dreaded first post
musicians you've seen perform live
I don't know that band Boom Boom.
lol
Chris deburgh
Peter Gabriel
Apocolyptica
Pink Floyd
Porcupine Tree
Sarah Mclachlan
Lorenna McKennit
I've seen Jerry Jeff Walker a few times, same goes for Jimmy Buffett. My real pride in terms of musical fandom is the simple fact that I've seen John Prine no less than 20 times (I'm in my early 20s). I've seen him play so many times that I've lost track of exactly how many that is.
As for more underground, where I truly dwell, my list would go into the several hundreds. I've seen so many smaller acts that even trying to recall a small portion of them is difficult...and, well, I'm not going to post a lot of that on babble :P
As for larger concerts/festivals the only two I've been to were SARStock in Toronto and Live8 in Barrie. I'm sure that more will come and go as I age. I intend to make it out to the Winnipeg Folk Fest sooner rather than later. Plus, I really, really, really wanna get down to the States to do a good trip of hitting up small bars to catch local acts.
Mitch Ryder Detroit Wheels (very 1st concert)
Edward Bear
Crowbar
David Clayton Thomas
Lighthouse
The Band
Rush
Neil Young x2
Powder Blues x 6 or more
Jerry Douchette
April Wine
Lee Aaron
Bryan Adams
Rush
The Hip
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Doug and the Slugs x2
Dave Gogo x many many
Colin James
John Mayall
Tom Cochrane/RR
Jeff Healey (sat with him snowed in at PG airport)
King Biscuit Boy
54 40
Blue Rodeo
Chilliwack
Wascana
Martha and the Muffins
Payolas
Raffi
Valdy
k.d. lang
Alanis
Alannah Myles
Carole Pope/RT
Kim Mitchell
5 Man Electrical Band
Stampeders
Trooper
Three Dog Night
Edgar Winter
Savoy Brown
GNR
Journey
Nirvana
Moody Blues
fleetwood mac
George Thorogood x2
U2 x 2
Robert Plant
Pink Floyd x3
The Who
Supertramp x2
Pat Benatar
Billy Squire
Queen
Van Morrison
Beach Boys
Jerry Lee Lewis
Cheech and Chong
VSO many times
Harry Belafonte
...am sure I have missed some bigger...oh Terry and Susan Jacks, too.
not even going to go into regional bands and muscians
ETA: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Ronnie Hawkins, Joni Mitchell, Downchild Blues, Johnny V Mills (in Calgary at the King Eddy)
Yehudi Menuhin
Pinchus Zuckerman
Sharon Lois and Bram
The Studs
countless bar bands which amounted to nothing, ( most deserved it)
Canadian Opera Company et al
National Ballet (et al was there too)
There'd be more, but I'll have to ponder a bit longer
..i saw sweet honey in the rock when they first came out. the venue was the wpg folk festival. then there was john lee hooker and queen ida at the commodore in van. saw jean luc ponty, joe cocker and jj cale in wpg as well.
Wouldn't it be interesting if we listed some of those regional bands that are amazing and might not be known elsewhere?
Oh...went to so many, when younger, mr remind being 6'8" worked for a music promotion company as security...so free tickets or special rates abounded. Have not been for a few years now though for larger bands. Early 2000's was last time when we saw Nickleback in PG, oh forgot them.
There is some good regional musicians out of Edmonton and indeed around about here though, these days.... :D
Mammaguroove comes to mind...as do Jesse Dee & Jacquie B, Sasha Lewis, and Earthbound
We used to go to the Yale, and the Commadore a lot, and then there were also the Summer Super Sundays, and other multi band venues..that just do not happen anymore.
Robert Planet was by far the most absolute bestest ever.....
Le Hibou was to Ottawa what the Riverboat was to Toronto, I think.
Odetta
Christy Moore
Billy Bragg
B.B. King
Peggy Seeger and Ewan Maccoll
John Cephas and Phil Wiggins
Utah Phillips
Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band
Steve Earle
Taj Mahal
Ganga Giri
Leon Rosselson
Tommy Sands
Jerry Jeff Walker
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Makem and Clancy
Hoyt Axton
(I keep remembering more as the day goes on).
Never heard of it...
Strange, because CBC did a short-lived musical series called Le Hibou based on that coffee house.
Ad in window: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (I saw them perform there several times)
Great picture...but still have not.
But I suppose you have never heard of Gloria and Rich Hobson either.... ;)
Hint, there was a short lived CBC TV series on their lives
I indeed have never heard of Gloria and Rich Hobson or the Yale and the Commadore, sadly. Makes us realize what a big country this is!
