Tuesday, January 24, 2006

What Were Some Of The Best Concerts You Attended?




I will be posting tonight, I hope, but in the meantime thought I would ask what were some of your favorite concerts.

Here is some of mine in no particular order:

Peter Gabriel's Security Tour in 1982 at the SF Civic. How well known was he at this time? I bought tickets for this show 2 weeks after they went on sale and got seats halfway down on the floor. The whole band walked through the audience playing drums and percussion instruments that sequed into the Rhythm Of The Heat....awesome. Peter rode the audiences hands they held up out quite a way from the stage and then they took him back. When he tried it in '86 it was not so pleasant when he played two nights in a row at the Oakland coliseum. You could say the audience was quite different four years later after the Sledgehammer video. I was happy for him but sad at the same time.

Shiva Burlesque at O.T. Price's in 1988.

Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order & Gene Loves Jezebel at The Greek Theater in Berkeley 1988.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse at the Catalyst in 1990. This is a club that holds about 800 people and Neil somtimes plays "surprise" gigs there. This one came about because he was rehearsing for the Ragged Glory tour. Played 3 hours took a couple of short breaks and played all the classic Crazy Horse electric material.

T J Kirk at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in 1996? Played the music of James Brown, Thelonious Monk and Rashaan Kirk. From jazz, to funk to nearly heavy metal, sometimes in the same song. I wish I had a recording of that show. I bet the person running the soundboard does.

Grant Lee Buffalo at Slims in 1993 or 1994.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at the Warfield in 1990 on the Good Son tour. Unbelievably good show. I can still remember Nick sitting on a small stool in the middle of the stage and reading the lyrics to the Carny from a book as he sang them. A few times he jumped up off the stool to emphasize a part of the song then sat down and kept singing. Sounds strange but it worked.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 1996. Last show of a two week run of dates at the Fillmore. Played for about 31/2 hours and kept dragging the band out for another song after it appeared to be over. This happened for quite a while. The show went on forever...but it was really, really good and I was really, really tired and had a 3 hour drive home...I think I almost fell asleep at the wheel. I am sure I would now.

Those are a few that come to mind at the moment. Will add on more later as they.....come to me...slowly.
Now what are yours?