Rock Concerts
Since the theme around certain blogs seems to be music, I thought I would post here, for entertainment value, some of the best concerts I have attended. I have seen bands ranging from Jazz artists to heavy metal artists, and everything in between. Here are a few of the better concerts I have been able to attend (listed in order of the year I saw them) :
- ZZ Top (1984) Eliminator Tour - very good show, Night Ranger opened up for ZZ but I don't remember much from them since ZZ Top pretty much blew them away.
- Alice Cooper (1987) - I got to see this show for free! I was given a third row seat ticket because one of my roommates' friends bailed out. Guns & Roses open up for Alice, and they were extremely loud. This show was one of the most remarkable and memorable I have seen.
- Def Leppard (1987) - first leg of the Hysteria Tour - I know, many of you are probably laughing right now, but this was actually a very good show, and the last tour the band was did before their lead gutarist died.
- Robert Plant (1988) - Now and Zen tour. The audience for this show was louder than the band, I kid you not.
- Bob Dylan (1988) - The Alarm (a U2 rip off band) actually opened up for Dylan. The interesting thing about this show is that Dylan said "hello," he played all his songs, did two encores, and then said "goodbye" and never said anything in between.
- Eric Clapton (1988) - 25th Anniversary Tour - This show was one of the best I have ever seen. Phil Collins (of Genesis) and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) were in Eric's band. So we got to hear songs from each of those guys as well.
- The Who (1989) - The Farewell Tour - This was the Who's last tour, and this show was the last show on the tour (in Dallas at the Cotton Bowel). We had tickets on the 14 row, center - perfect seats. Stevie Ray Vaughn opened for them and he was awesome, and then the Who came out and gave the best rock concert I have ever seen (and this is out of about 6 dozen rock concerts that I have seen in the last 25 years).
- U2 (1992) - The Zoo TV tour - I got to see this show for free and friend of mine bought two tickets and asked me to go to the show. Most memorable thing about this show was when Bono called up the White House to talk to President Bush (senior).
- Ringo Star and his All-Star Band (1992) - This show included a stellar line up of various rock artists such as Joe Walsh (James Gang and the Eagles), Todd Rundgren, Burton Cummings (the Guess Who), Dave Edmunds, Nils Lofgren, Tmothy B. Schmit (Poco and the Eagles), and Tim Cappelo who has played drums for everyone and anyone.
- Paul McCartney (1993) - Besides the Who, this has been the best rock show I have ever seen. Nobody opened up for McCartney, he played for about 4 hours and was awesome. A friend of mine was a member of McCartney's fan club so we got first dibs at the tickets and eneded up on the tenth row smack dab in the center.
- Kiss (2000) - Farewell Tour - I saw Kiss back in the very early eighties when they were "on their way out." I had also seen them several times without all their make-up and glam, but this show, with all the original members was hot!
- The Guess Who and Joe Cocker (2001) - I wish I could have seen these guys back in the day, but I was too young. However, this was a very good show - especially Joe Cocker who put on a dynamic show.
These are just a few of the better shows I have seen. Along with these bands I have also seen Extreme, Bon Jovi, The Monkees, Gary Moore, Joe Ely, Mark Farner (of Grand Funk Railroad), Ted Nugent, The Fabulous T-Birds, Joan Jett, Y&T, Frehley's Comets, George Strait, Alabama, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, and many, many others. So, which bands have you seen in concert?
posted by T.B. Vick | 8:00 PM
8 Comments:
Rock music = SIN!! You devil worshipper! :)
I know, I'm such a sinner!
T.B. , thanks for the Rock Concerts, nice post.
I think the last Rock Concert I attended was in 1971, the rest were in '66-'71.
Jimi Hendrix & Vanilla Fudge, Seattle Colosseum a "big room" with horrible acoustics. I just wandered into this show, being some what at loose ends and walking past the fountain at Seattle Center heard the music and saw Hendrix on the billboard I found out I could get in for a buck fifty ($1.50) since the show as already under way. Hendrix was ok, he tore his pants (too tight) jumping up and down while playing but that didn't seem to slow him down any. Seeing him was somehow more important than hearing him.
Cream, Eagles Auditorium, this was Seattle's equivalent of the Filmore in San Francisco, no seats you had to sit on the floor. The floor was packed shoulder to shoulder. A lighted joint would be passed to you every so often. I just passed it over to the next guy. Wasn't doing weed. Ginger Baker was loaded and delivered a somewhat forgettable performance. The rest of the band performed well.
Spirt, Eagles Auditorium, a somewhat obscure LA group from the early 70's the did well in concert. Their rendition of 1984 was riveting.
