Live Music

Touring with a band seeing more than one show consecutively really lets you see what that band is all about and see many different cities along the way. RUSH turned out to be the first band I "regularly" travelled to see, and in that respect, it is of note that in March 1979 I went to Chattanooga to see a Molly Hatchett concert and RUSH happened to be the opening act. The show was incredible (MH was also good as well!) This was RUSH back on the Hemispheres tour and that still trips me out to think about that night! In the late 80s, I saw RUSH several times in Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, St. Louis, Louisville, Johnson City, Greenville (a memorable TRIP with Nick and Weaver,) Asheville, and Richmond, VA. I didn't even know what "touring" was and yet I was already cruising around catching the hottest concerts! When Rush played at St. Louis' Riverport Ampitheater in June 2004, Brian, his brother Brodie, and his friend Nicole Blockie and I shared a most memorable evening with that band we know and love so much! I put together a page that includes MANY unbelievable photos I took from the front row. There is a midi playing in the background so adjust your sound accordingly. I hope you enjoy this like we did the show!
In early 1989, my girlfriend, Lynn, turned me onto Widespread Panic. I have thanked her several times over the years as there are MANY things I did back in those days that I have long since stopped, refrained from, and maybe even been restrained from doing and YET still to this day I am seeing Widespread Panic. More than likely, my most recent show not being farther away than some show on the last tour (or THIS tour!) Going to some of the earlier Widespread Panic shows around the Southeast really cemented my love for touring with a band. At first, the shows were less than the few hours it took to get to Athens. We had friends in all those college/Southern towns: Tuscaloosa, Sewannee, Augusta, Clemson, Lexington, Asheville, Boone, Winston-Salem, Jackson, Oxford, Macon, Birmingham, Charleston, Chattanooga, Nashville, Knoxville... Then, we ventured farther and farther west, until Red Rocks Park in Morrison, Colorado, was as favored and FAMILIAR a venue as the Georgia Theater! As a statement of that fact, Widespread Panic holds the record for most sold out shows at RED ROCKS! I will freely admit I don't have the energy to do more than a couple of shows in a row any longer. "Is there someone, somewhere, someway out there, that I've not found?" *Live on moon time...*
After I got into to the idea of traveling to see shows, my friends took me to see the Grateful Dead in Charlotte. I was a changed man after that. A trip to the West Coast and the good old CALIFORNIA EXPOSITION really told me that I had missed something in the Grateful Dead and should catch as many shows as I could. I did 108 Grateful Dead Concerts from that early time all the way to the end at the "Last Show" in Chicago's Soldier Field. Captain Trips passed away on August 9, 1995, and the bus had to be parked for a while. Rest in PEACE: JERRY GARCIA In 1998, The Other Ones were a brief reincarnation of the remaining members of the band. Since that time, and in various combinations of former Dead members, they have come together and done several tours billed for simplicity, as "The Dead." Bobby continues to front RATDOG, and Phil continues his Phil and Friends projects, consisting of different musicians coming together to provide their own input into playing Grateful Dead songs. I have been blessed to be at several of these occasions, with my phavorite being the Phil and Phriends of April 1999, when the phriends included Page and Trey of PHiSH. It was the best combination of two styles of music that I love so much! The Good Old Grateful Dead Shake your bones...	Even though there was a huge jump in their popularity after Jerry passed away, PHiSH did much more than simply carry the torch after the Grateful Dead. They have in a sense, transformed the jamband world into a form of music that is now accepted as its own genre. Thankfully, I had been seeing them regularly when Jerry died and, even though the scene has definitely grown, so has their music and it is definitely about the music. Having many behind the scene type adventures was great through the years thanks to Bart and Jimi. You can see many of these things by clicking on the link below. We were all stunned when on May 25, 2004, Trey announced they would play their last shows at the end of the summer--everyone got on the Pharewell Tourbus. The last shows were in Coventry, Vermont, and somewhere during the weekend Trey stated that most of the early songs had been written within a few miles of Coventry, and it was like coming "full circle" for the band as well as the many thousands of phans who braved the mud for those shows. Definitely worth the trip? Definitely? As of August 15, 2004, I have seen PHiSH 103 times. If they ever get back together, I will probably see them again, if I know me... Go PHiSHin'...
Other Great Music

I have seen almost every major touring act in the past twenty-eight or so years.
I never saw Frank Zappa. I regret that as I had an opportunity in 1984 to go to Indianapolis (ONLY 5 HOURS north of Knoxville--DOH!!) and see FZ and passed on the chance becuase I was chasing a girl that I ended up not even dating more than a couple of weeks. Double DOH! DOH!
I did see Stevie Ray Vaughn in concert and am still moved by his amazing skills.

