Concerts And You - Page 2

Crikey, so many...

Best Experiences:

Daft Punk were signed to a local label round here before "Homework" broke out and I got to see them in a 400 capacity club where the house was well and truly rocked.

Pavement playing at sunset on the Friday at the Reading Festival in 1994. I don't think I've ever smiled so hard during a concert.

The Beta Band circa 1997: Support act was a man with a straw donkey that had a tape player up it's arse. Guitars were played with swords, video projections were hilarious, instruments were swapped at random, the crowd was amazing and the concert ended with everyone in the band playing a techno song on 4-sets of drums for a good 10 minutes.

Brian Wilson: got seats in the centre of the front row for the "Smile" concerts a few years back not only was the music great but Brian actually spoke to me and my friend and asked our opinion on how the concert was going!

Kreftwerk: I love their records but was slightly sceptical about how interesting it would be watching 4 men stand rigidly behind laptops for two hours. I needn't have worried.

Honorable : Morphine in a 200 capacity venue, Underworld playing a full live set from the DJ booth of the same club I saw Daft Punk in, Orbital's last ever concert, The Fall many many times, The Beastie Boys circa Ill Communication, Sonic Youth playing Daydream Nation, The Jesus & Mary Chain as surprise support at a Primal Scream gig, Green Velvet being quite clearly insane. Aphex Twin and his scary dancing bears, DJ Shadow playing a free gig in a bar where the bar had free beer all evening!


Worst Concerts:

Not exactly a bad show, but I saw the first ever Foo Fighters concert at Reading in 1995, they hadn't released a note of music at that point but the organisers had massively... MASSIVELY under-estimated the amount of people who'd be interested in seeing them and had put them in a tiny tent with not enough security to keep people from trying to get in. I'm amazed no-one died.

Similarly, at a Pixies gig - Heard Bone Machine and a lovely little poem about a pumpkin by Dave Lovering then the stage collapsed (!) and the show was over and it would be about 13 years or so before I'd get a chance to see them again.

Kool Keith supporting PE playing "It Takes A Nation Of Millions..." (which was also an incredible show, actually). Love Keith but he was well out of it and didn't even bother trying to mime to the backing track. It was almost entertaining but I'd been looking (EDIT to finish this sentence) forward to seeing him too much. Also disappointing: The time Keith cancelled a show I was due to see him at 3 hours before it was due to happen in order to check himself into a mental institution.

Spiritualised Acoustic Mainlines. Jason Pierces two-chord wonders work well enough with huge banks of FX, a wall of sound and a full backing band. With just an acoustic and a horn section boredom very quickly set in.

Squarepusher: Like the records well enough but there's only so many bass solos any one man can take!

Franz Ferdinand in about 10 support slots before they made it reasonably big: they can't play live at all!

Upcoming: I've got a free gig tomorrow, actually, by the band Ballboy. I have tickets for a Vaselines one-off reunion thing next month. Also Grace Jones in January, because there's no way that won't be at least entertaining.

Best show: the first Lollapalooza, specifically Jane's Addiction. I'm not even sure they were that good, it might just have been my state of mind after sitting in the sun all day (and smoking a bowl right before they came on). I think I experienced whatever that thing is that Deadheads experience at Dead shows. Like I was one with the music. Ice-T was great too.

Worst was Tesco Vee's band The Hate Police, but it's not really worth going into. They were just kinda boring.

Most memorable...let's see...there was a Meat Puppets show at the 40 Watt where they kept having sound problems, and after 4 songs they just gave up and started playing pure feedback, busting their instruments, and handing out beer to the crowd. There was a Dead Boys reunion show where the band didn't show up until very late because their bassist had died in a car accident that morning. And of course, Buttholse Surfers at the 4th of July Pot Rally on the Mall in Washington DC. That was pretty nuts.

By the way, Neaux, I'm 40, and what you described is pretty much the way I've felt at shows since I was 20. I love seeing bands live, but I hate the standing around waiting so much that I have to force myself to leave the house. I guess this is the advantage of high anxiety: there's really no difference in how I feel about it now from how I felt 20 years ago.

