1984 to the present - a Musical Journey

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

2007-12-27T02:35:00.000Z

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

2007-12-16T20:36:00.000Z

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

2007-12-15T13:12:00.000Z

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

2007-12-10T21:50:00.000Z

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

2007-12-09T22:59:00.000Z

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

2007-12-03T18:55:00.000Z

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

2007-11-01T23:00:00.000Z

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.

Erasure - 4th and B, San Diego, California - June 11, 1997

2007-10-09T20:09:00.001Z

I have liked Erasure for years. I remember hearing a taped version of Oh L’Amour, which must have been either the summer of my senior year in high school or maybe in the summer after my freshman year in college. For some reason it makes me think of my friend D’s old friend MM and his girlfriend A.

I guess then it must be from the summer after my freshman year in college, when I spent the summer at home in Carson City with my parents. This was a very weird time for me – being 18 and back home for a few months. In a matter of a couple of days you go from being completely on your own, even if in a dorm with lots of other people, to again living in your old room with its tacky peach décor and parents who want to know where you are going and, even, gasp, want to spend time with you since they haven’t seen you much in the past year. I have to say by this time in my life I was starting to get a little boring anyway, happy to just go to dinner or a movie or hang out and watch videos. That summer though D had a few memorable parties at his house, a few of which I attended. But that should really be his story and not mine, so I will leave it to him in case he ever wants to start his own blog.

Anyway, I remember ‘discovering’ erasure and thinking they were so cool. I bought their first two albums and listened to them incessantly that summer, often on the half hour drive every morning to Gold Hill, where I worked at the Gold Hill Hotel as a front desk clerk. I always really enjoyed that drive in the morning, before it got too warm in the summer, rolling the windows down and cranking the music as I drove down Winnie Lane, connected with Highway 50 and then took the Virginia City exit and up the switchbacks up to Gold Hill, to the oldest hotel in Nevada. I am amazed I never got a speeding ticket or worse, drove off the edge or into an oncoming car the way I took those curves in my little blue Mustang.

I remember one birthday I had promised to take C to see Erasure somewhere, likely in San Francisco. But that concert got cancelled, we broke up and I never did take him. I imagine he probably still wants me to cash in someday. Erasure is still touring, I just missed them last week at the Royal Albert Hall, so it might happen yet.

We went to this show with a couple of other San Diego friends and had a great time. Every Erasure song is so danceable and the buzz of the crowd (probably about 90 percent homosexual men) was really fun as well. I don’t follow them as closely as I used to, but whenever I hear something new from them I am always pleasantly surprised. I am not really that into electronic music anymore but they still have clever love songs and catchy melodies.

No Doubt - San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California - June 3, 1997

2007-10-08T20:00:00.000Z

Gwen Stefani has come a long way since I saw this concert more than ten years ago in San Diego. I would not really expect a So-Cal punk rocker to be very popular in Britain but she is – I see adverts for her all the time on the telly. And not just for her music, but of late I see more for her perfume. I guess she also has her own clothing line. Pretty cool, Gwen.

If I think of punk rocker girls from my childhood, it is not an odor I would really want to duplicate or wear. But I suspect hers does not sell of patchouli, clove cigarettes and sweat. At least I hope not.

I have to say though, I don’t remember seeing this concert at all. I was thinking for some reason we saw them at Del Mar Fairgrounds, but then I realized that was the Offspring a couple of years earlier. I imagine the crowd was probably the same, pre-teens with their parents in tow. I guess it was not especially memorable. Sorry, Gwen.

Shonen Knife - The Casbah, San Diego, California, May 16, 1997

2007-10-02T18:46:00.000Z

We should probably have seen more shows at the Casbah but I am pretty sure this is the only one I ever saw there. It was about a 5-10 minute drive from where we lived in San Diego, quite close to the airport. It was probably even walkable, except for the big steep hill that is Washington Avenue. But just like LA, no one really walks in San Diego. Not for transportation anyway.

Shonen Knife is a group of tiny Japanese girls who sing very fun punkish/popish type songs. To be honest, they are not really my cup of tea, but PCH liked them quite a lot so we had to go. The problem was that we were also planning to fly out on vacation early the next morning. And neither of us are early birds, so we wanted to get a bit of sleep before we flew.

So we went to the Casbah for the show, which was probably supposed to start around 9ish. And we waited. And waited. Watched some crappy opening bands. My brain is a bit fuzzy about this but I seem to remember maybe we also went home in between? Perhaps not, I can’t imagine that the bouncers would have let us back in. But basically I remember that Shonen Knife didn’t go on until very late. Close to midnight if I remember correctly. By that time I was pretty tired and frustrated so I don’t remember much about the show itself. But in any case, we saw them and still flew out the next day. I am sure I slept on the plane.

Fishbone - Belly Up, Solana Beach, California - March 14, 1997

2007-09-30T09:37:00.000Z

I don’t think I know the proper date for this show – I certainly do not have the ticket. I looked on the web and according to a fan site the only date they played in San Diego in this timeframe was March 14, 1997. However, the also says they played at Soma which was definitely not where I saw them. I want to say we saw them on new years eve or new years day, but I don’t see any listing for that anywhere either.

In any case, we saw Fishbone at the Belly Up in Solana Beach sometime in early 1997. I always liked the Belly Up as a venue but for some reason this was the only show I ever saw there during the time I lived in San Diego. I don’t know if it was because they leaned towards older jazz types or because Solana Beach was just a bit too far out of town when there were so many good shows within easy reach. Solana Beach is a cool town actually, sort of a cleaned up respectable beach community with brand new facilities, a cool design community but with less snobbery than its nearby neighbors Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe. When I first moved to San Diego I did a short freelance stint in ad sales/writing there.

Fishbone is a really cool, very fun band to see live but not really one I have followed much. They have a great Ska/Reggae groove which makes for easy dancing (bouncing around really). Plus I always liked their logos and t-shirts.

They Might be Giants - 4th and B, San Diego, California - November 24, 1996

2007-09-27T18:38:00.001Z

Interesting that I don't remember it this way, but evidently we saw the Fixx and They Might Be Giants back to back in November 1996. The tickets don't lie though!

I had to go back and double check my list of shows because I didn’t believe it. This was the last time I saw TMBG in concert – more than 10 years ago. Considering it was also the fifth time I am surprised I have not made it to another show since. I looked them up and they are now touring with a new album. Unfortunately they are not currently planning to come to London.

It is a fact of life that TMBG shows are always fun and this one was no different. I am not sure I have really followed their music much since about this time which explains why I haven’t seen them live. I think they were touring for Factory Showroom, which I don’t think I own. However, they played all the favorites and had the obligatory conga line. How can you not love a band that will start a conga line?

Since the late 90s TMBG has done many other cool things, expanding into theme songs for shows like Malcom in the Middle, the Simpsons and The Daily Show, collaborating with Dave Eggers and using the web to its full potential with online videos, podcasts and even ringtones. I just downloaded their new album from iTunes so I can catch up with them.

