Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental Objectivist Tart Fah Lo Suee and I are off to a Hell Singleplex (seriously -- it really is in Hell) to attend a screening of the blockbuster movie adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Under normal circumstances this would take no more than a few hours of my time, but apparently we have to show an IQ card before we're allowed in, and I'm not sure where mine is.
Incidentally, this is apparently the first time theaters have required such a card for admission since the legendary Steve Reeves version of Hercules played across America in 1959.
In any case, here's a possibly fun little project to occupy your time while you await my return.
Post-Beatles Band or Solo Artist You Could Have Seen Perform On-Stage In Person Somewhere Sometime, But to Your Regret You Never Did!!!
No arbitrary rules this week; the post-Beatles proviso is simply an acknowledgement of the fact that nobody reading or commenting at this blog is old enough to have caught Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran or any of the other first generation rock icons in their prime.
In other words, the band or solo artist has to be somebody whose show you could have, plausibly, attended if you had put your mind to it.
And my totally top of my head Top Six is/are:
6. The Gin Blossoms
I absolutely adored the New Miserable Experience album when it emerged in 1992, for obvious jangly reasons, and I was stoked to see the band responsible for it. Unfortunately, the one chance I had, they were scheduled to play CBGB's around 11pm, and I rightly figured that meant 2am in real time. At my (even then) advanced age, that was obviously a no-no on a school night.
5. The Shadows of Knight
These guys played a proto-hepster club in NYC -- probably Trudy Hellers -- around the same time the above footage was filmed in 1966, and I remember that I really, REALLY wanted to go. Alas, I didn't work up the courage to head into Manhattan for that kind of thing until the next year.
4. Daddy Cool
These guys are genuine legends in Australia, and I'm a humongous fan -- their Teenage Heaven is one of the great hard rock albums of the early 70s. According to Wiki, they must have done some American gigs circa '72, but they never played in the New York area, at least as far as I can determine. And as much as I'd like to see 'em -- they're still at it Down Under, apparently -- I really can't afford the ticket.
3. Buffalo Springfield
No explanation necessary, obviously.
2. The Flamin' Groovies
I actually caught a later edition of the Groovies, when they had turned into a purist 60s cover band. They were a lot of fun, but still -- what I wouldn't have given to see the Teenage Head or "Slow Death" lineup; as you can see from the clip, they were as devastating a hard rock band as has ever worn shoe leather.
And the Numero Uno Band-That-Got-Away of them all quite obviously is....
1. The MC5
Dave Marsh, who of course is from Detroit, famously said that if the Rolling Stones at their peak were playing at a club down the street from where the 5 (also at their peak) were playing, he would have opted to see the latter every time. Unfortunately, I never did, although I actually had tickets for a New York show in '68. Got the flu, alas.
I should also add, just for the historical record, that the 5 were the only American band with the, uh, stones to play in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Party convention; they can be glimpsed here in government surveillance footage paid for by your tax dollars.
This is disturbingly relevant to our contemporary politics, is the point I'm making.
Alrighty then -- who would YOUR choices be?
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Beatles - my older sister's boyfriend worked on the grounds crew at Cleveland Stadium when they played there in '66 - for reasons I forget she did not go, but if she had, I would've liked to tag along!
Badfinger - I actually had tickets to see them open for the Faces at the Akron Rubber Bowl. The stupid bus driver on the bus I took from Cleveland got lost and we missed nearly all of their set!
Sept. 1, 1974,Cleveland Stadium - went to see big lineup, had to leave with a migraine after seeing Jesse Colin Young, missing then seeing the Band, Santana, and Crosby , Stills, NAsh and Young!
(BTW, I have seen the Gin Blossoms several times, including once in the studio recording a radio show. And if Buffalo Springfield schedules any east coast dates this year, I'll be there!))
Elvis Presley, June 1976.
Sure, he was a joke by then. And a sad joke that didn't deserve any laughter. But fuck-all, he was Elvis!!
[And I include Elvis as post-Beatles because the 1968 Elvis bore no meaningful relation to the pre-Beatles Elvis. And the 1976 Elvis wasn't, apparently, human]
[oh, the contemporaneous newspaper article I linked to above had a nice and charitable description of Elvis at the show: a William Conrad-figure wearing a Sonny Bono wig.
