| Monday, March 26, 2007 |
| Too old to rock |
Look, we've had some great times over the past 20 years, but I think it's time to say goodbye. I'll never forget all those nights we spent together...
There was the first time I saw U2, playing in a church (this is when they were still considered a "Christian rock band") to an audience of maybe 300-400 people. The first time I saw R.E.M., and got to meet Michael Stipe and Peter Buck after the show. There were the headliners I never expected to like but did, like Huey Lewis and Billy Idol -- fantastic performers. The classics: Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones. The ones I feel especially lucky to have witnessed: Husker Du, pre-break-up Wire, ABBA, Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, Roxy Music, multiple Pavement and Pixies shows, Elliott Smith, the Sugarcubes.
Then there were the not-so-good times: the Jesus and Mary Chain, playing a 20-minute headlining set with their backs to the audience. A Go Sailor show at some dive bar in Baltimore which was so smoky I swore just breathing the air in there was taking years off my life. The Replacements, drunk and incoherent. The Iggy Pop show where someone threw up on my shoes.
As I get older, I find I'm enjoying going out to hear live rock music less and less. At the last couple Noise Pop shows I attended, Rogue Wave and Ted Leo, I had old-fogeyette moments where I wanted to go up to the young kids who couldn't stop text messaging and looking at their annoyingly bright cell phone screens during the shows and yell, "KNOCK IT OFF!" Staying out late is a lot harder than it used to be when I was younger; I've already given up going to clubs like Bottom of the Hill where the headliners don't go on until midnight.
I'll make certain exceptions -- my pals Mitch & Shalini are playing at the Rickshaw Stop on Thursday, and I'm looking forward to that. But pretty much anyone else... eh, I'll stay home and listen to the CDs.
Joe feels differently -- he recently bought a ticket to see the Genesis reunion tour. It cost $150, and it wasn't even the most expensive one available.
In a way, I think the best rock show I ever saw in my life was the very first: San Francisco band the Tubes, playing at the Grand Rapids Civic Auditorium sometime in the early 1980s. The Tubes were a highly theatrical rock band who changed costumes multiple times and portrayed characters like Quay Lewd, a drugged-out glam rocker in platform shoes. I honestly thought that was what rock shows were like, and was disappointed when I learned that most people just get onstage in their street clothes and play songs. |
posted by 125records @ 12:13 PM  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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I saw The Tubes in the 80's too, and they were brilliant! It was in Salt Lake City, where they were officially banned from returning after that show :)
Wow, I don't think I'd ever remember that Go Sailor show, let alone have it on my memorably bad list.
Sadly, I think it is a lost cause to try to get people to put away their cell phones during a show these days. It is crazy distracting. I think if I got up before the show and asked people not to check messages and text, half would applaud wildly and the other half would be baffled as to why I cared.
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Almost all the theaters around here have a prerecorded announcement before the play begins asking people to turn off their cell phones & pagers, but recently (I think it was at Berkeley Rep), the announcement also requested that people not text message during the show. The fact that they would even have to SAY that (shakes head sadly)...
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The Tubes put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen, and I still go to lots.
It's nice to see someone else bring them up. I played Talk To Ya Later during my guest DJ spot on Monday and lots of people wanted to know who it was but just gave me blank stares when I told them.
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I was at the same Tubes show (Oct. 10, 1981 -- I still have the ticket stub). That was truly an eye- and ear-opening experience! And how can we ever forget the Asia concert that left our ears ringing for days afterward? But I'm with you on this one: Concert tickets are obscenely overpriced, audiences generally behave like they've just broken out of the zoo and parking -- at least at most of the venues around here -- is downright nightmarish. I had to review Insane Clown Posse several years ago (lucky me, I know!) and their fans like to spray each other with Faygo soda. Charming! Even better, they like to shake up the bottles and spray it indiscriminately on cars in the parking lot, such as mine. Since it was August, the stuff quickly dried on the body and I had to go through three car washes to remove it completely. That was when I started to think I'd had about enough of the concert scene. By the way, the most exciting concert I ever attended -- Prince's "Purple Rain" tour in Detroit -- had a top ticket price of about $20! Imagine how much a similar event would go for now. I also paid a whopping $5 cover charge to see Tori Amos at the now-defunct Industry in Pontiac the week "Little Earthquakes" was released (she was the curtain-raiser for Rave Night, as it turned out; that must have been a surprise for her). Gone are the days!
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I saw The Tubes in the 80's too, and they were brilliant! It was in Salt Lake City, where they were officially banned from returning after that show :)
Wow, I don't think I'd ever remember that Go Sailor show, let alone have it on my memorably bad list.
Sadly, I think it is a lost cause to try to get people to put away their cell phones during a show these days. It is crazy distracting. I think if I got up before the show and asked people not to check messages and text, half would applaud wildly and the other half would be baffled as to why I cared.