Besides Vegoose, I saw Jimmy Buffet once at MGM in Vegas. I’ve never seen people so drunk in my life. We floated on the lazy river all day drinking daiquiris. After talking to the bartenders and tipping well they started filling up the big straws of their firecracker daiquiri and overpouring the straws with 151. Great day.
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I love concerts. Music is one of my favorite things in life, and a great live show is probably one of the best ways to experience it, imo.
My Concert Circle of Life:
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I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so no national acts were coming through town. I would hear about these cool mythical venues on the radio, but never got to go.
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Junior and Senior year of high school, my parents occassionally started letting me go to a few shows in the big city as long as it wasn’t a school night. Most of the shows I wanted to go to were 21+, and I didn’t have a fake ID, so I still didn’t go often, but occassionally I’d find an all ages show or a summer festival and get to rage out. This was the peak of 90’s alternative, so we’re talking bands like No Doubt, The Cranberries, STP, Live (if you ever get a chance to see Lighting Crashes played outdoors in a rainstorm to 50,000 people, I highly recommend), Luscious Jackson, Soul Coughing, Ben Folds Five, etc.
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Move to DC, basically make a standing appointment for every show coming through the 9:30 Club or The Black Cat. Am cool enough to know the bands and feel like I belong there.
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Move to Hawaii, realize that many tours do not visit Hawaii. Have a sad.
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Move back to DC. No longer cool enough for most of the shows at the 9:30 Club. Don’t go to as many shows. Wait a few years. Most of the bands you liked in the 90’s go on reunion tours and play the 9:30 Club. You feel cool again.
The End
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This thread is giving me the sads
So many great concerts 2020
Then covid. It’s now been 10 months.
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My wife and I like being the olds at younger concerts like the 1975 and joywave and sir sly
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I realized in my previous post that I didn’t even mention shows I saw in Cincinnati. Those tended to be bigger rock and pop names. Nothing overly memorable, except seeing Jimmy Buffett in Cincinnati was a yearly ritual. He’d sell out 5 shows in a row at our largest concert venue. Something about wanting to be anywhere but Ohio coupled with the opening line to “Fins” made Cincinnati one of his biggest fan bases.
Caught the Afghan Whigs several times at clubs around the city, mostly Bogart’s, which was and probably still is the best smaller live music venue in the city.
I never really had the right friends to go to concerts with when I was younger. Or maybe any friends. Combined with being frugal and not having much money to spend on non-essential stuff, I didn’t go to many concerts.
I remember one time going to see an act at a small venue, really more like a bar with standing room only. The music I listen to tends to be from acts which have graduated from such places, having succeeded enough to get some airplay, though I tend to explore deeper cuts, including before–and sometimes after–their period of mainstream relevance.
I took the light rail by myself out to the entertainment district, to a place whose name I don’t remember. It was a smoky room and it might have been before I was drinking. (I was 22 when I had my first drink.) I must have been at least 21 to get in there, but it was a nervous experience, not knowing what to expect, not knowing what kind of people would be there.
The opening act was an unlikely combination: a blind, black soul singer and some white guys who apparently recruited him after hearing him through a window. They were called Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise. They didn’t have huge success, although Wikipedia tells me that Bradley appeared in the HBO TV movie Lackawanna Blues, for which S. Epatha Merkerson won an Emmy. (Never seen it, but wow is the cast filled with “actors I recognize”.)
I’m sad that I never got a CD of their music. My memory is that it was a highly energetic set. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had been less self-conscious, not sure if I was sticking out as someone who was ripe for being mugged after the show.
The headliner was a minor jam band called God Street Wine. My brother was big into the Grateful Dead and Phish. I think I was jealous that he had a musical identity. Not wanting to copy him, I did my research and decided I would find some other jam band to be a fan of. I settled on GSW for I don’t know what reason. Maybe because my brother didn’t know them.
(I’ve only met one other person who had even heard of God Street Wine. He got on the university programming board for the sole purpose of trying to get the school to pay for them to come in. I saw Cracker and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, skipped Coolio. Saw Norm MacDonald when they brought in a comedian. I can’t remember if I missed anything else.)
