Big Bad Concert Rankings: 60-51
A few updates during the lockdown.
I had to organize these lists to include all the shows I saw in 2020 but didn’t write about yet. Now it’s all one big jumbled mess that I’m perfectly fine with leaving as is. Some of these were published, then unpublished, then mixed in with other concerts in Haiku form yadda, yadda, yadda. The point is, the list is now complete (213 in total) and will hopefully finish it by the time everything reopens.
I also was laid off from my day job, which sucks, but doesn’t at the the same time. I like working for all three employers and the assurance is that once everything opens back up I can slide right back into my daily and nightly routines. This doesn’t feel like my layoff from the newspaper which was a Top 5 worst life moments gut punch.
Speaking of physical ailments, I had a filling done in late February that was absolutely murdering my brain’s pain receptors. It’s a good thing my dentist was open for emergency use as it felt like an icepick was jabbing into my skull at at up-angle for hours at a time. My dentist drilled down the excess filling and fixed my bite. Good news, bad news is that the pain will recede within a week, but not all at once. It’s Day 3 and he was right. Instead of an icepick it’s more like a ballpoint pen.
My other website, SaveOurService.org, has eclipsed 22,000 views! That’s insane. I’m sure other virtual tip jars that made the news have more, but for this one to be non-state and locality specific is a huge deal. Florida and Michigan are the leading states, but to also have people in Alaska sign up was unfathomable when I first thought about starting it. As to why mine never made the news, that’s a tough one. I sent it all over the state and even asked friends who work in newsrooms to get it to the right people. While I have no doubt they got it to the right people, the momentum stopped there. I do want to thank The Angry Bartender for the initial spread. That person does a heckuva job keeping the service industry upbeat and engaged throughout this process.
Ya’ll really need to stop going to other people’s houses you aren’t related to and playing golf or pickup basketball. Do you not get social distancing? Let’s put it this way — I’m recounting all of my concert history going back decades. Do you think I won’t remember the people I see not following medical advice in a pandemic? Oh, I will know. And I promise you once the world opens up, you’re going to find out how special your skip-the-line privileges really were.
60. Ghostface Killah [Convotronics]
Twelve dudes on the stage
Only one Wu Tang member
White guy wins verse off
59. Julian Casablancas
Started very strong
Then he played Hard to Explain
Best of 2010
58. MGMT
Accidentally
Threw away their new CD
At the gas station
57. of Montreal [Lily and Horn Horse]
I absolutely loved this show, but what will make it memorable for generations wasn’t the sandwich I had before, the crazy skull light show during the first song, the awesome tie-dye tour tee, or the whimsical opener. No, what I’ll recollect most was how fast Big Mac darted out of the venue floor to go outside, in the rain, and frantically write a note to lead singer Kevin Barnes before wedging it in the tour bus’s windshield wiper.
Her complaint, you ask? A lack of silly hats and dresses.
56. Frank Turner [Shovels & Rope, Trapper Schoepp]
I've never seen mom
Dance so much in public space
Needed sunglasses
55. Garbage
Aunt saved me a seat
They ran out of songs to play
Band's homecoming show
54. New Rock Fest 1998 [Green Day, Violent Femmes, Soul Asylum, Harvey Danger, Black Lab]
A Runaway Train
Pantsless Billie Joe Armstrong
Steelpan Femmes closer
53. Telekenesis [Sontalk]
I bought the band’s whole catalog after this show. I love this band and listening to them in college has nothing to do with it. In fact, I didn’t even hear about them in school. This affection is all thanks to MLB 2k12. The video game featured Please Ask For Help as one of its menu tracks and as weird as it may sound, I felt I played better when that song came on. Also on that amazing soundtrack, Grouplove, Atmosphere, Explosions in the Sky, The Joy Formidable, and My Morning Jacket.
As far as the show, it was like hearing the Top 3 tracks of every album they had, in the exact way I wanted to hear them. Sontalk as an opener was also impressive. At the end, I walked away with six CDs and a tee (which later got semi-ruined in the wash). Fifty-three is a great placement for this show because that’s how many people, including staff and the band and their crew, were there. More people doesn’t always translate into better shows, but this could have really benefited from it.
52. John Mayer [Ben Folds, Brett Dennen]
My first year working at Summerfest was a little rocky. First, i didn’t know where to park and spent $30 on local parking until I figured out where the free employee lot was. Then the lineup wasn’t terribly inspiring. In fact, of the 22 shows I worked between 2007 and 2008, only four are in the top 50. One that didn’t quite make the cut was the first John Mayer show in 2007 with Brett Dennen and Ben Folds.
The 2007 shows was better on paper than 2008’s performance. Brett Dennen was a newbie and Folds played a selection of his better knowns, but Mayer surprised the crowd of 18,000+ with spectacular guitar work. Armed with a 15-song setlist, this should have been a Top 20 show if it hadn’t been for the rain and the promotional feel. There’s nothing wrong with seeing an album-centric tour. Mayer was heavily promoting Continuum, which I think is a great album, but the show felt like he was laboring with the setlist.
51. STRFKR
I’ve come to notice that a previously held notion that repeat shows are infrequent for me is awfully wrong. Tesla, Rick Springfield, Def Leppard, John Mayer, Collective Soul, Matchbox Twenty, Violent Femmes, Gin Blossoms, Daughtry, Gogol Bordello and a few acts I haven’t even mentioned yet are on here multiple times. I don’t necessarily like all of them with any fervor, either. When bands like a venue it’s hard not to see them again. When tickets are low enough, sometimes it’s hard to resist.
If it’s STRFKR, sometimes you just really want to see dancing spacemen with confetti cannons again.
This time, the confetti spacemen had balloons.
