Looking for Superchunk videos reminded me of what was probably the most enjoyable show I’ve ever seen, the Superchunk/Polvo bill at Tucson’s Downtown Performance Center in 1994. I’m sure what I think to be a respectable list of shows I’ve seen will be trumped by some of you, but feel free to take a moment to use the comment section to regale us with your personal “best show ever.” Keep in mind, however, that God will know if you are lying.
tell me something good
Get Your Brag On: Name Your Best Concert Experience
Categories:
tell me something good
tell me something good
@thearcanemodel: i actually have a poster i snagged from this show (and took with me to several dorms and apartments) framed in my bedroom. because i am a dork with a contrarian attitude towards home decor.
@kicking222: White Stripes also makes my top two/three shows ever. I don’t see how Jack White’s fingers are still attached to his hands.
My other two aren’t too cool to name-drop, but… Ben Harper show in 2000 (Jack Johnson opened, but he sucked), and RHCP/Foo Fighters in 06
The first of the three-night stand of Lifter Puller reunion shows at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis. College radio kids: “Ladies and gentlemen, Lifter–” Band: erupting into “To Live and Die in LBI.” Un-fucking-real.
Just to show my age:
Bruce Springsteen, December 23, 1978, Seattle Center Arena (not to be confused with Key Arena). The last show before Christmas of the Darkness On the Edge of Town tour. No opening act. Four and a half hours. The final encore (the fourth, I think) came after the house lights had come up and half the audience had left.
Laurie Anderson, summer 1980. Outdoors in a bandshell in Seattle’s Volunteer Park. This was just after O Superman came out. She performed the entire 2nd part of United States.
Fugazi, fall of 1993, at the Bellevue YMCA (you have to know Bellevue to appreciate how truly bizarre that is).
The first Endfest, summer of 93 (I think), Bremerton. L7, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, every one of them roaring dunk, with a cloudburst in the middle of L7’s set, which helped feed the mudfight that went on all through (appropriately enough) Mudhoney.
It all depends on your age.
The best one might be the first one because you were so stoked.
Mine was Iggy Pop, not just because of the performance but the atmosphere made the experience memorable as opposed to the bored looking masses today.
I’ve seen The Afghan Whigs a number of times, but one of the best shows ever was at the “old” 9:30 Club with Howlin’ Maggie opening. Greg Dulli was sitting on the side of the stage doing shots of Jaeger. And they closed with I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.
Also, Archers of Loaf in the basement of a Sushi restaurant in Charlottesville (I don’t remember the name of the venue). It was possibly highest energy audience of all time. Everyone was drenched by the time it was over.
I feel old.
1982, age 12, RDS Dublin, AC/DC on the ‘for those about to rock’ tour. Followed closely by 1991 Monsters of Rock in Donnington. Most recent title taker: Angry Samoans, CBGB (rip) 9/9/2006. It made me proud to be a 36 year old hardcore fan who never threw out the cassettes of my youth.
@Cheap Shot:
My “first” was the Beach Boys playing after a Team America soccer game at RFK stadium. Certainly not the best, but unique!
@thearcanemodel: oh also, broken social scene, lollapalooza 2006. anyone who was there knows what i’m talking about. electric.
my personal faves
def leppard w/ europe
new order w/ p/i/l and the sugarcubes
:)
With no explantions: just the ones that immediately pop up in my mind.