They were okay, as I remember. They felt too loud and not what I really wanted in a live concert experience. I hate when I can’t understand the lyrics because of the heaviness of the guitar. There was one song with an extended instrumental, which served as a break for the lead singer as he used the restroom, got a beer, and hit on some woman in the crowd. I don’t remember which songs they played, but I remember that.
Overall, I was happy with the experience in that I didn’t regret going, but it was not enough to turn me into someone who goes to concerts on a regular basis. In fact, I’m pretty sure I decided I probably didn’t want to be going to shows without actual, physical seats. I’m not really the sort of person who wants to be standing the entire concert rocking out. I’d rather sit through the whole damn thing, politely clap after each song, and get on my feet for the finale and encore. Which probably limits the acts I want to see.
I think the only other band I ever saw in a similar-sized venue was a group called the Ass Ponys, which skydiver might recognize as a Cincinnati-area band. Couldn’t tell you much about that show, either.
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Wait how old are you? I want to go to those too! A few years back my 30-year old (then) wife went to a Walk the Moon concert with a friend and his teenage daughter and said she felt OLD.
I was not into music or concerts when I was in high school and basically just listened to mainstream hip hop (see my walrus for reference), but when I went to college my brother and roommate simultaneously got me into alternative style music. My brother was into more emo stuff like Saves the Day, Rufio, and Taking Back Sunday while my roommate showed me bands like Pennywise, Bad Religion, Lagwagon and Less than Jake. Since I went to college at NYU, I ended up seeing pretty much every band I was into, either at an NYC venue, Warped Tour, or my personal favorite, Birch Hill in New Jersey right near my home town, the most perfectly designed “small venue” I ever set foot in. I’m not going to do it justice trying to describe it but it had three “levels”, the bottom of which was the mosh pit and the top two where you could walk between the entrance area and the outside. The bands would sometimes hang in or around with the crowd iirc. Probably only saw 3-4 shows there but each one had multiple bands that I wanted to see.
Trying to come up with “best show I ever saw” and drawing a blank. Fortunately most of them were great, I can only remember a couple of shows that didn’t meet expectations. Saw the Lumineers when you could still see them in a relatively small venue and they were really excellent, I wasn’t even into them and my wife had dragged me along, glad I ended up going. Actually, we might be too old for concerts because we’ve left early from all the ones we attended recently, either to beat the rush or to get away from an obnoxious crowd. It’s been a while now but I had a panic attack when we went to the Railroad Revival Tour (Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) because it was so crowded close to the stage. That did end up being a lot of fun once we retreated back to where I could breath, though.
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Early 40s
When walk the moon came out the shut up and dance with me was Uber annoying
When the second disc came out (second to me do not know how many they have)
One foot in front of the Other and kamikaze. I was like. Alright
Then we saw them open for muse
They played Surrender. All else is forgiven
I’m the biggest the 1975 fanboy and they recently won band of the decade in England. They are the best band in the world right now.
Foals is another band from England and they just melt faces. So fucking good live
We really like cage the elephant, joywave, sir sly, atlas genius, and bleachers
For huge bands, Tool and Radiohead put on a master class ever time
Anyway. Miss concerts a lot. Lot lot.
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The Black Cat
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Peak lesbian cliche Nit was 25 year old me doing spoken word open mics in the back room there before spending the rest of the night drinking whiskey, bogarting the jukebox and hitting on women who were way out of my league… Love that spot.
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I grew up just outside Philadelphia and got addicted to concerts at an early age. I’ve seen close to 70 major artists from Madonna to Slayer. Second concert ever was Live Aid in 85’ when I was twelve. They didn’t announce tickets going on sale until the day they were actually available. My mom heard they were on sale, took off from work and got me to go get tickets at the local department store.
