Boxcar Willie – Mid 1980’s
Boxcar Willie is a country music singer famous for train songs and the ability to mimic the sound of a train whistle vocally. He performed at the Shiawassee County Fair when we still lived in Michigan. I was very young but I remember there was a comedian/Ventriloquist who had a Crow Puppet that opened the show. I also remember getting Willies autograph along with the Comedian autograph. I still have that photo.
Megadeth- 1990
I wrote about this show in a previous entry “My First Time”. It was my first time going to a concert on my own and experiencing a Heavy Metal concert. It was galvanizing. Such a display of power and energy would influence and teenager but it was exactly what I didn’t know I needed!
Rush Limbaugh – Early 90’s
I can envision some of you with a head cocked curiously to one side pondering the inclusion of political spoken word show by one of the most famous and controversial talk show hosts listed among some of the other bands here. I had the opportunity to see Rush Limbaugh perform in Milwaukee in 1990 or 91. My Dad had listened to him on the radio for years and when he heard about the show asked if I wanted to go. I did and so we went. I remember seeing people there with leather jacket and confused faces wondering why the trio from Canada was attracting such an odd audience! Mr. Limbaugh made some very compelling statement regarding several popular hot topics at the time. He is a commanding presence and to this day I use him as a reference when it comes to public speaking ability.
B.B. King – Mid 1990’s
I remember when I first started playing guitar and realized that I really like blues music, my Dad came home from a business trip and gave me a B.B. King tape. He said” If you like blues, this is the real deal.” I took Guns ‘n Roses out of my tape deck and put in the cassette and pushed play. I have never regretted it. From the first notes of “Sweet Sixteen” I knew I would learn a lot from this man.
So you can imagine what an enormous surprise it was for me when my dear friend Denise surprised me with ticket to see him at the Riverside Theater. Our seats were near the very top row if I remember correctly but the show was spectacular. I remember feeling my eyes water while listening to some of the songs and realizing I’m in the same room with a legend. I had a grin from ear to ear after that show. There is no way I could ever repay her for allowing me the opportunity to witness one of the masters at work. For that and numerous other reasons I will be eternally grateful for her friendship.
Ozzfest – 1999
I have been to Ozzfest several times and have seen many famous bands and witnessed some of the early shows of bands that went on to become huge. . There were several bands playing this show that I checked out. Drain STH is an extremely underrated band that I got the chance to check out. It is an all female band out of Sweden, a country known for its eclectic metal scene. They put on a very solid show and put to rest the myth that metal is a men’s only club. Next I checked out Fear Factory and Slipknot. Fear Factory is an example of great heavy metal with a dash (he! he!) of speed. Slipknot, on the other hand, is a band difficult to label. With 9 members all in red jumpsuits and custom made horror masks playing ferocious metal music interspersed with elements of hip hop and rap, this band is an experience to be had, not to be described. Static X is one of my favorite bands. Their sound is a solid groove based metal with electronic overtones. Their performance at this Ozzfest has been my only chance to see them. I will, however, see them again. Switching gears sharply, Primus was on this bill to provide a sharp contrast to the metal scene at this show. I have been a fan of Primus since my buddy Scott introduced me to them back in high school. Les Claypool, the band’s lead… everything, is a bass player that defies description. Much like, yet completely opposite from, Slipknot, Primus should be experienced in order to form an opinion.
Anytime you get the opportunity to watch a performance from one of “The Big Four of Heavy Metal” you should take it. “The Big Four of Heavy Metal” consists of Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. I took the opportunity to watch Slayer show the rest of the bands a thing or two about thrash. I got chills. Rob Zombie took the stage right before the headliner and got the audience, which had been moshing all day, charged up with a stage show full of fire, robots, monsters and go-go dancers.
All of these bands were great, but, with the headlining band I scored another massive achievement on the “Concert Bucket List”. I saw Black Sabbath with the original four members; Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. These pioneers of Heavy Metal had recently reunited and toured. I am thrilled to have experienced the band that influenced some of my favorite music. I remember feeling dizzy with excitement as the first chords of their song “Black Sabbath” literally shook the cloths you were wearing. I got to see the guys who wrote the songs I’ve been listening to and jamming with for years, perform them. It was spiritual.
Alice Cooper – 2003
The master of shock rock exploded onto the stage at the Waukesha County Fair and I was there right in front. I found out Alice Cooper was playing the day of the show so I grabbed a couple of friends and we headed over there. As we were wandering around the fair, killing time, we ran into a good friend who told us his brother had been staking out a spot up front since early afternoon and that we should go let him know we were there. So we did. As a musician and a person who likes watching the performance as well as hearing the music, I don’t sing along at concerts. However… the pure theatricality of Alice’s show swept me up and I sang along with every song I know as well did most of the audience. It was magic, dark magic ;) but magic none the less.
