I saw REO Speedwagon in concert tonight. Night Ranger opened for them.
Night Ranger was less than good. Admittedly, I’d really never heard of them before and I only know That One Song. (C’mon, guess) Their drummer is very talented as a drummer and as a vocalist. The songs were… eh, but the musical performance was good and they weren’t completely boring.
REO Speedwagon is SO OLD. Wow. I like 'em though; I’ve been listening to them as long as I can remember. They picked up a keyboard-ist player person from Great White. I’d thought he looked familiar. Both of the lead guitarists were good, although I did favor one over the other (I don’t know any of their names).
Good show, overall.
So which bands/artists have you seen live?
Me?
Ozzfest
Black Sabbath, Korn, System of a Down, Chevelle, Slipknot, Godsmack, POD (P.O.D? I have no idea), umm, crap. There are a whole bunch more, including about a billion forgetable second-stagers. I’ve been to 3 or 4 Ozzfests.
John Michael Montgomery
Alabama
REO Speedwagon
Night Ranger
Tool
B.B King
Willie Nelson
and Creedence Clearwater Revisited (or something, a tribute band)
Also, of your list, which was your favorite? I’ll go ahead and say Tool.
Night Ranger picked up a keyboard-ist player person from Great White. They performed “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” as well as the “Na Na Na Na” parts of other songs that I didn’t completely recognize (except Bananarama’s “Goodbye”). They did a Damn Yankees song too, but not the one I expected. (“High Enough” is what I’d assumed they were doing when they said “Damn Yankees”; I have no idea what it is they sang though).
Oingo Boingo (3 times)
Dave Mathews Band (twice…thrice, maybe?)
Depeche Mode
Sting
Maroon 5
Liz Phair
Duran Duran
Seal
They Might Be Giants
And a few others that I don’t remember - they were part of a concert festival thing. (Liz Phair, Maroon 5, Seal and Duran Duran were also part of a concert festival thing, but that one was last year, so I still remember it.)
Of the ones I have seen, I’m not sure which would rate as a my “favorite”. It would be one of the Oingo Boingo ones, Sting, or Depeche Mode, though.
Here’s my list. Keep in mind a lot of these are smaller bands, many of whom are from Florida (but still may be known elsewhere).
Agent 99
Amazing Crowns
Aquabats x2
B.B. King
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Ben Folds
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Billy Joel x2
Bim Skala Bim
Blue Oyster Cult
Branford Marsalis
Brother Cane featuring Slash
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
Combustible Edison x2
The Darkness
DblWiDE
Descendants
Dishwalla
Duke Ellington Orchestra w/Mercer Ellington and Herb Jeffries
Duncan Sheik
Elton John
Frantic Flattops
G. Love and Special Sauce x2
George Carlin
Goldfinger
Hepcat
Hillbilly Hellcats x2
Hippos
Interpol
James Brown
Jewel
John Scofield
Less Than Jake x5
Los Straitjackets
Mad Caddies x3
Magadog
Man… Or Astroman?
Mighty Blue Kings
Mighty Mighty Bosstones x3
MU330
Mustard Plug
OK Go
Phish
Pietasters x2
Psycho Charger
Rancid
Red Elvises
Reel Big Fish
Reverend Horton Heat x2
Robert Cray with the Memphis Horns
Royal Crown Revue
Save Ferris x2
Scofflaws
Seven Foot Politic x5
Skatalites
Skavoovie and the Epitones
Skif Dank
Slackers
Sonny Rollins
Specials x2
Spoon Benders
Stone Temple Pilots
They Might Be Giants x2
Toasters x3
Toshiko Akiyoshi w/Lew Tabackin
Usuals x20
What It Is
Woggles
As far as my favorites, I’d have to list any Less Than Jake concert, the Red Elvises, the Pietasters, the great Sonny Rollins, Reverend Horton Heat, They Might Be Giants, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Royal Crown Revue, and best of all… Ben Folds.
Bachman Turner Overdrive
The Beach Boys
Mary Wilson (of the Surpremes)
Peter Noone (Hermin’s Hermits)
The Turtles
Tommy James
Lou Christy
Smokey Robinson
The Drifters
Chuck Berry
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Sting
Paul Simon
Paul McCartney
Ghost of the Robot
and in August, Eric Clapton
Weird Al Yankovic
Barenaked Ladies (& the Proclaimers, who opened)
Seven Nations ( a local band called Newcomer’s Home opened for them)
I couldn’t afford concerts as a teenager, my first husband was a cheapskate (we went to see Weird Al) and my second husband is just poor (although he took me to the other two, even so.)
*MXPX
*Blessid Union of Souls - they gave either a free show or a very very cheap show at a local festival-type thing. They played some Black Sabbath, which was kinda weird but cool.
*Weezer - twice. Once after the Green Album came out, and once after Maladroit came out.
*Dashboard Confessional
*The Strokes
*Har Mar Superstar - this guy was the opening show for the Strokes. I wouldn’t have even mentioned him because he’s so unknown, but IMO he was better than the Strokes themselves. He was like an ultra-horny Jack Black on speed, but dude had vocals like you wouldn’t believe. He did a great version of “Sir Duke.”
*Paul McCartney
*The White Stripes
*Ben Folds - this was my favorite show. I’m a big fan of BF and I had been looking forward to singing the horn part of “Army” for a long time.
Later this month I might go see Ben Folds, Guster, and Rufus Wainwright in Indy. Definitely looking forward to that one.
