The stage is two feet off the ground with no bufer zone. Up close and personal is a good way to describe that concert. Both performers (yes, just the two of them) are characters. Amanda (piano and vocal) wears horizontal stripe black and white leg stockings, powdered white face and black shirt. She's out there, but always in the music. The drummer (Brian) wears white face paint and a bowler. He's very expressive with his face.... fun to watch during the show. They did most of their self-titled album songs, one called "Port of Amsterdam" with a guitar and vocal, and a kick ass cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" They said they would play the song every show until the election..... and hopefully they wouldn't have to afterward. An energetic and emotional show. Listen for the song Girl Anachronism and Bad Habit.
Scott H.
I got to thinking about some of the early stuff I went to. In Dallas there was a bar called "Matley's Phase 2" I saw Pantera there when David Peacock was with them. I also saw Dokken and that was a pretty kick ass show. I saw Steppenwolf at a place called the "Lone Star Ballroom". Also I was into some local talent at the time..a couple of bands that were damn good but didnt go anywhere cause they developed some nasty drug habits. First was a band named "Loud" out of Tulsa , Ok. They played alot of Judas Priest stuff and Blue Oyster Cult. They also had some original songs that were good. Then there was "Sweet Savage" I only saw them five times but they had potential as well.
Just an afterthought: Sweet Savage is not a local band. (Dallas) they were playing in town the same time I saw Loud. As I recall Loud opened for Sweet Savage at Matleys.
I haven't been to a concert in at least ten years. Used to go to a few of them in Minneapolis. The best was Stevie Ray Vaughn, we saw him just a couple months before he was killed. Blue Oyster Cult played at a bar we went to, that was a fantastic show. We were about 3 feet from the stage. Metallica was pretty good, and through the binoculars I could tell who was who. Also saw Ronnie Dio, pretty good. Deep Purple on their Perfect Strangers tour was good, they had green laser beams that were impressive. Ritchie Blackmore broke a guitar in half.
Also saw the Cult, the singer was swearing at everybody for not paying attention to them (they were warming up for somebody). Bad Company was awful. I've seen better bar bands. I think we saw Megadeth warming up for Metallica. The guitarist was playing through a distortion pedal, then he turned on a second distortion pedal and it sounded like crinkling aluminum foil.
That's about all I can remember.
I've been to a bunch of shows, so I'll just name the more well known bands.
The Exploited
G.B.H.
Chaos U.K.
Slayer
Final Conflict (over twenty times)
Megadeth
The Vandals
Guttermouth
Whitesnake (won tickets)
D.R.I.
D.I.
Fear
Subhumans
Stabbing Westward
Gwar
The Angry Samoans
Wow am I feeling foolish and mainstream. I feel I have seen a lot of concerts in 21 years but can hardly put a finger on any of the bands you all have named.
My first concert at 7 years of age was Michael Jackson, and no I wasn't invited backstage, c'est lavie....
Then my father took me against my mother's will to see Duran Duran and later in RFK stadium Pink Floyd whow was absolutely amazing. Im one of the first kids I know where the first time I came into contact with pot was in 6th grade, granted I didnt smoke...
Recently I have seen:
Goo Goo Dolls ( but the lead singer was hit in the face with a shoe after three songs so it was a short concert once he flicked us off and left the stage)
3 Doors Down
Third Eye Blind
Saliva
Bruce Springsteen (Worst... Concert... Ever)
Queens of the Stone Age (Alas without Dave Grohl)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
New Found Glory
Black Eyed Peas
Rahzell
Maroon 5
Less Than Jake (also pretty awful)
Green Day (this is the first concert that there were hardly any people below my age there, I felt soooo bad and old)
And now I am being dragged to see Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World, yuk...
The only bands I have a burning desire to see now is Franz Ferdinand, Michelle Branch, Linkin Park, Seether, Staind, and System of a Down....
Mr. Hockstatter wrote:
> Blue Oyster Cult played at a bar we went to, that was a
> fantastic show. We were about 3 feet from the stage.
Was there enough cowbell?
AndyC,
You know, the same thing occured to me when I read that post.....
Blue Oyster Cult apparently had an agent who lived in Virginia in the '70's, thus almost every single touring band that came through the Delaware, Virginia, Maryland axis, otherwise known as Delmarva, had them as their opening act.
I saw Blue Oyster Cult open for Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, J. Geils Band, Rare Earth, 10 Years After, and others I forget. I became a fan. I would go to shows by people I'd never heard of just to see Oyster Cult open for them.
I saw a lot of the classic acts of the day, some in multiple incarnations. Bands of my youth & approximate number of times seen, leaving out the ones mentioned above:
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention -- 6 times
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band -- once
Steppenwolf -- 3 times
Jefferson Airplane & Jefferson Starship -- 6 times
Allman Brothers -- twice
Grateful Dead -- 4 times. I never got The Dead. Kept going because all my friends loved them. Still don't get them.
Todd Rundgren -- 1 time. Loudest show ever.
Bruce Springsteen -- once. I agree: Worst show ever.
Doobie Brothers -- once.
