The aforementioned Autosalvage -- including all four original members -- rehearsing for a reunion gig they did at SXSW in 2012.
Way cool on a lot of levels, and what I wouldn't have given to attend the actual show.
Which leads us, as I'm sure you've guessed, to the business at hand (and apologies if I've done something like this before). To wit:
...and your favorite post-Elvis band (or solo artist) in any genre that you never got to see and it has bugged you ever since is...???
Oh, and in case you're wondering -- my choice is a tie. Between these guys...
I actually had tickets for a Springfield show in, if memory serves, 1968, but at the last minute I got sick and couldn't go.
Boy, was I pissed. Although I was more pissed in 2011 when that rat bastard Neil Young pulled the plug on the Springfield reunion tour before it got to NYC. Fuck you, Neil, and your highly overrated work ethic.
...and these younger guys.
I totally flipped over the GBs when their breakthrough album (the classic New Miserable Experience) came out in 1992 -- I might as well have been genetically programmed to dig their combination of wistful romanticism, punk and jangle -- and courtesy of A&M Records I was on the guest list for a weeknight show they were doing at CBGBs in support of it. But I figured -- rightly, as it turned out -- that they wouldn't hit the stage until the witching hour (when it would be fashionable), and at the point I was already too old for such an exertion and stayed home.
Which I have regretted ever since.
Okay, what would YOUR choice(s) be?
And have a great weekend, everybody!!!
I did not go to the Raspberries reunion concert (with the Knack opening) for reasons I can't remember now -- and it's bothered me ever since.
ReplyDeleteI also did not see Zappa on his last tour figuring he'd just come around again, but, of course, he never did...
I'm glad both were captured on Live albums, though. That helped.
I never think of myself as that big of a live show guy, and I don't go to many anymore. But as I thought about this, I have seen most of the bands that I would have put on this list. I saw the Kinks and Van Morrison do crappy shows and I wish I'd seen both of them on better nights/tours. But I never saw:
ReplyDeleteMoby Grape
Sloan
Gomez
XTC
Faces
Kirsty MacColl
Semisonic
Calexico
Nothing unusual on my list, just the obvious:
ReplyDeleteNumero Uno is The Beatles, of course. I have a friend who actually saw them at Shea as a 9 year old kid, and I will hate him forever for that! OTOH, I have seen all 4 solo (if you count seeing John at an anti-war rally in the early 70s), so there's that.
I was ready to pay anything to see the Velvet Underground on the 1993 reunion tour but that fell apart before they ever got to the U.S. Dammit, Lou!
Same for the Springfield reunion.
We were planning to see Morphine when the group's leader died. That hurt, they were great.
The Beatles, The Move/Roy Wood, and Jellyfish.
ReplyDeleteSeems like there are two categories here: bands I wish I had seen, but never got the chance; and times when I could have seen them, but I (or they) blew it.
ReplyDeleteIn the latter category is this: the wife and I were traveling in our RV about a decade ago and we were in Arizona. It was March, and being a big baseball fan, I found a spring training game for the Chicago White Sox, who do their spring training there.
We went to the game and were sweltering in the sun in the stands of the stadium. The game went long.
At the end of it, they announced that the Gin Blossoms, some of whom I believe are from Arizona, were going to play a set for anybody who wanted to stay. Obviously it would take some time to clear away the baseball players and set up the band’s equipment. I was just so exhausted by the heat that I couldn’t bear the thought of staying another couple of hours in those seats. So we left, and went back to the air conditioner in our RV.
I didn’t regret it at the time, but I have ever since.
The Only Ones
ReplyDeleteRockpile (I saw Nick once and Dave once, but not together).
Jeff Beck (I was slow to buy on his last tour and it sold out. He died a few months later).
801
Pylon
Jimi
- Paul in DK
some friends and i went to a king crimson/procol harum show - we walked out on the latter - i regretted it afterwards, but at the time we were too dazzled by the first show and p.h. paled by comparison - at the time I thought it would have been better for the order of acts to have been reversed
ReplyDeletefrom Wikipedia:
"Maud Muller" is a poem from 1856 written by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). It is about a beautiful maid named Maud Muller. One day, while harvesting hay, she meets a judge from the local town. Each is smitten with the other. The judge thinks that he would like to be a local farmer married to Maud, while she thinks that she would like to be the wealthy judge's wife.
Neither voices these thoughts, however, and both the judge and the maiden move on. The judge marries a woman of wealth whose love for him is based on his riches. Maud Muller marries a young uneducated farmer. Throughout the rest of their lives, each remembers the day of their meeting and remorsefully reflects on what might have been.
This poem contains the well-known quotation: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"
Just in case you don't know- the Gin Blossoms are back on tour:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ginblossoms.net/tour
Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, James Brown at The Apollo, Little Feat, The Allman Brothers with Duane
And I second the Move.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't familiar with them when they toured; once I became a fan, I would have killed....
