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| Wednesday, September 12, 2007 11:44 AM |
| Follow-Up to Concert Meme |
 by Fëanor |
King Crimson
This was my first live show ever. Saw them at the Mann Music Center with my Dad and my brother. I can't remember the name of the opening band, but they had, oddly enough, a bit of a hip-hop sound, and they had a large, comfy chair on stage that the lead singer got to sit in occasionally.
The Who
This was, I think, the first concert that Steve and I went to on our own, without parental supervision. Saw them on their Quadrophenia tour, when John Entwistle was still around. It was a pretty awesome show. Quadrophenia just might be my favorite album by them.
Guitar Wolf
I got the chance to see this band, of Wild Zero fame, a year or so ago, and they weren't that great, but I'm still glad I got to see them when I did, because one of their members died shortly thereafter. Bit of a downer, but there you go.
Steely Dan
I have all their albums, if I'm not mistaken. Great music, and they always put on a fantastic show.
Robert Plant & Jimmy Page
I love these guys - Led Zeppelin is one of my favorite bands - but wow, what a crappy show this was. My brother and I saw them at the Spectrum, way the hell up in the nosebleed section, behind the stage, and the sound was just awful. There was all this echoing, so that you could barely tell what song they were even playing. Plus, a couple kicked us out of our seats for a little while because they thought we'd taken them by mistake, and we sat on the stairs for a while before we realized they'd made the mistake, and those really were our seats. As we were leaving the concert, the rest of the crowd around us was totally pumped and cheering and excited, and we were just like, "Did they see the same show we did?!" Since then, we've learned never to go to a stadium show unless you can get seats really close to the stage; otherwise, it's just not worth it, because you won't be able to hear anything and you'll have a crummy time.
The Decemberists
This show is probably still my favorite ever. Fantastic music, wonderful theatrics (they're being swallowed by a whale!), and they really connected with the crowd and got us involved. Just great.
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
This was kind of a weird show. Most of the crowd was very young, and they were pretty much all there to see the opening band, whom I had never heard of - The Blood Brothers. I've never felt so disconnected from the audience around me. They were all cheering along to these songs I'd never heard before, and that I totally couldn't get into, and when the Brothers' set was done, most of the crowd just left before the headliner - the band I'd come to see - even took the stage! Furthermore, AYWKUbtToD hadn't had the chance to do a rehearsal or sound check before the show, and thus were a bit off the whole night, although they still managed to nail some really good renditions of some of my favorite songs.
Ben Folds & Tori Amos
I listed these as two separate bands for the meme, but that was kind of cheating, as I actually saw them when they were touring together. It was a weird concept for a tour, as these two artists have pretty much nothing in common except they both play piano. Folds, slightly to my surprise, was the far more entertaining of the two acts. The night we saw them was Amos' birthday, so Folds actually played "Happy Birthday" to her and they brought out a cake and everything. Cute!
Foo Fighters
Saw these guys when they played with Weezer, and although I love FF, Weezer was the better band that night. Grohl was clearly high on something (or multiple things) and was just screaming all the lyrics, even when it made no sense to do so. Kind of disappointing.
Counting Crows
Saw these guys when they were touring with Live, but I was mostly going to see the Crows. Before you make fun of me, I still say both bands have put out a lot of great music. But I'll admit this show was not a very pleasant experience. The crowd was all drunk, drugged out high school and college students, and we were right next to these guys who kept asking this really young girl her age, like they couldn't believe she could be that young, and they were willing her to be a bit older. Also, Adam Duritz as a performer was ridiculously melodramatic and was constantly making all these completely unnecessary hand and body motions to further get across the meaning of his lyrics. Durtiz also confessed to us that he'd recently fallen in love, so he was all happy and gushing, and it was kind of disgusting. I suspect this is why his songwriting and the band's output in general has since gone down hill: the Rain King got too happy.
Sleater-Kinney
I'm kind of glad they broke up when they did, going out on a high note after putting out the best album of their career. But at the same time... why did they have to break up?! Anyway, I'm happy I got to see them before that happened, even if the show wasn't the best, and they were playing mostly music from one of their lesser albums.
Radiohead
Another fantastic, fantastic show - like, near religious experience. An amazing combination of sound, images, words, and light. Love these guys. |
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