I've been contemplating this list for quite some time now. It is really an exercise in futility for so many reasons. After watching over 100 shows, it is very hard to break that list down. What makes the show great:
* being a part of the crowd & dripping with sweat at the end?
* the sing along
* the venue & acoustics?
* knowing the lyrics word for word?
* the people you went with
* getting lost in the experience for 2 hours
* the entire day experience?
* staying dry, un-injured & happy?
* seeing a festival, ampitheater, club show, etc for the 1st time
* a 20 person crowd or a 20,000 person crowd?
As the nerd I am, I have kept a list through the years of bands that I see. Different memories jump out as I review the list. Thinking back to the venues, the friends, the openers, the sound, the fun & experience. Without a doubt, one thing that hasn't changed through the last 20 years is, my TOP CONCERT OF ALL TIME, is 311 with openers the Phunk Junkeez, @ Graffiti in Pittsburgh, the day the Blue album came out, in the summer of '95!
The club was tiny, it was wide and not very deep. No matter where you were, you were likely a few people away from a high five from the band(s). I was 17, with some of my best friends (Karl, J-Webb, etc) and totally immersed into 311
(1:2) albums at the time. The energy was high, and the room was alive when 311 came on. Even better, was Phunk Junkeez(1:1)
, who I had not heard of prior were awesome. They were sophmoric, punk, hard metal, rap and rock all combined into one.
Rather than try to review through another 24 shows. I wanted to do this more on an award basis.
For each band I will list the # of times seeing the band, and which time that show was, plus the venue & town. (O) will be the opener. Links for the most part will be to the album that was current at the time.
First Crowd Surf: Mighty Mighty Bosstones
(1:3) - Metropol/Pittsburgh (O)Dance Hall Crashers
Best Jazz: John Scofield
(1:1) Rosebud/Pittsburgh Runner up: Morphine
(1:1) sorry but Mark Sandman was too high on something for this to be best.
Best concert in my living room: Teenage Girls(1:2) My house/Indiana,Pa Runner up: Levelhead. This was my senior year of college. It was the best of times. There was no one around to say, no you can't have a concert in your living room, so we did. Twice! Teenage Girls were fantastic. Great songs such as 'Jesus is Gay','Teenage Girls', and 'Kooya Koombaya'.
Best goofing off: BS2000
. (1:1) The side project of Adam "Adrock" Horovitz and his pal Amery "AWOL" Smith brought their show on the road. The show was just as fresh and silly as the albums. the Beehive/Pittsburgh.
1st Arena Show: Nine Inch Nails
(1:1), Jim Rose Circus
and Marilyn Manson 
The translucent video screen showing the accompanying video to the 2nd half of Downward Spiral was simply amazing. This would likely be closer to my best arena show or even best show, but I was way back in the upper deck at the opposite end of the arena. What a night. I decided to go that night and got tickets from a scalper. I wasn't supposed to go, my mom was out of town, we were out really late as someone in our possee met Trent Reznor at an after show. The van we were in got in an accident afterwards, came home at about 2 in the morning, turns out my mom was in town. Yikes, what a night?
1st Arena Floor Show: Pearl Jam (1:4),(2:4) Wembley Arena/London. During my study abroad in Bristol England, I found a concert list at a record store. Pearl Jam was not showing sold out yet. I immediately bought the last 5 tickets for the first night, and 2 tickets for the next night from the ticket vendor. Soon we were on our way to LONDON, on the other side of England. This was awesome for so many levels. This was my first (and second time) to see Pearl Jam. The tickets were paper with a cool hologram sticker on them, printed via the band. And the "seating" was floor seats/standing. We were probably 8 people back for the 'No Code
' tour. It was awesome. Despite the openers being the Fastbacks, who apparently packed only one outfit each, a relatively unknown out of the Seattle Punk scene; Pearl Jam still rocked the house. For a 19 year old in London for this first time, this was simply incredible!
