What’s your fond memory of an intimate show by a famous act?

[musicmemorabiliashoppellc]

Not quite an intimate concert of a major band, but about not remembering one from the '60s.

A friend from high school stopped by to chat & remember old times. He said, remember when we saw The Doors? I said, I have never seen The Doors.

He said remember when we went to see The Jefferson Airplane at The Swing and another band came out and played during their break?
I said yes, we never missed The Airplane at the Swing.

He said that band was The Doors. So I Googled it, and that was The Doors first concert, and I was there, and I don’t remember them!

(Just The Airplane)

Wow...very cool...wish I could say I was there...but am slightly younger than you and lived in Toronto at that time

 

[musicmemorabiliashoppellc]

Oh and another intimate show at The Masonic Temple (formally known as The Rock Pile) Supertramp for either the "Crises What Crises" or "Even In The Quietest Moments" Tour, can't remember which tour it was.

As well the post for Bryan Adams "Reckless" Blu Ray, just reminded me I also saw and shot that show as a freelance photographer at Massey Hall as well...as

The Black Crows for their first tour "Shake Your Money Maker" Tour at Rock N Roll Heaven in the cave in the basement at Yonge & Bloor!!

If you are from Toronto and around my age you will remember that CPI (Concert Productions International) had a club called "Cheap Thrills" which when it first started was only $10 per year and you got the same 2 seats for every show at Maple Leaf Gardens which mine were 7th row center on the floor. It also got you first grabs for any other show put on by CPI at any of the other venues in the Toronto area on a first come first served basis

Call me either spoilt or privileged....yes I was very

 

[hafquark]

I've been to a few shows in small venues, but one that sticks in my mind is '72 or '73 when my wife and I saw It's A Beautiful Day at the OKC Civic Center. The concert was stupidly scheduled on the same night as a big college football game and there couldn't have been more than a few dozen people in attendance. Undeterred by the small turnout, the band played like they were performing for an audience of thousands. It was one of the best rock concerts I've ever experienced.

 

[mandrix]

Not too intimate, but my Ex and friends and I paid $2 at the gate to see Rod Stewart and the Faces, and Free at the old Tampa stadium. They set the stage up on the 50 yard line and played to one side of the not-so-full stadium.
When I was working at a club I used to see Florida acts like Molly Hatchet, The Outlaws and such at the small basement club. Used to go over to Nebraska avenue in Tampa headed toward Lutz to a club and see The Outlaws occasionally, also they played a good size club called "The Other Place" , or OP as we called it, on Florida Ave in Tampa once in a while.
There was a guy I saw in concert ahead of Bob Seger once, was in a lounge in Tampa but his name escapes me. Bob Seger had Teagarden and VanWinkle backing him, and this guy was on ahead of Seger. Jonathon Edwards, maybe? IDK. Too many years.

 

[drphibes]

I saw Liz Phair at the Swedish American Hall above Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco. A few hundred people, she was maybe 25 feet away. Just her and a guitarist/bassist. Acoustic, I think. Very good, intimate show. It was after her self-titled very poppy album, but the show itself was stripped down.

Also saw Jello Biafra show up, unannounced, at a Mojo Nixon show in December 1994. Really good.

Chris Isaak, also unannounced, at an Aimee Mann, Michael Penn show at Bimbo's 365 Club in SF.

I showed up at the Elbo Room in the Mission District to see Broun Fellinis, a local acid jazzish act, but they weren't there. Instead a soul singer named Ledisi took the stage. She was amazing.

 

[skherbeck]

I couldn't think of a good story about an intimate show, but I do remember a show in the 80s with the Divinyls ("I Touch Myself") opening for Aerosmith (not fully done with rehab, methinks): at one point, as the Divinyls were playing, the female lead singer squatted on the stage as she sang and urinated... that felt kind of intimate. Also, later in the show as Aerosmith performed, Steven Tyler, while singing, turned away from the mic and vomited on stage, then continued singing... a roadie promptly appeared with a towel to wipe Steven down. This was on the "Done With Mirrors" Tour. Good Times. Seriously, we had a blast and the show rocked

 

[mandrix]

Not too intimate, but my Ex and friends and I paid $2 at the gate to see Rod Stewart and the Faces, and Free at the old Tampa stadium. They set the stage up on the 50 yard line and played to one side of the not-so-full stadium.
When I was working at a club I used to see Florida acts like Molly Hatchet, The Outlaws and such at the small basement club. Used to go over to Nebraska avenue in Tampa headed toward Lutz to a club and see The Outlaws occasionally, also they played a good size club called "The Other Place" , or OP as we called it, on Florida Ave in Tampa once in a while.
There was a guy I saw in concert ahead of Bob Seger once, was in a lounge in Tampa but his name escapes me. Bob Seger had Teagarden and VanWinkle backing him, and this guy was on ahead of Seger. Jonathon Edwards, maybe? IDK. Too many years.

