I’ve been to dozens, maybe even hundreds of live rock shows. I like harder music a bit more than the lighter stuff, so for me, a live performance is about intensity, and I’ve seen many intense shows. For example, back in 1993, I saw Pantera and Megadeth co-headlining with the then little known White Zombie opening, and the show was positively intense. In fact, I saw Pantera several times after that as well…once with White Zombie and the Def Tones, once as part of Ozzfest with Sabbath, Ozzy, Type O Negative, Marilyn Manson, Fear Factory and Coal Chamber, once with Black Sabbath and Incubus and I believe at least one other time. They were probably my favorite band to see live, it was no holds barred aggression and power, and I saw many great performances. Perhaps taking the mantle from them would be Slipknot whom I saw once at another Ozzfest, right after Mudvayne, and just before Black Label Society, Union Underground, Crazy Town, Disturbed, Ozzy and Black Sabbath. I’ve seen many, many heavy, ear splitting concerts, all which were very intense and amazing.
But there are three shows, none of which is nearly as loud as any of these which stand out in my memory. The first I’ll mention is the White Stripes. I was positively in awe of how two people could get up there and make such a ruckus, while invoking some really old school blues and garage rock. They had this raw, pulsating feel about them, the whole show seemed alive with electricity, and the venue was rather small. This was on 4th of July weekend in 2003, and they played for like 2½ hours, did something like 30+ songs and were just relentless. Their sound was at the same low down and dirty, and utterly pristine, like you’d hear on record (vinyl though, not CD). Some of the more intense moments were when they slowed it down in fact. I can’t imagine a song that they didn’t play that they should have, they just gave a show that was a 10 out of 10, something I will remember for the rest of my life. It was a show so impressive that I sought out a bootleg of it so I can relisten any time I want to, and I still get chills.
To mellow it out even more, I live in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and here, it’s all about Prince. Now I’ve seen Prince twice, the second time was on 07/07/07, it was his homecoming show, there were actually 3 shows he did that day, but I went to the main one, and I was not disappointed. The only disappointment were the acoustics in the Target Center, a building better suited for ball games than concerts, but he was deadly spot on with his music. He also played for 2½ hours, ripping through about 30 songs, including songs from his Purple Rain days that he hadn’t played in years. And then he brought out his friends…Wendy Melvoin from the Revolution joined him. As did Sheila E. And there were others…..he just gave the show every Prince fan ever DREAMED of seeing. It may not have ripped my face off, but the intensity was far greater than ANYTHING I ever saw Pantera do.
But the #1 show in the annals of all the shows I’ve ever seen was June 16, 1999, it was the first time I saw Elvis Costello perform live. I loved his early new wave work, I really liked some of his mid to late 80s work, and I had basically a greatest hits CD that I’d listened to over and over and over and was in awe of his range. But I had no idea at that time the depth of his work. Right now in my collection, I have everything he’s ever done (I was so impressed by his show that I had to fill my collection), and he basically re-released all his albums prior ot the mid 90s to include a second entire bonus disc of material…all told I have over 50 Costello discs, not counting bootlegs…he is THAT prolific. But the depth of material was not what really got me. He came out, and it was him, a guitar, and his pianist Steve Nieve who’s been with him since the formation of the Attractions in the late 70s. And the two of them did an entirely acoustic set, which went over 2½ hours, I believe 35 songs and they were all incredibly moving. NEVER have I been at a concert where there was dead silence during the silent parts of the song. The audience was transfixed….I was almost shaking when I left, the show was just so impressive, startlingly raw and full of emotion and energy…it was by far the single most intense concert experience I, the rocker dude, have ever seen. I have since seen Costello with the Imposters in a live indoor show, doing a face to face show with Jazz legend Allen Toussaint, playing with a full orchestra backing him, and at a huge outdoor festival where all he played was the hits. Each show was different and each show had a completely different set list. All were amazing, but it was that first concert which I doubt will ever be matched. This too I have a CD of which I protect as if it were made of gold.
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