1st DJ Battle: Mix Master Mike (1:2) Cleveland, OH. After Beastie Boy's Hello Nasty
, Mix Master Mike'
s name stood out more to me. I happened to be in Cleveland for 2 weeks for a training, and noticed Mix Master Mike was the judge for a DJ Battle. Mix Master Mike was an awesome turntablist himself, so if he were involved in a battle, it had to be awesome. It was great. The best part was Mix Master Mike put on a display afterwards, scratching and tweaking for 10-15 minutes after the contest and it was mind blowing. The dexterity and tenacity he has is incredible. The show was killer!
1st small bar show: Erin McKeown
(1:2) Baltimore, Md. This was so much fun.. This was was maybe smaller than the living room show I had back college. Lots of fun, very intimate, and of course we got to meet Ms. McKeown after the show!
First Large Acoustic Show: Dave Matthew & Tim Reynolds
. Truthfully, I don't remember much of this show. This was after my semester abroad, and Dave & Tim were playing at my primary University (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) luckily after I got back. I remember my seats, and remember some of the stories due to getting my hands on a Lo-quality recording afterwards, but I barely remember the show. But come on.. It's Dave & Tim, how could it have not been great?
Best Bar Gig: Disco Bitch & the Funk Machine. DBFM was the premier band when I was in college. I had the misfortune of being too young for many of their shows, but when I was finally of age and could join the chaos, it was bliss. Just imagine the most fun music horns galore interspersed with funkified versions of modern tracks + 100 of your friends and acquaintences + drinking and rocking out! It was fantastic! What a way to spend the evening with your best of age friends.
Best Tiny Club Show: Reel Big Fish (1:4) After waiting out a few punk bands.... (Sorry, but if you don't know the punk band's music and the pit monkeys are rude, which they commonly are, Punk shows are terrible.) We made it to the 4th(or 5th) band of the night. My inaugural Reel Big Fish show. It was an under age show, timely with the release & rise of Turn the Radio Off
It was amazing. The energy of the ska band was off the charts. This energy propelled me to see them another 3 times in the next few years.
Best Show that felt like my living room, but wasn't: The Low Anthem
(3:5)/Daniel Lefkowitz
(1:1) 1st Unitarian Church-Philadelphia (sorry Bobby, I missed your set). I was there with one of my best buds. I got a sweet spot on the carpet right in front of the stage and speakers. The show was in such an intimate setting, at the church. Nothing could go wrong. The best was Daniel Lefkowitz commanding performance of ‘In the Journey of Dreams’
Best Spoken Word: Saul Williams
(1:1) Unkown venue - Pittsburgh. This was circa Amethyst Rock Star
. There are not many folk with a more commanding voice. And the evocative lyrics and prose are unrivaled.
First time taunted by the act - No Doubt
(1;1)(O) CIV(1:1) Star Lake Amphitheater - Burgettstown, Pa.
This was also the first time I had seats at an amphitheater show. CIV was cool, No Doubt was great. The highlight was Gwen Stefani having all the guys in the crowd chanting "F*** You, I'm a Girl", prior to 'Just a Girl
' Gwen had incredible stage presence to be able to pull that off!
First Road Trip for a show: G. Love and Special Sauce (1:4) Bogart's - Cincinnati, OH. I was not a cool kid to go to the beach during Spring Break, but this was one better in my books. The road trip was fun. The venue was great. In Pittsburgh, I was used to wide or deep venues, but not both. Bogart's was the best of both, a wide and deep venue. The best part, the music was fantastic. G Love & Special Sauce , were touring for their third major release and had the Princes of Babylon with them for the show. It was a fun, high energy show that has been my best G. Love show to date. Here's hoping that the upcoming Artscape show tops it.
Best inter-act banter: Bill Deasy(1:2)/Scott Blasey(2:2) Singer-Songwriter Series, Club Cafe-Pittsburgh, Pa. Local Pittsburgher Paul Tabachneck
. Coordinated the 3rd best thing that happened to the local Pittsburgh music scene (after the Grafitti Rock Challenge & M2) with the Singer-Songwriter Series @ Club Cafe. He would match up 4 excellent local singer songwriters and put them together taking turns singing their songs, sharing their experiences and backing each other up. The best is when the histories intertwine, as was the case with Scott Blasey & Bill Deasy, as Bill was once considered for Scott's job as the lead of the Clarks
. The between song banter was a rival to any VH1 storytellers episode.
