There’s been a thread on CS recently about time travelling to see any theater performance in history, so I’ve decided to start a broader thread. If time travel was possible, what entertainment event would you go to? You can do anything you want when you go there as long as you don’t effect someone’s life or death; so no “I’d convince Buddy Holly not to take that plane” answers. I would take a high quality reel to reel tape deck and record a set by the unrecorded “father of jazz” Buddy Bolden. What’s your choice?
The Marx Brothers on Broadway.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience at their early club gigs in London, late '66 through '67. Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett at his peak, same time frame. The Velvet Underground at any point they existed. The Stooges at any point they existed (modern versions of these groups not included.)
Nick Drake. Geez, imagine seeing Nick Drake play; there isn’t even any surviving footage of him. Robert Johnson playing a juke joint. Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf playing their respective clubs in Chicago in the '50s. Coltrane at any point in the last decade of his life. Miles Davis in the late 50s and early 60s.
That’s just off the top of my head.
I was going to say one of the original Honeymooners episodes, but this is better.
The problem with seeing what I’d want to see is that there is no way I could fit in at Winterland or the Avalon Ballroom.
Catch the Beatles at the Cavern.
I’m surprised nobody has said Woodstock.
Mud, bad acid and too many dirty hippies. No, give me Airplane and Moby Grape at the Avalon, or Quicksilver and New Riders at Winterland.
Stones, the Garden, last week of November, 1969. Ya-Yas – as it happened!
Just for fun, I’d go back to the Sundance Film Festival of 2004 and start asking Shane Carruth questions right before the world premiere of Primer.
Or Altamont. :dubious:
I’d pick a certain crucifixion. Not entertainment by my standards, but it was then and it’s a historical mystery.
If I’ve got to pick something more modern, I’ll attend Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater.
Fairport Convention featuring special guest Jimi Hendrix, Speakeasy Club, London, 1960.
Beethoven’s Ninth, world première, Vienna, Austria, 7 May 1824.
My time-travel gig of choice: The Oldfield Hotel, May 2, 1964: Keith Moon’s first performance with The Who.
Dress as a record company executive.
A showing of the Russian musical Rock & Roll At Dawn, which used the music from Jesus Christ Superstar in an approved Communist story.
The grassy knoll.
August 22, 1960, London’s West End, premiere performance of Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett & Jonathan Miller.
or, yeah, of course the Marx Brothers.
May 29, 1913, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris: The premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
or:
I was at Woodstock. I’d find myself and hand over a list of all the good and bad decisions I made since then.
Take a camera and record William Gillette playing Sherlock Holmes.
Sarah Bernhardt.
Go back to Elizabethan England and film Shakespeare’s plays in their debut performances.
Tape Jenny Lind singing.
Tape some of the famous castrati singing.
Go back to the library of Alexandria, right before the fire, and steal everything.