Your Favorite Big Shows and Favorite Small Shows

[twoshedsjackson]

Oh, I know it wasn't you - he must have had a crappy seat and was wandering all through the front few rows trying to push in between people. I actually had to threaten him to make him leave.

 

I don't recall an elderly woman - other than that one altercation I was pretty much riveted by the performance.

[twoshedsjackson]

By the way, RaspberryJam, are you still planning on hitting the DBT/Blitzen Trapper show on Tuesday?

[tinnitus photography]

I know the original post specified 3 shows of each size, but it's so hard to narrow it down, i'll go to 4.

 

Big shows:

 

- The Who/The Clash, Shea Stadium, 1982

this was the first farewell tour the Who did, and little did i know i'd see two more incarnations of them saying goodbye. but what a rush...i was in 10th grade, and this shit was happening. a high school friend of mine and i went down to NYC w/ his older brother, who ended up bribing some security guy to get us out onto the field in GA...our original seats were horrible, obstructed view behind home plate.  David Johansen was a decent opener, but The Clash was a huge band for me and I'm so glad I got to see them w/ Mick in the lineup (I'd see the Cut The Crap tour a couple of years later and that was OK but nowhere close to this show). The Who killed it as well...fond memories of that trip.

 

- U2 @ The Centrum, 1983

Saw them on the War tour, and though i don't see too many stadium bands, U2 has always been able to deliver a performance that belies the size of the venue, in terms of connecting to the audience, like pulling some cute girl out of the crowd and onto the stage for "Party Girl". set list: http://www.u2gigs.com/show534.html

 

- Neil Young @ Great Woods, 1986

this was the first time seeing Neil, and we scored great seats by buying the day of the show...got some unused handicap seats. seeing two versions of Mr Soul (he opened w/ teh Trans version, and later played the Buff Spfld one) was fantastic, and he went pretty deep into his catalog despite being in the midst of the dreaded Geffen years.

 

- Radiohead @ Comcast Center, 2012

Not really fair to call this a big show, because my friend lucked out and got pit tickets for us. so we were just a few yards away from Thom and co. i'd seen the band twice before, from much larger distances, but being that close was something else. 

 

honorable mention - seeing Cheap Trick on the Dream Police tour.

 

 

 

Small shows...for the sake of argument, i'll define a small show as one that's under 200 ppl

 

Robyn Hitchcock @ TT's, 1990. 

this was a secret show, announced by Robyn the preceding night when he played at Berklee. i figured i'd see a lot of the same people at the smaller show so i got there early to make sure i got in, but i guess it being a Sunday night, people weren't as eager to see a second dose. what a mistake! he played a ton of stuff, including Soft Boys songs and a beautiful reading of "Across The Universe". I went full gaga into Hitchcock's oeuvre a year or two before this, and seeing him up close like this was really life-changing for me.

 

No-Neck Blues Band @ Poon Village, 1998.

Through a friend of mine, my wife and i got invited to this show, held at the apt bldg of Kristen Anderson who along w/ Jimmy Johnson runs Forced Exposure. we'd been to a previous show (Michael Hurley and Sunburned Hand of the Man) a year or two before, but this was outside on the roof deck, and the glorious freeform splatter of this collective filled the Boston air w/ energy; though Boston has a pretty modest skyline, looking at it from Charlestown while this shit was getting dealt out was pretty cool. unfortunately the cops showed up and shut everything down. they ended up releasing it: http://www.discogs.com/No-Neck-Blues-Band-The-The-Birth-Of-Both-Worlds/release/647231

 

Pavement @ Middle East upstairs, 1991

one of the great mysteries of my life is why I'd only seen Pavement on their first and last tours, despite being a massive fan throughout. anyway, i was fortunate enough to see them prior to S&E coming out, and they played the ME room when there were still tables in the space. Gary Young was hanging outside before the show, near the door. "YOU GUYS COMING TO SEE THE ROCK SHOW TONIGHT?" he barked out to my wife and I as we approached the venue. this was pre-internet, and i had no idea who he was...figured he was part of the homeless contingent that's a constant of Central Square. imagine our surprise when we see him behind the drum kit later that night, botching stick flips and demanding a constant stream of shots to be brought to the stage. after the show, i bought a copy of the Summer Babe 7" from Malkmus that just came out...it was funny seeing them years later at a much larger Agganis on their reunion tour, and SM asked the audience if anyone had seen that first Boston show they did. I didn't see any other arms in the air aside from my wife's.

