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Rory had a beat up old tweed Fender Twin set on a metal folding chair, his 59 Strat with a couple spots that still had finish on them and mostly just greasy gray wood plugged straight in.

He was on fire, he totally killed it. Deep Purple was awesome but Rory ate their lunch. Shit, he ate all their lunches.

 

I would sell my mother to the Taliban to have had the chance to see Rory Gallagher live!

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Black Sabbath (with Ozzy)

ELP (about 4 times)

Yes (with Rick Wakeman)

Jean Luc Ponty

Jan Hammer

Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band

Tori Amos

Weather Report (with Jaco)

Tangerine Dream (Optical Race tour, jaw-dropping Vari-Lite effects)

Chick Corea (with Steve Gadd)

Philip Glass Ensemble

Kronos Quartet

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

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My best memories of concerts:

 

Yes in the round on the Drama tour. Still love that album and that version of the band.

 

1981, Rush on the Moving Pictures/Exit Stage Left tour; their set was great, but their fellow Canadian band FM, which opened for them, was amazing and wowed the crowd. Looking down at the stage with binoculars, I suddenly saw Geddy Lee just offstage leaning against part of the PA, watching them raptly.

 

Asia, first tour, Pittsburgh (Stanley Theater?), their very first live show in a big city. Tremendous performance that did a lot to remind folks of what these musicians could do rather than what their LP demonstrated.

 

Allan Holdsworth's band in the Decade, a Pittsburgh bar with a storied history of hosting gazillions of world-class acts (one of the most famous early band portraits of the Police has Stewart Copeland in a Decade T Shirt). There's a big structural pillar right in the middle of the front of the stage. The lead singer was obviously nonplused by it, so he ended up leaning against it while singing.

 

Laurie Anderson at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1982... one of the only two full performances ever of United States I-IV. I was at the one that wasn't turned into the live album. Absolutely freaky-good showmanship.

 

Nash the Slash opening for Iggy Pop. Great set, low-fi budget gear with great tones... we left when Iggy came out.

 

Tangerine Dream, 1986, Underwater Sunlight tour. Their first tour with Paul Haslinger, who would become a professional acquaintance of mine in later years. Great optical effects, and they were still playing their instruments at that point. :D

 

Weird Al Yankovic on the Dare To Be Stupid tour in a little tiny bar in Pittsburgh. Same band he has now, incredibly tight. Doctor Demento opened. (!)

 

The Bobs, same bar, their first tour with Joe Bob after Gunnar Bob retired. We were having a birthday party at a table in the front row, and cut slices of cake for the band that we left on the edge of the stage. They were stunned, but thanked us after the show.

 

Utopia on the POV tour. I think they were opening for the Tubes? Their entire rig was portable. Willie Wilcox was wheeled out in his custom electronic drum rig that looked like a carnival spaceship ride. Kasim Sulton, Todd Rundgren, and Roger Powell were all on long umbilical cables and would wander all over the stage as they played, careful not to get their cables tangled. Each had a little mic on a clip attached to his instrument strap right at the shoulder, that they would flip near the chin to sing and out of the way when not.

 

King Crimson on the Discipline tour, October 31 in Pittsburgh (in Halloween costumes, even Fripp) and November 1 in Oberlin (a concert that Fripp described as one of his favorites in his entire career). This was the first time this lineup was on stage, and they were amazing. No fancy lights, no stage dressing, just amazing musicians.

 

Victor Wooten on the What Did He Say? tour with JD Blair as a duet. Oh my god. Just oh my god. JD Blair had a tiny kit -- kick, snare, hat, ride, one tom, and a Roland SPD that I think he hit ONCE in the show -- and got more different and beautiful sounds out of it than most prog rock drummers. At one point, a drunk in the front row stuck his finger in the mouth of an empty beer bottle, put a finger from the other hand on the bottom, turned it horizontal, and held it up to JD in the middle of a song, and without missing a beat, JD leaned over and played it like an agogo bell in a Latin ensemble.