Rolling Stones
The Who (with & without Keith Moon)
David Bowie
Iggy Pop
Lou Reed
Prince
Blondie
The Runaways (at the El Macambo!)
Robert Palmer
The Dead Boys
The Romantics
Richard Hell
The (English) Beat
The Police
Joe Jackson
Billy Bragg
Teenage Head (more times than I can remember, but including some of the best times I can hazily remember)
Crowbar
David Clayton Thomas and BST
Lighthouse
Chicago
The Band
Rush
Neil Young
Powder Blues
Downchild
David Wilcox
Ian Thomas Band
A Foot in Coldwater
April Wine
Mahogany Rush
The Hip (in a bar in Kingston, just before their first album was released)
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Doug and the Slugs
Greaseball Boogie Band/Shooter
Colin James
Jeff Healey
King Biscuit Boy
Blue Rodeo (and their earlier incarnation, The Sharks, which I loved)
Chilliwack
Martha and the Muffins
Bruce Cockburn
Murray McLaughlan
Gordon Lightfoot
Harmonium
Maneige
Cano
Buffy Sainte Marie
Joni Mitchell
Valdy
k.d. lang
Carole Pope/RT
Kim Mitchell/Max Webster
5 Man Electrical Band
Stampeders
Three Dog Night
Edgar Winter (my first 'big' concert, at Maple Leaf Gardens, with Bad Company opening)
Savoy Brown
George Thorogood
Todd Rundgren
Beach Boys (easily the worst, laziest big act I ever saw)
Shania Twain (the next worst, pandering throughout to the sappiest of her fans)
Jerry Lee Lewis
Chuck Berry
Harry Belafonte
Aretha Franklin
Madonna
Janet Jackson
Pointer Sisters
Tina Turner (at the Imperial Room launch of her 'comeback' tour, when 'Private Dancer' was just a curious British import single)
and there's more I can't recall right now....
Peter Gabriel (the worst sound I've experienced at a major concert)
Maria Muldaur
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Jerry Jeff Walker
...am I getting boring yet?
this is a great post that is bringing back memories. Here are a select few of the best i've seen
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
RUN DMC
Bane (in a house basement)
Misfits
Sick of it All
Rush
The Roots
Propagandhi (X10, i'm from winnipeg)
I Spy
Bruce Cockburn
Me Mom and Morgentaler
Roy Haynes
Dave Holland
Chris Potter
No Means No
Javier Conde
Small Brown Bike
It's actually really hard to remember all the shows i've been to, having played in a band for so long it's kind of a blur until someone mentions a band, then i'm like "oh yeah! i saw them in..."
Yeppers, boom boom and just like differing countries and their cultural differences, we too have the same, only under one huge umbrella.
The Yale is a great, strictly R&B.
The Commodore, is the best dance place ever, in part because of the bouncey floor...it is the "Fabulous Commodore Ballroom".
Temple Gardens was close for such a smaller city.
Where I now remember I saw Rick and the Ravens.
Too bad Moose Jawians were so short sighted and tore it down and turned it into a spa.
Rich and Gloria Hobson were portrayed in the CBC series Nothing to Good for a Cowboy, from the book The Rancher Takes a Wife. Gloria was fabulous, and am thankful Rich was dead by the time I met her.
Hmm live acts I have seen:
Joan Armatrading (16 times, last one was two years ago - caught her in Calgary one night in the 80s, and drove to Edmonton to see the show again the following evening [oh, are my fanbody tendencies showing?)
Billy Bragg (9 times)
Buffy Sainte Marie (4 times)
UB40
English Beat
Lou Reed
Odetta (couple of times)
Syliva Tyson
Richard Thompson (twice)
Kate and Anna McGarrigle (talk about lazy....)
Act I have most wanted to see and always missed (usually appears in Montreal just before or just after I arrive for a visit):
Pat Metheny
OMG LTJ, I forgot all about A Foot in Coldwater....your list reads pretty close to mine. ;)
And yes Bad Company did open for Edgar Winter
For instance, most recently:
Cyndi Lauper (heard more than saw, she was just over an inch high from my vantage point)
Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven
Art Brut
Sloan
K'naan! (Just brilliant.)
OMG LTJ, I forgot all about A Foot in Coldwater....your list reads pretty close to mine. ;)
I know - so much so that I copied yours to save much typing...
Ha!
...had to redo it too, as I lost it once when internet went down.
"make me do anything you want..." :D
Hear you on the Beach Boys, I just got a good glow on, so I could ignore them per se...
also Diana Krall, I missed, before she became such a huge success.
