The Chicago Years and Return to Minneapolis
I am sitting her on my couch recovering from a vasectomy. Not as bad as one would think so far. We had a good discussion about page 1 so rather than jump to a sports page here is page 2 of my concert stubs:
The Rolling Stones with Blues Traveler opening, Beastie Boys, Jimmy Buffet, REM, Lenny Kravitz, Tim Mahoney and the Meanies (Dec 31st 1999),Red Hot Chili Peppers with opening act the Foo Fighters.
Soul Asylum (High school years), Public Enemy, R.L. Burnside, Burning Spear, Son Volt, The Samples.
There are a couple of stubs from this period on another page. The only bands really missing are for bands I saw at the Cabooze like Boogie Wonderland.
We previously touched on the Stones in Jan's post which started this whole thing. The Beastie Boys were amazing. REM was pretty lame and for the record I did not buy the tickets. Wilco opened but we did not know who they were and missed them, DOH! I was in a bar drinking and someone offered me a ticket to the Jimmy Buffet show that night. I think the tickets reflect that I was older and had a real job that put some cash in my pocket.
That is the Soul Asylum ticket Jan referred to, pre Grave Dancers Union. Can you tell FOB ER did some work for First Avenue and was getting free tickets? Pubic Enemy was a blast. Flavor Flav threw fried chicken and fruit to the crowd at the end. Chuck D is just a little guy. I was coaching football at the time and mentioned I was going to the concert. One of the kids asked if they were the group with the militant guys on the stage. I felt old because they were unsure who PE was.
11 Comments:
First of all, too much fucking information. I didn't need to hear you took the pucks off the ice as an operner.
However, these posts with old tix are fantastic. Even though I wasn't with you, dtk and Jan at any of these shows, I remember them like I was there all the same. And in reality, I was probably at the same Basilica Block Parties (with BG, actually) a number of times, as well as in the building the same night for any number of the shows you guys saw at the Cabooze and First Ave.
I regret that I didn't save ticket stubs like you have. That would be fun to pull out every now and then. I also regret that, as much as I like live music, I haven't prioritized it as much in my life as I probably should have. Given how much I follow and consume music generally, one would think I would have been one of those guys who's been to Metro and the Empty Bottle 500 times, but that's far from the case. Kudos to you for getting out there more than me.
My own concert highlights from the early years:
- first rock concert attended: Motley Crue, the Dr. Feelgood tour sophomore year. No, seriously. There was a weird time at that point in high school where I was still listening to crap like that, as sort of a transitional stage between the kid pop, Young MC years and appreciating real rock. Simultaneously I was getting into Zeppelin and the Stones, discovering jazz, way more into classical music than most 15 year-olds, and singing too. A year later, it was all Jane's Addiction and Sonic Youth and the Black Crowes, and the whole poseur shit rock thing was ancient history. Amazing how quickly we grow up.
- favorite high school concert: Paul Simon on the Rhythm of The Saints tour. Went with two sort-of-friends who had good taste, and had a one-hitter we fired up in the parking lot before going in. Awesome show.
January 6, 2012 at 2:33 PM
RTS -
I Love the discussion about your cutting the chord. I would discuss it with you for hours on end over hot chocolate and meth. I'd especially like to hear about the discomfort of the numbing needle. If you can't share that pain with faceless bloggers on a blog nobody reads and rarely checks, then who can you share it with? In fact, I'm masturbating as I type this.
So let's hurry.
Again, several great quarters put in the way back machine. One thing that seems to be missing is Riverfest (btw - i think that no longer exists). Did you never attend any of those shows? I saw Soul Asyum there in roughly 1991 - I for some reason seem to remember you being there - but it may have been Rick Santorum. Great show. The Jayhawks also played, if my memory serves. I had just recently seen them also open for Dylan, which as always is a shot in the mind. *
Beastie Boys - One ofthe most crazy, energetic shows I've even seen. I saw them at the Tibetan Freedom Concert at RFK (also no longer exists, so either the tibetans have been freed or Ad Rock is tired of the chanting monks or maybe owns an apparel plant in Beijing). Two things were of note at that concert - one, it was cut short when someone stupid girl was struck by lightning (hey, not my problem. I paid to hear 34 bands and I want to hear every one of them. I didn't know her.) 2- because it was cut short some of the bands didn't play the first day. So when the concert ended on the second day, Pearl Jam closed, and about ten minutes later as everyone was leaving, the chilli peppers came running on the stage and played for an hour before they had to turn the shit off. That was a good day. **
Also, good work missing Wilco. Funny how that stuff happens. I always feel like I;m the guy who just leaves Toads right before the Rolling Stones come in to practice because they're in New Haven the next day. I also have to say I've seen Wilco several times live and you're not missing much. Son Volt, on the other hand - that's a band you can set your watch to.
*Contrary to popular belief this was a great period to see Dylan live. Sort of like seeing Jesus pre-last supper but post a lot of the fish into wine miracles, or what have you.
**I was drinking rum out of a ziploc bag because you couldn't buy beer. Looking back, seems like overkill. Looking forward, I would do it again in a second.
January 7, 2012 at 8:54 AM
I sell my soul for this blog and sometimes that includes sharing uncomfortable details. That grit is what sets us apart from the rest.
There should be no apologies for seeing Motley Crue on the Dr. Feelgood tour. There were a lot of shitty hair bands, but Motley Crue was not one of them. All those bands copied Crue's formula for success. If the Orono locker room was anything like the Blake locker room, then there was a heavy dose of Motley Crue being played on game day. Take a walk on the wild side! Of course seeing Motley Crue at any point after Dr. Feelgood would be lame.
