Bowie is on my very short hero list. I may even dare to say he occupies the number 1 slot.
Not that any of you care, but it occurred to me that I may have erroneously named Bowie as my #1 Rock N' Roll hero when in truth, it is actually my dad. I've been guilt ridden for hours now in publicly slotting Bowie above my old man in a personal Rock N' Roll Hero list and felt compelled to adjust this information for the dozens of Jay Farrar fans who may read this..Yes, I'm sure you were all very concerned
Went to go see REO Speedwagon ( yea I know!!) in the mid 70's and Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow opened.......Ritchie,Dio, Cozy Powell. LOUD, aggressive Rock N Roll. Speedwagon seemed pretty lame.
Went to go see Clapton in 79-80 ( I think ), he had a great touring band Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass and Albert Lee as the other guitarist. A band I had never heard of The Blasters opened...KILLER!!
Always loved Dave Alvin ever since.
Phish opening for Santana was pretty awesome also, had heard of them but the first notes of Chalkdust Torture and you realized that half the crowd was there for them.
Oh another one I just remembered was Bowies's Reality tour in 2003/2004.
Now, Bowie is on my very short hero list. I may even dare to say he occupies the number 1 slot. I was living in Chicago during that tour and had tickets for 2 of the 3 nights he played in town. So Macy Gray was the opener and I was like-"Yeah-ok..that one radio hit I know by her is kinda catchy"..but didn't really know what to expect for an entire set and to be honest, I'd say my instinct immediately aired on the side of underestimation.
WOW..May I just say-I couldn't have been more impressed with her set as she and her band were INCREDIBLY tight and powerful live. She is an amazing front woman and commands all of your attention (at least mine) AND has some killer tunes to boot!! Much better than that one radio hit..This one song I remember she sang was something like "when you walk into the room, I can't see anyone but you and that girl you're with..She's no good for you"..Her performance of this tune is pleasantly etched in my mind forever more.
Of course I showed up early to the show the next night to catch her set in it's entirety again. She's an actress too, and I get all excited when I see her in stuff now as I consider myself a fan. Very talented performer!!
Bowie is another story all together..
The first night I was in the pit not quite up against the stage but close enough. I'm very tall as it is and stood on my tippy toes to read the up side down set list. Something like 6 or 7 down the list was the track "Starman" off of Ziggy Stardust. I started welling up immediately like the ultimate teenage girl. That was one of the tracks I gave my guitar teacher to transcribe and teach me how to play when I was 13 years old. At the time I was a beginner and think it was the Bb chord that was tripping me up, so I put it aside and forgot about it until years later when the convenience of looking up tabs online became the way of the world. Like a big old dork, I had tears in my eyes when he played the song. He sang the wrong lyrics (got the verses mixed up) which made me laugh and brought be back down from my emotional teenage moment..
I've always wanted to post that one on youtube for fun, but have such a crappy home set up that I rarely record a take of any tune where I think the sound quality is post worthy. That track in particular really really affects me. The whole record does and is most def another one which shaped and defined my young R N' R ear. Aladdin Sane, Scary Monsters and The Lodger too!
*Still*-Great show and Bowie chokes me up like very few artist can..And he made a Macy Grey fan out of me as well!
I saw Uncle Tupelo open for Big Head Todd And The Monsters one time, in Albany, New York.
The opening act blew me away, then, I had to help load their amps and guitars into the van, and drive 'em to Manhattan...
Brian
Let's Active's-"Afoot" is one of the records I credit with playing an integral part in defining and shaping my young Rock N' Roll ear!! Love Mitch Easter..Must check them out!!
Same for me...but it was "big plans for everybody" and luckily I listened to Husker Du too and it all balanced out.
Let's Active's-"Afoot" is one of the records I credit with playing an integral part in defining and shaping my young Rock N' Roll ear!! Love Mitch Easter..Must check them out!!
Earlimart opening for Son Volt Variety Playhouse Atlanta...............they sounded like Lets Active...........I was very impressed. Still don't have any of their catalogue but I'm getting them all.............M.
I saw Nirvana open for 24-7 Spyz. I went to see neither and left with a copy of Bleach that they had just got. 1st one out of the box. ...they had to go out to the van to get 'em.
Richard Buckner and Alejandro Escovedo opening for Son Volt in the mid 90's (@ Various times). Not saying those guys stole the show cause that did not happen. But I did not know who they were and now I have since seen them numerous times. Son Volt used to consistently have incredible opening acts way back whenever. And they played in some tiny, sorry venues along the way. I think I saw Blue Mountain open for Son Volt once, but those days all run together? How about Son Volt opening for Mellencamp? That was an intersting time. I think Warner Bros was trying to make a final push to break Jay into the big time and he obviously wanted no part of it. Also saw Guns N' Roses open for Motley Crue right when Appetite was released. We walked out of the arena until the Crue came on.
One example would be Nirvana opening for Dino Jr. I definitely dug them, but I was such a Dino Jr. fan (still am) that the Nirvana thing didn't really hit me until the next day or two. "Shit, those other guys rocked." Next thing you know ...they're the biggest band in the world.
I remeber seeing Jimmy Eat World play in front of about 10 people in a very small club way back in the day, when I went to see some local band opening for them, don’t even recall who that was. I was not necessarily blown away, but you could tell they had bigtime pop potential.
I had never heard of Buffalo Tom, when they opened for My Blood Valentine and Yo La Tengo at the Warfield in SF. I thought Buffalo Tom were the best band of the three, even though they were the only one I didn't know at the time.
I did, however, go specifically to see Uncle Tupelo the first time I saw them and was not disappointed .... to say the least.
