musos/bands you're glad you got to see before it was too late

Damn it. after i typed this i realized it was bands i had gotten to see before it was too late. oh well, im leaving it.

"I can tell you taste like the sky, cuz you look like rain..."

I went out of my way to see Elvin Jones in Boston...even though he's still going STRONG, it's a constant reassurance to me that if something happens to him, I've seen him.

Big regrets:

Not going to see Stanley Turrentine a few weeks before he died.

Not going to see Tony Williams do a clinic a few weeks before he died.

Not going to NYC with my parents who saw Billy Higgins a few months before he died.

"What's that guy doing behind all those computers and things?"
"Dude, I think that's where all those crazy sounds are coming from."

If I had gone to the HORDE Fest. at Deer Creek (2 days before the one mentioned ^), I would've seen Soul Coughing again, as well as Beck & Squirrel Nut Zippers, instead of Screamin Cheetah Wheelies, Cakelike, and Toad the Wet Sprocket. :(

Just glad I saw it so i can tell everyone what a sloppy live show it's possible to do when you are so fucked on uppers/downers etc you can't play in time with your band.

Shite shite shite

The Birthday Party
The Big Boys
Minor Threat
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
Gang Of Four (however, not with Dave Allen)
Talking Heads
Three Johns
Crucifux
The Replacements
Shriekback
Tackhead
Jesus Lizard
The Chills

Biggest regret: Not driving to Toronto to see a Trouble Funk/Defunkt double bill, and never having the opportunity to see them ever again.

Pavement/Superchunk/My Bloody Valentine, June 19-20, 1992.

the late-'80s Ornette Coleman quartet reunion (Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell, two of whom are now gone)

Junior Kimbrough (albeit at Memphis in May, not at his place in Holly Springs)

The Pixies (although the show was kind of boring)

Pavement with Gary Young on drums (though it was too crowded and I wasn't feeling well so I left before the headliner: MBV)

Malathini and the Mahotella Queens

That's all I can think of right now.

You'd almost be right except Jimmy did rejoin the band for touring in 1999 -- D'arcy only left after that tour and recording for the Machina albums were completed.

regrets: the Oblivians reunion TONIGHT! and I'm 1500 miles away.

Who was the other drummer?

Was blessed enough to see Mr.Bungle twice on the tour to promote their first major lable record. QUITE an experience.

(translation good lord I would've loved to have seen that Bungle/Melvins show.)

I saw Junior Kimbrough open for Iggy Pop at Roseland in 1996.

I saw Jane's Addiction twice. Once on Lollapalooza, and once before that, at the Hollywood Palladium during one of the two nights that were taped for the Gift movie. The Pixies were also on that bill, added at the last minute.

I saw GG Allin at one of the shows that was filmed for Hated.

I saw the Revolting Cocks on the Beers, Steers & Queers tour.

I saw John Zorn, Fred Frith, Bill Laswell and Dave Lombardo, with Eye Yamatsuka on vocals, at the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in 1999 or 2000.

I saw Zorn and Keiji Haino do a sax/guitar duo at CBGBs, with UFO Or Die also on the bill.

That's about it, I think.

but the boredoms* will probably be the one band i will be very glad i was given the chance to see them. how many bands are willing to break up when they are at the very top of their peak? (oh wait, all my other favorite bands: my bloody valentine, drive like jehu, slint, etc.)

I booked a Jawbreaker show on their last tour.

Also saw Public Enemy in 1988 at the Ritz Theater in Elizabeth, NJ with opening acts EPMD, Stetsasonic and Big Daddy Kane. Biggest cheer of the night, though (before PE) was when Eric B came walking out on stage between acts, in a fur coat that made him look like a grizzly bear with 12 pounds of gold around his neck, and just stared for a minute, regarding the crowd impassively, before walking backstage again.

I was too young and not in the know to see the Rapeman/Big Black shows at Six Foot Under. There is a bootleg of the 2nd time Big Black played in Muncie, they lit off a brick of firecrackers and cleared the club to start the show. I did see Dag Nasty and Rollins doing spoken word in 88 at this same place.