The last show I saw was Jeff Mangum who some may know as the former lead singer of Neutral Milk Hotel, which disabanded over 10 years ago. Mangum has never played since. I love that band with a passion and Mangum played a one night only show in New York City about a month ago. Best concert experience of my life.
Other bands I've seen:
-TV on the Radio
-Radiohead (3 times)
-The Hold Steady (at least 5 times)
-U2
-The Rolling Stones (at that SARS concert)
-Neil Young (twice)
-Pavement
-Sonic Youth (twice)
-Jay-Z
-The Antlers
-The Magnetic Fields
-Sigur Ros (3 times)
-Stereolab
-The Strokes (right before their first album was released and nobody,myself included, had ever heard of them)
-The National
that's all I can think of right now. I sometimes wish I was back in Toronto (or even better: NYC) where bands I like come far more often than my little town in Virginia...even though my town IS an indie rock mecca of sorts (which forgives it for also giving the world the Dave Matthews Band)...
Oh and I'll add that one of my regrets in life is never having gone to a Grateful Dead show when I had the chance. My brother saw them several dozen times...
I'm pretty sure I have heard more live music than recorded music. Average about once a week over 30 years.
Not so many big concerts though.
High points?
Pete Seeger, even if all(?!) he did was get Massey Hall scat singing along (part of the FFA concert).
Billy Bragg, Leon Rosselson, Peggy Seeger, Short Turn, Stan Rogers, Ken Bloom, Utah Phillips, Nancy White, the Whitelys, Les Balfa Freres, Gamble Rogers, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Jackie Washington, Taj Mahal, Peter Schickele, Anna Russell, Ladysmith Black Mombazo, The Friends of Fiddlers Green, Eileen MCGann, The McGarrigles, Wade Hemsworth, Ed McCurdy, Ali Akbar Khan, Artisan, Ian Bell, JIIG, Professor Piano and the Canadian Aces with the Honolulu Heartbreakers.
There's more but my memory is getting foggy on names.
I saw KISS last year at the blues festival at Lebreton flats, Ottawa. We were close to the stage, and it was loud. I would have traded that opportunity to see Santana this year though. My sister went while I minded the nephews. I saw Aerosmith at Joe Louis arena - their "back in the saddle" tour way back.Saw Tina Turner at Castle Farms, Michigan. Billy Idol another summer.
I really liked Parachute Club's Dancing at the feet of the moon. Haunting song and lyrics they were. It was a fun time for me. Their lead singer reminded me of my gf then.
Sounds like you guys above are real rock and blues fans though and been to more concerts than I have. Rock on!
CTRL F + Prine turns up only myself
You're all missing out on a treasure!
I have a few Prine albums, but have never seen him perform live. He's a gem. Concerts I had an opportunity to see, but for some reason I was prevented from getting there: Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, the Beach Boys, Bruce Cockburn, and the McGarrigles.
I also saw the band that later became Electric Light Orchestra, but can't remember their name.
The Move?
I saw John Prine at Mariposa at least once.
Very fine singer-songwriter.
Kulu Kulu Garden at the Biltmore. Awesome show with 4 other Japanese bands.
JROOTHAM
i am jealous that you got to see stan rogers. I still get shivers when i listen to his records. My parents were big into him back in the day and a few years ago i dug out some of his old records like home in halifax, fogarty's cove, between the breaks from their collection. That voice!
Like others, I went to lots of concerts and festivals in the "old days", including:
Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festival - 1972, 1973 - Highlights - Charlie Mingus, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Dr. John)
Festival Express - 1971 - Highlights - Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, The Band
Mariposa Folk Festival - 2 or 3 times on Toronto Island
Rock Hill Festival
A festival in Madoc, Ontario with local Ontario bands that was more or less broken up by bikers.
Beggars Banquets (3 full day festivals in Toronto) - Highlights - Edgar Winter, Beach Boys, Sha Na Na
The Monkees
Lighthouse (many times)
Crowbar (many times)
RUSH (highschool auditorium - they went to our school)
Seal
Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon, 1972 and their last concert in T.O. about 20 years ago)
Paul McCartney & Wings
The Who
Johnny Winter
Alice Cooper
Jefferson Starship in Berkeley
Mountain
CSNY
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels (El Mocambo)
The Amboy Dukes
Black Sabbath
Would have loved to have had Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, David Bowie, Bob Marley, The Cream, U2 and Michael Jackson on the list but alas.
When you saw the Monkees, was Jimi Hendrix still their opening act?
Multiple classical musicians though Jeunesse Musicale.
