KRZQ Ball (Beck, Material Issue, Possum Dixon, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes) - Livestock Events Center, Reno, Nevada - June 9, 1994

The last concert I saw in Reno turned out to be a very appropriate one. At the time, I don’t think we even had plans to move to San Diego yet, but it was soon to come.

It was the first ever KRZQ Ball – finally, Reno started doing what other normal cities did across the country – bring in a bunch of cool bands all at one time, courtesy of the alternative radio station. I imagine this was the first of many such shows, and probably they still go on today. But at the time, it was all new to us and we felt pretty privileged. Even if most of us hated Beck at the time.

The other appropriate irony was the location. What else says Reno like the Livestock Events Center? How many other people can say that their hometown had a place just to highlight farm animals? Normally, the center had 4-H events, parts of the state fair and Reno Rodeo, and other such exciting activities. But on this evening, we watched alternative rock bands. It is a nasty, dusty place to do so, to be honest. The floor is dirt and it kind of reeks of manure even if there are no cows inside. I bet the bands were pretty disgusted. But I guess they got paid.

The nice thing about the venue though was that it was close to my condo. So for the first time ever, we walked to a show from my place. It was kind of a long and scary walk. Wedekind road was not made for pedestrians. But all my friends showed up at my place and walked together anyway.

As for the show itself, I have to say I have no recollection of Possum Dixon, the Rollins Band or Beck. I am not even sure we stayed for Beck, though I imagine we did. I have to say for a long time, I didn’t get Beck at all. Everyone kept saying he was a genius, but all I knew was that he had a kind of catchy but overplayed song called Loser. Now that I am older, I do like Beck somewhat. Not enough to buy an album, but enough to not switch it off if it comes on.

I do remember Material Issue – how could I not, they have a song that always follows me, Valerie Loves Me. It turns out that the lead singer died not too long after. I think he killed himself. Maybe his Valerie dumped him or something.

The band I remember most was the Violent Femmes. This was actually the second time I saw them live (the first time being with the b-52's - though obviously I didn't remember that at all), and their first album has always been one of my favorites. I remember my friend KR traded for it at a pawn shop in Carson City when we were in high school, and we listened to it incessantly for months. Unfortunately for the band, it seems to be everyone’s favorite, and I don’t think many people get much beyond that. I know that I have had trouble getting into anything else they’ve recorded, with the exception of Fat, which is a pretty silly little song.

It was a nice evening, and a fitting goodbye to Reno’s music scene. Soon we would be in San Diego, where these kind of radio-sponsored shows would be a dime a dozen.

Chapterhouse - Lil' Waldorf, Reno, Nevada - June 1, 1994

I bought a Chapterhouse CD after hearing it at one of those listening stations at a music store. I don’t remember which one or where, but at the time listening stations were somewhat of a novelty and I imagine this was the first disc I ever bought after hearing it only that way.

I had the disc for a while and I liked it for the most part. There was a catchy single, “We are the Beautiful,” but I don’t really remember much more than that.

In any case, when Chapterhouse came to town to play at the ‘wal I felt like I had discovered something cool before anyone else did. So I dragged PCH to the show.

From what I remember, the show was okay, not especially bad or good. Buying the cd itself was probably more memorable.

They Might be Giants (with Frente) - Stanford, Palo Alto, California - May 15, 1994

This was another really great They Might be Giants show at a great venue. After we went to see them at Stanford I found myself wishing I had known about more shows there.

I seem to remember we got a bit lost trying to find the campus. Palo Alto is a strange place actually, if you make the wrong turn on the freeway you go from really beautiful ritzy homes and fancy shops to murder central. For some reason I always remember the news story about someone who stopped at a gas station to ask for help in East Palo Alto and was murdered within minutes. Ok, it is not that bad.

The regular part of Palo Alto is really quite nice. The McDonalds there carried cappuccino. I am not sure I have ever seen that again until I went to a test market Mc Café in Raleigh last year.

Frente opened the show. As far as I know, the only thing they ever did was a great cover of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle. I vaguely remember that during the show.

I also remember some crazy dancing people there, were obviously having a very good time, looking stoned out of their minds.

TMBG put on a great show as usual, and we had a great time dancing, people-watching and enjoying the bay area sunshine.

Depeche Mode (with Stabbing Westward) - Cal Expo, Sacramento, California - May 12, 1994

Six months in between shows, and we wound up going to see Depeche Mode again, this time at Cal Expo, the preferred Sacramento outside venue.

I thought it was odd that Depeche was touring again so soon. What is more odd though, is that they were supporting a new album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live. My friends and I were kind of mixed on whether or not we liked the first SOFAD. CF liked it right away. PCH I don’t think ever liked it. I didn’t like it much at first, but it kind of grew on me after a while. Whether or not you liked the original though, I think you would have to agree that the live version less than a year later was a blatant money-making scheme. There was nothing really new on the album at all, not like their earlier live double cd, 101. It was simply all the songs from SOFAD, in the same order, played live. I thought it was so lame that I almost didn’t want to go and see the supporting tour. Yeah, right.

The song I remember most about this show was an amazing live version of “I want you now,” from Music for the Masses. It wasn’t ever really that popular a song, but they did a really great live version of it (I think they did it at the November show as well, but I seem to remember it here for some reason.

Stabbing Westward opened, and I remember them kind of sucking, looking like heroin junkies for the most part (not unlike Dave Gahan, who must have weighed 100 pounds soaking wet at this time). Later I remember them being heralded as one of the coolest bands at the time. I guess I must have missed something.

