The Offspring - Del Mar Fairgrounds, San Diego, California - March 25, 1995

I think the Offspring show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds marks the first time, at 25, that I really felt old at a concert.

Given my eclectic tastes, it was usually more likely I was going to feel young at a show (like at the Ramones, a few years previous), or at least, in the same general demographic of the other fans. But the Offspring was a whole different type of show. This time, the older people at the show were indeed someone’s parents, and instead of having a fun night out while their youngsters were being watched by a sitter, they were here with their kids, suffering though the show. I saw kids that looked as young as eight or nine at the show with their parents, as well as some slightly older who looked like they were with older brothers and sisters.

I guess I should have known what I was getting into. After all the Offspring are a silly, punky, skater-type band with goofy lyrics and catchy guitar riffs. But they were also pretty intelligent and had some interesting lyrics. All in all, the show was fun and short – the kids were able to get home at a decent hour.

The Flash Acoustic X-Mas (Sarah McLachlan, Cause and Effect) - Spreckles Theatre, San Diego, California - December 19, 1994

This was the first of two annual holiday shows we went to in San Diego. This one was put on by the Flash, I believe, and had a lot of bands verging on Adult contemporary. I think all of the bands played acoustically as well – it might have been called Acoustic Christmas, but to be fair, I really do not remember that much about it.

It was neat to see Cause and Effect – I had been a fan of theirs for a while but this was the first time I had seen them in concert. What was interesting is that they seemed to re-release their same album, only with a different name and cover. I went back to their website to check and I was right – their first two albums are virtually identical. They were probably touring to support their third album at this show.

Sarah McLachlan has never really been one of my favorites, but she does put on a pretty good show, and she sounds better acoustic. And, as with all Sarah McLachlan shows, it attracted a lot of lesbians. I guess she must be a hot babe.

I don’t really remember much else about the show. At this point I think we were still pretty giddy about being able to see so many concerts and were going to whatever looked even vaguely worthwhile. I think after this we got busy and more selective.

They Might be Giants (with Frank Black) - UCSD, San Diego, California - November 18, 1994

This was the fourth time we had seen TMBG and the first time in our new home of San Diego. It was great to go to the large, green, shiny UCSD campus and see a show as if we were really cool college kids who got to walk our of our dorms to see one of our favorite bands.

I remember a couple of things pretty clearly about this show. Firstly, PCH and I had these stupid temporary paper licenses that the State of California had issued us when we went to the DMV to declare our new statehood.

That whole experience in itself was a pain. We were used to waltzing into the DMV in Nevada and rarely waiting in line to do anything. However, San Diego was much bigger, so it was not so straightforward. We had to take written driving exams, which seemed kind of silly. Are California’s roads (or Oregon, or any other state, for that matter), really that different than Nevada’s? Because of our proximity to California growing up, we had both driven many, many miles there anyway. In order to take said exam, you had to make an appointment. That was not bad really, convenient not to wait in line. However, after we passed our tests and went to get our licenses, we were asked for our birth certificates. Which, of course, we hadn’t brought with us…so after taking a test and waiting in line, we were dismissed and told to bring our birth certificates back to prove that we were born in the US. Of course, I guess the fact we had Nevada drivers’ licenses already meant that we didn’t have birth certificates.

We finally did go back with our birth certificates, took our pictures and expected our new California licenses. Then we were foiled again. Since California had those fancy credit card licenses (looked pretty fancy to us at the time, but I guess everyone has them now), they had to make them somewhere and mail them to us. So we were left with our only ID’s as these cheesy paper temporary licenses. Not too handy for buying booze or getting into clubs.

Anyway, as I remember it, we still had these cheesy licenses and we were worried about not getting into this show. I can’t remember if it was an over 18 or an over 21 show (seems rude for it to be over 21 when it was on campus) but in any case, the did ask for ID. But they did let us in anyway. Thank goodness, since we were both well past 25.

The second thing I remember was that we were super geeky and waited for the two Johns to come out after the show. Several other people were there too, so when we saw them and realized what they were doing, we decided to hang around with them. Finally, after much waiting, John Flansburgh came out. PCH shouted out to him that Ellen said hi (I think that was her name – a woman he worked with who had lived in New York and had known him at one time) – and he did respond to that – but then he quickly left – without stopping to sign any of the other fans’ stuff. Mind you, it wasn’t a lot of fans, maybe like 5-7 people total – so we thought it was kind of rude. I was disappointed, and for many years after that I just didn’t feel the same about them.

I remember virtually nothing about Frank Black, other than he was bald and angry looking. Many years later I saw him in Portland and it turned out to be one of my favorite shows ever. Now he lives in Portland, but I never ran into him at New Seasons or at Powells. Too bad.

The Lightning Seeds (with The Murmurs) - The Flash Café, San Diego, California - October 18, 1994

This was the first concert I saw in San Diego, just after moving there in October of 1994. The Lightning Seeds were really a one-hit wonder band – with their catchy “Life of Riley,” and perhaps we might never have gone to see them if we weren’t so drunk on having multiple concert options within easy reach.

The Flash was the other, sort of lighter, alternative station in San Diego, kind of a more adult contemporary counterpart to 91X. I don’t know what we were more giddy about – having two decent radio station choices, or having multiple concert options to choose from. I suppose if I had been employed and/or had more money in the first place, I might have spent months going to little clubs like the Flash Café and seeing bands I had heard once on the radio or seen their name in the music store under new releases.

The Lightning Seeds (fronted by Ian Broudie – who lives on making solo albums that actually sound pretty good, at least from the website) – were fine, but the most memorable part of the concert was the Murmurs. They were two angry young women with just acoustic guitars that played some really fun and memorable songs. A particularly sweet one was “You Suck.” We felt really cool that we got to sign their guest book, a regular notebook with maybe 50 names in it. According to the web, I guess they managed to hang on until 1998 or so – with a couple of changes to their lineup.