Best Hall of Famer - the Who
(1:1) (O): Red Hot Chili Peppers
(2:2), Gnarls Barkley
, the Killers
, the Raconteurs
, Wolfmother
- Virgin Fest - Pimlico Race Track - Baltimore, MD.
Wow, those guys can rock. Just hit after hit, it was amazing. Roger Daltry can still sing with the best of them, and Pete Townshend was simply amazing! His windmill guitar style was just incredible. I had super low expectations of these guys since they had been so, well ... OLD, but wow, they put these young bands to shame!
Best Pit - Rage Against the Machine
(1:1)(O) Wu Tang Clan (1:1) and Atari Teenage Riot
(1:1) Blossom Center - Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio . with apologies to Clutch, this was the best pit. Bud (kevin Bud), and the Fat Kid, and I had one lawn seats and two pavilion seats. This place was so crowded, you just had to walk back out the lawn with tickets again and bring the third guy in. We moved as close as we could during Atari Teenage Riot, and during Wu Tang, we noticed a security guard went down.. so rather than a guard every eight people at the fence between the seats and the pit, it was now 16. There was no way they could stop us, if we went over. So one by one right, as Rage Against The Machine went on, we hoped the fence (atleast I think all 3 of us made it) and rode the pit for the wildest ride of our lives. The pit was a living breathing thing, and it was incredible. Rage was at the top of their game, and the crowd new every riff, lyric and scream. Fantastic!
Best full sound from one person: Imogen Heap (1:1) Recher Theater - Towson, Md. She was amazing. The beautiful and pixie like Imogen Heap brought her synthesizers and effects pedals & mics to the stage, and worked the loop magic to make incredible music. It was as complex and brilliant as her album. 'Hide & Seek' was a highlight!
Best Headline Set From an Opener: Clutch (3/3)(O) Corrosion of Conformity (3:3) - Metropol-Pittsburgh, Pa. The two bands co-headlined as tour. For some reason, Pittsburgh was on the tour twice. The first time, had Clutch
as the headliner and it was quite a rush. On the return gig, C.O.C. took the headliner spot, however Clutch did not pare down their set. They squeezed in a headliner set into the opener spot. It was exhilarating, I had to stand on the wings of the pit for most of the show, for safety and sanity reasons. But wow, it was an incredible set. This was in my opinion the pinnacle of the bands success and their live show was top notch! If you have the chance go see them live. It is a must see!
Best Lineup: Rolling Rock Town Fair 2.0 - Stone Temple Pilots (1:1) Live (2:2), Deftones (1:1), Incubus (1:2), Staind (1:1), Oleander (1:1), Tantric (1:1) Westmoreland Co Fairgrounds - Latrobe, Pa.
Killer lineup. The early bands Tantric & Oleander held their own.. Staind did a half acoustic set for MTV, Incubus was their normal awesome selves.
Interstate Love Song (Live Rolling Rock Town Fair) by Stone Temple Pilots
The best were Stone Temple Pilots. Scott Weiland came out wearing a cop outfit at one point, and due to his slender frame, was easily mistakable for a woman. He continued to wear the slacks for the rest of the show. Wardrobe aside the songs were outstanding, and the crowd was insane. During this last set there were mud pits and any other chaos you would expect.
The encore opened with Weiland wearing nothing but an American Flag, and signing through a bull horn. for 'Dead and Bloated'.
Best Revival: It had been nearly ten years since I had seen the Beastie Boys live, but when they toured for To the 5 Boroughs, I jumped at the chance to see them live. I tried to see their tour after Hello Nasty in 2000, I even had tickets, but after Mike D got hurt before the tour, I ended up with a refund for my 4th row seats. [Pause for my crying to stop]
The show was off the charts awesome. If you'd ever caught Awesome; I F'n Shot That!
you'd see that the brief tour held back nothing. The pageantry was incredible, and it was a party all night!