The Fixx - 4th and B, San Diego, California, November 23, 1996

2007-09-26T20:03:00.000Z

I remember when we heard the Fixx were coming to San Diego we had quite a laugh about it. We imagined they would be crotchety old men on stage doing their funny hand motions from their 80s videos. When I looked them up on the web I discovered that not only are they still touring, more than 10 years after this concert, but they even have a myspace site.

Reach the Beach was one of the essential ‘new wave’ albums from my teens and certainly made an impression on me, although I am not sure I ever actually owned it. I might have copied it from someone. The Fixx were always one of those bands I listened to and liked on the radio or MTV but never really got my attention beyond that.

Again I don’t remember too much about the concert – but like most events at 4^th and B it was fun and we were able to get pretty close to the band. Always a decent way to spend an evening in San Diego.

The Cure - Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, California - August 17, 1996

2007-09-18T18:52:00.000Z

Here is another concert I don’t really remember all that well. I think this is the only concert I ever saw in Irvine, which is interesting since it was so close to San Diego. I guess most major acts did tend to come through San Diego though so I am not sure why the Cure skipped San Diego on this tour.

By this time Robert Smith was certainly getting older and larger. But I still remember having a good time and it being a nice, warm summer evening in Orange County.

Dead Can Dance - Spreckles Theatre, San Diego, California - August 10, 1996

2007-09-17T19:08:00.000Z

I wish I could say I had great memories of Dead can Dance for the concert itself. Not that they are bad or were disappointing or anything. It is just that the evening started off with the press party for the San Diego Republican National Convention, and that was far more memorable than the concert.

I have two favorite stories from that night. But one of them is actually not mine, so I will stick with the one that is.

This party was probably the most decadent event I have ever been to in my entire life. It was, sorry to say, so appropriately republican. We took a bus down to the embarcadero, by the bay, where there were loads of food stalls with everything you could ever want – from Wolfgang Puck’s pizza to sushi to vodka shots, to fancy wine and sake. Everything was so disposable, and so expensive, thick plastic glasses and thick plastic plates with no reduce reuse recycle going on – people had an egg roll on their big plate then tossed it into a bin and went for another. It was also the first place I remember seeing those handy little clips to hold your drink attached to your plate, so you could have both hands free to eat. I lost the guilt of attending an event so not in my political stratosphere in about 15 minutes, after I realized that every bit of food I was consuming was costing their party money. Or the San Diego Union Tribune anyway. It was absolutely brilliant.

At the time I was quite enamored of my company – Invest Learning. We were changing the world, one student at a time, and I was enjoying climbing the job ladder at a company I really believed in. So I decided that I was going to suck it up and promote my little company that night, since all the major news networks were in town.

The first news celeb we saw was Andy Rooney. I had to look him up on the web because I can’t believe he is still alive (sorry Andy) but he is. He stumbled by us looking very worse for the wear before it was even close to dark. Then I spotted Peter Jennings.

I had a couple of drinks (vodka shots if I remember correctly) and subtly stalked Mr. Jennings for a bit. At one point he was getting some more food and some lady walked up to him and said, ‘Oh Mr. Jennings, can I please get a picture with you?’ and whipped out her disposable camera to capture the moment on film. I thought, wow, I can’t possibly look any dumber than that lady, so I stepped forward and introduced myself, proffering my business card.

I introduced myself and told him quickly a bit about my company, and while he was in town he should come and do a story on us. He looked at my card, pronounced my name correctly (something that almost never happens) and gave me a big smile. And, he had a gigantic piece of spinach in his teeth. I wanted to tell him he should use my card to get it out. But I just smiled, shook his hand and moved on.

To this day, I still call something in the teeth a PJ. Sorry Peter. Unlike Andy Rooney, you passed away a couple of years ago and I hope you are not watching me write this somewhere.

So after that, an electro, ambient gothic concert seems a bit anticlimactic, doesn’t it?

Voice of the Beehive - 4th and B, San Diego, California - August 2, 1996

2007-09-16T18:55:00.000Z

I can’t think of Voice of the Beehive without thinking about my friend Ruth who I haven’t seen for at least ten years. I think I will always associate this band as well as John Waters’ Polyester with her. I wonder where she is now?

Anyway, I digress. Voice of the Beehive were a very fun little late 80s/90s band and we saw them at the 4^th and B. I don’t remember a whole lot about the show except thinking they looked quite a bit older than I imagined and that they reminded me of the B-52s. I remember having fun though and that it was a fun evening.

I did find them on the web and they even have a myspace site. They have an interesting history actually, the two sisters are from LA but formed the band in London. It might be phony, but I liked this little dialogue from their site.

Melissa: "Tracey, I'm sick of L.A. -- All this sun, sand and surf crap is getting me down."

Tracey: "And you can't find any decent cider 'round here!"

Melissa: "Right! Hey, I got an idea -- let's go to London!"

Tracey: "And live in squats in Bow with outdoor toilets."

Melissa: "And freeze our asses off."

Tracey: "...when it's not pissing down with rain."

Melissa: "And meet some cute guys."

Tracey: "And form a band."

Melissa: "And call it...?"

Tracey: "Voice of The..."

Melissa: "Grapefruit?"

Tracey: "No!...BEEHIVE!"

Tori Amos - Civic Theatre, San Diego, California - June 25, 1996

2007-08-19T18:16:00.000Z

We saw Tori Amos in San Diego with a couple of good friends M & B, whom we never saw many shows with. Our musical tastes didn’t exactly overlap very much so it was kind of neat that they did this time and we agreed to go see this show together.

My most vivid memories are more of the venue itself. I think this was perhaps the first (if not only?) time I set foot into the Civic Theatre and it was such an old school concert hall I felt as if I should be wearing an evening gown. It was smothered in red velvet and chandeliers and seemed very unlike a place twenty somethings should be hanging out to see a concert. I guess it sort of suited Tori’s style though considering she is at best with her grand piano and serious voice.

I have such vivid memories of the first time I saw her in Sacramento that it is difficult to bring any other images to mind from this show. It was probably fine but I don’t remember much beyond that.

I looked up Tori's website so I could link it to this post and I have to say it is quite annoying. Full of google adds on the top and the sides, it looks very amateurish. Oh well.

Tears for Fears - 4th and B, San Diego, Californina - May 10, 1996

2007-08-11T13:25:00.000Z

This was the first more serious show we saw at the 4^th and B, after the Flash Xmas concert. They started to book a lot of really good 80s and early 90s bands and it was good to have it so close by.

I do not remember too much about the show itself, except I have a memory of walking up the stairs to find our seats and I remember it being much better than the first time I had seen them in San Jose. I think by this time Roland Orzabal was much more comfortable on stage and certainly not as bitter as the time he belted out Radiohead’s Creep as his only encore.

I think a lot of people may think of Tears for Fears as a one-hit-wonder band from the 80s but they are still really quite good. The songwriting and the music has deepened and I am always pleasantly surprised to find a new release when I least expect it.