I was just looking at the depeche mode site again, and while the discography is mostly offline (!) – they do have some neat features, like all of their lyrics and a listing of all their past tours. I guess this was the “Exotic” tour. Who knew?

Depeche Mode (with The The) - Arco Arena, Sacramento, California - November 14, 1993

This was my first time to see Depeche Mode in a seated environment, in Sacramento’s Arco Arena. I guess it wasn’t exactly the time of year to have a concert outdoors at Cal Expo.

I don’t remember anything special about us buying tickets for this show – I am not sure if I bought them or PCH did. I think we just bought them at the Wherehouse, the typical Reno ticketbastard outlet. We certainly didn’t line up on the day of sale or anything. But, for some reason, we got really nice seats.

We didn’t even realize how good our tickets were until we were on our way to Sacramento that day to see the show. We saw some other people going to the same show in another car on the freeway. I am not sure how it started, but we started writing signs and holding them up to each other as we drove to communicate.

At one point, we were exchanging details about where we were sitting, and after I held up the note that said where our seats were, the girls in the other car gave us a crazy look, then one of them held up a sign that said: “who did you sleep with to get those seats.”

Turns out we were on the floor in Row C. And we didn’t have to sleep with anyone to get there.

The The opened, and this time they got through their whole set. They were quite good, I often forget about them but they are a pretty great band really. I might even like their cowboy stuff now. Unfortunately nothing comes up on iTunes.

Depeche Mode were fabulous as usual. Nothing else unusual to report.

Tears for Fears (with Live) - Event Center, SJSU - San Jose, California - November 7, 1993

Now seeing these two shows together and looking at the proximity of the dates, we must have stayed over, because I don’t remember doing another crazy go to Sacramento, drive home, then drive to San Jose the next day kind of thing. Funny I didn’t remember the two concerts together this way at all.

I am also not confident about the opening act. I know that I saw Live in this arena – but I originally thought it was part of the PIL show a couple of years prior.

I do have one very concrete memory of this show, which is the only one I will share.

Tears for Fears started out as Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. In their early videos for Shout and Everybody Wants to Rule the World, back in 1984 or so, it looked like Curt Smith was really the front man, and I think they did that because he was better looking. Maybe that pissed off Roland, or for whatever unknown reason, Curt left the band. So at this point when we saw them, it was just Roland with a backing band of some other guys.

I don’t know if the guy was pissed off, having a bad day, or what, but after the show was over, which was quite good, by the way, we all expected him to come out for an encore. After prolonged waiting, he finally came out, and instead of singing something everyone wanted to hear, he did an acapella wail of Radiohead’s Creep. I quite like Radiohead now, but at the time, I had absolutely no use for them, and it was all about this song that I absolutely hated. Some girls near us actually left, shrieking and covering their ears. After he finished, he dropped the microphone and walked off the stage.

Ocean Blue - The Cattle Club, Sacramento, California - November 6, 1993

Ocean Blue are one of those bands that I always forget about, but when I hear their music, it always makes me feel happy in some small way. I have to admit I only have a couple of albums, and it is the first one that AM introduced me too that is always closest to my heart.

They are a group of friends from Herschey, Pennsylvania, that put together a group and got lucky, with the Indie set anyway. Upon doing a web search, I was surprised to find they are still together and just put out another album in 2004.

I don’t remember exactly, but we probably found out they were playing by seeing a flyer at the Beat or at Tower Records in Sacramento – regular haunts of ours for music. This is the only show I ever saw at the Cattle Club – which is probably too bad. I distinctly remember seeing flyers all the time for Cake playing there, and never bothered at the time to go check it out, or even listen to a CD. I just thought they were a local band who would never go anywhere. I finally saw Cake 11 years later at Austin City Limits. But I get ahead of myself.

I remember the Cattle Club as small and kind of skanky in that lovable music club kind of way. The ceiling was low, which made us seem all the more closer to the band. I don’t remember a huge crowd either, so it was an easy, intimate way to see a show. Combine it with a trip to the Beat, and November weather much better than Reno, it made for a nice evening.

WOMAD (with Peter Gabriel, Jah Wobble, Ziggy Marley, PM Dawn, Crowded House, James, Stereo MCs) - The Polo Fields, San Francisco, CA - Sept 19, 1993

I have to say that this show will always remain one of the magical days in my life. From start to finish it was quite an amazing event.

I can’t remember if we stayed the weekend in San Francisco or not. I want to think we did, because it was a really long day. The Polo Fields are in Golden Gate Park, which is one of my favorite parks anywhere. It is a sprawling park with several museums, an aquarium, and lots of really big spaces like the Polo Fields – which I imagine are designed for playing Polo. When you walk into the space, it just goes on and on and it is hard to imagine you could get to the end and have a concert there.

Another great thing about the day – fall in San Francisco. San Francisco is a funny place for weather, sometimes it just really sucks, but fall seems to be the best. It was perfectly warm and crisp (at times too warm perhaps considering the amount of people there) and the smell of fall was in the air.

We got there fairly early, before noon I would say, and we managed to find a free parking spot not too far into the park. It was a bit of a hike in, but, like I said, it was a nice day, so we didn’t mind.

This was probably my first real festival show. I never did make it to a Lollapalooza, nor did I ever see Lillith Fair. I came close to those a couple of times, but skipped them for some reason or another.