1. The Smiths/Phranc 1986 PAC- Milwaukee
2. The Pogues 1988 Riviera- Chicago
3. Amnesty Show- 1986 Rosemont Horizon- Chicago
4. Reverend Horton Heat- 1989 The Toad- Milwaukee
5. The Detroit Jewel (my band opened!)- 1991 The Unicorn- Milwaukee
6. Nirvana (with my husband’s band opening) 1989 or 1990 The Unicorn- Milwaukee
7. Drugstore, xmas 1999 the Garage, London
8. Junior/Senior & Electric Six 2004 The Cactus Club- Milwaukee
9. Interpol 2002 The Cactus Club- Milwaukee
10. PIL 1986 The Eagles Ballroom- Milwaukee
11. The Cramps 1990 The Eagles Ballroom- Milwaukee
12. The Kinks 1981 & 1983, The Auditorium- Milwaukee
13. Pink Floyd 1988, Camp Randall Stadium- Madison
Others that pop up are: Robyn Hitchcock at Summerfest in 1990. REM as a VIP over thanksgiving weekend 1987. The Oiltasters reunion in 1991. Plus I saw every Brit new waver that toured in 1985, a friend gave us free tix…so we saw Paul Young, Howard Jones, Tears for Fears…..
I had tickets to CLINIC at the Empty Bottle for this past May, but the kid got sick and well…I’m old now and that comes first!
Mike Keneally - Upstairs At Nick’s - Philadelphia, PA - October 25, 1998. Still considered to be one of the finest performances of his career.
Fishbone, 1988, Cleveland OH, touring behind Truth & Soul. Never had more fun at a show.
Mudhoney and the Gaza Strippers, performing to an embarrassingly small crowd in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I had been going to shows at the now-defunct Concert Cafe for about two years, only seeing mid-level punk bands, and for reasons that still elude me, somehow they got Mudhoney to come through. They tore a fucking hole into that place, and the Gaza Strippers were a riot. Arm and Turner came back through with Monkeywrench a few months later, which was also phenomenal, but that initial blast was fucking epic.
Most entertained I ever was at a live show was at Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band during their (ugh! long time ago) “Born In The U.S.A.” tour. Everything you’ve ever heard about Bruce and his exciting marathon shows is/was true.
[And oddly, that wasn't even the first time I had seen The Boss live. When I was yea-hi, my Mom took my sister (and me) to see The Osmond Brothers (!) at the Indiana State Fair. Opening act: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.]
Probably second on my list is U2 during their (ugh! do I feel old) “Joshua Tree” tour. The band had not yet become The World’s Biggest Rock Band, and Bono had not yet started his descent into jackassery. Opening act Los Lobos were delayed and late for their showtime, so U2 dressed up in camouflaging country-and-western gear (hats, boots, beards, etc.) and performed a 30-minute country set as an unnanounced opening act, “The Dalton Brothers”. I later found out this was only the second time in their career they had appeared live as their alter egos.
Also great live: Little Feat.
Probably the oddest concert experience I had was R.E.M. during their “Monster” tour. They were fantastic, but Michael Stipe performed the whole show with the lyrics to every song taped to a music stand. He bragged that he couldn’t be bothered to relearn the words to some of the “older” songs, but he visibly relied on these “cheat sheets” even for the then-new stuff. He typically would finish a song, say something like, “What’s next?”, tear off the sheet, announce the next song, and the band would start playing.
Probably the live concert memory I most cherish, however, involves a concert of which I only caught about 10 minutes. I was working as a bar manager in Georgetown, and the historic club The Bayou was just across the street. Slated to close to make way for a hotel / condo-thingy / movie theater, The Bayou was hosting something like its third-to-last show ever one Saturday night when I was working. When I found out it was Taylor Dayne performing that nite, I knew I would have to sneak out for a few minutes to catch part of her show. [My bar was the hang-out for employees of The Bayou, so we always were allowed in to see shows.] I caught “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love” and “Tell It To My Heart” and then felt guilty about sneaking out so I went back to work.
(whew! lots of words…)
every jimmy buffett concert i’ve been to.
@Rob Murphy:
I saw Drivin’ and Cryin’ at the Bayou! Great venue.
My most surprising one was… 8 (?) years ago. My friend Mike kept raving about this band who I had NO INTEREST in seeing. I knew nothing about them, mind you, but the idea of seeing an alt-country band was about as appealing as getting shot in the face. Very reluctantly, I went. Wilco then proceeded to kick my sorry ass and instantly make me a huge fan.