I woke up early for the concert, really wanted to see The Hooters who were opening. Mom wasn’t having it and slept in as I had to watch the start of the concert on TV. We finally got to the stadium around noon. Seats in the stands were decent, but I wanted to get as close as possible. As a small twelve year old, it was easy to get on the field and move towards the stage. That was helped by the fact that it was a long hot day and many on the field were lying down, exhausted from the heat. I was able to get within ten yards from the stage to see Kenny Loggins and Madonna. I was paying for waking up early that day by the end of the concert. During Mick Jagger and Tina Turner I was bugging my mom to go home, although thier perfomance of Dancing in the Streets still sticks in my mind.
Went to every major concert I could from that point till the late 90’s. I snuck into every concert at Veterans stadium from 86’ on. The Who, Gilmore’s Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Madonna, Genasis. Actually worked setting up and tearing down the floor seats for David Bowies Glass Spider tour. During his soundcheck, one of my friends asked Bowie if he could borrow his lighter. He threw him the lighter to him from the stage after confirming he wasn’t going to keep it as a souvenir. Bowie was super cool. It was also cool to see them tear the stage down after the show. They had most of a massive stage cleared by the time we had the chairs on the field folded and stacked.
Saw The Flaming Lips open for Candlebox right when She Dont Use Jelly was getting air time, didn’t know anything about them other than the one song. I’m often ambivalent about opening acts I dont know, but they became my favorite band about thirty second from hitting the stage. Ton of energy and x-mas lights everywhere.
Flaming Lips were also the oddest concert experience. They headlined a small 800 seat theater, the Tracadero, a few months after opening for Candlebox. I had to see that and decided to drop acid to enhance the experience. They were apparently huge in California at the time, but that enthusiasm had not made it to the East coast yet. I didn’t get an exact count of how many fans were in attendance, but I easily could have if I tried. I would be surprised if there were fifty people in the building, including the band and venue employees. During the show I could walk right up and be front row center without invading anyones personal space. It would have been surreal sober, acid kicked that into a “am I really at a concert?” sort of feeling. I felt more comfortable in the shadows off to the side rather than stand front and center on a mostly empty theater floor. The band was obviously not happy with the turnout and the vibe of the show lacked the energy of the opening Candlebox performance from a few months prior. It was obvious they were not doing an encore when they walked off stage at the end.
Favorite concert, Roger Waters “The Wall” tour. Saw it three times. Have tickets to his most recent tour and was looking forward to the Trump bashing I’m sure was coming, but Covid. I think it is currently rescheduled for the end of the summer. Not getting my hope’s up we can safely have 20k in a building together at that point.
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My favorite songs by them are the first two I ever heard, Tightrope and Anna Sun, although I’ve enjoyed most of their stuff that’s come out even if it’s become a little more saccharine IMO.
They’re my favorite current band as well, not sure who else is even close in terms of “number of high quality songs put out.”
Wow I was reading too quickly and missed these shoutouts from BigOlNit. Black Cat was my buddy’s jam, not sure I ever saw a show there but we used to go for the Mod nights and DJs.
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Can confirm the flaming lips are weird as fuck
In a fun way
As for the 1975
It’s just one amazing song after another. For 4 cds.
I don’t know how they do it.
Since living in California, I’ve seen some great shows.
The Cure - Amazing show. Saw them here in San Diego at our big outdoor venue. They played a 30 song set, then a 4-song encore. The only reason they stopped was because of noise restrictions kicking in. It was insane.
Duran Duran/Chic with Nile Rogers. Same venue as The Cure, later in the summer. Also a great show. Chic was incredibly fun, and did exactly what an opening act was supposed to: get everyone hyped for the main event. Nile Rogers came out and sang with Duran Duran on the couple of tracks he produced for them (Notorious being the biggest hit)
Billy Joel at Petco Park. I mean, what can you say, the guy’s still got it. Best bit was he and his band did “Longest Time” live, which they don’t do very often because it’s a capella and not easy. Sorry for the shitty pic, but I really like how they set it up for the concert, with the city as the backdrop. was a great night
Now, I had seen U2 at Clemson University Stadium back in '97 when they were on their Pop Mart tour. It was full of bells and whistles and gimmicks and a giant yellow arch across the stage. I really loved it, but the minute they announced the Joshua Tree 30th Anniversary tour, I spent more on concert tickets than I had ever done before. I mean, it was the seminal album of my youth. I had to go. They hadn’t announced the San Diego stop yet, so we went up to the Rose Bowl to see it.