 

Tar/Wonderful Subdivision ('92?) @ Middle East upstairs

The date is a guess, but it's somewhere around there as I think it was before Tar had signed to Touch and Go. anyway, the opening band was basically a Lou-less Sebadoh, with Jason and Bob being joined by Conrad Capistran (head honcho of In Your Ear records, and who (along w/ Fay) turned me onto a ton of great music when i moved to Boston) on vocals. they were the world's first (and only) Drunks With Guns cover band, and it fucking ruled. Tar got there as their van hit a deer on the way down from Montreal, but they had enough time to play a set brimming with power and precision. that's one band i would really want to see again, but aside from a one-off in Chicago a couple of summers ago, that's been it. btw, Sebadoh would later play "Punched In The Head" when i saw them later at The Paradise, w/ Polvo opening.

 

honorable mention - seeing Sleep soundcheck in a rehearsal room at Roadburn in 2012. that was fuggin' awesome.

[RaspberryJam]

By the way, RaspberryJam, are you still planning on hitting the DBT/Blitzen Trapper show on Tuesday?

I wish, but no.  New Haven is kind of far for a Tuesday night.

[moxiebean]

Big show (I've only been to a handful that were decent so I'll go with the best of the lot):

 

U2 at the Spectrum, Unforgettable Fire tour, Spring 1985

 

Small shows:

 

Pixies at City Gardens, Doolittle tour, Fall 1989 (and two nights later at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA.)

Big Audio Dynamite at the Bayou, 1987(?)

Living Colour/Soul Asylum, Chestnut Cabaret, 1988

[Shug]

Aerosmith & Guns 'n' Roses @ Great Woods, August '88. G 'n' R played maybe the loosest, tightest, most dangerous set I've ever seen. It was everything good about rock and roll.

I was at this show.  Living in Boston for just a year, I saw among other shows, my 2nd thru 7th Dead shows in a week (Hartford and Worcester in Spring '88).  For the Aerosmith show, some dudes who were friends of co worker and worked at a ticketmaster outlet scored a bunch of up front tickets as they did for almost every rock show and there happened to be an extra for a weird West Coast hippie (me).  So we were 4th row or so, the first time I had been that close at a big venue.  Guns n Roses absolutely destroyed that place, it was fan-fucking-tastic.  Prior to the show I had thought they were probably much tamer in real life than their image suggested.  Once they hit the stage and were a song or two in, I had no doubts that all I'd heard about them was true and that what they presented was their actual selves, not an act or image.  So glad I caught them live for the very brief period in which they peaked.

[Lammycat]

Caught GnR in '90 twice. While the line up had shifted a bit, they were still great shows.

[Shug]

Favorite small show:

Georgia Satellites – The Channel Club, Boston 1987
A hot summer night in this sweatbox of a dark dive, the Satellites brought a true and sincere 1980s version of turbo-charged Chuck Berry via the Stones and Faces three-chord rock ‘n roll: simple no frills barroom music without pretense for a packed crowd.  I’m not much into mosh pits and punk rock, but I left this show soaked to the skin in sweat and spilled beer (both mine and other people’s on both accounts) after beind smashed in with a bunch of hooligan rock fans all night and I totally loved it.  Rock ‘n’ Roll nirvana for me.