- I saw Ministry on the fabled "fence" tour for The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste.
- I saw the Revolting Cocks on the Beers Steers + Queers tour. The Mentors opened and Trent Reznor joined them onstage to sing "Supernaut".
- I saw Siouxie & the Banshees (pre-reunion gig) on Lollapalooza and once at the New Ritz (with the Wonder Stuff opening).
- I saw New Order (with PiL and the Sugarcubes) on the tour for Technique.
- I saw Skinny Puppy three times, on the tours for Cleanse Fold & Manipulate, Rabies and Too Dark Park respectively.
- I saw the Cult open for Billy Idol while they were promoting Electric and he was pushing Whiplash Smile (I think...we were there for the Cult).
- I saw the abortive team-up of Public Enemy and Sisters of Mercy at Radio City Music Hall (with Warrior Soul, Young Black Teenagers and Mall-era Gang of Four opening).
- I saw COP SHOOT COP incongruously open for Carter USM and EMF, solidifying my unflinching adoration of them (C$C).
- I saw the Buzzcocks reunion gig (circa `89 or so) at the Ritz.
- I saw Soundgarden, Faith No More and Voi Vod at L'amour in Brooklyn (a club) in `89/`90.

I think we were at the same show. I seem to remember Reznor jumping into the audience and having a rather unpleasant experience therein.

Oh, and I saw the last date of the "Metal Gods" tour this year (Halford, Primal Fear, Amon Amarth, Immortal, a few others). It was cancelled that night because somebody was stealing the money. And after the tour, Immortal broke up!

(Saw Jawbreaker too, right before "24 hour revenge therapy", but they were just good at best)

Really there are a million "older but still living" performers that I'm glad to have seen (Sonny Rollins, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Bennink & Mengelberg, Otis Rush, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Boulez, Caetano Veloso, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, et fucking cetera).

Glad I got to see Lester Bowie (as part of the Art Ensemble, minus Jarman), Sonny Sharrock (great!), and John Fahey (not so hot, but still a pleasure) before they passed on.

Saw the old Unsane with Charlie Ondras twice. Saw Cobain. Saw the original Smashing Pumpkins 4tet at least three or four times - including a couple club and invite-only shows - though I'm not even that big of a fan. original Jane's Addiction a couple times, sure. Pixies circa Doolittle (actually they opened for Love & Rockets). I saw Royal Trux too many times to remember, always with a different line-up/sound. One of the most unpredictable live bands. Saw Pavement with Young one time. Never saw them live again.

I saw Ornette this summer. The single best jazz gig I've ever seen, period.

god, it was beautiful. It's such a trite word, but that's the only word that really encapsulates the man's sound, the group's accomplishment. The bassists were working so hard, Denardo is such a perfect compliment to Ornette's music.

His alto tone on that plastic horn of his is, I think, the single most beautiful sound in the world.

I saw the Buttholes about 6 times during this era. (They came through Detroit alot back then because of their affiliation with Touch&Go, which was outta Detroit back then...anyone out there remember Corey and Lisa's Greystone Hall???) AMAZING shows! My close friend Trevor (Trev and I make music together) played bass for them for ten or so months during this time, and live he'd play tuba (sousaphone?) on a third of the songs instead! What's this DVD called???

As a side note, Trevor never got a penny from the fuckers, and never was credited for the songs he wrote and co-wrote.
Anyone remember why these assholes sued Touch&Go???

THE MINUTEMEN!!!!

Yep. At Carnegie Hall. Can't remember the other bassist's name, either, but what a pair. One guy plucking, the other bowing, for most of it.

>god, it was beautiful. It's such a trite word, but that's the only word that really encapsulates the man's sound, the group's accomplishment. The bassists were working so hard, Denardo is such a perfect compliment to Ornette's music.

The thing that literally sucked the breath out of my chest was the way the compositions they were playing (which were ridiculously fast, by the way; it was like he was trying to prove to Zorn that he could out-Spy Vs. Spy him any day of the week) would seem to be completely free, and then all four players would come right back in, seamlessly, and stop on a dime at the end. Just fucking brilliant. It really was one of those "I could die right now" gigs.

The My Bloody Valentine/Superchunk/Pavement show in NYC (first time my wife & I were in the same room, though we didn't meet until seven years after that).

Unrest, many times, although I still often play the "how much would I pay to see Unrest play just ONE MORE TIME" game with myself.