Here are my top 25 Concert Highlights
(not in any particular order and since I am on this topic, I will try and include any dates, venue info, and pertinent memories from the show)

Live Aid 1985 Philadelphia, PA
By far the largest show I have personally attended. Two countries and seperate shows: JFK in Philadelphia, Wembley Stadium in UK. Black Sabbath, Madonna, The Cars, Tom Petty, LED ZEPPELIN reunion (with Phil Collins joining in on drums after flying the Concorde over from the UK show): what an amazing bill! Steve and I drove from Knoxville to meet Jones in Philly for an incredible weekend.

Stevie Ray Vaughn 1984 Alumni Gymnasium, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
This was advertised on the local radio station, WIMZ 103.5 the day before the show and none of us really knew who he was at the time. All I can say is that the guitar coming through the radio sold me and Tiffani's dad got us tickets. Looking back, I sure can consider myself lucky to have seen SRV back in those days--thankfully I did get to see one of my main guitar heroes live in concert!

Jerry Garcia Halloween 1992, Oakland Coliseum
Jerry's comeback was the heat! After cancelling shows in Oregon that summer, no way could I miss this show. JG was in top form! From the opening notes of How Sweet it Is to the final AAAWWOOOOO in Werewolves, he sounded so good. Don't miss stellar versions of Lay Down Sally, Tore Up, Breadbox and Tangled Up in Blue on this smoking tape.

Ozzy Osbourne March 18, 1982 Knoxville Coliseum
A blazing rock and roll show with Ozzy being as dark as we had imagined. All the hits were played with Iron Man and Flying High Again being standouts all these years later. I also do totally remember going nuts to the opening riffs of Crazy Train! Little did we know the true significance of that particular concert as it turned out to be Randy Rhoads last show (he died the following day in a plane accident while they were in Florida.) Ozzy's live album, TRIBUTE, is as close as we can come to hearing Randy live in concert today. I have it on my ipod. Do you?

Earth, Wind and Fire 1983, Nashville Municipal Auditorium
28 mofo's on stage--in perfect rhythm! Let's Groove and Shining Star STILL ring in my head from that show! The shiny costumes, syncopated brass section, Maurice and Philip trading lead vocals and the whole place dancing like crazy! Everytime I have seen them they have impressed me in that same way, and since Maurice has left us, I am stoked to have seen them back then when it was the real McCoy.

Eric Clapton w/ Fabulous Thunderbirds 1983 Bristol, TN
Awesome bluesy show--EC is one of my all-time favorite guitarists--from the Yardbirds, to Cream, to Derek and The Dominoes, to UNPLUGGED--some people have called him GOD but I just call him a hero! Also, I have seen Clapton several times but that was my only Fabulous Thunderbird show--Jimmy Vaughn (who's brother Stevie Ray Vaughn is a personal guitar hero of mine in the same league as Clapton, Hendrix, Zappa, and Garcia) is also an incredible guitar player and Kip Wilson's singing was/is a perfect combination.

Widespread Panic April 20, 1990 Murfreesboro, TN
A simply CLASSIC Main Street show! Living in between Park City and Murfreesboro and being a Panic head in 1990 was a great mix because that year Widespread Panic played 3 shows at Main Street that I attended. Everyone was loaded that night and the place was simply jam packed. The jamming was tight and even then we knew this band was not going to be ordinary. This one was by far the best show of the 17 Panic shows I saw that year (the Old Post Office run that summer runs a close second.)

Prince w/ The Time & Vanity 6 1983 Knoxville Coliseum
We had our seats on the third row! Went with Glenn, Garland, and Greg Alford and that place was PURPLEE FUNKIFIED for a few hours! Definitely the funkiest concert that Knoxville Coliseum saw in the early 1980's. Don't get me started about how Prince f&cked his bed during International Lover, how unbelievable The Time was live in concert (JESSE JOHNSON is a great guitarist,) or how HOT Vanity was in her camisole...

Grateful Dead w/ Steve Miller Band June 1992 Buckeye Lake, OH Great outdoor tour ender, the scene was PERFECT, and my girlfriend showed up with a bunch of my best friends that weren't on tour--I got to see her almost two days earlier than expected. We went in early for Steve Miller and got great seats up near the front (maybe 20 yards from the stage on Jerry side) The first set was incredible with a Brown Eyed Women and a great Birdsong. Oh yeah, and Steve Miller and Norton Buffalo joined for songs in the second set including Midnight Hour!!

Midnight Star w/ Shalamar 1983 Mid South Coliseum, Memphis My girlfriend Natalie and I went to this show on one of our first dates. This band was HOT in those days! No Parking on the Dance Floor and Freakazoid-two HUGE RnB hits of the day and ALL THE WAY LIVE! Not to mention hearing Jody Watley of Shalamar--someone I still consider one of the hottest DIVAs and sultriest soul singers ever--sing "A Night to Remember" one of my favorite RnB hits of the post-disco era.