 

Favorite Large show (stadium or big festival)

4.   Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan - Anaheim 1987
My first Grateful Dead show was one of the most overwhelming for me.  I was already a hardcore fan of Dylan whom I’d not even consider missing at any Southern California show AND I’d always wondered what those bumper stickers meant that said “There Is Nothing Like A Grateful Dead concert”.  Their records certainly hadn’t impressed me at that point, but I loved that they covered Dylan a lot in their shows.  I went with a couple of veteran Deadheads who seemed to be able to pull out of their bag anything that my stoned little head and heart desired at the exact moment I wanted it. Let’s just say I was in a “receptive” mood and time and place in my life for the Grateful Dead trip and I took it hook, line and sinker, thinking this experience had been waiting for me my entire life.  It felt like arriving back home to a place I didn’t even know I had originated at or had ever left, a shining golden palace with a bunch of friendly strangers welcoming the prodigal son.  And that was before my Deadhead hosts passed out the vitamin B12 pills for extra stamina right before Dylan took the stage for the third set to play a bunch of songs I’d never dreamed I’d get to hear live backed by The Dead.  The way the entire stadium was rocking out at the end of the night to a massive triumphant celebratory Touch Of Grey was a mind-blowing capper.  “Where’s the next show?!”

[twoshedsjackson]

I was at this show. Living in Boston for just a year, I saw among other shows, my 2nd thru 7th Dead shows in a week (Hartford and Worcester in Spring '88). For the Aerosmith show, some dudes who were friends of co worker and worked at a ticketmaster outlet scored a bunch of up front tickets as they did for almost every rock show and there happened to be an extra for a weird West Coast hippie (me). So we were 4th row or so, the first time I had been that close at a big venue. Guns n Roses absolutely destroyed that place, it was fan-fucking-tastic. Prior to the show I had thought they were probably much tamer in real life than their image suggested. Once they hit the stage and were a song or two in, I had no doubts that all I'd heard about them was true and that what they presented was their actual selves, not an act or image. So glad I caught them live for the very brief period in which they peaked.

Wow, small world! I didn't have great seats, but it ended up being a very memorable night. I was wandering around after G'n'R's set and bumped into Slash. He commented on my Motörhead shirt (it had UK dates as I had just moved back to the US two months prior). He brought me backstage and we ended up talking music during Aerosmith's set. Really cool guy. He kept pouring us both Jack and Cokes. When I eventually got back to my seat my friends wondered how I got loaded (I was 18). I don't think they really believed me until I got my film developed a few days later.

[Cam Jones]

BIG SHOW- Roger Waters the Wall live at Fenway in Boston. Visually it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Unreal. 

 

SMALL SHOW - Kevin Devine at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. A tiny venue, held about 150 people, everyone just hanging on every word this guy sang. You could hear a pin drop. After the show they immediately kicked us all out for a late night DJ Dance night. Drunk ladies EVERYWHERE  

[The Inside of Outside]

Favorite small show:

Georgia Satellites – The Channel Club, Boston 1987

A hot summer night in this sweatbox of a dark dive, the Satellites brought a true and sincere 1980s version of turbo-charged Chuck Berry via the Stones and Faces three-chord rock ‘n roll: simple no frills barroom music without pretense for a packed crowd.  I’m not much into mosh pits and punk rock, but I left this show soaked to the skin in sweat and spilled beer (both mine and other people’s on both accounts) after beind smashed in with a bunch of hooligan rock fans all night and I totally loved it.  Rock ‘n’ Roll nirvana for me.

