Welcome to CONCERT OVERLOAD, a place for sharing my concert-going experiences. My goal is to say a few words about each and every concert I've ever attended.
CURRENT CONCERT COUNT: 868 (most of them in the Los Angeles area)
At the time of this writing, I have seen 264 shows at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. But on June 7, 1990, my McCabe's concert count stood at zero. I had seen their ads in the Calendar section of the LA Times, but until John Wesley Harding's gig there, I had not visited the place.
UPDATE (June 7, 2020): My current McCabe's concert count is 528.
I was first introduced to John Wesley Harding's music in early 1990, while checking things out at Rhino Records in Claremont. My ears caught a song that had all the right ingredients and the store clerk gave me all the details I needed - the song was "Here Comes The Groom", performed by a certain John Wesley Harding, a British singer-songwriter. Needless to say, I bought the album, then a few months later, I drove out to Santa Monica to see him live, in concert.
I got there early, just before 6 PM. I walked in and found myself in a store. With a puzzled look on my face, I asked "Where's the concert gonna be"? They told me "In the backroom, you may check it out now". So I entered the backroom and I froze: John Wesley Harding was just starting his sound check. I stood there listening to "Cathy's New Clown" and bits and pieces of other songs. I said to myself "I like this place".
For the show proper, I sat in the second row, only the second time in my concert-going career that I could sit so close to a favorite performer. JWH played all my favorite songs from "Here Comes The Groom", except for "The Devil In Me". He was humorous, intelligent, played the guitar with ferocity at times and delivered one great song after another.
Even though he was a relative newcomer to the LA singer-songwriter scene, John Wesley Harding had two unannounced guests: Dave Alvin and John Easdale, of Dramarama fame. The latter duetted with JWH on "Last Cigarette", Dramarama's 1989 hit. Years later, Dave Alvin would become one of my all-time favorite musicians.
I was in total awe of John Wasley Harding's performance and it all happened right there in front of my eyes. When the show was over, the guy sitting next to me turned to me and said "As good as it gets". I answered "My thoughts, precisely".
My second time to see the Squeeze, who had become one of my favorite bands. I had a good floor seat, about fourteen rows back, dead center. No Paul Carrack and no Jools Holland in the line-up. But they had Jools' little brother, Christopher Holland, a good keyboard player himself, he even looked a bit like Jools.
Before the show, they were playing some truly great music via de PA system and I badly wanted to know who the artist was. So I went to the soundboard guy and he showed me the just-released Jools Holland album titled "World Of His Own". The song that caught my ear was "Architectural Number", the album's opening track, so although not there, Jools still left his mark.
Other then "Tempted", I don't remember any of the songs they played. nor could I find their set list on the Internet. But it was a good show.
The opening act was an all-female band called the Rebel Pebbles. They were totally forgettable, no wonder I haven't heard of them since.
Here's the lip-synched original version of "Tempted":
My third encounter with EC. The first time he had Phil Collins drumming for him. The second time he enlisted Mark Knopfler to be in his band. So who's it gonna be this time, I was asking myself.
Well, for his encore, EC brought out a musician who did not need introduction, and fittingly, didn't get introduced: George Harrison, who just happened to be in town to record the Traveling Wilburys' first album. Standing side-by-side, Eric & George first traded a few blues licks, then they played "Crossroads" and "Sunshine Of Your Love". Sadly, they did not do "Badge", but it was lots of fun anyway.
This gig was part of Eric's "Journeyman" world tour, in support of the album of the same title. The show opened with three songs from "Journeyman", then continued with some of his best known songs, including some from his days with Cream and Blind Faith.
The band included only musicians I had heard of before, among them Alan Clark of Dire Straits fame.
BAND LINEUP
Eric Clapton – guitar / vocals
Phil Palmer – guitar
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards
Alan Clark – keyboards
Nathan East – bass / vocals
Steve Ferrone – drums
Ray Cooper – percussion
SET LIST
Pretending
No Alibis
Running On Faith
I Shot The Sheriff
White Room
Can’t Find My Way Home (Nathan East - vocals)
Bad Love
Before You Accuse Me
Old Love
Tearing Us Apart
Wonderful Tonight
Band Introduction
Cocaine
A Remark You Made
Layla
Blues Improvisation (with George Harrison)
Crossroads(with George Harrison)
Sunshine Of Your Love (with George Harrison) (Nathan East - vocals)
Van Morrison, yet another legendary singer I'd known since my teenage years. "Here Comes The Night" and "Gloria" are songs I still can't get enough of, even after so many decades. But Van The Man wasn't the only attraction that night: his band featured Georgie Fame, someone I'd known and loved since his "Yeh Yeh" and "Get Away" came out in the mid-sixties.