Toronto
Trooper
Crash Test Dummies
Moxy Fruvous
Barenaked Ladies
Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman
Bruce Cockburn
The Rankins
NB Symphony Orchestra with Sally Dibblee
Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
Rick McGhie
James Keeleghan
The Shaggy Dogs ( now Heckman and Downes)
The Leslie Spit Trio
Julia Propellor
Philip Thomson
David Myles
Brent Mason
Frances Helyar
Hot Toddy
Carew, Brees and Wilson
The Pardonbeggars
And many bands in university bars which I can't remember. Memory loss might be related to what was consumed in those locations.
I also saw the band that later became Electric Light Orchestra, but can't remember their name.
ETA: my mistake, I never saw The Move.
Most of the blues and folk acts I've seen were at the Le Hibou (Sussex Drive) coffee house in Ottawa before it closed in 1975. I started going there with my brother driving me, then after I got my driver's license. There's a number of musical acts that I did not list because I can't remember them clearly. The heyday of Le Hibou was definitely 1966 - 1972, although it started earlier and closed later. I think my favourite concerts were by Tim Hardin, Dion, and Rare Earth (at the Ottawa Civic Centre).
ETA: I saw the rock opera Godspell performed in Washington DC in 2001.
I also saw the band that later became Electric Light Orchestra, but can't remember their name.
The Move?
I remember seeing ELO. All I can remember of The Move is a poster I keep seeing in my head. I don't remember seeing them perform.
BTW, Yes and Alice Cooper opened for the Black Sabbath second album tour (Masters of Reality?) in Ottawa in 1971. I think that was the loudest concert I ever attended. Oh - and I added Mott The Hoople to my list!
ETA: In those early days of hard rock and metal, some bands were really careful to fulfill concert obligations, while some, for various reasons, couldn't make their scheduled concert dates. Thus, in Ottawa in the late 1960s and early 1970s, we had some weird concert combinations, thrown together at the last minute. I think putting Yes with Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper was one of those blips. Another was Mott The Hoople - they were supposed to perform with Queen, but Queen got stuck somewhere, I think Montreal - and another band - I forget who - filled in for them. But, basically, it was mostly an all-Hoople show, which was a good thing.
ETA: My brother played bass in an Ottawa band around 1965, can't remember the name, but I got to see them perform at Pineland several times with the Staccatos and other bands. I saw Five Man Electrical Band there later. The Ottawa Ex had a lot of bands providing free music in the daytime as well as expensive big name concerts in the evenings with the Beach Boys usually headlining. When CTV opened their first station in Ottawa (CJOH) I was there, my brother's band performed at a lot of their dances, as well as dances sponsored by Ottawa rock station CKOY. Heard a lot of small-time bands from all over Ontario in those days (1964 - 1968).
I think I can now confirm that I didn't see The Move perform, but a poster of their concert remains in my memory. I've edited a couple of my posts this morning as my memory gradually returns with regard to some concerts. Dang, living so far away from cities definitely has disadvantages - I'd love to get to some oldies concerts, especially the Stones' last concert tour next year.
Oh! I saw Anvil play live at a pub in Ottawa a number of years ago. It was a total suprise for me. I didn't even know they were a semi-serious rock band at the time.
I saw the Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, and 54-40 at Lansdowne another time.
You guys make me jealous. UB40? The English Beat? The Mothers of Invention? I saw Dweezil Zappa last year. I went to see the Saskatoon Symphony about a year before that. In 1997 I saw Dave Brubeck and Diana Krall, as well as the Saskatoon Klezmer Band opening for Finjan, a concert I MCd. I've seen the Robin Nolan Trio quite a few times. They used to play Manouche jazz, which I really liked, but have since splayed all over the place.
Hmm, I've seen Les Negresses Vertes, Ar Re Yaouank and Tri Yann (X2) in and around Nantes, where I also saw a string trio busking in the streets.
I heard Clifton Joseph doing his dub poetry at Black-a-Rama in Winnipeg, where I saw Teenage Head and the Boomtown Rats in '81.
I saw Peter Tosh (X2), Jimmy Cliff and Steel Pulse.
David Lindley, Dread Zeppelin, Deja Voodoo, The Dik Van Dykes, Jerry Jerry and his Sons of Rhythm Orchestra, The Gruesomes (x3), the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, Chixdiggit, The Forbidden Dimension.
The Selecter.
Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. Elvis is Everywhere!
When the Saskatoon Opera Company performed Carmen a few years back, I saw my distant cousin, Julie Nesrallah, sing the title role.
B.B King, Big Dave Maclean, Ellen McIlwaine, and a concert with J.J. Cale opening for Robert Cray. I had worked a graveyard shift on a drilling rig in Alberta the night before and driven to Saskatoon that day. I kept falling asleep throughout the two acts.
