Well, it's Friday, and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental valet Hop-Sing and I are off to the Rove beach house, where we plan to watch Karl's old 8mm college films of George Bush dressed in a cowboy outfit, his tight, neatly pressed jeans revealing little but promising much. Posting by moi will necessarily be sporadic for a few days while I attempt to recover from exposure to that much raw charisma.
Meantime, here's a fun project for you all:
The Most Historic, Legendary and/or Infamous Rock Show You Actually Got to Witness Firsthand!
You know, the kind of one of a kind event that makes people so want to smack you every time you gloat about having been there.
My carefully considered top choice (and also the single greatest double bill I ever experienced):
The original Wailers (with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh) plus Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band -- Max's Kansas City, early 1973.
The more or less official New York debuts for both acts, BTW.
I've already posted about this show couple of times so I won't bore you further with the details. But trust me -- it was a mindblower at the time, and in retrospect it seems about as likely as my actually seeing the flying saucer land on the baseball field at the beginning of "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
My second choice: Iggy and the Stooges, also at Max's, same year, touring Raw Power. The show where Iggy broke a bottle, cut his chest open with it, crawled over the audience (actually bleeding on yours truly) and then took off to the hospital for stiches. (And was back the next night for two more shows, BTW. What a trouper.)
Anyway -- enough of my yakking. What's your pick?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
28 comments:
OK, first, WOW. Cool concerts Steve!
Since I have never lived in a major Metropolitan area, I have never been to a famous concert. But I have been to a couple that were slamming.
I saw the db's in Chapel, Hill NC. I also saw the meatpuppets there. Both were really fine concerts. The db's did a version of "Tomorrow Never Knows" that was transcendent. I still have no idea how they did that one that way live with 4 guys.
The meatpuppets was a HOT summer concert in a crowded room and I was in a brief but powerful relationship with some fungi at the time. I sweated off two hand stamps. Oh and yeah, they rocked. I saw them later at Red Rocks, another fine concert.
But in Atlanta of all places I went to a concert of the Minutemen and shook d. boon's hand and bought him a beer. He was a prince of a guy. God bless and keep him.
Trey
A no-brainer: The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965 and 1966.
First runner-up: Cream and The Who at a Murray the K Easter Extravanganza in 1967. Besides those two (who I believe were making their NY debuts), the line-up also included The Hollies, The Blues Project, The Young Rascals, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, among others.
These shows were insane ... each performer could do up to 4 songs but only had a total of 8 minutes on stage. They started around noon and went until late in the evening. After each show, the audience would be hustled out, a new one would come in, and they would start all over again. This went on for several days.
Ah, the glamorous life of the rock star when AM ruled the airwaves.
Anyway, here's a period piece from Hit Parader.
http://www.thewho.net/articles/townshen/newyork.htm
I was blown away when Ice T unleashedBody Bount and "Cop Killer" at the first Lollapalooza. That was also when Siouxie and the Banshees came to my home town, which made my day.
Yeah, I know this is a powerpop place, but another shining moment in my concert-going life was at opera production of Salome in which the lead stripped down to full-frontal during the "seven veils" bit. Stunning. With a capital "stuh."
My last pick would be an old Smashing Pumpkins show; Pearl Jam was warm-up back then, and the Pumpkins preceeded RHCPeppers.
At the end of their spooky set Billy Corrigan left his guitar leaned up against his amplifier where it wailed feedback after they'd all gone offstage.
1. Springsteen at Fenway Park - Peter Wolf joined him for an encore "Dirty Water." Kuhl!
2. Johnny Cash at Avalon, while a major blizzard raged outside - effectively shutting down the whole city.
3. Iggy & the Asheton Brothers playing an ACOUSTIC set at a Newbury Comics in-store appearance. I shook the hand of the man called Pop, and then I went home.
4.First night of Mission of Burma's
comeback tour - 1st show in 19 years.
