concert memoirs pt. 25 - burning spear, the fall & elastica

Burning Spear

8/29/94 First Avenue w/Mike Ticket Price: Comp. Tickets

Well, well. The second comp. ticket concert in a row. And it’s also a show attended without John. John wasn’t interested or was otherwise busy.

You will notice that from here on there won’t be many shows that I saw with John. I would be moving into John’s basement the following spring (Just in case you’re all wondering, no, we aren’t gay. We weren’t a couple. Let’s move on.) and, once I had started living in John’s house, John and I barely hung out together. Even before I had moved in the trend away from each other had begun. We're still friends.

I wasn’t sure I was going to go when I’m mentioned, at work, that I had a couple tickets to the upcoming Burning Spear show. A coworker, Mike, was big into the reggae so he jumped at the chance to go.

I knew only one song by the band. The song was Ku Klux Klan. I had seen them perform it in the very influential (for me and John) concert film, “Urgh! A Music War”.

Despite the fact that I knew none of the material, I had a blast. It was a fun show.

Everyone at First Avenue was grooving to the music. And I do mean everyone! Everywhere I looked in the packed club were people dancing. On the main floor, off to the sides, in the back, upstairs - everywhere!

What a great time and John missed it.

The Fall
9/17/94 First Avenue Alone Ticket Price: Unknown

Yep, I went to this show alone. I’m not sure why John didn’t go. It is unusual that John wasn’t there, The Fall being one of his favorite bands. It’s possible that the concert happened while John was in Europe.

So, I ventured in alone and stood right up at the front of the stage. The ultra-cool Mark E. Smith paced the stage while delivering his unique vocals. He was also fiddling around with a small tape player. It appeared that he was trying to get it to play something through his microphone. Apparently, it wasn’t working so, eventually, he gave up.

Another good show that John missed.

Elastica
6/4/95 First Avenue w/Joel & Gary Ticket Price: Unknown

I went with a couple of other friends of mine, Joel and Gary. I knew Joel better. He and I had worked together at Wendy’s for years and did a lot of hanging out together. Gary was Joel’s roommate and an all around good guy.

As we waited for the band to play, I caught the eye of a young woman. She spotted the shirt I was wearing. It was a white t-shirt with a large depiction of the Canadian flag. She asked if I was from Canada. I answered honestly (as my mother taught me to do) and said, “Nope. I just like the flag.”

She gave me an “oh” and quickly moved on.

Joel and Gary jumped right on me. They said I missed a golden opportunity to hook up. I should have lied and said I was Canadian.

I don’t operate that way. I didn’t then, I don’t now (my wife would object). I knew she would figure out I wasn’t from Canada. I guess I blew it, eh?

I never did pick up any women at First Avenue.

Heavily influenced by Wire and other 70’s era punk bands, Elastica was one of the last great bands to pogo to. And I pogoed myself to near exhaustion. It didn’t take long, either, because I had gotten a little bit older and I was feeling it.

I avoided the slam dance pit. I didn’t feel up to it at my ripe old age of 30. So I stayed off to the side and pogoed away. Much to the chagrin of the young woman standing near me. My dancing and the moving crowd caused me to bump her a couple of times. She wasn’t pleased and she let me know it. I told her she should expect a little bumping standing where she was and that I was from Canada. (Ok, I didn’t say that last bit about being from Canada.)

Oh well, I never did pick up any women at First Avenue.

It was a great show and they had a special announcement for us. They were going to be filming the concert sequences for their video for the song Stutter. They actually played the song twice. Once during their regular set and again in their encore.

They told us about the filming just before they played Stutter the second time. They told us to go crazy and show a lot of enthusiasm. They wanted the audience to be really revved up and we obliged.