 

Favorite Large show (stadium or big festival)

4.   Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan - Anaheim 1987

My first Grateful Dead show was one of the most overwhelming for me.  I was already a hardcore fan of Dylan whom I’d not even consider missing at any Southern California show AND I’d always wondered what those bumper stickers meant that said “There Is Nothing Like A Grateful Dead concert”.  Their records certainly hadn’t impressed me at that point, but I loved that they covered Dylan a lot in their shows.  I went with a couple of veteran Deadheads who seemed to be able to pull out of their bag anything that my stoned little head and heart desired at the exact moment I wanted it. Let’s just say I was in a “receptive” mood and time and place in my life for the Grateful Dead trip and I took it hook, line and sinker, thinking this experience had been waiting for me my entire life.  It felt like arriving back home to a place I didn’t even know I had originated at or had ever left, a shining golden palace with a bunch of friendly strangers welcoming the prodigal son.  And that was before my Deadhead hosts passed out the vitamin B12 pills for extra stamina right before Dylan took the stage for the third set to play a bunch of songs I’d never dreamed I’d get to hear live backed by The Dead.  The way the entire stadium was rocking out at the end of the night to a massive triumphant celebratory Touch Of Grey was a mind-blowing capper.  “Where’s the next show?!”

 

Loved the Georgia Satellites - underrated and, unfortunately, known usually for a fairly corny song. They could genuinely rock it out. And that Dead/Dylan story is a hoot.

 

Wow, small world! I didn't have great seats, but it ended up being a very memorable night. I was wandering around after G'n'R's set and bumped into Slash. He commented on my Motörhead shirt (it had UK dates as I had just moved back to the US two months prior). He brought me backstage and we ended up talking music during Aerosmith's set. Really cool guy. He kept pouring us both Jack and Cokes. When I eventually got back to my seat my friends wondered how I got loaded (I was 18). I don't think they really believed me until I got my film developed a few days later.

 

Pretty cool life event for an 18-year old!

 

BIG SHOW- Roger Waters the Wall live at Fenway in Boston. Visually it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Unreal. 

 

SMALL SHOW - Kevin Devine at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. A tiny venue, held about 150 people, everyone just hanging on every word this guy sang. You could hear a pin drop. After the show they immediately kicked us all out for a late night DJ Dance night. Drunk ladies EVERYWHERE  

 

Drunk ladies EVERYWHERE - great name for a band.

[IRememberDBoon]

haha I love the the only show in the last 20 years is the Radiohead show

[tinnitus photography]

Wow, small world! I didn't have great seats, but it ended up being a very memorable night. I was wandering around after G'n'R's set and bumped into Slash. He commented on my Motörhead shirt (it had UK dates as I had just moved back to the US two months prior). He brought me backstage and we ended up talking music during Aerosmith's set. Really cool guy. He kept pouring us both Jack and Cokes. When I eventually got back to my seat my friends wondered how I got loaded (I was 18). I don't think they really believed me until I got my film developed a few days later.

awesome.

[PopTodd]

Oh yeah, and I saw Wilco's first-ever show at Lounge Ax.

Was it their first-ever show, period, or was that in St. Louis? Whether it was or not, it was damn close.

Anyway, it was my second show of the night, as I high-tailed it over to LAx right from a Pegboy show at The Vic, earlier that night. Tweedy opened the show with a solo/acoustic set. I remember him opening with "Gun" and then he did a few more tunes, before introducing the band.

It was a good show. But, IMO, the acoustic stuff was the highlight, as I was never blown away by any of the A.M. stuff.

Still, super happy to be there, as I was always a huge UT fan.

[froggie]

Oh yeah, and I saw Wilco's first-ever show at Lounge Ax.

Was it their first-ever show, period, or was that in St. Louis? Whether it was or not, it was damn close.

Anyway, it was my second show of the night, as I high-tailed it over to LAx right from a Pegboy show at The Vic, earlier that night. Tweedy opened the show with a solo/acoustic set. I remember him opening with "Gun" and then he did a few more tunes, before introducing the band.

It was a good show. But, IMO, the acoustic stuff was the highlight, as I was never blown away by any of the A.M. stuff.

Still, super happy to be there, as I was always a huge UT fan.

 

ciceros in st louis was the first (17 nov). the lounge ax was on the 23rd. the lounge ax is a better one!

[PopTodd]

ciceros in st louis was the first (17 nov). the lounge ax was on the 23rd. the lounge ax is a better one!

