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

[privateuniverse]

A few come to mind:

1) In mid-1996 David Bowie had started recording sessions in NYC for the album that would become Earthling. He was so excited by the material being recorded that he decided to road test some of the new songs and quickly announced four intimate club shows in NYC, DC, Philly and Boston. Somehow I was lucky enough to score tickets for the Boston show. It was at the tiny Avalon club on Lansdowne Street. The previous summer I had seen him at Great Woods (on a co-headliner with Nine Inch Nails) playing to 15,000 people, so this small club was quite a change in atmosphere. Bowie was clearly having a great time and loved playing to an intimate crowd. The band (Reeves Gabrels, Gail-Ann Dorsey, Mike Garson and Zak Alford) were on fire. I know fans of The Spiders will give me hell for this, but this was my all-time favorite Bowie band. He previewed a few songs from Earthling that sounded amazing. He mixed in classics ("Heroes", "All the Young Dudes") deep cuts ("Look Back in Anger", "Breaking Glass") and a few of my favorites from his previous CD ("Outside", "Strangers When We Meet".)

2) In late 2009, one of my student workers who was hip to lots of new music told me to check out a band that was apparently making waves in England, Mumford & Sons. I found the video of "Little Lion Man" on YouTube and loved it. They didn't even have any material released in the U.S. yet. Shortly after they announced a U.S. tour. The tour was all small venues because the album hadn't been getting any attention at the time that tickets went on sale. I got tickets to see the them at The Middle East club in Cambridge, MA, in their smaller lower level room. By the time the show came around, the album was starting to get attention and the show had sold out. There were tons of people on the sidewalk begging for tickets. Inside, the tiny room was packed and the energy was high. Within a year the album would be double platinum.

3) In 1983 I was lucky enough to see U2 before they started to play the big places. A local college in Hartford managed to get them for their Spring Fling festivities. (This was a month before the famous Red Rocks gig.) The band played outside in the school's quad. Only about 500 people showed up. War had only been released just two months before so they still weren't all over the radio yet. They were young and had something to prove. (Bono complained that American music critics had been referring to them as a British New Wave band.) Their energy was off the charts. I saw them on many subsequent tours, but unfortunately as their fame grew, their passion diminished. But this performance was absolutely amazing. They were playing their hearts out.

 

[musicmemorabiliashoppellc]

Another great club gig in Toronto at The Maple Leaf Ballroom....The Pretenders.

And least I forget THE POLICE at The Horseshoe when they were still traveling around in a station wagon on their very first tour of North America

THE CLASH at O'Keefe Center (now Sony) I think

Bowie "Diamond Dogs Tour" also at O'KEEFE Center....first time he ever played Toronto....I was at the evening show

Elvis Costello also at O'KEEFE Center as well as The El Macombo

More to follow if I can remember more

 

[M-D-Z]

I saw Tony Williams at a drum clinic just before he tragically passed. He was amazing and stayed to sign autographs for everyone. The clinic was in San Jose, CA with Gregg Bissonette opening.

I saw Tony Williams with Roy Haynes in a clinic (Boston, mid seventies), and was of course appropriately awestruck by each artist individually, but watching and listening to them both playing side by side was an amazing, inspiring and memorable experience for me!
I read that they worked with the same tutor, Alan Dawson.

 

[M-D-Z]

I went to the Iron Horse in Northampton Mass, which is a little hole in the wall place, to see James Taylor's brother Livingston. This is the kind of place he plays, very laid back, almost a coffee house vibe. He usually just shows up and plays. He's very entertaining, but that's not why I'm posting.

He rarely has an opening act, but this time there was one, some artist I'd never heard of. She had sort of a jazz group with her. Played a handful of tunes, very nice, and just before the last tune announced that she had a CD coming out on Bluenote the following summer. I thought "Bluenote, that's pretty good!". Turns out she was Norah Jones, and she pretty much played her entire first album.

Don't think she's played many Iron Horses since then!

Found this quote: “I remember we played at this club called the Iron Horse, in Massachusetts, opening for Livingston Taylor. He sold it out two nights in a row. Three hundred people. I remember thinking, ‘What a great career!’ “– Norah Jones

I’m glad to be able to buy Nora Jones albums newly pressed in vinyl.

Wow!, the Iron Horse, almost forgot about that place. I’m fairly certain that it was there where I saw Tom Waits with Lew Tabackin & Shelly Manne (around the time Small Change was released), I sat directly next to the stage to his left, not the best seat in the house for sound, but not as bad as it might’ve been, unbelievable musicians totally made up for that!!! Small room for the size of the crowd, so it surely ranks high on the intimacy scale.
‘Step Right Up’ was great to hear live too. That time remains my favorite period for TW.
Btw, Has anyone heard his vocals on the Primus song ‘Tomcat’? Great, truly great stuff!

