If this has been asked before, search couldn't find it. I've had the opportunity to see a couple of shows recently, which is out of the ordinary because musicians don't come through my current location very often. So it got me thinking.
Mine is, by far, Titus Andronicus at Emo's Austin, my favorite venue of all time. I'm pretty damn sure it was this show, actually. I think my hands are in there a couple times. Watching that brings me right back. Wow. Here's the opener. That was the best crowd I've had the privilege of being a part of, which was completely par for the course at Emo's before it closed/moved.
Titus, aside from being utterly insane, puts on a fantastic show, walking the line between faithful renditions for familiarity and crazy improvs for kicks. They love what they do and it shows. Their particular brand of indie punk translates so well live -- we went from dancing and screaming to spellbound rapture in a heartbeat, depending on what they were playing.
A friend of mine says watching "the XX" live was a completely sensual experience. I don't know, I haven't watched many live shows. I really should get out more. Damn, what I would give to see this guy live though. Talk about one man band! And look at him shred! And when he pulls out the eight stringer.. oh man.
Okay, wait a minute. They've been hiding the 21st century's answer to Jimi. All he needs is a headband. EDIT: okay, I just paused Firefly -- yeah -- and watched that whole thing. I want to mail him my life's savings. I haven't been this excited about a musician since I discovered Ben Gibbard had done a previous one-off project.
I KNOW! I KNOW! I was reading my super cool local Seattle arts magazine, and the cover story was about the year's best [local] new music. I had gone through just about all of them, but instead of an interview, article, etc. for all the other artists Reign Wolf's was a comic. I felt it was overdone, maybe even a little overhyped, so I put him off until last. Damn was I wrong. Everything the comic showed, while for nearly everyone else would be overhyping, for this guy it didn't even live up to him! This guy.. this guy is pure talent! And his guitars.. dat pitch black Gibson archtop.. Here's a scan of the comic I took: I thought "Sacrifice of a strat? Come on, that's ridiculous. And come on, no one sweats that much." Boy, was I wrong. I specifically told my friend "this guy is.. better than Jimi Hendrix!" Jimi Hendrix, Modest Mouse, Pearl Jam, and this guy.. I don't ever want to leave Seattle EDIT: Sadly, as of this writing, I think the website's down. It should be back up soon though.
Then I have but one thing to say: enjoy it. EDIT: And don't rush it, it's like the world's most addicting drug, and after you finish? You get withdrawal symptoms for life. And please, don't be the kind of person that goes "we want firefly back!". It's an immature thing to say.. It's been a decade, the actors have moved on. Joss has moved on. In fact, while to some saying this is sacrilege, the truth is the only reason why it's so great was because it was killed in it's most beautiful, most prime. Our image of it is perfect, because it was never soiled. It's crystalized in our mind as the perfect, incorruptible story. Let's keep pit that way. Joss has even said this himself multiple times. And stay away from the community until you're done. It's a great (well, fairly great. When you don't get new discussion material for a decade, there really isn't much to say. It's really just "hey! Check out this T-Shirt!" or "I got the Blu Ray today!". It's just showing off merchandise. Even the fan fiction has stopped being written) community but there are many many spoilers. Don't spoil it for yourself. Man, I put too much info in my parentheses.
Toy store in elementary. Book store in high school. Convenience store in college while learning to mix (Pinwheel was mixed at Fairhaven at WWU), nightclubs in college while learning biomechanical engineering, then audiovisual consultant/acoustician while learning screenwriting, location/post sound while writing a novel. Ain't that atypical, I just tell stories more than most.
