My Top 10 Live Shows Pt. 1 (#6-10)

You never forget your first.

Mine was The Kinks, on March 12, 1985* (Huge shoutout to Setlist.fm, a crowdsourced website that tracks shows and tours from the last 100 years).

It was the Word of Mouth tour. I didn’t even know any Kinks songs outside of “Come Dancing”, which was in heavy rotation on MTV a few years before. In fact, I was surprised to later learn that “You Really Got Me” was a Kinks tune and not a Van Halen original.

But none of that really mattered. It was a real rock concert – which meant I could get a real ¾ sleeve grey concert t-shirt with black sleeves that I could wear to school the next day. That was good enough for me.

By the time The Kinks played “Lola” for the encore, I was hooked on live music. I went to about a dozen more shows while in high school – mostly mainstream artists like John Mellencamp, U2, Simple Minds, Howard Jones, LL Cool J, even The Thompson Twins (who were dope, by the way), but I also got to catch acts like REM and the Violent Femmes before they became well-known.

Once I graduated high school, you could say I became a full-blown concert addict. There’s just something about the intangible energy of a live show. Some folks use therapy, or meditation, or drugs or alcohol to stay sane. For me, it’s always been the two-hour escape provided by the folks with a microphone, two guitars, and a drum kit.

*Technically, I had seen a few shows before The Kinks – most notably The Beach Boys after a San Diego Padres game and Midnight Star and Night Ranger at the Ohio State Fair – but I didn’t count those, since you didn’t actually need a concert ticket to see them. Stupid logic in retrospect.

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I’ve been wanting to write a “Top 10 Concerts” blog post for a long time. First of all, it gives me a reason to take inventory of all the live shows and concerts I’ve seen over the past 32 or so years. No small feat, considering I’ve seen an average of 20 a year since I was 17.

Even better, it lets me share that information with you, my friend. What a score!

I mean, let’s be honest – you wouldn’t want to hear me talk about my favorite shows of all time (though I gladly could). That would take hours. But this post will only take a few minutes or so to read, and there’s even a comment section that the end where you can share your own list or thoughts about mine. So hey, everybody’s a winner.

Without further ado, my Top 10 Favorite Shows of All-Time, in reverse order (actually, just #6-10, shows 1-5 will be a separate post):

10) Dropkick Murphys at Bogarts, Cincinnati, April 25, 2001

When Kev called and asked me if I wanted to check out the Murphys that evening, I answered without hesitation.

“Sure!”

What I neglected to tell him that was that I was ass broke. Like, no cash, no-room-on-the-credit-card, no CDs that I could willingly sell, broke. My vintage electric typewriter was still up at Will’s Loan and Jewelry Shop as collateral for a $50 loan I took out the previous month.

But I knew Kev would take care of me. Not just because Kev was like a brother and we had each other’s backs forever (though that part is true) - but because I knew that he had a Cleveland Browns Visa with a $10,000 limit. We were at a Bengals-Browns game and got free hats or foam #1 fingers or something just for filling out the application. If my memory serves me right, we both wrote that we made a million dollars a year on the brochure application. And while I received a denial letter a few days later, they sent Kev a shiny new Visa.

Once Kev made it safely down to Cincinnati from Columbus, I explained the situation. And like a good friend will always do, he treated me to a few pre-show beers at Martinos before we crossed the street to Bogarts and he purchased our tickets.

Lars Frederikson (from the seminal punk band, Rancid) & The Bastards was the opening act, and they kicked much ass in their own right. But once the Murphys hit the stage…Jesus, it was like a bomb had exploded or something. Right away, a circle pit with every tattooed Irish kid in the Tri-State area spontaneously formed. Back then, every Dropkick Murphy song was basically a barroom sing-along about alcohol, working on the docks, or the city of Boston – and the Murphys belted out one after the other for over two hours. It was like a rock and roll vortex that came and whipped the crowd into a possessed frenzy – which then energized the band even more. I’m tellin’ ya – it was crazy. Kev and I never even got close to the pit, but still left Bogarts in an exhausted, sweaty mess.

Damn that was a fun show.

9) Mike Peters (Lead Singer of The Alarm), The Red Devil Lounge, San Francisco, 2011

By 2011, Mike had pretty much fallen off my musical radar. In fact, I barely even listened to his former band, The Alarm, anymore – which was sad, considering how their songs about revolution and friendship and hope and loyalty were an integral part of my teenage years. At the age of 40 though, I was pretty far removed from the pseudo-angst and idealism of a suburban youth growing up in the Reagan/Bush era.

That being said, when I saw that he was playing a solo gig at the (now defunct) Red Devil Lounge on Polk Street, it was a no-brainer. That venue was perfect for The Man in the Camo Jacket. Shit, it wasn’t much bigger than my apartment.

He came out before the show to meet and greet friends and fans, and after a few minutes of photos and hugs, he took the stage on his own. No introduction was needed or provided. And from the first chord, he took me back to my high school bedroom, where I would listen to my Alarm cassettes with my headphones on, and write down the lyrics, verse by verse.

It was amazing. He didn’t even have a setlist. We just yelled out requests. “Strength”, “The Stand”, “Spirit of ‘76” “Marching On”, “Sixty-Eight Guns”, “Blaze of Glory”. It was surreal. Every person knew every word, so the songs were essentially just sing-a-longs. The only way you could even tell he was mic’d was when he would step back and let us sing the lyrics without him.

This went on for hours. Truly one of those nights you wish you could just frame and hang on a wall.

8) Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg (Roc the Mic Tour), Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, July 9, 2003.

Denise got her and me tickets to this one, and for the life of me, I can’t remember why. It was either a birthday or graduation present (I had just finished grad school). Regardless, she did me a solid. I probably wouldn’t have even went otherwise – and I’d have missed an epic night.

First of all, Snoop never disappoints. I’ve said this before, and I stand by it – very few entertainers in ANY genre know how to work a crowd like Snoop Dogg. There’s very little posturing in his performances. He’s having a ball, and he wants you to have a good time too. It probably didn’t hurt that half the crowd was smoking herb and the other half was breathing in what the first half was exhaling. But Snoop did all his hits. “What’s My Name?” “Gin and Juice”, “Nuthin’ But a G Thang”. It was a great start to the evening.

50 Cent, on the other hand, sucked. He came out wearing a bulletproof vest while Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” played, with a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. After about 30 seconds, the song was interrupted by the sound of bullets firing, which then led to some generic gangsta-esqe song that he mumbled through. It was a corny as it sounds – especially after Snoop’s performance. I actually felt kinda bad for 50. The rest of his set was just as lackluster. Even “In the Club” failed to move the crowd. On the positive note, it did give us time to get another round of $20 lukewarm Riverbend draft beers.

But after 50 came Jay-Z – and let me tell you – Hov brought it. I said…HE BROUGHT IT! His stage had a Desert Storm /military theme, with dancers in camouflage outfits and sandbags in front the DJ’s turntables. It was also the first time I saw a hip hop show that incorporated pyrotechnics and lasers.

Vocally, Jay-Z crushed. His flow was impeccable – a rare occurrence with live hip hop. There wasn’t a down moment, as Jay seamlessly bounced from “Money Ain’t a Thing”, to “Hard Knock Life”, to “H.O.V.A” and “Big Pimpin’”. He even did a little tribute to the recently passed Jam Master Jay from Run-DMC towards the end of his set.

It was like watching Michael Jordan in the ’89 Eastern Conference Finals. That night, Jay-Z was the G.O.A.T.

7) Beastie Boys (Get Out and Vote Tour) – Hara Arena, Dayton, October 30, 2008

I didn’t even know about this show until the day before, and that was only because I got an email from the Ben Harper distribution list. Turns out that he and Sheryl Crow were invited by the Beasties (who were outspoken Obama supporters) for a quick, 6-date tour of a few swing states right before the election. Since it wasn’t sold out, I scored some cheap tickets, and dragged Cassie out on a rainy night to be my co-pilot.

Once we got there we hooked up with my brother, Bob. Unfortunately, we had already missed Ben Harper’s set. The good news was that Sheryl Crow was just finishing hers.

Hara Arena can hold up to 5,000 people, but I’d be surprised if there were even 500 in attendance. Probably a combination of the weather, poor promotion of the show, and the fact that in 2008, there probably weren’t much more than 500 people in Dayton, Ohio that still listened to the Beastie Boys and were gonna vote for Obama.

None of that mattered thought once the B-Boys hit the stage. They fucking killed it. And rather than wax poetic, I’m just gonna share the setlist:

1. Mix Master Mike Intro

2. Super Disco Breakin'

3. Flute Loop

4. Sure Shot

5. Pass the Mic

6. Ch-Check It Out

7. Root Down

8. Body Movin'

9. No Sleep Till Brooklyn

10. Right Right Now Now

11. Three MC's and One DJ

12. So What'cha Want

13. Intergalactic

14. Sabotage

Need I say more?

6) Bruce Springsteen, The Rising Tour, Value City Arena, Columbus, OH December 16, 2002

In his book, Tramps Like Us: Music & Meaning Among Springsteen Fans, author Daniel Cavicchi explains:

“For fans, a Springsteen concert is not a display of talent to be appreciated but rather an opportunity to reaffirm their belief in the power of rock and roll.”

Either that makes sense to you, or it doesn’t – but it essentially highlights the difference between a casual music fan and a junkie. And that’s not intended as a passing of judgement or an elitist comment. Shit, I wish I was more of a casual fan, and that I didn’t need to see a concert to get my mind right. When you’ve seen over 500 shows, you tend to develop some pretty high expectations. And most of the time, you end up disappointed.

All that to say that there was something really special about this Springsteen show. Maybe it was because his current album, The Rising, was inspired by and written as a response to 9/11, so each song carried with it the still raw emotion from the day. Maybe it was the way Springsteen managed to embrace and promote progressive politics with a patriotism usually hijacked by conservative and right-wing ideologies – and still deliver a message of hope and strength.

Maybe it was just because I was hanging out with my best friend, Steve, who I hadn’t seen in a year or so. Much like a Springsteen album, we could go for long stints without connecting, and then hear a note from Clarence Clemmons’ sax and immediately settle back into a groove like no time had passed at all.

Most likely it was a combination of all those things – along with a killer three and a half hour, 25 song , two encore setlist. Bruce is known for varying his song choices from show to show, especially with his older tunes, so the fact that we got “The Promised Land”, “Badlands”, “Thunder Road”, and “Land of Hope and Dreams” was an amazing stroke of luck.

But whatever it was, it was magic, and resulted in a night I hope I’ll remember for a long time.

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Thanks for reading. If you’re still interested, my next blog post will detail my Top 5 shows. In the meantime, what are some of your favorite concerts memories? Unlike most folks, I'd love to hear 'em.