Worth. Every. Penny. Legitimately the best concert I’ve ever been to, and I haven’t even talked about all the Humphrey’s shows yet. They had the big video screen backdrop, but there were no gimmicks, no weird set pieces. Just four guys doing the best music of their career (the newest thing they sang was Beautiful Day, I think). I think you can find it on youtube if you missed it. The entire album is still so relevant (even moreso, maybe, which is why they did this tour in the first place) “Exit” live is something else entirely, and they turned “Ultraviolet” (from Achtung, Baby) into an epic anthem for women’s’ rights. Pic is from the intro to Where the Streets Have No Name.
OK, last but not least…Humphrey’s. So, in San Diego we have this epic small venue that’s outdoors, on the water. 1500 seats, but if you have the wherewithal, you can paddle your kayak right up beside and hear the concerts for free. Can’t see too much, but that’s ok. We’ve seen some great shows as boat people. Echo and the Bunnymen, Big Head Todd, Simple Minds, Tears for Fears, Chris Isaak, and amazingly, Jimmy Buffett.
Recall I said I’ve seen Jimmy many times, all in huge venues. This was altogether different. He talked more, told more stories (and he’s a great storyteller, btw…do read “A Pirate Looks At 50” if you haven’t), and sang more of his “quieter” songs. Obviously, the show sold out in like, 2 minutes, so we joined the boat party. Couldn’t see a damned thing, but we had our own margaritas and lots of friends to party with. Yes, that’s a “woody” boat. The stage is to the left out of frame.
One final note: Even if you aren’t a huge fan, do try to catch Chris Isaak in concert at least once in your life. He is a spectacular performer, and you will not be disappointed. And he has amazing suits 
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i think I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I spent a short time booking bands when I was at college, and one of the bands I booked was U2, i think on their first UK tour. It was way before they were mega- I think Boy was just about to be released. Spent a pleasant afternoon in the college bar with them
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Saw a bunch of concerts when I was young and living in Holland. Basically all the big names that played in the Feyenoord stadium. U2, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince to name some of the top of my head. Was a huge Prince fan in those days and went to all his concerts even travelling abroad once to see the official recording of Sign o the Times. I would even go to bands I didn’t even like that much because I just love the atmosphere at a live concert and had connections so never had to queue for tickets for concerts that were held in the stadium. U2 and Prince were great. Michael Jackson had an amazing show and Madonna was very disappointing. Had a period where I went to a lot of small Jazz and Blues shows in Amsterdam and also plenty of EDM concerts and festivals although those last ones I don’t have that many memories of because of too many drugs. Best concert I have been to was the first time I saw Prince live in 1986 in Ahoy in Rotterdam. Powderfinger and The Cat Empire were great shows I saw in Sydney.
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Probably my two biggest concert regrets I have is never seeing Prince live, and never seeing David Bowie. 
I don’t even have any excuses, I just…never did.
We have some really great small venues/clubs in San Diego. I miss live music.
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I managed to see bone thugs n harmony right before the lockdown. It was a blast. The opening act had his weed guy come out on stage, set up a table, started rolling joints on stage, then tossed them into the crowd. It was at a casino so after the show when my wife went to sleep I cleaned up at the poker room.
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Prince was my first concert ever. It was an arena show but I don’t remember the exact venue or date but it had to be over 30 years ago. My aunt took me and my younger sister. Sheila E opened which I remember more of than Prince. Only time I ever saw him live.
When my wife was pregnant with my daughter, we went to San Diego and they were playing in a random bar the night we got there. Unfortunately we waffled and ended up not going, which is basically always a mistake although we probably had good reasons, namely pregnant wife not wanting to be up late in a bar…didn’t even consider that they’d be giving out weed.