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But when someone says "favorite concert moment" what pops into your head?

Well I did mention The Beatles :rimshot:

 

Besides, Every one I mentioned was more than memorable. I left off Barry Manilow, Don Mcclean and countless others.

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Too many to mention here.

 

My favorite concert memory occured in summer 1981. My band had the night off. I knew Genesis was playing at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, but I didn't have a ticket. On a hunch, I drove to Forest Hills, parked my car and saw a guy inside the stadium fence who offered me a $20 ticket. I paid the $20, got inside and it was a perfect summer night for a concert. Genesis was at their peak. Duke was their current album and they also played Suppers Ready in its entirety. Best $20 ticket ever.

 

Someday I'll tell you about a J. Geils Band groupie I met during a 1975 hitchhiking trek through Canada and how she got me backstage passes for a J. Geils concert in Montreal.

Steve Coscia

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Boston, Walk On Tour. Having never seen them before I was pumped, although a little disappointed that Brad Delp had left the band. Imagine my surprise when he walked on to the stage! Evidently he had rejoined. With all the interwebby connectivity, such wonderful surprises would be unlikely to happen today.
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But when someone says "favorite concert moment" what pops into your head?

Well I did mention The Beatles :rimshot:

 

Besides, Every one I mentioned was more than memorable. I left off Barry Manilow, Don Mcclean and countless others.

 

Yeah - I as well consider myself very fortunate to have seen The Beatles live, although I wasn't so sure at the time. Unless you've been there, it's hard to describe the sensation of being in a large auditorium with over 15,000 screaming teenage girls.

 

Occasionally I could somewhat hear the band. The shoe thing I mentioned above is the one thing that sticks out the most about that concert.

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ARW - a couple of years ago I did the VIP thing, Jon Anderson actually picked me out at pre-concert meet/greet to ask the band questions (I lobbed a softball at them), and I got to discuss the merits of the Minimoog Reissue as well as a mutual disdain for the Moog Voyager with Rick. Concert was great, after seeing the "other Yes" previously, ARW was much more the real deal.

 

Talking Heads- "Stop Making Sense Tour" at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, NY August 1983. They were at their peak then. Huge stage was absolutely stone empty to start the concert. Friends had stage passes, were able to "ferry" us in one at a time to seem them up close. This was also literally days before I started med school, and was also by far the most stoned I had ever been in my life...(note to medical board: I haven't touched the stuff since then!).

 

Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band- My journalist wife was covering the cosmetics/hair care industry for Advertising Age Magazine (one of her many beats); Ringo was originally a hair dresser, and part of his reason for getting into music was to make enough money to open his own salon. Well, we know where that went...but anyway, his 1992 tour was sponsored by Alberto VO5, and as a member of the Press my wife was given VIP/Backstage passes. So, aside from the concert being very good (a lot of Joe Walsh and Todd Rundgren), we actually got to meet and speak (briefly!) with Ringo.

 

 

Honorable mention: The Police had just come out with "Roxanne," and were not super famous yet. I could have seen them in a small venue in Ann Arbor, MI in the winter of 78-79, but decided not to go because there was a big snowstorm I didn't feel like walking across town through it. If I had been a little bit more motivated I would have been one of the 8-9 people who saw them that night.

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ARW - a couple of years ago I did the VIP thing, Jon Anderson actually picked me out at pre-concert meet/greet to ask the band questions (I lobbed a softball at them), and I got to discuss the merits of the Minimoog Reissue as well as a mutual disdain for the Moog Voyager with Rick. Concert was great, after seeing the "other Yes" previously, ARW was much more the real deal.

