There’s an obscure prog band from England called IQ. They’ve been around for more than 40 years. In 1994, they came to San Jose to do a single show, then went home. There were a couple of hundred people at that show, tops. I would be amazed if anyone else on this board was there!
They have played plenty of gigs all over Europe throughout their career, of course. But I’d still be surprised if anyone here has seen them.
Another one: in the late 70s there was a short-lived prog supergroup called UK. The lineup on their first album consisted of Eddie Jobson, John Wetton, Allan Holdsworth, and Bill Bruford. Holdsworth and Bruford left after the first tour. Terry Bozzio joined up on drums, and they went without a guitarist for their second album. They toured, then broke up.
I was too young to see them then, but in 2012 the Jobson-Wetton-Bozzio lineup reunited and toured. I caught the show in Portland OR.
Another concert that I doubt anyone here saw was the Memorial Concert for drummer Jeff Porcaro at the Universal Amphitheater on 12/14/92. Alongside his former band, Toto, the concert featured appearances by many of the great artists Porcaro played for including Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Don Henley and Boz Skaggs, along with friends George Harrison and Eddie Van Halen. It was one hell of a show.
One of my favorite concerts was with an artist who a lot of you have probably seen: Mark Knopfler (without the Dire Straits).
A guy who is a big blues singer in Oregon is Curtis Salgado. He’s well known as the inspiration for Belushi’s Blues Brothers dance moves.
I haven’t listed many jazz artists as not everyone is familiar with the names. We did see bassist Esperanza Spalding when she was not yet famous (she was a music major at Portland State University). Charlie Byrd at a free street concert in Virginia; Tuck & Patti in a small venue (Old Church in Portland), Ken Peplowski, Benny Green, Trombone Shorty, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Mimi Fox, Jane Monheit, Madeleine Peyroux. . .it’s a long list.
The New Barbarians in San Diego, May of 1979. Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Stanley Clarke, saw them front and center as it was a general admission show. Maybe 5000 at the Sports Arena, there was that many as a rumor was out that Mick Jagger was going to be there. He wasn’t.
I have seen The Kinks 4 times, all at different venues.
Twice. I quite like 'em, myself. (Chris Wood doesn’t have an s at the end of his last name.)
I just thought of another. Robert Fripp, all by himself, at a record store. It wasn’t really so much a concert as a demonstration of Frippertronics, which is what he calls his technique for layering sounds on top of each other using two tape recorders with the tape running from one recorder to the other. It was a musical performance, though, sometime around the release of the album Exposure, if I remember correctly.
I’ve seen her perform live at some outdoor event in Reading, PA. Don’t ask me to remember when - probably late '70s.
Others:
Barry Manilow - Omaha, 1994-ish. A good showman, but not one of his better shows as it was more of a “greatest hits” tour than anything new.
Olivia Rodrigo - Basically, I couldn’t get Taylor Swift tickets so we went to this instead, earlier this year. Remi Wolf opened and was terrible; Rodrigo was perfectly fine (and had a tremendous set of backing musicians and dancers).
REM (10,000 Maniacs opening) - I wanna say 1987? Maniacs were pretty good, REM were deathly dull as a live band. I left when they started playing “Electric Blue”.
I’ve also seen NRBQ and Tom Paxton but remember nothing of the first and only a couple of songs by the second (one of which was about the Exxon Valdez spill, which dates it).
My classical list is much longer but one standout was seeing Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg performing together live (just the two of them) at a gig for a Buddhist charity. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Oh, and I’ve seen Jello Biafra live but that was a speaking tour thing on the college circuit.
I saw JD twice with a large band, once with large band and orchestra, once with smaller band and once with just his guitar. No such thing as a bad John Denver concert.
I saw The Roches 35 (OMG, I don’t believe it) years ago in Baltimore — just the three of them, their guitars and a big-ass keyboard and they brought the house down.
Hey, Bumbershoot, welcome back, your dream was your ticket out.
A couple I remember my parents taking me to when I was a small child because my mother wanted to go: Ed Ames, and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. She was really big on Ed Ames, and for that reason, I have a special place in my heart for him to this day.