Charles Loyd, Eagles Auditorium, 1968. Loyd was a jazz guy, flute and saxophone. But he performed for the rock audiences in rooms like the Filmore SF with rave reviews. The pianist in his group was none other than Keith Jarrett one of the truly great jazz pianists. I took a Pentecostal (AOG) girl (college sophomore) with me to hear Loyd and when she was passed a joint she wasn't pleased. The music was wonderful.
Why is this list so short? I wasn't a rock enthusiast. I listened to Modern Jazz in my teens and was just blasted into the rock into the rock culture at college almost against my will. I probably went to some other Rock Concerts but they were so forgettable that I forgot them. By the late 60's the studio production of Rock had become advanced to a point where it was giving live music a hard time.
I have long been of the opinion that live music is something of an anachronism. You need to be careful who you say this to. There is a woman who walks in the park who has been playing viola for the Seattle Symphony for 38 years. One day I just dropped an off hand comment that Philip Glass had proven that musicians were expendable. I will not repeat the names she called me :-)).
Clay
C. Stirling Bartholomew,
Wow! You've seen some good classic rock shows - I would have loved to have been able to see Cream and Hendrix, but I was just a wee little tot then - oh well.
T.B.,
The concerts I did NOT attend were indeed a historic list. From 66-71 I had well worn 7 1\2 IPS tapes of The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, The Jefferson Airplane, Crown of Creation, Volunteers, The Who, Tommy, Quadrophenia, Crosby Stills Nash Young, Simon&Garfunkel ... . All of these groups and many others did gigs in Seattle in the late '60s and I didn't go to see them. Why? Because my early experience with hearing Dave Brubeck in a bad room (concrete walls & floor) had soured me on live performance. I liked to mount high quality tapes on my Sony reel to reel and plug in my Koss headpones and really hear the music.
I don't mean to leave the impression that I didn't listen to Rock, I did. From the day I was over at my cousin's house and the Beetles were playing their historic Ed Sullivan gig on the TV in the living room, until I was in my mid 20's this stuff was more or less forced on me.
It isn't that I hate Rock, not at all, I just like other music better. The only music I hate is schmaltz which is what C.Triling and B.Myers are complaining about or at least I think that is what they don't like.
thank you,
Clay
Clay,
do you enjoy jazz artists such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane?
I especially love Coltrane's music and think he has the consumate jass album - Blue Train (which is also, in my opinion the greatest jazz song ever written).
The reason I aksed is you mentioned Dave Brubeck.
C Triling?
RE: C Triling
I had a laugh about this when walking in the park today. It was an honest mistake, i.e. not intended. But funny giving the subject matter under discussion. My mind plays tricks on me when it comes to words and my eyesight isn't world class either. Enough excuses.
RE: Concerts, Jazz. Rock ktl.
T.B.
I have listened to C. Bird Parker, Coltrane and Miles Davis but not extensively. Davis was one weird fellow. If you ever wondered why a lot of jazz people looked like junkies. The answer is simple. They were junkies. ( see Torgoff, Martin. "Can't find my way home : America in the great stoned age, 1945-2000" Simon & Schuster, c2004.)
My tastes in Jazz were fairly narrow and there is no accounting for taste. I started listening to light stuff like Henri Mancini in sixth grade and discovered Brubeck a year or two later. Thelonious Monk was a favorite. Paul Horn and Herbi Mann were just OK. There was an MJQ clone quartet at my highschool. They were extremely talented but the pianist was on a very strange trip, a bit ahead of the wave, three years later he would have been normal :-))
As far as concert performances, the Ramsey Lewis Trio was outstanding. Most of their recordings were live music from clubs in DC, California ... I heard them at the Seattle Opera House, a very good room, wonderful acoustics. They all wore tuxedos and their performance was not just good it was brilliant. Best concert I ever attended.
I attended three Brubeck concerts and the best one was the last one where he was playing with his three sons. He got a standing ovation before the intermission. Seattle is kind of a "standing ovation" town. If you aren't just horrible you get a sanding ovation. But Dave Brubeck would get a standing ovation in Seattle for just showing up. I think liking Brubeck and MJQ probably has something to do with not understanding really good artists like Parker and Coltrane. Both MJQ and Brubeck were kind of outside the Jazz mainstream.
Back to Rock concerts:
The Jimi Hendrix concert I just haphazardly wandered into was memorable for one piece played by the back up band Vanilla Fudge. They did a 20 minute version of "You Keep Me Hangin On" with a long keyboard (organ?) introduction. It was great. Hendrix did a fine job on "He Joe" which is a Bob Dylan song that would never have gone anywhere if Hendrix hand not picked it up. Hendrix went to Chief Sealth high school in Seattle but he launched his musical stardom in London.
Thanks for all the music chat. I love it.
Clay
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