Bananarama, Dave Wakeling, Howard Jones – 4th and B, San Diego, California - December 17, 1995

2007-06-23T10:34:00.000Z

This was the first of many shows we would see at the 4^th and B club in San Diego, a medium-sized club downtown that opened and started catering to the twenty- and thirty-something crowd in town with a plethora of 80s and 90s bands. It was a great place to see shows, large enough that you could usually get tickets, but small enough that you could get as close as you want to the bands.

This was another Flash X-mas concert with a bunch of 80s bands that you often wonder about. I think there may have been more than three, but these are the ones I remember.

At the time Dave Wakeling was always the opening act at such venues. From what I remember at this show, his band went on way earlier than advertised and I think we missed most of it. I always liked the English Beat and General Public, and I think I appreciate Dave Wakeling more than I think I do, although I never bought any of his music. According to his website, he is also a very nice guy.

Howard Jones was also really good, just him and his piano. He is very talented in general so I am never disappointed when I hear him play.

The lowlight, well joke really, of the night was Bananarama. P was so geeked to see them live, I didn’t care really but liked them in high school. They were so lip synched it wasn’t even funny. There were only two of the original members (horse head was there I think, I don’t really keep track, but I think the cute one was missing) and they basically just did a staged dance with some hot scantily-clad men dancing around them. I think they maybe only did 5 songs in total, but even with that short set we were glad to be done with them. I cannot believe they were actually paid for their performance. Considering these were usually charity events, I hope it wasn’t much.

R.E.M. - Sports Arena, San Diego, California - October 28, 1995

2007-03-25T17:44:00.000Z

We should have seen R.E.M. much earlier that year actually, but all in all I think everything worked out perfectly really.

When we found out that they were coming to town originally, we actually went down to the Sports Arena on the day the tickets went on sale and queued up to get better seats. Since you could almost walk there from where we lived, it seemed like a much more logical plan than trying to dial in to ticketbastard (this was still pre-internet days).

We were not fanatical about it or anything – no camping out – but we did arrive fairly early in the morning and there were probably about 50 or so die-hard REM fans there. As I remember, we all got numbers to be in the line that we actually took to the window with us. I don’t really remember any issues or scalper stuff, but perhaps my memory is bad.

Anyhow, we bought some decent seats at what we thought was a really over-inflated price. I guess this was really at the peak of REM’s popularity, they Green and Automatic for the People had really taken them mainstream and they were touring to support Monster, which had a hit with ‘What’s the Frequency Kenneth?’ as well. They had a pretty intellectual following and Michael Stipe was starting to become an icon for political issues as well as music. All of that success was reflected in the price of the tickets – as I remember, $68 each, which was outrageous at the time when most tickets were still in the twenty to thirty dollar range. We grumbled a bit about the price but figured it would be worth it.

A little while after we bought the tickets, the drummer Bill Berry had a brain aneurysm on stage at a different show and REM cancelled all of their tour dates until further notice. We got a full refund on the tickets and thought, oh well, maybe we will see them someday.

As it turned out, they did come back through in October, but this time, our friend JB managed to get us free tickets to the show through a connection with a local radio station. They were really great seats too, much better than our paid ones.

About the concert itself – I remember that Michael Stipe was scary skinny – anorexic looking – and he danced kind of funny, like my friend DA. The show was okay – not fabulous – if we had paid, we would have been disappointed. But given that it was free, well, woo hoo!

Oingo Boingo - San Diego State Open Air Theatre - October 19, 1995

2007-01-31T17:23:00.000Z

This was Oingo Boingo’s farewell tour in the fall of 1995 and definitely an end of an era for me. Because they used to come to Reno every year when I was in high school they were a big part of my life and I had a number of very odd experiences tied to them. The first time I ever heard them was actually when a few of us were getting ready to go to a Thompson Twins concert, a day I will probably never forget.

What is funny about Oingo Boingo is that it is probably just a footnote now in Danny Elfman’s long and prolific career in movies. I looked him up in the Internet Movie Database and he has well over 100 different film credits – from composing scores to writing songs to singing them on screen. It used to be a novelty for us to see his name in the credits at movies but now I can pick out his style even before I see his name roll by on the screen.

I still love all those old Oingo Boingo songs though, even if I don’t listen to them as much. They are still one of my very favorite live acts and I had a great time singing and dancing along every time I saw them, including this last time in Southern California. In contrast to Reno and the bay area, they always had a big following in SoCal so the crowd for this show was a lot more pumped up than I had ever seen before. It would have been great to see them in their final Halloween show that year, but this time, in the October warmth in the San Diego State amphitheatre, was still a great goodbye to one of my favorite bands.

Street Scene 1995 (Los Lobos, Stan Ridgeway, others) - San Diego, California - September 9, 1995

2007-01-30T17:09:00.000Z

I went to two different Street Scene events in San Diego while I lived there and to be honest they both kind of run together a bit. I definitely remember seeing Stan Ridgeway of Wall of Voodoo fame – he is a cool guy with a deep interesting voice and it was apt to see him sing Mexican Radio, one of my favorite songs since I first started paying attention to music in my Mighty 690 days. Too bad I can’t remember anything else he sings and I don’t think I own a single piece of music from him. Maybe it is time to download something from iTunes.

As for Los Lobos – I guess they always seem to be one of those bands that are always in the background of some event for me. They played at both Street Scenes I saw and once in Portland when I was really there to see Wilco. They are definitely talented and put on a good performance but I have never really given them a passing thought after I see them live. Because they are sort of San Diego locals (well, East LA, close enough) they were a standard at every festival so I guess I took them for granted. They are still making music with a big following and have a really neat website.

Peter Murphy - Spreckles Theatre, San Diego, California - July 13, 1995

2007-01-28T11:40:00.000Z

I was thinking about this Peter Murphy concert and trying to remember it, and I just realized that I have gotten it mixed up in my head with another goth-ish concert we saw at Spreckles, Dead Can Dance, which has another whole story wrapped around it. Huh. That being said, I cannot really remember much about this evening.

He must have been touring for Cascade, which I was not a huge fan of at the time though I have come to appreciate it more lately. Especially the last time I saw him play here in London – some of the best songs he does live now are from this album. I guess it grew on me over the years.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - SOMA, San Diego, California - June 16, 1995

2007-01-21T18:30:00.000Z

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin are one of those 90s one-hit-wonder bands that I often forget about and probably would not bother seeking out now if they came to town. At the time of course, we were still in our honeymoon stage with the ability to see bands in town, so we went to anything that sounded worthwhile.

I have to say that Kill your Television has certainly lived on far beyond what I would have expected, including making its way onto bumper stickers and t-shirts. Still a great song and a catchier slogan.

Of course, again I can not really remember anything about the venue or the night unfortunately. But I did discover that the band is still around, with a cool website and even their own myspace.

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

2006-09-17T12:33:00.000Z

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

2006-04-16T20:40:00.000Z

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

2006-03-04T18:59:00.000Z

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

2006-01-07T18:52:00.000Z

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.