My primary reason for wanting to come to WOMAD was Peter Gabriel. I had a chance to see him when I was in high school and he came to Reno on the So tour, but the show got cancelled. Sledgehammer was really my first exposure to him as a kid – and I have to admit I never liked it until I saw the video. For some reason, those headless dancing chickens always make me laugh. After I recovered from my first impression, I really grew to love his music. There are several I still consider among my absolute favorites, and there are several that are always good for a mix tape (or CD now).

WOMAD stands for World of Music and Dance, and I have to admit I am not really sure what the whole point is, but I know that a big part of it is finding, recording and releasing different kinds of music all over the world. Kind of a musical outlet for the rest of the world. A different take I suppose on the whole aid for third world countries thing – not donating money or campaigning for world powers to do so, but instead to give folks in poorer countries the opportunity to be heard. And this was the first of many festivals to this effect – but the only one I ever saw.

Anyway, back to the day. When we arrived, we were awed by the sheer size of the place, and the massive swarm of people. People just kept on streaming in. As it was a festival, they had lots of little booths with people hawking jewelry, hemp clothing, and that kind of stuff. We wandered around these until the show started. One lowlight of the day was the food situation. We waiting forever in line to get some chicken kebab things – only to have them run out just as we made it to the front of the line. I don’t remember what we wound up doing for food – which is unusual for me since I am pretty much unbearable without it.

Since we got their fairly early, we managed to be pretty close to the stage. Not overly close, but we could see plenty well. When you turned around and looked back, it was an unbelievable flood of people behind us. Later we learned that at its biggest point, there were 100,000 people there. Pretty amazing.

Of the shows we saw, it’s funny what I remember and don’t. I remember Ziggy Marley, mostly because of the crowd’s reaction to the music. I also remember the Stereo MC’s. Not sure what they have ever done again, but I did see them.

Peter Gabriel was by far the most memorable though. When he came on stage and the band started playing Solsbury Hill, it gave me chills. It sounded so much like the CD you almost thought it was pre-recorded – I don’t know how you get that kind of sound in a venue like that. In fact, we might have thought it was pre-recorded if all of a sudden, a minute or so into the song, the band abruptly stopped playing.

Peter saw something going on he didn’t like – I am not sure what it was. I think that some people were climbing up on something to try to see better, and some guy was pushing another off or something. Whatever it was – he stopped singing. Pointed at the guy and said something like – “Hey, you. Yes you. Stop that.” I can only imagine how humiliated that guy must have felt – to have Peter Gabriel stop his show in front of 99,999 other people and tell you to stop.

Since it was kind of a long night – he only sang something like six songs total, but all were amazing. It was an amazing wrap up to a magical day, and one of the shorter rides back to Reno I remember from the City.

A couple of years ago I sold a bunch of old concert t-shirts on e-bay. The one I have from this show has shrunk and faded, but I still can’t bear to part with it. Right now it is in a storage shed in Portland, Oregon.

Dredd Zeppelin - Tahoe City, California - September 12, 1993

I know that this show was in North Lake Tahoe – I am pretty sure it was Tahoe City. I think the venue might have been Humpty’s – but if that is right, one of my older posts is wrong, so I am going to leave this one ambiguous.

I must say that early September in Nevada (and Lake Tahoe) is probably my favorite time of year. It just starts to cool down a bit at night, and the fall scent in the air is crisp and fabulous. I probably remember this night more due to the smell than anything else.

This was my first solo concert with PCH, the first of many. I think I thought it was kind of a date. I am not sure what he thought it was. He might let you know though, or maybe I will get another spam comment. What is that about?

Anyway, Dredd Zeppelin is a very interesting band, to say the least. They consist of a lead Elvis impersonator – Tortelvis (sp?) and some other folk, including a guy who sometimes plays in just his underwear. As their name suggests, their primary gig is covers of Led Zeppelin songs, with Elvis-like vocals. If you haven’t heard them, I guess you can imagine what they might sound like.

Tortelvis himself is quite a sexy character. He dresses not as young sexy Elvis, but rather as fat Vegas Elvis, with the overdone white outfits with big bell bottom pants. He has a nice Elvis boufont hair do, but since he doesn’t have his own Abes, he fashions sideburns out of what looked like black electrical tape.

There was a pretty small crowd at the show, so we were able to get up pretty close. I am very pleased to say that I was among a few who got to touch Tortelvis’ big belt.

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (with Ethyl Meatplow) - The Limelight, Reno, Nevada - September 1, 1993

This was a very bizarre evening on a number of different levels. I believe it was the first show I ever saw at the Limelight, one of the many failed dance club ventures that have come and gone in Reno over the years.

It started out pretty much as just a dance club without a lot of shows, with the main attraction being free beer for the first couple of opening hours. I guess the idea was to attract more people to show up before 11 p.m., which is the time that most folks decide they are sufficiently sloshed enough to be seen in public dancing. So, if you got there early, very often you could get in without paying a cover, or for a nominal cover, you could chug all the cheap beer you could stand in a short period of time. For dancing, PCH and I would often show up early. He didn’t drink, so he would keep bringing me extra beers so I could maximize my intake. Then when the binging was over, we would dance. Ugh, just the thought of drinking all of that bud light makes me want to chirp. Life is too short to drink nasty beer.