PS Wait, almost forgot: The Sex Pistols at the Alexandria Roller Rink, with (the) Razz as opening act. The Pistols were scheduled to make their first US appearance outside Washington DC at the Alexandria roller rink. DC's greatest band, (the) Razz [worth a blog post or two, I might tell 'ya] [Tommy Keene was a late addition before he became Tommy Keene]were set to open.
I was seventeen and had a hard-on usually reserved for
any woman within twenty feet
[but I digress]
about that show. And then the Pistols were lost to drug-related visa snafus. By the time they came to America, it was all long gone.
And yes, I saw the Pistols in the '90s, with great enjoyment. But come on. . . .
The Grateful Dead.
I spent all of my music loving 70s-90s, actively avoiding all things GD. I simply resisted because of my deep repulsion of "Casey Jones." Friends and family, at various times over all those years offered me tickets. One night, late 80s, my friend said, "I'll pick you up, drive you home, pay for your ticket, buy dinner, and all the beer you can drink...just come and see them with me once." I said no.
Since Jerry's death, I've come to not only appreciate the band, but genuinely love his guitar-playing, not to mention so many different things I thought I hated.
September of 1980, I was a newly-arrived college freshman in Pittsburgh. Bob Marley and the Wailers were playing the Stanley Theater, an incredible little venue that I grew to love. (Saw The Clash there, but I digress.) My roommate wanted to see the Wailers, as did I, but being a relatively impoverished college student, I didn't want to throw down the whopping ten dollars for the ticket. Yes, ten dollars. To appease my roommate, I said, "He'll come back. He tours all the time."
After the Pittsburgh show, Bob Marley collapsed backstage. He never took the stage again and died in May of '81. I could've been at the last ever Bob Marley and the Wailers concert. The show was just recently released on CD.
I kick myself for that one to this day.
MJ: Badfinger opening for The Faces? I thought lineups like that only ever occurred in dreams.
Muleboy: I live in the DC metro area now. The idea of the Pistols at a roller rink in Alexandria just blows my mind. Too bad it never happened.
When I was 11 years old I won tickets to see the Doors. I could not get my parents to drive me to the show. Heavy Sigh.
Had tickets to see Rockpile at the University of MD and they cancelled due to illness and then broke up.
Pretenders and The Jam were playing the same night in DC. No regrets about getting Pretenders tix (it was their first US tour) but never did get to see The Jam.
And I, too, missed the Pistols in Alexandria.
Would have loved to see Michael Nesmith playing in a DC club in 1975, but wasn't old enough.
XTC: I had friends in high school who turned me on to English Settlement *right after* the band played in Detroit for the last time (in 1981). I wish I had gone.
Jefferson Starship (before it became "Starship"): I love this band. Paul Kantner is one of my idols for some silly reason that I can never explain to anybody (and Craig Chaquicho's guitar work, too!) Never saw them live and I refuse to see whatever Mickey Thomas-fronting band he's in. I'd probably go see Kantner's band before he retires, but he never brings it out to the midwest, so...
While I have saw Zappa once in the early 80s, I regret not skipping the 1988 Tour when it came by (not knowing it would be his last tour.)
I saw The Replacements open for REM, but I regret skipping the famous Michigan Theater concert where Bob Stinson showed up late to the show.
I've seen the Pretenders, but never the original band and I regret that I didn't get into them until after James Honeyman-Scott died. He was a great guitarist who I would have loved to watch live.
Bands/artists who still tour who I love that I've never seen live either and keep passing by on the tickets and will most-likely regret not seeing them in the future: Neil Young (he's not getting any younger, either), Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, Sloan, Devo
er, I mean "I regret skipping the Zappa 1988 tour".
Not I regret not skipping...
Morphine. In the mid-late-90s my then-new girlfriend (now Mrs. Gummo) turned me on to them and I immediately loved their sound -- Velvet-Underground-meets-The-Dream-Syndicate-Meets-the-Doors-meets-Iggy all without any guitars!
Well, we skipped one opportunity to see them (don't remember the reason) figuring, ah, they play New York all the time.
Sadly, they never played New York again.
***
And when the Springfield announce their East Coast dates, I am sooo there.