Best Concerts:

The Who:
I was kind of annoyed that John Entwistle left planet earth (not his choice, I know) but the fact that it had 30 odd years since The Who had played Sydney (they got kicked out. HA) but they still delivered an absolutely kickass show.

Muse:
I was in a moshpit with my brother, it was an amazing experience, the energy was incredible, I lost about 10lbs with the amount of sweating, I came out drenched, a fight broke out a few metres in front of us, yes, it was a hell of an experience.

Sharon Jones and the daptone kings:
Sharon really knew how to work the crowd, during 'Keep on Looking' she got three ladies up on stage to have a dance-off, the energy was awesome, during one of the slower songs, she got a couple of guys up onstage and began slow dancing with them to the point where it was difficult to tell whether she was going to do him right there on the stage.

Roger Waters:
The closest I'll ever get to seeing Pink Floyd but it was still an awesome show, Roger played Dark Side from beginning to end, the travel segment was an absolutely blinding vision of music and sound, Waters played stuff from just about every era, Sheep was a highlight.

Worst concert:
Santana at Centennial Park, I don't really like outdoor concerts, I went to see Santana play at a park and it was the most boring concert I'd ever been to, the setlist was uninspiring and the energy just wasn't there. Santana came back and played recently, it was a ten times better concert.

As far as upcoming concerts go, I got tickets to see John McLaughlin and Chick Corea playing together in February, they're calling themselves the 'five peace band' and if I can, I'll be getting a ticket to see Jeff Beck.

Best shows: The Coup.
Everything that a hip hop (rock?) band should be...

The first performance of a Pharaoh Sanders concert.
His band was very able, but sounded like they were playing separately, except upon the introduction of his second set, which we barely reached in time trying to find our way to Bimhuis, this venue that appears to be an office building, suspended in the air, from the outside. But this show was best jazz I've ever heard.


Damo Suzuki with local group The Absent Sound.
For ninety minutes the band droned on and on, till most of the audience couldn't take it any more, leaving the monastery ruins one by one. But it was fucking trance-like to the rest of us. No...it was a trance. Actual trance music. Not that kind of trance music.

Worst show: Interpol.

Damn this was boring. Every tune was played too fast and the band was monotone overall. Haven't listened to their albums since - they seem rather empty and second-rate to me now. Also, there was something wrong with seeing them play in the daytime.

Actually, the Grand Mothers were pretty fucking awful as well. Boring old men who can play their instruments, but are lost without Zappa. It was just wankery.

Yikes!

Probably my favourites in no particular order:

Lyle Lovett/Joe Ely/Guy Clark/John Hiatt in Calgary. Small venue and they were joined on stage by Ian Tyson to do Four Strong Winds.

David Byrne at the Calgary Folk Fest. His Luaka Bop band were in full swing and just tore the place down.

Spirit of the West with Fiamma Fumana at the Folk Fest. It was a side stage jam. Spirit are a Canadian celtic influenced rock band and Fumana perform Northern Italian folk songs combined with electronica. They played for forty five minutes non-stop while riffing on many of their famous tunes. Just awesome.

Springsteen in Vancouver. Four hours of incredible. I wasn't a huge fan of his at the time (this was about 1990) but after he played Johnny 99 I was hooked for life.

B'52s and Ziggy Marley at the Commordore in Vancouver. Best party concert ever.

Worst:

Avril Lavigne in Calgary. I was doing pre-mix on her CBC special so had to sit through her concert twice. She was out of tune and out of time each night.

Cowboy Junkies in Calgary. How bad were they? They ruined Lungs by Townes Van Zandt.

Metallica/The Cult in Saskatoon. The Cult were pissed off at Metallica fans and Metallica sucked.

Daniel Lanois at the Calgary Folk Fest. A huse stack of amps does not a good concert make.

Upcoming:

Richard Thompson and Eric Bibb,

First concert ever was Pink Floyd during the Division Bell tour. My dad and I still talk about how Gilmour shook the seats of RFK stadium with just his guitar (playing "Sorrow"). Every time I see The Wrens live is a fantastic experience. TMBG puts on such an incredibly fun show that I have no problem seeing them often (think I've seen them more than any other band, maybe 6 times?).

Other great honorable mentions:The Pixies, Roger Waters, Ben Folds Five, REM.

