Moonies Favorite Five Concerts
 

Sharing the Excitement of Progressive is the Best part of being a Moonie. Live Shows by it's finest Artists are the Gardens that we rock in. Just by Date of Birth we all have differant Zones of concerts when we were young and wild. This is my list of most remembered Concerts. Cultural, logistical, social. All these componants come into play. I'm 52 and saw most of my great concerts as a young man. Someone 28 will have a much differant List. I must admit I've seen few Bands born in the last 15 years, I suspect Moonies like Rick have seen countless, and had as many dynamic Shows with the New Masters as I had with the Old.
All these shows were in the Harford ,Ct Region....
Jimi Hendrix 8-24-68 At age 15, this guy blasted onto my brain, Historical Show, His sound changed rock and roll forever
The Who 10-04-69 1st tour of the rock opera TOMMY, Now melody and rock power had merged, Keith Moon was the most exciting drummer I ever saw
Gentle Giant 10-31-74Halloween nite, Dark Theater, suddenly Phantom of the Opera pipe organ Blares at the crowd in Springfield Mass. A spotlight reveils Kerry M. rising out of the floor playing the house Pipe organ, SSpooky! all this and FOCAS doing the Hamberger Concerto as well
UK 10-08-78 I loved this Band, Jobson on Violin and Keys was at the Top of his Talent, Wettons voice, Brufords pulse, just the best ( later on I found out this was their last show together with Bill and Allan)
Melanie Summer of '70 After Woodstock a New East coast Festival was devised for Powder Ridge,Ct.( a ski resort)... the 3 day festival was to have Zep, Santana, Mountain, and many others. 10,000 tickets sold and a massive stage built at the foot of the slope. The Townspeople Flipped and got a judge to CANCEL the festival one week before it was to begin. All the major acts canceled because the Judge specifically forbade the use of the Massive stage...........80,000 came anyhow.....A massive Hippie Party of free Love and Joy for almost a week
Huge encampments arose, fireside minimusic jams sprung up. One night the Folk artist MELANIE appeared at our camp and with her acoustic guitar, Wowed us for an Hour then went on to another area. The brillance of her music and the Quality of her soul was endearing to us all, with no power it was as electric as Hendrix:D

HONORABLE MENTION----- 1st Yes concert without Jon was in Hartford, Trevor did nicely. KC after Beat album, Hackett cured, Original line -up of DixieDregs, all these at Toads Place, New Haven. and finally, Lamb Lies Down Tour show in Waterbury Palace. P.G. was a giant

Wow, well, growing up in Jackson, MS, there ain't a whole lot of high-profile rock coming through, and I couldn't exactly make it to New Orleans as a teen very easily. Now I live in Birmingham, AL. It's not much better because it's so close to Atlanta and Chattanooga, so why stop here? So, with smaller bands and venues as the basis:

1. Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour at the Oak Moutain Ampitheater in Birmingham. App. 6,000 people. If you've ever seen them, you know.

2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Wildflowers Tour at the Jackson Coliseum. 10,500 people. I'm a progger, but nobody can take anything from Tom Petty.

3. King's X - Black Like Sunday Tour (twice) and another albumless tour after that. 150+ people each time, all three at The Nick in Birmingham. Criminally underknown and underloved band. Musicians know.

4. The Appleseed Cast - Two Conversations Tour at Martin's in Jackson. This tiny indie/emo/punk club in Jackson-we're talking maybe thirty people. Appleseed was LOUD in that little room, but so good.

5. Collective Soul - Collage Tour at Jubilee Jam in Jackson. 50,000 people plus at Jubilee Jam, one of those spring music fests that cities have every year that seem to always feature Willie Nelson. Underappreciated by anyone older than 30, they were the best pure rock band of the mid-late 90s.

Honorable mention:
Journey w/ Foreigner at One Jackson Place in Jackson - about 6,000 people.

Iona, Stavesacre, and The Choir, at OneFest outside Memphis. Five day Christian music and arts festival. Over a hundred bands, but these three were my favs, and all did great sets.