Mister Muleboy Re: The Razz. Would hardly call them DC greatest, but they were fun and my gateway to punk/new wave. I ran the lights at the show at the Ontario Theatre when the Razz opened for the Ramones. Fond memories of that weird night.
You know, heretical as it may be to say it, I don't really regret not having seen the Beatles.
I went to the Batman/Young Rascals show at Shea Stadium in 1966, and I couldn't hear a damn thing even WITHOUT massive teen scream.
80s. Working in midtown. Lunch. Friend stops by. "I'm going over to Town Hall."
Me: "What's Up?"
"Paul McCartney's giving a press conference to launch Linda's frozen food line. I got passes. Wanna come?"
"I dunno."
"What do you mean you don't wanna go? it's just across the street."
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty busy."
"You're not coming?"
"No."
"You mean you wouldn't cross the street to see Paul McCartney? In person?"
"Not now."
Friend: Look of stunned disbelief. Shrugs and moves on. 'Course I'm sorry now.
I was in a hotel in San Francisco reading the newspaper late in the afternoon and it said there was a free outdoor "Odds" (right before they broke up)concert right down the road. Unfortunately it was a few hours earlier and I missed it. Should've picked up the paper earlier.
Oh, and the MC5, MAN! I coulda hung out with those guys. But their friends were scary assholes, and John Sinclair was an idiot. But what a band. Played with that MC5 guy from WAS not WAS some years later. He was a good guy.
The Doors at Steve Paul's Scene in the West 40s.
My brother & I had blown our dough on a Sly & the Family Stone show earlier in the evening & when we walked by Steve Paul's, we could hear The Doors playing.
"Should we go in?"
"Nah - we've spent enough money tonight."
Oh - & I went to the races at Saratoga rather than Woodstock. Still think that was the right decision.
Oh, and Tom Waits. When I lived in DC the few times he appeared he stayed on West Coast time, so the shows started about midnight.
He played at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham a couple of years ago, but I couldn't afford the tix.
I did however, see him eat breakfast at the Tropicana Hotel.
And though I've seen Springsteen numerous times, the two DC area shows I would have loved to have been there for were the time he walked on the tables at the Childe Harold, and when he opened for Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly at the UofMD. As I recall the last paragraph of the Wash Post review it went something like "Newcomer Bruce Springstein [sic] captured the energy these two old guys used to have."
Derek and the Dominos - show was cancelled due to illness (it would have been my first concert)
Died Pretty - it was our first night in Paris and we were bushed
Rodney Crowell - seen him before, but his recent bookreading/solo tour didn't spark any interest in me. Then I read the book.
John Stewart - he was in town on the same night as some alt act i went to see. Can't even remember the name of the band i saw instead.
Genesis in 1973, Selling England tour. Ticket office closed by the time I could persuade my dad into driving over there, possibly contributing to further parental resentment issues.
Joe Jackson, 1979. Too lazy or stoned to go downtown. Dammit.
Yep, Gin Blossoms. Club gig, had to work that evening. FML.
However, I've seen many excellent shows since so it all works out.
Marvin Gaye. He had a reputation (justified, from live recordings I've heard) for being erratic in concert, but that didn't stop me from seeing Aretha several times.
I'm not sure I ever remember having the chance to see Sam Cooke as a child, but he'd be my #1 regret.
Buffalo Springfield -- I grew up in Los Angeles, and saw local groups I cared much less about.
The all-time low. I had free tickets to go to The T.A.M.I. show and had to go to my friend's bar mitzvah instead. I still haven't gotten over it. Luckily, I had already seen James Brown twice as a little kid at the Shrine Auditorium.
You had tickets to the TAMI Show?
[weeps uncontrollably]
Mott the Hoople. In late 72, the "All the Young Dudes" tour came thru Mempho and several of my buddies said let's go. I had a hot date that night and blew off the concert.
Faces. The Clash.
I discovered Daddy Cool via RedTelephone, and I LOVE them...
I could have seen Doug Sahm at the House of Blues in Cambridge in the mid nineties. I was in Harvard Square that night anyway, and not only do I regret missing the show, I regret what I DID do that evening. But that's another story.
I attended the University of Georgia, in Athens, from 1978-1985. My regrets aren't for any particular show or act, but for the tragic waste of musical opportunities over the whole time.
