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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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