TwoThirtyEight, Soul Remains, and Bellador doing a weekly residency at The CLB in Clinton, MS. The Centrally Located Building was four blocks from Mississippi College in Olde Towne Clinton with the brick streets and all. Great place for shows. We had tons of indie bands track through there through the years, but those three local-ish bands listed here played all the time, and AVERAGED over 200 each time!

Kansas at The Mississippi State Fair in Jackson, the Budweiser Pavilion, 2001. About 700 folks. Solid greatest hits type show with a few new ones. Hey, how am I going to complain about a show that's free, save the standard parking and fair entrace prices? I was out $11.00 that night. Well, plus whatever I blew on a Mr. Turkey Leg, a 48oz. draft root beer, and Chicken on a Stick. Oh, and 12" hand-battered corn dog for the road.

Sharc, search in the forums under a thread from KeithieW "Favorite Gigs" originally posted on 03.30.2003. There are 92 posts with favorite gigs of moonies....

Have a nice time reading....

Thanx lotus.........
 

I had no doubt this topic had been touched many times, I wanted something fresh, an overview of our concert lives ,I did'nt think to go thru the 738 threads first, I'll be thrilled reading KW's, I'm going there now, I'm hoping others will play just for fun!

Re: Thanx lotus.........
 

I perused the old thread too...some thoughts -

I listed at least 12 (oops)...and they still stand. There's good elements from every show I've seen however...

It's amazing how scatterbrained I am. We let the thread deteriorate into King's X. football, etc. Very comical.

Moses references the same show he talked about in my current show thread. Neat little tie in.

Actually sharc I have counted..and listed them. If I count each band at the 10 festivals I've attended, I'm over 400. if not, about 350. but the kicker is I started in 1979. It's painful to remember how many I've missed in the 70's....

I'm going to let others play...it looks like I played enough...great idea to revisit this sharc!

Re: Re: Thanx lotus.........
 

I think we should start keeping a running count of how many threads deteriorate into King's X discussion. In addition, we should keep track of those responsible for initiating and proliferating said discussion.

Speaking of King's X, isn't there a new album coming out in a little over two months?:D

On topic, I just looked at the old thread, and my post there sums up my thoughts on my top two concerts pretty well. If I were to add a third show to the list, it would probably be Kansas with Kerry Livgren from Pittsburgh last year. It was a very solid, well-done show, and it was great to see Livgren in action with his old bandmates. I do wish Kansas would start playing some longer sets though.

Well, I didn't play last time sharc, so I'll play now!

I'll pre-empt by saying my memory for anything resembling a date is shot.

Summer of 68 - Montreal with Santana. I was only 12 - made a big impression. That was it..the summer of love.

1976 - Supertramp in Vancouver, BC.

1984 - Marillion at a fest in Cambridge, UK, doing Script for a Jester's Tear. They played with Wang Chung as backup - odd pairing, but Fish made up for it. It's been 20 years, and I still feel sick whenever I hear anything by Wang Chung.

1984 - Wishbone Ash in London, UK. A pub venue, and our reward after getting lost in North London trying to find it.

1986 - Steve Hackett in Victoria, BC. If you know Victoria, you'll know it's a not a huge place, and definitely not on the big concert trail. Steve played a small turn of the century theater and the acoustics were definitely on his side that night. Probably my concert night of a lifetime that was.

I haven't seen Kings X.

:D

Re: Re: Re: Thanx lotus.........
 

First of all, and discussion that moves to King's X is not deteriorating, but maturing. Secondly, the new studio album comes on September 27 on InsideOut.



Oh, and I haven't actually seen it yet, but me and 18,000+ of my closest friends seeing my first U2 concert in Atlanta in November will probably go to number one. Sorry BMG.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Thanx lotus.........
 

Good point. It should be every thread's dream to mature into a King's X discussion.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Thanx lotus.........
 

Coming from a Kx fan, that's even more funny....I'll be laughing about that for days!