Girlfriend's friend had tickets for Serious Moonlight tour. 2-hr drive in the rain. Skipped it. Dumb-ass.
Charles Brown played a small club in SF when I was there. For a week. I just wasn't up for the expense or the hassle. He died shortly thereafter. Dumb-ass.
Pretenders played downtown SF on new year's eve 1999. Friends from out of town didn't want to go. Stayed home. Fuck.
Along the same lines, I got tickets for the Stevie Vaughan - Jeff Beck tour back in '89. Called an old friend from college, who met me there. Beck came out first, and of course I whipped out my bag of primo greenbud, which we enjoyed for much of the set. After it was over, my friend got up, said he was going to get a drink, and never came back.
He told me he got too high and drove home. He missed the SRV set, his last tour ever. And it was really spectacular. DUMB-ASS!
Okay, I have a confession.
I was at the Elton John concert at the Garden where John Lennon came out for the encore and did "I Saw Her Standing There."
I hated Elton so much -- I was only there because I had free review tickets -- that I split the minute it was over, figuring the encore would be as bad as the rest of the show.
Along the same lines, I got tickets for the Stevie Vaughan - Jeff Beck tour back in '89.
At the Memphis in May festival in 1990, Johnny Winter played right before SRV. We had been there all day drinking beer and after Winter played a killer set, SRV was slow to come out, so we left. Oops.
That I split before the encore, is what I was trying to say.
I regret the imprecision.
:-)
The Five - absolutely! Same with the early Groovies. (I saw the early Chris Wilson version do Teenage Head on a local L.A. TV show in the early 70's & it was phenomenal. Like you, I saw the later Fabs-clone version a coupla times, but it wasn't the same.) I was lucky enough to see Daddy Cool twice - amazing both times!
I'd add the original Big Star to the list - I don't think they ever played on the west coast.
Had tickets to R.E.M during their Automatic for the People tour. I think that's when Bill Berry collapsed and they rescheduled the concert to Halloween night. I had two young kids and couldn't pass up their trick or treating, so I missed that show.
Just saw them a year or so ago, and they were very good but I bet the '95 tour would have been something.
By the way, nowhere near their prime but Buffalo Springfield has announced a tour, so maybe you can knock them off your list!
"You had tickets to the TAMI show?" My reaction, too. But what better excuse than a bar mitzvah.
In high school my one friend with a driving license asked me to go with him to see Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels doing a live radio concert at (I think) WPLJ. Passed on it.
The same friend, few years later, invited me up to Albany to see The Chris Hillman Band. Didn't feel like taking the bus. That group became Firefall, who I did eventually see and don't laugh, they were great. (No, it's okay, you can laugh.)
John Fahey, Joann Kelly and Woody Mann briefly had a trio, and I could have seen them in a hole/wall club on campus. Fahey was long an established guitar deity, but missing the chance to see this unusual lineup was just stupid.
A lot of great bands played my college but I hadn't heard of the groups billed as "A Night At CBGB's", lead act being Talking Heads, so I stayed home and watched Three's Company.
AP
Lee Dorsey. Loved him, made definite plans to go see a show (he performed fairly frequently around town), but felt tired on the night and declared "next time." He died not long after.
I did see the Pretenders with the original line-up, mentioned in a post above. Perhaps the fault of the venue (Tulane's McAlister Auditorium), but I could barely make out the songs amid the murk and sludge. But maybe this is all for another topic: Live performances that plainly showed the record to be a production triumph.
Muddy Waters (not post-Beatles? Who cares, it's Muddy flipping Waters) used to come through DC pretty regularly in the late '70's, I'm still kicking myself for invariably deciding to see him next time.
Also in the "next time" files, Lowell George's last show was literally around the corner from where I was living at the time, but we decided we needed to do a band practice instead.
I had tickets to that Rockpile show at UMD that didn't happen, too. And hooray for (the) Razz, who I DID see open for Patti Smith in one of the group of shows I refuse to try to rank as the absolute best I ever saw. The EP of theirs I bought that night is still in heavy rotation on the iPod.
How about concerts you went to but wish you hadn't?
I'm looking at you, Keith Jarrett.
