There was recently a trend on Facebook in which a lot of people would list ten (or more) bands and try to get their friends to figure out which one they hadn't seen. This lasted all of five minutes on the Internet.
I got caught up and took part in this silliness as well. I thought I'd share some details about my experiences at these shows. I should point out that there was no rule saying I had to sit through the entire concert. Half of these I got to see when I was taking my break when I worked at Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre while I lived in Denver. It doesn't matter, I still got to see them live.
1. Elton John
I had been a big fan of Elton John when I was growing up in the 1970s. However, I lived in a small town hours away from any venue that would have hosted him. I was thrilled when I started working for Fiddler's Green in 1988 and saw that he was going to be the last concert of the season. I was managing a concession kiosk outside the back wall and was able to hear most of the performance. After I had closed my stand, I got to watch the last 20 minutes of the show. I also snuck my camera in and took some pictures, but they did not come out very well.
2. Rod Stewart
I saw Rod Stewart during my first night at Fiddler's. This was my initial taste of living in a large metropolitan area where things like this happen on a regular basis. I remember thinking how if I was still in Clovis, I wouldn't be experiencing that. It really changed my perspective on knowing what kind of place I wanted to live. I never wanted to go back to small town life.
3. The Monkees
The Monkees played Fidder's in 1989, but Michael Nesmith was not with them at the time. It was just Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones. I got to take my break right when the show began. As they came on stage, a calliope version of "The Monkees Theme" played. The three of them continued walking across and then completely off the stage. They came back on and started playing one of their newer selections. Since I was indoors, I didn't get to hear the rest of the set.
4. Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett played the second night I worked at Fiddler's. He also played the next afternoon. He had two sold-out concerts. The biggest issue was selling beer. The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department had a rule that stated that as soon at the headlining act started playing, we had to stop selling alcohol. This led to near riot conditions during the shows. At the second show, I told a customer that we had told Jimmy not to start playing until everyone in the crowd had purchased a beer, but that didn't help. He came back to Fiddler's for two more sold out shows in 1989.
5. The Who
I became a fan of the Who in 1979, a year after Keith Moon had died. That means that for me, the Who consisted of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle. I had a chance to see them play in 1989 when they came to Boulder, CO. But I had heard that Townshend wasn't giving his all during the tour, so I decided not to go. When they came to the San Diego Sports Arena in 1999, I figured this would be the last opportunity to see them. I went in expecting that they were old, were only going to play for about 90 minutes and that I wouldn't be that thrilled about it. I WAS WRONG! They played for 2 1/2 hours and I was so energized after the show that I couldn't get any sleep before I had to go to my 3:30am shift the next morning.
6. Crosby, Stills and Nash
Another group from the 1988 Fidder's Season. Supposedly, when they were doing their soundcheck on stage, David Crosby said, "Where the hell are the rocks?" That was a reference to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where I guess they thought they were playing.
7. Tin Hat Trio
Everybody's list appeared to need at least one obscure group. The trio played at a small non-profit venue in Phoenix in 2000. I came wearing my Melt-Banana T-shirt, which I got after seeing them at the Casbah in San Diego. This one guy came up to me and asked if I saw them open for Mr. Bungle. I replied, no, they were headlining. We talked a little bit more about them. It turned out that guy was Mark Orton, the trio's guitarist. After the show, I bought CDs from the other two members, Carla Kihlstedt and Rob Burger. This was the only group on this list that I had any interaction with.
8. Paul Simon
I thought I was going to get to interact with Paul Simon at Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, CA in 2001. A friend and I had gotten to go backstage for his opening act. We had been told that the backstage passes would also be good for seeing Paul Simon. But when we went to the backstage door, they turned us away.
9. U2
U2 was the group I hadn't seen before, but that's all changed now. I got to see them this week on Wednesday, 05/19/17 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. They are the same age that The Who were when I saw them, so I had high expectations for this show. They started at 9pm with some of their 80's classics before performing "The Joshua Tree" album. They finished the last track at 10:20pm, took a bow, waved and left the stage. I thought, "WHAT? That's it? They'd better not just do a couple of songs for an encore!" Fortunately, they did a 40 minute encore.
It was an inspiring and moving concert. However, I didn't feel as energized as I'd hoped. But that probably had more to do with the fact I had been working all day. Even The Who would have had their work cut out for them.
(A side note: A friend of mine who will be making future appearances in this blog as "Mid" was at the concert. But we didn't see each other. He was on the ground gloor, so that means he's somewhere in the photos.)
10. Sinead O'Connor
When I originally posted this list, I hadn't planned on coming up for a blog post to go into detail about these artists. However, I saw a chance to get something off my chest about my experience during her 1990 tour and I haven't found anything about this on the Internet. Simply put, it was the worst concert by a major artist I've ever attended.
To start, she had booked a show at a 1,000 seat venue in Downtown Denver. I managed to get a seat in the 8th row. I was stoked. Later, the summer concerts for Fiddler's and Red Rocks were announced. She was going to play at Red Rocks, but they hadn't provided a set date for her to appear. They only confirmed that she would be doing a show at Red Rocks some time during the summer. The day of of the show, I went Downtown to the theatre during the day to check out where I could go while waiting for them to let people in. There was a sign on the door that said that the concert had been delayed a couple of weeks. Later, they announced that she wasn't going to play at that theatre, she was going to do the promised show at Red Rocks instead. People who had tickets for the original show would be permitted to sit in the front third of the venue.
I arrived and I somewhat expected that they would have some sort of seating system set up for us. They didn't have one and there was nothing to stop anybody else with new tickets from sitting in that section. I was nowhere near as close to the stage as I would have been at the theatre. I already felt let down.
Everybody was very excited about the concert. Loud cheers erupted when she came out on stage. She played a few songs, mostly material from her new album. About an hour after the show started, she said good night and left the stage. I thought this was odd. She had two albums' worth of material. She could have easily played for 90 minutes, and at this point, she hadn't done "Troy" or "Mandinka," two of my favorite songs from "The Lion and the Cobra." (I wasn't the only one who felt this way. A guy standing next to me kept shouting, "TROY! TROY!") I hoped that she would do them for the encore. She came back out on stage and performed an Irish folk song acapella. When she finished, she ran back off the stage and the audience lights came up.
I had never heard an audience boo so much before (or after). Everyone was furious! We felt gypped. The guy who was yelling earlier started screaming, "TROY, YOU B****!" Everybody grumbled as we walked out to our cars. But I probably wouldn't have minded the short set missing my favorite songs if I'd gotten to see her at the original venue.
What made it worse was finding out that she did perform "Mandinka" and "Troy" at other concert dates. I don't know if she was feeling under the weather that night, but if she had explained that, we probably would have had a little pity for her.
So, that's 10 artists I've seen. I know what you're thinking: "Why didn't you list Apink?" Because EVERYBODY knows I've seen Apink. I wanted this to be a challenge. It took about four people guessing before someone got it right.
After I did this, I realized that this was just a fraction of all the concerts I've been to. I've seen a lot of great acts, big and small, throughout my life.
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