When the Beatles played Cleveland Stadium, my older sister's boyfriend worked for the ground crew and said he could get her in - silly her didn't go and take me with her.
ReplyDeleteNever saw the Kinks - but I've seen Ray and Dave solo.
Regarding the Gin Blossoms (agree NME is a classic lp), I've seen them several times and got to be in a recording studio with them for a local radio broadcast (1/2 hour show). Checkout Jesse Valenzuala's solo works and his album with Craig Northey of the Odds.
I was lucky enough to see the Beatles at Shea in '65 and '66, so that obviously makes up for not seeing Bruce when he played the Bottom Line in 1975. I lived around the corner and walked past there every day during his gig there, and said, "Oh, I'll catch him next time." There wasn't a next time. I've seen him a few times since, but that still irritates me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I didn't get tickets to see "American Idiot" on Broadway during the week Billy Joe was in it.
Otis' plane went down a few months before he was scheduled to play my alma mater ...
Kinks - I've seen Ray a couple of times, and Dave once, but it would have been nice to have seen the whole band.
Sly and the Family Stone
Aretha
I had tickets to see Rockpile at the UMd, but someone suffered a hand injury and the show got cancelled.
ReplyDeleteHad to choose between Pretenders first tour and the Jam. Chose the Pretenders, but wish I could have seen both.
I guess I may still have a chance to see Tom Waits, but he's getting pretty old.
Wasn't old enough to see Michael Nesmith in concert when he played one of the clubs in DC.
Had to choose between seeing Bowie for the first time or the Talking Heads. Chose Bowie, hoping for another chance that never came for the Talking Heads.
Future Wifey and I were going to see the Replacements outdoor gig at Grant Park, Chicago. It was raining, so we wimped out and said we'd see them the next time they came around. Of course, that turned out to be the famous gig where they broke up on stage!
ReplyDelete3 things -
ReplyDelete1. Sex Pistols - I had tickets for their Pittsburgh show,was excited to see them. Unfortunately they broke up the show prior to Pitt
2. Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran. Once again I had tickets. As we were approaching the Pay Per View venue the doors opened and a rush of people came running out yelling Hit Man In Three
3.The Doors in New Haven
This was the exposure/arrest concert
Later I spoke with a guy who's band was hired to open A very common practice in NH to give
local bands exposure (whoops)
Anyhow he was backstage after their set and saw Morrison and the Cops getting into it.
Apparently Jim was with an underage girl in the shower room making out with her.
There's one or two more but enough for now
rob
Oh yeah - the most famous of all
ReplyDeleteWe had tickets to Woodstock
Parked our 65 Mustang Convertible (black/black) in the closed highway and walked
about 6 miles in the rain , thru the town of Walkill the cupboards were bare and we finally made it to the front entrance - the mob of people trying to get in was nuts.
We turned around, walked back to our dry car and stopped off at a truck stop for some hot
coffee - we had a cute young waitress and I gave her my ticket
rob
This is only shows I might have realistically seen, not counting stuff like the Beatles, Traffic, Cream, Hendrix, ABB with Duane, etc., that I was definitely too young for.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest regret: The Who’s last tour before Keith Moon’s death, I was a barely-teen just getting into music. They were playing in the Big City a couple of hours away from the tiny rural town where I grew up, but:
* I couldn’t drive yet
* None of my friends could drive
* None of my or my friends’ parents or siblings who could drive were interested
* There was no public transportation available
* I didn’t feel comfortable trying to hitchhike ;-/
So I missed the show. Curiously enough, I’ve seen the Who with every one of their tour drummers EXCEPT Keith Moon: Kenny Jones in 1982, Simon Phillips in 1979, Scott Devours in 2013 (he took over on a few hours notice from Zak Starkey when Zak came down with debilitating tendinitis during the Quadrophenia and More tour, and played Quadrophenia on the strength of one run-through, and did great), and three time with Zak Starkey - 2016, 2019, 2022.
A couple of others:
Missed a chance to see Chris Whitley around 2002 or so; he passed in 2005.
Rockpile never got anywhere close to where I was living.
Some that I did manage to see:
Warren Zevon twice, Steve Winwood four times, Neil Young twice (but the second time, with Crazy Horse no less, was a total suckfest), Peter Gabriel, R.E.M. twice, Talking Heads, Richard Thompson a dozen or so times, Joe Walsh twice, Eagles once (1977 on Hotel California tour, say what you will about them but it was a really good show), Chris Isaak three times (great showman!), Dwight Yoakam (ditto), SRV three times, Fabulous Thunderbirds three times, David Lindley twice, the real ELO twice (not “Jeff Lynne’s ELO” without Bev Bevan on the pagan skins), Michael Hedges three times…about the only stinkers were that one Neil Young show, and Billy Squier opening for the Who in 1982.