Worst experience was seeing The Blood Brothers, who were opening up for Coheed and Cambria. Coheed was great, but The Blood brothers tore my ears a new one, and not in a good way. Also, I'm glad I got to see Dylan, but the performance was more than a little disappointing for me. Just seemed very, very tired and going through the motions. Really wish I had been alive to see him a lot earlier.

Can anyone who's seen King of Leon live tell me if they're any good?

I don't go to a lot of shows, although it's something that I've been doing more often, but one of the things I've really enjoyed are the opening acts. Both concerts I've been to recently -- Ben Folds and She & Him* -- had pretty fantastic opening acts. Missy Higgins opened for Folds and the Rosebuds opened for She & Him, and I wound up buying both their albums as a result.

And when I saw Ben Folds in October, he played two full sets -- one of stuff from the new album and one of old stuff, plus an additional encore, ending with "Army." (The thing I loved about that concert was that with the songs like "Army", he didn't have to "teach" the harmonies like he does on some of the live albums -- the audience already knew what to do.) The guy puts on an amazing show. I saw him once before, and I'd definitely see him again.

*Zooey Deshanel is kind of weird, and the girl needs to eat a sandwich. The best way I can describe this show was it felt like a concert from a lost Altman movie

Some of the best off the top of my head (there's a few amazing aussie gigs Ive been to of course, but Im not gonna mention them cause it won't mean much to most of you):

Pearl Jam Myer Music Bowl '95

The Sex Pistols at the Palace St.Kilda (tiny venue) - Filthy Lucre Tour '96

BB King at the Royal Albert Hall in London

Iggy Pop Falls Festival New Years Eve '96

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at The Palace St Kilda 1995

Gomez every time they've toured from 2000-'07 (theyve come out 6 times if I recall)

Kings of Leon at the Palace in Sydney at the start of this year

Snoop Dogg followed by The Beastie Boys - Good Vibrations Festival 2006

Prodigy - Big Day Out 1996

Carl Cox - Turnmills Nightclub London '99

Ben Harper/Fatboy Slim - Offshore Festival 2002


upcoming gigs... lots of local ones but big international acts are probably next years Good Vibrations Festival in February with Fatboy Slim, The Roots, The Presets and Roni Size Reprazent then Kings of Leon at the Melbourne Tennis Centre.

They blew me away. Tight. As. Fuck.

To quote Life of Brian - you lucky, lucky bastard.

Saw a show "curated" by The Roots at the Kimmel Center here in Philadelphia (home of our orchestra). Roots were the headliners, entering with a marching band (and leaving with one as well -- they walked a few blocks and continued the show while doing so). Deerhoof and TV on the Radio opened. It was a great night.

I caught Rogers here in Melbourne on this tour. Fucking amazing stuff. After spending zillions of hours baked off my scone listening to Dark Side of the Moon it was a particularly moving experience to say the least.
Second best was The Sex Pistols on their Filthy Lucre tour. Fucking awesome.

Worse:
New Kids on the Block. Yeah yeah, fuck you I was working backstage.

From memory they only played one show at The Palace - we musta been at the same gig back in the day.

Seriously, an amazing amazing show - people said they couldn;t play their instruments, fuck THAT. Tight as hell, Jones firing on all cylinders and Johnny in full throated abandon.

I still remember by the end of the 2nd song in the set the audience started yelling at Johnny to "Say something Johnny!" and his response is burned into my memory for life: "Well say something to me and I'll fuckin reply! Thats how it is with us Improvisational comedians" - and he was off and away abusing the shit out of everyone for the rest of the gig.

Honestly, it may be the best gig Ive ever been to.

I saw the Sex Pistols on the Filthy Lucre when they played here. They were incredible. Some chick threw her cellphone on stage because she thought it would be funny if Lydon made a phone call with it. He called a number in England and left it on the line for the entire duration of the show. She was right, that was funny. I also saw The Stooges with Mike Watt on bass the last two times they were here.

By the way, I noticed someone who was worried about Kraftwerk live, I'd say most people worries about any electronic band live. Yet, most of them delivered, and more so than a typical rock band. I mentioned my top 3 earlier, but VNV Nation, Kraftwerk and Covenant delivered kickass concerts every time I saw them.

