QotD: Thanks for the Memories
What are the 10 most memorable music performances you've seen? (Remember, "memorable" may not be good.)
Submitted by Bill.
Good one Bill! No way I can pick just 10...
- Seeing Martyn Ware & Glenn Gregory perform (first time ever) last week as the British Electric Foundation, and then do some Heaven 17 numbers, with Claudia Brucken, all in tribute to the life of Billy MacKenzie, who was lead singer for the Associates.
- Seeing unsigned band Donderdag onstage at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London to benefit Oxfam in 2005.
- Experiencing the animation rock band The Sancho Plan at the recent Future of Sound tour.
- Laurie Anderson, late 1980s, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Always my inspiration she is, she is.
- Fishbone, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, early 90s - got a nice handful of Anthony's package while he crowd-surfed. The man is gifted with more than just a good voice.
- The Toasters ska band, Poughkeepsie, New York, early 90s, for a double-bill with the band River Phoneix was in, and we even met him - just before he famously died, in front of LA's Viper Room :-(
- Siouxsie and the Banshees at SUNY Stony Brook - so sexy she is, even at a most un-sexy venue.
- Natalie Merchant in Boston, at Northeastern University. OK, she is kinda Starbucks music, but such a sweet little pixie of a thing, with lyrics that remind me of sunny days in the countryside visiting upstate New York - where she is from originally.
- The B-52's in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York, near Middletown, Orange County. Fred must have hated that gig, nothing but dirt blowing in his face and the girls Beehives were barely staying glued on.
- Finally "getting" why The Red Hot Chilli Peppers truly rock, when I saw them light their heads on fire on the Lollapalooza festival outside of Pittsburgh, PA, 90s sometime.
- Metallica, in New Jersey, for their Tattoo the Earth Tour, managed to meet them in the "fan" tent after the show.
- Hanging with The Cherry Popping Daddies & Sledge, the lead singer of The Toasters, after seeing them at a NYC Warped Tour, 1997 I think. Sledge is cool, but Bucket you suck - consider treating your interchangeable band members better please, someday you'll get yours, you'll see!
- A reunion performance of De La Soul, outside in Miami for the Electronic Music Festival.
- Carl Cox, spinning in Miami at the Electronic Music Festival, so close the sweat was just flinging off his big bald head and dropping on all his vinyl.
- Plastikman, aka Richie Hawtin, at the legendary NYC techno club Twilo.
- A surprise "fly-in" performance from Paul Okenfold at Burning Man 2000, in the desert.
- The USA debut concert for Basement Jaxx, in Central Park's summer stage, was summer of 2000 - worked the press area. NYC was happy, shiny, beautiful and non-stop dancing joy that day!
- First ever pop concert! Mom had to come as our guardian to see Andy Gibb! Hey, I was 12 and it was my birthday present.
- My DAD! Got many, many memories of his days as a professional, Julliard-trained French Horn player, doing gigs on Broadway. Best memory ever is the many nights we spent seeing him in the orchestra pit of Porgy & Bess. He also played banjo for this Gershwin musical, strumming a solo, when Porgy sings: "oh I got plenty of nothing, and nothing's plenty for me..."
- A BAD music memory was an endless night of Grateful Dead music, at Madison Square Garden, with an Ex "Dead Head" boyfriend. I hate patchouli!
