Wish I had seen (and was alive and old enough to have been able to): Nirvana Danzig (lineup from the first three albums) Emperor A Tribe Called Quest No Justice Sex Positions Sunny Day Real Estate Weezer (with Matt Sharp) That Dog xFilesx 86 Mentality Gaunt Grinderman Texas is the Reason Unwound Really glad I was able to see: Kungfu Rick (although they sporadically do reunions) Seven Days of Samsara (although they are kinda sorta still together) The White Stripes Reggie and the Full Effect Convicted Expired Youth RL Burnside Best shows: Expired Youth's last show Modern Life is War in a tiny basement classroom at DePaul University Captured By Robots doing their Ten Commandments show White Stripes right after they started getting big
I saw Nirvana open for L7.Metallica on the Ride the Lightning tour in 1984.Big Black at Leeds Poly.Fugazi at Lafayette Park.De La Soul on their three feet high and rising tour.Beastie Boys opening for Rollins.Too many good DJ's to mention aswell. Wish I would have seen any of these US HxC shows from 1981 - 1983: Minor Threat, SS Decontrol or Black Flag. The guy opposite me at work saw the first two tone tour: Specials, Madness and Selecter which would have been amazing. I also regret not going to AC/DC at Donnington.
Mm I saw acdc at donning ton, and was nearly murdered after the show by a bunch of moronic bikers who thought kicking the shit out of a long haired 90 pound kid was a good time. Evil morons. Took me a while to go a festival after that. Anyhow, easier for me to list bands Im glad I saw before they imploded: Nirvana - 4 times in all, first time opening for Tad in a dingy basement. Had Tix for a fifth but Kurt ended it a month before. MBV Husker Du Sugar Diamond head Any pixies show Naked Raygun Sound garden Spacemen 3 Gun club Og Stone roses OG lineup van halen House of love OG napalm death The Darkness ... So much fun live Sex Pistols Pale saints Cocteau twins Psychic tv The cult Balsam and the angel OG sisters of mercy lineup Flesh for lulu Screaming trees smashing pumpkins w Darcy Garbage Ride Slowdive Echobelly March violets Swervedriver Elastica Lush Pulp Blur Manic street preachers with Richie Shop assistants The primitives Bands I'm sad I never saw: Smiths - they played my college freshmans ball, and I didn't go cos I was metal...sigh ISIS - kept thinking next time The Ramones The clash The jam There must be more...but it's late and I can't think straight. I just came back for X the Avengers and dead Kennedy's show. skip skipster or whether his name is was the most entertaining man if ten show, and the avengers really brought it. Wow.
I grew up in Newark, Delaware and was born in 75'. It was the hub of classic rock and metal when I was young. Led Zepplin Motley Crue (pre theater of pain years) Black Sabbath AC/DC (the original lineup) Metallica (the Cliff Burton years) Pink Floyd Miles Davis (the fusion era) Bands my wife, and or friends have turned me onto: Joy Division Black Flag (rollins era) Ringworm Helmet Govt Issue The Cramps Lunachicks Bad Luck 13
Best shows I've been to: Pulp This is Hardcore era Moz - seen him about 15 times, The "Your Arsenal" show was the best for me Fugazi -all of the shows I went to were great seeing RHCP/Smashing Pumpkins (Gish era)/Pearl Jam (ten era) all on one bill for $15 The first Lollapalooza (minus Siouxise, she was sick in Boston ) Promise Ring Bad Religion at the Middle East in Cambridge Sleater Kinney at a fruit warehouse during SxSW Scariest shows ever (I was 15 for both) Suicidal Tendencies/Exodus/Pantera - for many reasons Sepultura/Napalm Death/Sacred Reich Happy I got to see Original GNR lineup when they opened for Aerosmith in 1988 Best show memory Seeing Less Than Jake with my boyfriend, they spun their "Price is Right" style wheel, and ended up playing his favorite album in it's entirety. Good. Times.
