1. The Impossibles/Ultimate Fakebook – Globe Theater, Milwaukee – 2000
2. Green Day/Superdrag – Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee – 1997
3. Arcade Fire/Final Fantasy – First Avenue, Minneapolis – 2005
3. Arcade Fire/Final Fantasy – First Avenue, Minneapolis – 2005
4. Weezer/Ozma – The Rave, Milwaukee – 2001
5. Saves The Day/Ash – Congress Theater, Chicago – 2004
(#6 would be pretty much anything that ever happened at the Concert Cafe in Green Bay. I kept it mainstream because nobody cares about bands that they don’t know about.)
So, the time has come to bust out your lists in the comments section. Let the CDP faithful know:
1. A band that you absolutely still need to see.
2. A former band that you wish you could see.
3. Your favorite concert of all-time.
Sound off in the comments section and enjoy your day.
Yeah. Quite frankly, I don’t know how it worked out for as long as it did. Sometimes the best drummers are the ones that you pay the least attention to.So, we’ve seen a few of these already today, but what about <>worst<> concert experiences? I’ve been to many ‘new band night’ style concerts that showcased some of the worst first performances ever viewed by thine eyes.
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1. The Polyphonic Spree2. I’m way to much of a Beatles ‘freak’ to say otherwise (6 Beatles books, every album on CD and mp3, and a quarter of them on lp, and will name first son: Ringo JohnGeorgePaul Becker)3. Either Blues Traveler 1998, or Weezer 2006
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Bands I need to see:1. Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s2. REO Speedwagon (They’re still together!_3. Nada Surf4. The Ataris5. Matt Pond PA6. R.E.M.7. RadioheadMy favorite moment at a concert was when Hellogoodbye played with The Rocket Summer, This Providence, and The Hush Sound at the House of Blues in Chicago. All the bands sounded great and the Hellogoodbye concert was amazing. There were balloons and confetti and stage-dancing, and it was basically a huge, awesome party.
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< HREF="http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=03272008" REL="nofollow">I think it’s clear<> who we <>all<> need to see in concert some day.
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<>EMILY<> – Do you <>really<> want to hurt me?<>CAVEMAN<> – The Weez brings the Geek Rock in massive quantities. Rivers Cuomo has influenced me to an embarrassing degree.<>CARGIRL<> – I think REO Speedwagon plays at the Oshkosh county fair every year. You’ll get your chance.Are the Ataris still together? I thought they broke up. Nonetheless, my band used to do a cover of San Dimas High School Football Rules.
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Worst ever? Man, so many, many choices, but I’ll highlight 3 well-known acts…Bob Dylan in 2004. Love his music, but he’s so old now, you simply cannot understand a single lyric.Smashing Pumpkins in 1996ish…no crowd interaction. I could have stayed home put on a CD, stared at a poster, and had a similar experience.The Walkmen 2006, not really their fault. The sound guy had the mix ALL wrong. Nothing but vocals and drums coming thorugh. I left after 3 songs because I couldn’t take it.
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I already gave up my worst list. It was lame. But add KC and the Sunshine band to it, because the “concert” was at a local food festival which by default makes it really awful. I want to see Cargirl’s number one band in concert, too. I was listening to ‘Quiet As a Mouse’ and ‘Paper Kitten Nightmare’ yesterday along with <>Reconstruction Site<> and some older stuff from Stars (MP3 player on “random”). Damn…my concert list is getting unrealisticly long.
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MOE- The Beasties/Rage tour and the cancellation is probably one of the biggest disappointments of my life. I am not even being over the top with it. The comment about the Pumpkins, I saw them four times all on the seemingly never ending Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness tour. It was so hit or miss it was amazing. As for someone that said they wanted to see the Foo Fighters live. I saw them on the Weezer/Foo Fighters tour last year… I like the Foo Fighters and I actually left five songs in. All it was Grohl just screaming into the microphone. To say it was a disappointment would be an understatement.
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I don’t go to many concerts, but I’ll try.<>1. A band that you absolutely still need to see.<>Radiohead.<>2. A former band that you wish you could see.<>Pedro the Lion — I missed them the last time they came through. And the Beatles. Ah, yes, the Beatles.<>3. Your favorite concert of all-time.<>This is tough. Kayne West/U2 barely comes out on top. Second is Blue Moon Ghetto/Matthew Sweet. Most of you have never heard of Blue Moon Ghetto, but they were a local phenom when I was in college.I will also never forget Train/Ben Folds Five. I’ve never been a big Train fan, but their bus broke down so they did an acoustic show. They didn’t have all their drums, so the drummer used a huge cardboard box. That’s showmanship. Ben Folds Five rocked the house.
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Just got back from The Weakerthans, and it was fantastic. They played pretty much everything you would have wanted them to play from every album, the sound/crowd was good, the band looked like they were having a good time and there was appreciation and ear-to-ear grinning all around.Awesome. I’m so glad I had the chance to be a part of that.Saw Julia Rubin there, too! Maybe she’ll pop in and give us her take on the night.
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<>JT<> – Could we <>ever<> understand Bob Dylan?<>MAUS<> – Margo and the Nuclear Whatnots are quite good. Cargirl always seems to throw one of their songs onto her mixtapes.<>KEVIN<> – That’s a damn shame about the Foozer tour. Assuming that the Beastie Boys will be rocking the box until the end of time, our chance will come again soon.<>HOSS<> – I haven’t yet heard from someone who didn’t have a blast at a Ben Folds show. That guy brings it every night.Rocks this bitch, if you will.
