At the risk of dating myself: 1) Bruce Springsteen, 1975 Geneva NY. He was just about to break, had recorded but not released Born to Run. I was listening to WCMF in Rochester play Rosalita every night and heard he was coming to town. My buddies and I jumped into a truck and drove down. The hall was an old little vaudeville house, beautiful and small, smack in the middle of this tiny upstate NY town that didn't know what hit them. There was only one security guard who didn't have a chance with this situation. There was a grocery store across the street from the hall and the crowd emptied out every beer in it. I remember guys carrying two cases of beer down the middle aisle and just passing them out before the show began. No opener, he played over three hours, pulled out all the stops, every trick of the trade that his legend became based on, including best light show I ever saw, and Bruce earned every bit of hype and reputation that came later in that one unforgettable night.
2) Patti Smith Group, 1978 Buffalo NY SUNY gymnasium. She had just fallen off stage a few weeks before and was still in a neck brace so she couldn't move around; instead she put all that frenetic energy into her singing. The best garage band ever sounded like the best r n r band ever that evening. Patti's star was already in decline then, after she released radio ethiopia, and I remember telling myself as I left the show that if she turns out to be just a footnote in the history of RnR for Horses, at least I know she was the real deal, a true RnR genius, as close to God that night as you can get.
3) The Clash, winter early 1979, Boston Their first show in the States; never heard anything like it before or since. Huge runway lamps hooked up to drums. Really was the only band that mattered for a few years. Saw them several times at Bonds during their crazy, beautiful Times Square stand.
4) Talking Heads (also Elvis Costello, Pretenders, several others) some field in eastern Canada, early 80s. Incredible all-day concert but it was THs that came out last, after dark and burned the house down. They had recorded but not released their third record yet and went from a solo version of Psycho Killer to a sixteen piece orchestra playing the wildest rhythmic-funk we'd ever heard. Being outdoors with fires burning under the stars made the entire thing primitive, tribal and transcendent.
5) Wilco, Starland Ballroom, NJ Friday April 21, 2006 Greatest American band playing today. Blew us away from the first note to the last. And Jeff Tweety had an incredible dialogue with a drunk fan. Anybody else there that night?