In terms of the best, though? In no particular order: Duran Duran in 2003, The Who doing all of Quadrophenia in the late 90’s, Chris Whitley in 2000, Echo and the Bunnymen in 2007.
@f1sh3r: Hello, my polar opposite.
Weezer on their 2000 club tour when i was 14 at the Sanctuary in Las Vegas. 275 equally nerdy dudes in a >175 capacity club losing our shit to the best hits from pinkerton + blue. life changing, obvi.
@slowburn: Damn, Ned, that’s a long article.
Too true!
Aside from MBV I’d say my next favorite show of all time was a Marc Almond solo set in 1999 or so — covered all phases of his solo career plus a dollop of Soft Cell classics, three hour set or close to it, great voice throughout. Man’s a born star and still one of my honest-to-god idols.
Oh man, this is quite hard. I’ve seen a wide swath of acts over a very short period of time (I first started regularly going to shows in my senior year of high school, late 2004), and comparing them across the board is very, very difficult.
Top 5, though I’m not sure what order I’d put them in:
1. Girl Talk at Club Lambi in Montreal, October 2006: Say what you will about whether this counts as a “concert” at all, but this was the first time he had been to Montreal, and he had yet to hit huge. Club Lambi is a tiny little club, and it turned into a massive massive dance party that spread throughout the club. It was approximately 900 degrees in there, I think.
2. The Hold Steady at Black Cat in DC (with Plastic Constellations and Swearing at Motorists), February 2006: The Hold Steady is my favorite band, but up until this now this is the only time I’ve seen them. Concurrently I was going through a nasty breakup with my first serious girlfriend, and so all the lyrics about stupid teenage things were hitting me in quite the right spot. It was a pretty religious experience without a doubt. I also snagged my first set list here!
3. Out Hud at Nanci Raygun in Richmond, VA (with Hella), May 2005: I got to see a band that now no longer exists at a venue that no longer exists, as well. Out Hud put on a show similar to the Girl Talk show above (sweaty nasty dance party in a small dark venue), and had my first experience with the gyrating dance machine known as Nic Offer. Also Hella had two members of their band have to leave before the show for a family emergency, so the two remaining members played a bizarre noise-improv set with their merch guy on vocals. Strange days.
4. Drive-By Truckers at Brown’s Island in Richmond, Virginia, July 2007: Another one of my favorite bands that I have had trouble seeing live played a free show at an outdoor venue on a muggy Friday night in Richmond last summer. They played for almost 3 and a half hours straight, covering nearly every song I was waiting to hear, including their best known tracks and more obscure stuff. It’s like they got the setlist out of my head. And they delivered the goods live as well, rocking hard and loud.
5. Bonde do Role at Sonar in Baltimore, May 2008 (with the Death Set and DJ Sega, Rye-Rye, and Blaqstarr): One of the most fun shows I’ve ever seen with a solid lineup across the board. Definitely one with the most crowd to band interaction at a personal level. The Death Set has a live show that’s as good as advertised, though pretty damn dangerous (at this show I was elbowed in the temple which opened a cut; the second time I was hit in the face with a guitar). Bonde do Role finally convinced me their music was undeniably fun, and their live show was pretty appropriate for their sound. I also found myself in the middle of a make out session with a member of the group mid-song while she was onstage, and I don’t know how that happened. DJ Sega’s set was great, bolstered by the surprise performances of Blaqstarr and Rye-Rye and with accompaniment by The Death Set’s drummer.
first ever show was probably the most life altering just because it solidified in my mind that being a record nerd was absolutely what i wanted, even if the show itself was probably really shitty (though i was too young to care): specials reunion tour 1994 at the fillmore.
any swearing at motorists show i ever saw (especially the one that was in my tiny ass apartment in 2001) because dave doughman is the craziest rock and roll showman around these days.
superwolf at the fernwood in big sur mostly for this interaction at the tiny general store attached to the saloon when i was buying a 12 pack of tecate:
will oldham (behind me in line): that’s my favorite beer in the world.
me: pretty tasty.
will oldham: gotta get it in the can too. fuck bottles.
me: yup.
