never been to a concert... But. Mariah Carey, September 14th, Toyota Center... what is unusual is that i am not a big fan, but man, i got brainwashed into being a fan
These are all good stories. I guess I have a couple, but man, **** just doesn't go down nowadays like I guess it did in the 70s! Bring back the drugs! A couple years ago a friend and I went to see Death By Stereo at Walter's on Washington or maybe it was Fat Cats, I don't remember. Anyways, I had interviewed the band a few months before when they came through so I said hello and they were extremely nice to me again. Later that night when they were performing, a fight broke out in the middle of one of their songs. The band kept playing and the singer screamed at the fighters that they were ruining everyone's good time and that they didn't deserve to be there. He then proceeded to physically drag them both out of the club himself while singing! That was one long mic cable. Another time in Oklahoma City the same friend and I had driven up from Dallas to see Meshuggah and Strapping Young Lad. We had seen them both the night before, but Meshuggah is my favorite group and my buddy used to live in OKC so we decided to make the trip. We arrived to discover that the city had been partially destroyed by a tornado the night before! Anyways we watched them play again and both bands destroyed once more and then we went outside only to find that ANOTHER tornado had ravaged the neighborhood during the show! We were rocking so hard that we didn't notice. Luckily my car was ok. Meshuggah destroys towns! (destroy)
I don't even want to talk about what went down the time I saw the Stones at Altamont Speedway... Seriously though, seeing Neil Young rip through every string of his guitar during a solo was pretty surreal. He did it in one stroke and then just left the guitar squealing and squawking away in a deafening wash of feedback. Don't remember exactly when it was but it was at the Houston show in the 80's when Sonic Youth opened. The 3rd Best Garage Band in the World Tour with Crazy Horse. Great show.
I went to see Neil when he was on that tour with Dinosaur Jr. He was playing that famous song of his with the line "i'm getting old or older" (whatever it is) it's a pretty quiet moment of the song and some redneck jumped and yelled impossibly loud - "NO YOU AIN'T NEIL". The crowd roared with approval (and laughter).
I want to live, I want to give I've been a miner for a heart of gold. It's these expressions I never give That keep me searching for a heart of gold And I'm getting old. Keeps me searching for a heart of gold And I'm getting old. I've been to Hollywood I've been to Redwood I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line That keeps me searching for a heart of gold And I'm getting old. Keeps me searching for a heart of gold And I'm getting old. Keep me searching for a heart of gold You keep me searching for a heart of gold And I'm getting old. I've been a miner for a heart of gold. Just a great, great artist. This is happens to be one of his songs that sounds better than it reads, but he is a great lyricist. I saw him the first time with Buffalo Springfield, when they were 3rd billed behind the Beach Boys and Strawberry Alarm Clock. That was a good concert at the Coliseum. They had the stage in the middle of the floor, but instead of facing one end of the venue, it faced one side. Kind of strange, really. A great night.
I dont have an experience of my own but I like this moment I saw on TV I dont know what year was, but Guns and Roses was giving a concert then in the middle of a song, Axl saw someone with a camera recording the concert, and axl say to the guy: stop recording, then axl he go into to the people and take the camera and gets back, and he went backstage telling the concert was over. someone remembers that?
Ive got the bootleg dvd of that show. Axl claims the guy was flashing a knife at him. I kind of doubt it though. He dove belly-wise into the crowd then punched the guy in the face. The guy just took it. It wasn't the best of punches. That was in St. Louis and a full scale riot broke out. The footage is pretty crazy. They ripped up chairs and the barricade... Steel and all kinds of stuff was being hurled onstage. Bonfires. Classic ridiculousness from GNR.