Another fixture at the Limelight (as well as the Rodeo Rock Café, which had a regular Tuesday night dancing thing sponsored by the alternative radio station) – was a guy we named the Lollapaloser. I think one of my friends actually knew him – and I seem to remember he was a coroner or something like that – but that may just be my overactive imagination. Anyway, this guy always wore his Lollapalooza shirt and always showed up at every alt-rock event in the greater Reno area. He danced pretty wildly and for some reason, was always staring at me like I was food. But he never really talked to me or anything and I could never figure out what his deal was. Of course, I was normally surrounded by guys (pretty much all my friends were guys) and I generally tried to get away from him whenever possible when I saw him on the dancefloor. I seem to remember once he came over to our table, surreptitiously to talk to DA, but still just kind of stood there and stared at me without saying anything. It was very odd.

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult had a new album out at this point, with a catchy song, “Sex on Wheels.” I had seen them before, my first bar show in Las Vegas, and while the new album wasn’t my favorite, I figured they would be worth seeing, and they were.

I had no idea what we were getting into with Ethyl Meatplow though. I imagine we felt the same kind of uncomfortable sensation you may feel when you caught your parents having sex, or when you’re watching Naked Lunch with your great Aunt. I can’t remember all the details – PCH may fill them in – but there was a man/boy/girl who just came on the stage to be used as a sex prop, and the visuals were rather disturbing.

After the show, we were all kind of stunned. But not as stunned as when PCH had the band sign his ass. Well, not directly. I think he put a sticker on his clothed butt and had them sign that. I wonder if he still has the autograph?

New Order - Shoreline Ampitheatre, Mountain View, California - July 24, 1993

This second time I saw New Order was a truly memorable event for a number of different reasons…again, all loosely related to the event itself.

I’ll start at the beginning….as with most shows, especially those out of town, we purchased our tickets for this one pretty far in advance. It isn’t like today, when you need to buy U2 or Dave Matthews Tickets six months ahead, but basically, we bought stuff probably a month or two ahead of time based on when we heard about the event. With New Order, I probably heard about it about the same time tickets went on sale, as I was a pretty rabid fan.

In between purchasing the tickets and the actually show, CF and I had a rather messy breakup. I need to make the disclaimer that I am bitter or anything – we remain very close friends to this day and he will probably be reading this blog sometime – but, I am just stating a fact. It was pretty awkward, and honestly, I expected that he was just going to do the chivalrous thing and say, hey, take my ticket, and offer it to someone else to go with you.

But no. He liked New Order too, was looking forward to it, and wanted to go. I don’t remember much about it now, but I suspect we fought a bit about it but resigned that it we were still going to try to be friends, so it was okay for him to go.

On the way to the show, right around Donner Pass, I remembered that I had left the concert tickets at home, and we had to turn around to go back and get them. I guess it could have been worse…I could have remembered in Mountain View! For a long time, we joked about this on these road trips – “oh, I forgot the tickets, psych!”

We went with MM and then picked up CA along the way. This was probably one of the first and only times I hung out with her. I think we picked her and her brother up near Sacramento, then dropped him off in Berkeley. The car was too small really, so I remember C riding in the back.

There were three bands – 808 State, The The and New Order. We basically missed 808 State because of our lateness. Then The The came on and played only a few songs before their sound went to crap. Luckily, I saw them again later, opening for Depeche Mode.

After New Order, we spent the night at CS’ parents Chicken Ranch in Gilroy, California, where he was having his annual shindig. Now he lives in Tacoma and has it an Oyster Ranch instead. I got to see him and have sushi with him last summer in Portland.

The Chicken Ranch was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. It’s hard to describe – a fabulous, sprawling house in the middle of nowhere. Large trees and other beautiful vegetation. Many different things to explore all around and inside the house. And there were a lot of pretty cool people there having a party. It was a great time.

The next day after the show, we went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival, quite a famous event in the Bay Area and one we always heard about growing up. PCH, that dog, got in for free with his press pass. The rest of us had to pay $8 for the honor of seeing a bunch of stupid craft stalls, seeing some lame bands, and having to buy more garlic-laden food. The only free food inside was the garlic ice cream. And yes, that is as gross as it sounds. It was a total waste of an afternoon. And what made it worse was that we had to ride home in PCH’s small Subaru wagon, sans air conditioning – with all of us sweating garlic in close quarters.

A Flock of Seagulls - the Lil' Waldorf, Reno, Nevada - July 19, 1993

My earliest memory of Flock of Seagulls is from elementary school, on the playground at St. Teresa’s. I think it was around sixth grade or so. I remember some kids talking about this new kind of music, that they called “new wave,” and how one of the kids had a new wave tape in his walkman, by a band called a Flock of Seagulls. They showed me the tape with a picture of a guy with funny, tall, bird like hair.

It was all the rage temporarily, though I think in a couple of years those kids switched to heavy metal the likes of Motley Crue and Def Leppard. Hey, we all had our periods of insanity.

At the time my main exposure to music was listening to AM radio on the Mighty 690 (see B-52’s) where I heard 80s classics like Oh Mickey, Tainted Love, etc. And of course the Mighty 690 played “I Ran” too, so soon I heard the Flock of Seagulls for myself.

I don’t know that I fully appreciated them until much later though. When I got to high school BB and AM loved Flock of Seagulls and had all their cassettes. I don’t have it anymore, but I think it was their second album, The Story of a Young Heart, which got me hooked. It was supposedly based on a guy the band knew who fell in love, out, then got depressed and killed himself.

By the time we saw the Flock in 1993, they were already way past their prime, but they did attract a decent size crowd at the Wall. This is one of only a couple of shows I saw with MM while she lived in Reno. The lead singer still had his signature blond spikey bird hair.