This being a music blog in 2008 I’m surprised no one mentioned the Unicorns, Chromeo, Arcade Fire tour of 2004, which I saw downstairs at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA. A pretty unreal bill and a great show, but I’m sure the Andrew WK shows mentioned earlier were better.
For an all time favorite, I did like the Grant Park Radiohead show previously mentioned, but I’ll choose any of the five or so Dismemberment Plan shows I saw between 2000 and 2002 at the Magic Stick in Detroit over any thing else any day of the week forever, especially the one where Grand Buffet opened.
@whoneedslight: Tokyo Rose was the name of the sushi restaurant. It closed down as a venue several years ago and is sorely missed, though the restaurant has reopened under new ownership and it’s nothing like it was. I saw plenty of great shows in that room (including the incredible bill of Jeff Mangum solo/Guv’ner/Olivia Tremor Control/Cat Power with Steve Shelley and Tim Foljahn) but not that Archers show. You can read about the Rose in Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape book.
@walkmasterflex: I was at that Out Hud show, too, dancing right up front and drowning in sweat.
Porno for Pyros in Tijuana 1992
Their album wasn’t even out yet, so it was basically Jane’s with new songs and no Dave or Eric (though Eric might have played this show, I am not sure). Tijuana is perhaps the craziest and crappiest city in the world, definitely in North America, in a way it rules. The show was upstairs at Mr. Crown’s but some website says differently, whatever I was there and so were all my SD college friends. It was a riot to get in. Some hippy jerk was shoving in line so some Mexi pounded the hell out of him and everyone cheered. There are no fire codes in Tijuana, that I am aware of. It was solid bodies in the show. There might have been 500 people there, maybe 1,000. They would sell you 12 beers at a time, people were walking around with a 6 pack in each hand. There were no bathrooms, that we could find, you just went down a hallway. People were hanging from the ceilings and the club owners had to yell on the PA to get people down. The stage was low and went right into the audience. My friend lost his shoes but found two others that were the same as his just smaller. My girlfriend punched saw some dude she hated from school and punched him in the back of the head a few times and he never knew who did it. A show this crazy could never happen in the US. We all thought at some point we were going to die or at least be seriously injured or jailed and not make it home. That is a requirement for your all time greatest show.
It’s tough to choose among so many great memories, but I’d have to say my list would not be complete without the following:
Portishead - 9:30 Club, March 15, 1998. From Andy Smith’s hip-hoptastic opening DJ set to Beth Gibbons scaring the bejeezus out of me, this was one sublime evening.
Reggie Workman Ensemble - Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 6, 1998. They played selections from Coltrane’s Africa/Brass with a gospel choir. I cried.
Yo La Tengo + Other Dimensions in Music - Irving Plaza, September 25, 1999. Fake jazz blowouts and new material from And Then Nothing…. Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi get a lapdance. “Slack Motherfucker” and “Everything Flows.” Jon Spencer.
there are lot of other greats by YLT, Pavement, Sleater-Kinney, and the Grateful Dead - too many to mention.
Either Mogwai or GBV (with Brian Jonestown opening) at The Beta Bar in Tallahassee. Two rad shows that I could not believe were actually stopping through town and playing that hole in the wall. They were right near each other sometime around ‘03/’04 (I was drinking a lot and don’t keep my stubs).
It’s funny, I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of town and back to a “major city” to see more shows. I’ve certainly seen more, but the first two that come to mind were back there.
@Michaelangelo Matos: That sounds awesome.
This list is going to seem hipster dofus-y, but what are you going to do, they were fun concerts:
Pixies at Coachella - I never got the see them the first time around, and thought I would never get the chance. I was able to see them 3 other times on the reunion tour, including at the smallish Wiltern, but when they launched into Wave of Mutilation, I could not have been happier.
