SleepingPoliceman

This grew too big to fit in as a reply to JZ’s earlier post, so it’s getting its own. I did some thinking, and to answer his question, here’s a rundown of my top concerts:

Honorable mentions:
-Bob Dylan at Temple University, Philly, Fall 1999 (I stood about 11 rows back from the man himself. Only not ranked higher because I was relatively ignorant of his music at the time, so my memories of it are hazy. But it was a great show and I remember even liking the songs I didn’t know. I’d love to hear a recording of this…Folsom Prison Blues! On a different day when I’m in more of a Dylan mood, this would crack the list.)
-U2 at the new Garden, Monday night (too new to put on the list…it could just be the afterglow talking.)

On to the real list…

10. Radiohead at Madison Square Garden, NYC, August 2001 (a great show with close to all the big songs I wanted to hear. Fake Plastic Trees, Exit Music and Street Spirit in particular were amazing.)

9. Elbow at the Hiro Ballroom, NYC, November 2005 (this one may also be too soon, but it was such a great show from a band I’d wanted to see live for three years. Plus the context factors of the evening, from the travel time to get there to the equipment failures to the only-show-in-America element, all play into my happy memories.)

8. The Who at Madison Square Garden, NYC, August 2002 (great show, even with only two real members left. Lots from Who’s Next, which kept me happy. Also could have listed the Quadrophenia show from 1997 at Great Woods, but I had greater Who knowledge in ‘02 and appreciated that show more.)

7. Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden, NYC, April 2002 (I guess I saw a lot of great shows at MSG when I was in New York. What can I say? I sat in the same building as Paul McCartney when he played Blackbird, We Can Work It Out, I Saw Her Standing There, The End, etc etc etc. He’s a Beatle. Enough said.)

6. Marillion at the Paradise Theater, Boston, August 1995 (first time I saw one of my favorite bands. It was long enough ago that I was there with that girl I dated in high school and we were concerned about getting in because it was an 18+ show. Great set, featuring a big chunk of Brave and a lot of classics. This could just as easily have been their show at Toad’s Place in New Haven in October 2004 or the acoustic show at the Paradise this past June. But the first is always more memorable.)

5. Sting in Central Park, NYC, September 2000 (We’re getting into the shows that mean more because of personal context. Risa snagged tickets for me, and I made a special trip down to see the show. We got there early and were able to get spots about 8 rows back from the stage. A lot of energy, in the crowd and from the stage. A park full of people singing along to the acoustic version of Message In A Bottle: brilliant. If it wasn’t for the special ambiance and circumstance of this show, the B.U. show earlier this year would take the honors.

4. U2 at Madison Square Garden, NYC, October 2001 (I know that it’s sort of cliche now to invoke it, but this was less than a month and a half after 9/11. People were seriously thinking that if they gathered in a big building for a highly publicized event, they might die. I certainly thought that anyway. Given that, everyone there poured their souls into cathartically singing the songs, Bono included. I know I’ve said it before recently, but when the band transitioned from Bad into Where The Streets Have No Name, and the lights covered the arena in multiple colors, and Bono ran three full laps at full speed around the big heart-shaped ramp around the stage, and everyone was singing at the top of their voice…I really felt like I had left my body and was floating over the earth. Amazing.)

3. Peter Gabriel at Continential Airlines Arena, Meadowlands, NJ, November 2002 (first full-blown concert I had seen by him. The only time I’ve put down more than $100 for tickets, and it was worth it. Down on the floor, a few rows from the stage. From starting with just him at the piano doing Here Comes The Flood through the bike riding for Solsbury Hill and the bouncing zorb of Growing Up, it was all great. I had honestly waited 9 years to see him do a full arena show, and it was worth it. )

2. Peter Gabriel at The Supper Club, NYC, September 2002 (This was the press conference announcing the Growing Up tour on the day his album Up was released. A note was put on his official site the day before saying the first 75 registered members of his site to show up at the venue would get to see him do a short set. I skipped out of work, showed up an hour before it was going to start, and got in. He played seven songs, five from the album I’d only heard once (after getting it at a midnight sale)…but I saw him play in a venue that holds maybe 250 people tops, and he was standing about five feet away from me. Afterwards, I shook his hand and got a mini-poster of the Up album autographed…which is still hanging on my wall. Greatest extended lunch break ever.)

1. Genesis at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 1997 (This wasn’t too bad: I won a radio contest to go see my favorite band, who hadn’t toured since right before I started liking them, launch their new album at the NASA complex in Florida. Free flight, free hotel, plus being in the audience for their radio interview and mini-concert. OK, it was that weird brief period where some random dude was the singer, and the concert itself was only four songs. But I liked the random dude, and the songs included two of their top pop songs (No Son Of Mine and Turn It On Again) and the acoustic beginning of their classic 70s epic, Supper’s Ready, which at the time was my favorite song. It probably won’t ever get better than this.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 10:57 am by ptm and is filed under Lists, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.