5. Arthur Lee (RIP) performing "Forever Changes" (with strings and horns!),Brian Wilson performing "Smile."
6. LOTS of reunion shows the last few years - most memorably Rocket From The Tombs (w. Richard Lloyd!), and the MC5 (w. Mark Arm and Marshall Crenshaw!)
enuff of MY yakkin'...Bill Buckner
Well, I'm just a youngster compared to most of y'all and I haven't to been any truly historic shows. But like tmink above, the NC Triangle was the site of my musical nirvana (and coming-of-age stomping ground). Saw the Ramones play a small venue in Raleigh (the Long Branch maybe?) ca. 1990. The NC State hockey club team showed up and thought they knew how to slam. That was amusing. Also saw a band called Majosha a few times around the Triangle in those days. Three fast and funky white boys. Just recently I found out that the bassist, who (along with some catchy songs) was the entire reason to see this band, was a guy named Ben Folds (whose later music I never followed).
I saw REM in September 82 in a small venue called the Old Town Music Hall in Birmingham Al. the EP Chronic Town had been released a few months before but hardly anybody was there. The stage was nothing more than a glorified riser and it consisted of lashed together milk crates covered with old carpet. This was obvious after Michael Stipe came down from one of those great rock'n'roll leaps and the stage split apart as the two crates he landed on came unlashed. My ears were buzzing for 2 days after this knockout show.
Who - Cincinnati, December 3, 1979.
We didn't realize what actually happened until we returned to the dorm after the show.
Jim
I don't know if I've seen any legendary shows, but some of the more memorable shows would be:
The Plasmatics opening for KISS, in 1983. I caught half the guitar that Wendy O Williams chainsawed, but lost it in a struggle with the crowd.
REM - Kalamazoo, MI 1985. I'd barely heard of them but my friends were fans. It was a great show with a lot of energy from the band and the crowd.
Jane's Addiction - 1988(iirc), the 'Nothing's Shocking' tour, in Grand Rapids, MI. A powerful show in a small venue.
As a teenager (I have to go back and look, but I think it was '73), but I saw The Raspberries in their prime play an amusement park in my hometown of Youngstown, OH. The Raspberries bio book "Overnight Sensation" has pics of that show in it.
Oh, and I did see the legendary soul singer James Carr perform shortly before he passed. He looked awful - was basically a homeless person by that time - but that magnificent voice was intact.
Also: Mr. Al Kooper - who lived in the 'hood at the time -VOLUNTEERED to play a set at the closing party for a Rekkid Store where I toiled for many years. Got the video somewhere - he was great!
- Buckner (slight return...)
I'm kind of stunned by a lot of the above.
But this..
Brooklyn Girl said...
A no-brainer: The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965 and 1966.
First runner-up: Cream and The Who at a Murray the K Easter Extravanganza in 1967. Besides those two (who I believe were making their NY debuts), the line-up also included The Hollies, The Blues Project, The Young Rascals, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, among others.
You saw all that?
Aiiieeeee!
Now you'll tell me you Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Fox doing "The Mouse!"
Well, let's see... Springsteen at Winterland in '78 was probably the greatest rock show I ever saw.
As I mentioned last week, Elvis Costello, Mink DeVille and Nick Lowe/Dave Edmunds and Rockpile is a close second.
Also saw a great Nick Lowe solo show at a club in SF where Elvis made an appearance.
Talking Heads doing the "dress rehersal" for "Stop Making Sense" at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley would be another good one. I esp. liked how Byrne spent all his time flirting with the back-up singers.
Speaking of Dave Edmunds, saw a great "revue" show where he and his band played with Graham Parker and Dion fronting as vocalists.
Also saw the "Mighty Wind" live performance with the entire cast of the movie.
And I'll close with this: when I worked at the Big Record Store in San Jose, we had a live performance by Robert Fripp where he demonstrated the "Frippertronic" technique. The entire floor of the main store was covered with cords and wires while Fripp sat in a corner surrounded by amps, oscilloscopes, and tape recorders and noodled around for about an hour. Great stuff! (And he was a nice guy, to boot...)
Oh, that Elvis/Rockpile show was also at Winterland in '78 - Elvis' second US tour.
He dedicated the encore - "I'm Not Angry" - to KSAN, who really broke him in the US.
