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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the Journey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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