My Stereophonic Travels-- Part the First
Doug Buseck suggested compiling a list of all the live shows I've seen. Try it, it fun!
Part the First: The Early Years
Genesis... the Starlight Bowl, Burbank (76)
My first concert cost $5 for lawn "seating." I remember a picnic atmosphere, lasers, illegal entry by fence climbers, and lots of dope. "Good evening, Pot Pickers," said Steve Hackett. Lots of costume changes, 3 movie screens, and some jokes from Steve and Phil.
PFM... The Golden Bear, Huntington Bch (77) They came all the way from Italy to make some noise for us.
Renaissance/Jon-Luc Ponty... The Greek Theatre (77) The sound was pretty bad that night.
Peter Gabriel... Roxy Theatre (78) I waited from 5:30 AM till 11:00 to buy tix in the Roxy pkg lot. Wireless mic madness.
Genesis ... The Forum (78) Lousy sound. Girlfriend dozed off. I never went to the Forum again unless the Kings were playing.
Rachel Sweet... Roxy (79) Cute girl. She had a different band than on the record. Kinda lame by comparison.
Horslips... The Whisky (79) They launched modern Irish rock. No Horslips= no Corrs or U2; Bono said so. Brilliant!
Shake the Tree... Clint Webber's House (8/26/79) They had a Clavinet I recall.
Part the First: The Early Years
Genesis... the Starlight Bowl, Burbank (76)
My first concert cost $5 for lawn "seating." I remember a picnic atmosphere, lasers, illegal entry by fence climbers, and lots of dope. "Good evening, Pot Pickers," said Steve Hackett. Lots of costume changes, 3 movie screens, and some jokes from Steve and Phil.
PFM... The Golden Bear, Huntington Bch (77) They came all the way from Italy to make some noise for us.
Renaissance/Jon-Luc Ponty... The Greek Theatre (77) The sound was pretty bad that night.
Peter Gabriel... Roxy Theatre (78) I waited from 5:30 AM till 11:00 to buy tix in the Roxy pkg lot. Wireless mic madness.
Genesis ... The Forum (78) Lousy sound. Girlfriend dozed off. I never went to the Forum again unless the Kings were playing.
Rachel Sweet... Roxy (79) Cute girl. She had a different band than on the record. Kinda lame by comparison.
Horslips... The Whisky (79) They launched modern Irish rock. No Horslips= no Corrs or U2; Bono said so. Brilliant!
Shake the Tree... Clint Webber's House (8/26/79) They had a Clavinet I recall.
posted by Pat the Cat at 8:29 PM
2 Comments:
The number of shows and the numbers at the shows make it a difficult task to remember all the shows I've attended -- plus I'm just old. However, I'll give you the twenty best (in no particular order).
--Pink Floyd's "The Wall" - Sports Arena
--Quadrophenia The Who at the Forum -- opening act Lynyrd Skynyrd.
--Rage Against the Machine -- Universal Amp. -- I've never seen an audience so close to chaos without actually stepping over that line.
--Bob Dylan and the Band at the Forum.
--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- Universal Amp. - when it was still outside.
--Peter Gabriel at the Greek -- When he laid himself into the audience and was passed around ("I go Swimming"??), even passing over where we were sitting in the back of the front section.
--Metallica - Black Album tour - Forum.
--Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band -- Forum
--Rolling Stones - Forum
--Led Zeppelin - Long Beach Arena
--Jimi Hendrix - Forum - opening act Chicago Transit Authority AKA Chicago, before Terry Kath left the band and the world.
--U2 - US Festival -- First time is always the best in the case of a band like this, yet they still don't disappoint.
--Springsteen -- pick a show -- they all are a cut above everyone else.
--Three Dog Night, Roxy Music, Country Joe and the Fish (and a couple of other bands) -- Long Beach Arena -- New Years Eve 1969-70. I know you don't believe that bill. Well it's true and I've even got a KNAC commercial for that show that I'll send you if you think I'm lying. For this show I tried out a NEW way to buy tickets -- rather than going to the actual box office -- I got them through Ticktron. (I told you I was old) I got front row seats.
--Black Crowes - Greek Theatre - 3rd row.
--X and the Blasters -- at the Whisky
--Tubes -- Roxy -- No theatrics -- just music. Handed out ballots as you came in to vote for the set list. Ballot said "Do not vote for White Punks On Dope, because we'll do that one anyway"
--Flo and Eddie and The Credibility Gap -- The Roxy
--Rockpile - Country Club
--Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul - Roxy.
M
Here's an amendment to my original list.
This was less about the artist (although he's great) and more about the setting and circumstance.
Alice Cooper - at a Hollywood sound stage -- full staging and theatrics.
I was at KNAC at the time and the PD who became a great friend (Bryan Schock, who I also went to Woodstock with in '94), had been invited to a "dress rehearsal" for Alice's tour. It was a group of no more than 30 people on folding chairs right in front of the stage. Bryan and I sat right next to a barrel full of iced beer and took in the show. The only weird thing about it was that it was concert "loud" except at the end of the song when there was only 30 people responding, instead of the massive audience you would normally hear. Very strange.
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