Arcade Fire at the Troubadour in LA - Like (most) everyone, I loved the debut album and had heard the buzz, but I was not prepared for how much fun they would be on that tiny stage. I paid 4x face value for 2 tix ($120 total), but it was worth every penny and so much more.
Bloc Party at the Palladium - I’ve never had so many other people’s sweat on me, but I couldn’t have cared less. My t-shirt and jeans were soaked through by the end of concert. It was disgusting, but so much fun. Dancing at a concert; who knew?
My Bloody Valentine + Buffalo Tom + Yo La Tengo @ The Palace in Los Angeles, Spring 1992. Besides getting to see My Bloody Valentine’s final show on the ‘Loveless’ tour, I was also introduced to two bands I knew very little about, but became big fans of. What else can I say, it was fucking awesome.
Verve + Acetone at the Whisky A Go-Go was also epic. Acetone were a seriously underrated band throughout their career.
I’m a young’n, so I’ll have to go with Radiohead in 2006 at Bonnaroo. Just an unbelievable show.
I would say Radiohead w/ Spiritualized in San Francisco on the OK Computer era tour… ‘98, I guess? Radiohead was phenomenal and Spiritualized completely blew me away.
Elbow have also been fantastic both times I’ve seen them live- Guy Garvey’s voice is second to none.
I also saw the Tom Waits Glitter and Doom tour in Atlanta earlier this month… it was pretty incredible.
Went to a Merge Records night at CMJ in the late 90s, held at Threadwaxing Space. Magnetic Fields & Versus both played. Headliners were Lamchop, who rounded out the core ‘Choppers with: Ira, Georgia & James (Yo La Tengo) as the rhythm section; Mac (Superchunk) on keys; Julian (Neutral Milk) on saw. About a dozen folks all told, and when they launched into “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” the whole place floated a little…
Another: quadruple bill at Tramps of Bash & Pop (Tommy Stinson), Superdrag, Yo La Tengo, all followed by Big Star (with the Posies as backing band). Pure Pop nirvana!
Of course, I don’t know that I ever saw a show by YLT, Superchunk, Lounge Lizards, SY or Fugazi that was less than life-changing.
This is what I once wrote about a June 19-20 1992 concert:
Out of college, I finally buy [Metal Machine Music] on CD, along with The Wedding Present’s Seamonsters. The same day I’m off to see Pavement and Superchunk open up for My Bloody Valentine in what may very well be the best concert I will ever see in my life. MBV’s music demands dancing and moving with the crowd in a not-quite moshing fashion (though there is plenty of that, perhaps the least annoying moshing I’ve ever witnessed), and I flail around in ecstasy while hoping against hope the CDs don’t fall out of my jacket. (I end up losing my turntable cartridge, which I didn’t even remember I had in my jacket.) I turn twenty-one during the half-hour long hellacious fuckoff feedback maelstrom of “You Made Me Realise.” It sounds like a sky so full of airplanes the sun cannot squeak through. I’m deaf for days afterward - and I wore earplugs. Most of the time.
I came back to read what other people had to say (and SomeSound-MostlyFury, I have no idea, but he pulls out beyond-amazing solos), and a few people brought up their first-ever concerts, and I had completely forgotten about that one for me.
My very first concert was when I was 11. My parents, a family friend, and I went to Madison Square Garden. The acts were one singer I was somewhat familiar with (about as familiar as an eleven-year-old could be with an artist 40 years his senior) and one I was only slightly familiar with. The former was Joni Mitchell, and the latter was Bob Dylan. Joni was amazing- I can remember grooving- and played a great variety of hits and her favorites… and then I fell asleep during Dylan. Now, you could chalk it up to me being a young kid who was just up past his bedtime, but my dad (who had a “The Times They Are a-Changin” in his home office and has been to scores of shows, including Woodstock) said Dylan put on the worst concert he’d ever seen.
The first concert I ever went to on my own (or at least, just with a friend) was when I saw Lilith Fair at age 14. It was awesome, and I was probably one of a dozen straight males there.