I forgot all about Gregg Allman. I met/saw him at The Wreck bar in Daytona the first time. He sat in the last set with the band. I loved it! The band, not so much. That band I don't remember the name of but they played my club frequently.
The lead singer (also named Greg IIRC) in that band went on to join with some different buds and called themselves Stranger and based out of Tampa. They had a few albums with Epic Records and a several EP's. I went to the Thunder Bay Cafe in Tampa and saw them a few times after I moved to North Florida boonies.

 

[musicmemorabiliashoppellc]

I couldn't think of a good story about an intimate show, but I do remember a show in the 80s with the Divinyls ("I Touch Myself") opening for Aerosmith (not fully done with rehab, methinks): at one point, as the Divinyls were playing, the female lead singer squatted on the stage as she sang and urinated... that felt kind of intimate. Also, later in the show as Aerosmith performed, Steven Tyler, while singing, turned away from the mic and vomited on stage, then continued singing... a roadie promptly appeared with a towel to wipe Steven down. This was on the "Done With Mirrors" Tour. Good Times. Seriously, we had a blast and the show rocked

I have another PISS story!! When I lived in Vancouver BC....I took this girl who was say at least 15 years my jr...on a date to see Lenny Kravitz with Blind Melon opening at Pacific Coliseum where the Canucks used to play....well while onstage Shannon Hoon the lead singer of BM totally disrobed and peed all over the people in the front row seats.... no joke!! My date said afterword that she wished she had been in the front row and got peed on!! Well you can guess what happened next....

Not really a FOND MEMORY just a VERY WEIRD ONE....LOL

 

[kap'n krunch]

I have a couple of.. intimate(??) ones...
In March 2015 my good friend Rafi invited me to go see UK in their farewell tour...UK was our first REAL concert and it was at the PACKED Coliseo Roberto Clemente (8-10K people??) on Thanksgiving 1979.
The one in London was an extremely private affair.. no more than 300 people were there and it was a fantastic show, JObson, Wetton , Macacek and Virgil Donato were amazing. We were in first row in front of Wetton who would pass away next year...

The other one was the great Julieta Venegas in a little club in Madrid in 2017. I posted photos of this gig. I was so close to her I could have grabbed her leg. She was a BIT nervous about it but she relaxed by the end of the show....Great gig except that being in front of the stage there was no PA and I got a weird FOH mix ...

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I have a couple of.. intimate(??) ones...
In March 2015 my good friend Rafi invited me to go see UK in their farewell tour...UK was our first REAL concert and it was at the PACKED Coliseo Roberto Clemente (8-10K people??) on Thanksgiving 1979.
The one in London was an extremely private affair.. no more than 300 people were there and it was a fantastic show, JObson, Wetton , Macacek and Virgil Donato were amazing. We were in first row in front of Wetton who would pass away next year...

The other one was the great Julieta Venegas in a little club in Madrid in 2017. I posted photos of this gig. I was so close to her I could have grabbed her leg. She was a BIT nervous about it but she relaxed by the end of the show....Great gig except that being in front of the stage there was no PA and I got a weird FOH mix ...

Thanks again kap'n, for turning me on to Julieta (I still need to order that DVD-V of her!)

 

[CPR]

Rolling Stones: Capital Theater/Portchester/10 Spot MTV/1997
Rolling Stones: Beacon Theater/NYC/2005
Rolling Stones: Academy of Music/NYC/1977
Rolling Stones:Capital Theater/Passaic NJ/1977

 

[Werno]