For some reason they all involve destruction. Ministry at Lollapalooza 2 in Dallas. They refused to go on until it was dark, which meant a 2-hour delay between Pearl Jam and them. The natives were getting restless. Bonfires were breaking out all over the grass. Some of the skaters discovered that if you get a whole bunch of people on a blanket you can launch people into the air. Some of the preppies also discovered this by getting on the skaters' blankets, at which point the skaters launched them into the air to land... not on the blankets. There were ambulances and police. Then Ministry came on stage and, with Gibby Haynes instead of Paul Barker, launched into an incredble, post-apocalyptic vision of Just One Fix. Crash Worship, ADRV tour. Mixed that. We had to cover the entire club in visqueen because they sprayed the audience with flour, wine, honey, bodily fluids, gawd knows what. There has never been a Crash Worship show that wasn't stopped by the cops. Tchkung! opened for them; that was the first and last time we've had fully-automatic AK-47s loaded with blanks in the club. They sprayed the audience with burning fake dollar bills with George Bush's face on them. Jane's Addiction & Chainsaw Kitten at the Albuquerque convention center. Three Days was s 25-minute solo and halfway through, someone ripped a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed down the audience. We thought we were being gassed. Front 242, 1998. Ran lights for. JL Demeyer had the audience bouncing so much the racks were swaying side-to-side a good foot. I had to hold them up to keep them from crashing onto Patric C, who was mixing. We were fully convinced they were going to collapse the floor; it was membraning a good 6" up and down. Queensryche, the Empire tour. First and last time Queensryche did Operation:Mindcrime in its entirety. We'd sort of moved on to other things by then but hot damn, those guys knew how to play. And sing. Geoff Tate remains an insurmountable wall of talent. White Zombie, Pantera and Drown, again at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Simply because I've never seen that much violence at a show before or since. I did have a fuckin' killer mix for Razed in Black. They were touring with Switchblade Symphony, who were bitchez. So I mixed the fuck out of Razed in Black. Almost got their energy up with the Front 242 show. Then F'ing Switchblade came on stage with a lame-ass coked-out rendition of Dissolve and the room emptied. It was awesome. So many stories. At least I can't say I wasted my youth.
Two years ago now (I think) I caught a simply breathtaking performance by Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. I thought I was going to see a nostolgia piece by a quirky, talented performer who hopefully still had some chops left. What I got was one of the best shows of my life. Hitchcock sang and played guitar, and delivered every song with not only the skill, but the absolute light as air effortlessness of a veteran who only knows one thing. I hadn't bothered to even look up his band, but was pleasantly surprised to see Peter Buck on stage as a member. That was my first clue that I might be in for more than I expected. In short order, I was blown away by each musician in turn, playing mostly songs I was not familiar with (Hitchcock's catalog is enormous, and I never acquainted myself with his work with this band in particular). I was just shaking my head at the guitar work, the bass, the melodies, the melodies RH was playing while singing so perfectly.
About halfway through the set they started playing a beautiful ballad called New York Doll that Hitchcock wrote after seeing the documentary by the same name about Arthur Kane, the band's bassist. As the drummer switched over to brushes and started playing along, I was just fucking floored by how tasteful and quiet and perfect it was. I was blown away by what he wasn't doing just as much as what he was. I had never done this before in my life, by I had to pull out my phone mid song and find out who this drummer was, - I was that moved by how understated and beautiful his playing was. The drummer for Ministry you saw on stage in 1992? Yeah. Same guy. To discover that fact against the backdrop of that beautiful, serene moment...was pretty cool. He's definitely married to his craft, first and foremost.
Little story about Bill. Bill went to Roosevelt High, same as half the awesome people in the entertainment industry#Notable_alumni), same as a lot of my friends. As such, he's a known quantity. Or, at least he is, if you know who he is. He's a decidedly unassuming man. One of the first shows I worked for money was the Swans' Soundtracks for the Blind farewell tour - they called it quits for 13 years after that because Michael Gira and Jarboe couldn't stand each other. And I've got the monitors dialed up and I'm checking my lights while they're doing a good'n'proper Swans-ey dirge and this dude in a black sport coat and wool scarf, probably in his 50s, walks in. He stands next to me and proceeds to strip-tease. Mike Gira cracks up, the song stops, and he says "you asshole." Then he gets into the mic and says "Bill Rieflin, ladies and gentlemen." I turn to him and say "You're Bill Rieflin?" He says "Most days." "I drove four thousand miles to see you play with Ministry twice." "I'm sorry." "No, you guys were awesome! It was fuckin' rad." "Those pricks still owe me money." * * * There are a lot of nice people in music, industrial/goth included. Bill Rieflin is definitely one of them. When he started touring with REM everyone in town went UP-GRADE!