Van Morrison had been described in the music media as a moody performer, who could put on electrifying shows, but could also leave the stage after only 50 minutes of uninspired singing. We lucked out, his concert was great, then to top it all off, he gave us four encores! How often do you get four encores?
At one point during the show,Van brought out Robbie Robertson, of the Band fame. Georgie Fame was on stage the whole time, played the keyboards exuberantly and also sang a song, but I can't remember what.
Georgie Fame
Among many other songs, Van delivered "Baby Please Don't Go", "Gloria", "Whenever God Shines His Light", Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and surprisingly, "Send In The Clowns", which was the fourth and final encore. There were also a few extended instrumental interludes, in which he was an active participant - his guitar playing was quite good and he definitely knows how to blow the sax.
Here's a 1990 video showing Van Morrison and Georgie Fame together in concert:
I went to the show accompanied by my friend Klaus, we had decent orchestra seats.
With songs like "Only A Memory", "A Girl Like You", "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" and Blood And Roses", the Smithereens caught the ears of many music fans, myself included. Together with my friend Ron C, I went to see the Smithereens at the Universal Amphitheater, on a cold and rainy night.
The show was nothing special, I was soon to find out. Simply put, their studio recordings sound better than their live act. Pat DiNizio was a great songwriter and I liked his voice, but live on stage they were rather bland. But I got to hear all of the above-mentioned songs.
Here's a great song written by Pat DiNizio, recorded in 1989:
Graham Parker opened the show. At the time, I wasn't familiar with his music and I can't say that I walked away thoroughly impressed. Today, I'm just a tad more knowledgeable when it comes to his music.
Over the years, I have had little luck getting good seats via Ticketmaster, but this time I had a work-around: a coworker, an Englishman named Phil, whose wife worked at the Colliseum, got me two choice seats, just seven rows from the stage, dead center. That means I had 80,000 screaming fans behind me, each and every one of them hollering in my general direction.
This was part of the Steel Wheels World Tour, with four shows in Los Angeles. I gave the extra ticket to my good friend Jack, and after a short stop at a famous Greek deli store, we entered the Colliseum. We sat right in front of the huge stage, the largest one I'd ever seen.
Mick Jagger: Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica
Keith Richards: Guitar, backing vocals
Ronnie Wood: Guitar, backing vocals
Bill Wyman: Bass guitar
Charlie Watts: Drums, percussion
Here's how the Stones kicked off their set:
And here's the stage, imagine sitting right in front of it, only seven rows back:
SET LIST
1. Start Me Up
2. Bitch
3. Sad, Sad, Sad
4. Undercover of the Night
5. One Hit
6. Tumbling Dice
7. Miss You
8. Ruby Tuesday
9. Play With Fire
10. Dead Flowers
11. Rock and a Hard Place
12. Mixed Emotions
13. Honky Tonk Women
14. Midnight Rambler
15. You Can't Always Get What You Want
16. Before They Make Me Run
17. Happy
18. Paint It Black
19. 2000 Light Years from Home
20. Sympathy For The Devil
21. Gimme Shelter
22. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
23. Brown Sugar
24. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
25. Jumpin' Jack Flash
The Guns N'Roses played a full set just before the Stones came out. The Gunners could have probably filled the stadium by themselves - 1989 was the peak of their popularity. Axl Rose did not talk nonsense, instead he was focused on his singing. Slash kept a relatively low profile throughout the set. They played "Welcome To The Jungle", among other songs. At one point during the show, Axl left the stage, returned bare chested and with a new pair of pants, then after a minute or so, he turned his back to the crowd, only to reveal that a large circular part of the seat of his pants was missing.
Guns N'Roses in 1989
The show was opened by Living Color, whose song titled "Cult Of Personality" was receiving decent air play during those months.
Living Color
Overall, the show was great, although a bit too loud even for my standards. I had a buzz in my ears for a few days after show, but luckily, it went away. It was a thrill being so close to the stage and being able to see facial expressions with your naked eyes.
Another unforgettable memory - the restroom situation. There weren't too many intellectual types among the crowd, and that showed in their toilet habits. I saw floors flooded with urine, I saw people peeing on walls, it wasn't a pretty sight, nor did it smell good. When finally I reached a decent-looking men's room, it had been taken over by representatives of the opposing gender, attracted by the shorter lines there. Long live rock & roll.
My Santana-addiction acted up again in September 1989. His guitar playing was out-of-this-world, but what truly attracted me to his shows were his drummers and percussionists, who would propel the music forward with energy and force, something you don't see and hear often.