Mind you, most of them are best in a smaller venue. I saw Moby once live and it was kinda stale.

I think they're probably hit or miss, not that it makes any difference. When I saw them, during their 2003 tour in Tempe, Lydon was forgetting words, Cook was dropping beats all over the place, and an amazingly corpulent Jones broke a string. Oh, and there was some dude hanging out with them on stage and he and Glen Matlock almost got into a fight.

But that doesn't detract from seeing them live. If anything, it adds to the experience.

My best show: Tie between
Tool - Kemper Arena, Kansas City 2006 and
Tool - Amway Arena, Orlando 2007 and
Tool - New Orleans 2007

I know, why the fuck can't you just pick one of the shows? They were all different tours with different visual set ups, and different songs were played. Jaw-dropping to say the least.

Also, I'd give an honorable mention to Bonnaroo 2007 because I got to see Tool and immediately follow them up with David Cross. The Roots also played right before Tool. The following day was The Police, The Flaming Lips, and Sasha & Digweed, all in succession.

Worst Show?: Biloxi, 1999: Staind, Kid Rock, and Limp Bizkit. I don't need to say anymore.

Best:

Pearl Jam
U2
Radiohead
Thursday
Coheed and Cambria before the last two albums.
Clutch, I differentiated for Coheed because I saw them when Clutch opened last year and Clutch made them look terrible. Just absolutely stole the show and gave a great lesson on what rock n' roll is all about. Coheed stood no chance.
Jurassic 5 - the best hip hop act I've ever seen live.

Worst:
Vanilla Ice - He played at my college, funny but terrible.
Cypress Hill
Blink 182
Lollapalooza 2003 - While one of the most fun days of my life pretty much every performer was a completely disappointment short of Queens of the Stone Age and Audioslave. Even the aformentioned J5 weren't as good as they were the other time I saw them. And Incubus just seemed like two different bands trying to play the same songs at the same time.

High school mentality and a not quite yet developed sense of artistic taste. I grew up in the South and was, for the most part, surrounded by tasteless assholes, so it's always been an uphill battle. Thank god, I grew out of it.

Also, this was their "Significant Other" tour, which was really the start of the decline (or rather, the emergence of the true shittyness of Limp Bizkit). Somehow they seemed like an interesting band up until then. After this show, I realized what a douche Fred Durst was, and felt bad for Wes Borland. Also bear in mind, no one had really heard of Staind at all then, and there was no "It's been ahwiiiiiiiile..." in the universe yet.

Hindsight makes me want to punch myself in the balls... hard, for going to that.





Also, I'd damn near put these shows at the top (I just didn't want to go overboard with "here's my twenty best shows"):

Radiohead - Lakewood Ampitheater, Atlanta 2008
NIN - Lollapalooza 2008

Hmm...a little disappointing, but good to know in advance. Thanks.

I am hoping to catch Neko Case some time soon...hopefully she'll be back in Austin when I'm in Texas.

2 more to add to my list, but they are more Broadway based concerts (and thus why I hesitated to add them at first).

Mandy Patkin (99) - Jones Hall, Houston - Got to meet him after the show. Very classy guy.

Linda Eder (I think this was also in 99) - Houston at that venue downtown with the 1,000 changing names (depending on what cell phone company was the hottest in Houston at the time).

She's probably a safer bet. I've only seen her once on the Fox Confessor tour, but it was amazing. She managed to completely fill the theater with her voice and make it seem effortless.

I can understand the teenage mentality. We've all been there nobody had impeccable taste when they were a teen. What's sad is when you see a grown ass man in ICP shit shopping with his little girl.

I can safely say that I never dug ICP.

Best show would probably be one of the many times i saw the Ramones back in my NYC days in the 80' - early 90's. they didn't dick around, didn't have any gimmicks (other than the Pinhead prancing around) and the shows were always just insane. The music alone carried everything, it was just fantastic.

an honorable second best would a show a few months ago in Las Vegas with the Sex Pistols. Never figured i'd see them when i was a kid and missed them back in the 90's. This was easily one of the most fun times i have ever had a concert. they were great until they came back for a second encore and played some weird cover i didn't know. it kinda sucked, but everything else was so damn fun up till then. Theyre were old. i felt old...it was hilarious and just rocked.