1. Nirvana at the NY Coliseum. (Who knew?)
2. James Brown at MSG. (I thought he was too old to be worth seeing. Mistake.)
3. Galaxy 500 at Maxwells.
4. U2 at Momtreal Expo Stadium (Joshua Tree tour) (I worked at a record shop in Plattsburgh and we got free tickets but my coworker took his girl)
and my biggest regret of all:
5. Pink Floyd The Wall in 1980 (I was 13 and saw the big full page ad in the Sunday Times -- I kid you not -- and asked my mom to get me tickets. By the time she called, they were sold out.
I had tickets to that Rockpile show at UMD that didn't happen, too. And hooray for (the) Razz, who I DID see open for Patti Smith in one of the group of shows I refuse to try to rank as the absolute best I ever saw. The EP of theirs I bought that night is still in heavy rotation on the iPod.
Anonymous-- how fitting: (the) Razz recorded that four-song EP ( called Air Time) while opening for
Rocklike
at
The University of Maryland.
My future guitarist Tom was there, told me about it, and
the rest of my life was irrevocably changed. . . .
Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary said...
The Doors at Steve Paul's Scene in the West 40s.
I went to Steve Paul's Scene (I think I snuck in with a fake ID) but I have no fucking idea who I saw. Not a clue. Oddly enough, I remember what I was wearing.
I'm sorry I never saw the Talking Heads.
I passed on Cream when they played at my alma mater. Of course, they were late and the show started at 4 a.m., and I was never that big a fan, but still ...
I also passed on Janis Joplin when she played in the Boston area. All my friends went. What was I thinking?
I am, however, NOT sorry I didn't go to Woodstock, in spite of the massive display of talent there.
Rocklike
at
The University of Maryland.
The fucking iPhone "autocorrect" feature makes three times as much work for me to manually correct its autocorrections.
Razz opened for Rockpile, put out an EP of four songs from that show, and sold it later when Rockpile was busy canceling and breaking up.
I'm a waste of bandwidth. . . .
I did see Buddy Holly & the Crickets at Alan Freed shows at the Brooklyn Fox. Along with Jerry Lee, Bo, Chuck, Fats, ...
Wish I had gone to Monterey Pop. Was stationed at Travis in '67, and coulda, shoulda.
Wish I had caught the Dead at Winterland or Fillmore West. I did see them in GGPark with the Airplane.
Sorry I didn't catch the blues bug before Muddy passed.
Missed the Who on the 1975 "Back to Basics" tour because the show was 2 hrs away, I was too young to drive, and couldn't get anybody to take me - it wasn't sold out. Last chance to see them live before Keith Moon died.
When I got to college, people older than me were raving about Tim Curry (!) playing a local club a few months before; this was when I Do The Rock was out.
Had the opportunity to see Lou Reed in the late '80s but I didn't find out about the show until a few days before, and couldn't get a babysitter.
The one that DIDN'T get away: Pete Townshend at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2001 - a true once-in-a-lifetime show.
I missed REM in Detroit just after Reckoning was released. Only about half a dozen people showed up and allegedly the band bought beer for the audience. I was barely eighteen and didn't think I could get my sixteen year old girlfriend into the show, and the weather was bad anyway.
OK.
REM at the Powerhouse in Birmingham UK 1985: All my hipster buddies went, but I had no clue. Just to rub it in, I was given a tape of the show later. It was incredible. And it's on my blog BTW...
The Smiths: The Tower Ballroom - a 500 seater venue 1985. 'I'll get a ticket later - they won't sell out' They sold out.
Led Zep at the O2 Arena: Me and the rest of the world in the lottery for tickets. Result: ROW 1 Rushbo 0
Rain Parade: (see REM)
Morrissey 1988: Played his first solo gig for free...thats FOR FREE at a venue about 10 miles from where I lived. All you had to do was turn up in a Smiths T Shirt. Couldn't be bothered to get the train. Epic Fail on my part.
Beefheart's last tour, 1981 or 82. I was a college boy in Portland OR, where the tickets were slow to go. I couldn't go because I wasn't yet 21 and could not rock any convincing fake ID (still kinda baby faced at 48 but grizzling up fast.). Heard some of those shows were horrible and some were great. Not sure which way I'd like to think the one I couldn't see went.
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