My Celebrity Boyfriend Dave Grohl and his band Foo Fighters have a new album coming out this year. This means they will tour, which means that I will stalk them, hopefully across multiple cities.
Since I quit working at Corporate Behemoth, I no longer have free parking and occasional free tickets to all the concerts in town. It's slowed my concert going for sure. However, I have a long and storied history of ye old musical performances. Out of curiosity, I made a list of all the concerts I've attended in my life.
Dude. I came up with a list of 64 different performers that I've seen. They range from epic to somewhat embarrassing to absolutely awesome.
Some highlights:
First concert ever: Jerry Reed, of "Smokey & The Bandit" fame. He played a free show at an amusement park. I was 6. It. Was. Awesome. I love "East Bound and Down" to this day.
Concert that almost got me arrested: Long-time readers might recall me almost beating up a girl in line for a Billy Joel / Elton John concert. Her crime? The comment, "Wow, this line is insane. We're gonna hafta get here really, really early to see Daughtry! That line's gonna be even worse. I mean, their lead singer is Chris Daughtry. He was on AMERICAN IDOL!"
Side note: My husband refers to Billy Joel and Elton John as "Billy John." He truly can't tell them or their music apart. However, if you call them "Elton Joel," he gets really mad.
Concert where my mom kept handing me the binoculars and saying, "Look at his butt! Look at his butt:" Michael Bolton. Vet's Auditorium, Des Moines, Iowa, August 1992. Yeah, baby. I still love him.
Performers I've seen 3 or more times: Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, James Taylor, Foo Fighters, REO Speedwagon, and Foreigner. I love them all.
Biggest disappointments: That would be a tie between Sting's solo show and the long-awaited Police reunion tour. Hmm ... see any common threads here? Any performers that might just be phoning it in?
Concert that made me realize that famous people are tiny and TV cameras must make normal people look like heifers: Sheryl Crow. I met her backstage at our shared alma mater, the University of Missouri. Her thigh was roughly the size of my wrist. I felt like a hulking ogre, and I'm only 5'3" on a good day.
Show that My Guy and I vowed not to tell anyone we attended but it was actually really, really good: Nickelback. Those guys work hard.
Concert where the audience was me and 10,000 male computer programmers: Rush
Band that went on tour after a long hiatus, effectively making my dreams come true: Crowded House.
Concert I attended because my parents ruined my life with their reel-to-reel tapes: The Kingston Trio. Guess who knew all the songs and all the words? Me. Guess who loved it and even got teary-eyed? Yep.
Band that still makes me happy because I saw them 10 days before college graduation and a girl from my sorority came up to me in the crowd and said I was the coolest girl in our entire house, and it totally made my day even though her hug made me slosh my pitcher (yes, my pitcher) of beer all over some random innocent bystander because OMG college is the best: Big Head Todd & The Monsters
Best investment: Springsteen. His tickets don't come cheap, but the man plays for a solid 3 hours - sometimes more. Your cost per minute of music is a fool-proof investment - nevermind the fact that he's amazing.
Grown-up concert in which I fell deeper in love with the performer: Mandy freakin' Patinkin. Hubba hubba. Oh, yeah, Patti LuPone was there, too, and she's great. But Mandy. Oh.
So. What was your first concert? Most memorable concert? Concert that I need to run out and purchase tickets to now?
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17 comments:
Patinks or M-Tinks as I sometimes call him, is amazing, isn't he. Love him so. Probably my favorite Mandy clip ever is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8taJx6jqd14 at about a minute in. My love for Mandy knows no bounds. He's the BEST.
My first concert was John Mayer at The Garden in High School. I was SO into him. SO into him.
One of the best shows I've been to was the Death Cab for Cutie concert where Frightened Rabbit opened at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn, because A. It was the first time I'd ever seen FR live, 2. Death Cab is great live, very talented, and 3. The sunset was so gorgeous over the water that Ben Gibbard stopped the show and made everyone turn around to look at the pretty sunset. The other best concert was the Frightened Rabbit concert at Terminal 5. Frightened Rabbit is my FAVORITE band. I was supposed to see them in October and go to a meet and greet but I was sick and had just gotten out of the hospital. My sister went with her friend instead of me and she got them to CALL ME and I talked to them on the phone. I said shit about 6 times in the two minute call (it's cool, they're Scottish) and was shaking for 20 minutes afterwards. They PROMISED me that they would come back and play the US again soon, so I have to make sure I get tickets.
My first concert was Joan Baez when I was probably 8th grade. I've seen Judy Collins, Tower of Power, Colbie Caiilat, The Four Tops, Lindsay Buckingham, KC and the Sunshine Band (free tickets) and a handful of other more forgettable performers...
BUT THE MOST PERFECT CONCERT I EVER ATTENDED WAS !!!!!!PAUL McCARTNEY!!!!! Back in the USA tour. None of the others matter. I can die happy now.
Best Concert: The hubs and I saw the Steve Miller Band in 1996 - front row seats. Best money spent - the band played for 3 hours, and had no opening act. All them.
Also, we saw Styx sometime in the same timeframe...really good too! Real, actual, classy performers. We saw them about three years ago at a casino...not as good then.
I've seen Milli Vanilli and The Monkees. I win! HA!!
I think you are my spirit animal.
The Kingston Trio? I downloaded their albums (along with the Highwaymen and the Brothers Four...) from ITunes and burned CDS for my whole family!
I love "East Bound & Down", too, and I've always had the hots for Jerry Reed.
My first concert was Barry Manilow. Champaign, IL, 1982. He did a special thing for grade school kids on the afternoon of the concert at the high school (enough prepositional phrases for ya?). I helped move the grand piano from the choir room to the stage so I got to meet him. To date, he is the skinniest man I've ever seen. And he was very nice.
First: Blue Oyster Cult. Worst: Ozzy Osborne. Best: The Boss and Barbra Streisand. And so many more.
Absolute best has to be a tie between Roger Waters' The Wall (Aaaaah-mazing, I've been twice. Don't splurge for close up seats though--you can't see everything) and Paul McCartney's Out There tour last summer. I still can't believe I was in the same stadium as Sir Paul.
Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Nuff said.
Molly, that Mandy clip is pure gold! And super awesome about FR - I'm not familiar with them but will check them out. Thanks!
I think Sir Paul and I need to get together.
Ooh! Steve is touring this summer and we were on the fence - good to know! I've also seen Styx a few times and was impressed. Also? Tommy Shaw looks like Jesus now.
You know I can't compete.
Shut the front door! Barry is da coolest! But yes, skinny. I heard tell from a pal who was at one of his photo shoots that all his jackets have, like, 3 inches of padding built in all over just so he doesn't look so thin.
I'd really hope Ozzy would bring it. Sigh.
Yeah, Sir Paul and I totally need to get together.
Patti, I love you.
Your take on Rush is perfect. And I believe you about Nickelback and Springsteen and Sting. I really do.
My dream concert is Manilow, but it has NEVER worked out.
Aerosmith, Black Crows, BoDeans, Dixie Chicks all superb experiences.
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