Worst: Ramones...oddly. They played the Garden State Arts Center with Blondie and they are just not a band to see in an outdoor venue. There was no energy at all. truly boring. and that was a shame since they had always kicked ass before.

Coming up: I'm really trying to get to the Neil Diamond concert in vegas for the new year. Diamond. Vegas. MGM Grand. Just sounds awesome.

I got to work with Mandy in Van. Classy is truly the word for him. I hear some actors complain about working with him but he was just a sweet humble man. Very hard worker and very dedicated to his craft.

Plus he was nice enough to phone my wife to wish her a happy birthday and call her Peanut.

I've never seen him live but I have most of his CDs and would love to see him perform. (Yeah, I totally have a man crush on the guy)

The show was far from being sold out (a shame really, considering Houston's love for the theatre and musicals). Jones Hall is a fairly large venue and we actually had VERY, VERY nice seats (only $50 a piece too). Due to the size of the crowd, it became an intimate setting even though placed in such a huge hall. He acknowledged the size of the crowd early on by saying he expected to shake everyone's hand after the show (and if you stayed you certainly did get to shake hands and chat him up). I have an autographed CD from that show in a box somewhere. As far as his voice goes, the man could sing the A,B,C's and make me a happy man. Totally worthy of man crush status.

Edited to add: I never knew he had a singing career and bought the tickets as a lark for my best friend's B-day present (she fell in love with him during Chicago Hope).

I've been very lucky in my career with who I get to work with and think it may be difficult to top working with him. Not only does is he a classy guy but he has such a strong presence and raw charisma that it's hard not to be charmed by him.

I'm totally envious of your concert experience.

One other item that placed Patinkin on my forever happy list? The autographed CD I got from the concert? He was collecting money for Doctor's Without Borders. Make a donation and he would autograph anything.

Have to agree on the charisma and presence too. Man, now I want to see him again.

Also, just realized in my not so great editing skills that I mispelled his name. Patinkin. Bad Howard.

Some amazing ones:

Midnight Oil at Chicago's House of Blues... I also saw them at the Metro.
Afghan Whigs at the Metro.
Pearl Jam numerous times. I've been front row, second row, Soldier Field Mosh Pit of Insanity and all the way at the top of the hill in East Troy Wisconsin watching them among many others...
Radiohead in Grant Park. I usually disliked huge shows, but this was epic-ly awesome.
Mike Watt/Foo Fighters/Hovercraft - Before the Foo released their first album and Eddie Vedder played guitar and Grohl drummed for Watt. This was also at the Metro. Maybe my favorite???
Cracker at Otto's Dekalb, Il. One of my favorite bands in my favorite bar.
Who - Quadrophenia Tour whoah... they played Behind Blue Eyes
Blind Melon - Metro. A month before Shannon Hoon died. Man... these guys were underrated.
Ben Folds Five - This shit blew me away. Seriously...

Shitty:
Cracker/Gin Blossoms/Spin Doctors - Went for Cracker... unfortunately, they were the first on stage leaving nothing to look forward to.
Vertical Horizon - How did I get roped into that shit???
Weezer - during the Green Album tour... I'd seen them about 5 times previous, and those shows were awesome. This one sucked. It was a playstation commercial. They literally had Playstation kiosks in the middle fo the floor of the Aragon Ballroom. Awful.

No I caught them back in the grim, dark days when I lived in Adelaide. Highlight of the show for the crowd was half way through the gig Lydon announced "Well, this is a fuck of a lot better than Melbourne" and everyone went nuts.
Fuck I hate Adelaide.

I can not stand Midnight Oil and live to punch Peter Garret in the cock, but sweet jesus do they put on a good live show. Garret's seizure's on stage are something to behold.