Harry James and orchestra (Disneyland, 1963)
Paul Revere & The Raiders (at my smalltown Oregon high school, no less. This was just before they hit it big)
The Association
Canned Heat
Simon & Garfunkel
Peter, Paul & Mary
Jefferson Airplane
Steve Miller Band (twice)
Leon Russel
Eric Burdon & War (at the Fillmore)
Seals & Crofts
Dr. John, The Night Tripper (at Winterland)
Boz Scaggs
The Limeliters
Delbert McClinton
Norton Buffalo
Los Lobos
Buddy Guy
Emmylou Harris
Tori Amos (Strange Little Girls tour)
Creed, with Finger Eleven & Sevendust opening
late 1970s Beach Boys
intact Plus One (C’tian boy band, my Pastor’s son was a member, now left the group)
Here’s a short list of the stuff that I can remember, there’s many more just cant seem to remember them all.
Pink Floyd
Billy Joel (5th row at MSG)
Depech Mode
Black Sabbath (2x)
SoundGarden
Slayer
Pantera
White Zombie (2x)
Ice T (2x)
Cypress Hill
Motorhead
Ministry
G3 (Yngwie, Satriani and Vai)
House of Pain
Whitesanke
Motley Crue
David Lee Roth
Tesla
Type O Negative
Sepultura
Helmet
Agnostic Front
S.O.D.
Corrosion of Conformity
Marilyn Manson
Fear Factory
Later…
Allman Brothers Band (5x, actually)
Chicago
Mountain
Beach Boys (when they were considered washed-up has-beens)
J.Geils Band
Pink Floyd
Bruce Springsteen (when he was playing 1000-seat venues)
Jethro Tull
Lyle Lovett
Elton John/Billy Joel
Sha Na Na
Loudon Wainwright III (2x, 25 years apart)
NRBQ
Dreams
Mahavishnu Orchestra (twice, even though they stunk)
P.D.Q. Bach
Orleans
McKendrie Spring
Seatrain
Jo Jo Gunne
Elvin Bishop (2x)
Otis Taylor (3x)
Philadelphia Symphony
Faculty of the Perlman Music Program Blotto
More than I could possibly remember… a lot of them at festivals.
**First big concert ** I can remember was the Reading Festival in 1994, with Hole playing only four months after Kurt committed suicide, Elastica cramming thousands of people into a tiny tent, of which I was right at the front getting squashed flat, and the Chili Peppers headlining.
First individual gig: Radiohead, September 94 in a small room at Sheffield University, where they previewed a lot of the following year’s album The Bends.
Most recent: Keane, at the London Astoria last month.
Most memorable: probably Radiohead at Glastonbury in 1997 and Pulp, also at Glastonbury in 1995.
Pat Benatar
The Cars
George Thorogood
Pat Metheny
Stevie Ray Vaughan (in a 2,000 seat theater - “Nobody told me I was going to be playing in a genie bottle.”
Yes
Bette Midler
Bonnie Raitt
Bruce Hornsby (x 5)
Molly Hatchett
Queen
Grateful Dead (x 75)
Wow. And I thought I was the only one to ever have seen Night Ranger play live … just kidding!
Others I’ve seen (note: we go to a country music festival every summer, so many of these are country artists):
Aerosmith (twice)
Blackhawk (twice, will see them again this summer)
Charlie Daniels
Alabama
Sawyer Brown (twice, though I’ll see them a third and fourth time this summer)
Jo Dee Messina
Chicago (but I don’t remember any of it)
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Warrant
Vince Neil
Slaughter
Probably lots of others I’m not thinking of. This summer I’ll be seeing Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Travis Tritt, and Phil Vassar.
**Chris Isaak ** is, without a doubt, my favorite live act. I caught him twice in 1987 at the 9:30 Club in Washington and once in 1989 at the Bottom Line in New York and was very close to the stage each time. He and the band played their asses off, plus the guy has great stage patter - he’s really funny. Terrific clothes, too - in 1987 Isaak was wearing a turquoise suit with oriental-type dragons stitched in it and the band were wearing matching grey suits, and in 1989 he was wearing a suit with an extravagant flowered pattern, with the band again in matching grey suits. After moving to London, I was fortunate enough to come across a couple of live bootleg CDs.
**The dBs ** are another standout, saw them three times during the summer of 1985 at the 9:30, the Roxy and American University. Great shows, they usually opened with “Any Old Thing,” and I remember them ripping through “See No Evil” for an encore at the 9:30.
**R.E.M. ** opening for the **English Beat ** (Vanderbilt University, spring 1983) was an awe-inspiring show, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much pure energy.
A few others that stand out:
Husker Du (9:30)
Flipper (9:30)
Roy Orbison (the Bayou)
Jerry Lee Lewis (the Wax Museum)
Fats Domino (the Wax Museum)
The Replacements + the LeRoi Brothers (Vanderbilt University)
The LeRoi Brothers + the Blasters (can’t remember the name of the venue, but it was a former cinema on Columbia Road in Washington)
The Three O’Clock + X (the Exit/In, on the More Fun in the New World tour)
Bill Lloyd and the December Boys (the Exit/In)
Matt “Guitar” Murphy (Cantrell’s)
Neil Young (Grand Ole Opry - not Ryman Auditorium, the new one, on the Neil and the Shocking Pinks tour)
Tom Petty (Grand Ole Opry, on the Long After Dark tour)
Steve Earle (Bluebird Cafe)
T-Bone Burnett + NRBQ (Vanderbilt University)
Rank and File (Vanderbilt University)
The Pretenders (Vanderbilt University)
Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper (Vanderbilt University, indescribably weird)
The Bangles (Vanderbilt University, they were opening for Cyndi Lauper but who cared about Cyndi Lauper?)
Fetch’n Bones (a Nashville club, can’t remember which one)