 

[M-D-Z]

The most intimate performance from a major artist for me has to be when I saw Mose Allison playing at a tiny, below street level club spot somewhere in Boston, mid/late sixties.
Seating for about 40 or 50 people, of which only about 15 seats were actually filled.
What a sad thing, here was the genius who had inspired some of the biggest, most successful and well known jazz, rock and blues artists, but here only a few cheap tickets being paid to see the legend himself,?!?!
Well at least I enjoyed the show immensely, you can count on that!

One other time ... late sixties, I believe it was in Waltham ma, some friends and I were visiting friends at a house where there were a lot of drugs being used, I was uncomfortable around that sort of activity, I didn’t know the people and had some fear that we were going to get raided. In one room was a guy playing a guitar and singing by himself, and I remember thinking that this was some really talented guy who was never going to be known because he would most likely be in jail sooner or later.
At some later point in time, one of the guys I was with that night reminded me of the house and said that the guy was James Taylor,,, this was around the time Sweet Baby James was recently released and I had already memorized every word on the entire album.

 

[jimfisheye]

Borderline entry here. Not a famous act but famous members in said act. Close to an intimate venue.
GTR at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee. Both Steve's opened the show with a 30min acoustic set each. This was in a time when you went to a show with no idea what the setlist might be. Could have (should have?) left after that!

 

[Marplot]

famous act may be a stretch for some/many of the bands I enjoy.
Tom Griesgraber And Bert Lams at someone's house .. about 20 of us.
California Guitar Trio, probably 8 different shows at locations with less than 100, most intimate were bookstores in OH and GA, farm house in MI.
Adrian Belew playing an acoustic set in a vacant lot in front of 25 lucky people.
Steve Howe in some shit hole in VA/DC area, forget the name.
Tony Levin in a sweatbox in Columbus. A very luck photo I took scored 40 CDs as payment from Magna Carta when they used it inside Prime Cuts. Hell, I said they could use it gratis.
New Model Army, well Justin, Michael and Dean, in Indy.

 

[DennisMabry]

Robin Trower in the late 90s at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus OH. Phenomenal show!

Honorable mention goes to;
Gov't Mule at the Renaissance Theater in Mansfield OH.
Porcupine Tree at the House of Blues, Cleveland OH.
Michael Stanley Band in the Oberlin College Chapel (1976).

 

[Tornado Red]

Went to see Randy Bachman's 'Every Song Tells A Story' at the Centennial Concert Hall, probably the best acoustic venue in the city here. It was the winter of 2002-2003, and what made it memorable for me was that my daughter was due with my first grandchild and was quite far along as I recall. She was working at Pier One Imports at the time, and they were hired to provide the stage props for the concert. A meeting was held with Randy and his people, and the Pier One group that my daughter was a part of to go over what props to use, etc. She got to meet him and brought me home a signed photo of him which I still have and cherish. For the concert, my wife (at the time) and I sat near the front and I remember it being a very intimate show, as he played songs from both BTO and The Guess Who with stories of how the songs came about between each song. He's done a similar tour in the last few years. Ha, I also remember he had a guy in the small band that looked and sounded like Burton Cummings and played keyboards! Good times

 

[karlkastner]

There was one show by a girl named Lola (or maybe LuLu) where she... oh, wait... that's not the kind of INTIMATE SHOW you were referring to. LOL.

Was it in a club down in North Soho?

 

[karlkastner]

2008. I took my daughter, then 17, to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Front row, about 8 seats right of center. I went to the venue with her the night before to confirm the tickets were good(Ebay). It was a secret. And I was(am) inexperienced with ticket buying.

When we arrived and showed our tickets, we were personally escorted. I hadn't anticipated that. My daughter asked me where are seats were. I said " I don't know, but they should be pretty good". Her eyes got bigger as we kept walking towards the front.

Special time for me to go with her and see RP! A GREAT performance.

When my daughter was little, in the crawling stage, she used to rock back and forth upon hearing Kashmir.
And I used to "rock" and sing(solo) her to sleep with Going To California.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

First time...

It was 1974 and my first year stationed at Offutt Air Force Base (near Omaha). I didn't have any friends there yet but wanted a night out to see what the happenings were like in Omaha Nebraska. I found a little dive bar in an older area of town that looked fairly run down. I'd been getting into blues music heavily and saw that there was this blues guy performing there that evening by the name of Luther Allison. Now I didn't know anything about Mr. Allison but decided to give it a shot.

