Concerts, plays, operas, movie premiers, &c.
You are limited to 5!
Rat Pack at the Sands in Las Vegas. 'Nuff said.
The Beatles during the early years when Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best were in the band. I’m not sure if in Hamburg or The Cavern. Recording of the performances of this iteration of The Beatles are rare and poor quality and I’d love to hear them for historical purposes.
Farinelli in concert. The greatest castrato singer ever and something we will never hear in our lifetime. “But Saint Cad,” you say. “We can hear Alessandro Moreschi. And there are modern day endocrinal castrato like Radu Marian.” As for Moreschi, but the time he was recorded the techniques that took advantage of the castrato’s unique physiology re: singing had long since been lost. And modern-day “castrati” are countertenors that sing soprano arias - not the same as classic castrati.
Macbeth in the Globe Theater. I feel this might be disappointing given the theater going experience versus how it was in Shakespeare’s time but I’m willing to take a chance.
Honestly, mine would ALL be from the early modern era. So much to learn!
Dr. Faustus, whenever and wherever the first performance was. Just because it has so many “OMG, how did they stage this?” and “OMG, how did people react to it?” moments.
Love’s Labour’s Won and Cardenio, our two lost probably-at-least-partly-Shakespeare plays. Of course.
The Duchess of Malfi at the Blackfriars in 1613. That one would be so awesomely creepy in a candelit indoor venue, plus it’s one of the few plays from the period where we actually have a cast list that says who played which roles, and it would be nice to put some faces to the names.
And, of course, one Shakespeare classic. I guess I would go for Measure for Measure in front of King James at Christmas 1604, because it would be super-interesting to see a court performance, and because the ending is so fascinatingly ambiguous that I would love to see how they staged it.
But I could add a dozen more without even trying! The Winter’s Tale for the statue and the BEAR, and Thomas Heywood’s Edward IV plays because I wrote big chunks of my dissertation about them and I don’t ever expect to see them, and Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle because it’s so awesomely metafictional (in ways the original audience apparently failed to appreciate, alas), and The Taming of the Shrew because I want to know if / how they staged the Christopher Sly bits, and of course Hamlet.
1- Woodstock just to be part of history
2- The Band- Last Waltz at Winterland- 1976
3- Bob Dylan at Royal Albert Hall 1966
4- Beatles at Shea Stadium 1965 to experience the height of Beatlemania
5- I don’t know
Jimi Hendrix / Band of Gypsys, one of the shows in the New Year’s Eve '69 - New Year’s Day '70 run at the Fillmore, probably the second show.
The Mothers of Invention, one of the late sixties shows. I lean toward 1969-05-23, Appleton, Wisconsin.
The Grateful Dead, the 1978 performances at the Gizah Sound and Light Theater in Egypt. I don’t think any of these shows are among the band’s best performances, but I’d like to have been there for the event. Unfortunately, I was just a poor boy with no money to go flying off to another continent .
The premiere performances of The Rite of Spring (where much of the audience erupted into anarchic shouting and catcalls) and Beethoven’s 5th and 9th symphonies might be fun.
I’ll have to think about this to come up with a full list, but start with:
February 12, 1924, An Experiment in Modern Music at Aeolian Hall in New York City. The world premiere of Rhapsody in Blue with George Gershwin on piano.
Maybe Simon and Garfunkel’s reunion concert in Central Park, although I did see them later on that same tour.
The Winter’s Tale was the free Shakespeare perfromance on Boston Common this summer, but I didn’t get to go. Kicking myself a bit for that.
ETA: Maybe the 1973 Belmont; Secretariat won by 31 lengths going away. Some bettors didn’t bother to cash their winning tickets. They were worth more as a souvenir.
Also assuming I could have a good vantage point…I’d love to say Nick Cave at Glasto, the source of that YouTube vid where he performs Stagger Lee, but if I’m a mile back, what’s the point?
Nirvana at the club Foufounes Electriques in Montreal, fall of 1991.
The Iggy Pop tour in the late seventies with Bowie on piano, one of the German dates.
U2, Zoo TV tour.
The Clash on the London Calling tour: a better breadth of material than the first couple of years, but not Shea Stadium scale yet either. Seems the right balance.
1868-1872-ish: One of Mark Twain’s Lectures
May 1893: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at the Chicago World’s Fair
April 1964: Keith Moon’s first performance with The Who
January 1969: Beatles rooftop concert (on the roof, not in the street)
May 1971: Humble Pie at the Fillmore
Good Friday, 1865, The Ford Theater, Our American Cousin. I figure if I shout out, “He’s going to shoot the president” at the right time, that’d spook John Wilkes a bit.
I would say an early U2 concert but considering they have the California Hall 1981 on youtube and Red Rocks, I would not waste one of the precious 5 on this.
Pink Floyd at Pompeii during the recording of their concert film.
Jimi Hendrix during his 1967 tour supporting his first album, Are You Experience?
Led Zeppelin in Boston, 1968. A 4 hour show, their entire first album, many songs that would appear on later albums and covers of songs from the 20’s to the 60’s.
Van Halen in San Diego, 1978. It was at a small 2000 seat theater. I had a ticket to the show but missed it when I was assigned duty that night. One of the things one has to deal with when in the Navy. It was the 3rd show of the tour promoting their first album.
Soundgarden at Sodo Showbox for the release of their 3rd album, Badmotorfinger. Only about 700 folks saw that.
For those that chose the Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965, read the reviews. I saw some of the reviews recently, they are not good. 30 minutes of 55,000 fans screaming which drowned out the band.
That was my first thought as well but I figured what if Lincoln hadn’t died and history was different enough so that for whatever reason my ancestors didn’t meet and I was never born, creating a time paradox and pictures of me would disappear.
I think for my 5th choice I’d go to Simon and Garfunkel’s Central Park concert.
Prof. Peter Schickele & Co. performing Hansel & Gretel & Ted & Alice live. The Mikado at the D’Oyly Carte, but a couple weeks after the premiere, so they’d be over their opening nerves. Ziegfeld Follies of pick any year.
The Beatles playing at The Kaiserkeller in Berlin, before they became famous.
.