Do you have a great concert memory? What was your all time fav? Why? let us know!
* being a part of the crowd & dripping with sweat at the end?
* the sing along
* the venue & acoustics?
* knowing the lyrics word for word?
* the people you went with
* getting lost in the experience for 2 hours
* the entire day experience?
* staying dry, un-injured & happy?
* seeing a festival, ampitheater, club show, etc for the 1st time
* a 20 person crowd or a 20,000 person crowd?
As the nerd I am, I have kept a list through the years of bands that I see. Different memories jump out as I review the list. Thinking back to the venues, the friends, the openers, the sound, the fun & experience. Without a doubt, one thing that hasn't changed through the last 20 years is, my TOP CONCERT OF ALL TIME, is 311 with openers the Phunk Junkeez, @ Graffiti in Pittsburgh, the day the Blue album came out, in the summer of '95!
The club was tiny, it was wide and not very deep. No matter where you were, you were likely a few people away from a high five from the band(s). I was 17, with some of my best friends (Karl, J-Webb, etc) and totally immersed into 311 (1:2) albums at the time. The energy was high, and the room was alive when 311 came on. Even better, was Phunk Junkeez(1:1), who I had not heard of prior were awesome. They were sophmoric, punk, hard metal, rap and rock all combined into one. Rather than try to review through another 24 shows. I wanted to do this more on an award basis.
For each band I will list the # of times seeing the band, and which time that show was, plus the venue & town. (O) will be the opener. Links for the most part will be to the album that was current at the time.
First Crowd Surf: Mighty Mighty Bosstones
(1:3) - Metropol/Pittsburgh (O)Dance Hall CrashersBest Jazz: John Scofield
(1:1) Rosebud/Pittsburgh Runner up: Morphine (1:1) sorry but Mark Sandman was too high on something for this to be best.Best concert in my living room: Teenage Girls(1:2) My house/Indiana,Pa Runner up: Levelhead. This was my senior year of college. It was the best of times. There was no one around to say, no you can't have a concert in your living room, so we did. Twice! Teenage Girls were fantastic. Great songs such as 'Jesus is Gay','Teenage Girls', and 'Kooya Koombaya'.
Best goofing off: BS2000
. (1:1) The side project of Adam "Adrock" Horovitz and his pal Amery "AWOL" Smith brought their show on the road. The show was just as fresh and silly as the albums. the Beehive/Pittsburgh.1st Arena Show: Nine Inch Nails
(1:1), Jim Rose Circus and Marilyn Manson The translucent video screen showing the accompanying video to the 2nd half of Downward Spiral was simply amazing. This would likely be closer to my best arena show or even best show, but I was way back in the upper deck at the opposite end of the arena. What a night. I decided to go that night and got tickets from a scalper. I wasn't supposed to go, my mom was out of town, we were out really late as someone in our possee met Trent Reznor at an after show. The van we were in got in an accident afterwards, came home at about 2 in the morning, turns out my mom was in town. Yikes, what a night?