I got a couple of Neil Young stories that I forgot about.... 1. Neil Young - 1984 - Gilley's Rodeo Arena, Pasadena TX This was when Neil was on his country kick, and he had a kickass country band backing him, including parts of his "Harvest" band along with the great Byron Berline on fiddle. They were playing on a stage built above the animal pens, only the animals were still in the pens. Every so often, when they would finish a tune and the applause would die down, you would hear a loud MOOO coming from a cow in the pen. Every time it happened, Neil would look down at the pen and then look at the crowd with a huge smile on his face. 2. Neil Young - 1991 - LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles CA Neil was with Crazy Horse that night, and they had Stone Temple Pilots opening for them. I went with some musician friends, one of whom was a bigtime coke freak and he brought quite a bit with him. We had killer seats - 15th row on the floor, in the center. When we got there, we noticed who was sitting directly in front of us...none other than Dennis Hopper. This was a couple of years after he cleaned up and quit his bad habits. While STP was performing, my friend whipped out his mirror and carved up a few lines. After everyone had a taste, he said "watch this". He then proceeded to tap Dennis Hopper on the shoulder to pass him the mirror. Dennis waved him off. My friend continued to do this during each song for the next five songs. Dennis Hopper finally got up and left. In between acts, we left our seats to go to the restroom. Standing against the wall near the restroom, was Dennis Hopper....visibly shaken and pale as a ghost. When he saw us coming towards him, he turned and walked away very quickly.
I was actually onstage at that show, sitting in front of the band between the monitors, headbanging away for some stupid stoned reason.
Wow, y'all have so many great stories. SO many hilarious posts! My stories don't even hold a candle to most of y'alls, but here's what I can remember: Guster - A few weeks ago I saw Guster up here in Chicago, and Charter One Bank was giving out these glowsticks if you signed up for an ipod contest. So everyone there had glowsticks, and people held onto them through two openers, and about 1/2 of Guster's set. Then they played "Airport Song", and it's tradition that after the last line, fans throw ping-pong balls onstage. Well that prompted everyone to throw their glowsticks -- literally hundreds of them were flying at the band for about 4 minutes -- everyone was dodging them, one of them hit a cymbal, Ryan tried to catch a few but always missed, and Brian actually caught one. The band took it really well and made some jokes about it, but for the rest of the show, people were throwing glowsticks onstage, trying to hit the band. On an unrelated note, they did something pretty funny before the encore -- they told the crowd to boo the crap out of them after the last song or else they wouldn't come back out. So they finish, and the crowd does as it's told -- they boo the living hell out of Guster, and then started a chant of "Guster Sucks" that lasted for like 3 minutes. They came out and flipped everyone off. Weird Al Yankovic - We went to see him in San Antonio in 2001, and we were hanging around by one of the stage exits hoping that he might come out and we'd get his autograph. Then this one dude comes over there and makes a huge animal-balloon figure of Weird Al. The security guard takes it back to Weird Al, and after a few minutes, he comes back and invites us all backstage to the green room. We waited for a few minutes, then Weird Al came out and kicked it with us for like 10 minutes, signing autographs, and just talking. It ruled! Patrice Pike - I saw Patrice Pike over at the ACL Festival a few years ago. Midway through the show, she started playing "Dragonfly". All of the sudden there were dozens of dragonflies flying over the crowd -- it was the most surreal experience I've ever had at a concert. Chris Isaak - I went to see Chris Isaak and Natalie Merchant a few years ago at CWMP. Midway through the Chris Isaak set he starts talking about the band members, and he gets to the drummer. And he goes "Our drummer is from a small town in Texas. We've never met anyone else from there, and if we ever do, we'll buy him a beer. ?Drummer's Name? is from Borger, Texas" and I was like "Holy ****" and yelled out "I was born in Borger!!!" (which I was). I never got my beer though One last one -- at DMB in Pittsburgh last year, during the break before the encore, the crowd got started chanting a few things other than the standard "Dave, Dave, Dave", etc. I had only been there for like 3 weeks, so I didn't really expect this -- at first they started chanting "Here we go Steelers, here we go!" and then that turned into "Cleveland Sucks! Cleveland Sucks!". It was awesome!
Yup, and the "kind of" is silent! I haven't talked to that dude in at least 10 years, and I know I'm not missing anything.
