After a night of playing trivia I've retired to the porch to drink a few more beers and listen to some music. I've chosen a live CD by Joe Ely tonight. It sent me thinking about live shows, as Joe Ely is probably the best live performer I've ever seen (next to Six Feet High and Rising of course.)
I've seen some great shows, but I'm interested in your best concert experiences. For me, it's mostly small venue shows, as I feel arena shows are dehumanizing. Here's a few that are especially memorable:
Joe Ely at Mayfest in Fort Worth about 2001: If this guy can get this crowd going, he's capable of anything.
Uncle Tupelo at Liberty Lunch in Austin about 1992: first show at which I was high, plus it was my favorite all time band...transcendent.
Toots and the Maytals at Liberty Lunch in Austin (~1988): man I was shitfaced and almost got my ass whipped marching to the front. Backup singers were amazing.
Devo at the Backroom in Austin (~1990): I had a headache but one of my favorite all-time bands jammed my way through it.
Gourds at Barleyhouse in Dallas (1997): during my non-drinking phase, but still great.
True Believers at Eastchase Live in College Station (1987): because of a storm, Alejandro and the boys were about two hours late but still rocked the shit out of the crowd of about 10.
Son Volt at Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas (~1994): what a great joint for a show, I think Toby got a signed poster. They can never go wrong closing with Chickamauga.
Ramones and Social Distortion at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas (1993): two powerhouse bands at an amazing venue.
I'm sure I'm leaving out dozens of shows, but the dates bespeak the fact that I haven't seen a good show in a while. I saw the Gourds a couple of years ago at the Wreck Room in FW and they were good, but I really haven't been a live music guy lately. Let me hear your stories. Toby, don't forget the Simple Minds concert at Reunion in 85 or so.
11 comments:
Spring of 1995, I was sitting outside of a coffee shop in downtown Champaign, IL. A tour bus kept driving around the block, looking for a place to park. I walked down the street to the Blind Pig (Champaign's equivalent of Austin's Liberty Lunch) and saw that Wilco was playing there. Wilco was still kind of a rumor for Uncle Tupelo fans, and AM was still a few months away.
There were about 100 people in the place. Jeff Tweedy was dipping Copenhagen and pounding diet cokes during sound check. About 1/2 of the songs were from the Uncle Tupelo catalog, and most of the songs from AM had a more traditional country sound to them, with a couple of notable exceptions--A punk rock version of Casino Queen, and a reggae-ish version of Pasenger Side.
Steve, as always, thanks for the 6FHAR props!
Best live shows I have seen:
Springsteen 1975, about two days after he hit the cover of time and newsweek, last stop on his tour, at the US Naval academy in Annopolis
Springsteen about three years ago, on the reunion tour with E-Street, I had third row center tix. Awesome.
Pearl Jam, about 10 yrs ago at Reunion.
Love Ely, only seen him once.
Local band, the Stratoblasters used to put out awesome shows.
John Hiatt at the Bomb Factory when he had the lead guitarist from Cracker.
Jim, I'm afraid I was run out of the 6FHAR show last weekend pretty early. It was too crowded for me, which I'm sure was cool for you as performer and bar owner. I was there in spirit, but sitting at the bar at the Shamrock actually.
You seem to still be on board with the arena show. I just can't handle those. We saw Green Day at Tarrant County Convention Center a year or so ago and it was tolerable mostly because it was a Tuesday night, not sold out, and we walked there from Del Frisco's.
I did see some cool arena shows back in the day - Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, and AC-DC about ten times.
Bravo Combo May 15 2004.
Isn't my wife a sentimentalist! That's our wedding day.
I forgot to mention the great V-Roys shows at the Aardvark back in 96-97. Great live band that burned too bright.
I vaguely remember the Stafford Opera House. College Station/Bryan was a mightly strange place for live music. I remember seeing Bad Mutha Goose in a record store parking lot, the Reivers at Eastchase, and a surprisingly good Indigo Girls show at DeWare fieldhouse. One of the coolest shows that I've remembered recently was Ten Hands at some joint in Bryan that I'll never remember the name of.
On the flip side were the very unmemorable REM shows at G. Rollie White.
The UncleT talk puts me in the mind of the 97 Barleypalooza at the Barleyhouse in Dallas.
It was hot and I was sober, but I remember a full day of great bands that weren't direct spawn of UT but certainly not-to-distant cousins. This included the Grevious Angels from Phoenix, Slobberbone from Denton, Old 97's from Dallas, and I'm thinking the Gourds were there also (because I think it was the first time I heard their cover of Gin and Juice). This was back in photography phase so I have some good shots of the early bands.
Speaking of Slobberbone, I'm going through a bit of a rebirth with them. I've had Crow Pot Pie, Barrel Chested, and Everything You Know in a solid patio rotation of late. They can be a little thin lyrically, but they more than make up for it sheer energy. Additionally, they are masters of the country/hard-rock slow burn song. Pick 'em up if you haven't listened to them in a while.
The BANDS UNDER TENTS theme reminds me of seeing the Gourds at the Dog and Duck Pub's 4th of July party, 1996, in Austin. They went on early, say 4:00 (which was good for us, since we'd been drinking since noon). They played a rippin' version of "The Battle of New Orleans," which I begged them to play again for years after that show. (The irony of playing that song at an English pub was lost in a haze of Celis White). "Here's how you drink Guinness," some Irish dude kept yelling, "You slam it! You slam it!"
The Gourds drummer quit after that show, and henceforth they were always missing a bit of their edge.
This thread is likely played out now, but I'll weigh in anyway. I too attended the Uncle Tupelo show at the Lunch and it is way up there. Robert Earl Keen show at La Zona Rosa on July 4 back in '93 also great; aggies mostly stood and chatted in the back. Can't forget the two Elvis shows I caught with my mom back in the mid-70's at TCCC. Don't remember too much about the performances, but my junior leisure suits rocked and dinner at the Spanish Galleon was superb. The Captain and Teniile at the same site (TCCC, not the Spanish Galleon)a couple of years later was not nearly as cool. Best show ever would be a tie between U2 at the Bronco Bowl in 83(I think)and many Alejandro shows (including Gravity record release at the Cactus Cafe, many shows at the Hole in the Wall and the aforementioned gig at the Continental last year). Sting at Reunion back in 85 might have been sweet, but I'll never know, having been roughly ejected for calling very masculine usherette a "bull dyke" for her aisle-dancing crackdown (maybe I deserved that one.) I didn't attend the Cash show at Emo's, but like everyone else in Austin, I'll just lie and say I did. I work across the street from Emo's now, and every day I smoke a cigarette as I gaze across at the legendary, urine-soaked venue and curse Glenn Kirk for not finding me deserving of a Celis badge. So, this is fun, and I feel so good about sharing the hipness of my past. Come on, you know you can't top Elvis! And FU, Glenn Kirk.
-Elrod
I thought we might hear from Bruce, who also saw one of the Elvis shows at TCCC. He also had the rare privelege of seeing the Stones at Will Rogers in '77.
But I believe the most notable comment was the reverent reference to the long defunct Spanish Galleon in Fort Worth at Forest Park and the West Freeway. My father worked in the building to the immediate west of the Galleon in the Pier 1 Headquarters. The Galleon was my own Holy Grail. It was built back when they knew how to build theme restaurants (think Crystals on Bowie except with a nautical theme). I never darkened the door of the giant fish-mouthed main entrance, but passed longingly by it hundreds of times. We all have our regrets from childhood, and I still hold it against my parents that I never ate at the Spanish Galleon.
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