National Concert Week!

Did you get your $12 or $20 concert tickets this last week during National Concert Week? I did...I'll be seeing Smashing Pumpkins, Hall & Oates and for some reason, Primus, this summer on the cheap. Bands I normally would skip, but for $20 what the hell?

Recollections:

First concert I actually paid to see:

Deep Purple: At the height of their popularity in 1973 the band came through Lincoln Nebraska's Pershing Auditorium. I think the ticket was $5. When the opening sounds of Highway Star came thru the sound system, the lights came up and Ian Gillan screeched, I was hooked. Forever. My parents were never really music people, so my concert experience was slight. That changed for me.

Loudest Show Ever:

Nine Inch Nails It was 1995. The Downward Spiral was out. NIN made my inner organs shake. I could feel my insides gyrate as the band played a two hour show. I moved from the floor to the first balcony to hopefully save my eardrums. It didnt work. I can still see a floor full of people dancing to Head Like a Hole. Were they all deaf for 3 days also?

Honorable Mention to Steppenwolf who blew out my ears my freshman year of college when we got pushed against the speaker and couldnt get out. Also The Melvins for the same thing. Getting pushed by a crowd against a speaker and not being able to escape sucks.

Worst Show I've Ever Seen:

Nothing can ever beat this shitshow I witnessed in the late 70's when Jerry Jeff Walker came out from behind a curtain with an acoustic guitar, played snippets of his well know songs all in about 2 minutes, insulted the crowd by slurring his words and stating if thats all you wanted to hear fuck off, and then proceeded to drunkenly fuck up everything else. It wasnt even funny incompetence like the stoned Dr Hook would put out each time I saw them. Jerry Jeff Walker was THE worst.

Rob Zombie spent his entire show bragging he broke some sort of attendance record in the 2500 capacity dump he played that I was standing in. BFD! Thus, he will always be an insecure Trump to me.

Pleasant Surprises From Opening Acts:

Band of Horses was a phenomenal opening act for Neil Young a few years back. I'd heard some of their songs and even had a CD of theirs. But live, this band was freaking great.

Ghost opened for Iron Maiden last year in Lincoln. Maiden, who I'd never seen, was great and energetic. Ghost's KISS like gimmick worked.

Though I hate Aerosmith with a passion, I did see them open for ZZ Top back in 1974 when even Sugarloaf was billed before them. I remember at the time thinking hey who's this guy who thinks he's Jagger?

Jo Jo Gunne opened for Black Oak Arkansas in the 2nd concert I ever saw back in 1973. In retrospect, I realize how good they were compared to the croaking and chaos that was BOA. Hey, I was a rebellious teen. Jay Ferguson was and is a fave or mine to this day.

Best Moments:

Being about 5 feet from Bono at a U2 concert. He walked to the edge of the long stage and squatted. I reached out to no avail. 5 feet is pretty far in reality. No handshake for me. It was the best.

Being about 10 feet from Bruce Springsteen. In 1984 during the Born in the USA tour I bought a ticket for $16 that was in back of the stage. It may have been one the best seats Ive ever had. The Boss constantly turned around and played to those of us back there. I was in row 2. Bruce stepped up on a platform and played a solo. I practically got sweat on me.

Being in the nosebleeds in Kansas City and seeing Paul McCartney for the first time. We were behind him but at one point at the end, he began to do A Day In The Life with his guitarist playing the John role perfectly. I am serious when I say I could have died at that moment a happy man.

Being in the mosh pit at a 1993 Nirvana show. I wasnt there on purpose, I got pushed again and got stuck. I was old then and shouldnt have been in there. But when Territorial Pissings began I got punched in the back and began a self defense posture in which I did have to push a guy as hard as I could before he belted me. I can still see his face deciding whether to take me on for real. He declined thank goodness.

Acts I Wish I Had Seen And Now Its Too Late:

James Brown, Tom Petty, Warren Zevon, Otis Redding, Soundgarden (Chris Cornell was in the area on a Friday and I declined because of traffic and parking at this venue is a nightmare. He was dead the next Tuesday), David Bowie The Doors and Hendrix

Acts I've Seen The Most:

Wynton Marsalis 6 times, Bob Dylan 5 times, Bruce Springsteen 5 times, Stone Temple Pilots 5 times (twice as opener)

Acts That Have Rocked Everytime:

Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Blue Oyster Cult, Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam

Bands I Watched for a Half Hour Before I Knew Who I was Watching:

Butthole Surfers opened for Stone Temple Pilots. Nobody announced them and it took until Who Was In My Room Last Night before I realized hey, its the Butthole Surfers!

A dirge band began playing as the opener for Arcade Fire in KC one night. Eventually the songs sounded familiar and I asked Max is that band called The National? Uh yeah its right there on the fake movie marquee. I need to pay better attention. Christ, I had one of their CD's.

I think I saw Flaming Lips once. I honestly still have no idea who the opener for one of the times I saw STP? It may have been Prong I have no idea.

Weirdest Concert:

Tomahawk , led by former Faith No More singer Mike Patton, played undecipherable noise and then between every "song" insulted the crowd by calling us "hicks" "rubes" "farmers" "tractor jockeys" and any other cliche's he could come up with. By the end of the 40 minutes, people were booing the shit out of them. Thank goodness Tool came out and made us forget it all.

Phish not because of Phish, they were great, but because I kept seeing undercover cops beating the shit out of passive Phish fans high on shrooms or pot or whatever. It was out of line, it was unnecessary, it was mean spirited, and it made me hate our Mayor, a creep named Hal Daub, even more than I already had. He also had a horse patrol of cops outside the arena to stop all those gentle souls from selling their cheese sandwiches to get to the next city. It still pisses me off.