R.E.M. on some tiny side stage at Summerfest (Milwaukee). I think it was July 1984. I had gone to see another band, but on the way, I saw them and forgot about the other band. Stipe sang most of the time facing the drum kit. I think he was high. Believe me, though, in those days, Michael Stipe was a beautiful young man with a headful of cascading blondish curls. And he certainly wasn’t out.
R.E.M. at the Rosemont Horizon (Chicago) in January 1989. They had more or less hit the big time and this was one of the early shows of the Green Tour, so all was fresh. Front Row Seats. Met them backstage. Hells, yeah!
De La Soul doing a pick-up show at University of Wisconsin-Stout (Menominee) in August 1990. My friends and I drove up from Madison the minute we heard they were there, and there were 7 of us in my bf’s Honda Civic hatchback. I hadn’t even known he liked any hip-hop. De La was at the student union and we actually got to talk to them afterwards.
Soul Coughing at the old Knitting Factory (NYC) in October 1995. I had no idea Mike Doughty was on anything, and I was so naive, I though his gyrating and blistering performance was because it came from inside him. Maybe it did, but there was also coke.
Regurgitator at the Metro (Sydney, Australia) in August 1999. Also known as The Last Time I Crowd-surfed. Regurgitator is a huge Australian rock band that should’ve been better known elsewhere. I like seeing big-name bands in small clubs; it’s like they get an opportunity to relive less troubled periods in their careers and it shows.
Arcade Fire at the United Theater (NYC) in May 2007. The United Theater is a beautiful old theater in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan and it’s been used as a church for years and years. This was the first rock show there I’d ever heard of. And Arcade Fire usually put on a wondrous set, but for some reason that night it felt like church. There was such catharsis with everyone in that night’s playing of Neighborhood #3 (Fire Out), and it was palpable.