Off the top of my head


Good shows:
John Frusciante in a very odd venue in NYC
'Palooza '91 and '92
Eddie Vedder at the NJPAC last summer
The Cure on Halloween in '97
Pearl Jam x3 in '98 (The Breath trilogy)

Memorable
The Fiona meltdown at Roseland
Woodstock '94

Bad
The Pumpkins two weeks ago
'Palooza '97
Live at the Garden State Arts Center in '95 (The only concert where I was interested in seeing the headliner, but walked out after only a few songs - Polly Jean Harvey was awesome, though)

Tickets to, but never happened
Blind Melon '95

I wasn't much of a concert person, because I wasn't much of a music guy in general. Until three years ago when, upon playing Guitar Hero I realized that there was a ton of good music that I never even knew except by name. That brought me back into music big time and since then I've been going to a ton of concerts, even festival. Which leads me to stuff like having seen some bands multiple times in the span of two years (next April I'll be seeing Machine Head twice opening for Metallica which will bring the number of times I'd have seen them to 6 in two years).

Anyway, best concerts:

-Tool, December 06. I had been waiting to see the band, which was one of my very favorites even when I wasn't into music much, for 4 years now. And the first time, in June of the same year, had been a bit disappointing since the band was obviously in the warm-up phase of the tour. But the second one was flat out awesome. They had pulled all the stops in terms of light-show, the musicians were in top form and it was pure magic. I was completely out of this world for a solid two hours.

-SOAD, June 05: another band I'd been waiting to see for a while, and the show was on my birthday. Nice present, as it was a solid performance, with a very reactive audience. 1h40 of straight playing, with no encore, but they gave it all.

Down, April 08: 2/3 of Pantera, Phil Anselmo sober and not talking for five minutes between songs, all the best songs in their repertoire played, crazy good musicians, a finale where their girlfriends come on stage to finish the song, and me almost losing my voice from shouting. Quite the consolation from never having seen Pantera.

RATM, June 08: the concert itself was so-so, to tell the truth. The choice of Saul Williams as opening act wasn't very inspired, as is music didn't really gel with the audience and he got massively booed (which I don't condone at all). After that, we had to wait one hour for Rage to show up. And their gig was solid, but nothing extraordinary, even if it meant something special to me to see one of the most important bands from my teenage years for the first time. But the audience, my god...Within seconds of the first riff, the entire floor was jumping around, from front to back, and they never stopped for the whole show, singing along with every line of every song. Truly a sight to behold, and the most electrifying atmosphere I've seen in a gig yet.

Infectious Grooves, April 08: most notable for me because it's the only show to this day that I've spent pressed against the security barrier. Got a couple of bruises but that was truly fucking intense, especially when Angelo Moore from Fishbone (who were opening) stage-dived from the top of the amp wall on my side. Also got to shake Mike Muir's hand, but unfortunately couldn't get on stage during Therapy to sing Ozzy's choirs. The two Suicidal Tendancies shows I've been to were also pretty awesome.

And the whole of Hellfest 08, the first festival I've done that was an excellent experience throughout, with perfect organization and a ton of great bands. Nothing like spending three days completely immersed in rockin' music, not a care in the world except banging your head.

As for the worst, it's without a doubt a Bob Dylan show in 04. I was pretty excited to see such a legend but withing minutes of the concert beginning, my spirits were crushed. Dylan's voice has become a rough grumbling mess, to the point that he's damn near incomprehensible. Of course it didn't help that he sang mostly songs I had never heard, but even when he was doing one of his classics, the voice and the arrangements made it unrecognizable (it took me nearly a full minute to recognize All Along the Watchtower, and that's one of my favorite songs).

Also, Hellfest 07 was a pretty bad experience as far as how it went. The organisers weren't ready for bad weather, and it rained cats and dogs on the day before the festival's start. Which lead to cancellations, technical problems and a terrain that recalled that of Woodstock. Shame, cause most of the bands were great.

Upcoming I have:
Slipknot/Machine Head/Children of Bodom tomorrow (mostly going for MH)
Motorhead w/Danko Jones
Opeth/The Ocean/Cynic
AC/DC
Judas Priest/Megadeth/Testament
both Metallica shows in Paris

and I'm considering going to the Persistence Tour headlined by Sick of it All, as well as Gojira in February

I forgot one - Little Jimmy Scott @ Zanzibar Blue ten years ago. Fucking awesome.

I know I mentioned them in my previous post, but if anyone gets the chance to see The Wrens live, do not hesitate, it's a GREAT experience.

I didn't recognize any tunes until the choruses came in, though they were only choruses in the original versions - it is Dylan's wish to be infuriating. But I like that. He isn't stagnant like the Rolling Stones, playing the same show over and over again. And his new songs are good...