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

2005-12-05T19:46:00.000Z

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

2005-10-30T18:36:00.000Z

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

2005-09-24T21:26:00.000Z

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

2005-09-17T18:47:00.000Z

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

2005-09-10T19:26:00.000Z

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

2005-09-06T19:37:00.000Z

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

2005-09-01T19:27:00.000Z

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

2005-08-26T20:47:00.000Z

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

2005-08-25T17:55:00.000Z

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

2005-08-14T20:31:00.000Z

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

2005-08-10T20:30:00.000Z

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

2005-08-03T19:56:00.000Z

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

2005-08-01T20:46:00.000Z

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

2005-07-27T22:23:00.000Z

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

2005-07-25T20:12:00.000Z

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

2005-07-25T19:51:00.000Z

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

2005-04-11T04:41:00.000Z

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

2005-04-05T05:51:00.000Z

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

2005-02-13T22:04:00.000Z

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

2005-02-10T03:31:00.000Z

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

2005-02-08T05:42:00.000Z

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

2005-02-07T01:05:00.000Z

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

2005-02-03T03:10:00.000Z

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

2005-01-09T22:04:00.000Z

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

2005-01-03T06:39:00.000Z

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.

Big Medicine Head- the Icehouse, Sparks, NV - January 24, 1992

2004-12-30T06:44:00.000Z

This show was the first I saw legally in a bar (see My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult). We first heard Big Medicine Head through a friend of ours, Robin, who worked with us at Western Union. Her brother was in the band and she had introduced us to their music and passed on a cassette of Rex Hotel, which was pretty neat and had a lot of Nevada references. It’s interesting to read the review on download.com – they call them a country band similar to Wilco. More than 20 years later Wilco is now one of my favorite bands, but at the time I absolutely despised anything “country.”

I vaguely remember the show. The Icehouse was a funny old bar in Sparks with a long history – I think it sold ice at some point as well as functioned as a gay bar for a while. It was pretty neat to see a band we had some kind of connection to in a small setting, rather than just seeing big stadium/ampitheatre shows like we were used to.

Probably a better story than the show itself was how I got to be friends with Robin. We both joined Western Union at the same time, in the spring of 1989. Western Union was the hot job to get in Reno when you were in college – it paid pretty well for pretty simple work, answering calls to check on money orders and sending the occasional telegram. I found out about it because my high school boyfriend kept trying to apply there and flunking the typing test. My friend Kim has also taken the test and spelled champion “campion” – thereby missing it by one word. I went in figuring I would probably do fine on the spelling but I knew my typing wasn’t that great. Turns out I got a lucky break. I aced the spelling test and was only a couple of WPM off the typing score – so the testing person decided I should at least get to take the math test before they made a decision. I guess I did pretty well on that because they offered me the job. Ironically I probably type in excess of 100 WPM now.

Cory wound up getting in too and we started the same time, with a two-week training class. We learned all kinds of stuff, telephone scripts, memorizing state abbreviations, learning how to calculate telegram costs and look things up on the stinky old green-screen systems. After our training we got to go on the floor to take real calls, and we partnered up to take our first calls together. Robin was my partner and she was listening as I took my first telegram.

I didn’t realize this at the time, but Western Union did quite a lot of traffic in bereavement messages. I don’t think I ever even heard the word bereavement until I worked there. Lucky for me, that first call was for such a telegram. The woman who was calling had a really thick, deep-south accent and I was having a lot of trouble understanding her. She must have told me at least six or seven times why she was calling, and I had no clue what she was asking for. Finally, I figured it out. A bereavement message! Oh, like you send to a funeral home. Ok…

When I got to addressing the message, I had to confirm every letter with her. We were trained to say things like “do you mean B as in boy or D as in Dog,” etc. So, I was trying to help this woman sound it out when Robin wrote on her notepad and showed me – “no, D as in Dead!” It was all I could do to keep from laughing hysterically, and Robin was laughing so hard that she had to disconnect from the call and walk out of the room.

In any case, that story and my several years at Western Union were certainly more memorable than Big Medicine Head – though I did go ahead and download that track for my iPod.

1991 - A year with no shows?

2004-12-18T19:13:00.000Z

I have gone through all my concert ticket stubs and tried to remember each show I saw, but for some reason I can't come up with a single show in 1991. In fact, I have a gap from July 1990 to January 1992, 18 months with no concerts.

I guess that was my last year of college - I graduated in 1991, so maybe I was just too busy with school? I know I had a big group advertising project to do that final semester, and that I probably didn't have a whole lot of cash since I quit working that year. Huh.

Anyway, I thought it was worth mentioning since my next post begins in 1992.

Depeche Mode (with Nitzer Ebb) - Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA - July 22, 1990

2004-12-18T06:37:00.000Z

I remember this show, on the Violator tour, as one of the most fun concerts ever. Everything about it seemed just great – it was outside on a wonderfully warm summer evening. Nitzer Ebb, the opening band, was fabulous, especially after we suffered through the crappy Genuine Diamelles a couple of months before. Every song was performed just right, amazingly danceable and/or slow and tender, and it seemed that the whole crowd was so into the show that the energy was contagious.

I had mixed up the details of this show with the Bowie show in my mind. I guess they were only a couple of months apart and both at Cal Expo. But thanks to Paul and his elephantile memory, I now have it straight. Cory, Paul, Al, Christy and her brother Brian, Kirsten and her friend Debbie all went to the show. We went in three cars – Cory and Paul drove my Subaru wagon, Christy, Al, Brian and I rode in her car, and Kirsten and Debbie drove separately. We all met at the Tower Parking lot in Sacramento and Debbie made a snippy comment about a bumpersticker in the lot – Nevada is not a Wasteland, then Christy informed her it was her car and her bumpersticker she was commenting on.

Cory, Christy, Paul and I all wrote letters to spell out L-O-V-E like the Strangelove video and held up our hands during the show. We were a bit dorky, but that was nothing compared to the Little 15 video Cory and Paul had made with Paul’s camcorder.

David Bowie (with the Genuine Diamelles) - Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA - May 23, 1990

2004-12-05T07:11:00.000Z

My friend CL had been a rabid David Bowie fan for years, so when his Sound+Vision tour came to Sacramento it was a natural choice for us to make the trip. At $27.50 (+ticketbastard fees), this was by far the most expensive concert ticket I had ever purchased, most were still in the $18 to $22 range, but there was never a question of whether it was worth it or not.

Four of us total went out for the show, PCH, CA, CL and myself. We did our typical Sacramento day trip, going to the Beat (still my favorite music store) and Tower Records before the show. I have a great picture of us on top of a car in Tower Parking lot, proudly displaying CL’s Bowie87 license plate.

I think this was when I realized that Cal Expo was probably the best venue in the local area for us to see shows. It was right off the freeway, just about 2 hours from Reno. It is a nice sized ampitheatre and everything is general admission, allowing you to get as close as you want to at any time during the show.