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It was nice to see you last night (for all of two seconds, he he). I was totally not expecting you to be right behind me when I turned around to see how big the crowd was. I’m afraid I must have looked confused at first. That’s a pretty normal look for me.I thought the show was fabulous and I’m quite glad I dragged myself out to it (I am very much prone to periods of hermitude). I even enjoyed the opening acts, which is usually a pretty rare occasion. I love me some High Noon Saloon in general, and that was definitely one of the better shows I’ve seen there. As to the poll from yesterday, I’ve been to so many shows I can hardly remember them all. I would have to say the best show I’ve ever seen was The Flaming Lips at Vegoose in 2005. I can’t really think of any bands I feel I <>have<> to see yet. If there’s a show and I half-way like their music, chances are I’ll go. I did see Paul McCartney back in 2002 with some free tickets from my aunt. I could hardly believe I was seeing a Beatle up there on stage.
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Worst concert ever? Ryan, Sherry & I discussed this a little last night at the Weakerthans show & decided that the Face to Face show was pretty awful, as was any time we’ve ever see Alkaline Trio.Easily the worst shows ever were just local bands that no one else has heard of though. Perhaps someday Ryan will share with you the tale of Hardwyre, if he’s feeling like spoiling that gem.
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<>JULIA<> – I have that effect on people; sheer, utter confusion, mixed with revulsion and sadness. Think nothing of it. It was nice to peek at you, too.My favorite moment of the night was probably either ‘Aside,’ or ‘Night Windows.’ Amazing stuff.I’m becoming more of a concert hermit, too. I was thinking last night that there are probably only 10 bands on Earth that I would drive to Chicago for.Wow, Paul McCartney. That’s awesome.<>HATHERY<> – Face To Face was pretty bad, only because they have 100 songs that sound exactly alike, and they played them all twice that night. Alkaline Trio, too, even though I typically really enjoy them.Hardwyre…Jesus.
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OK, well, now you pretty much have to tell us the Hardwyre story.
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Entertainment-wise, there isn’t all that much to tell. We were at a ‘new band night’ concert in Green Bay when Hardwyre took the stage.They were pretty much a nu-metal cover band, boasting backwards baseball caps and bursting at the seams with college-aged douchebags that knew absolutely nothing about music. The mostly punk crowd at the Concert Cafe tore these guys up.They had two lead singers (one to scream, one to growl, of course), and their mic stands had motorcycle handlebars on them for some inexplicable reason. It was complete and utter garbage. Embarrassing trash that I somehow cannot delete from my memory no matter how hard I try.I was telling the Missus at the High Noon last night that I feel like the old village woman who is the last person on Earth to speak a specific language. When I die, the memory of Hardwyre will die with me.
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Checklist of gimmicks to try out at my band’s next gig:1) Motorcycle handlebars on the mic stands. ROCK!
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Attached to the handlebars was a fake skull, too. The singers would lean over the front of the stage and tilt the mic stands by holding the handlebars and….GAAAAAHHHHH.This was at a particular point in my life where I was letting some extremely talentless music slip into my rotation, but Hardwyre was too much for this man to bear.
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I swear I just posted a comment…where did it go?
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I had the same thing happen to me; Blogger likes to delete things for no reason at times.<>TIP: Just before posting a comment, right-click/copy it in case it gets deleted. That way, you can just re-paste instead of re-typing.<>
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well, what I had said was at the Hardwyre show they brought about 30 groupies from their high school with. I specifically remember one girl with an mxpx tattoo on the back of her calf. I wonder how she feels about that now?
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No kidding. I own 10 MXPX albums, but I’m not getting a tattoo.
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MXPX has how many albums?
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8 full-lengths, 5 EP’s, 5 compilations, 1 live album and a DVD.
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All more wonderful than the one before……….
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I forget to mention that I’d like to see Mission of Burma who get a shout out on my new blog.
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I’m just glad you’re blogging again, Will.Check out Will’s new blog, yo!
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Which is here: http://www.rockandrollghost.com/
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Will, your blog just struck me as excellent timing. I was wondering the same thing last night: When did it get to the point where I DREAD going to shows? I pretty much hate going to them. I hate listening to the openers, I can’t wait until the headliner is done, I hate the people…I would just prefer it to stop. This coming from someone who used to go to 2-4 shows per week. Crazy.
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The shows didn’t change. We did.
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I’m just going to be the ass who points out that it is friday, and there was no Lost recap this week. Which I’m actually okay with, because that episode stunk, in my opinion. The less said about that steaming pile the better.
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I gotta agree with you there maus. Although I wouldn’t say it ‘stunk’, it was certainly disappointing. I was expecting a lot more Michael backstory (what happened between them being on the boat, and when he was in the appartment? Are we just meant to assume they got picked up by chance?), and the ending was way to abrupt.I used to be in the habit of simply adoring every episode by default, but I’ve started to realise that just because it’s <>Lost<>, doesn’t mean it’s perfect, regardless of however many weekends I’ve wasted watching it.
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@hathery – Also, i hate the no hedgehog policy at most clubs. @CDP – Nice callback.
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WILL – You got it.MAUS/DUFF – You’ve gotta admit, the opening ‘suicide’ scene with Michael was pretty awesome. Anytime a horribly depressing thing happens over a Mama Cass song, I enjoy it to no end.
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Don’t get me wrong, I liked it and all. It’s just as we haven’t seen Michael since ’06, I was expecting a slightly more holy-moly-raped-me-in-my-chair episode.I’m still orgasmically excited for ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’ though.
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I’m going to be excited when the nationally-televised ass-raping of the Wisconsin Badgers mercifully ends.What a crock. This sucks.
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<>@hathery – Also, i hate the no hedgehog policy at most clubs. <>In Madison, we have a “hedgehogs only” policy at some clubs. Don’t really know how those places stay in business.
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hathery – Tourism, I imagine. You guys have any large convention halls?
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