Firesign Theatre -- twice. Yeah, yeah, I know - not technically a band.
Sly and The Family Stone -- once
Joni Mitchell -- once
Santana -- once
I've left out a lot, I know, but these are the ones that stick with me, because I was lucky enough to see them either at the height of their creative powers, or as examples of extreme awfulness. Now, as far as more modern fare goes:
Yonder Mountain String Band -- dozens. Appear on one of their boot CDs.
Big Head Todd and The Monsters -- dozens. Used to be the bar band/house band at a bar in Boulder called JJ McCabe's, since closed.
Project Object -- dozens.
Leftover Salmon -- dozens. See Big Head Todd. It pays to live in/near Boulder.
King Crimson -- 4 times. This one should be in the "old" column, but I only ever saw them live in the '90's/'00's
Music be good --
peter johnson/denny crane
Glad you agree with me on Bruce....
But I have a fever...
And the only perscription is...
more cowbell!
Greatest SNL skit ever.
Cowbell good . . .
I left out some other shows:
Tom Waits -- twice
Lou Reed -- just once, but one of the best damn things I've ever seen -- ever . . .
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper!!
Slim Cessna's Auto Club -- at least 7 times -- maybe more.
Judy Collins
Gary Neuman
Bonny Raitt
Muddy Waters with Pinetop Perkins -- God was good to me that day . . .
Gentle Giant with Peter Frampton -- very strange . . .
The Who
Jethro Tull -- twice
Little Johnny Cougar -- what the now-named "John Mellencamp" used to go by. He sucked then, too . . .
Starcastle! -- one of the single cheesiest bands ever. They were an imitation Yes band that released 2 albums on Epic in the '70's, at the height of Yes's popularity. They sounded more like Yes than Yes did!! Really blew . . .
Bobby Womack
peter johnson/denny crane
One of the best shows I've been to was the Red Elvises (of Six String Samurai fame) at TT the Bear's in Cambridge, MA. They are absolutely insane, and even better when you see them in a small venue like TT's, where they're right in your face.
Some others I've seen, in no order other than when they occur to me...
The Cramps
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Iggy Pop and the surviving Stooges, in a local record store the night of their latest CD release
Neil Innes (of the Bonzo Dog Band, the Rutles, and sometimes Monty Python)
Eric Idle
Presidents of the United States of America
The Eels
Thoth (bonus points if you know who this is)
BJ Snowden (ditto)
BB King
The Who (post-Entwistle, sadly)
The Strokes
The Sounds
Wille "Loco" Alexander & the Boom Boom Band/Unnatural Axe/Nervous Eaters (awesome, criminally obscure Boston punk bands from the 70s)
The Arrogant Worms
Jim's Big Ego (several times)
Ronnie Earl & Bruce Katz
Mark Hosler (of Negativland, though he was speaking rather than playing)
Cyrus Chestnut
...That's all I can think of for now, though there may be others.
I'm a big Christian Music fan and have been to a few fests so I've got a list of those bands...so I'm not gonna post that but besides them...
Steve Miller
George Thurgood
Fenix TX
And I go to all the local shows here so there's a bunch of local bands I've seen
(I'd rather not spend too much money on concerts when Christian shows and local shows are basically $5-$20 and I'm a starving college student)
Vermin:
I forgot Neil Innes!! Me too --
I know who Thoth is -- they play him semi-frequently out here on KVCU radio 1190am -- they also internet stream, so worth tuning in --
He's weeeiiirrrddd!! Not that there's anything wrong with that . . . Didn't know he did live shows -- I thought he just lived in his Mom's basement & sent out these odd recordings to an adoring public.
I thought I & my poli-sci friend in Washington DC were the only people outside of Canada who knew who The Arrogant Worms were/are! C'est Cheese!! I'm gonna kill the dog next door . . .
Don't know BJ Snowden, so lose my bonus points . . .
I also saw The Steve Miller Band, once upon a time . . .
peter johnson/denny crane
Yeah, Thoth regularly performs in Central Park; I caught him on his first (and, to my knowledge, only) Boston area gig, at the Coolidge Corner Theater. If you've never seen a picture of him, or footage, I highly recommend it-- He wears a loincloth and headdress, dancing frenetically and wailing on his violin. You can check out his website (http://www.skthoth.com) for all the info you need; I also recommend the short documentary on him (which won a freakin' Oscar!). Seeing him in person was incredible; he literally ran up and down the aisles screaming during the climax of the show, and I got him to "autograph" a copy of his FAQ pamphlet (his signature is actually a bizarre series of symbols drawn with both hands at once).
BJ Snowden is a former Boston-area elementary school music teacher who sings off-key but endearing songs about Canada, her family, and other subjects. Very goofy, but she consistently sells out to crowds of jaded hipsters; Fred Schneider of the B-52s is an especially vocal fan. Check out her website at http://www.bjsnowdenmusic.com; her "In Canada" is an outsider classic not to be missed!
And yeah, the Arrogant Worms are amazing; I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw they were playing. Saw them at Club Passim, incidentally-- the old stomping grounds of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, et al.