The opening act was one of the most pathetic I’ve ever seen – the Genuine Diamelles, an acapella group and about one step up from a cheesy Nevada lounge act. We felt a little ripped off, but they were so bad it was laughable. Once Bowie came on, we were all mesmerized. We managed to get all the way up to the front and stayed there for a while, but CL had some kind of horrible pain in her foot and couldn’t stand up, so we all moved back with her so she could sit down. David Bowie was and still is an amazing performer, I saw him again this spring and he still is pretty darn hot for his age.

The t-shirt I bought immediately looked like I had bought it in 1980 after only one washing – the last time I ever bought a white concert shirt.

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Las Vegas, NV - Spring 1990

2004-11-30T05:10:00.000Z

This was my first show I saw in a bar, so of course I don’t have a ticket for it. My friend Dan and I had driven down to Vegas to help my parents paint our rental house. We figured it was a free vacation of sorts – we didn’t have anything going on during spring break, so we drove down separately and my parents put us up at the Palace Station so we could help with the project.

Our friends Al and Ruth had moved down to Vegas about a year after they graduated from high school. We got together one night after painting all day and Al, who’s always been one of my music mentors, told us there was a show at some club that night that he wanted to see. We liked the band and thought it was a great idea. Only problem was, Dan and I were both still 20. My birthday is in October and his in November, and because we both looked so young, we could never really get away with anything.

Earlier that day the four of us had gone out to eat at a casino, and afterward, we were watching Ruth plug quarters into a video poker machine. Only Ruth was actually gambling, but a change girl on a power trip came over and carded all of us. When Dan and I remarked that we were only watching, she told us we had to go wait in the arcade.

Even after that embarrassing event, we decided to risk trying to get into the show. We drove over together, and Al and Ruth waited in the car for us. The plan was that if we didn’t get in, we would all go somewhere else instead. Dan and I walked up to the door together, and he went first since he was a month younger. Our theory was that maybe they would just look at the year on our drivers’ licenses, after all, many people born in 1969 were already 21.

Our theory actually worked. Dan went in first and I had a momentary panic attack that the bouncer would reject me. But, he looked at my license and let me in right afterward. Woohoo! We were in. We immediately went to the bar and ordered drinks. It took Al and Ruth probably at least half an hour to come in after us. They thought perhaps we had gotten arrested or something.

The show was pretty bizarre, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult had a combo goth/piercing/tattooed kind of crowd before that became mainstream. There were people selling piercing gear, jewelry and S&M leather stuff in the booths at the bar. The music was good, and we wouldn’t have cared anyway, since we were so proud of ourselves for just getting in.

Happy birthday to my friend Dan this week - now we're both 35 and can get into any bar we want!

Ministry (with KMFDM) – UNR Jot Travis Student Union, Reno, NV – February 7, 1990

2004-11-23T07:42:00.000Z

Thanks to the web I was able to locate the exact date of this show. Some great fan kept a list of all of Ministry’s tour dates going back to their first shows in the early eighties.

I’m probably one of the only Ministry fans who will confess to really liking their first album, With Sympathy. It was a quintessential early 80s type album, sounding a bit like the Cure, Soft Cell, or Heaven 17, kinda whiney guy singing longing love songs on top of great dance music. Their next album also had a great goth rock anthem, Every Day is Halloween, that gets played over at 80s dance clubs, probably still to this day (it was the last time I went to one in Portland a few years ago).

I think Al Jourgensen kind of distances himself from those albums, since they got a lot harder and started to define the industrial genre along with Nine Inch Nails in the 1990s. I did like Twitch and the Land of Rape and Honey, but I haven’t really progressed with them since then. The Land of Rape and Honey was a really good CD to play when your neighbors were being really loud and annoying and you wanted to respond in kind.

In any case, this was the only small venue show I saw at UNR. It was at Jot Travis Student Union, right near the food court. I wonder what the place must have looked like afterwards, because people seemed to get pretty out of hand. The band was behind a chain link fence, and there was much moshing right in front.

KMFDM opened and they were pretty great. Although some guy told us that it stood for “Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode,” which made us feel slightly uncool (or me anyway, but I got over it).

The Cult - Arco Arena, Sacramento, CA - December 28, 1989

2004-11-21T06:37:00.000Z

I started thinking that I didn’t remember a whole lot about this show, but there are a few nuggets, anyway. This was the first show we went to at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. I know CA and I went together, but I can’t really remember if anyone else was with us. Might have been CE, since she was my roommate at the time.

We got a bit lost getting to the show, since Arco Arena is in the middle of nowhere. We turned off the highway and it was really dark, so we drove for a while without seeing anything, then had to stop at a gas station for directions. Finally, we found the place, it’s quite big, after all.

It was kind of weird seeing a show in a place that normally has basketball games. We were on the shiny hardwood floor. I also remember they didn’t allow smoking inside, which seemed almost unheard of for a concert. Of course people were passing around joints during the show, like most concerts, but no one lit up any cigarettes.

I remember being pretty disappointed with the show overall. The sound was really not so great, and since this was the Sonic Temple tour, the Cult had pretty much transitioned from their sort of edgy days to plain old hard rock. She Sells Sanctuary, one of my favorite all time songs, sounded really crappy. Ian Astbury still had really cool hair, the highlight of the show.

Eurythmics (with Underworld) - Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium, Oakland, CA - November 19, 1989

2004-11-20T07:29:00.000Z

I was just reminded that today marks the 15th anniversary of this show. So I guess this is a good time for me to blog it. Lots of good stories around this day, hopefully I will document them accurately.

At the time, the Eurythmics were my friend PCH's absolutely favorite band. He collected their music like he collects a lot of other such items – obsessively. A few years ago he paid a couple hundred dollars for two 45” singles of obscure songs from their early days. Not sure if he is still trolling e-bay looking for Annie Lennox recordings from the BBC or some such things…in between getting the latest Biolante movie from the Pet Store…but ah, I digress.

There are some of us who are so lucky to have their first concert be their favorite band. PCH is one of those people. We had enough people signed up to join him on that happy occasion to warrant bringing two cars. BGA and K took PCH in their car, while CA, CE, CL, Shannon/Shay/Kathie and I took my red Subacrusier wagon. We planned to follow each other up to the city and all meet up at the show together.

Luckily, since this was in the days before cell phones, we did stay close together, because less than 50 miles or so out of Reno K’s car began overheating. It was some old Renault or something like that, and I guess it was notorious for such issues. We pulled over at some exit off of I-80, near the turnoff for Nevada City, I think, and spent around half an hour waiting for the car to cool off. I remember that the rest of us played with a nearby salt dispenser while we were waiting.

Finally, after a while, BGA and K decided that we shouldn’t wait any longer. PCH hopped in the wagon, and they waved goodbye, assuring us that they would go home, trade cars, and we would see them in Oakland. That was pretty much max capacity for my car, so Shannon had to sit in the waaay back.

We took off and finished the rest of our little road trip to the bay area. It was a bit eerie, since the Loma Prieta earthquake had happened on October 17 and the SF Bay Bridge was still closed. Luckily we didn’t have to go into the City at all for the show, though Oakland (the bad part) was damaged enough to still have a lot of boarded up buildings.