This is one of my favorite stories, actually. I went to Coachella is 2010, and honestly while it was all one of the greatest experiences of my life, one set really stood out. It was the last year where the event was incredibly popular, but not to the levels it is last year and this year. Everyone we saw was astounding and segmented into each stage with a good group of people, but never seemingly too many. Anyone the set that completely set apart from the rest was Jónsi from Sigur Rós. We had been standing in that group for almost an entire day, partly due to it having the best line up, and partly because the day ended with Thom Yorke with Atoms for Peace (Probably just a few weeks after they took on the name; they were still billed as '????' on the posters) and they wanted to be as close to the stage as possible for it. We had a set from Sunny Day Real Estate first. They set the mood for everything. The sky was bright and vibrant with desert colors, and the lead singer in the middle of their incredible show said a fantastic quote: "it's a beautiful day to play sad songs." I've been a fan of them for a long time, and I knew what they'd all been through lately. He'd been fighting depression for a long time, and had found religion- a bit too strongly for his band mates for a few years- and had the band break up, their bassist had become very successful with the Foo Fighters, but this was the first time they'd played together for years, and you could see just how happy they were to be back together in their faces. It was wonderful. They were followed by Deer Hunter, and then The xx (who, during their set I met Jay-Z from standing in front of me, as well having the stage next to us catch fire to give the sky an even better glow) before Jónsi took the stage and set up. At this point the sun was starting to go set behind the stage, the air was almost completely still, and I was in the front row of what was a crowd of 10,000 people, almost all of them there for Thom Yorke who came up next. I have never seen so much energy or pure joy of music from another show before or since. The drummer was completely into it. He had a huge grin the whole show, the percussionists were enjoying all the unique instruments they played back and forth, and the bassist was his boyfriend Alex Somers, who clearly loved just being there with him. Nearing the end of the set the crowd had grown substantially, and the focus was more on the set than before, but you could feel the energy of the crowd wasn't fully there as much as it was for my friends and me. At this point he launched into the most emotional musical experience I have even had. He began playing a song from his album called "Grow Till Tall" (which, if you have not heard, I highly fucking suggest listening to it to fully understand this event.) The demeanor of the whole band was totally different when the song started. They were completely there for the music, as a set for Jón to release everything. He was in the jacket that he wore on the cover of the album and an extravagant Icelandic headdress. The song involves a lot of complex tonal shifts from foot pedals for the vocals and works in glorious harmony with the drums and some electronic percussion. Every piece fits together beautifully and grows to a massive crescendo towards the end. Halfway through the song, every single person in the crowd (and I mean every person) is entirely transfixed on the stage. It literally felt like the world had completely faded outside that single solitary point. Jón was entirely lost inside the song, he was swaying back and forth, bent over the microphone in his hands, his feet working the pedals. The music grows and grows with sounds crashing around you, crackling feedback from the speakers, and by its peak, I don't think there was anyone that wasn't crying in the audience. I was there for three days, and at every show there was the sounds of other stages, other people, and you could always see them walking around; but at this one, everything... stopped. Everyone was entirely taken over by the glory of music and sound and wonder. It was a transcendental experience for an age where finding and processing such a thing is nearly impossible, something beyond logic or reason that created a solitary moment in a fast-paced, multitasking world. It was purely something of emotion that we can't attempt to put to words properly because it's not meant for words to express, and that's the intention of music. If Schopenhauer could have used a piece to actually portray music, this is what I feel he would reference. It gave a profound sense of deep understanding of humanity and harmony. I rarely consider exact points in time as truly important or symbolic or meaningful as opposed to sweeping themes over time, but that certainly was something I would categorize as such. I doubt many other experiences will have such an impact on my understanding of art and the human condition as that did.
My Bloody Valentine at the Palace Hotel, Melbourne, VIC, Australia a couple of weeks ago. I've been waiting 20+ years for it to happen, and they didn't disappoint. It was also the loudest thing I've ever heard. A close second would have to have been Swervedriver in 1998, back home in Perth, Western Australia (Belvoir Amphitheatre). OP - seeing as you mentioned Austin - have you heard/seen True Widow by any chance? The best band I've come across this decade, by a long shot.
I know that feeling. My favorite live show was Leonard Cohen after he basically come out of retirement from touring for an eternity. He shattered my expectations, and it was an amazing show. Lucky you.I've been waiting 20+ years for it to happen, and they didn't disappoint.
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The puppet show in the middle, and the song written to use those plastic recorders we had a kid are but two of the memorable moments. The southern baptist rendition of "Hymn to the Morning Star" was a barn-burning closer. The most unique show I've ever seen, hands down, head-and-shoulders above.
In terms of the billing, I have two: Pixies opening up for Love & Rockets at the Fox Theatre, Detroit, MI. Sugar Cubes and PIL opening for New Order at Pine Knob, Auburn Hills, MI. I think these were both in 89'. In terms of performance: Nick Cave at the State Theater. Probably six years ago?
10/1/94. The Boston Garden.The Grateful Dead. Magic.
