Busy these days, and intentionally laying low until I finish this thing I’m working on. It’s a manuscript and it’s been an unholy struggle. It’s not Coal Mining, I know, but there are days when it feels like I’m in the mines. But with, like, clean fingernails.
This blog post is kind of a cheat — double-dipping, I guess you’d call it. This is the result of one of those things on Facebook that wise people ignore. You are asked to list 50 concerts that you’ve seen. And while I can resist just about any useless, time-squandering quiz, the music stuff always gets me.
Since I’ve seen so many concerts, I kept going until I reached 100 and stopped there. I kind of doubt this has much interest to anyone, especially here, but I enjoyed the process of dredging up some happy memories. Amazing how music helps us summon specific times, places, faces and good feelings about those same times and faces. You might see the name “Frank Zappa,” but to me it’s a world of associations: Mok and Tracy and that VW bug somehow making it all the way to Syracuse, 1982. Neil Young back in High School. Or with Lisa, at Richard Thompson in Northampton, the first time I told her I loved her. The words just sprang out, unbidden, and I was like, “Oh boy, now I’ve gone and done it.”
Good times, good times.
1. Jethro Tull (first concert)
2. Genesis
3. Peter Gabriel
4. B-52s
5. R.E.M.
6. Violent Femmes
7. Talking Heads
8. King Crimson
9. Neil Young
10. Hot Tuna
11. Steve Earle
12. Dwight Yoakam
13. Wilco
14. Son Volt
15. Marshall Crenshaw
16. Marianne Faithful
17. CSN
18. Bob Dylan
19. Grateful Dead
20. Aimee Mann
21. Michael Penn
22. Of Montreal
23. Apples in Stereo
24. Figgs
25. Graham Parker
26. Elvis Costello
27. NRBQ
28. Old 97’s
29. P.J. Harvey
30. Pixies
31. Patty Griffin
32. Steel Pulse
33. Bruce Springsteen
34. Allman Brothers
35. Jeff Buckley
36. Jerry Garcia Band
37. Jill Sobule
38. Mark Eitzel
39. Dave Alvin
40. Coldplay
41. Superchunk
42. Jonathon Richmond
43. Lou Reed
44. Mark Mulcahy
45. Southern Culture on the Skids
46. Semisonic
47. The Bad Plus
48. Badly Drawn Boy
49. Beach Boys
50. Brian Wilson
51. Frank Zappa
52. Robert Fripp
53. U2
54. Dr. John
55. Beck
56. Elliott Smith
57. Sonic Youth
58. Pavement
59. Paul Westerberg
60. Emmy Lou Harris
61. The Kinks
62. Ben Folds Five
63. Clash
64. Pharoah Sanders
65. Blasters
66. Todd Rundgren
67. Pernice Brothers
68. Buffalo Tom
69. Burt Bacharach
70. Butterglory
71. The Wedding Present
72. Gang of Four
73. Jayhawks
74. Tom Petty
75. Willie Nelson
76. David Bowie
77. David Bromberg
78. Devo
79. Cheap Trick
80. Yo Lo Tengo
81. Guided by Voices
82. Richard Thompson
83. Feelies
84. Toots and the Maytals
85. Freedy Johnston
86. Yes
87. Ramones
88. Joe Jackson
89. Mary Gauthier
90. She & Him
91. Fela
92. King Sunny Ade
93. Neko Case
94. Jimmie Dale Gillmore
95. Van Morrison
96. Alejandro Estovado
97. Rickie Lee Jones
98. Robyn Hitchcock
99. Ron Sexsmith
100. Rosanne Cash