I saw Nirvana play for a “5 bands for 5 bucks” show at the UW campus. They hadn’t released Nevermind yet, and only had a little local buzz about them.
I thought they sucked and left after a couple of songs, thinking “what a waste of $5”.
I saw the National around 2005 or so when they opened for my favorite band. The only impression they left on me was “boring.”
A few months later I got a new roommate whose favorite band was the National. In the next couple of years I hear and see their name dropped all over the place as people’s new favorite band. I gave their later albums a listen in the hopes of figuring out why they were so beloved and may have succumbed to the hype for a moment or two, but ultimately my first impression was a lasting one.
Seriously, them?
Grew up spending every hour possible at Summerfest, so saw a lot of bands that were bigger later on. We were waiting for Sly and The Family Stone and barely paid any attention to the opening bands. One of them was The Jackson Five. “Pissant boy-band kids’ pop… we came to hear some real soul! Where’s SLY???” (He was holed up in his hotel room, afraid of the huge mob)
So you see my dilemma: if I said I saw Michael Jackson live, my street cred with my students would go up… but I’d feel like a hypocrite, so I’ve never said it.
Y’know, I’m looking at the list of bands (is it anywhere online? People have tried to start a list, but Summerfest wants people to buy their coffeetable book to get it).
I could claim to have seen Clapton, Carlin, Stevie, Tony, Ringo, Alice, BS&T, CSN&Y, RHCP, OAR, REM, BÖC, The Allmans, The Pips, The Temps, The Doors, The Femmes…
But we were just there for the vibes, the second-hand herbalness, the picnic… chatting with old friends (and newfound stoner friends) with cool bands in the background. So I could say I’ve seen them… but I didn’t listen to them.
Four years ago I was at an Israeli Independence Day festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. After a while, a singer/piano player I’d never heard of named Regina Spektor started performing. It was a pleasant little diversion, but I got bored after a couple of songs and wandered off to do something else.
Justin Bieber played at the State Fair a couple of years ago and I have to say I have never seen such a MOB at the fair. Traffic was backed up for an hour… The free concert that afternoon was Sugarland just before they hit it big - who’da known? - I stayed for the opening number and had to leave because of the crowds, and the 98 degree heat. So I can say I saw Sugarland before they became ginormous. (that time of year we get killer thunderstorms but so far no stage collapse.)
In either 1977 or 1978, when I was in high school, I answered a trivia question posed by a disc jockey at WNEW FM, and I won tickets to see some new band that was playing at the Bottom Line the next night.
I blew it off because it was a late show on a school night, and I didn’t really like the only song I’d heard by this band.
The group was the Police (I didn’t much care for “Can’t Stand Losing You,” the only song of theirs I knew).
Years later, I saw an interview in which Sting and Stewart Copeland talked about that very show. They said there were only about 6 people in the audience, and they spent the whole night chatting with the audience, socializing with them, taking requests, whatever!
That would have been a hell of a memory, if I’d had the sense to show up!
Bob Marley. It was awesome! I only went because my international student roommates were all mad to!
And I saw Stevie Wonder, when he opened for the Stones. The fans were there to see the Stones and didn’t give him much respect, but he was awesome too!
A movie rather than a musical group. I could have seen a very early pre-release screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In those pre-internet days, one typically didn’t know about movies months in advance. My date and I went to the theater and there was a plain white sign indicating one screen was showing “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” No pictures. Nothing about the cast. No details at all. Just the title in plain black letters. We assumed it was probably along the lines of Sun International pictures like “The Search for Noah’s Ark” and elected to see something else. I couldn’t even tell you what at this point. Several weeks later, Raiders was released to great acclaim and the rest is history.
We should hang out, astorian. I hate that song, too.
When I lived in Wichita Falls, some of my friends were into the local music scene, and we’d go down to The Refuge (a coffee shop in a most unlikely town) on occasion. The only band I can clearly remember seeing there was Artificial Rhonda; they had a good song I liked called “Majority of One”.
I never went to see Folkadots when they performed, and I left town to attend college somewhere else before a fat kid/marching band geek named Jaret Reddick started playing up there with his band, which included the Folkadots’ Erik Chandler and Chris Burney.
They call themselves Bowling For Soup now, and we love them.
In 1988, I saw Jane’s Addiction open up for Iggy Pop. Nothing’s Shocking had just been released, and they were definitely already generating some buzz, but I didn’t know anything by them, and frankly, didn’t really care for their performance. I’ve since grown to like them a lot more, and wish I’d been more familiar with them at the time.
I was given a pair of tickets to Superbowl 12 in New Orleans, and a hotel room. I scalped the tickets and enjoyed the hell out of a quick vacation to New Orleans.
I am less than interested in watching sports.
Way back in 1976 I saw Rush during their 2112 concert tour, and was so bombed out of my skull that I literally have no recollection of it. I know for a fact I attended (I have witnesses), but the entire experience is a complete blank now, other than a vague memory of randomly meeting someone else I knew and having a babbling conversation with them, which I imagine could probably be summed up as “Argle bargle gargle.”
I have a good friend now who is an uber-fanatical Rush fan. I occasionally find sadistic pleasure in reminding him that I saw a concert he would have killed to attend, and remember absolutely nothing about it.
1981 Rolling Stones tour - one of the opening acts was this tiny black guy jumping around in what looked like purple underwear(???), wasn’t really a good fit for the Rolling Stones crowd. A year later Prince had a hit album with “1999”.
My parents moved to the DC Metro area when I was under 3 years old. My mom took me downtown in my stroller sometimes. One of those trips she made hats out of newspapers for many of the other people who were also downtown, because it was so hot. I remember nothing except seeing adults wearing my mom’s newspaper hats. I have a picture of me in my stroller and my mom wearing a newspaper hat. I heard the “I Have A Dream” speech live.
I saw that tour in Los Angeles. Poor Prince lasted four songs dodging bottles before he gave up. It was a disgrace.
When I was in college in Corvallis, Oregon in the mid to late 70’s, I used to see an exceptional blues guitarist who played every six weeks or so at Mother’s Mattress Factory, a college dive known for 10 cent beers on Tuesdays. He was good, but after a while, when I heard the entertainment was once again Robert Cray, I moved on to the Dungeon to see who else was playing.
Don’t know how much of a “pearl” this is, but I can remember seeing Doctor Who episodes that are now lost.
Thread winner!