The show was at the Henry J. Kaiser arena in Oakland, a venue I’ve never visited again – this is the only concert I’ve ever seen in Oakland. We were surprised we didn’t get to go backstage since Shannon’s Dad was friends with Henry J. It was a pretty nice place, and old-school formal theater. I remember the bathrooms being quite elegant.

The opening act was Underworld. They had some stupid song about a bouncing ball and the guy pantomimed it on stage during the song. Many years later though, I would buy an Underworld cd out of choice. Born Slippy is a great song, if you’ve ever seen Trainspotting you won’t forget it.

The show itself was really quite fabulous. I wasn’t the biggest Eurythmics fan in the world at the time – though I had listened to Sweet Dreams and Touch incessantly back in 84 with JS (see 1st TTwins blog). The band was really tight, Annie Lennox sang beautifully and they did some really great acoustic tunes. That part of the show with Annie singing and Dave on the guitar still strikes me as one of my favorite music memories.

During the show, CA snuck in a camera and snapped some pictures, and then almost got in a fight with some large man/woman (we weren’t really sure) – well, he hit him/her in the face, but nothing too bad ensued. We had pushed our way up to the front and it got kind of crowded in there. At one point during the show, Dave Stewart came out with a primitive looking camcorder and panned over the crowd. Months later, PCH bought the video, and with the magic of slow motion and pause, we found ourselves there in the video, thanks to CA and the flash on his camera.

Shannon played the martyr and decided to stand in the back of theatre to wait for BGA and K, so we didn’t see her again until after the show. Unfortunately, they never made it, and PCH still has their unused tickets in a frame. You can see a similar image if you follow the links from here.

The Cure - Shoreline Ampitheatre, Mountain View, CA - September 10, 1989

2004-11-19T06:54:00.000Z

The Cure was another one of my favorite 80s bands that was on my list of must see shows back at the end of the decade. In high school, the Cure seemed to be a good starting point for the goth kids – Robert Smith had a whiney voice and a huge nest of hairspray and black dye – but their songs were catchy and poppy enough for just about anyone to listen to.

I remember the first Cure video I ever saw – Let’s Go to Bed – I recorded it in the early days of MTV, when I recorded all day and edited out the junk later. I spent a couple of months looking for the cassette/album in record stores all over Reno and Carson with no luck, so I wound up ordering the EP, “The Walk” from Budget Records and Tapes and waiting several weeks for it to arrive. Later I remember I always used to see Cure videos at Macy’s, in their Junior section, for some reason. After I gave up on MTV this was a good place to keep up with Robert Smith’s hair styles.

When I saw them in the fall of 1989 they were really starting to reach their pinnacle of popularity with the release of Disintegration and songs like Lullaby, Lovesong and Pictures of You (recently highlighted in an HP commercial!) Of course I don’t remember that much about the show itself again – but a few tidbits. I remember it was the first shoreline concert where I sat on the lawn instead of in seats, which made it seem more like a day at the park than a concert. The band looked very, very far away. Also, it was the first concert I remember where I saw bootleg t-shirts for sale outside the venue. A guy was trying to sell them to us and we wound up trading him for a bottle of evian water instead…I guess he was pretty thirsty at that point.

Howard Jones (with Midge Ure) - Lawlor Events Center, Reno, NV - July 11, 1989

2004-11-16T01:22:00.000Z

Howard Jones came again to Reno the last summer of the 80s. It was kind of weird to go back to a concert at Lawlor again after getting used to going out of town for shows.

I remember the show being very low key. We had pretty good seats on the floor and sat on folding chairs. Midge Ure, formerly of Ultravox, opened up and he did an amazing job. His song “Dear God,” is a classic for me and once made it onto a mix tape of atheist songs I was trying to compile. I really only found enough for about 1 and ½ sides of a cassette and never finished it. I remember the girls next to us kept talking during his set and I was really annoyed.

Howard Jones was a bit more simple at this point in his career. He sang a lot from his piano and wasn’t all electronic and programmed like he was in 1985. He really was (and is still I suppose) very talented and though I don’t follow him that much anymore, I can appreciate his influence on my early musical tastes.

New Order - Shoreline Ampitheatre, Mountain View, CA - June 14, 1989

2004-10-28T05:41:00.000Z

I borrowed a New Order cassette from my friend Al when I was a junior in high school and I was immediately hooked. Fabulous dance music, mostly fun but at times a little dark, it was the most original stuff I had probably heard up to that point in my life. I loved how none of the songs had obvious titles and the really neat art on the covers.

Over my life I have bought dozens of New Order CDs as well as Warsaw, Joy Division, Electronic, Revenge, Monaco and the Other Two. I went to a CD party for the release of Republic. I’ve read Deborah Curtis’ book and seen “24 Hour Party People” (though the shaky camera made me want to hurl). Needless to say the first time I saw them live was a pretty momentous occasion for me.

CA and I stayed in San Francisco before the show, this time on the boat with his mom and stepdad. Our friends AM and RO actually drove up from Las Vegas for the show, which must have been close to a 1000 mile journey, only to stay one night before driving home.

We were pretty close up, in seats at Shoreline, and AM and RO were on the grass general admission area in the back. The Sugarcubes were one of the opening acts, right after their first album was released and before Bjork’s acting career had started. I remember the guy in the band running up and down in the crowd singing like a madman.

I remember New Order sounding fabulous, but they’ve never been a very active band. They stand there and play and don’t get too excited - Bernard Sumner looks downright scared most of the time. But it was definitely worth the drive and a nice start to that summer.

New Order fans are pretty techy, so it doesn’t surprise me that they have one of the coolest websites I’ve encountered in this search. Since I no longer have the ticket for some reason, I was able to locate the right date plus more.

Siousxie and the Banshees - Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA - November 11, 1988

2004-10-22T02:22:00.000Z

I guess after we traveled to Sacramento to see a concert, shows in the Bay Area didn’t really seem that far out of reach. Most of us had cars and enough disposable income from part-time jobs and parental units that making a trip once in a while to see a band seemed like just something you had to do in order to ever get to see bands you like – I guess it was kind of a tax we paid to be cool living in Reno.

I met my roommate, CE, through my friend DA, who dated her as a senior in high school. Cara was crazy for Siouxsie and the Banshees, she had all their albums and she even at times wore the heavy duty black eyeliner just like Siouxsie did. I think DA liked that. Anyhow, CE was crazy for Siouxsie and November 18 was her birthday, so in a sense this was like a birthday gift for her for all of us to go to the show in Berkeley together.

We had originally planned to stay on CA's mom and stepdad’s boat in South San Francisco, but I guess his stepdad wasn’t really that into it, so CA's mom actually got us all a hotel room to share instead. It was pretty nice of her to do that for a bunch of silly teenagers, but she’s a pretty nice person in general. If I remember correctly, we stayed at a Travelodge, a holiday inn or some such place.

