Have you ever been out in the town or whatever and without planning for it, just kind of walked into a bar or place and a relatively big named band was playing. List them here. Here’s mine, in no particular order:
Ministry (actually knew ahead of time but they were playing at the teen dance club I went to every Friday so I would have gone anyway)
only one i can remember - i was offered a free ticket to Bjork’s live show, like 1.5 hrs before it started. all i knew about her were couple of wacky videos and that’s about it. thought i would be late, but i made it to start of the suport act even (it was peaches). even tho it was a seat ticket and pretty far away from the stage, i was very very impressed with bjork, even tho her music’s not what im normally into.
Have you ever been out in the town or whatever and without planning for it, just kind of walked into a bar or place and a relatively big named band was playing. List them here. Here’s mine, in no particular order:
Ministry (actually knew ahead of time but they were playing at the teen dance club I went to every Friday so I would have gone anyway)
Ocean Blue
Meat Puppets
Jesus and Mary Chain
Superchunk
C&C Music Factory
Jesus Lizard
Southern Culture on the Skids
That’s all I can think of at the moment.
Damn dude,that’s the first time I’ve seen Ocean Blue mentioned on any board,anywhere ever…that was a cool band…
When I was in college they had a bandstand on campus and some days/nights there would be concerts…I didn’t always keep up on them…we would walk over there and bands the student union hired would be playing…
Walked in on a Bustah Rhymes show…I always remember he played for an hour and played to the exact minute…as soon as it struck 9pm or whatever he was done…walked off the stage…
The Village People…each time the Indian would do a leg kick his balls would fly ouy(sad but true story)…
a friend of mine got Super Furry Animals tickets like the day before or the day of the show. I hadn’t heard one song by them, he was a fan and wanted me to check them out. It was an interesting show, the singer sang the first few songs in an oversized power ranger mask. Pretty cool psych rock moments, mixed with strange pop elements. Can’t say I was a fan after the show, but it was still a cool show and I can dig some of their songs here and there now.
Nirvana - Nevermind tour (BEFORE Smells like teen spirit “hit”). There was about 150 people there.
10/07/91 - Omni-New Daisy Theatre, Memphis, TN
Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
Aneurysm
Drain You
School
Floyd The Barber
Smells Like Teen Spirit
About A Girl
Polly
Sliver
Love Buzz
Come As You Are
Negative Creep
Endless, Nameless
My parents took my sisters and I to London in '05 and I was buying some CDs in Rough Trade including Earth’s ‘Pentastar’. The dude in the shop asked if I was going to see them that night. Haha, nice coincidence. So I bought my ticket then and there. This ended up being not long before Earth changed their style and stopped playing distorted. I don’t mind the newer stuff but the fuzzy stuff is more aligned with my tastes. Pentastar is still my favourite album of theirs. The gig was rad, they were opening for Autechre actually. People were looking at me weirdly and asking “do you actually like this?” So yeah, kind of walked in without planning.
The only one that I can really think of is STEEL PANTHER. I’d driven up to Vegas to see an Anthrax show a few months back with some friends who were visiting from Australia. I knew they were going to see Steel Panther the first night, but I was getting in kind of late and told them I would just be gambling and they could find me after the show.
When I arrived they had yet to leave for the show, though, and they convinced me to come along. It was at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. It was a LOT of fun. They play a mix of their own stuff and a ton of classic 80’s metal and cheeserock, and mix it up with some really lame but appropriately funny stage banter. I hung out in back, and met some guys from Scotland and we partied our asses off.
A few others that I sort of stumbled on were free shows that I just happened to hear about the day of the show . . . .
WAR at a street fair in LA about 10 years ago ---- they were awesome and the crowd (mostly 40’s and 50’s) was totally groovin’. Being a free show at a street fair made the show even better because I got a good buzz at the beer garden and then rocked out to WAR while eating a funnel cake.
DOOBIE BROTHERS and SPIRIT (1991) ---- a free show in a large park. I LOVED it. I hung near a gang of bikers and was so impressed with their filthiness that I kind of wanted to become a biker. I think this show also was the first time I saw girls flashing their boobies at a band. It was fantastic. There was this really cute lady up on one of the bikers’ shoulders and she would wave her arms at the band and point to one of them and then UP goes her shirt. I was like 17 and was hanging with this black groover I’d just met who reminded me of Forrest Whittaker’s brother in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and was talkin’ all this crazy jive. Oh, most importantly . . . . that was the time I met Dr. Demento and he signed my Pigface shirt, haha!!!
On a trip to Vegas back in '98 or '99, I ended up on Fremont Street on the first night, and Howard Jones was about halfway through a live set. Wasn’t bad, but I’ve seen him on a ‘proper’ tour (one-man all-synth show in '94), and he was really good.
On a trip to Vegas back in '98 or '99, I ended up on Fremont Street on the first night, and Howard Jones was about halfway through a live set. Wasn’t bad, but I’ve seen him on a ‘proper’ tour (one-man all-synth show in '94), and he was really good.
1002
Fremont Street is the BOMB! There’s always free shows there. They’ve been doing a Rock of Ages series for a while (that’s where I saw the Dee Snider show) featuring a bunch of 80’s glam metal . . . Poison, Quiet Riot, Warrant, Skid Row, Motley Crue . . . or at least members thereof. But even if there’s not a big name for the evening there are cover bands on both ends of the street to rock the place. It’s a non-stop party there.
That’s the part of Vegas I actually liked. It looks like what Vegas is in my head. And you could tell that just off Fremont street were cool places locals go to, but I didn’t have time to check 'em out.
^
I like all of Vegas but when you feel like just cuttin’ loose and having a ball, or stumbling around drunkenly, Fremont is the place to be.
What makes it VERY different from The Strip is its total lack of pretense. No one is there to prove anything and the attitudes that you run into back on the Strip are gone. You wanna wear a hat made out of balloons and dance your ass off to some Def Leppard . . . . you’ll be just fine. And if you wanna walk around with flip flops, a fanny pack, and a 40 of Schlitz wearing a sign that says, “Kick me in the nuts for $20”. That’s cool too.