February 2021 Challenge (& Raffle)

Mon 8 – You should have been there
Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band.

I can't boil hundreds and hundreds of shows down to one best, but this one was up there.

Iggy Pop w/ opener Jane's Addiction 10-25-88

20210207_221034.jpg


Here's a shot of the long gone Pterodactyl Club. It held a whopping 150 people. As if this show wasn't great enough on it's own, seeing it in a tiny room kicked it up a notch.

20210207_183951.jpg


Not many folks in NC were hip to Jane's at this point. But I was. And they were great. Iggy though - wow! A whole 'nother level and a nonstop ball of energy. The place was manic. When I ran into him a few years later (poolside at a hotel in North Myrtle Beach, SC of all places) I told him what a great gig the Pterodactyl was and asked why he didn't play the SE very often. In Iggy's words, "The South doesn't quite know how to take me, man." Sublime.

As I'm prone to do, tape was rolling...

20210207_235634.jpg


Playing this live radio station promo that's from the same Iggy tour in support of Instinct and recorded a few months before the show I saw...

Iggy Pop - Live At The Channel 7-19-88

20210207_235825.jpg
 
Mon 8 – You should have been there
Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band.

I've been to very many great gigs too. One I have amazing memories of is the gig Arctic Monkeys did in Berlin in June 2006 at the Columbiahalle. They had such great energy and the atmosphere was great. Lots of people from the UK in the audience. It was the same year they've released their debut album, so all felt very fresh.
Also at that time Germany was hosting the soccer world cup, so Berlin was on fire.

Arctic Monkeys "Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm Not"

IMG_20210208_104817.jpg
 
Day 8 - best gig

Radiohead - Glastonbury 1997

In 1997, I was 18 and had just finished my A-levels. OK Computer came out in May from memory and I fell in love with it. Somehow I ended up with four (!) free tickets for Glastonbury from the Supernaturals, a Scottish band I'd befriended (and who gave me free tickets to Reading the year before as well).

20210208_142142.jpg

I gathered up some mates and we went...to one of the wettest weekends I can remember. It rained and rained, and it would have been easy to be miserable (I remember seeing Beck, Supergrass, and the Supernaturals of course but not much else). However, when Radiohead came on, we all forgot about the mud and sludge. Obviously long afterwards I found out they had technical problems etc and considered walking off, but right there and then they sounded triumphant. Fireworks coincidentally going off while they played No Surprises were just the cherry on the cake. 24 years on, I still get goosebumps thinking about that combination of incredible music and watching it in communion with so many others.



(This isn't the full gig but the video of the full thing isn't great quality at all)
So I'll spin OK Computer, still one of my favourites.

20210208_142128.jpg

And as I got my music memorabilia folder out here's a pic of a few other gig tickets from that era - including Jeff Buckley for £6! They bring back so many happy memories (and I'm so glad I saved nearly every concert ticket I've been to as frankly I'd struggle to remember some of them!)

20210208_143531.jpg
 
Mon 8 – You should have been there

Chance the Rapper — Coloring Book

image.jpg

Seen a lot of great acts and some of them are gonna be featured on later month plays, but Chance was absolutely incredible live during his Coloring Book tour. Even better that it was yet another amazing live show I got to experience with my brother.
 
Last edited:
Mon 8 – You should have been there

I've previously talked about seeing Beck in 1996 in a small room right before he blew up with Odelay and about a sweaty dance party with Sharon Jones in 2005.

This other show I have fond memories of involved a road trip to Ottawa with a bunch of friends from my home town. I was in undergrad at Queen's University in Kingston at the time, so the big band of the moment was The Tragically Hip. I saw them play a few times after this. Gord left everything on that stage each and every time.

The Tragically Hip, July 1st 1991, Canada Day at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa.

Hot afternoon outdoor show, followed by some good eating , drinking and my first experience at big Canadian patriotism (Ottawa is something else on Canada day). Good times for a 19 year old @Turbo.

I really should be playing "Road Apples" to go with this show but I don't have the vinyl....