Two great early 1990's bands that were gone by 1995 before I had a chance to see them:
ReplyDeleteCrash Vegas
Blood Oranges.
Captain Al
"Missed a chance to see Chris Whitley around 2002 or so; he passed in 2005."
ReplyDeleteI used to see him all the time at Kenny's Castaways (which is where the Floor Models were one of the house bands) in the mid-80s. Whitley was a waiter/maitre d' there when he wasn't performing,
Steve, thanks for the Whitley anecdote! I’m not particularly sentimental about people I don’t know, but Whitley’s untimely death (he was only 45!) really got to me; there’s something about those first four albums in particular that took up residence in my soul and it hit me hard when he passed.
ReplyDeleteAnd your post reminded me of a few others I missed and regret it:
Lou Reed - he actually played a show close to my at-the-time stomping ground, but I had to travel out of town for work on that day, and couldn’t make the show. This would have been in the late ‘80s. Never had another chance.
Willy DeVille - another one whose death hit me hard. I don’t know if I would have heard of him without your review of Coup de Grace in TMFKASR, although I might have seen him on his SNL musical guest slot around that time. But if he ever played around somewhere I was, I never heard about it.
The Smithereens - I had maybe a couple of chances over the years, then Pat DiNizio passed away (which also hit me hard); I know it’s not the same without out him, but I’m hoping the remaining members make it out to the Left Coast for a show with a guest vocalist - they’ve had some interesting people tackling that role. They have done or are doing some festival out here, but it’s like 3 hrs away, and I don’t do festivals anyway.
Had a chance to see Gram Parsons with Emmylou at Michigan State U. Decided to go to a party instead figuring that I would catch them on their next tour. (Insert sad trombone here.)
ReplyDeleteMr. Minimac
I was home from college over Christmas 1977-78, and had small-venue tickets to see the Lowell George era Little Feat. But we had been to see Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Ely, and Omar & the Howlers in two weeks (yeah, Dallas/Fort Worth didn’t suck in the 1970’s) and my best friend begged me to sell them to him….
ReplyDeleteMissed Little Feat in St Pete... George died a year later.
ReplyDeleteRamones in Chicago. Didn't purchase tickets in time and they sold out. Saw Squeeze that night instead which was a decent consolation prize.
ReplyDeleteFountains of Wayne in London. Had bought the tickets ahead of the show and set them aside, but got the dates mixed up. What an idiot!
I haven't missed many. I got around and was pretty resourceful. But here are some I wished I would have seen. Some of these artists never did gigs near me but I wish they did.
ReplyDeleteSmall Faces –
John Coltrane - oh how I wish I would have gone with my beloved uncle
Original lineup of Big Star - although I may have seen them in a bar in Memphis and not known it or paid much attention. Me and Sandy were on a transcontinental run ridin' on back of two guys' choppers. We were all really fucked up at the time. So maybe it was, maybe not. Either way, it doesn't count.
Nilsson
Eddie Hinton (solo)
Fairport Convention (with Sandy)
? & the Mysterians
Caravan at the Starwood
The Left Banke
Gram Parsons (solo) - saw him with Byrds and they sounded great. - many times with FBB.- never did a West Coast solo gig.
Lulu
Professor Longhair
Bobby Charles
Gene Pitney
Karen Dalton
Sandie Shaw
Pink Fairies
Walker Brothers
Le Orme
Concert for Bangladesh - made tentative plans to go to both shows but elected not to get scalped. Instead, we flew to the Bay Area and saw the Faces in Berkeley. That is, after we scored Zeppelin tickets in L.A, for their Forum gig. They just went on sale that morning.
re: Buffalo Springfield - the reunion was pretty mediocre. Joe Vitale is no Dewey Martin. Phil Jones or Chad Cromwell would have been better to lock in with Rick Rosas. Tempos were slower. The modest rearrangements did nothing to make the tunes better. Any bite or growl was of the low-t variety. Which is not to say that people didn't appreciate the nostalgia and/or getting their Springfield cherries popped.
re: Gin Blossoms - In 1992 I saw them open for the Neville Brothers and, on an earlier occasion, opening for Toad the Wet Sprocket. 1994 they were co-billed with Spin Doctors and Cracker. Never saw then again. Their shit started sounding all the same.
VR
Paul Westerberg - For a while in the late 90s/early 2000s, it seemed like he came to Toronto (where I live) once a year. I always meant to go but never did. Now it's been a long time since he did a gig here.
ReplyDeleteBernard Purdie - The session drummer extraordinaire did a clinic/show at a venue in Toronto's west end around 2007. I'm a huge fan and really wanted to see him but I was coming down with a bad cold that day and could barely stand up by the time the evening rolled around. After much agonizing, I decided to go home. A few days later when I got back to work, two of my co-workers were raving about how good the show was.
