I guess I've seen a few of rock groups in my time ...

A friend of mine (Young Laura Durava, bless her rockin' little heart!) and I were recently chatting about the rock groups we've seen over the years.  I'm a self-confessed Dead Head, and went to about 50 Grateful Dead shows in my time.  Not all of them were great, but some were literally OTHERWORLDLY, depending on what sacraments were available to me ...

Some of my favorites? Springsteen of course -- the first time I saw him in '74 I could not believe my eyes or ears -- NO ONE HAS THAT MUCH ENERGY!  This was back when I was in college in AusTex at a cool small venue called The Armadillo World Headquarters.  Saw a lot of great shows there, including ZZ Top (before they were famous they were just a lil' old band from Texas), Van Morrison, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen (absolutely raucous!), and a great bluesman named Freddie King. I saw a lot of good music in Austin from '70 - '74:  My first Dead show in '71 (I think I liked it, but wasn't totally sure -- it was so different ...), The Moody Blues in their prime, The Allman's with Duane, It's A Beautiful Day, The Guess Who, Steve Miller Band, the legendary Chuck Berry and even Willie Nelson before he became a household name.

Saw several great Who shows with their original drummer, Keith Moon -- boy, did HE kick some ass on drums.

Pink Floyd at the Cow Palace in SF -- psycho-delic, baby!

Page and Plant (after Led Zeppelin) still had plenty of swagger.

Bob Dylan rocked splendidly hard a number of times I saw him, despite his aloof stage demeanor.   He was great with Tom Petty at Alpine Valley (East Troy, WI) in the 80's somewhere back there.  I loved all the Alpine Dead shows -- that was where the hard core freaks REALLY came out of the woodwork and it was always a "twirl-city" dance-a-ton.  (The action in the parking lot was almost as hot as the concerts, depending on what the vendors were hawking and if there were any "tanks 'n hoses" out ...)  But I also really liked Aerosmith there too.

Here's a list of other shows I've been to -- in no particular order I've seen:  The Band, Clapton (once in Blind Faith), the Pretenders, Los Lobos, Three Dog NIght, Grand Funk Railroad, Lou Reed, the Kinks, the Cars, the Police, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Jefferson Airplane (not Starship), Hot Tuna,  BoDeans, Jerry Lee Lewis, Deep Purple, Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes), the Ramones, Prince (who could really shake a tail feather -- great show!), Styx (rather forgettable, since they opened for the Who), Lynyrd Skynyrd (who were memorable despite opening for the Who), Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Mitch Ryder, Buddy Guy (who taught Jimi Hendrix a thing or two), the Clash, Phil Collins and Jackson Brown.  (Forgive me for boring ya -- I'm on a roll here ...)

I was a big Little Feat fan back when their fearless leader Lowell George was still kickin' -- he died of a heart attack at age 37 -- translation:  too much cocaine. 

And most Rolling Stones shows were also outstanding -- I saw them in the '60's, the 70's, the 80"s, the 90's and last summer at Soldiers Field. 

So I know it's only rock'n roll, but I like it like it yes I do.  Now you've REALLY got me thinkin' -- I've also seen the Talking Heads, Boz Scaggs, Dave Edmunds with (and without) Rockpile, Traffic w/Steve Winwood, Jimmy Vaughn (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Ray Charles (while he still had it), Robert Palmer, The Jerry Garcia Band (not the same as the Dead), Phil 'n Friends (Phil Lesh's band), Rat Dog (Bob Weir's band), Dark Star Orchestra (my favorite Dead cover band -- you MUST see 'em if you like the shows from the 70's) Sir Paul McCartney in the 90's, George Harrison solo tour in the mid-70's, BB King, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Mountain, Buckwheat Zydeco, JC Mellencamp, Joe Ely, George Thorogood & the Destroyers, The Blasters, Leon Russell, Dire Straits, Black Sabbath (before anybody heard of  Ozzie!), The Beach Boys, The Cars, Mink DeVille, Amazing Rhythm Aces ("Third Rate Romance"), John Mayall, John Prine, Love, String Cheese Incident (a newer jam band), Pacific Gas & Electric ("Are You Ready?") and Bonnie Raitt.

When you mention the band Chicago -- in the early 70's they were great in concert, but then sold out to the record industry's standard "hit making" formula and grew stale.  (Springsteen reportedly opened for them early on, then swore he'd never take second billing again.)

That's what killed so many bands, starting with the Beatles, who stopped doing concerts by the end of 1966 because of the musical boredom of playing the same songs over and over again.  (Goes to show anything can get boring if it gets too routine, even being a Beatle ...)

I guess that explains why I gravitated to the Dead.  They held up their collective middle finger to Warner Brothers Records, saying to their fans, "Go ahead people -- you can just record our music at our concerts FOR FREE.  If we release a studio album, well -- we may (or may not) play a song from it.  We're gonna mix it up and improvise at every concert, so each song is a 'work in progress' -- hang in there with us as we try to make something unique happen.  AND -- we'll most likely be at least as stoned as you are ..."  So you could go to 3 shows in a row and hear about 75 different songs in 3 nights, with rarely a repeat. 

Besides, ya gotta love a group that went on a hippie whim to play at The Pyramids in Egypt ...

Comments

[audioproducer]

Jimbo -

I see no mention of Hawkwind, Nektar, or Captain Beyond -

What gives???

[Da Coach]

My Friendt --

Who's blog is this exactly -- YOURS, or MINE???

By the way, can you guess who the "friend" is who prompted this discussion? (Hint: That person roves the halls of the friendly confines of NC ...)

[audioproducer]

That still don't answer the question -

They didn't make the cut ...

[Gary Kelley]

Wow... I'm impressed. In my 37 years in radio I've introduced more than my share of rock stars. From The Stones to The Doobie Brother's. You've topped me my friend!

Gary Kelley

[Rock]

What about big boy pants?

[Dan Cusack]

I saw somebody here mention the group Nektar...without doubt one of the best bands I ever saw, saw them here in Chicago twice, once at the Aragon Ballroom, and once at place called the Night Gallery, Roy Albrighton on guitar...wow!

[dave kuenstle]

Yes, Nektar was a great band! I saw them also at the Aragon (the Down to Earth Tour) and of all places the Randhurst Ice Area touring on Recycled. The Randhurst Ice Arena was short lived, but some great bands played there - Nektar, Wishbone Ash, Rush, Ted Nugent, Kansas, BOC. If you google Nektar, they have a website and some of the original members are still doing some shows. Incredible!

[Mo Baby]

Having had a job at the Richfield Coliseum during college I had three years of seeing every touring band in the early 80's.

Most impressive: Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, and Van Halen.

the Who--Final concert, yeah right, they're back. But it was cool to see rock legends.

Eagles. Jimmy Buffett. Beach Boys (before they started dying) on a night of a major Cleveland Blizzard.

Bryan Adams opening for Journey. I thought he was better than Journey--genuine, unknown and extremely cute as I found out when I literally ran into him backstage .

Out of dozens of shows, these were the ones I remember most. I think if I had one show to choose to do over it would be Bob Seger. Amazing performer, 3 night gig, and every concert was like it was his first concert of the year and had nowhere else to go except perform.