The Tragically Hip "Fully Completely" (1992 MCA; 2016 reissue)

IMG_1285.JPG
 
Mon 8 – You should have been there
Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band.

July 30, 1988 - my 20th birthday. Road trip from Southern California up the coast to Monterey / Laguna Seca Raceway for a triple bill of the Grateful Dead, Los Lobos, and David Lindley & El-Rayo X. Forgot my tickets at home, and didn't realize it till we got close to the sold out show. Put a cardboard sign on my car that said "will trade my first born for tickets", and scored two tickets. My daughter is now 24 and she knows the story - we've agreed that the statue of limitations has likely run out on this one. Absolutely amazing day and venue. Wanted to play something from the Brent years since he was such a strong part of the lineup.

Grateful Dead ~ Dead Set
1612803505904.png

Think I'll follow it up with this:
 
Day 08: You should have been there
Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band.
Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret
E0B5846E-F9C1-4640-8E91-1AE059E22397.jpeg
3CED2902-D1D7-48BF-9F83-36858D43AC2A.jpeg
12D95190-2B34-477B-BC8A-7974E64E2C90.jpeg
My next live show is always my favorite live show. Unfortunately, currently there are not many prospects on the horizon in the near future so I will instead go with the last concert, which was a doozy; we saw Built To Spill play Keep It Like Secret in it’s entirety (along with a solid encore that included a brilliant cover of “Benny And The Jets”). The show took place at a new live venue that recently opened in Tacoma and since @JonnyH is a wonderful human being the tickets were free!
 
Last edited:
Mon 8 – You should have been there
Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band.

It's very tough to pick a best gig ever but this one is definitely up there, Kraftwerk and Radiohead in Rio 2009.
Great weather, good company and Rio is a gorgeous city despite it's violence problems.
And the band's name is connected to the Headsverse!

C39AA86E-0E8F-4B00-8BCC-E314EA5008E8.jpeg

Full concert compiled from fans footage:

 
Mon 8 – You should have been there
Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band

So many shows to sort through in my head, but I gotta say, this one came to mind pretty quickly.
Radiohead Hail to the Thief tour - August of 2003 at The Blossom Music Center.
I had orchestra pit tickets, and by the second encore I worked my way almost to the stage. It was amazing being that close, but even while I was a ways back I was completely transfixed, they were fantastic. I saw them in 2018 at Little Caesar’s Arena and I was wayyyyy in the back, and while the show didn’t suck, it was obviously not the same experience at all.

IMG_20210208_174938_509.jpg
 
Day 8 - You should have been there

My favorite, or at least most memorable, show was the Stooges at Lollapalooza in 2007. It was a dream come true to see the Stooges on their reunion tour, and the show itself was crazy. Halfway through, Iggy just started inviting people on stage (eventually they had to stop the show to get everyone off 😂 ). Just pure pandemonium-exactly what I hoped for.

F1E3771F-23A5-4C3A-9CDF-139270F2027B.jpeg
Not my video, but here’s a look from YouTube:
 
Mon 8 – You should have been there: Reminisce about your best ever gig, and play a record by that band.

Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere In The Between

I've seen a lot of great, memorable shows and this one is definitely up there as an all time favorite! Went to the show with some coworkers and ran into my cousin haha we spent all night right up front in the pit, singing along to every word. There was so much energy at this show and everyone in the crowd was all in!

 
Getting back on the wagon.

Fri 5 – Cheapskate
Spin the album you have with the lowest max price on Discogs.

Average White Band - AWB

16128461487896495666094286552322.jpg

Cheapskate.JPG

Got this for $0.50 from an Everyday Music 🤮 in Portland. Emoji directed at record store; not the album, as it sounds very acceptable considering the scuffing and light scratches.
 
Sat 6 – Luxuriate
It isn’t always easy to play a boxset all the way through so use the weekend to play one of your faves.

環境音楽 Kankyō Ongaku (Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 - 1990)

16128485649265644793623863988610.jpg

A major factor in what propelled me down the ambient/new age/minimal/experimental rabbit hole. Forever grateful ❤️
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top