Quad Linda's memories sparked a couple of jazz reminiscences for me- her mention of the group Oregon reminded me of an ECM artistfest I saw back in the 70's at the Cellar Door, a small (163 seats according to Wikipedia) club in Washington DC. The lineup included the Gary Burton Quintet (with Mick Goodrick and a very young Pat Metheny on guitar) with special guest Eberhard Weber on bass; Ralph Towner (speaking of Oregon) playing solo on 6- and 12-string guitar, then playing duets with Gary Burton; and pianist Steve Kuhn backed by Steve Swallow (first and last time I've seen him play acoustic bass) and Bob Moses on drums. Swallow and Moses were also part of the Burton Quintet, so they kept busy. I was music director of my college radio station at the time, so I'd been getting and getting into every new ECM release that Polydor sent us, thus I was seriously fanboying the whole show, sitting in a folding chair on the floor about 10 feet from the performers. I don't recall any musical experience since then that felt as much like non-stop transcendence. Peak tunes as I recall were Towner and Burton playing Towner's old Winter Consort piece 'Icarus' and the Burton group tearing through the title cut from Weber's debut album 'The Colours of Chloe'. Good times.

The one time I saw Stephane Grappelli, jazz violinist extraordinaire, was at a small club in DC called Childe Harold- Grappelli was touring with a close approximation of the old Django/Hot Club lineup in the form of the Diz Disley trio and was clearly enjoying himself. The man could do no wrong- razor-sharp intonation, melodic invention that seemed limitless, swinging hard and plucking the heartstrings at will. My lovely and charming girlfriend at the time, now my wife, thanked him as he walked past us and was kissed on the hand in return. She likes to say she hasn't washed it since, but she has.

On a less exalted level, sometime in the '80s the Sam Ash music store chain briefly took over a high school near the village in NYC for a trade show kind of exhibition with various vendors and/or themes in different classrooms. I wandered into a gear-filled room where the late lamented John Abercrombie was jamming with a couple people. Being a mid-level keyboard player I wanted to jam, but being realistic I wanted not to disrupt what was happening- so I sat down at a keyboard off to the side, popped on the connected headphones and went to town- a sad, lonely, shy town, but for a few minutes, in my mind- kinda literally- I played with John Abercrombie.

Quad Linda mentioned seeing Abercrombie with Kenny Wheeler- probably around the time Wheeler recorded the album "Deer Wan" for ECM, one of my faves. Worth a stream for those who indulge in such things.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Somewhat jealous you saw Stephane Grappelli in person; I have many Django/Hot Club recordings. Truely ground breaking musicians!

 

[Bonzodog]

Here’s another early band concert memory.

I was in college, and visiting my mother for Christmas break. 3 old high school friends came over to visit, and we were sitting in her living room chatting.
My Mom came it with the LA Times and said read this article about a new English band Roxy Music, who are doing well in England, but their album hasn’t been released in the US yet. They are playing at the Whisky A Go Go tonight.

We talked about it, and decided to go. They were doing two sets, and we decided to go the early one.

The club was only about 2/3 full. A comic juggler opened for them, and dropped something now and again.
The second time he dropped something one of the women I was with yelled “That’s OK Dad, just do the best you can.
That got us all going, and all 4 of us were cheering on our “Dad”.

When his act was over and Roxy Music were setting up, he came to our table and sat with us. We got a few looks from the other tables.

Roxy Music were like nothing we had heard before.

When they were done, the MC got on stage and said there was no one in line to see the second performance, so we were invited to stay for no charge. I guess better to sell a few drinks than have an empty house.

So we stayed for “Dad’s” second performance, and then a repeat of Roxy Music’s set.

Two shows for the price of one.

 

[musicmemorabiliashoppellc]

Here’s another early band concert memory.

I was in college, and visiting my mother for Christmas break. 3 old high school friends came over to visit, and we were sitting in her living room chatting.
My Mom came it with the LA Times and said read this article about a new English band Roxy Music, who are doing well in England, but their album hasn’t been released in the US yet. They are playing at the Whisky A Go Go tonight.

We talked about it, and decided to go. They were doing two sets, and we decided to go the early one.

The club was only about 2/3 full. A comic juggler opened for them, and dropped something now and again.
The second time he dropped something one of the women I was with yelled “That’s OK Dad, just do the best you can.
That got us all going, and all 4 of us were cheering on our “Dad”.

When his act was over and Roxy Music were setting up, he came to our table and sat with us. We got a few looks from the other tables.

Roxy Music were like nothing we had heard before.

When they were done, the MC got on stage and said there was no one in line to see the second performance, so we were invited to stay for no charge. I guess better to sell a few drinks than have an empty house.

So we stayed for “Dad’s” second performance, and then a repeat of Roxy Music’s set.

Two shows for the price of one.

Cool you remember what the date was?