This was the second of two consecutive shows at the Greek. After having seen him twice before, Santana's shows had become somewhat predictable - not necessarily a bad thing - so I got to hear "Black Magic Woman/Gipsy Queen" and "Oye Como Va" at each and every one of my Santana outings.
It would have sufficed if they only had Ringo onstage for the entire evening. But this is America, so for the same price they threw in a few more musicians. And not just any musicians - the first incarnation of the All-Starr Band included Joe Walsh, Dr. John, Billy Preston, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Nils Lofgren, Clarence Clemons, Jim Keltner, Garth Hudson and Zak Starkey. What a line-up!
The show I attended happened to be the last one of the US portion of the tour. I had a good terrace seat, on the left side of the stage. Ringo did most of his solo hits, plus a few songs from the days when he was in a band. In between Ringo's stints, the band members had their turns to showcase some of their better material.
Nils Lofgren impressed me quite a bit, and so did Billy Preston. Joe Walsh was good, too. The entire concert was recorded and released on CD.
This clip was recorded at the very show that I attended: it's Levon Helm and the band doing "The Weight":
Ringo sang these songs:
"It Don't Come Easy"
"The No-No Song"
"Honey Don't"
"You're Sixteen"
"Photograph"
"It Don't Come Easy"
"Act Naturally"
"Yellow Submarine"
"With A Little Help From My Friends"
One of my all-time guilty pleasures, I've been listening to the Bee Gees ever since their "Bee Gees First" album came out in the 1960s. To this day, I love their first four albums, not counting their early Australia-only releases. My interest in them took a major beating during their disco period and after that, I have never truly reconnected with their music. But to see them live is a different matter altogether.
The LA gig was part of a major world tour, that took them to many countries, including Australia. I sat in the first section, the one with double-letter rows. The show began with some highly spectacular bright lights and explosions that culminated with the silhouettes of the three brothers standing there motionless. There were many more special effects throughout the show.
The setlist covered their entire career, as expected. Barry sang most of the songs, but Robin had his moments, too. Both were in great vocal form. They sang "To Love Somebody", "Massachusetts", "Lonely Days", "Words" and many others. They also played some of the songs they wrote for others, such as "Heartbreaker" and "Islands In The Stream".
This video, recorded in 1989 during the same world tour, demonstrates the quality of their live show:
Later in the set, when they started their medley of disco hits, it was party-time for most, but for me it was potty-time. Still, in spite of the disco slip-up, it was a fabulous night.
Somebody screwed up royally when they booked Randy Newman to play the Universal Amphitheater. Being one of the very best in the music business and selling tickets are two different things. Around 2,500 fans show up to see Randy live, which left about 3,700 seats unoccupied. Randy himself quipped "I see a lot of people out there dressed as empty seats". Later he joked about his "light show", which he compared to that of Pink Floyd's.
I went to the show with my better half, we had front row seats in the balcony, but were "upgraded" to sit downstairs, closer to the stage.
Randy played his best known songs, which he always does ... "Lonely At The Top" ... "Political Science" ... "I Thinks It's Gonna Rain Today" ... "I Love LA" ... "Sail Away" ... "Short People" ... one just cannot get tired of his songs. He had no guests. All-in-all, it was an excellent show that made me want to see him again, which I did more than once.
There was no opening act.
How often have you heard Randy Newman doing songs he hasn't written himself? Take a look at this:
My second and final time to see Ray Charles. The concert took place in Manhattan Beach, on the main tennis court of this exclusive club. I had a decent seat, just right of the stage. There was no opening act. Brother Ray was accompanied by a full-size orchestra conducted by long-time collaborator Sid Feller.
The audience was predominantly white, something that definitely intrigued me. "Georgia On My Mind" is the only song I positively remember from the show. I'm 99% sure he did "America The Beautiful" as well.
Here's the poster that was used to advertise the concert
After having played a number of smaller venues in the area, the Maniacs finally got a headlining gig at one of LA's major venues, the Greek Theater. I went by myself, as most of my concert-going friends were not interested in the newer sounds of the day. I sat in Section A, center, about there rows back, so there are some advantages to buying single tickets.
The show was opened by Camper Van Beethoven, a California band that has achieved some recognition, but hasn't hit the big time.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about their debut at the Greek, is that Natalie Merchant, the voice of the Maniacs, the pretty young lady who sang with intelligence about all the worthy causes in the Universe, dropped the F-bomb, live in concert. As someone who uses the F-word sparingly and only in situations of supreme necessity, I was stunned by Natalie's use of the profanity. But it wasn't all bad - she did her usual twists and pirouettes and sang songs from both their hit albums, "In My Tribe" and "Blind Man's Zoo". They played "What's The Matter Here", "Trouble Me", "You Happy Puppet" and "Headstrong", among others.