PHiSH 12-6-1996 Alladin Theater, Las Vegas Ferocious jamming with Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde of Primus and one of the hottest shows PHiSH ever played. What a night starting with the PYRAMID, then to Kuroda handing me Sierra Nevada's out of his cooler behind the light board all night, and ending with Les telling Freddy Packer to STOP because he had to play with the Greyboy Allstars. He made it! Though I didn't! ;) Needless to say I swore I would not miss a PHiSH show (or any show I wanted to see) in Las Vegas. EVER!

AC/DC w/ Yngvie Malmsteen 1984, Knoxville Coliseum Incredible screaming guitars (forget the band WASPs' opening act!) as the Brothers Young and crew scream their way into our heads during classics as Hells Bells, For Those About to Rock--WE SALUTE YOU! AC/DC's set was fantastic--first of their shows that I saw with the cannons! Yngvie shredded his guitar during his set and that was my first of several introductions to this blazing player.

P-Funk All Stars w/ Isaac Hayes 1997 UNO Pavilion, New Orleans Jazz Fest Nick, Jennifer and I partied with Sir Nose and Babblin' Kabbabie til 5am--George was wayyyyyyy cool and funky but after a few momoents he had some young ladies come in and soon was interested in other things besides the Green Room! The show at UNO was the best P-Funk show I have seen still and went on until 3pm as the security turned up the house lights, they turned up the volume. Isaac Hayes was also great!

RUSH 1984 Johnson City, TN Crammed into my Conquest chasing a Porsche the whole way there, Charlie, Stefanie, Sean and I went to see Grace Under Pressure tour. That is still my favorite RUSH album, THEN Permanent Waves. But PW is a VERY close second :)

J Geils Band w/ U2 1982, Alumni Gymnasium, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Glenn and I went to see J. Geils Band and since we were young and Mom dropped us off, we were there to see the opening act. YES! I did say that U2 opened for J. GEILS BAND!! They blew J. Geils Band off the stage. Unbelievable energy that even at that time I knew something was going to be different about that unknown band. I met Magic Dick (J. Geils Band guitarist) years later backstage at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco and told him how my young mind was changed by that night.

PHiSH 11-2-1998 E Center, Salt Lake City Harpua>Dark Side of the Moon>Harpua says it all! The smallest crowd on a sold-out tour--less than 4000 got to see the show that tens of thousands of PHiSH heads had wanted to see two nights before in Las Vegas when PHiSH covered "Loaded" by Velvet Underground in its entirety. Those Halloween show tickets were going for over $500 and then, just two nights later, before the SLC show Trey and Page were out in the parking lot GIVING tickets away themselves to anyone that was not going to get into the show. Amazing show without the Harpua/DSotM sandwich. Listen to the opening segued three songs (Tube, Drowned, Jesus Left Chicago), the Velvet Sea, the MOMA Dance, and the jam in YEM. All TOP NOTCH PHiSH! Not to forget to mention the anti-climactic (to me, at least) encore cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Steely Dan 1993 Starwood, Nashville My buddy Jamie had a really rough week and having just moved back from Reno, NV, needed some cheering up, SOUTHERN STYLE, so I called my friend Whitt Hubner, who used to work at Starwood and he kicked me dead center 10th row seats. Incredible sound and song list of a band I had always wanted to see! When Donald asked what the crowd wanted to hear, I said "Kid Charlemange" and he looked right at me and said NO--I know he said it to me because we were the ONLY ones dancing close to the stage as everyone else stayed seated and the back-up singers and I had been waving at each other all night. I almost wish the girls had sent ME a pass out into the crowd like I have seen so many guy rockers do in the past ;)

Al Jarreau 2002 Park City Jazz Festival Meeting Al was a lifelong dream as when I was a junior in high school one of my favorite songs (STILL IS) was BOOGIE DOWN. He didn't play that song on that evening, and backstage, I mentioned it to him. He looked me in the eye, put an outstretched arm on my shoulder, and scatted the Babba-doop part that we loved to sing all those years ago. I felt like such a kid and I just do not get that way around celebrities.

Widespread Panic August 1999, Aspen Harmony Festival Widespread Panic with Bobby Weir? All night parties at the Aspen Block and Casper's house? Incredible weekend!! Baker and Cort's Barfly Productions put on an incredible festival as well as threw themselves an incredible engagement party. I can't say enough that that was one of the most incredible three days of my life. Climb to Safety from the Harmony Fest will always be my favorite version of that incredible song.