 

 

We saw ARW in late 2016 at the casino in New Buffalo, MI. Great show; Rick Wakeman nailed it - cape and all, and Jon Anderson sounded great. Ended up stumbling into a backstage pass opportunity, and got to spend a healthy amount of time talking to Rick. We only talked about music and keyboard stuff for the last five-or-so minutes, though. He saw my Cubs World Series shirt when we were introduced, and we talked baseball for probably fifteen minutes straight. Turns out that Rick's been a big Cubs fan since the mid 1980s :laugh:

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

We need a barfing cat emoticon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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- Los Lobos at the Channel in Boston in 1985: I was in grad school at MIT and heard cuts from Will the Wolf Survive on the student radio station, bought the LP and then got tickets the next day and my skeptical wife said "we are going to see a Mexican polka band?" One of the all time exciting shows I've ever seen; the energy and joy was just over the top. (It was also one of the loudest I've ever been to...but that is coincidental)

 

I saw Los Lobos at Irving Plaza in NYC during the same tour, also because I'd heard "Will The Wolf Survive" on the radio and was curious. Can confirm that it was a stunningly brilliant show, and also ear-shattering loud (I think I actually had my fingers in my ears for much of show). It led me to take a deep-dive into accordion-driven Tejano music -- Flaco Jimenez, Santiago Jimenez, Steve Jordan, etc -- and to eventually buy a cheap accordion so I could play a bit of it (along with Klezmer music). Still love Los Lobos.

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over 15,000 screaming teenage girls reminded me of a friends "memorable" concert experience.

 

I was in NY tracking with the Spiro Gyra guys, my friend Jeremy Wahl arranging and co=producing. He was bummed having heard that Keith Jarret was playing back in Buffalo and he was going to miss it. An assistant found him a flight thandowt landed just in time and a return that got him back to NY just in time for the next days sessions. He might be exhausted but he was determined to go. He lands in Buffalo, jumps a cab to Melodie Fair (actually in Niagara Falls, and as he's pulling closer to the venue he's surprised to notice so many young girls in line at the box office window. He gets closer and realizes all he sees are teenage and preteen girls wherever he looks. He heads in, hands the ticket his assistant secured to the usher and is seated. The lights dim and the announcer announces......Leif Garret! :laugh:

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Pink Floyd in Salem, Oregon 1971. Tickets were $3.50 and less than a hundred people attended. No light show but they had the quad sound system. Saw them in Portland about a year later when they were performing Dark Side of the Moon pre-release and they nearly filled the Coliseum.
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In my 60s, but haven't attended a lot of concerts, even when I had the chance.

 

Shoulda.

 

Of the concerts I have attended, including Chicago, ELP, BS&T, Petra and Randy Stonehill, the most impressive concert by far was also one of my first: Starbuck, whose lead marimba player Bo Wagner took up 40% of the stage of a seven piece band. In addition to the now-definitive solo in Moonlight Feels Right, he performed an unaccompanied marimba solo in Phrygian mode, ended one set by a solo tap dance, and ended another set sitting with the group's drummer and doing a mirror image drum solo, a la Harpo Marx in Duck Soup, except we had two simultaneous real drummers.

 

It was my first real introduction to music performance as a real aural/visual art, and not just aural.

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- Los Lobos at the Channel in Boston in 1985: I was in grad school at MIT and heard cuts from Will the Wolf Survive on the student radio station, bought the LP and then got tickets the next day and my skeptical wife said "we are going to see a Mexican polka band?" One of the all time exciting shows I've ever seen; the energy and joy was just over the top. (It was also one of the loudest I've ever been to...but that is coincidental)

 

I saw Los Lobos at Irving Plaza in NYC during the same tour, also because I'd heard "Will The Wolf Survive" on the radio and was curious. Can confirm that it was a stunningly brilliant show, and also ear-shattering loud (I think I actually had my fingers in my ears for much of show). It led me to take a deep-dive into accordion-driven Tejano music -- Flaco Jimenez, Santiago Jimenez, Steve Jordan, etc -- and to eventually buy a cheap accordion so I could play a bit of it (along with Klezmer music). Still love Los Lobos.