There are two shows that come to mind: 1. Jeff Mangum at the Moore Theater last April. There is something so enigmatic about him, but that show will always stick out in my mind as one of the greatest. I had only found out about the show the day before, so I quickly bought a ticket and I was thankfully a reasonable distance from the stage (I actually started out much further from the stage, but then I took a second look at my ticket and realized I was in the wrong seat). 2. Holy Fuck at the Capitol Hill Block party in 2010. Their set was mind-blowing. It was the first I had heard of them and I was rocking the fuck out to their music. Apart from some marathon line-ups at Bumbershoot, this was the most tiring concert I had ever been to. I also saw Macklemore, Yeasayer and MGMT that same day. Their sets were good, but Holy Fuck outshone them with pure musical energy and raw beauty. Unfortunately I missed out on some other great groups that played that day due to my minor status, but I did get in for free thanks to my involvement with an all-ages venue. A third one comes to mind: Monotonix at Bumbershoot in 2008. Monotonix are a crazy bunch and their set was cut drastically short because of this. Their slot was an hour (or thereabouts), but they only got to play 20 to 30 minutes before the security or the event runners shut them down. This may have been due to the singer being passed around the crowd in a garbage can. Or because he was constantly mooning us. But either way it was quite the bummer...
Andrew Bird at the Ark in Ann Arbor Nels Cline at the Ark ...lots more. On phone waiting for lunch. Ill think on this more and look forward to reading ya'lls picks.
A few- 1. saw The Decemberists in some tiny community theater in Portland about ten years ago. I'm not actually crazy about their music- a little too campy/mannered for my tastes. But I was young and I wasn't expecting one thing or another and they did an amazing job of engaging and energizing a really small crowd. They played most of the set in the audience, starting with the first song where they walked through the crowd from the back exit. Drummer was playing a big bass marching drum. They had handmade costumes and props, and the whole thing was like a story. Sounds kind of silly in re-telling, but they pulled it off nicely. Like I said, not crazy about the music, but they kind of taught me how to be creative with how you interact with a crowd. They were all really sweet people, too. 2. Heliosequence. Friend and I had gone to see Built to Spill, and Heliosequence, who were relatively new at that point, opened for them. Just two guys, amazing electronic/drum/guitar setup. Lead singer had this awesome screamy/raspy voice at the time (which he later overused and fucked up his vocal chords, requiring him to re-consider how he wrote/sang songs), and he kind of howled all the lyrics over these chittering alien synth spaces and machine-gun drums. Built to Spill was good, but I came out of the show being totally psyched about Heliosequence. 3. Foreign Born- went to see Rogue Wave, and Foreign Born was opening. Rogue Wave wasn't great, and the lead singer acted kind of douchey. But Foreign Born was amazing. Wonder why it is that openers are often more surprising than headliners? Is it because you're not expecting as much of them and so it's easier for them to please? Or is it that they're so hungry to make it to the next level that they put something into their shows that the veterans don't? What's funny about all these bands is that they're not really my favorites. But each of their live shows were so well-tuned that you couldn't help but get into it. Also got to play with Yeasayer for a few shows right before they got big with their first album. Their live show was already perfectly tuned, and the musical dynamic fit the time perfectly. Good confluence of style and timing. None of the audiences really knew who they were, and everybody was totally blown away. Also really nice guys.
I saw The Wombats live at The Newport Music Hall in Columbus. I was right up against the railing. I got a hand on the back up guitarist. Dope was being passed freely, the crowd was electric, and the performance was enthusiastic and absolutely enthralling. The Wombats played fantastically and with a fresh energy. I've not been to a comparable show since!
I saw Death Grips a few months ago and it was pretty crazy. As soon as they started (I think with "Come Up and Get Me") the entire crowd surged forward and starting just pushing and pulsing with energy, not letting up until the concert ended. I had the good fortune (and dexterity) to be in the front for a few of my favorite tracks as well. Zach Hill's live drumming is really something else to behold.
This is an insanely difficult question. It might be Paul McCartney when I saw him at Yankee Stadium. I'm not a fan of huge shows like that, but he played for about 3 hours and Billy Joel came on for a rendition of 'I Saw Her Standing There' during the first encore. Anytime I've seen Coheed and Cambria has been mind blowing-ly great, both from the music, and how into it the crowd has been. I lose it during their shows, and just go nuts which makes it a lot of fun. Another great concert was Jeff Mangum, that is another contender for the best show I have ever been to. That has a lot of cultural significance going for it (for me at least), and was a transcendent experience. I wrote all about that in this post. Honestly, it's probably a toss of between Paul McCartney and Jeff Mangum.