Have I mentioned I saw the Rascals and the Chiffons open for Batman -- i.e. Burt Ward and Adam West -- at Shea Stadium?
Good lord, I'm old....
Have I mentioned I saw the Rascals and the Chiffons open for Batman -- i.e. Burt Ward and Adam West -- at Shea Stadium?
OK - you've forced me to break out my trump card.
Summer 1969 - Selland Arena, Fresno, California - the Banana Splits.
Live.
'Nuff said!
Okay, first:
steve & Brooklyn Girl, no offense, but I hate you. Nothing personal, m'kay?
My most historic show (yes, I'm going to trot that one out again) was CSNY the night Nixon resigned. Graham Nash made the announcement from the stage around 9 p.m., Steve Stills said, "Tonight I'm proud to be an American," and the band launched into "Long Time Gone."
I, along with 600,000 others, saw The Band, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers at Watkins Glen in the summer of '73. That was a wild weekend. The day before the official show, all the groups did extended "sound checks." The Dead's sound check lasted over an hour and a half.
I saw Patti Smith in '76 at the Bottom Line when her Jersey buddy, Bruce Springsteen, joined her for the encore.
I saw Patti again in June of '77 when she returned to CBGBs for warm-up shows after she broke her neck. The "Out of Traction Back In Action" shows.
And New Year's Eve '76 at the old Academy of Music nee Palladium, for a triple bill of Television, John Cale & Patti Smith.
Saw one of Television's last shows at the Bottom Line before they broke up for a dozen years.
Don't know how historic it was, but one of the best double-bills I ever saw was at the old Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park, the B-52s opening for the four-piece Talking Heads. It was a rain date and it had been announced that the 52s couldn't make it but there they were anyway!
Saw Dylan at Roseland in '94 when he was joined for the encores by Springsteen & Neil Young.
The most personally historic, though, was the time I saw David Peel pick a fight with Patti Smtih in Washington Square Park in (I think) the summer of '79!
Okay, Gummo, afer reading your list I hate you, too. That's an impressive bunch of shows.
You reminded me, though, that I did see the Grateful Dead's NY debut at the Cafe au Go Go on Bleecker Street in 1967 ... all I remember is that Bob Weir had some mighty dirty feet (they were right in front of my face during the show. That was a very small venue). And I couldn't hear for three days afterwards.
I also went to the Yardbirds show at the Anderson Theater in 1968, with Page on lead, which our blog host and I discussed a few weeks ago. Or maybe that was over at the other place where we spend so much of our time.
Anyway, Steve, no, I didn't see Soupy Sales at the Brooklyn Fox. Jeez, dude. Although I did see him at the Bottom Line in the 1980's.
And I remember the Chiffons, etc. very well ... doo lang, doo lang.
Damn! Where's that bottle of Geritol? I know I left it someplace.
Holy shit BG.
I saw that same Murray the K show.
Me and my sisters just didn't know what to think when Keith Moon busted up his drum kit.
But we were there to see Wilson Pickett do "Land Of A Thousand Dances."
Nahhhh na na na nah
OMG, first Camp Elliott and now this??? Too funny! I remember Wilson Pickett racing through his songs ... now I know why. Four songs in eight minutes? And Keith Moon must have gone through a shitload of drum kits that week.
Hendrix by mistake? That's unbelievable.
BG:
You saw the Dead at the Au Go Go?
Very cool. I saw the Airplane there that summer -- their first NYC show. I think it was right after Monterey.
Biggest sound I've ever heard from a band. And Grace was simply stunning, on several levels....
I loved the au Go Go. My first Village hang-out.
And I would have loved to have seen the Airplane there! I totally get what you said about Gracie. She was (and still is) absolutely mesmerizing.
She also had one of the best quotes of all time, which, IIRC, is on the liner notes from Baxter's. It was a retort to a journalist (sorry!) who was sticking a microphone in her face: "Go point that thing someplace else." I have used it on many occasions ...