5! Only 5? That's tough... how do you choose from 100s?

Pink Floyd; Dark Side of the Moon... Roosevelt Stadium 1973.
-- Just because it was the first time I saw DSotM live.

Pink Floyd; The Wall... Nassau Coliseum 1980.
-- The Wall was only performed in 4 locations: The Sport Arena, LA (7x); Nassau Coliseum, NY (5x); Earls Court, London(6x); and Westflenhalle, Dortmund (8x). I was fortunate to see the biggest spectacle that PF ever assembled... hell, that any band has assembled.

Genesis; World Tour '77... Spectrum, Philadelphia.
-- This was the last time I saw what I consider to be Genesis live and the last time I saw Steve Hackett with the band. Dance On A Volcano and Los Endos were, AIR, simply fantastic -- especially with both Chester and Phil on the drums for Los Endos.

Renaissance; Capitol Theater, NJ. '78.
-- What else can I say... Annie at her prime.

Tangerine Dream; Beacon Theater '86.
-- One of the last "in the dark" gigs they did.



Honorable mention... as it almost made the top 5.
Marillion; A Collection, Minehead, UK 2005.
-- I've seen Marillion 2 dozen times or more on US and UK soil. This was one of the best set lists, stage set, etc. of all. The band was on a real high too.

...and no YES? I've seen YES several dozen times... 3x on the 35th tour. I guess the YES gig in Braintree with KeithieW, JamForte, Laxmi and RogorMortis would have to get an honorable mention.

Dr. Dot throws in his two cents worth
 

I could have sworn I'd already chimed in on this, but as is evidenced by my lack of stellar prose, I see that it, like just about everything else, slipped my teflon mind.

Anyway, my top five, in descending order of greatness:

Genesis, World Tour '77, Oakland Colleseum. Same concert as is mentioned in Vax's post, for very much the same reason. I was too young to truly appreciate it, and it STILL tops my list.

Santana, at the Tabernacle, 2000. One day before my back surgery. To say the man was on fire would be a monumental understatement.

Dixie Dregs, 2005. A swingin' concert in a very personal setting. They were so hot they confused the computerized lighting system. They were on fire, they were up tempo, and they left the place a smoking crater. One for the record books.

Pink Floyd, 1992. Even though they didn't do much from DSoTM, it was still one of the best concerts ever. I sat on the downwind side of the stadium and got a contact high like you wouldn't believe.

Yes, Masterworks tour, 2000 (or was it 2001?). All old stuff. Nothing shorter than 7 minutes, and aside from one song, nothing shorter than 20 minutes. Their version of Ritual had the entire audience swinging from the rafters. Their version of Starship Trooper, as opener, started out with a bang, and "And You And I" was punctuated by some very close lightning. They really know how to put on a show.

Honorable mention: The Moody Blues, not because they were so hot, but because the lady I was with was. :D

Roger -Dot- Lee, OK, so they did a VERY good job, I just wasn't paying that much attention.

Marillion - June 8th 2004 - Le Noumatrouff, Mulhouse

Wishbone Ash - August 10th 2004, Foire aux vins, Colmar

Canned Heat + Manfred Mann + Jethro Tull - August 8th 2004, Foire aux vins, Colmar

Peter Gabriel - May 23rd 2004 - DM Arena, Karlsruhe

Wishbone Ash again - June 18th 2005 - Le Noumatrouff, Mulhouse

Yes - June 28th 2004 - Le Zénith, Paris

I know there are 6 but the 2 Wishbone Ash concerts count only for one ... There is no order in them, I don't know among those which is the one I preferred ... I'd say the Marillion but not sure ...
Also saw Symhony X on April 19th 2003, was a nice show but not in my favourite 5 concerts.

Lots of rock or hard rock concerts: Metallica, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, but these are non prog so I'll forget them ...

That post appeared twice so I'm editing it to say nothing ...

Ah yes, I'd have loved to see Camel, Pendragon, Mostly Autumn, Uriah Heep a second time, IQ, and Marillion 200 times again