Best:
Nirvana at the Armory on Drexel's campus in 93. Similar opening memories to another poster - Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, incredible sound, Noviselic in pajamas talking about JC Dobbs.

Faith No More at the Tower in 95. They played an incredible set, inviting the audience onstage during the third song and inciting pure chaos. After a couple encores, the lights came on and at least half the crowd left (since we were close to the stage we were still inside). Suddenly they come back out and play Caffeine with the lights on. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I know I did.

Lollapalooza 92 at Montage Mountain. The stage was set at the bottom of the mountain so it was awesome stadium style seating all the way up the mountain. Headliners RHCP were incredible, even with replacement guitarist Arik Marshall. But the highlight was watching Ministry play at dusk - I'm not a big fan of theirs, but it was an incredible set.

Paul Westerberg at Tower Records 2002. Just a cool, intimate set, plus I got to meet the man afterwards.

Rufus Wainwright every time he comes to Philly. Guy puts on a great show, either with his full band or solo.

Numerous Helmet shows at the Trocadero between 92 and 97. In a small venue, they kill it every time.

The same above goes for Ween.

Worst:
Limp Bizkit being booed off the stage opening for Faith No More at the Electric Factory in 97. I felt kind of bad for them, but not that bad.

Sebadoh at the Trocadero in 97. They sat on the stage floor and played an extended soundcheck (with an actual song thrown in here and there) for an hour.

Can I ask how good is the current gig of Prodigy? They are playing along Primal Scream so it seems a good opportunity to spend some money.

My only beef with the current Dolls is that for some reason they've decided not to include "Teenage News" in their current sets (at least in either show I've been to, or any video, CD, or setlist I've seen), and given that they broke up before officially recording it (leaving Syl to do a pretty sharp version on his long-forgotten solo debut), it would seem a natural sort of "bonus." Great fucking song.

But, then, I suppose they're not teenagers anymore...

When?

Seeing MOTORHEAD w/Nashville Pussy & Reverend Horton Heat in October. Can't wait!

I saw Billy Talent, Rancid and Rise Against this past Saturday on the Festival Pier at Penn's Landing (Philadelphia). Rancid was, as always, awesome. They did a bunch of stuff off of "...And Out Come the Wolves". Someone needs to end Rise Against, however. I'm still trying to figure out how they managed to headline the show.

Apart from Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in the fall, the one I'm looking forward to is Los Straitjackets and Southern Culture on the Skids, at Slim's. Then, with luck, Richard Thompson again in November at Montalvo.

No, I don't get out to a lot of shows these days.

The absolute best concert that I've ever been to was probably The Drive By Truckers at the 9:30 Club. I think it was the first time they had ever played DC. There were quite a few NoVA folks there (you could tell), and the crowd was just perfect for the band. The show itself was magical, almost a thing of legend. This was when Isbell was still in the band, and he actually got off the stage and worked his way through the crowd while scorching through a solo. I don't know if that was a regular thing for him, but it was awesome. The band as a whole seemed really happy, as well, smiling wide grins and hugging as they passed their bottle of Jack around the stage. There was an infectious feeling that night that fit DBT's music perfectly, along with a synergy with the crowd that I have never seen at another show.

I saw them again the next year, but it just wasn't the same. The band had brought a film crew because of that show. Apparently, the tour the previous year had been really hard on them, with a string of bad shows and bad news. That night at the 9:30 had turned out to be a watershed moment for the band, the moment when that tour had gone from terrible to great. They figured that it must have been the club, and they wanted to capture it again, for posterity. But is just wasn't the same. It was a completely different crowd, a decidedly hipper one that just wouldn't connect like the year before, lightning in a bottle.

That sounds like one helluva show. I saw them on what might have been the same tour (after the release of Dirty South), and while it was a great show, it didn't approach that kind of transcendence.

Now here's a sort of ironic one: I'm a big fan of The Sadies, and (to a lesser degree) of John Doe, and they're coming to town together.

Which ought to be great news. Except that they collaborated on an album of country covers this year, and it's just terribly bland. And while I'm sure there will be other material performed, I somehow doubt it will be worth the effort.