I never made it to a Riverfest. I also never went to a Lollapalooza. I wanted to go to the first one with Jane's Addiction but Jan wanted to go play video games in Chad G's basement (this was in my driving challenged period of life, leaving me at Jan's whim). All day we tried to get a hold of Chad G. As it turned out Chad G's neighborhood friend had won tickets on the radio and invited Chad to go to the festival. I still owe you a punch in the shoulder for that Jan.
I would love to know the details of bringing rum in a bag to a concert. Was it duct taped to your body to avoid detection? Why not just bring in a plastic flask?
Quick note on the Beastie Boys, they performed on a round stage which they were constantly walking around. There was not a bad seat in the Horizon. Even in my early 20s I still had a favorite Beastie Boy, Ad Rock. If I was stuck on a island with only a handful of CDs Paul's Boutique would make the cut.
January 7, 2012 at 4:22 PM
Duuuude, did you just throw down the desert island gauntlet? How many albums do we get? I need at least 20-25 or I can't differentiate at the top.
Which is harder to stomach? Another week of incessant Tebow lovin' or having to root for the Patriots to destroy their opponent this coming Sunday?
January 9, 2012 at 9:41 AM
That I did. Take the football and run with it MCA.
January 9, 2012 at 10:41 AM
Alright, I'll get started. Many of mine might seem off-kilter, because "desert island" doesn't equate with "g.o.a.t." or "most important works of art" for me. I recognize "Sargeant Pepper" and "Sticky Fingers," for instance, for their greatness, but I've heard every song on them a billion times and life wouldn't be noticeably greyer for me if I could never hear them again.
A few off the top of my head:
- Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
- Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
- Allman Bros., Brothers And Sisters
- Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
- Robert Shaw Singers, Rachmaninoff Vespers
- Paul Simon, Graceland
- Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Radiohead, OK Computer [why I would turn this on on a desert island, I don't know, but it's still an awesome listen every time]
- Jayhawks, Hollywood Town Hall
- Dylan, Blood on The Tracks
- Prince, Purple Rain
- Zeppelin, Houses of The Holy and possibly I
- Berlin Philharmonic (Von Karajan conducting), Beethoven 9th Symphony
Dang, that's most of my allowance already.
January 9, 2012 at 12:05 PM
That is quite the diverse list and very impressive. It is much deeper and of a higher a musical standard than my list would be. It is also much more mellow than my list. Funny how I feel that music that is heavier than my liking is trashy but I like it heavier than the norm.
January 9, 2012 at 3:02 PM
Yeah, I guess I always revert to more mellow music - I love me some Rage against The Machine every now and then, but it's not my go-to. Even though I included Led Zep, it's probably the most mellow of their major albums. Although I should say it's probably included more because I'll argue with anyone that "Over The Hills And Far Away" is as close to a perfect rock song as there is.
I'm not surprised in the least that your list would be a little more noisy and less frou-frou. I'd love to see it. I'm going to guess Jan's list includes some Floyd and Stones and a lot of reggae, and BG's will look more similar to mine than anyone else's. DTK I'm not sure, but I'm kind of thinking there's some Black Flag on there and maybe some random Norwegian death metal band with a Cookie Monster singer, and then the Kingston Trio and Morris Day And The Time thrown in for variety and good vibes.
I should add Counting Crows, August And Everything After, which I probably listened to more times during the course of our college years than any other single album. Widespread, DMB, Phish and the other fratty, hazy jam bands got more of my attention as a whole, but as an album that one really sticks out, and holds up WAY better in retrospect. Every song's golden. I probably haven't listened to it in 5-6 years, but every time I do it brings back tons of great feelings.
I'll add a couple more classical albums and call it a day: Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium by the Chamber Choir of Europe definitely makes my list. Obscure and dorky, I know, but it's one of the few pieces of music that can bring me close to tears. Then it's a toss-up between the Bach cantatas sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Mozart's piano concertos from Alfred Brendel, and Bach's cello suite by Rostropovich.
January 9, 2012 at 4:36 PM
Alright here is a stab at it in no particular order*:
-Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique
-Pixies, Surfa Rosa
-Pixies, Trompe Le Monde
-White Stripes, Elephant
-Pink Floyd, Obscured by Clouds
-Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream
-The Clash, The Clash
-Johnny Cash, Live from San Quentin (TY Jan)
-Rolling Stones, Exile on Mainstreet. This was a later addition to my collection and was not listened to death like Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed were.
-Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power. At some point being stranded on the island I am going to want to get some frustration out.
-Repo Man Soundtrack, Can I choose a compilation album? It has a nice mix of punk on it: Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Iggy Pop and Fear. I still listen to this on cassette in my car.
-Bob Marley, Uprising. A number of Marley albums could fill this slot but one can not go wrong with Uprising.
-Led Zepplin, Zepplin I unless I can bring a Zepplin III with the picture wheel in tact.
-Something Dylan, not sure which one.
-RHCP, Mother's Milk
-I need at least one cheesy metal album. Either AC/DC's High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap or Razor's Edge.
*Disclaimer, I do not claim to have the best taste and do not always need something that has any more redeeming quality than getting my heart rate up. The bands do not have to be of the highest musical caliber either. In fact I always hated when Phish fans would try and win me over with "But they are such terrific musicians." I do not care I still find them boring.
January 10, 2012 at 9:34 AM
If Mother's Milk makes the cut then Van Halen's Women and Children First has to too. Not that I listen to it regularly, but if we are talking about eternity...
January 10, 2012 at 9:43 AM
Wow, cool collection! Hey, I'm putting together a First Avenue ticket stub collection. Do you have any stubs lying around that could use a good home? I completely understand if not but I just HAD to ask.
Many thanks,
John
February 26, 2012 at 3:36 PM
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