Big Bad Concert Rankings: Introduction & Honorable Mentions
For those of you that know me, which is about 98% of you because I directly invited you to like this site, you know I love live music. More directly, I like national touring acts. I have nothing against local live music, but I don’t necessarily need to hear two original tunes and followed by the umpteenth cover of Mustang Sally or [insert Bob Seger tune here]. We get it, you like Bob Seger. He’s from here, kinda. Hooray.
That being said, I do like several local Grand Rapids acts no matter how short their drummer is. A few even acted as local support for big-time tours. Non-sarcastic Hooray!
Lately, it seems that just about every other show I find, myself texting someone that it was in my Top 5 or Top 10.
And that probably wasn’t true. Because I’ve jotted down most of the tours I worked for, paid for, or been comp’d for, and it’s too extensive for a fly-by-night text twelve minutes after the venue raises the house lights, and I regain cell service.
The list will be extensive. But I’m limiting my list to the Top 200, or however many shows I can cram in before Barbara Walters says it’s 2020.
It will have detail and explanation. Feel free to discuss it with me at any time. Or, point me in the direction of new people I should be aware of (as long as I don’t need a drug to ‘fully experience’ it).
But I can’t include everything. So, I’m going to start the list with a few Honorable Mentions. Sometimes I’m too cool for school and don’t remember every little detail about everything. It’s rare, but it happens, or rather, something else happens that takes over the memory.
Honorable Mentions
Tool
Huge band. Nearly sold out the Marcus Amphitheater in 2007. But right around the third song a woman threw her beer on me and her boyfriend tried to tackle me. It took four security roamers to apprehend them and take them down to the mobile police station by the back of the venue. Me and my partner repeated this about 12 times. I could not tell you a single song I heard the entire way through their set.
New Rock Fest 1997
Speaking of the Marcus, New Rock Fest was an alt-rock mini festival held on memorial Day weekends in Milwaukee from 1995-1998. I wasn’t in attendance for 95 or 96 but I was there for 97 and 98. The experience in 1998 will land somewhere on the main list but I can’t for the life of me tell you what happened in 1997 because of my interaction with Rob Thomas.
Yes, that Rob Thomas. Lead singer of Matchbox Twenty. The Smooth guy.
I’m in line for autographs and bands are signing my shirt. I got autographs from local Milwaukee band The Gufs, which was cool. But then, next in line was upstart mega-hit makers Matchbox Twenty. Rob Thomas asked me my name.
I said Jonathan.
He heard Donovan.
He signed Donovan.
He then signed Rob Thomas.
He then said, “Donovan. That’s a cool name.”
Then I said, “Yes, it is.”
The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl that January. I remember Rob Thomas more.
Lokella, Jesse Ray and the Carolina Catfish, Michigander
Local GR acts that I’ve quite enjoyed the last few years. More specifically, I’ve verbally insulted the drummer of the first one, physically assaulted (with permission in a training demonstration) the frontman of the middle, and randomly saw the third in the crowd at three different Detroit shows over a 6-month period.
The 2009 Country Show at Drake University
I remember line dancing. I remember us having to put a special padding on the floor for people to dance, similar to what we used for graduation ceremonies. I remember we put the green room in the racquetball court. But for the life of me I can’t recall the musical act. I worked this show for a previous year at Drake, a private concert for volunteers who met certain hour markers. Once the team put together 10,000 total hours, they got to have a concert all to themselves and plus-ones or twos. The first year was Jet (Are You Gonna Be My Girl) which will be somewhere on the list. And the next one was this damn random country act, that might be Jason Aldean but probably wasn’t.
UPDATE: It was Keith Anderson, and it was during Homecoming Week.
Jewel
My dad took me to see Jewel in May 1996. Part of me is thinking he took me because it was one of the few all-ages show he would be into. I don’t know the motivation behind it. I’m looking at the setlist online and it was a whopping 25 songs. I think it was in a series of promoted concerts in the area around the same time because I seem to remember him talking about seeing No Doubt (at the Intersection) the previous week or month.
Manchester Orchestra
Last year I took an extensive road trip through the Midwest. And on Arcade Fire day, a Sunday, I fell asleep during MO’s set. It was only a six-song set but I guess I needed to nap after song two.
Train / Tonic
In between 1999 and 2003 there was a traveling side stage that featured several artists, but Train and Tonic were the main headliners I remember. The artists performed during the daytime just outside of the Summerfest Grounds in the massive parking lot between the Center and South gates. You needed a separate ticket to watch the traveling tour but you could hear the concert if you stood by the fence. For this reason, I am not counting this tour because A) I don’t fully recall the exact year, and 2) I can’t find it online. Both Tonic and Train toured fairly regularly during this period and this is not the Jeep World Outside Fest, which did not travel to Milwaukee.
Moondoggies
The Head and the Heart is a fantastic band that has hit songs on all my favorite TV shows. But their opener had the misfortune of playing during a tornado warning in downtown Grand Rapids. The last time I heard the siren sound within the city streets an actual tornado touched down. So this was a big fuckin’ deal. While the band was on stage, I was directing people from outside into our main floor, which is probably one of the safest shelters in the city. From what I heard in the lobby, it wasn’t half bad.
Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple
After four songs, 35 minutes had already rolled by and I was mercifully cut for the night. I’ve come to notice that any act that started in the 1960s or 1970s that isn’t Paul McCartney has a promo tour that looks like Austin Powers dancing during the cutscenes. The music wants to be very wild child, flower power, funky, and groovy, but hat’s not what a Deep Purple version 3,451,298 is all about. The colors were there, and the lights, and the dress, but the audience never got the same feeling of the movement.
Ski Mask the Slump God
Shoes. What’s with all the missing shoes? At least 20 people lost their shoes in the pit. Also, mosh pits for rap shows, when did that become a thing? Also, also, my first wall of death, which was more wall than death, admittedly. But back to shoes. We literally had people leave the venue missing one or both of their shoes. In the rain. In winter. WTF?
If you liked reading all this, I’ll have quite a bit more in the coming days and weeks. And also updating this list should anything fall through the cracks.