Bands I'm lucky to have seen: Instead Rorschach Born Against Refused (2 days before they broke up in a tiny hall, they tore the place up) Into Another Ice Burn Body Count Nirvana Acrid Anal Cunt Bands I will never see: Judge Smiths (have seen Moz 3 times) Band I'm stoked to see again: Sheer Terror in Miami soon
Bands ill never see... Refused The Cramps Misfits (original line up) Dead Kennedys (original line up) Daughters AxCx Thursdsay Smiths ...and there is plenty more where that came from.
so i have taken from this that... i also wish i had seen: the jam the specials blur de la soul Kid Dynamite sex positions Sunny Day Real Estate (should have went to phoenix for that diary tour) and og napalm death (hate you carl) But im glad i have seen: GNR (w/metallica tour) admittedly i was like 6 lol but it was awesome white zombie thursday Napalm Death period lol powerman 5000 (dont judge they were awesome live when i was in middle school) bane comeback kid MOZ mastodon ISIS Mindless Self Indulgence Tiger Army Nekromantix Modest Mouse Bad Brains Shai Hulud AFi (old AFI) Agnostic Front Madball Pantera Morbid Angel Cannibal Corpse Krs One Bad Religion Descendents Alkaline Trio Baroness with honor ... And oh my god i didnt know sheer terror was still playing id be all about that there probably other stuff in the hxc era i dont remember seeing but blessedxcursed could help me there i imagine
SHUT UP!!!!! thats Fuckin AWESOME!!! that band is like my heart man them and ceremony and trash talk thats my shit edit: that said i hope its more like the early stuff and less like black eye blues... more dirty less metally
Reading this is great. I forgot to add Pulp to my list of bands I'm glad I saw. I saw em a bunch of times, but never better than around the peak of their powers/popularity when Commom People was a huge hit and the indie kids united in pure joy at their shows..At this point they were 17 yrs in, which says something about today's fast forward new is best culture; give em time to grow. The whole blur oasis challenge was stupid but fun. Oasis took the numbers, but blur took the long term. So many other great bands. It's funny, but I've always felt I had a handle on great stuff, but lately I'm afflicted with whothefuckarethey syndrome. Either I'm getting old, or the new music model and my lack of blog reading is catching up to me. Only band I'm excited to see was old punk last night, and my favorite newish bands The Joy Formidable ( check em out PLEASE) and Zola Jesus.
Carl your "saw" list is very impressive. I wish I'd seen Swervedriver. Another "glad I saw" that I forgot to mention is Violent Femmes. I got dragged kicking and screaming to see them at The I-Beam in SF. For some reason I didn't think I liked them. Stupid! From the get-go when the band marched through the audience blowing on conch shells, I was blown away. One of the best live bands I'd seen to that point ... they were very on-edge ... it seemed like things could go wrong at any second but never did. I came and saw them again the following night, totally won over. There's nothing like getting over your own (wrong) bad attitudes! Also Mojo Nixon with Skid Roper at the Fillmore. Pure fun, great rapport with the audience. Red Hot Chili Peppers (also at the I-Beam) right after their first album came out. For an encore they came out nude and played their cover of Hendrix' "Fire" which just about set the club on fire. If only they'd maintained that intensity, but then, few do. More very bad shows (sorry EBM freaks): Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Severed Heads. How impressive to see all your music coming out of a preprogrammed keyboard while you jump around onstage. On the other hand Chris and Cosey played heavily pre-sequenced music live but somehow their shows came across as very thoughtful and poignant. PsychicTV, um, not so much. Love ya Gen but love beads and ecstasy did not become you.
Never saw: Original Misfits Best show: Ramones at the Hampton beach casino ballroom. Hardly anyone there. Danzig/Samhain reunion show. Well it was a good show until Glenn called the audiance dicks and refused to play Mother. It was funny at least.
Add Guns N Roses (appetite for destruction lineup) and that's what i'll never get to see that I wish I could.. Is Led Zeppelin still touring? if not add that to the list. I envy the people that got to see the beatles perform, especially during their later albums (abbey road, let it be, etc) and at the rooftop.
Ah yes, someone mentioned it. Metallica when Cliff Burton was still alive . Damn it that guy was a beast on bass.
