Tori Amos - Breslin Center, East Lansing, Michigan - December 3, 1998

This was the third time I saw Tori Amos live and the only concert I have ever attended so far with my friend BP, one of my best friends from grad school.

It is funny how going to a Big 10 school really changes your outlook about college sports. I have always been a basketball fan, from the days I used to watch Boston Celtics games on Saturday mornings with my dad to the times I rooted for UNLV when the Tark was coaching them. But my first time around at school, at UNR, I could care less about sports. I went to one basketball game I remember – when UNR played UNLV my freshman year and I cheered for Las Vegas, and maybe a couple of football games where I was blissfully drunk. All I knew about our basketball team there was that they drove nice cars and lived at the fancy College Inn, a more upscale residence hall, while I was stuck in the older White Pine hall.

But once I got to Michigan State I immediately became a Spartan. I must admit that football and hockey, while fun to watch, were not my favorites – but I became a nut for basketball. I had season tickets both years, way in the upper decks, and I only missed a couple of games that happened while I was home for the holidays. Those two years in school I don’t think MSU ever lost at home.

So the Breslin Center really only holds basketball memories for me. I barely remember seeing a concert there at all. I know I have the ticket and I vaguely remember the evening itself. I don’t think any show will ever duplicate the first time I saw her, and those memories remain most solid in my mind.

Depeche Mode - the Palace, Auburn Hills, Michigan - November 9, 1998

I moved to East Lansing in the late fall of 1998 to go to graduate school at Michigan State University. One of the reasons I chose Michigan State was because my former company, Invest Learning, had an office in East Lansing and I had spent a lot of time there in the previous couple of years, working on video productions and products with our development team. I knew the town pretty well (not hard to do really, considering its size) and thought it would be a comfortable spot to spend a couple of years getting my MBA. I even imagined that I might do some part time work back at the old company. Well, that didn’t really happen, although at this point I still thought it might.

My friend and former boss KK planned one of her regular work trips around this Depeche Mode concert so that we could go together up to Auburn Hills to see it. We drove up in the evening, as I remember the fall weather was still pretty decent in Michigan though it got dark pretty quickly, and we sped up in the rental car over to see the show.

The Palace is a gigantic basketball arena where the Pistons play – this is probably the largest indoor concert venue I have ever visited. I think at this point I was still adjusting to Michiganders – it may be the same country, but I still felt the Midwest was a different universe – but something about seeing a Depeche Mode concert, something so familiar from my youth, made me feel at home for some reason. Depeche fans are the same everywhere, wearing tattered black concert t-shirts and dark eyeliner.

For the most part I remember this being a very sedate concert. We had seats up on one of the upper tiers and it felt as if we were watching the whole thing on film. Everyone around us were in their 30s or 40s and they sat quietly through most of the show. KK and I were quiet for a while but eventually we got up and started dancing, which even seemed to stir some of the older crowd around us, who were up and dancing by the encore anyway.

I thought this might be the first of many trips that KK made out to Lansing, but probably just a few months later the company was acquired and the San Diego part of the office was closed. I had picked a really good time to leave as it turns out – so much so that a lot of people asked me later if I had known it was coming. The folks in the East Lansing office stuck around for a little while, but I think by now most of them have scattered into other firms and opportunities. And my life started to move on a bit from my old one in San Diego.

The Creatures (with John Cale) - 4th and B, San Diego, California - July 12, 1998

Looking at my concert list it turns out that the Creatures was the last show I ever saw in San Diego. I moved to East Lansing to go to graduate school at Michigan State in August of 1998 and this was probably a few weeks before we packed up and drove cross-country.

The Creatures are Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie, originally of Siouxie and the Banshees. They started off as a side project but after the band broke up in 1996 they became the full time effort. I guess this explains why they were touring in 1998. I always enjoyed listening to Siouxie, both with and without the rest of the band, but I have to say I didn’t get into the Creatures all that much specifically. If you had to ask me to name any of their songs I would struggle.

Considering how many shows that I saw at the 4^th and B and how much I enjoyed it, it is a pity I don’t have more memories of this last time I was there.

Looks like Siouxsie is on her own and on tour again, in the US and in the UK. Her website is really, really, annoying thought.

Madness - Rimac Arena, UCSD, San Diego, California - August 28, 1998

Madness was one of the first cool bands I remember talking about at elementary school. To most of the world they are a one hit wonder for Our House, which I have probably heard thousands of times, and still when I think about it I get it stuck in my head. Crap, not again! Anyway, I remember first hearing it in fourth grade, and for some reason I associate it with an obnoxious girl in my class that I never really liked. For the record, she probably didn’t like me either.

As I got older I learned that Madness had many more songs than Our House and luckily much better ones. They are also the first SKA band I ever heard and later on in high school I branched out to English Beat, Squeeze and the Jam. I also remember seeing Madness on the Young Ones, an irreverent English show I used to watch on Sundays with my dad and my friend DA.