 

Interesting because the absolute loudest show I saw was also at Irving Plaza; Husker Du on their last tour in 1986. Horrible show; they all hated each other at this point and 2.5 minute post-punk masterpieces were bloated with extended wanky guitar solos at horrific volumes. I had to go out to the lobby for relief. The funny part of that show was that the opener was a young Dwight Yoakam in fully Gene Autry regalia....the moshers didn"t know what to think. But he won them over and was by far the best part of the evening.

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Off the top of my head:

 

  • Neil Diamond â Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto. I was 6 years old, my parents played Neil Diamond constantly throughout my childhood, and it was my first big rock concert experience.
  • TS Monk "Monk on Monk" Big Band â Ford Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto. I was 13, a budding jazz snob, and just getting into the music of Thelonious Monk. I was in the third row, in front of the saxophones, the late Ronnie Matthews on piano, and Nnenna Freelon as guest vocalist. I became obsessed with Monk's music and the sound of large ensemble jazz after that.
  • Dave Holland Quintet â Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto. This was the classic early 2000s quintet with Robin Eubanks, Chris Potter, Steve Nelson, and Billy Kilson. My first exposure to modern jazz of that complexity, and the energy coming from that band was unbelievable.
  • Herbie Hancock/Dave Holland/Jack deJohnette â Monument-National, Montreal. My first full Montreal Jazz Fest as a Montrealer. I somehow got second row tickets, right in front of Holland's amp. Three of my favourite musicians ever, together. Herbie's solo reharmonization of "Dolphin Dance" to start the encore still lingers in my brain to this day.
  • Bobby McFerrin â Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal. This got filmed for the "Bobby McFerrin & Friends" DVD. It was honestly a mostly forgettable show, except for the duo with Richard Bona on "Dina Lam." I go back to that video every so often, it was a stunningly gorgeous moment to witness in person.
  • John Hollenbeck & Jazz Big Band Graz â IAJE, New York. My introduction to Hollenbeck (with whom I would later study), and I couldn't believe the sounds and textures he got out of a big band with no conductor in front!
  • Chick Corea & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra â IAJE, New York. The tuba player carried the solo on "Matrix," and it was the first time I heard Chick play more freely in a live setting. The reinterpretations of his music were brilliant and he played his ass off, as always.
  • Pat Metheny â Spectrum, Montreal. I still miss the Spectrum so, so much. There isn't another venue in town that comes close to the vibe and sound of that room. This was part of Pat's "Invitation Series." The first half (!) was a quintet with
  • Enrico Rava, David Sanchez, Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez. That would have been enough but then the second half (!) was Pat with Me'shell Ndegeocello's Spirit Music Band (Ron Blake, Michael Cain, Chris Dave) and they played for another two hours. So much incredible music in one night.
  • Guillermo Klein & Los Guachos â Village Vanguard, NYC. My first pilgrimage to the jazz mecca. The sound in that room. The history in that room. My first time hearing one of my favourite Guillermo compositions, "Moreira." When they hit that chorale in D major I nearly burst into tears.
  • Luiz Melodia â Satelite 061 festival, Brasília. It was the night of the supermoon, that hung over the stage. I didn't really know his music before, but his presence was truly beautiful. The curator of the festival booked him as a tribute to her dying father and it was a truly special evening. Luiz wound up passing away a couple of years later.
  • Paul Simon & yMusic â Bell Centre, Montreal. Paul Simon was on my bucket list for a long time, and my mom was a huge Paul Simon fan. I was not expecting the contemporary chamber music arrangements and it wound up being my favourite part of the set. A gorgeous night of music and inspiring to see a master still pushing himself.
  • Buffy Sainte-Marie & Marty Stuart â Regina Folk Fest, SK. They didn't play together. Buffy's set was a powerful homage to Indigenous women. Marty Stuart's band was top-notch. In the middle of the set, he improvised on solo mandolin and said afterwards, "That's a new piece called 'The Ballad of Buffy Sainte-Marie.'" It was really moving to see the mutual admiration they shared.
  • Filó Machado â Dièse Onze, Montreal. Filó is like a Brazilian Bobby McFerrin. He opens his mouth or picks up the guitar and it is instantly musical. His reharmonization of Gilberto Gil's "Expresso 2222" still breaks my brain. Impeccable time, groove and harmonic sense. To see him in a tiny, tiny jazz club, maybe a foot away from my face, was an incredible privilege.