Urge Overkill - This isn't a huge regret but... I went to a show in 1995 where they were the headliners and Guided By Voices were the opening act. I was there to see GBV ("Alien Lanes" tour) and they were GREAT !! For no really good reason, I felt kind of dismissive of the Urge O and didn't stay to see their set, which, in retrospect, I feel was a bit unfair of me (and a bit of a waste of money).
Oh, I forgot, Autosalvage. But not the old guys rehearsing on the video. Wish I'd never seen that.
ReplyDeleteOnes that got away:
I'd seen Buck Owens many, many times, mostly at the Palomino. With and post Don Rich. Saw him last at the Hollywood House of Blues 1998. However, the last time I was supposed to see him was in 1999. The famed Crazy Horse in Santa Ana was closing its doors and moving to a new location. For the final night, Buck Owens was gonna do two shows to play them out. I bought 3 tickets for each show. I loved that club, its intimacy, its funky location and its vibe. Conveniently, there was a motel in the adjacent parking lot as well. After two decades they decided to relocate to some snazzy new mall in Irvine. Turned out to be a big mistake and they went broke a few years later.
Anyway, for the final show at the old digs, Buck Owens got sick and had to cancel. The club said they would still have a farewell show with Buck as soon as he got better. But it never happened. Their lease was up before Buck could re-schedule. I still have the six unused tickets as a memento for the Grand Farewell that never happened. An omen, perhaps.
Also bought tickets for a Willie Nelson-Gregg Allman co-bill that never got off the ground.
And a Patti Smith mid-90's show in Vegas that got canceled for lack of sales
In my prime I was seeing between 150 & 200 shows a year. So there were a lot of cancellations, postponements and bill changes.
Jeff Beck Group and Moby Grape come to mind when it comes to cancellations. Both at the Palm Springs Pop Festival which featured two concerts over two days at two different locations. I had a great time despite the no shows. The great thing about the cancellations was that the Burritos and Procol Harum filled in their slots, respectively. We camped out in one of the local canyons. It was a bikini weekend with temps in the mid-80’s to low 90’s. We swam in the creek, made love on the rocks and sunbathed the entire Easter break. The cops kept flying over the canyon in their helicopter to check us out. I heard there was some trouble outside the 2nd day’s venue between youths with no tickets and the cops. Some would say, a riot. This was the era when hippies were considered dirty, filthy, drugged-out subhumans. And the cops really were pigs. The vibe inside the venue was good and so was the music for the 5000 or so attendees. The first day of the festival took place at the site of a drive-in theater. The marquee read “Welcome to the Palm Springs Pot Festival, Come high. Stay high.”
VR
P.S. That Byrds show I saw with Gram was truly outstanding but a lot of people in the crowd were confused by the country turn. Jay Dee Maness was playing pedal steel. Oddly, the opening band was The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Nobody knew anything about them. It was months before "Fire" broke and the album was released in America. I thought they were great too. But a lot of people in the Byrds crowd initially booed them. The same jerks who were uncomfortable with the Byrds new country direction.
ReplyDeleteRe: The Move – saw them at the Whisky on their late show. Sandy and I hitchhiked from a Dan Hicks & and His Hot Licks gig at Ledbetter’s in Westwood. The Hicks show started earlier than we thought it would. We were fucking around at the beach all day and figured that no show ever starts on time. Wrong. We missed the opening act – Karen Dalton. Thus, her inclusion on my list. The Hot Licks were much better live than the record. This was the pre-Naomi/Maryann line-up.
We were regulars at the Whisky and it was late, so we got waved in. We didn’t go there to see the Move. In fact, we had no idea they were even playing. We just went there to hang out. Ledbetter’s was kind of an uncool place, by and large. So, we jetted to Elmer’s to see if anything was cookin’. We had no frame of reference for them at the time. Other than I Can Hear the Grass Grow and Flowers In the Rain, which got moderate AM airplay around here. We were bowled over. Lotsa covers, but man did they make ‘em their own! Much harder than I thought they’d be. Definitely near the top of the concerts I’ve seen. Mind blowing! Fantastic! What a surprise!. And we didn’t even know it was going down till we thumbed to the strip. Quite frankly, even if we had known they were playing, it wouldn’t have been a top priority. We just didn’t know. Carl was still there but Rick Price was on bass. A few days after the concert I went to Gillette’ s Records and had Doug special order the import LP & EP. Several months later along came Shazam!
Mr. Minimac –
Was that Gram Parsons show you missed at MSU one where he opened for the Eagles? I met a guy at a bar at O’Hare Airport who mentioned that show to me. Turned out we were on the same flight. We swapped stories on the flight to California. It was a 747 with a cocktail lounge. Fun flight. He kept buying me double bourbon rocks. He said Lester Flatt was also part of the show.
VR