Lots of wonderful bands I put out records by (actually I guess the Honkies were one of those, but it was very lucky that I got to see them once)--too many of those stories to relate, except I remember the final Uncle Wiggly show looked like it was going to be cut off after 15 min. because the park it was happening in was closing for the night, but the few dozen of us who were there to see them rose up and said "oh come ON they've been together for SO LONG and this is their LAST SHOW EVER won't you let them PLAY," and the people who were supposed to be closing the park decided to let them do their full set. And an encore!

Of the bands I've put out records by, I really regret that I never got to see the Magick Heads play.

+too many more to recall at the moment, but those are the key bragging rights shows

still getting over 'em all : )

Good lord, what a double bill!!!!!

Pink Floyd L.A. sports arena 1979
Birthday Party Roxy 1983
The Cars/ Styx ! l.a. forum 1978
XTC / Wall of Voodoo hollywood palladium 1981

Oh you FUCKER! I am so goddamn jealous!

i've seen fugazi probably 6 or 7 times. best was the lungfish/ex/fugazi show in philly circa late 99 (?...i'm so shit with dates, maybe early 00). only got to see about five lungfish songs which still tears me up, but the ex were fucking incendiary (even surviving my companion leaning over to me and saying "they sound a bit like big country, don't they?").

Brad knows his stuff and takes advantage of the time! Can't blame him!

i forgot jehu, which was maybe the best show i've ever seen.

Yeah, caught a Yank Crime show with DB back in 1994. Awe-inspiring.

Regrets? That I never went to Glastonbury the year Johnny Cash was playing.

I am really glad to have seen AMM (twice), lol coxhill, derek bailey, evan parker, leo smith, john zorn (though he is only 50), peter brotzmann and sonny murray earlier this year was a blast!

maybe the only regret would be when i missed joe mcphee. i completely missed that.

Quite like to see ornette if he would play a show here. also love to see cecil taylor, han bennink...any number of first generations european improvisors as well as anthony braxton, milford graves if they could ever travel for once.

Seen too late: Head of David, Bow Wow Wow, Thin Lizzy

Muncie!
That club down the steps was called No Bar & Grill, I think. At the Rapeman show, Albini was yakking about something too long between songs, giving the crowd a hard time, so Bob Wagner went up and yanked the little guy's pants down. Shut him up, it did.

ha, you should be : )

guess it pays to have grown up in the big city with hip/permissive parents. I was age 12-14 for all of those shows. Had tinnitus before I ever started my own band !

I almost got to see New Kingdom, but they blew off the gig. Nosaj showed up, but Sebastian didn't, and neither did the rest of the band.

I've seen Cecil Taylor three times: once at the Village Vanguard in a trio, once at Avery Fisher hall (first half solo, second half trio), and once with an improvising big band at the Knitting Factory.

I was at that show.....and can't remember a time when I've been as bored.

SY as a whole seemed anti-involved and bored, but I was determined to have a blast and a blast was what I had.

When I saw Killdozer it was great, even though it was the tour without the original guitarist, still was a lot of fun.

Dog Faced Hermans played my college (along with Luna, weirdly enough) when I was a freshman, and they were amazing. To make it even better, the bass player (forget his name) gave me a t-shirt after the show (don't know if I can find it, though). Similarly enough, John Brannon of Laughing Hyenas gave me a t-shirt after one of their shows in Louisville way back when.

Also freshman year Charles Gayle played with (I think, but don't quote me on it) No Neck Blues Band opening (if it wasn't No Neck, it was something very very similar). That really opened my ears to more free music (although I liked some jazz stuff at the time).

Orchid.
Flying Luttenbachers when it was still a band.
Butthole Surfers pre-suckitude.
Q And Not U as a quartet.

All of 'em at Toronto's now-defunct Bermuda Onion in 1991-92.
Oh, and I made a promise (to myself) that I would quit trying to get attention by mentioning my handshake with Sun Ra, so I won't mention it.

I've seen a lot of bands that are broken up now but most of them I wouldn't really care either way: Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Primus etc.

Del Shannon, perhaps the most old-tyme rock 'n' roll thing I ever saw.

Gene Clark at the Bluebird Cafe...no one was in danger of being thrown out for "whispering" during the performance

Earl King in Memphis, drunk off his ass but so what.