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ELP - 1993, Chicago Theatre. The band was on fire from the first note. Sat approximately 10 rows back. Earthy, pungent odor everywhere...

 

http://chicagostories.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BP-theater-Chicago-578x385.jpg

 

Journey - 1983, Alpine Valley Theatre. Beautiful, scenic theatre nestled within rolling green hills in Wisconsin. Best acoustics I've ever heard in a music venue. This was during the peak run of the band"s popularity and they played flawlessly. Steve Smith especially amazed. Sat in the lawn area with this (hot) chick I was dating at the time. Became an incredibly romantic setting as night fell, especially during "Faithfully" which was shooting up the charts at the time.

 

20160525-062001-743948.jpg

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Prince - opening up for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum around 1981(?) - memorable because he got pelted with trash and bottles by the mob of a-holes in front of the stage. The vast majority of the stadium was liking it

 

Bob Marley at the Santa Barbara County Bowl (1976?) - memorable as being the absolutely most fantastic and transcendental experience of all time for me

 

Van Halen, Anaheim Stadium around 1982(?) - memorable because of the cool trick to have them jump out of a helicopter over the stadium (I don't think it was really them), and the absolute pandemonium of the show and the crowd

 

The dates are a bit of a blur, but the moments were very memorable!

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

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Tower of Power before Still a Young Man was released. I was struck by how well the brass guys could sing back up. Rick Stevens, the lead singer on Sparkling in the Sand and Still a Young Man, initially joined the band as a backup singer. They did not need him there and he proved to be better out front.

 

Peter Frampton before the Comes Alive album when he brought the place to life not yet on most people"s radar. Forever after that album people wanted to play the audience to the songs off the album. Nowadays this self-centered perspective has swelled with the focus on everyone as individuals and Jumbotron cameras are focused on the audience as frequently as the bands if not more.

 

Another Peter, Gabriel, had a stage comfort and intimate rapport with the arena sized audience. Amazing sound, impactful sights interspersed with interesting conversation.

 

The Eagles on The Long Run tour before they broke up. The polish from uninterrupted years of practiced perfection on the road shined. They demonstrated how great they were. They were a group of tight musicians casually performing with precision and they were truly 'Cool' on stage. The quality of the music they created live spoke volumes. No theatrics. Simple lighting. No jumping around the stage. No props. No gimmicks. The strength was in the way they performed the music so well.

 

Pink Floyd, as great as the music and light show was, is most memorable to me for having the cleanest sound system at stadium volume, and perceptible as quadraphonic to boot.

 

An aside: Don Henley brings this to mind. Some people are born with a special rhythm. It is like they could say a single syllable word and it would have more waves to it than is typical. I do not mean a vibrato. The rhythm is silent but heard and perhaps seen. (I experience synesthesia so I do not know how this is perceived by people who do not.). This rhythm is evident in the early Beatles live performance recordings. John"s and Paul"s harmonies are so lively beyond the surface. The vocals do not have to be perfect. But this extra rhythm is there. I hear it in recordings of Boston vocalist Brad Delp"s strained touring vocals. Boston"s studio recordings are extremely polished so it really stands out to me hearing Delp"s tired voice during a tour. Before the drugs rendered him sluggish Elvis had this rhythm even in his conversational voice when being interviewed. In his case there is a video of him interviewed standing with a host on a variety show and I see it in his conversational mannerisms as well. Michael Jackson exhibited this rhythm. Whitney Houston had it. Most people lose this eventually for one reason or another but three seasoned touring musicians who still had it as of the most recent videos of live performances I have seen are Steven Tyler (73) of Aerosmith, Van Morrison (76) and Smokey Robinson (81). These people dance(d) circles around a single motion with their expression.