I must have enjoyed it at the time – enough to get the lead singer’s autograph anyway. I didn’t remember it until I scanned in the concert ticket.

Skankin' Pickle - Reno, Nevada - December 31, 1992

I guess I saw two Ska shows in a row, and both on special occasions – first my birthday, then on New Year’s Eve. Funny how you don’t realize these things until you look at them on a list.

I don’t have a ticket or anything for this one, and I don’t remember where it was exactly, except I think it was some divey bar on 4^th Street, maybe in Sparks. Might have been the Icehouse, but I am not sure. I think I went with CF and DA – I can’t remember if there were more than just the three of us though I would think DA would have a girlfriend with him as he usually did.

Unfortunately, what I remember about this show has little to do with Skankin Pickle or even music in general. It’s a bit gross, but it is the vivid memory I have about the evening – dinner.

For dinner we went to a place called Davo’s, and Italian joint, that had a few locations in the greater Reno area. I seem to remember we went to the one on Kings Row. Anyway, we went to Davo’s a few times, they had good food, generous portions, and pretty reasonable prices. But, unfortunately, my favorite dish was linguine with clam sauce. It had quite a bit of garlic in it and since it was late when we ate and I was starving, I kind of overdid it a little. This made the dancing, drinking and romping around during Skankin’ Pickle pretty unpleasant really, because it seemed like all of us did nothing but burp garlic all night. And it wasn’t just your regular old burp that you just keep to yourself. It was burps you shared with everyone around you. Yes, gross. Probably more detail than you wanted. But it gets better…

After we ate dinner at Davo’s that night, a short while later my mom told me a rumor about the place that she claimed came from a very credible source. Supposedly, Davo’s was closed by the health department in Reno because Davo added a very special ingredient to his sauces. Something quite personal to Davo…and quite reminiscent of linguine with white clam sauce, if you know what I mean. Yes, gross. I haven’t eaten linguine with clam sauce since. Which is disappointing…since it was one of my favorite Italian dishes.

It sounds like an urban myth, and maybe it is. But my mom was a nurse in state service, and supposedly she heard it from her friend in the Washoe County Health Department. Anyway, it all ties pretty nicely in with Skankin Pickle, doesn’t it?

Let's Go Bowling - Humpty's, Lake Tahoe, California - October 25, 1992

Seeing a show on your birthday is never a bad thing. I spent the evening of my 23^rd birthday in Lake Tahoe seeing Let’s Go Bowling – supporting their 1991 release, Music to Bowl By.

This was the first real Ska band I ever saw live. Ska was definitely not a new thing in 1992, Madness and others had been doing it for years, but in Northern Nevada it was getting a bit more attention, thanks a lot I think to local band the Mudsharks, who played pretty regularly at local bars, and with whom my friend Dan once shared a house with in Reno.

I know it was definitely also the first Ska band PCH ever saw live, and I suspect today he still appreciates it more than I do.

I remember a couple of things about the show – first – it was here I was offered my first ever free drink at a bar in honor of my birthday. Unfortunately, the barkeep wanted to give me a shot of Jagermeister – and I was not interested in chugging a small cup of cough syrup, so I respectfully declined. Second – I remember dancing like a downright fool, since that is what you do at Ska shows. Everyone jumps around like idiots without any sense of rhythm or style – which makes it very fun indeed.

Mary's Danish - the Lil' Waldorf, Reno, Nevada - October 21, 1992

Mary’s Danish was the first of several shows we saw at local bars rather than at larger venues in Reno. Going to a show at “the Wall,” as the locals called it, was kind of strange, since in college it was a hangout for all the jocks and frat guys who were either 21 or had fake ID’s. I tried to get in when I was 20 with my own borrowed ID, but no dice. After I turned 21, I did go a couple of times for beers, but thought it was a pretty nasty place, filled with stuffed dead animals – goats, deer, elk, and even a gigantic bear.

I remember little about the show. I wasn’t really that into Mary’s Danish, and the only song I really knew was their song about all the different shapes Nevada could have been. But the novelty of a band we had heard of coming to Reno was always too good to pass up.

Back to the Journey

After a few computerless months, I am ready to go back to semi-regular concert blogging. About 7 weeks ago I moved over here to London and just last week, I saw my first show as a resident, Peter Murphy at Scala in Kings Cross. I definitely enjoyed it more than the first time I saw him, a little more than 13 years ago. I think Peter is one of the few from that era of my life I would still go out of my way to see.

Admittedly, I am a little more somber about my relocation than I was a few weeks ago, although I am determined not to let psycho extremists get me down...or keep me away from the underground. But I am looking forward to seeing more shows and continuing this blog.

Plus, now I'm back and happy to see that Blogger now has easy to use image support...and I now have a scanner to put in all my old (or new) concert tickets.

The B-52's (with the Violent Femmes) - Lawlor Events Center, Reno, Nevada - October 14, 1992

After seeing so many shows in Sacramento and the Bay Area, it was a welcome change to be able to drive around the corner to see the B-52’s at Lawlor Events Center.

I have been listening to the B-52’s since sixth grade. My friend Courtney at St. Teresa’s brought their first yellow album to school; she had borrowed it from her older sister who was in boarding school in California. I remember listening to the “Mighty 690” an AM radio station from LA that I could pick up at night, with Rock Lobster (and Tainted Love) in pretty heavy rotation. I bought that cassette and listened to it to death, along with every other B-52’s tape I could find. I loved their silly songs all through the 80s, and I even bought Fred Schneider’s solo album – with the lovely song – Monster.