1st Arena Floor Show: Pearl Jam (1:4),(2:4) Wembley Arena/London. During my study abroad in Bristol England, I found a concert list at a record store. Pearl Jam was not showing sold out yet. I immediately bought the last 5 tickets for the first night, and 2 tickets for the next night from the ticket vendor. Soon we were on our way to LONDON, on the other side of England. This was awesome for so many levels. This was my first (and second time) to see Pearl Jam. The tickets were paper with a cool hologram sticker on them, printed via the band. And the "seating" was floor seats/standing. We were probably 8 people back for the 'No Code' tour. It was awesome. Despite the openers being the Fastbacks, who apparently packed only one outfit each, a relatively unknown out of the Seattle Punk scene; Pearl Jam still rocked the house. For a 19 year old in London for this first time, this was simply incredible!1st DJ Battle: Mix Master Mike (1:2) Cleveland, OH. After Beastie Boy's Hello Nasty
, Mix Master Mike's name stood out more to me. I happened to be in Cleveland for 2 weeks for a training, and noticed Mix Master Mike was the judge for a DJ Battle. Mix Master Mike was an awesome turntablist himself, so if he were involved in a battle, it had to be awesome. It was great. The best part was Mix Master Mike put on a display afterwards, scratching and tweaking for 10-15 minutes after the contest and it was mind blowing. The dexterity and tenacity he has is incredible. The show was killer!1st small bar show: Erin McKeown
(1:2) Baltimore, Md. This was so much fun.. This was was maybe smaller than the living room show I had back college. Lots of fun, very intimate, and of course we got to meet Ms. McKeown after the show!First Large Acoustic Show: Dave Matthew & Tim Reynolds. Truthfully, I don't remember much of this show. This was after my semester abroad, and Dave & Tim were playing at my primary University (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) luckily after I got back. I remember my seats, and remember some of the stories due to getting my hands on a Lo-quality recording afterwards, but I barely remember the show. But come on.. It's Dave & Tim, how could it have not been great?  |
| Steve Moore, Jim Graham, Bert McBrayer of D.B.F.M. |
Best Tiny Club Show: Reel Big Fish (1:4) After waiting out a few punk bands.... (Sorry, but if you don't know the punk band's music and the pit monkeys are rude, which they commonly are, Punk shows are terrible.) We made it to the 4th(or 5th) band of the night. My inaugural Reel Big Fish show. It was an under age show, timely with the release & rise of Turn the Radio Off
It was amazing. The energy of the ska band was off the charts. This energy propelled me to see them another 3 times in the next few years.  |
| Mat Davidson of the Low Anthem |
(3:5)/Daniel Lefkowitz(1:1) 1st Unitarian Church-Philadelphia (sorry Bobby, I missed your set). I was there with one of my best buds. I got a sweet spot on the carpet right in front of the stage and speakers. The show was in such an intimate setting, at the church. Nothing could go wrong. The best was Daniel Lefkowitz commanding performance of ‘In the Journey of Dreams’Best Spoken Word: Saul Williams(1:1) Unkown venue - Pittsburgh. This was circa Amethyst Rock Star. There are not many folk with a more commanding voice. And the evocative lyrics and prose are unrivaled. First time taunted by the act - No Doubt
(1;1)(O) CIV(1:1) Star Lake Amphitheater - Burgettstown, Pa.This was also the first time I had seats at an amphitheater show. CIV was cool, No Doubt was great. The highlight was Gwen Stefani having all the guys in the crowd chanting "F*** You, I'm a Girl", prior to 'Just a Girl
' Gwen had incredible stage presence to be able to pull that off!First Road Trip for a show: G. Love and Special Sauce (1:4) Bogart's - Cincinnati, OH. I was not a cool kid to go to the beach during Spring Break, but this was one better in my books. The road trip was fun. The venue was great. In Pittsburgh, I was used to wide or deep venues, but not both. Bogart's was the best of both, a wide and deep venue. The best part, the music was fantastic. G Love & Special Sauce , were touring for their third major release and had the Princes of Babylon with them for the show. It was a fun, high energy show that has been my best G. Love show to date. Here's hoping that the upcoming Artscape show tops it.Best inter-act banter: Bill Deasy(1:2)/Scott Blasey(2:2) Singer-Songwriter Series, Club Cafe-Pittsburgh, Pa. Local Pittsburgher Paul Tabachneck. Coordinated the 3rd best thing that happened to the local Pittsburgh music scene (after the Grafitti Rock Challenge & M2) with the Singer-Songwriter Series @ Club Cafe. He would match up 4 excellent local singer songwriters and put them together taking turns singing their songs, sharing their experiences and backing each other up. The best is when the histories intertwine, as was the case with Scott Blasey & Bill Deasy, as Bill was once considered for Scott's job as the lead of the Clarks. The between song banter was a rival to any VH1 storytellers episode.Best Hall of Famer - the Who (1:1) (O): Red Hot Chili Peppers (2:2), Gnarls Barkley, the Killers, the Raconteurs, Wolfmother - Virgin Fest - Pimlico Race Track - Baltimore, MD.Wow, those guys can rock. Just hit after hit, it was amazing. Roger Daltry can still sing with the best of them, and Pete Townshend was simply amazing! His windmill guitar style was just incredible. I had super low expectations of these guys since they had been so, well ... OLD, but wow, they put these young bands to shame!