So, if you watch that video on the YouTube, you now know that part of it was filmed at First Avenue and I was there.

concert memoirs pt. 12 - the waterboys, love & rockets, the jesus & mary chain & the fall

The Waterboys w/Figures

11/6/85 First Avenue w/John & Kelly Ticket Price: $5.00

This was one of John’s favorite bands. I liked them, but I wasn’t as into them as John was then. I really liked ‘This is the Sea’ (the album they were promoting for this show), but their first two albums (‘The Waterboys’ & ‘A Pagan Place’), I thought, had suffered from too many wordy songs with some awkward melodies mixed in with some good songs. ‘This is the Sea’ was a more complete and satisfying album.

We brought our friend Kelly along for this show. He had come along with us to The Red Hot Chili Peppers (First Avenue 11/21/84) show previously, but this time he was in for a much better show. The Waterboys were on that night. It was so good. What a great concert. Kurt Wallinger was with the band at that time and he really brought something special to their sound.

John told me that a couple weeks after the show he was hanging out with somebody, listening to the college radio when a Waterboys song played. That got John talking about how great the show was. As the song ended, the DJ came on and mentioned the recent show and stated that people were still talking about the outstanding performance. How true.

I don’t remember Figures that night, but it was probably the first time seeing them. John and I would see them a couple more times at the Cabooze or the Uptown Bar. They were a good live band with a little of the REM influence. One of the band members was fond of doing some very high jumps while playing.

Love & Rockets w/Crossfire Choir
12/9/85 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: $5.00

Opening bands at First Avenue usually didn’t attract much attention. Unless the band was pretty well known in their own right, spectators would tend to hang back, leaving the first fifteen or twenty feet from the stage fairly empty. People just didn’t want to commit to a band they weren’t sure of.

To be honest, John and I would do the same thing. This night, however, we ventured a little closer to the stage. I don’t remember if the band was any good. We’d never heard of them before or since. Yet, there we stood.

At some point, the lead singer offered a copy of their latest release to anyone who’d walk up and get it. John figured, “What the hell?” and he walked up and grabbed a copy. I don’t know if John has ever listened to it.

That’s about all I remember of the night. Usually, I forget the opening band, but this time I don’t have anything to relate about Love & Rockets. It’s not that I didn’t like the band, I must have lost those brain cells responsible for remembering that show.

The Jesus & Mary Chain
12-15-85 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: $5.00

This one. Oh, brother.

First of all, it was Sunday. Back then bars in Minnesota closed at 12 am on Sundays instead of 1 am. I know that you people in the bigger, more hip and happening cities probably think 1 am is too early, as well. Well, that the way it was. I think they go to 2 am now.

As I said, the place was going to be closing at 12 am and these twerps didn’t take the stage until 11:15 pm or so. That didn’t give them much time to play. And it seemed as though it was an awfully long time before they got onstage after the warmup act. Whoever they were.

These guys were supposed to be the second coming of The Sex Pistols, so maybe they were doing a punk thing by making us wait. Maybe they were upset that the bars closed so early. I don’t know.

When they finally started playing, two of the band members spent the entire show with they backs to us making their signature feedback sound while the lead singer droned on disinterestedly. The lead singer had a guitar draped over his shoulders, but he barely touched it. He’d strum the open strings here and there, not even bothering to play a chord. As far as I could tell, the guitar was more or less decorative.

They were bored. We were bored. It was over in less than 45 minutes.

The Fall w/Summer of Love
3/10/86 The Guthrie Theater w/John Ticket Price: $10.50

The Fall is another of John’s favorite bands. He liked the arty, deconstructive sound of bands like The Fall & Sonic Youth. I was more into melody, so I had a harder time with The Fall. But I still liked a lot of their stuff.

Also, the Guthrie just seems like an odd place to see a band. It’s probably just me. It was a bit more of an uptight environment. They wouldn’t allow us to dance in the aisles. We had to stay in our little designated seating areas. Of course, this was true of most of the other arenas, auditoriums and theaters.

We had to content ourselves with grooving at our seats. Not as much fun when John and I had become accustomed to seeing shows at First Avenue.

I don’t have much else to relate. It may have been the last time we would see Summer of Love and the cello gal, however.