top 10 live shows of all ti-i-ime
ok, this is kinda myspace bulletin bullshitty, but i have insomnia. in chronological order, more or less. for musical and extramusical reasons.
1) the who @ forest hills, 7.31.1971. i didn't really understand what i was seeing, but i'd listened to the who sell out obsessively for the first half of 1970, then live at leeds came out. i wasn't really sure what to make of who's next, but was happy the songs sounded harder onstage. the first time i (and my father, bless him) ever smelled marijuana.
2) clyde @ bellport high school, sometime in 1973. i don't differentiate between big rockstars and ppl i know. this was my hero-best friend-nemesis michael's band, and the night that convinced me that playing music was something i wanted to do. for good or ill.
3) a bunch of hipis playing grateful dead covers on a flatbed truck in a park in albany, new york, spring of 1975. i was walking around on a sunday afternoon, probably high on something, when i stumbled on this. while i'm not a dead fan, there must have been something about the confluence of the music, the day, and my state of mind, because i still remember the gig 32 yrs later.
4) marchel ivery quartet w/red garland and guest appearance by the moffett family of fort worth @ the recovery room, lemmon ave., dallas, summer of 1978. it's surprising how many of the shows on this list date from the period right after i moved to texas. in retrospect, it seems like a science fiction night: seeing the pianist from miles' '50s quintet _and_ the fiery sons of ornette's '60s drummer charles moffett in a club for a coupla bucks.
5) john cale @ mother blues on lemmon ave. in dallas, late 1978/early 1979. this was the first time i ever got to see a muso i admired from records up close in a club (i'd seen muddy waters, john lee hooker, and captain beefheart at my father's place on long island, but that was really more like a concert venue). i was the asshole yelling for "waiting for the man" _all night long_.
6) peter tosh @ the palladium on northwest highway in dallas, 1979. a really transcendent night of music. especially when he finished singing "african" and asked the audience of metroplex rolling stones fans "is reggae music not a great music?" and they responded by going apeshit (in a good way). of course, this was back when folks were a little more receptive to stuff that wasn't already familiar than they are now.
7) the clash @ the palladium in dallas, 1979. i had moved to austin and was about to move again, this time to colorado. i had seen the clash at armadillo world headquarters the night before and driven up to dallas the following night. when i walked in, the first thing i saw was my friend charles and his future wife running out holding their ears, and i said to myself, "this is going to be _really good_." it was: they were the most exciting live band i've ever seen, still.
8) broooce springsteen @ the austin convention center, 1980. my first "date" with my future ex-wife. my driver's license was suspended, so i invited her to go to austin with me to see the show..._on the bus_. she did. for some reason, i thought it'd be a good idea to introduce her to the woman i'd lived with for awhile down there. it wasn't. also on that trip, i found a canadian stooges compilation to replace the copy of funhouse that my best friend from middle school had puked gin all over while it was on my record player. (all of their records were still cut-out back then.) broooce really "proved it all night," too -- played for about three hours; the energy never let up. it's not his fault that i can't stand to listen to any of his records.
9) doug sahm and angela strehli @ a strip joint in abilene ca. 1988. i was in the air force and hadn't really seen any live music in awhile, but when this show came to town, i remembered seeing sir doug at soap creek saloon during my brief stay in austin and convinced my next door neighbor/best buddy to go with me. it was in a strip joint because it was the only place in abilene that had a stage and a p.a. system and wasn't a church.
10) scott morgan's powertrane with deniz tek and ron asheton @ the blind pig in ann arbor, michigan, august 2002. see link in earlier post to my i-94 bar rant on thisun. so good that i didn't even care when i got shitcanned from my job a week later -- the post-gig euphoria was _that_ persistent. and i had just bought a new car, too (so being out of work was really _a problem_).
1) the who @ forest hills, 7.31.1971. i didn't really understand what i was seeing, but i'd listened to the who sell out obsessively for the first half of 1970, then live at leeds came out. i wasn't really sure what to make of who's next, but was happy the songs sounded harder onstage. the first time i (and my father, bless him) ever smelled marijuana.
2) clyde @ bellport high school, sometime in 1973. i don't differentiate between big rockstars and ppl i know. this was my hero-best friend-nemesis michael's band, and the night that convinced me that playing music was something i wanted to do. for good or ill.
3) a bunch of hipis playing grateful dead covers on a flatbed truck in a park in albany, new york, spring of 1975. i was walking around on a sunday afternoon, probably high on something, when i stumbled on this. while i'm not a dead fan, there must have been something about the confluence of the music, the day, and my state of mind, because i still remember the gig 32 yrs later.
4) marchel ivery quartet w/red garland and guest appearance by the moffett family of fort worth @ the recovery room, lemmon ave., dallas, summer of 1978. it's surprising how many of the shows on this list date from the period right after i moved to texas. in retrospect, it seems like a science fiction night: seeing the pianist from miles' '50s quintet _and_ the fiery sons of ornette's '60s drummer charles moffett in a club for a coupla bucks.
5) john cale @ mother blues on lemmon ave. in dallas, late 1978/early 1979. this was the first time i ever got to see a muso i admired from records up close in a club (i'd seen muddy waters, john lee hooker, and captain beefheart at my father's place on long island, but that was really more like a concert venue). i was the asshole yelling for "waiting for the man" _all night long_.
6) peter tosh @ the palladium on northwest highway in dallas, 1979. a really transcendent night of music. especially when he finished singing "african" and asked the audience of metroplex rolling stones fans "is reggae music not a great music?" and they responded by going apeshit (in a good way). of course, this was back when folks were a little more receptive to stuff that wasn't already familiar than they are now.
7) the clash @ the palladium in dallas, 1979. i had moved to austin and was about to move again, this time to colorado. i had seen the clash at armadillo world headquarters the night before and driven up to dallas the following night. when i walked in, the first thing i saw was my friend charles and his future wife running out holding their ears, and i said to myself, "this is going to be _really good_." it was: they were the most exciting live band i've ever seen, still.
8) broooce springsteen @ the austin convention center, 1980. my first "date" with my future ex-wife. my driver's license was suspended, so i invited her to go to austin with me to see the show..._on the bus_. she did. for some reason, i thought it'd be a good idea to introduce her to the woman i'd lived with for awhile down there. it wasn't. also on that trip, i found a canadian stooges compilation to replace the copy of funhouse that my best friend from middle school had puked gin all over while it was on my record player. (all of their records were still cut-out back then.) broooce really "proved it all night," too -- played for about three hours; the energy never let up. it's not his fault that i can't stand to listen to any of his records.
9) doug sahm and angela strehli @ a strip joint in abilene ca. 1988. i was in the air force and hadn't really seen any live music in awhile, but when this show came to town, i remembered seeing sir doug at soap creek saloon during my brief stay in austin and convinced my next door neighbor/best buddy to go with me. it was in a strip joint because it was the only place in abilene that had a stage and a p.a. system and wasn't a church.
10) scott morgan's powertrane with deniz tek and ron asheton @ the blind pig in ann arbor, michigan, august 2002. see link in earlier post to my i-94 bar rant on thisun. so good that i didn't even care when i got shitcanned from my job a week later -- the post-gig euphoria was _that_ persistent. and i had just bought a new car, too (so being out of work was really _a problem_).
posted by stashdauber at 9:36 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, a John Cale concert can be transcendant. My friends and I used to see him frequently at The Rat in Boston back in the mid-70's. One night he did such an amazingly dark version of "Heartbreak Hotel" that I turned to my friend and said, "How can he end this? I think he's going to rip his own head off with his bare hands." We still talk about that show 30+ years later.
Post a Comment
<< Home