Yeah, I thought I remembered hearing that.

Makes sense.

[IRememberDBoon]

PopTodd that funny because I think I found AM last out of all of the albums but when I listen to it I love every single song on that album. They just seem so perfectly crafted to me and I guess it was the guy from The Bottle Rockets that played all of those solos?? SO GREAT!
To me that album is when I switched from being a mostly jamband guy to loving the SONG. Of course I was always a Dylan freak but I really don't listen to much jamband crap anymore. Except Phish of course

When I first found AM I was in the middle of a huge software project and I seriously probably listened to it 500 times in a row.
I mean whats not to love??

 

[PopTodd]

PopTodd that funny because I think I found AM last out of all of the albums but when I listen to it I love every single song on that album. They just seem so perfectly crafted to me and I guess it was the guy from The Bottle Rockets that played all of those solos?? SO GREAT!

To me that album is when I switched from being a mostly jamband guy to loving the SONG. Of course I was always a Dylan freak but I really don't listen to much jamband crap anymore. Except Phish of course

 

When I first found AM I was in the middle of a huge software project and I seriously probably listened to it 500 times in a row.

I mean whats not to love??

 

 

I guess that, at the time, I was in more of an experimental phase. Although, I still did love Uncle Tupelo (the band that taught ME to love the song and not just the jamming). AM just sounded, to me at the time, like a bar band. A GOOD bar band, but still a bar band and not the weathered, grizzled heartland warriors that UT and Son Volt sounded like. 

But, coming back to it, those are some pretty good songs.

[Shug]

Wow, small world! I didn't have great seats, but it ended up being a very memorable night. I was wandering around after G'n'R's set and bumped into Slash. He commented on my Motörhead shirt (it had UK dates as I had just moved back to the US two months prior). He brought me backstage and we ended up talking music during Aerosmith's set. Really cool guy. He kept pouring us both Jack and Cokes. When I eventually got back to my seat my friends wondered how I got loaded (I was 18). I don't think they really believed me until I got my film developed a few days later.

Getting to drink backstage with Slash is an awesome story.  Dude, you scored!

[worldrecordplayer]

I'm going to assume "big" includes arenas (MSG, etc.) on up to stadiums and outdoor festivals, and "small" includes theaters (Beacon, Orpheum) on down, here's some of what I would include:

 

Big:

 

Any number of Dead shows, but these are always at the top of my list, including Roosevelt Stadium 1974 and 1976, MSG 9-20-90, the 1991 Boston Garden run, and the 2 May '77 shows I saw (St. Louis and Hartford). 

Any number of Phish shows, including shows at Worcester Centrum, Great Woods, Boston Garden

Every year I went to Jazz Fest

Every Solid Sound

 

Small (impossible to list only 3, this list will be obnoxiously long):

 

definitely small venue shows would include:

 

B52's and Talking Heads at Central Park and Berklee Performance Center (August '79)

Ramones upstairs at Max's Kansas City

X at the Channel

English Beat at the Channel

Lucinda at Lupos

Los Lobos at Lupos and many places

The Original Meters at the Howlin' Wolf

REM, Harvard gym

 

Theater shows:

 

every Hot Tuna show at the Academy of Music and Capital Theater, '73-75

Allmans with Clapton, Beacon, 3-19-09

Wilco, Orpheum, "Evening With" tour

Wilco, Avalon

Clash, Orpheum (London Calling tour)

New Order, Boston Opera House

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense tour, and many others

Dead, Uptown Theater, November '78

Replacements, Orpheum and elsewhere

 

Sorry for the list, there are surely others I'm forgetting.

Having beers with a buddy this week, and we remembered probably the most significant "small" show I saw was The Cure at the Underground in Boston, in front of maybe 50 people.

[Yaz Rock]

I'm going to interpret "small shows" to be bar-type venues with room for a hundred or two people, max... with "medium shows" represented by the Bowery Ballrooms/Irving Plazas of the world, up to several-thousand seat theaters... And "big shows" as stadium/arenas.