This would be my first ever attendance of a "live" performance by anyone! The building was an old brick two story, very thin width but long, with the bar downstairs and the stage upstairs situated at one end. It was a standing room affair and people were packed in like sardines and I was about 6 feet from the stage. The band started playing (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards) and I thought he sounded like Jimi Hendrix. He was playing a Stratocaster and because of the thin room and brick walls, combined with his amps being cranked up load; his guitar was cutting through like a razor sharp cleaver through cheese.

This show lasted a long time, about 2 1/2 hours. I later learned that Luther usually played very long sets. I don't think I was hearing properly again for a couple of days.

For me Luther Allisson is one of those almost forgotten and under appreciated Chicago style bluesmen that could really bring it and tear it up with the best of them. If your not familiar with Luther, I'd recommend this album:
https://www.discogs.com/Luther-Allison-Blue-Streak/master/558897

 

[atrocity]

I just saw Mike Nesmith January 20th from the seventh row of a little theater that allegedly seats 380 but wasn't full at all. He came out, explained what the show was going to be like, brought on his pedal steel player (Pete Finney), sat down with his acoustic 12 string and played for 100 minutes or so without budging or switching guitars. Seemed to have a cold, but was still in fine voice and humor.

I didn't found out until the next day that the "minor health issue" that caused the cancellation of some of the Mike and Micky shows a few months prior was in fact congestive heart failure that resulted in a quadruple bypass!

 

[Philip Spinner]

Back in the 60's we went to a Kinks concert at the auditorium in our local high school. I know it does not sound intimate but it was also the same night as a major blizzard. We made it there because I was driving a corvair at the time and with the motor in the back it handled pretty good in snow. So we get there and discovered only a dozen or so people showed up. Figured the concert would be cancelled but the Kinks made it there somehow and put on a fantastic show. The power went out in the middle of one of their songs but when it came back on they continued like nothing ever happened. Real troopers. Because there were so few people there Ray Davies asked people in the audience for requests. At times we were talking back and forth with the band. Very cool.

 

[Quad Linda]

There were a few:

'80's: percussion tutelage ftom Airto Moriera. I was connected with him by the folks at Slingerland drums, then in Niles, IL.

Also in the 80's, saw/heard James Moody in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. He ran into us at the airport a couple days later. We played each other a couple tunes on our Walkmen. He played me some Chick Corea and Brecker Bros. I played him some Paul McCandless (Oregon.)

'90's: Speaking of Oregon, we were at a table directly in front of Paul at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village. Also met Jack DeJohnette in audience. It was a twin bill with Kenny Wheeler. Kenny's band was John Abercrombie on guitar, Gary Peacock on bass and Peter Erskine on drums.

Also in the 90's, met Mose Allison after his set at Jazzfest in Grant Park, Chicago.

We were invited to meet Judy Collins on a Sunday morning in the '90s in Bloomingdale, IL. She asked my Daughter (then 8 or 9) "do you play piano?" My girl said yes and was terrified that Judy would ask her to play. Sadly, I didn't have a phone with a camera back then. My Daughter sat with Judy on the piano bench while Judy sang & played. She didn't ask the young piano player to play for her.

Also in the 90's, saw/heard Wayne Toups in a small club in Lincolnshire, IL. After the show, Wayne had a couple beers with us, and sat and played his accordian.

Again in the 90's, attended two shows by War. Got to hang with Lonnie and the boys. We ate pizza, did a few shots and shot some pool in between shows. Drummer Ronnie Hammon was stunned that I remembered him from Ballin'Jack.

One more in the 90's, got a chance to hear and meet Ben Watt & Tracey Thorn from Everything But the Girl on a Saturday afternnon before their show. They did a couple impromptu things, mostly Ben DJ'ing, scratching and mixing.

2000's: Leaning on a baby grand piano at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare while Billy Preston played.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

There were a few:

'80's: percussion tutelage ftom Airto Moriera. I was connected with him by the folks at Slingerland drums, then in Niles, IL.

Also in the 80's, saw/heard James Moody in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. He ran into us at the airport a couple days later. We played each other a couple tunes on our Walkmen. He played me some Chick Corea and Brecker Bros. I played him some Paul McCandless (Oregon.)

'90's: Speaking of Oregon, we were at a table directly in front of Paul at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village. Also met Jack DeJohnette in audience. It was a twin bill with Kenny Wheeler. Kenny's band was John Abercrombie on guitar, Gary Peacock on bass and Peter Erskine on drums.

