these are all shows which to varying degrees I had tickets for (only one) or I vaguely thought of going- in most cases I don't want to over interpret how likely it was I was going to go- but in each case at least someone I knew said 'we should check this out' or I said to myself 'you know I might regret this..."
(in most cases as you will see there remains no opportunity to go back on these)
Tom Petty- Full Moon Fever tour- had tickets . he had to cancel/postpone the show. Never saw him after that
Prince- sigh. also never saw him. was in Montreal and Toronto watching Flames games- he played Montreal while we were there (one of his last ever shows) and I remember thinking, you know..I should go to this
Husker Du- Farewell tour 87- ok slightly older Loob always regrets this one- but I didn't quite appreciate the band enough at this point, some cooler dude was like I'm going to check this out you should come...oops
Nirvana mid 1991-yeah me and a million others
Pavement (ok here there is still a theoretical chance)...Republik 1994- was working in Edmonton that night- impossible- couldn't go....they were supposed to play some reunion gigs in Spain or Portugal I think?? this summer
Pearl Jam Saddledome 2005?
Of all the times I’d seen them at different locations this was one of their most solid shows and the crowd was absolutely epic for 2 straight hours like the top 20,000 PJ fans worldwide were landed in one venue. The energy back and forth for the entirety of the show was something.
Prince Coachella 2007
Not being really much of fan, there mostly to see The Verve, but 30 seconds into the show you knew you were experiencing something special and on another level.
Hawksley Workman + Mr. Lonely Knox United Church sometime 2006-2008
My friend and I left absolutely speechless about what we just witnessed. 120 minutes of the set list continually blended in and out of improvised poetic spoken word between songs with never a 2 second break. The one show I wish I had a recording of.
Hawksley Workman God that Comes Toronto 2013
This is a one man ‘musical’ act performance that he toured.
Leonard Cohen Coachella 2008/9
Paul McCartney Coachella 08/09
Dirty Protectors - Grizzly Bear - Fleet Foxes - War on Drugs Green Man UK 2019
Tool At the Dome
Smashing Pumpkins/Queens of the Stone Age/Modest Mouse/Presets at V fest (Perth)
Offspring in a pub in Coogee Beach Australia
The Hip at Another Roadside Attraction
Bad Religion/SNFU in Brisbane, Bad Religion again about 14 times afterwards at various venues
Another weird one that pops into my head was a small hip hop band called "Meta bass n breath" that played in Byron Bay when I lived there. I remember very little about their music (this was in 1997) other than it was one of the funnest concerts I had ever gone to. Pretty sure hallucinogens and alcohol had something to do with it, but whatever.
I'd need a time machine to see most of my real favourites. I'm not even talking going to the 60s/70s. Even a lot of great music in the 90s that I loved, I was too young to go see them play in Calgary and definitely too young to travel. I'd have loved to see Nirvana, NIN, Offspring, Radiohead etc. in the mid to late 90s. Some are still active but it's just not the same.
Not a huge concertgoer but have seen Springsteen several times. Went to a show of his in Austin that was right after Desert Storm began, in fact it may have been the day it began, and he opened the show with his rendition of War. A song he rarely performs live. That was kind of cool.
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They DID do the score for Tron: Legacy and its everything it could be and more IMO. Just awesome.
I love film scores. I love daft punk. Yet when that first came out I hated it. I couldn’t believe so much of it was orchestral with only a couple true Daft Punk sounding songs.
Now it’s probably up there as one of my most listened to scores. I listen to it regularly.
I'm been to a few great shows in my day. Pearl Jam and Radiohead arena shows come to mind and also smaller shows seeing Bad Religion at the House of Blues in Vegas, Japandroids at a 500 person venue and The Flatliners/A Wilhelm Scream at a 50 person venue. There was also a time back in 2006 when I took advantage of a connection for free tickets to any show at Mac Hall. Social Distortion was probably the best and most memorable of those.
The one I want to discuss though occurred at a punk and metal festival in Brisbane in 2010 featuring Frenzal Rhomb, Parkway Drive, NOFX, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Dropkick Murphys, GWAR, Megadeth, and The Descendants to name a few.
It was a miserable cold and rainy day unusual for Brisbane and a sign of the crazy flooding to come a month later. Still I was having a good time. The mosh pit for Parkway Drive was one of the craziest I had ever seen and watching The Dropkick Murphys in the pouring rain was a cool experience. The best part was being saved for last though with The Descendants, on their first ever tour of Australia, being the final act on the punk stage. Their set started off normal but it soon became evident there was a big problem. Milo Aukerman was losing his voice! Normally this would have been a deal breaker but thankfully there were a number of punk rock singers back stage very familiar with Descendants lyrics. So we were treated a line up of Fat Mike, Spike Slawson, Al Barr, and Jay Whalley on stage performing what was essentially Descendants karaoke. So cool!
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3 stick out for me. Metallica back in I think 1986 on their Master of Puppets tour, they played the Max Bell and it was general admission. Absolute madhouse and loud as hell.
1991 Clash of the Titans in Vancouver. Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer with Alice in Chains opening.
Roger Waters on his Dark Side of the Moon tour about a decade ago, amazing show.
Edit: Yeesh, make that 4, how could I forget Paul McCartney?
Lots of other great concerts, AC/DC, Billy Joel, early Motley Crue, Priest, Rush, Van Halen, every Metallica show has been amazing (saw 5 I think). Saw Dio in the Corral back in the 80's with Bon Jovi opening for him before he hit it big, he got boo'd.
Looked it up on Wikipedia, Dec 17, 1986 shortly after Cliff Burton died. Metal Church opened, they weren't very good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damage,_Inc._Tour
I didn't remember but apparently they were supposed to play the Dome in the summer but cancelled. I got robbed twice there, missed seeing Burton and it looks like Anthrax was their opening act earlier in the tour.
I worked in a bar on Whiskey Row in Arizona called Big Mike's in the 90's and one night Warren Zevon was playing in the bar next door. I could hear the music very well, Werewolves of London...aaaaooooooo. Then Big Mike's cleared out and all I could hear through the walls was "Booooorn in the USA". "Baby We Were Born to Run". And so on. I was like, man, Zevon does a decent cover. Turns out The Boss himself had Harley'ed over from LA to play a few songs with his friend. Best concert through a wall ever.
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I worked in a bar on Whiskey Row in Arizona called Big Mike's in the 90's and one night Warren Zevon was playing in the bar next door. I could hear the music very well, Werewolves of London...aaaaooooooo. Then Big Mike's cleared out and all I could hear through the walls was "Booooorn in the USA". "Baby We Were Born to Run". And so on. I was like, man, Zevon does a decent cover. Turns out The Boss himself had Harley'ed over from LA to play a few songs with his friend. Best concert through a wall ever.
When I saw Springsteen, I loved every aspect of his show. But two songs stood out for me over all others.
Hungry Heart just because he had the crowd singing the song.
Rosalita because the song stretched and let every member of the E-Street band have their moment, and it was so high energy.
I also loved Born to Run live because it was such a song of longing and a hope for a better life.
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Type of Negative in Stuttgart, Germany. 8 hours on the Autobahn on a rented BMW motorbike and pulling in to see Peter Steele, the man was pure genius. Also got to see them in Boise, ID and sat down with Peter for an entire hour, such a friendly guy.
System of a Down at the Roxy in LA. This was right after they were signed, new album wasn't released yet, all they had done were the 3 "demos" with Rick Rubin.
The Stones at the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles, France. Never been a fan of stadium shows but it was great seeing how that band worked such a big venue.