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

In the fall of 1987, I was dating a great girl who happened to be much younger than me. Considering the age difference, the Venn diagram of our music interests had a surprising amount of overlap, but it definitely wasn't a single circle, heh.

One crisp September night, I took her to the Col Ballroom in Davenport, IA, where my older sister had seen Hendrix 20 years earlier, and our mom had danced to Guy Lombardo 20 years before that. We were there to see a band she loved, a band I hadn't even heard of before meeting her, called The Replacements. She'd played a couple of their LPs for me, and I liked them quite a bit. What they lacked in complexity and virtuosity, they made up for with sheer energy and a refreshing who-gives-a-shit attitude. I figured it would be a fun night, but I never expected what we got. That show was the best live performance I've ever heard. It was also the worst. All in one night! I've never experienced anything quite like it.

This was during one of their tours behind the Pleased To Meet Me album. Slim Dunlap had just joined the band, replacing Tommy Stinson's brother Bob on guitar. Along with this major personnel change, the band was evolving musically as well during this period.

No longer just a bunch of punks from the Twin Cities, the Replacements were trying, in their own half-assed way, to grow up. It was happening in fits and starts, and as I look back on it, their live show that night seems like a spot-on dramatic interpretation of what the band must have been going through at the time.

They were infamous for drinking a lot - like, a LOT. They looked pretty hammered when they first walked on stage, and kept right on downing beers throughout the show. There were times when they couldn't or wouldn't even finish a song - one of these was a cover of "Dedicated to the One I Love"(!) which was greeted with a hail of spit from the safety-pinned, diehard punks down front. Another time, Paul Westerberg stopped everything to complain that one of the kids had stolen his beer from the edge of the stage! He seemed genuinely disappointed - "What kind of a man does something like that?!" he asked, peering morosely at the small crowd. But then! Then there were the other times! Every now and then, completely at random and without any warning, from out of nowhere this raggedy-ass band would just pull it all together and commence to make this amazing, perfect NOISE.

Holy shit, I wish I could describe it. Maybe if I took the 10 best songs I ever heard, cooked them up and shot them directly into my veins, it might come close to how this felt. I remember two songs in particular where this happened; one was "Bastards of Young," but the one I'll never forget was "Left of the Dial." My girlfriend could hear it too - I was standing behind her, we were just a few feet from the stage. She pulled my arms around her, and we just floated away...

 

[H.A.L.]

Roxy Music were like nothing we had heard before.

I bet! Would have loved to see Eno with them in this period. No doubt he fit in with the LA scene quite well

 

[leevitalone1]

Billy Cobham at the Hamilton Colledge chapel, with the Brecker Bros. About 150 people very small venue. Billy was making eye contact all night with me. Then Russ Freeman with David Benoit at a small bar close to home in a way out a small village. Very small place that was packed to the rafters (literally) I just stood outside and enjoyed no sense in paying as it was free to me! big windows let you see good too!
My friends got autographs.
Then Savoy Brown, in a small comm. college. walked back after the show and took them to a radio interview the next day where I once worked all the night shift

 

[mandrix]

Billy Cobham at the Hamilton Colledge chapel, with the Brecker Bros. About 150 people very small venue. Billy was making eye contact all night with me. Then Russ Freeman with David Benoit at a small bar close to home in a way out a small village. Very small place that was packed to the rafters (literally) I just stood outside and enjoyed no sense in paying as it was free to me! big windows let you see good too!
My friends got autographs.
Then Savoy Brown, in a small comm. college. walked back after the show and took them to a radio interview the next day where I once worked all the night shift

Sweet. I would have loved to spend time with Savoy Brown. They had, what, about 60 personnel changes by the early 70's? (I don't know if that's true, I saw it on a poster in an Army PX above some albums).

 

[The56Kid]

I couldn't think of a good story about an intimate show, but I do remember a show in the 80s with the Divinyls ("I Touch Myself") opening for Aerosmith (not fully done with rehab, methinks): at one point, as the Divinyls were playing, the female lead singer squatted on the stage as she sang and urinated... that felt kind of intimate. Also, later in the show as Aerosmith performed, Steven Tyler, while singing, turned away from the mic and vomited on stage, then continued singing... a roadie promptly appeared with a towel to wipe Steven down. This was on the "Done With Mirrors" Tour. Good Times. Seriously, we had a blast and the show rocked

That Divinyls singer was HOT too!