Ozzfest – 2005
Ozzfest makes another appearance on this list due primarily to the sheer abundance of memorable bands I saw. I went to this concert courtesy of my good friend Scott Pagac. He gave the guys who stood up in his wedding ticket to this show. WOW. One of the first bands I saw that day was a group called Wicked Wisdom fronted by a young lady named Jada Pinkett Smith. Yup, this petite little actress tore on stage and proceeded to tear that place apart. It was like seeing a pissed off little female Iggy Pop tear-assing across the stage. Awesome! A couple of bands later a group of guys comes on stage dressed to the nines in “metal gear” and starts grinding on a decent speed metal groove when all of a sudden the lead singer/guitarist guy runs out. My first thought was, “who does this pretty boy think he is?’. It was followed buy my second thought, “Holy shit! That looks just like my friend Joe!” The “pretty boy” proceeds to unleash lyrics in a metal yell the likes of which I had never heard before. The band was called Trivium, and I bought their CD the next day. Surprise number three was seeing a band called Arch Enemy which mixed the yelling, speeding fury of Trivium with the Wicked Wisdom surprise of yet another female lead singer and adds a dash of intimidation in the fact this lead singer might very well be of Viking ancestry and the burning blue eyes and flying blond hair made even the machoest of men in the mosh pit pause and reconsider their position of dominance. All of these bands were, by the way, on the second stage which featured Rob Zombie as the headliner for this stage. Rob’s show was as full of energy as it usually is and the audience was well entertained.
This alone would have been a great show, however, over on the main stage, Ozzfest concert goers were treated to an enormous treat as the two bands that finished up the evening were none other than Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. The gods of Metal were smiling upon the earth when this line up was put together. I don’t have the word to express the immensity of seeing these two bands on the same night. Iron Maiden, with front man/pilot Bruce Dickinson, fulfilled every expectation I have of the monumental bands performance. Of course no Maiden show would be complete without a visit from the bands mascot “Eddie” a 12 foot puppet operated by a man inside the costume. It was great. Black Sabbath finished the day off and played a great show considering each member was over 65 years of age at this show. All in all, it was a show to remember.
Rush – 2005
My good friend and band mate, Scott had been pestering me since we met to see Rush (the three chaps from Canada, not the talk show host mentioned earlier) perform live. Rush is one of Scott's primary influences on bass and in his song writing. I agreed to see their show at The Marcus Amphitheater because it was billed as “An Evening of Rush.” They were to play a two set show. Cool. Scott, his wife Kristi, and I got some great tickets somewhere in the 3rd or 4th row off to the right. The show happened to be the same night “Festa Italiana” was happening at The Summerfest grounds so we walked around that for a while. We decided it was time we head toward our seats and as we were making our way there, Kristi’s cell phone rang. She answered it and soon began jumping and shrieking with delight. While we were roaming the grounds, Kristi stopped to enter a contest to win tickets front row center. Yup..She won. Being the awesome people Scott and Kristi are they found a couple of people sitting in the grass seats and gave them their tickets up front. We all headed down to our seats and we worked out that Scott and Kristi would watch the first half of the show front row and the second half I would go up front row with Scott. The show was great. The band played a bunch of the hits and a bunch of the newer stuff. The drum solo cemented Neil Peart in the top three drumming slots in my mind. And, again, seeing a band with a career spanning 36 years (With The Same Line Up) that influenced many of today’s artist is something I am proud to talk about.
Les Paul – June 21 2008
I told the story of this concert in a previous entry “A Moment of Sound.” It was an extremely important show. There isn’t much I can say about this show that I didn’t mention in the previous entry. Watching the man play is spell binding. A person can see a pattern though. Women have played an essential part in allowing me to experience some landmark concerts and I don’t know what I did to deserve these opportunities but I can never repay the favor.
Henry Rollins – April 8 2010
I have seen Henry Rollins several times over the last decade. For those of you who are unaware, Henry Rollins is a multi-faceted Entertainer/artist. He got his start as the lead singer for a punk band called Black Flag. He has since, formed and toured with his own group (Rollins Band), written several books, started a publishing company, acted in a variety of movies and TV shows (Sons of Anarchy season 2, Heat, Wrong Turn 2), and tours as a spoken word artist among other things. His spoken word shows are more of a monologue than performance art where he speaks about current events as well as sharing stories of recording with William Shatner and trying to out perform Iggy Pop. I always leave his shows with a head full of things to think about and this latest show was a particularly good one. His material spanned many topic of conversation that had the audience cheering wildly in agreement and a few minutes later roaring with laughter. It was a great show. It was also a testimony to this mans drive, focus, and ability because he spoke nonstop for three hours without a single sip of water or pause for breath.
In conclusion I would invite all of you to look into the artists I have listed. In each entry I have included links to help you search them out and give you examples that help illustrate my points. There is foul language, controversial subject matter, and a wide swatch of performance. Please feel free to share your stories in the comment section below.
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