I saw Blues Traveler at Artscape in Baltimore two years ago. Popper is really a phenominal (and intense) instrumentalist. The rest of the band- meh. I had a great time.
I saw Paul (of the Beatles) a few years ago. Amazing.
I saw the Beatles.
It was on August 15th, 1966, in Washington, DC. Revolver had just come out. I was 12 years old, and it was my first date. It was a good day to be me, that it was.
Yeah, I saw Joe Cocker about a month ago. I can’t even imagine how cool it would it would have been to see him in the '70’s, but it was still a great show.
-Lil
I’ve seen Genesis three times. All three were post-Gabriel (unfortunately), and each was very memorable in its own way. The first time was the summer of '80 on their “Duke” tour, at the old Kiel Opera House in St Louis (capacity of about 3500, IIRC). Great show, small venue, very intimate. Second time was summer of '82, on the “Abacab” tour, when they played “Supper’s Ready” in its entirety. The third time was in '84 in Kansas City, on the tour for that horrible yellow album with the geometric shapes. The most noteworthy event that evening was when they blew a transformer and there was about a half-hour lull in the show until they were able to get the lights back on. Phil was sooooo pissed…
Back in 1982, I saw Genesis at the Forest Hills tennis stadium, on the “Abacab” tour. A year later, I saw Peter Gabriel solo, during his “Security” tour, at the same Forest Hills tennis stadium.
Genesis was sort of at a crossroads at that time- I’d say half the crowd consisted of newer fans who liked the pop/soul direction Phil Collins was starting to take the band in, while the other half was older Genesis fans who wanted to hear “Supper’s Ready” and the half-hour, church organ songs about the meaning of life. On that tour, the band played a roughly equal mix of their older and newer syle songs.
I happened to like both the old AND the new Genesis, so I enjoyed the entire show. But I was unusual. The “Supper’s Ready” crowd was bored stiff with the songs from “Duke” and “Abacab,” while the newer, younger fans seemed baffled by the Seventies material (“What’s this crud? Play ‘Follow You, Follow Me’!”).
Ohhhh – hearing all this is awesome, since I’ve just ‘discovered’ these bands.
Pinkfreud and Mr.Blue Sky—yes, I recorded the documentary on the Beatles when it was on a few years ago, and it’s wonderful. I remember that their biggest complaint before they quit touring was that the audiences were so loud they literally couldn’t hear what they were playing in the pandemonium.
Shagnasty – The CD I got of Jimmy Buffet’s was Live: Tuesdays, Thurs … and it was what first made me decide that live is best – such fun for the audience! And other stories on TV bear this out. I’ve also read some books about and by him.
Twickster, about Mad Dogs and Englishmen—I’ve got it waiting in the wings at Amazon.com. Thanks. Not sure what “(desert island album for me)” means in your post. The CD I had was the Best of Joe Cocker, and I copied five songs from it. That’s pretty good, considering all the CDs I’ve listened to with nary a song worth (to me) copying.
Dinahmoe, I’ve only had one each of Beck’s and Blues Traveler’s CDs. What a great-sounding job you had! The first way I heard about Beck was the Aerosmith guys saying they liked him so much. I copied three songs of Beck’s from *Midnight Vultures * and Mutations. And four from Blues Traveler’s CD called Four.
Jonathan Chance, I’m reading over and over what you wrote. You are so lucky to have seen so many good shows. About Blues Traveler, glad you mentioned extended improvisation. I know I don’t like jazz that’s like that. Did you mean Live From the Fall is like that, or their live shows? Hope I can find some live stuff of Beck’s.
Biffy, Genesis is my most recent ‘find.’ The CDs I had were *The Way We Walk * and We Can’t Dance. I only copied four songs from each; I firmly believe in quality over quantity and only take songs I really like a lot. From the little I was able to find on the Internet, I think it was Phil Collins on these, but I’m not sure. They sound a lot different from “That’s All” from a Best of 1983-84 CD.
Kgs, that 1987 show of Genesis – what’s the name of the video, please? Could it be Genesis – The Video Show that’s to be released in late March? Was Paul Young a member of Genesis? That must have been so-o-o-o exciting!
Frostillicus, gosh, I don’t think I’ve even heard “Train Kept a’ Rolling” (the library here must have ‘older’ things). But Bill Veeck—wasn’t he a baseball guy? With the Indians? Whose name they pronounced “Veck”? I didn’t know he had a wooden leg.
Genesis – Three Sides Live – is it a DVD? Can’t find it at Amazon. Same with Seconds Out. Wish there was a way to check out stuff without having to buy it—I mean a whole CD when I only want one song, or not even that, would get really expensive.
Ccwaterback, I didn’t know about Cream. Just put CDs on hold at the library. Same with Zappa (you do mean Frank Zappa, don’t you?)—this one looks really interesting. Thanks. ‘Fraid I haven’t heard of Commander Cody or the Lost Planet Airmen.
Doctor J, I really didn’t know all these were still touring. I’ll be looking into them now. Thank you.
DocJon, I DID notice you’re screen name, right off. That blues concert sounds wonderful, as do the others you describe—gave me goosebumps! I only have one song of Dr. John’s, from the *Duke Elegant * CD. Wonderful piano, indeed – that one song hooked me.
LoganDear, lucky you to be so close to those jazz festivals. Are you going this year? I lament the fact that I didn’t see all these groups, or even know about them, in the 70s.
Splanky, what did you think of McCartney’s Super Bowl half-time show this year? Unfortunately, I didn’t see it.
CBCD, your post made me smile. Well, they all do – I love all the info, and appreciate it!
Yes, lucky me indeed. Won’t be near New Orleans much longer as I’m moving back to Florida once I finish school. I will miss all the great music, but I’ll probably still try to come to Jazz Fest every year. It’s great fun! I’ve already got my tickets for this year. 
