My Favorite Concert (anti Specifity)

How Clicky baity is that title.

As I was looking at this playlist, I was thinking about blessings. And

Jamie Ward

wrote a little bit about Roky, so I was feeling good. And click baity.

I wrote a while ago about how I am not specific in the things I love. How I can love everything. Deeply. Whether it be water bottles, air ports at 530 am, or the Parker Jotter….I love it all. I do not dig coconut, just so you know there are things I do not dig.

But, I am a music guy. For about a decade I saw a concert a day. I saw a live performance of music for a decade, then I ran a club, and then it was about ten years of 4 days a week. I have seen a lot of live shows. I chase live shows. This always leads to not music people asking me a simple thing…

“What is your favorite concert ever?”

Firstly, I have hardly ever used the word CONCERT. I get that they are probably concerts. But, for some reason I call them live shows.

When I do get the question, I just stand there silently. Because it floods back so much that I am overwhelmed. I mean I have seen Prince over 150 times. I have seen Pearl Jam at least 50 times, the same for Social Distortion who I see every chance I get. The Beastie Boys 100 times. I have seen the bands I have worked for a lot. A LOT.

I can tell you that watching Mike Ness walk onstage is one of my favorite things in the entire world.

The Ten Tour probably laid a foundational piece to my life

But the answer to the “Your favorite” question reveals a lot. There is not one favorite. I mean I have seen some shit I tell you, shit that is bucket list stuff.

1. Johnny Cash at The Viper Room. Seriously, he shook my hand. Then years later, when he was in my town, he seemed to remember me.

2. Helmet/Rollins Band with Vernon Reid at CBGB.

3. Pantera and Motorhead INDOORS in Detroit.

4. Aretha.

5. All the Prince shows.

6. All the Iggy shows

7. Al Green

8. Public Enemy

I could just keep typing. But the thing is, I get just as jazzed remember when Mest opened for SXDX and I was blown away. Or when Lucero played Mad Planet in Milwaukee, and me and Frank slept on Big Ross’s floor before I got on a plane to go on tour. Or seeing Little Blue Crunchy Things at my club. Or Howard Luedtke at Blues Fest. The sensation is always the same.

So maybe they are all my favorites. I mean, I saw drunk Butch Walker and the Dove and the Wolf in MPLS, and I saw Reignwolf in Madison. And I saw the Black Keys at High Noon Saloon.

I mean, how do you pick? I love them all. They all move me.

I only see two bands at stadium shows or whatever these days, because they are friends who have that sort of success. But, I am lucky, I get to watch from the stage side, so its not a thing. I saw the Rolling Stones a few times in the 90’s, and was always like a mile away from the stage, but its good because the Stones are 30 feet tall people, so you do not miss anything.

Go to 1 minute 10 seconds of that trailer, and watch Keiths eyes. And you tell me he is like you and I, he is not.

My point is, I do not have a favorite concert. My main man

Beth Lisogorsky

wrote about Kacey Musgrave recently and you should read that.

They are all the best concerts. All of them are needed for me. They change me, on a cellular level.