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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.