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Another one that qualifies for me would be the Desert Trip (aka 'OldChella') concerts a few years ago: Bob Dylan opening for the Rolling Stones on the first night, Neil Young opening for Paul McCartney the second night, and The Who opening for Roger Waters the third night.

 

I was also lucky enough to be at the Keith Emerson tribute concert in LA.

 

One more: at NAMM in 2003, Yamaha rented the Anaheim Duck Pond and put on an Elton John concert only for the NAMM community. It featured a ton of musicians playing Elton tunes, then Elton himself came out and did a whole concert. Unreal evening.

 

Hosted by Emmy-Award winner 'Will & Grace' star Eric McCormack, some of the world"s most popular artists participated in the concert, each performing an Elton John classic. The concert rundown featured Nikka Costa ('Levon'), Rufus Wainwright ("Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'), Eric McCormack ('Captain Fantastic'), Bruce Hornsby ('Burn Down The Mission'), Jewel ('Your Song'), Brian McKnight ('Rocket Man'), Norah Jones ('Tiny Dancer'), Brian Wilson ('Someone Saved My Life Tonight'), Randy Newman ('Benny And The Jets'), Diana Krall ('Border Song'), Take 6 ('Philadelphia Freedom'), Vanessa Carlton ('Don"t Let the Sun Go Down on Me'), Ray Charles ('Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word'), Michael McDonald ('Take Me To the Pilot'), Carmen Twilie and the Circle of Life Choir (tribute to 'The Lion King') and John Mayer (a duet with Elton John on 'Sacrifice').

 

Read more here.

 

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over 15,000 screaming teenage girls.

 

Exactly, but I still loved every minute! :cool:

 

My thoughts were probably because by my kid sister and her best friend were constantly screaming in my ear when all I really wanted to do was hear the band :laugh:

 

The crowd's screams were constant at first, then the room broke into rolling screams whenever a Beatle would do something "cute" (and they loved it - despite what they said about touring later) then picked up into constant screaming towards the end. They only played for a little over 1/2 hour. Before I knew it, they were done.

 

Something else about that concert that was memorable to me - John playing a Vox Continental with his elbow. At that time I wanted one really bad, and it stuck out in my mind that he would do something like that.

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TOP in the Early seventies at a venue that I remember as the Foundry in Washington DC.

Some kid opens the show by himself on guitar and gets boo"d before finishing. Because of his dancing and stage antics I think Folks seemed to look at him like a black mick jagger. He called himself Prince. Yep. Prince.

 

But TOP was in rare form and when it came time for the squib the band walked away midsong and gave the house to Chester who proceeded to absolutely kill it.

And, on that bass walk down at the end of the organ solo Chester pegs the whole house into protect/shutdown mode. It took a few seconds for everything to come back up again but everything Seemed to be fine.

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First concert: Joe Satriani 1988. Crazy good with an incredible solo by Stu Hamm on bass. Coincidentally it was two of my current band mates" first concert as well although I hadn"t met them yet!

 

Quirky concert: Metallica 1989. I didn"t go but my younger brother did - I picked him up and dropped him off as he was too young to drive. He emerged from the venue with one shoe and a black eye. According to him a great night!

 

Most disappointing concert: Van Halen 1998. I think my expectations were far too high. I had a copy of 'Live Without a Net' on VHS as a teenager and pretty much wore it out. I was naively expecting something similar.

 

Best concerts:

 

1. Santana 1994 (C.T. On keys). Went with my stepmother-in-law! She couldn"t stop dancing all night - the vibe was incredible.

 

2. B. B. King 1997. Sounded amazing and the energy provided by his band was phenomenal.

 

3. Roger Waters 2018. I"ve never experienced anything quite like this. I"m a big PF fan and nearly didn"t go as I felt Waters would be well past his best. I was quite unprepared for the quality of the audio and visual presentation and the emotional impact it would have on me. Was lucky enough to be able to share the experience with my sons who were 18 and 15 at the time - they were similarly blown away.