The concert hall itself was pretty neat as I remember, and the Berkeley campus is just a beautiful place in general anyway. Lots of neat restaurants, bookstores, cafes, street vendors, political movements – all kinds of things we didn’t have in Reno. I seem to think we ate dinner at an Indian restaurant – or was it an I-Hop J Maybe we had meals at both. I certainly have memories of CE at both, and I think that was one of the only times we really traveled together.

I only remember a couple of things about the concert – one, that Siouxsie had really large thighs in her skimpy teddy/garters. It might have just been that they were so gothicly white that they looked larger from the audience. The other was that they kept shining these really bright headlights on us throughout the show. For the first couple of times, it was kind of a neat effect; however, after 20 or so times of getting blinded, it got downright annoying.

Circle Jerks - Reno, NV - June 24, 1988

2004-10-15T03:30:00.000Z

The only reason this concert gets posted is because I still have the ticket. It’s a pretty simple ticket – just printed on yellow cardstock – no fancy promoters were involved apparently. I have absolutely no recollection of this show. I must have either been really drunk or it was just utterly forgettable.

But then again, hardcore punk was not really ever my thing. I had some Dead Kennedys tapes I copied from my friend DA and I liked some suicidal tendencies songs and Seven Seconds version of 99 Luft Balloons, but that was about it. Had I lived in San Francisco at the time, I might have voted for Jello Biafra for mayor. Heck, if he was running now, I’d probably vote for him for president. But that was about the extent of my hardcore existence. I’m not sure the Sex Pistols really fit into that category.

Depeche Mode - Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA - April 30, 1988

2004-10-12T01:32:00.000Z

After we had traveled for Echo and the Bunnymen, it seemed only logical that we would make the far shorter drive to Sacramento to see one of our all time favorite bands live.

It was towards the end of my first year in college at UNR, and four of us decided we would make the trek over the hill to see Depeche Mode in Sacramento, probably the closest major city to Reno that had any decent bands coming through. I had been listening to Depeche Mode since I was 14 and pirated a copy of People are People from a friend of mine in high school. My boyfriend (and still a good friend) at the time, CF, was pretty rabid for them, after having seen them in Europe as well as driving down to San Diego the previous summer to see them during their Black Celebration tour.

Say what you may about Depeche – call them Depressed Mode or that they were new wave pussies or whatever, but I still love the songwriting in some of those old songs, Everything Counts, Somebody, Shake the Disease, I could go on and on. I guess by now at the ripe old age of 34 I have sort of outgrown them, but at 18 I knew every song and every idiosyncrasy of every album by heart.

I still love and often quote a lyric from “Blue Dress” – You can’t change the world. But you can change the facts. And when you change the facts, you change points of view. And when you change points of view, you can change the world.

Anyhow, we started out pretty early for the trip to Sacramento. You have to climb over Donner Pass from Reno to get there, and for some weird reason that late April day, it was snowing. Lightly, mind you, but enough to cause some slowdown in the traffic and question myself whether or not we would be able to drive back the two hours much later that night.

Cal Expo is an outdoor amphitheatre, so luckily, it was a warm spring day for the concert. The place was pretty packed full of black-clad teens with spikey hairdos and boys with pierced ears, which was still a bit unusual in 1988.

I remember the show itself being amazing to me. I actually got chills during a couple of the songs. I came out pretty energized and thrilled, and for many years later I considered that concert to be the best I’d ever seen and one of the most powerful.

I kept my Music for the Masses t-shirt from that show for well over a decade and wore it until it shrunk more to a kid’s size. People obviously still go for that stuff, since I was able to sell that old faded t-shirt on e-bay to a guy in Germany a few years ago.

Echo and the Bunnymen - UNLV, Las Vegas, NV - March 22, 1988

2004-10-10T06:19:00.000Z

This was the first concert I ever traveled any significant distance to see (33 miles from Carson City to Reno doesn’t really count). We always loved Echo and the Bunnymen in high school and the cassette of Songs to Learn and Sing is one of the only ones I still have, even though I never listen to cassettes anymore.

This was one of those bands we thought we would never see live. A couple of our friends had moved to Las Vegas after high school and they had seen lots of cool concerts and we were jealous being stuck in Reno at UNR.

Lots of people who have never been to Nevada have always assumed I lived near Vegas. No, Nevada is big. It’s the 7th largest state in the union, in fact. The trip from Reno to Las Vegas is about 435 miles through some of the most desolate stretches of highway, nothing but two lanes and sagebrush. We knew it would be a long haul to make the trip, but we figured that it was worth it.

We drove out in my friend Kim’s car and must have set some kind of land-speed record for a Honda – we got there in 6 hours. In the middle of nowhere during the trip we got a big scare when a cop came out of nowhere, pointed at us to pull over, then proceeded to pass us by going around 100 or so. We sat there for a while waiting for him to show up then were very relieved when he didn’t.

The concert was on the UNLV campus at some fancy performing arts center. The whole place seemed so huge to us hayseeds from up north at the Reno campus.

Probably the stupidest thing I did was to not wear my glasses to the concert. I had these tortoise shell glasses that I mostly wore to drive and see the screen/chalkboard at school, and for some reason I thought I looked cooler without them. Yeah, sure, but I could barely focus on Ian McCulloch on stage. Oh well, at least I could hear the music.

My friend Kim had actually lied to her boss and said she had to go to a wedding that weekend and therefore needed Sunday off from her typesetting job at the newspaper. Ironically, now that I know him better, he might have even wanted to join us if he had known where we were going.

Oingo Boingo – Lawlor Events Center, Reno, NV – 1986/1987

2004-10-08T03:51:00.000Z

For whatever reason, Oingo Boingo was one of the only bands who regularly came through Reno on their tours. I know I have seen them at least five times, but I only have one ticket – from their farewell tour I saw in San Diego.

The first time I heard Oingo Boingo was in the car (Al’s infamous Green Duster, to be exact) on the way to my second Thompson Twins show in Reno (referenced in the previous post). Afterward, I remember acquiring my first Oingo Boingo cassette, Nothing to Fear, at a pawn shop in downtown Carson City. My friend KR and I really wanted some tapes they had, and they would do a two for one straight trade. So we walked all the way back to my house (a good 30 minute hike) and back, with crappy cassettes we didn’t want in order to acquire the Oingo Boingo cassette for me and the Violent Femmes for her.

I also remember telling a friend of mine that I was going to see Oingo Boingo and a few days later she said, “What’s the name of that band you like? Hooga Booga?” We laughed about that for ages.

Anyway, the 1986 tour we saw must have been for the Dead Man’s Party tour. As reviewers on Amazon declare as well, it was a quintessential 80s album in my mind. Simple, catchy, fun songs, kinda dark and cynical at times, yet always fun to dance to. In 1987 they were likely touring on BOI-NGO, the weird album where they tried to change their name and get a little more serious.

I have scattered memories of both shows, and I’m not sure which is which. As for the music, Oingo Boingo was always tremendously fun to see on stage, tons of energy, great sound, a fabulous supporting horn section.