**Paul McCartney **is said to be having another US tour this year! I’m VERY excited as I missed his last tour 'cos I was at university in England. My parents went and said it was fantastic though. Unfortunately I missed his half-time show too. (stupidity on my part)
Have you heard much Paul Simon? You might also like The Band. If you’d like, I can send you a couple of CDs. I love introducing people to good music. I have Mad Dogs & Englishmen too. Another performer you might be interested in is Leon Russell. His style is a bit more… “grimey.” At least I think so. He performed with Joe Cocker quite a bit (and he’s on Mad Dogs & Englishmen). He reminds me a lot of** Dr. John** too. Although I have to admit, he’s a real downer to see in concert 'cos he doesn’t interact with the audience at all & he seems pretty stuck up in general. Great song writer though. He plays quite a bit down here in Louisiana and in Florida too.
And to think I wasn’t even born in the 70’s!
Lesse, I saw Aerosmith in maybe 1988 or 1989 in Atlanta at the old Omni. Fifth row. It was a fun show but I’ve never been a huge Aerosmith fan so it was probably wasted on me a little. The next night I saw David Bowie on his “farewell” tour (supposedly the last time he was gonna play his old favorites) and enjoyed that a lot more.
I saw Beck a couple of years ago here in Austin. He was doing this little stealth tour where you had to get tix through the fansite. The concert was in the auditorium of a local high school and freaking rocked. Mostly Beck playing acoustic (with an occasional side man). He did some songs, old and new, and also spent a lot of the time just making stuff up. He was hysterically funny, can play anything (guitar, piano, vibes, harmonium, etc.), and obviously has an amazing ear and musical education as he could go from ad-libbing a Broadway musical about the local bat colony to one of his more esoteric original compositions.
I’ll chime in with my Nirvana experience since no one else has. I saw them at the start of the In Utero tour. It was in Davenport, IA, the second date of the tour IIRC. Mudhoney and some other band opened. I thought Nirvana was fabulous. They really were a great live band. They opened the show with a lot of feedback and went straight into Radio Friendly Unit Shifter…a song I hadn’t previously appreciated, but now love to pieces.
The floor of the auditorium was packed with moshing 14 year olds, so after a while, the wife and I went upstairs and sat in the bleachers. From our vantage point we could see the backstage too. When Nirvana ended their set, Krist and Dave walked off and just stood behind the amps while they waited to go back on for the encore. I’d always wondered what bands do during this time. I don’t know if they were waiting for Kurt or what, but Krist and Dave just stood there. They didn’t even appear to be talking to each other. Eventually Kurt must have decided he was ready, and everyone walked back out on stage. They played a couple more songs, tossed their gear around a bit and they were done.
I had some friends who saw them in Chicago the next night. They were at the Aragon, I think…a big cavernous place. Apparently the sound was terrible and after they were done, Kurt walked back out and apologized for the crappy show and told the crowd that they had been ripped off.
A “desert island album” is one of the albums you’d take with you if you were going to be stranded on a desert island and could only have 10 albums with you. (I feel a thread coming on…)
Saw Santana back in the early 70’s and they put on a killer show.
Saw Jimmy Buffet in the late 80’s-early-90’s. He was okay but the audience kinda ruined it for me; some folks partied too much at the aforementioned tailgate parties and the barfing and ugly drunks were really obnoxious.
Saw Leon Russell (good call, logandear!) countless times in the 70’s and he was/(is still?) a great showman and certainly has a wealth of wonderful songs. That’s Russell on piano in Joe Cocker’s great rendition of “The Letter.”
I think it’s Russell’s arrangement of the song, too.
Dang it, reading your list of artists, I just realized you probably mean Jeff Beck, right? I meant just plain old (“I’m a loser so why don’t you kill me”) Beck. Totally different guy…
I think it’s ‘regular’ Beck. She mentions his album Midnight Vultures.
Huh, rereading more carefully, I guess you’re right. It’s just that he (Beck) doesn’t seem to fit in all that well with the mid-70’s classic rock. But I guess Nirvana doesn’t either…
Farewell tour?? IIRC, John Bonham died quite unexpectedly in 1980, but the band had no designs on spiltting up or to stop touring before that, did they?
Only one I’ve seen is Genesis. Invisible Touch tour. In front of the Reichstag in Berlin, June 8, 1987 (I just looked it up…). It was one of a series of 3 concerts; the other two were David Bowie and the Eurythmics. Saw Bowie, missed the Eurythmics (my friends and I thought two nights in a row of concerts were enough). Very cool concert, although it and the others occasioned riots in East Berlin.
GT
TKAR is one of the best rock and roll tunes ever. It’s an Aerosmith cover of an old blues song, I believe. It was originally released in 1975 or so. (Damn, I can’t remember the album, even though I’ve listened to it a million times. It was the one right before Toys in the Attic.) And yes, Bill Veeck was a baseball guy. He owned the White Sox at the time, and they played in Comiskey Park, which is where I saw the concert.
Logan, you ARE a dear, but I couldn’t ask you to do that. Unless you’d let me pay you for CDs, of course (or maybe rent them for one play-through and then return?). I know who Paul Simon is, and have four songs from his & Garfunkel’s Concert in Central Park CD. I looked up “The Band” on our library site and got a listing of a Disney CD that sounds like it might be pretty good (not childish), and though I didn’t see “The Band” mentioned, it must be in there somewhere. They say it might be a 20-day wait, but I ordered it. I’m going to order Mad Dogs & Englishmen from Amazon.com.
Gosh, I don’t know! If Midnight Vultures is Jeff Beck, that’s the one I’ve got, though the artist is listed as Beck. Glad to be getting this straightened out.