Concerts

Since my wife wrote about it on her blog, I figured I’d make mention of the concerts I’ve been to.

1. Social Distortion, 1991

My first concert, I bought two tickets because I was only 13 and would have to have my brother go with me. A girl at my junior high found out I was going and gave me $20 to buy a shirt for her. I thought that was a little strange, since the point of wearing a concert t-shirt is to let people know which shows you’ve seen live. Then when we’d accidentally wear our shirts to school on the same day, she’d give me attitude, even though I was the one who actually went to the show. It was at the Palladium in Hollywood, which seemed like it had once been a roller rink.

2. Guns 'n' Roses/Metallica, 1992

My brother was into Guns ’n’ Roses, so when they went on a massive summer tour with Metallica, he wanted to buy four tickets for him and his friends. The shows sold out, though, so they added two dates at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a massive stadium that can seat 100,000 before counting the fans on the field. Some of his friends backed out, though, so I got to buy a ticket from him. We still ended up with an extra ticket, though, so he tried selling it outside the stadium until an undercover cop told him he’d have to be across the street or go to jail. As for the show, James Hetfield had been burned by a pyrotechnics display in Montreal earlier in the tour, so he had his arm in a sling and someone else was playing guitar. Then when Guns ’n’ Roses came out, Axl Rose was all pissy about there being empty seats and us not being loud enough of a crowd, so he sat down and threatened to end the show unless we were more appreciative. By the end of the show I didn’t like either band as much as I did before, but I still bought the shirt, so everyone would know where I’d been.

3. The Scorpions, 1994

My brother was a Scorpions fan, too, so when they came to Los Angeles he bought two tickets and asked me if I wanted to go. It was at the Forum. I don’t remember much about the show. I guess the Scorpions played. I wasn’t a big fan, myself.

4. They Might Be Giants, 1992 and 1996, I believe

I think I saw them twice, once with my brother and once with some friends of mine. Both times were at the Ventura Theater. They were a good band to see live and the Ventura Theater is a fun place to see shows.

5. Phooey, 1994-1996

This was a local band we saw every few months. Sometimes it would be at house parties, sometimes at an old car dealership in Ventura, and once or twice at the Ventura Theater. The drummer was in my high school German class. They were one of those bands that you like because you are young, they are obscure, and you’ve hung out with them at coffeeshops.

6. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, 1995 and 1996

This band is from Ventura, so they’d play the Ventura Theater about once a month, it seemed. Towards the end of high school we saw them twice. Then they were in the movie “Swingers” and got pretty famous. According to their Wikipedia page, they’ve even played a Super Bowl halftime show. One of the times we saw them my friend bought their CD from the merchandise table in the lobby. I borrowed it when I drove to Utah to visit Persephone at school, and when I crashed my truck on the way back home, I lost my friend’s CD in the desert. He was pretty angry about that, because by then they were famous and this early, self-produced CD was more desirable.

7. Rev. Horton Heat, 1996

We saw him at some club in Santa Barbara. The first two bands played pretty long sets, and then the Reverend came out and played seemingly every song he knew. About halfway through I was exhausted and went to sit in the back with a friend. The place was still incredibly hot, though, and we ended up listening to the rest of the set while we sat on my trunk in the parking lot. Because the show took so long, we were all in danger of being in trouble for being out late, so I drove home as fast as I could. It turns out the 1993 Plymouth Acclaim has a speedometer that shows 120 MPH, but it can’t really get above 116. We made the drive in 19 minutes (typically a 45-minute drive).

8. Frank Black, 1996

We saw this show at the Whisky in West Hollywood. It was a great place to see a show, being super crowded with a tiny stage. My friends would reach up and strum Frank Black’s guitar during the show, that’s how close we were. One of my friends touched Frank’s stomach and then turned to us a yelled, “I touched his fat!” I think Frank heard that and was mad about it.

9. Kansas, 1997

My first summer as a missionary, I was in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Across the street from our apartment was a riverfront park where the city had a festival. It was a great place to get invites if you weren’t concerned about having those invites be effective (and by this time, I’d learned that no invites were effective, so I just got easy ones where they were available). So we’d mingle in the crowd, get a bunch of invites, then go home and report our awesome numbers. Kansas played one of those evenings. My companion had never heard of them before and immediately loved their music. He wanted to buy their CDs and mail them home. (At this point, I was still a good missionary and didn’t listen to CDs, but his plan sounded stupid to me.)

10. Ted Nugent, 1998

My second summer as a missionary I was past the point of trying to be good. Ted Nugent was coming to the county fair and we went, in our proselyting clothes so we could get the clergy discount. At the end of the show, he hung his guitar on one side of the stage, went to the other side, brought out a bow and arrow, lit the arrow on fire, and shot his guitar with it. Ted is the consummate showman.

11. Weezer, 2001

It worked out well when we got married that Persephone and I were both Weezer fans. The summer after we got married they released their first album in years. Since Persephone’s friends in Utah are also Weezer fans, we decided we’d meet them in Las Vegas and see the Weezer show there. It was fun, but a little weird when the two single girls slept in the one bed and us newlyweds in the other bed.

12. The B-52s, 2004

We took our kids to the county fair and it turned out the B-52s were playing. Crazy Jane was just beginning to like music, so we took her over to watch for a little bit. I think we watched two songs.

13. The Get-Up Kids, 2009

I wrote a few weeks ago about this show.

14. The Killers, 2009

I’ll write about this show in the next little bit.