Ska is always a great excuse for dancing and I don’t think I have ever been to a ska show that I didn’t like. And Madness was no exception.

It was great to see all the old 80s mods out in full force with their hip shoes, hats and vespas. Normally I only saw them congregate at the café on the way up the Washington Avenue hill but at this show they were everywhere.

Other than that, I don’t remember much else about the show. At this point Suggs and crew were pretty old, but at that point at least he hadn’t sold out to a frozen foods company.

Bow Wow Wow - Brick By Brick, San Diego, California, December 31, 1997

Seeing a concert on New Years Eve is always a good way to spend the evening. Planning New Years is always a bit frustrating. Because probably half of the population only really lets loose that night, everything is always booked far in advance and everyone is desperately trying to find something cool to do, without committing too early in case something more exciting comes along. Then there is always the question of who drives and who stays sober, where are you going to be at midnight, who are you going to kiss or who you want to be miles away from at midnight, etc etc.

So going to see Bow Wow Wow is a great alternative. They are a fun, danceable band and make for a lot of fun. To be honest, I don’t remember that much about the show, other than seeing ‘I want Candy’ performed live and that the ceilings were very low at Brick by Brick.

Probably the most memorable part of the evening was that 1998 was the year that the smoking ban in bars took effect in California. We did not benefit from it during the first part of the evening unfortunately, it was definitely smoke filled in that tiny venue, but afterwards when we were driving home I noticed lots of people standing out on the sidewalks. At first I thought, huh, that’s weird. Why are all these people outside at 1 a.m.? Then I realized what it was…they were all smoking. I guess the bars had to boot all the smokers out once midnight came. That would have been interesting to watch. Here in the UK it took effect on July 1, 2007, not quite as dramatic, though it was probably raining that day so it was dramatic for the smokers who had to huddle outside under their umbrellas to enjoy their fags.

Morrissey - Hospitality Point, Mission Bay, California - October 10, 1997

I was just talking about this concert experience with someone recently and ten years later, I am still bitter.

At the time we bought tickets to see Morrissey play in San Diego, it was probably the most expensive single concert ticket I ever purchased. I don’t remember how much exactly but I want to say it was in the $60-75 range. While I have always preferred the Smiths to Morrissey solo, I figured it was worth it to see one of my rock heroes in the flesh, and I figured he would have to play some Smiths classics in addition to his own stuff.

The event was outdoors, in October, which even in a beautiful place like San Diego is kind of pushing it. Even in the heat of summer it is not always warm at night by the bay. But it was a beautiful venue with the Pacific Ocean and the sunset in the background.

The first irritating thing about the show was the parking situation. Because there is such limited parking at Mission Bay, we had to park at a distant lot and take a bus in. If we had not come on time we probably would have missed a good chunk of the show. It was probably not really that big a deal, maybe 15 or 20 minutes extra to park and wait for the bus.

I don’t remember if there was an opening act or not, but I do remember it being dark when Morrissey came on stage, so he must have started around 8ish. To be fair, it was kind of nippy that evening. But smart concert goers bring warm clothes when they are going to see a show outside at night.

I guess it must have been too much for Morrissey, because he only had the strength to play 45 minutes. Yes, 45 minutes! And that included an encore! He kept saying, brr and shivering. This is even more irritating now, since I live in London and most summer nights are not even as warm as it was that evening. Get a f***ing jumper, Morrissey!

I was so pissed off that I had paid so much money to see a 45 minute show, shorter than listening to most CDs. We probably spent more time parking and queuing than we actually got to see him perform. Since then I have not really been a Morrissey fan. I still respect his talent and I think I even bought a recent album on iTunes, but I don’t think I will ever pay money to see him live again.

Street Scene - San Diego, California - September 6, 1997

We went to see Street Scene twice in San Diego. I remember seeing a few bands there that I remember, namely Stan Ridgeway, Los Lobos and Save Ferris. However, I can’t really remember that much else – even which bands I saw which years. Basically all I ever remember about these things is trying to optimize parking, eating and especially drinking, so that you can avoid those nasty portable toilets.

I always thought Street Scene, while a great idea in a pretty cool part of town, always had sort of substandard acts. Maybe it is just because they were trying to appeal to a pretty broad swath of the community – which is a strange mishmash of people, almost none of them local, including lots of military. So there were country stages, jazz stages, rock stages and lots of bands I had never heard of (or cared to hear again after that weekend). When I look at other regional festivals in September like Bumbershoot or Austin City Limits they seem to have much cooler bands. So maybe there is too much competition for Labor Day weekend. Maybe they should have street scene in November or February or something when people would rather be in San Diego than say, Chicago.

That being said I just went to the Street Scene website and it looks like they have made a lot of improvements. For one thing it is later in the season, the end of September, it is at a proper amphitheatre versus on the streets, and the lineup of bands is much, much better. If I lived there I would have wanted to go this year.