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First concert Foreigner, Bob Mayo on keys, and Junior Walker made his only appearance eve

ELP - 1993, Chicago Theatre. The band was on fire from the first note. Sat approximately 10 rows back. Earthy, pungent odor everywhere...

 

http://chicagostories.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BP-theater-Chicago-578x385.jpg

 

Journey - 1983, Alpine Valley Theatre. Beautiful, scenic theatre nestled within rolling green hills in Wisconsin. Best acoustics I've ever heard in a music venue. This was during the peak run of the band"s popularity and they played flawlessly. Steve Smith especially amazed. Sat in the lawn area with this (hot) chick I was dating at the time. Became an incredibly romantic setting as night fell, especially during "Faithfully" which was shooting up the charts at the time.

 

20160525-062001-743948.jpg

 

 

Wow, that's the exact hill Stevie Ray Vaughn's helicopter hit. It's not even that tall. Tragic huge mistake.

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Pat Metheny Group, at Pier 84 in NYC (next to the Intrepid), summer 1985. A year out of high school and really starting to dig down into fusion with Mahavishnu, Return to Forever, Bruford, etc. Although I'd heard the PMG (white) album, I had kind of discarded PMG as not really meaty enough for my taste. All that changed on that night.

 

It was a beautiful summer evening out on Pier 84. We got there just as the show was starting (hit traffic in the tunnel) and they were playing Forward March. No assigned seating at that venue, so my buddy and I wandered close to the stage with a great view of Lyle. Next tune was Phase Dance and it was sublime and just set the whole mood for the evening. Playing was extraordinary, sound and lights were spectacular. Lyle was on fire, Pedro Aznar was killing it with his voice and percussion. Pat sounded exquisite, even when playing the Synclavier guitar.

 

At some point early in the show, the doobies were being passed around and everything vibed just together. The sunset on the Hudson, the view of the Intrepid to the left, and the band onstage just blew me away. I became a big fan after that night and soaked up all the Pat & Lyle goodness I could. I've seen so many shows with so many great performances, but this one just ranks highest for total experience, right place, right time, right situation.

 

That was such a great venue in the '80s. So many good experiences there.

 

Pier 84, summer 1986, Chick Corea Electrik Band with Wayne Shorter. Another great show. Mitch Forman was playing keys with Wayne Shorter and was killing it for their set. Chick's band had a young Scott Henderson on guitar, who I thought was incredible.

 

Also at Pier 84, I think it was Summer '88, saw Miles Davis for the first time. At the time I was still heavily into the fusion, and didn't think much about Miles (I was young and stupid). I remember trying to listen to Bitches Brew in college and I couldn't hack it. My buddy and I went to this show to see John McLaughlin open up for Miles. McLaughlin was playing a 'Shakti' set with Jonas Hellborg on bass. We had considered leaving before Miles went on but decided to stay for the heck of it. When Miles took the stage, he had such presence, like a caped super frog. Then he started playing and it became clear to me why he was considered one of the greats. Seeing Miles opened me up to digging into his music and catalog.

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Bela Fleck & The Flecktones ~2003. Besides the great music, I was amazed the place sold out. Not bad for a group that has zero airplay on the local radio.

 

Tower of Power in 2008. Rocco and Garibaldi were the rhythm section and I never heard anything so FUNKY. The infamous brass section. They played the ballroom in Holiday Inn (!!) in lowly Elmira NY, but the crowd eagerly embraced them. Probably THE best show I ever saw.

 

Dire Straits "On Every Street" tour in 1993. Sound quality was amazing.

 

Van Halen 2x - 1978 my very first concert was VH opening for Ted Nugent, it was right after VH's debut album came out. "Nugent? Forgot all about him". Saw VH again in 1980. Maybe not the most precise musicians but they had a hell of a visual impact. They haven't been the same since the early DLR days.

 

I never lived close to a venue where the prog, fusion, and jazz groups would pass through. Was never one to drive hundreds of miles to a concert either.

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