The Concert Report

Stealing shamelessly from Nancy at The Zimmer Zoo, today I'm listing the concerts I've seen. My list is less hilarious than Nancy's, really only because I never saw NKOTB. But I did see Weird Al, so perhaps it's a tie.

I'm sure I've forgotten some. There are whole concerts I can't remember who played*. The college I attended had big concerts each Fall and Spring and had a whole slew of bands play each time. Usually they were smaller name bands, that either didn't impress me, or I never heard from again. Or I just missed. For example, I know I was at a Spring Fest where Iggy Pop played, but I also know I left before he came on. But I can't, for the life of me, remember who played before I left. So here goes, vaguely in chronological order, the concerts I can think of at the moment:

• The Goo Goo Dolls. I've seen them a whole slew of times. The first time was at a show called Rock It To Russia, a fundraiser of local bands to help raise money for one of my friend's violin ensemble tour Eastern Europe. That's where I fell in love with them. I also saw them at a college Spring Fest on a date one year long before I was actually in college. I saw them at a free concert in the square series, where I fainted (from the heat, not in some weird "Oh, the Beatles" kind of way). I saw them outside Atlanta at a big show of a ton of bands.
• 10,000 Maniacs. Anyone who knows music and sees these first two bands is going to be entirely unsurprised to find out I'm from the Buffalo area. I've seen the 10,000 Maniacs a couple of times. It was my first "official" concert and was so fun. I went with my girlfriend C., who was at many, many of these shows with me.
• The Cure. I've seen them twice, once on the Disintegration Tour, once on the Wish Tour. As previously discussed, the Disintegration Tour was one of the best shows I've even seen. Amazing! The Wish Tour was kind of disappointing, but I still love The Cure.
• At the Disintegration Tour, I saw The Pixies and Love and Rockets open for The Cure. Both bands were really amazing!
• REM. We had amazing seats for The Green Tour...only a few rows back. It was a good show, though I remember more that Throwing Muses opened for them and made me want to kill myself, they were so bad. It seemed endless, and they hold the record for "worst opening band I've ever seen".
• The Sugarcubes, New Order, and Public Image Ltd. The Sugarcubes were amazing, and New Order was far better than I expected. While I'm too young to have been around in the Sex Pistol days, it was kind of exciting to see Johnny Rotten. Of course, somehow I ended up in the very front row of a general admittance stadium when he came out. Talk about getting SQUASHED! Luckily some guy pulled me out...right into the middle of a slam pit. I survived, a bit battered for the unexpected moshing, but a fun day overall.
• Sinead O'Connor. I saw her on the tour for I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. There was some kind of controversy at the time, I think it was about the national anthem, though it was a non-issue at the concert. What I remember most vividly from this show is that there was a guy there who looked a lot like Tommy Lee of Motley Crue fame.
• The B-52's. I saw them at the local University (where I later attended). I have an embarrassing story from this show that I'll never share in a venue where my mom is reading. Sorry, Mom! But I feel like between REM and the B-52's, it was foreshadowing that I'd move to Georgia.
• Rush. I know, you're thinking, "wow, that came out of nowhere!". I think you'd have to be from Buffalo to understand how someone who clearly had punk/new wave preferences would be in love with a classic rock band. What can I say? I've seen them three times. They put on a great show. Classic rock kind of drives me crazy for the most part, but I really love Rush.
• Guns and Roses, Metallica, and Faith No More. Was anyone else at this show? What a great tour! What a recipe for disaster! Faith No More was terrible, but GnR and Metallica kind of rocked.
• Spin Doctors, Mighty Mighty Bostones, and various other bands. This was the first Fall Fest I went to in college, and is memorable mainly for being the first date TK and I went on. If you can count walking from the dorms over to a free concert as a date. I do :)
• The Dead Milkmen. I love them! I saw them in a bar, and it was so much fun. I've always been a little bit in love with Joe from The Dead Milkmen!
• Meatloaf. I saw him in a mid-sized venue for the Back Into Hell tour. I wasn't too excited about the show, but it ended up being really incredible.
• Weird Al. I went with two girlfriends and saw Weird Al at a county fair while I was in college. It was weird, as might be expected ;). We were the only people there who were older than 12, but younger than old-enough-to-have-a-12-year-old. I don't care, Weird Al is great!
• Billy Joel. I saw Billy Joel with TK. TK is from Long Island, plays piano, and as a result, has a weird fixation on Billy Joel that I believe can only be fully appreciated by other Long Islanders. It was a good show, though I'm not quite as in love with Billy Joel as TK is. TK has seen Billy Joel countless time, but I've only seen him that once.
• Sarah McLaughlin. Pretty good.
• Lilith Fair, where we saw Natalie Merchant, Bonnie Raitt, K's Choice, Queen Latifa, and a number of other bands. The Indigo Girls weren't on the lineup that year (1998), but we saw the tour in Atlanta and The Indigo Girls popped up on stage a few times to join other artists. It was a fun show, notable because I went with TK, and a friend and her husband. TK and our friend were two of the only guys there!
• In the late 90's, I went to a show in Atlanta with a lot of bands. I can't think who was there. I know we saw The Goo Goo Dolls, the main draw for me. I believe Big Bad Voodoo Daddies were there, though I think we left before that. I just can't remember who else we saw here. The Goo Goo Dolls were good, though!
• Ben Folds and The Fray. Ben Folds was, of course, absolutely amazing. I was also pleasantly suprised by The Fray, who I'd never heard of before. I went home and ordered their CD. Of course, like 2 months later, their songs were in practically every TV show imaginable and omnipresent on the radio. And now they've kind of disappeared. They put on a good live show, is all I can say.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

So what do you think? You want to play along as well? That was kind of fun!

*Geez, I reread that and it sounds like I was drunk or stoned all the time. No, nothing that interesting. I just have a bad memory.

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Ugh, my personal website is down today. I don't know what's up...I like our hosting service, except they FORGET TO BILL US! This is the second time it's happened. Um, I'd pay, if you'd just send me an email asking me to pay. We pay a whole year at a time, so it's not like it's on the top of my mind like it would be if I paid each month. Jerks! I'm not getting any email today.

Gotta go fix this!

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Current NaNo Word Count: 22781. That includes today's writing, as I got in a few hours this morning while the kids were at preschool. I might get in a few hundred more words, or maybe not. I'm taking the evening off to watch Chuck and Heroes. Hey, priorities!

Current NaNo Attitude: Having fun!