I saw a couple of guys who played with Muddy Waters, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and Calvin Jones, playing in an outfit known as The Legendary Blues Band. I hung around with them between sets at Buds on Broadway and was a wee bit disappointed to hear them talk about making music as a job. They talked like clock-watchers in a factory, just counting down how many tunes they had to play before quitting time.
In '78 I saw Herman's Hermits at the A-Four. One snag is that Peter Noone wasn't with them at the time. Does McLean and McLean count as a musical group? If not, well F--- ya.
Back when I was on the farm I saw The Canadian Brass and Valdy at the Anne Portnuff Theatre in Yorkton. Hmmm, Yorkton. At the Ex I saw Trooper (which was my first rock concert), as well as groups like Toronto and others of that ilk which I disremember.
I saw Al Hirt at Buffalo Days in Regina in '68.
In no particular order:
The Fixx
OMD
Nik Kershaw
Power Station
Teenage Head (at my high school!)
King Apparatus
Fishbone
Nine Inch Nails
Sisters of Mercy
The The
The Cranberries
Front 242
The Boredoms
Nirvana
Living Color
The Rolling Stones
Me, Mom & Morgentaler
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
The Cramps
Green Day
Bad Religion
The Sex Pistols
Bauhaus
The Tragically Hip
Holly Cole
Shonen Knife
Sons of Freedom
Meat Beat Manifesto
MC 900 ft. Jesus
Consolidated
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Lush
Babes in Toyland
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Kid Koala
Amon Tobin
Devo
The Dead Milkmen
Ladytron
Special Beat (member of the Specials and The English Beat)
The Skatellites
King Kobb Steelie
Kraftwerk
Ministry
Frank Black
The Ramones
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
The Wonder Stuff
And others that I have forgotten.
One I can't believe I forgot, because he's truly unforgettable: Jonathan Richman, a half-dozen times, both with and without various incarnations of the Modern Lovers.
I know a guy who drove hours and hours (radio on) over hundreds of miles, forded rivers, climbed mountains and crawled across deserts, just to see a Jonathan Richman concert. Afterwards he asked Richman for an autograph. Richman said, "Naw, I don't do that."
When my daughter was six months old, my wife and I packed her up and went for a picnic at the Lilac Dell near Cootes Paradise, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton. It was a glorious sunny day, but because it was a Monday hardly anyone was around at 11:30 a.m. We walked into a secluded grove of lilacs and met Yo-Yo Ma, who was playing one of the Bach unaccompanied suites for cello. He had a film crew with him and was seated on a trolley that ran along a semi-circular track as he sawed away in time to a recorded background. We sat with the butterfly wrangler, who had a large aluminum photography case packed with coolant slabs. Every once in a while he would lift out a few of the sluggish butterflies, warm them up, then set them loose to flutter winsomely about Mr Ma. We stayed for half an hour, and were amazed by the cellist's stamina. He rewarded my daughter with a wink as we left. I've told her this story till she's sick of it.
Standout concerts I've heard not mentioned here so far:
The Kinks at Massey Hall (far and away the best live show ever); George Thorogood; Van Cliburn; Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen; the great Richard Knechtel; John Sebastian; Leon Redbone; John Cougar Mellencamp (most ear-splitting show ever); George Harrison at MLG; Jacksoul (RIP Haydain); Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir; the Rheostatics; Canned Heat (a travesty, really, since only Fito de la Parra, the second drummer for the group was an "original", but it just felt so good when they launched into Work Together); Magic Slim and the Teardrops: two sets of tedium followed by one of incandescent fury and brilliance; Tamarack; Robert Cray; Ray Davies solo at the Music Hall on the Danforth; Spirit of the West; County Vaudeville, as close as we'll get in these degenerate days to Flanders and Swann;Washington, Whitely, and Scarlett; a deathly pale balding Englishman with a National guitar named Bob Greenwood who sounds nothing like Robert Johnson but made my spine tingle when he sang his songs: the power came over him; wait, maybe the best live show was Vladimir Horowitz at Massey Hall.
I have seen so many musicians over the years I could never remember or list them all.
Also , I ran a rehersal studio for 8 years. I heard and played in so much music. Fuck, if I could live my life like that forever, it would be like heaven.
When you saw the Monkees, was Jimi Hendrix still their opening act?
Unfortunately no. That would have been something. I think he did open for them in Toronto at another venue.
And you saw the Amboy Dukes? Was Ted Nugent acting like the Nuge then, or was he just another guy with a guitar?
DOA is coming here in October. I'd like to add them to my list.