Also in the 90's, met Mose Allison after his set at Jazzfest in Grant Park, Chicago.

We were invited to meet Judy Collins on a Sunday morning in the '90s in Bloomingdale, IL. She asked my Daughter (then 8 or 9) "do you play piano?" My girl said yes and was terrified that Judy would ask her to play. Sadly, I didn't have a phone with a camera back then. My Daughter sat with Judy on the piano bench while Judy sang & played. She didn't ask the young piano player to play for her.

Also in the 90's, saw/heard Wayne Toups in a small club in Lincolnshire, IL. After the show, Wayne had a couple beers with us, and sat and played his accordian.

Again in the 90's, attended two shows by War. Got to hang with Lonnie and the boys. We ate pizza, did a few shots and shot some pool in between shows. Drummer Ronnie Hammon was stunned that I remembered him from Ballin'Jack.

One more in the 90's, got a chance to hear and meet Ben Watt & Tracey Thorn from Everything But the Girl on a Saturday afternnon before their show. They did a couple impromptu things, mostly Ben DJ'ing, scratching and mixing.

2000's: Leaning on a baby grand piano at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare while Billy Preston played.

pass the grapes Mamacita

 

[J. PUPSTER]

One for GOS:

(OK - not so intimate show but intimate with artist.)

1975 and an acquaintance and I go to a Black Sabbath concert in Lincoln Ne. My acquaintance was also a fresh Air Force recruit that just happens was a self-proclaimed Warlock, but also a talented artist.

We get dressed up in our best wide sleeve, flower embroidered shirts and bell bottom blues. Went to the show with my buddy toting a framed (~ 16”x36”) painting he had just finished of some sort of demon creature. Now just to be clear, I’m in no way into the black arts or even Black Sabbath for that matter. The only Black Sabbath album I ever bought was Paranoid; I’m just not into metal music.

The show was of course loud and great with Ozzy still young and spry on stage. So, we hang around after the show in front of the stage until everyone has left, and the roadies start to tear down the equipment. We call over to a roadie and ask him if he’d give the painting to the band. The roadie takes a good look at the painting (which was very nice I must admit- scared me) and said he’d check. A few minutes later out walks Tony Iommi to greet us and spends a few minutes chatting it up (seemed like a pretty laid-back dude.) He did take the painting and seemed honestly impressed by it.

Check out the ticket price – that era was the Golden age of rock shows AFAIC.

 

[stormchaser]

Al Stewart/Peter White at a small club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Sometime like 1991-1992?
My favorite band that you've never heard of, Shearwater at the Jackpot Saloon in Lawrence, Kansas a few years ago.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

A big one for me...

1984 saw Larry Carlton (one of all time favorite guitarists) at the nightclub called Wolfgang's in San Francisco. I went with a group of about 5 friends. Not a large crowd maybe 100 or more. I really liked the layout of that club; if I remember correctly the stage was on one side and a bar was on the opposite side, with tables to sit at on the main floor. I believe this place burned down later in the 80's.

During this time I think the keyboard player Terry Trotter was still there. Very nice show with Larry doing his typical L.C. shit (as he says.)
So the show ends and the place clears out after a time. Our group is at the bar closing it down with last-last call and Larry comes out to get a drink and have a chat with us. He was a little bummed out because Warner Brothers had just dropped him from their label. Just a super nice guy and a true legend. I've been listening to his work since The Crusaders' Southern Comfort album. A very special night for me!

 

[4-earredwonder]

A big one for me...

1984 saw Larry Carlton (one of all time favorite guitarists) at the nightclub called Wolfgang's in San Francisco. I went with a group of about 5 friends. Not a large crowd maybe 100 or more. I really liked the layout of that club; if I remember correctly the stage was on one side and a bar was on the opposite side, with tables to sit at on the main floor. I believe this place burned down later in the 80's.

During this time I think the keyboard player Terry Trotter was still there. Very nice show with Larry doing his typical L.C. shit (as he says.)
So the show ends and the place clears out after a time. Our group is at the bar closing it down with last-last call and Larry comes out to get a drink and have a chat with us. He was a little bummed out because Warner Brothers had just dropped him from their label. Just a super nice guy and a true legend. I've been listening to his work since The Crusaders' Southern Comfort album. A very special night for me!

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Great anecdote, JP. And what do you get for 11 bucks today ...... not even a stinkin' Martini. And the fact that Warners dropped LC from their label was a grave injustice. One of THE best guitar players of all times, IMO. Thankfully he found a home at Concord Records.