Walkmasterflex, I just saw the Hold Steady last month, and my girlfriend of over five years broke up with me about six months ago, so I know exactly how you feel. “Boys and Girls in America” is also one of my ten or so favorite albums ever… there are times when I’ll just play “Chips Ahoy!” and “Hot Soft Light” over and over again, not because they make me think about things, but because I just love them so damn much.
My Bloody Valentine, Roseland Ballroom, 9/23/2008
..oh wait, that’ll be my in-a-few-months answer to this question.
Other than that [recently]:
-Devo @ Central Park 2004
-Information Society’s first show in like 10 years, Beatstock 2005
-Camera Obscura @ Paradise, 1/07
-Camera Obscura @ South Side Seaport, 8/07
-Pipettes @ Great Scott
-Morrissey @ the Orpheum, the day before I dressed up as him for Hallowe’en.
Most Fun:
-Epoxies/Phenomenauts/Aquabats @ Axis
-Junior Senior[w/Gravy Train] @ Middle East
-Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Hot Hot Heat/Fischerspooner/Iggy Pop @ Pavilion
-Dresden Dolls/NIN @ Orpheum
I am too young, and it shows.
Favorite show of all time?
For me it was getting to see my all time favorite band, New Order, finally at Coachella in 2005.. I actually FREAKING cried hahaha.
I think over all the small club/bar shows have been the most fun for me:
Death From Above 1979
Dizzee Rascal
Peaches
Presets
Shout Out Louds
etc.
I am neither a boomer nor a hippie, but I am from the Bay Area, and when Bill Graham died it was, as they say, kind of a big deal. About 300,000 in Golden Gate Park to see:
Journey - reunited w/ Steve Perry to perform ‘When the Lights Go Down in the City’
Grateful Dead - in GG Park, playing with John Fogerty for most of the set, which is awesome because that asshat Bob Weir hardly got to ruin everything that day.
Santana - sans Avril, R. Thomas, Everlast, etc.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - um, YES
Jackson Browne - I will never figure out the appeal here, and I’m still not convinced he and James Taylor aren’t the same boring, formerly-tortured-now-torturously-comfortable tea-sipping yup-folkies. But thanks for showing up.
Joe Satriani - YES.
Aaron Neville - had the Prima Ballerina from SF Ballet dancing center stage while he sang ‘Ave Maria’
Tracy Chapman - classy as fuck.
Robin Williams - gotta go to the bathroom sometime, thanks Robin!
Bobby McFerrin - sang the national anthem!
Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
In the DJ-set category, not that anyone asked: Jeff Mills in 1994 at a rave called Flower Power 2000. Played at least 20 records in the first 30 minutes, while chain-smoking, all in a former fabric store in a chain mall way the hell out in the Minneapolis suburbs. Un-fucking-real.
Exlposions in the Sky @ LA knitting factory, Winter 03′. Hadn’t heard much of them but my best friend and I were done with finals so we decided to check it out. Had chills the whole time.
@Michaelangelo Matos: I am unbelievably jealous.
@iantenna: re: s@m - so true, so true. i was hoping he/they’d get a bump from touring with the hold steady, but on their last chicago show, they only played to maybe twenty people. twenty people who were all extremely stoked, though. life imitating art. sigh.
First of all - I think I was AT that same Polvo/Superchunk show. Maybe not,
though, if it was really 1994, unless it was in January or February. I know
for sure I saw Polvo @ the DPC, but don’t remember Superchunk playing that
show.
Second - i could try to say the best show, but it is nearly impossible.
Being on the verge of 40 and having seen a gazillion shows between 1982’s
Van Halen concert in Largo, Maryland and last night’s Coke Dares/Tre Orsi
show in Denton, Texas, it is hard to pinpoint one. Some: Seeing The Ex for
the first, second, third, and every other time; Shannon Wright; all Les Savy
Fav shows; Al Green, when I wept through the whole damn thing; seeing
Shellac for the first time, after years of listening to their records; oh,
god - this is impossible!
