catapult magazine

Folks:

I love live music. Been to hundreds and huhndreds of them. but what i would like to find out — what is the BEST one that you have been to. Could be your fave band, could be not your fave, but a great show – whatever. Just curious who i should be checking out — and if they are now defunct i wanna know who to feel guilty about not checking out.

Mine: Stone Temple Pilots. Suprising, yes. Not my fave band — have their albums, dont chang the station if they come on the radio. but i would not put them in my top 30. Anyway, was bored one friday night and they were playing a theater — 3-4000 people maybe. Tour to support No. 5. And they ripped **it up. It was by far the most intnese thing I have ever been to and I was there by myself. Wieland is a freak on stage, and although the was some “light show” the concert was made by the members who are all quite proficient on the instruments live — and like i mentioned — WEILAND. He was probably jacked up (which is such a waste of a great talent and like playing with former members of G’N’R is going to help him conquer it) but he was huge. It was sort of greatest hits, but thru it all he/they made it an experience i will never forget. Just good ol’ fashion rock. Lopez is probably flatlining from this commentary but i dont care. that is my finest show and i am sticking to it.

You’ve been to hundreds of shows? (And you live in Sioux Center?!) Wow. I’ve been to fives of shows. Like maybe 25 or something. (That’s five fives.)

I’ve already told all my friends this, but while the musical value may not have been so high, I’ve never had as much fun at a concert as I did at a Flaming Lips one last year. Their show is basically a bunch of expensive, feel-good party gags. Slightly campy, but if you’ve got any imagination at all it’s euphoric. Party-pooper music snobs beware. Little to no jamming and a few of the sounds were canned.

I wanna hear about other good shows you’ve been to. I often get bored at concerts because I find it tedious to stand for 3 hours when the scenery doesn’t change and I’m not a hard-core fan of the band. If they’re just playing their instruments and singing their songs and nothing else, I don’t like it unless I’m really into the band. Cuz let’s be honest—you just can’t hear shit at a concert. He could be playing a Gibson or a cake pan with rubber bands stretched over it for all I know from the din around me. SO, it’s good to know who puts on a good show.

So tell me.

I’m sure that I over-romaticize it, but my first concert was the best. It was Jethro Tull’s 25 or 30 year anniversary (I forget). It was amazing. All of the old favorites done in new ways. Plenty of songs I had never heard before too. Ian Anderson is always so animated. It was in a beer garden in the middle of the International Gardener’s Association festival in Stuttgart Germany. I was with a good friend and drinking a couple of beers and enjoying a with a raucous though small crowd. Wonderful wonderful show.
I also loved seeing the Allman Brothers and Warren Zevon. They were great shows too.

hundreds and hundreds of shows and STP is the best you can come up with? WOW! i am beyond flatlining man. i’m several weeks buried! i’m thoroughly decomposed, my hair and fingernails have ceased growing and the worms have had their way with me.

as usual i am over-exaggerating for effect, but i have had the opportunity to see STP live on two seperate occasions and was not-surprisingly underwhelmed. however, i’m sure it would have kept certain people entertained seeing as it did have a pretty lightshow.

i’m no musical snob, but i do like music and listen to a lot of it; therefore when i go to a show i’m expecting not lasers that will blow my mind or lame dance routine theatrics, but a unique and stimulating experience that is primarily musical in nature.

upon this basis my favorite show of all time will have to be a tie between the allman bros. band (during the dickey betts, warren haynes, and allen woody 2nd golden era of the band) and robert walter’s 20th congress which was just the most smoking live funky, jazz-rock i’ve ever been witness to.

Eric Clapton in Kansas City on his all-blues tour, and Over the Rhine opening for and playing with The Cowboy Junkies in Toronto are VERY close seconds, but my best live music experience was Neil Young in ‘93 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, backed by Booker T and the MG’s. Blues Traveller, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam were also present, but Young absolutely showed those young whippersnappers what’s what. Great balance of his acoustic/electric sets, this was during that Ragged Glory/Harvest Moon/Unplugged/Weld fourth (or was it fifth?) golden age of Neil Young. Played “All Along the Watchtower” even better than he did at the Dylan tribute and “Dock of the Bay”, which MG’s guitarist Steve Cropper co-wrote, for his first two encores, then Pearl Jam joined him for “Rocking in the Free World”. It was even better because we had nosebleeds, but before the Pearl Jam show an entire section of the stands rushed the general admission gates and we were able to slip in and make our way to the front of the stage. Incredible. And, for what it’s worth, you can see hundreds and hundreds of shows if you live in Sioux Centre. It just involves a lot of commitment, and a LOT of driving.

P.S. How come lopez and I both registered a year ago, but he’s a freshman and I’m still new?

p.s. member status is based on number of posts, not when you registered.

resume conversation.

U2 – All that you can’t leave behind tour in San Jose.

Saw the same tour in Phoenix and Vegas but there was little comparison. Vegas I was even right outside the tip of the heart with a hot brazilian chick, but it just wasn’t the same as the piss poor seats I had in SJ. San Jose was a few weeks into the tour and things just came together for the first time. Bono later said that night was unbelievable, that it was the happiest he’s ever been on stage.

Incidentally, it was some redemption after having witnessed one of their worst nights according to Bono four years earlier at Sun Devil Stadium during Popmart.

Honorable Mention goes to The Hip playing at a historic little club in Portland, October 2000.

Henry — i do agree — it takes commitment. But when you are committed things happen. And they are so worth it.

Lopez is flatlining again?! Unfortunate.

Back to the topic at hand, some of the best shows that I have seen have been while living in Sioux Center — believe it or not. I have seen Alanis, Oasis (which wasnt good) Love and Rockets, Primus, Babes in Toyland (in Sioux Falls!) DMB, PJ, Violent Femmes X2, G Love, Foo Fighters tragically hip, hHead, and those are just the big names. Another really suprisingly good concert was at Northwestern College in Orange City when Sixpence none the Richer came to town and definitely impressed me — wasnt a huge fan of CCM. But they pulled it off and then pulled an Amy Grant. I also saw Jars of Clay which I am not proud of. Sioux Falls. Just HORRIBLE. They stunk the joint out.

Another one that was really good, but not in SC, was Alice in Chains @ Lollapalooza ’93. That whole lineup was good. Primus, AIC, so many good bands. When Lolla was still the “thing to do cause the music was good, not cause you were cool.”

It’s funny when you think of this stuff after you write it how many more shows come to mind. Another classic weas the Bauhaus reunion tour in 2000. WILD. just phenominal. Unprecidented. Some of the best shows are in theaters.

There was also a cover band in SC by the name of the Rednecks. They were pretty awesome too.

. . . and lopez you should read my posts a little more thoroughly. i stated that the light show is a “side” show, NOT something that people should find “the best thing about the concert . . .”

I seriously can’t believe that as such an “avid” music fan you couldnt go to a STP show and see it what it was for: a good old fashion rock show. Just fun. Sure allman bros are great — and i dont doubt that was a fabulous show, but for a 3 piece (+singer) to just come out and tear it up you have to hand it to them, there is a good amount of intensity there. To not see that, there is blindness.

Anyway, where did you see them and were they headlining?