Around 1980, I saw the Undertones in Washington DC. Tickets were $5. When I got to the show, I was refunded $4. So I ended up paying 1$ to see this show. My memory fails me as to why we were all refunded the 4$. I'm pretty sure it was due to lack of sales. It worked, because the place was packed. It ws the most energetic show I have ever attended. When the band came out for the first on many encores, a sweaty, shirtless Feargal Sharkey, who looked no older than 18, said something about the discounted ticket price and jokingly asked for tips. The crowd threw quarters (carefully) and bills on the stage. My lasting image is of the memebers of the band bending down in mid song, stuffing the well deserved money in there pockets.
My historical shows are all personal historical, I think. They're not that impressive.
I was in high school when Bruce Springsteen was coming to Los Angeles. The ad in the paper announced that they were gonna try a new way of selling tickets. Instead of waiting in line all night outside a ticket shop, you were to send money and they would randomly draw you a ticket. They thought that would be more fair. I got out my girlie stationary and sent a letter saying how broken-hearted I was--this was the first concert I ever wanted to buy a ticket to, and I wasn't gonna get a chance for a front row seat. And, miracle or miracles, they sent me front row seats! And I danced on the stage with Bruce, and the rest is history...
And I saw Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark at the Iron Horse in the early 90s. Some chick I never heard of at the time was supposed to open, but as my friend said then, she probably got a better offer, so she passed on the IH's $50 opener fee (turns out it was Gillian Welch!). After the show, I sat downstairs with Townes, Guy, and Guy's son Travis. I was strummin' Townes' guitar while I watched them toss quarters into a whiskey glass for $100 bets. Then, Guy said to me, "You've been itchin' to play us a song. Why don't you play us a song." I'd only written one at the time, so I played it. When I was done, Townes said, "You're just like Woody Guthrie." Then, Travis played a tune. Then, Guy played one. Then, Townes played one. One of my most magical musical nights ever (and I didn't even sleep with Townes, though I sure wish I did--'cause I never saw him again.)
"Go point that thing someplace else." I have used it on many occasions ...
Well, that's especially amusing...
:-)
You reminded me, though, that I did see the Grateful Dead's NY debut at the Cafe au Go Go on Bleecker Street in 1967
BG:
You saw the Dead at the Au Go Go?
Very cool. I saw the Airplane there that summer -- their first NYC show. I think it was right after Monterey.
Okay, who wouldn't hate these people?
Gummo,
I really wish I had seen the Talking Heads and Television!
The Beatles at Candlestick, '66. I took my best freind Jimmy Brummer. My dad scored us 2nd row seats behind the third base dugout. I heard every note; the screams were behind me. 2nd place - Jerry Lee Lewis at Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento; late 50s. I was probably five years old, or so. Sacramento Pop Festival, Hughes Stadium, 1968 - Jefferson Airplane; Strawberry Alarm Clock; Captain Beefheart; Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Sunshine Company; Spirit, New Breed.
Here are a couple I recall:
The Police at the Painesville Agora c Jan. of '79. Painesville is the birth place of Harlan Ellison. Anyway, the Agora was trying to promote smaller venues in outlying areas of town. It was snowing like a mutha and we hauled up there to see them with about 80 other brave souls. Sting was wearing that green jumpsuit overall outfit he favored at the time with hightop Chuck Taylor's. They were entirely unforgettable and you just knew that they were going to be HUGE. Romantics warmed up.
Saw Talking Heads that same year also with the Romantics on the bill. Psycho Killer was barely a "single' at the time. Byrne was surreal.
Last one. I sat and drank for several hours after a Ramones show one night with Joey, Dee-Dee and Johnny at the old Swingos downtown. In the crowd at the Agora and after the show were Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin who were in town shooting some dumb "live from Cleveland" SCTV thing. It was a fuckin' blast and those girls were as nice as they could be.
holycownyc:
I saw an amazing Jerry Lee show as well.
Fall, 1965 -- Waukegan High School.
Jerry was in pre-comeback limbo, so the far-from-sellout crowd was approximately 300 greasers from the area, and ten hippies (including me) from Lake Forest College.
He kicked ass like you wouldn't believe -- unbelievably tight and powerful set. As as he was concerned, he was still the greatest star in the fucking world, and he performed accordingly.
Post a Comment