Fuck. How did I forget the final Piebald show from few months back? That was one of the more powerful nights of music/community I’ve ever been a part of.
I live too far out in the boonies to see many shows, especially with gas the way it is now, but Sleater-Kinney at the Metro in Chi, 10-11-02, was a stunning climax to the oddest day of my life.
Had a near religious experience at a Matthew Shipp/William Parker show in Anderson, Indiana. The music was so intense, an older gentleman fell out of his chair.
Close second was FYP/Mukilteo Fairies show at this underground club. About a dozen people were there though I’ve run in to at least twice that number who claim they were there. One of those shows.
1. Alkaline Trio at the I Lied My Face Off release show at the Fireside, back when their live ineptitude was still charming. They didn’t have many songs yet, so they played all of them. My fingers were pruned from the collective sweat by the end of the second song.
2. Against Me all acoustic set last Thanksgiving day. It was a benefit for Harvest of Hope and they had one of the guys that runs the charity introduce them and he was so nervous he could barely finish his speech. I talked to people that came from Colorado, Michigan and Florida just for the show. All of them lost their shit when the band came out
I always break “Best Concerts” down by the size of venue, because I never think it’s fair to compare Stadium shows to Clubs, so:
Stadium: Pink Floyd @ Yankee Stadium 1994. My all-time favorite band at my all-time favorite place. I loved how there was a giant mirrorball in the middle of the field. And the video they showed during “Shine On You…” was the best movie I saw all summer.
Big Arena: U2@ MSG 2001 (Garbage was the support act). From the time they started “Elevation” with the houselights on to the last note, it was the best musical performance I’ve ever seen. And when they projected the names of the 9/11 victims on every single wall of MSG, it became more of a concert for me, it was an event.
Small Arena: Nirvana @ Fitchberg Civic Center, MA, 1993
(Breeders and Half Japanese support) Probably better in retrospect than I thought at the time, but the set was solid. It also ended with a classic insrtument destruction, as well as Krist stopping the show until a crowd-surfing girl was put down by the groping crowd.
Shed: REM @ Great Woods, Mansfield MA, 1995 (Luscious Jackson support). Because we had lawn seats, we ended up dancing the during the whole LJ set. Then heard REM play with a ferocity they seemed to only get back in the last few years.
Theater: Robert Plant, Orpheum Theater, Boston 1994. Mostly because I had 4th row seats, and to see someone from LZ that close was scary but great. And when they broke down and did “Going to CA” acoustic, I was probabaly at my most happiest.
Club: Luscious Jackson, Middle East, Boston, 1995 (Ben Harper support). Ben Harpers jams were great, and I didnt even know who he was at the time. Since I already mentioned LJ and dancing, you can imagine what the next 4 hours were like. I also spent the night walking home from the show with a girI had a crush on, which was nice too.
Whew…Can we do “worst concerts next?”
The original Bowlie Weekender was quite something. At least, the bits I can remember amid the holiday camp hijinks.
Best one-off gig? Gus Gus touring Polydistortion at ULU, 1999. Original lineup, including Hafdis Huld. Front of the crowd, next to two Japanese girls wearing fairy lights in their hair. Just blew the place away.
(Honourable mentions: MBV / Blur / Jesus & Mary Chain / Dinosaur Jr on the Rollercoaster tour in 1992. Sleater-Kinney at the Oxford Point, a tiny venue where the sweat dripped off the walls. A shambolically lovely Belle and Sebastian at the Oxford Zodiac in 1997. Elliott Smith supporting B&S at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, 1998. Bows as part of the ‘Too Pure 100′ showcase, 1999. It’s been a while.)
Turbonegro at Troubadour (April 3, 2003; first show)
Daft Punk at Los Angeles Sports Arena (July 21, 2007)
Dale Watson at Fitzgerald’s (Berwyn!) (December 9, 2000; two-set Christmas show)
The Dictators at Empty Bottle (November 12, 1999)
Supersuckers at Troubadour (April 15, 2001; the night Joey Ramone died)