 

Big shows:
Pearl Jam - 10/31/09 Last show at the Spectrum - hits, rarities, 1st-time plays.... This show had it all
Pearl Jam - 7/19/13 Wrigley Field - monster setlist, some rare stuff, some brand new stuff, and everything in-between, and an epic rain-delay.

 

I might also throw Solid Sound 2013 in there as well, though that might fall in the high-end of "medium shows."

 

 

Small shows:

Three Fish - 6/11/99 - Wetlands Preserve, NYC - awesome PJ side-project in real small venue.
Soul Asylum - 9/12/99 Maxwell's, New Jersey - similar setlist to the night before in NYC, but extended with some rare stuff/covers, including a three song encore I've yet to hear them try to replicate. Opening acts incldued a rare set from the O'Jeez, and Michal who seemed like she might be on her way up to something bigger at the time..

Rhett Miller, w/ Ben Kweller opening - May 28, 2001 - Fez, NYC - BK was relatively unknown still, though I had caught him opening for Jeff Tweedy a few months earlier, and followed that up with some other solo gigs. I think he really impressed some people this night too. Rhett had to play a top-notch set that night to reassert himself!

[IRememberDBoon]

Nice Yaz! Wetlands was fun. I went there for a Babatunde Olantunji show way back in 89.
One of my first times in NYC and I knew I wasn't in Virginia anymore

[Moss]

Without giving it too much thought some that come to mind:

 

Big - I kind of stopped going to big shows after a multitude of those "day on the green" type shows with Van Halen, Metallica, etc...  I just so vastly prefer the small club shows.  But there are a few exceptions:

 

Bridge school shows - Used to go every year until I moved to Colorado.  One memory sticks out, Ministry doing an acoustic show and ending with the theme from midnight cowboy.

 

Roger Waters - Always a good time.  Saw the DSOTM  and Wall tours.

 

McCartney - Amazing shows always

 

Replacements at Riot Fest last year - A dream come true.

 

 

Smaller:

 

Pearl Jam - 10/31/93 Berkeley greek theatre - They were just so intense back then and not the commercial juggernaut they became.  Trible bill with Henry Rollins and American Music club.  Scored one of Mike McCready's guitar picks.

 

Paul Westerberg - 2005 in Denver - Tons of Replacements songs, he had injured his leg that day and was in the emergency room.  Dropped his pants to show the audience his injury and proceeded to play a song until a roadie ran out and pulled them back up.

 

Gang of Four - 2005 - Again, a band with intensity.  They had the crowd from the first note.

 

Guided by voices - 2003 - The opposite of intense, just a big party.  Pollard handed me one of his budweisers from the stage.

 

Thom Yorke - Solo acoustic in a park in San Francisco just after Pablo Honey came out.  Nobody really knew anything about him except the song Creep was getting airplay.

[remphish1]

Cool...tell me more about the Thom Yorke show..setlist anything else?

 

 

Thom Yorke - Solo acoustic in a park in San Francisco just after Pablo Honey came out.  Nobody really knew anything about him except the song Creep was getting airplay.

[Moss]

 

Cool...tell me more about the Thom Yorke show..setlist anything else?

 

 

Thom Yorke - Solo acoustic in a park in San Francisco just after Pablo Honey came out.  Nobody really knew anything about him except the song Creep was getting airplay.

 

 

You know, I barely remember.  It was in Justin Herman plaza (same place U2 got in trouble for spray painting a sculpure during a show) and was one of those free radio station sponsored events (Live 105), July 11, 1993.  I remember the mighty mighty bosstones were there and the trashcan sinatras.

 

 I found the setlist online for Yorke:

 

Sing a song for you (Tim Buckley cover)

Thinking about you

Killer cars

Creep

 

I could have easily gone up and chatted with him I'm sure but it never occurred to me.  Nobody had any idea what Radiohead would become at that point.