For both of the shows I was there with my same core group of friends that we always had together for such events. A few things I remember, randomly:

· One show my friend DA wore his Friday shirt – a nickname we had for his favorite Hawaiian shirt he wore every Friday. He loved that shirt, a nice brown and white simple design. However, during the concert, a girl who had a big crush on him grabbed onto the shirt and ripped it. He tried to sew it up, but alas, the Friday shirt was never the same again.

· During perhaps the same show, a bunch of us were waiting around outside to see if we could see the band leave. There was a guy we knew vaguely from school who thought it was really cool to shout “ASSHOLE” over and over again during the concert. We thought he was a complete dork, but evidently the band thought he was okay, because he got invited backstage. Go figure.

· The dancing on the floor could be pretty intense at times. One time I came out to catch my breath and when I looked down, my shirt was completely unbuttoned and I had been walking around with it wide open.

· Final random event – after one of the shows we went to the MGM (may have already changed to Bally’s by then, don’t remember when that happened) to eat at the coffee shop and hang out. While there, we saw the bassist from Oingo Boingo and most of us got his autograph. It amazes me that I can’t even seem to find that ticket in my piles.

Thompson Twins - Lawlor Events Center, Reno, NV - November 8, 1985

2004-10-06T03:29:00.000Z

A little over a year after I first saw the Thompson Twins, they were back, supporting their new album, Here’s to Future Days. I of course had long before purchased the 12” single of Lay your Hands on Me, and I was again pumped to see them again.

This time I went with a new, cooler set of friends who knew how to prepare for a show. We left Carson City early in the afternoon and got to the concert hours early to wait for a good spot on the floor, since it was general admission. On the way to the show, we listened to Oingo Boingo on the tape deck. It was the first time I heard them, and I would go on to see them many more times.

While we were sitting there waiting in line for our spot, one of my friends decided we should go get something to drink to make the wait go by a little faster, and after all, it was November and we were cold.

So two of us walked up the hill a bit to the 7-11 to buy liquor. My friend had a fake ID, or I should say, a real drivers license that belonged to someone else. Funny thing was, the person in the picture had brown hair while my friend’s was blond.

In those days in Nevada, when you were under 21 your license showed a photo from a side view, kindof like a mug shot. When we selected our items and went up to the register to buy them, the clerk said, “Hey, that’s not you. You’re a blond.” To which she immediately and confidently replied. “Of course it’s me. I dye my hair. See?” She turned to the side, held up her hair so the clerk could see her roots, and convinced them that indeed she was the one in the photo. I think she was 16 at the time.

So, we came back triumphantly and warmed up all of our friends with a stash of booze. I think it was Bacardi.

Again, while the concert was great fun, I don’t remember much about the performance itself. I know that OMD opened for the Twins one of the times I saw them, however, I can’t remember if it was this show or the previous one.

Howard Jones (with Marshall Crenshaw) - Lawlor Events Center, Reno, NV - November 1, 1985

2004-10-02T01:26:00.000Z

Reno didn’t get a whole lot of shows in those days, at least shows for your average discriminating new waver. So I had to wait over a year before one I wanted to see came to town again. This time I was at a new high school with a new group of friends, most with cars.

When my friend KR and I went to buy our tickets for the show, they only had upper level seats left so we were ready to sit upstairs. Then the clerk told us he had a solo seat on the floor. Without even asking Kim if she wanted it, I said, “I’ll take it!” and thus I had to sit down there in a seat by myself. A bunch of us went together, and KR sat with the rest of our friends upstairs.

I’m generally pretty shy, and I suppose much more shy then at 15. So I was a bit uncomfortable for a while, sitting in my seat all by myself. Marshall Crenshaw was kind of boring, mostly acoustic guitar and him singing, so for a while I found myself questioning my decision. Everyone just sat in their seats looking bored, no dancing or anything.

But when Howard Jones came on everything changed, I knew all of the songs and most everyone left their seats and moved up front to start dancing.

While I was up there I actually ran into someone I knew, BGA, who had graduated with JS and I had met a few times the previous year at various parties. My most vivid memory of BGA at the time was his yearbook picture that had him proudly sporting a republican tie. This time, however, he was tieless and dancing, having a great time. The girl he was with didn’t look all that happy to be there. I found out many years later that she was K, whom he later married, and it was one of their first dates.

Thompson Twins - Lawlor Events Center, Reno, NV - September 22, 1984

2004-09-30T05:57:00.000Z

I was fortunate to have my very first concert be with what was at the time, my very favorite band. I started listening to the Thompson Twins in the summer of 1984, after I had finished my freshman year in high school. I don’t remember exactly when or how I was introduced to them, but I do remember hearing “Hold Me Now,” over and over on the radio, and listened to my little red cassette at home.

Sometime early that summer I also scored my first boyfriend. I started dating JS, who I met through my Catholic church youth group, early in the summer. He took me to my first real party, where we danced to Thompson Twins and Prince, I had my first real kiss, and subsequently puked in the bushes in the backyard after too much booze.

My parents loved JS so they let him take me just about anywhere, even though I was just 14 and he was 17. He had his own car, a cool orange VW rabbit, and we spent his days off that summer driving up to Lake Tahoe and listening to music, primarily Eurythmics, Depeche Mode and, of course, the Thompson Twins. I bought their second album, Side Kicks, and we loved it, singing along happily to songs like Lies, We are Detectives, If you were Here, etc. We especially loved “Watching,” for some reason, which now strikes me as a rather goofy song. Around the same time I also discovered that I could buy import 12” remixes of all their songs at the larger record shops in Reno and I was hooked, spending $8 to $10 for these cool discs with maybe 3 or 4 songs, and sometimes a bonus track. It was just the beginning of the tremendous investments I would make in music overall.

Needless to say, when the Thompson Twins announced they were coming to town, I was ecstatic. A year prior I was supposed to see my first concert, Billy Idol, whom my best friend KR adored; however, my parents wouldn’t allow me to go ‘cause I was too young, and realistically, none of us had cars to drive the 30+ miles to the show anyway. But with the Thompson Twins, I had it all, a date with a car, my favorite band, and permission from my parents.

My friends at school were also pretty obsessive. We counted down the days before the concert, hung pictures of the band in our lockers, and a couple of my friends even stalked the band as they walked around the shopping mall in the bottom of the MGM Grand Casino. They took a picture of the two key band members’ backs, touched things they touched, and probably giggled a lot. Unfortunately I missed that, but I did see the pictures. One of these friends would later jump up on stage at the actual show and get kicked out for her trouble.

My memories of the actual show are pretty fuzzy. I remember the excitement leading up to it, the crush of people as we pushed our way up front, and my thrill to see Tom Bailey up on stage with his red hair and 80s trademark, the long tail. I thought he was totally hot.
Some random stranger in the crowd gave Joe a joint. I wound up losing one of my shoes in the melee, and searched all over to try to find it at the end, only to see about 50 other shoes that weren’t mine piled up in the front after the show was all over.