When we finally got to see the B-52s, they were still riding their second wind after their 89 album “Cosmic Thing” and Love Shack, which became the Rock Lobster of the 90s. They were touring for Good Stuff, which we got for free at some special event sponsored by the local radio station.

The show was this really lame set-up with folding chairs on the floor in front of the stage. We had pretty decent seats, but it was really frustrating because it was so hard to dance. The B-52s are not a sit down and behave kind of show. Everytime someone went into the aisle or tried to stand on their chair the security Nazis came over and scolded him or her. During the mandatory encore, Fred Schneider goofed on the security guards by changing the lyrics of Rock Lobster to, “Oh no, it’s Security!”

This was the last show I saw at Lawlor. Not like anything I ever wanted to see really came there – but I was in no hurry to get back.

The Ramones (with Social Distortion) - Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA - October 10, 1992

When you’re in your teens and twenties, you go to shows and tend to look around at those over 40 in wonder that they would still consider spending an evening hanging around with a bunch of “kids” listening to loud music, dancing, drinking and smoking pot. In the case of the Ramones, while there were a lot of college kids and younger, probably at least half of the crowd were former hippies (or wanna be former hippies) who now had good jobs, kids, fancy cars and more disposable income to spend on such things. This made for an interesting evening for us twenty-somethings.

The Ramones were on tour supporting their youth revival generated primarily from their song for the soundtrack of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. While they’ve never been known for their brilliant lyrics, Pet Sematary was not their most seminal work. Like most self respecting alternative types at the time, we had been listening to the Ramones since high school, but I suppose we were not nearly as offended by Pet Sematary as the Baby Boomers who surrounded us.

I believe this time it was myself, CF, PCH, DA and I think his girlfriend at the time, K. I don’t remember a lot about K other than where they lived together in Reno and that she was the first person I ever met who bought an all black computer, which I thought was the coolest.

The show was outside at Greek Theatre and it was a beautiful fall night to see a show. Social Distortion, one of my favorite punk(ish) bands anyway, opened up the show and were pretty fabulous as I remember. A lot of the older crowd came filing in late, during and after Social D played.

The thing I remember most about the show were the group standing behind us. I think there were two or three couples together (5 or 6 people, similar to our little crowd) and they must have worked hard to score some pot before the evening. I imagine 10-20 years earlier they wouldn’t have thought twice about it – but during this show they were kind of nervous and awkward, which made it pretty funny to watch. You could tell they felt really cool once the Ramones started and they were all stoned, probably just like the old days. While it was funny to me, probably the only annoying thing about it was that they were so nervous that I thought that they were attracting more attention to themselves than necessary, and because my friends and I didn’t smoke pot, the last thing we wanted was to get busted for some idiots who didn’t know how to get away with it anymore. ‘course it’s not like that ever happens at a concert…you can get reprimanded for smoking cigarettes but you can always smell the pot.

On a grim note, you know you’re getting older when people from bands you’ve seen start to die. While Joey Ramone was probably not the first of the rock stars who has passed since I’ve seen him perform (Ricky Nelson and that guy from Blind Melon come to mind) he was certainly the most famous and one I admired. When I look back more than a dozen years to how indestructible my friends and I all felt in our early 20s, it makes me realize how quickly life moves on. Now I’m one of those oldsters going to shows and getting ogled by all of the young folks in the audience.

Tori Amos (with A Man called E) - The Crest Theatre, Sacramento, California - September 3, 1992

After Paul and I left San Francisco, we headed back to Sacramento for our second free concert of the day, Tori Amos. Paul’s boss, Dave, had won the tickets from a radio station in Reno, I believe it was the X, and he couldn’t swing the Thursday trip up to see the show.

We were very nonchalant about Tori Amos and in no hurry really to get there. In our minds, she was another slightly whiney female singer akin to those who were all the rage at the time, and the fact that the X was giving away the tickets didn’t make it any more credible in our eyes. Paul described the X as all Rickie Lee Jones all the time. Today, when I look at their playlist, I chuckle when I realize that I like most of the bands they play.

We wound our way back from San Francisco and into Sacramento, stopped at the Beat and Tower Records to shop, went to dinner before the show at Eppie’s (yummy toll house cookie bars!) and basically took our sweet time finding and getting to the Crest Theatre. Once we got there, we (well at least I) felt kind of silly because the show was sold out and there were people milling about outside trying to scalp tickets. Those folks really wanted to see the show, and here we were, ready to just blow the whole thing off. Dave’s name was on a list of folks that were supposed to be let in for free, and for a few minutes we were sweating it because they didn’t want to let us in at all. I don’t really remember how Paul convinced them, but I suspect it might have had something to do with his press pass, and we were in.

We missed all but the last 3 minutes or so of the opening act, A Man Called E. The few minutes I heard sounded pretty good, but who knows. The place was silent and dark and completely jam packed. We had to go all the way to the top of the theatre and sit on a carpeted bench of sorts at the top – not really seats. We had a few minutes to look around during intermission, to notice that the place was probably 80% or so women, most of them together, which is fine, of course, just kind of a shocking ratio for two dorks from Carson City. The lights went down finally and Tori came out and sat at her piano and sang for a good couple of hours.