Best Pit - Rage Against the Machine (1:1)(O) Wu Tang Clan (1:1) and Atari Teenage Riot (1:1) Blossom Center - Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio . with apologies to Clutch, this was the best pit. Bud (kevin Bud), and the Fat Kid, and I had one lawn seats and two pavilion seats. This place was so crowded, you just had to walk back out the lawn with tickets again and bring the third guy in. We moved as close as we could during Atari Teenage Riot, and during Wu Tang, we noticed a security guard went down.. so rather than a guard every eight people at the fence between the seats and the pit, it was now 16. There was no way they could stop us, if we went over. So one by one right, as Rage Against The Machine went on, we hoped the fence (atleast I think all 3 of us made it) and rode the pit for the wildest ride of our lives. The pit was a living breathing thing, and it was incredible. Rage was at the top of their game, and the crowd new every riff, lyric and scream. Fantastic!Best full sound from one person: Imogen Heap (1:1) Recher Theater - Towson, Md. She was amazing. The beautiful and pixie like Imogen Heap brought her synthesizers and effects pedals & mics to the stage, and worked the loop magic to make incredible music. It was as complex and brilliant as her album. 'Hide & Seek' was a highlight!Best Headline Set From an Opener: Clutch (3/3)(O) Corrosion of Conformity (3:3) - Metropol-Pittsburgh, Pa. The two bands co-headlined as tour. For some reason, Pittsburgh was on the tour twice. The first time, had Clutch
as the headliner and it was quite a rush. On the return gig, C.O.C. took the headliner spot, however Clutch did not pare down their set. They squeezed in a headliner set into the opener spot. It was exhilarating, I had to stand on the wings of the pit for most of the show, for safety and sanity reasons. But wow, it was an incredible set. This was in my opinion the pinnacle of the bands success and their live show was top notch! If you have the chance go see them live. It is a must see!Best Lineup: Rolling Rock Town Fair 2.0 - Stone Temple Pilots (1:1) Live (2:2), Deftones (1:1), Incubus (1:2), Staind (1:1), Oleander (1:1), Tantric (1:1) Westmoreland Co Fairgrounds - Latrobe, Pa.
Killer lineup. The early bands Tantric & Oleander held their own.. Staind did a half acoustic set for MTV, Incubus was their normal awesome selves.
Interstate Love Song (Live Rolling Rock Town Fair) by Stone Temple Pilots
The best were Stone Temple Pilots. Scott Weiland came out wearing a cop outfit at one point, and due to his slender frame, was easily mistakable for a woman. He continued to wear the slacks for the rest of the show. Wardrobe aside the songs were outstanding, and the crowd was insane. During this last set there were mud pits and any other chaos you would expect.
The encore opened with Weiland wearing nothing but an American Flag, and signing through a bull horn. for 'Dead and Bloated'.
Best Revival: It had been nearly ten years since I had seen the Beastie Boys live, but when they toured for To the 5 Boroughs, I jumped at the chance to see them live. I tried to see their tour after Hello Nasty in 2000, I even had tickets, but after Mike D got hurt before the tour, I ended up with a refund for my 4th row seats. [Pause for my crying to stop] The show was off the charts awesome. If you'd ever caught Awesome; I F'n Shot That!
you'd see that the brief tour held back nothing. The pageantry was incredible, and it was a party all night!Do you have a great concert memory? What was your all time fav? Why? let us know!
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