Concerts
Last year I started this series of reminiscitating on concerts I had gone to over the years. It was influenced by VegasAnt sending me a couple gigantic scans of his old ticket stubs & an e-friend, mx sara, who started to document 1979 on a day to day basis. I sought to document concerts on their corresponding anniversaries for a year.
When I went to these shows I thought the music was the most important thing in the world. As I started writing these posts, I realized that what I really remembered was pretty much everything but the music. My friends, traveling to the various places, the weird venues all had a bigger impact. Well, without the music I wouldn't have done any of that crap. I would have got a tan in the summer of 1970, too.
Doing research on these posts has been fun. The interwebs have given folks a lot geekier than myself a way to promote their favorite musicians & forums have brought all sorts of old nerds together. Fans have set up websites documenting gigographies of numerous artists that are pretty daggone amazing. I have found that people actually buy old ticket stubs, too. weird.
There are, of course, some strays.
Jeff Beck touring the "Orange" album - fucking great use of Hara Arena. The dang floor wasn't even sold out. Looking Glass, for some weird reason opened. Their song, Brandy, always makes me think of Beck.
Jeff Beck with Beck, Bogert & Appice (sp?) at Mershon Auditorium - the less said the better.
Jeff Beck & Stevie Ray Vaughn at Hara Arena - Beck was incredible, Vaughn was adept but a one trick pony at best. All my friends thought Vaughn was God & Beck was weird / didn't like him.
Lou Reed at Music Hall. Squatters a couple rows in front of us threatened to rape the people who owned the seats. Police followed.
D.O.A at the Polish club in Dayton. Punk had arrived. The Dates opened. Then there was about a dozen other D.O.A. shows in Dayton, Cincinnati & Newport.
Willie Dixon at Gilly's in Dayton. He didn't get out his upright bass til the second part of the show. He wasn't walking well but his fingers just flew.
Richard Hell & the Voidoids at Gilly's. Some guy was walking around groping girls. I was going to tell security about him & then I realized he WAS security.
Social Distortion a Gilly's - Dance Fever.
All the shows at the Jockey Club - Tupelo Chain Sex, Jah Wobble, Johnny Thunders, Toxic Reasons, BPA, The Auburnaires, The Thangs, The Warsaw Falcons, 11,000 Switches, Sluggo, The Edge, SS-20, Snare and the Idiots, Doc and the Pods, The Reduced, The Customs, The Libertines, The Violent Femmes, Black Flag, The Wolverton Brothers, The Dead Kennedys, Lords of the New Church.....
The Dead Kennedys in Yellow Springs where the management asked Jello Biafra to promote the cookies & cider in the lobby. They had a neo-hippie security team that seemed to have taken notes from the Chicago Police of 1968.
The Flaming Lips at the Southgate House.
All the weird bands that played at Sam's & The Walnut Hills Bar in Dayton. The infamous first gig of Toxic reasons at the Walnut Hills, some band from Antioch that only played one gig.
Danny Gatton at Gilly's. There was a display of the most beautiful Telecasters in the world in the lobby.
Muddy Waters, Livingston Taylor, Glass Harp & a bunch of others that Wittenberg drew in. Sneaking into the Witt Field House... heh
Hell, Trudy Faber & Ron Crutcher's recitals at Wittenberg were freakin' awesome. Some German string quartet at Weaver Chapel about turned my life around.
Alice Cooper @ Hara, Mountain @ Bogarts, The Faces @ Hara, Hank Williams Jr with KD Lang as an opener at Riverbend, Steve Winwood (altho the Ruverbend Gestapo tossed me out half way through), The Replacements in Minneapolis, Pere Ubu in Columbus, Evan Johns in D.C., Evan Johns in Cincinnati, Human Switchboard @ the Walnut Hills & She Club, Brother Wayne Kramer at Top Hats, Cincinnati's Pigmeat Jarret (dude ruled the ivories), Loretta Lynn at the Taft where I ran into Phil K and we went to the Obryonville Blue Wisp & Oakley Chili Company afterwards, Sun Ra at a downtown Blue Wisp, Laurie Anderson at the Taft, Laurie Anderson at Mershon Auditorium (nearly the last show I attended), friggin' Mike Mingo & Grovor (they're still around), The Count basie orchestra @ Cliff Park, Charlie Townsend & Joe Quissenberry jamming in the Snyder park bandshell (although, to his grave, Charlie denied it ever happened), The Godz, Seals & Crofts & Bob Seeger at Memorial Hall, Bob Weir & Patti Smith at a much smaller Bogart's that barely resembled the current venue, The Ramones / White Zombie double bill from God at hara Arena, Dwight Yoakam (sp?), James Gang at the Ohio State Fair, Tanya Tucker at the Clark County Fair although she opted to sign autographs but not perform.....
And Tiny Tim who played at the weird bar north of Springfield on route 68 a most friendly & gracious man.
Anyway, thanks to everybody who actually puts themselves out there & mounts the stage, bringing untold people so much pleasure. Thanks to all the people I accompanied - hadablast.