The concert was the most serious of any I’ve ever seen. Everyone was so silent, so reverent, that it was like sitting in Mass. All of this seriousness made the two of us giggle like little schoolkids for the better first half of the show. The fact it was so quiet made it really difficult for us to keep from cracking up. I’m not sure what we were saying to each other, but it was damn funny at the time.

At some point though, I really started to get into it, and so did Paul I think. She really is a beautiful songwriter, and the power of her with just her piano was unmistakable. By the time she sang, “Me and a Gun,” I felt like a turd for laughing so much. And by the end of the concert, I was hooked and bought her disc pretty quickly after I got home. This is one of the first shows I can remember that changed me from an almost non-fan to an almost rabid one, in a couple of hours. Pretty remarkable, I’d say.

They Might be Giants - Union Square, San Francisco, California - September 3, 1992

A couple of months earlier, during their show at the Warfield, the two Johns announced that they were planning to come back in September to do a free show in Union Square. I heard that and all, but I didn’t really pay as much attention as Paul did – he must have written it down or something. In any event, in September, Paul was ready to drive up again for the day to see TMBG again, this time for free, a Live 105 sponsored lunchtime show.

I still really wasn’t working at the time, so since this was a weekday, it wasn’t a big deal for me to spend another day on the road to see a show. Probably most other folks who came to the show were there on their lunch hour from their jobs on market street or the financial district in San Francisco. Paul and I, well we just drove up from 250 or so miles away.

The whole day was one of those perfect ones where I have retained almost crystal clear memories, at least of the important parts. We had to leave pretty early in the morning to get to get to the city on time and to make sure we got the right kind of parking. I think this was the first time I had ever been to Union Square, at least as an adult. The weather was sunny, warm yet crisp with that hint of fall that I love so much. We got there early enough to get in line to get autographs – Paul got one from Flansburgh and Linnell. I seem to remember that we split it up – one before the show and one afterward, but I’m not especially sure. I’m sure Paul will correct me since he’s probably the most active reader of this little blog.

Union Square filled up with plenty of people that day – and there were also lots of folks at the windows at nearby offices watching and listening, which was pretty neat. The show was great of course, a smaller snapshot of the earlier show we saw a couple of months ago with at least one new song thrown in. It was great to dance like a fool outside with lots of sunshine and breathing room.

After the show, we didn’t head right home…but we did go to our second free show of the day. But I’ll leave that for another post.

Peter Murphy - the Warfield, San Francisco, California - July 11, 1992

This was my third concert in California in less than a week, and it was starting to take it's toll on me - as my dad calls it, burning the candle at both ends. I started getting sick in Reno before we even left town, but there was no way I was going to miss Peter Murphy live, so I tried to power through it.

The former lead singer from Bauhaus, was definitely worth suffering for in my mind. I had a few Bauhaus albums in high school, after all, they one of if not the original goth rockers in the 80s. While there are a lot of Bauhaus songs I like, I probably like the offshoot bands better – Love and Rockets, Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, Daniel Ash..etc, with Peter Murphy being my favorite. I have always loved his voice and he has that gaunt thin white duke thing going on. Much like David Bowie, he still looks virtually the same now as he always has. Maybe those two go to the same plastic surgeons.

Once again, I went to the show with PCH and CF. We took my car, but I don’t think I drove at all, even on the way up. It was also at the Warfield, but this time, instead of crowding down at the front of the floor, we took seats upstairs in the balcony. It was a very mellow show, which was fine with me since I felt horrible. I sucked cough drops through the entire night and was pretty irritated by all of the smoke around me.

Rather than going home that night, we stayed at CF’s mom’s apartment in Dublin. The most vivid memory of that next day was as we were leaving town, CF was driving, and PCH was in the passenger seat. We were at a stoplight with the windows rolled down, when PCH declared out of the blue, “I just can’t stop farting.” CF and I were a little shocked, but not as much as the guys in the truck next to us.

Before we left town, we went to some camera store in San Jose so PCH could buy stuff. On the way home, I slept feverishly in the back seat. I think I must have slept the entire five hours back to Reno. So ended my week of three shows…and I think I learned my limits for late nights and road trips.

They Might be Giants - The Warfield, San Francisco, California - July 7, 1992

A mere five days after driving up and back to see the Cure in Sacramento, we drove the extra couple of hours into the City to see They Might be Giants for the first time.

I am pretty sure this show was just CF, PCH and I – I don’t remember anyone else joining us. In any case, it seems that would be appropriate because other than Depeche Mode, I don’t think there is any other band that unites our friendship like TMBG.

When we all first started getting CD players, CF bought a copy of Lincoln, their second album, on a whim at the CD store across the street from my condo in Reno. I am not positive, but I think it might have been the first CD he ever bought – and if it wasn’t, it was in the first five or so. To this day I’m not sure why he bought it, I guess he heard one of the songs somewhere and thought it was cool. We were all college students, so it took a while to really start building up a critical mass of discs…needless to say we listened to that disc constantly for several months.

TMBG were different from any band I had ever heard before. Silly lyrics, goofy music, just generally happy, fun stuff to hear at any time of day. Listening to it for the first time was very bizarre – after listening to all these tragically hip, gothy 80s bands, hearing lyrics like – “We’re going down to Cowtown, the cow’s a friend to me. Lives beneath the ocean, that’s where I will be….I’m going to see the cow beneath the sea,” was kind of a relief in a way. Plus the two Johns were just plain cool. They used to (and perhaps still do) have a Dial-A-Song answering machine you could call in Brooklyn any time to hear some snippet of music or perhaps even a real new song. They didn’t look or act like rock stars; they were just two geeks with Macs having a good time.

A year or so later, during one of our road trips to the Beat in Sacramento to get music, PCH brought along his CD stereo (or ghetto blaster) in the back seat of his Subaru wagon and he bought the new TMBG album, Flood, and we listened to it a couple of times just on the trip back to Reno. That is the album that made TMBG famous – with Birdhouse in your Soul, Istanbul Not Constantinople, and Particle Man – and we listened to it to death. I think to this day I probably still know most every lyric from Lincoln, Flood and Apollo 18 and can recite them on demand. There’s a lot of construction around here lately and the other day I caught myself singing “They’ll need a crane” to myself.

This was also my first show at the Warfield, which is a pretty cool theater on Market Street in San Francisco. It was kind of strange, there were a lot of tables so it made it hard to crowd up to the front to dance, but we managed. I remember there being a really diverse crowd for a concert – people of all ages, shapes, sizes and styles. Lots of geeks and misfits too.

The show was a blast, of course, and definitely lived up to our expectations. Towards the end we learned they were going to come back for a free concert in Union Square in the fall, and PCH locked that away in his memory bank. It was the first of several TMBG shows for me, and even though I haven’t followed their music much these days, I would never hesitate to see them live anytime, anywhere.

The Cure (with the Cranes) - Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA - July 5, 1992

I graduated from college in December of 1991 and for most of 1992, in the last year of George I’s lame duck presidency, it was very difficult for me to find a job. The combination of the recession, Reno’s lack of opportunities for new advertising graduates, and my fear of moving away on my own kept me from full employment.

In the meantime, I did have a job of sorts, I freelanced at the Reno Gazette-Journal for their Neighborhood Newswatch column. It was one of those jobs where you get about what you put into it. I didn’t really ever want to be a newspaper journalist – I had decided that a couple of years prior, but the reporting was pretty easy, and if I played it right, I could get by with about five hours a week of work.

All of this let me have a lot more fun that summer, for example, this week in July of 1992 when I saw three shows in California in six days.

The Cure was the first of these shows. Again, I don’t remember a whole about the show. I do know that we pushed our way to the front of the stage and I got covered in bruises on my already pale skin. I had a doctor’s appointment that week and I think the doctor was pretty concerned and found it hard to believe I had gotten all that abuse at a concert.

They were supporting “Wish,” with one of the silliest songs on record, “Friday I’m in Love,” and I wasn’t too thrilled to hear the songs on that album. Afterward, I bought the requisite live and greatest hits discs, but really stopped following the Cure’s new stuff for good.

Dramarama (with the Cave Dogs) - Lawlor Events Center, Reno, NV - April 8, 1992

I don’t remember too much about this show, really. Dramarama was one of those one-hit wonder bands, though I imagine the fans maintaining the websites would beg to differ. My friends and I loved “Anything, Anything” and I have probably heard it thousands of times at dance clubs, parties, in friends’ cars or in my own house. I had the CD at one point but I don’t know what happened to it. It’s still a great song, unfortunately it’s not on iTunes, at least not the Dramarama version.

The show was at Lawlor Events Center, but it wasn’t big enough to rate the actual concert part, so it was in a small meeting room, which was a bit weird. I don’t remember the Cave Dogs at all and I only remember their name because Paul writes everything down somewhere.

Public Image Limited (with Blind Melon, Live and BAD II) - Event Center Arena, SJSU, San Jose, CA - March 27, 1992

Big Audio Dynamite may have been the headliner for this show, but we really came to see Public Image Limited. I actually think this is the second time I saw them – I know they opened for another show I saw at Shoreline but can’t remember which one. Turns out the other two opening acts weren’t half bad either. Blind Melon with what was likely one of their only tours – the lead singer overdosed not too long afterward, and Live, who were really quite good and the show compelled me to buy their CD. (A random note – I like to include links in these blogs to the bands webpages, but how am I supposed to locate “Live” in google? There must be a billion entries. I’m stuck with an allmusic.com link instead.)

Johnny Lydon (formerly Rotten) has always been a pretty interesting character, onstage and off. I’ve always admired him and even read his autobiography several years ago which has always stuck with me, especially a breakfast he made once for someone he didn’t like. According to his website, he is now doing bug documentaries for Discovery Channel UK, and has announced that Justin Timberlake should play him if they ever make a movie of his life. Like every self-respecting wanna be punk in high school, I loved the Sex Pistols and saw Syd and Nancy way too many times. Who knew Gary Oldman would turn out to be such a great actor? Anyway, I digress.

In any case, Mr. Lydon was in pretty rare form that evening in San Jose and gave me and my friends probably our most memorable concert moment ever. We were close to the front, at least as close as we were comfortable in a sea of punk kids, so we could see him and the band pretty well. During one of the songs, he turned around, dropped trou, and gave us a nice look at his pale white ass. As if that wasn’t enough, he reached in between his cheeks and pulled out a tampon. We weren’t quite sure what was going on – if the tampon was really in there, or what, but in either case, yuck! He wiggled it around by the string and flung it out into the audience.

We fully expected the crowd to recoil from the flying feminine product. However, to our great disgust, people actually lunged towards it, trying to catch it. To which Johnny smiled mischievously and asked of the crowd, “Who’s got me magic lucky tampon?”

I remember this trip being a real haul. San Jose certainly felt a lot farther than San Francisco, especially on the way home. Luckily we only stayed for a couple BAD songs before we hit the road.