June 23, 2006 - Pittsburgh, PA - Pearl Jam, Robert Pollard

Venue:  Mellon Arena

This was a great show and the only concert I ever caught at the Mellon Arena before they tore it down.  My brother Joe joined me for this one, but he wasn't very excited about it.  He has always enjoyed Pearl Jam shows, but I remember that I didn't remind him of this one and called him a day or two before we were to go and he sounded unattached to the whole idea.

He ended up loving the show and he still brings it up on Spotify and listens to it while he bar tends.

Robert Pollard, the lead singer and songwriter for Guided By Voices, opened this show and the show the very next night in Cincinnati and he did a capable job at both.  He didn't play any Guided By Voices, and instead played a short set of songs mostly off his new solo record.  His song 'Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft' was a highlight.

Opening this leg of their 2006 tour, Pearl Jam was tight and prepared.  They played a set consisting mostly of hits, but with the notable exceptions of the Rolling Stones cover 'Waiting on A Friend', and B-Side 'Smile'.  This was the first time I heard 'Man of the Hour', which is an awesome song that they recorded for the Tim Burton film 'Big Fish'.

The fairly standard set list was delivered with energy and immediacy and I loved it.

I have never liked the white knuckle back roads drive from Ohio to Pennsylvania and back using old route 30, but this wouldn't be the last time I would make the mistake of taking this way.  It is technically quicker than taking the highway, but it is far more complex, requiring many turns, stops, and winding forest zig zags.

It's the kind of drive that makes you thankful to be alive and in one piece afterwards, and it's one of the reasons I haven't gone to a lot of shows in Pittsburgh.  Although it's only an hour and a half away, I just don't like many of my options to get there.

May 20, 2006 - Cleveland, OH - Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket

Venue:  Quicken Loans Arena

This was my fourth Pearl Jam show, and my second and final show with my friend James.

James had gone to the first Cleveland show, and at this point he still wasn't a big fan of the band.  We sat on the floor, but at the back of the first floor section, probably about 25-30 rows from the stage.

Main set highlights included an "It's OK" tag on Daughter, and great versions of Immortality, Unemployable, and Severed Hand.  This was the first show I saw after they released their self-titled album, so I got a lot of new music, but not a lot of rarities until the encore.  I was extremely happy to hear one of my favorite stupid little B-sides "U", followed by the ultra rare Stone Gossard sung, "Don't Gimme No Lip".  This was also the first time I saw "Smile", which is always a treat.

It wasn't all great.  This was the first of three times in-a-row that I heard the song "Inside Job", which I have since come to dislike live.  It's just slow and the structure of the song doesn't allow you to do anything but just stand there.  Songs should have a rhythm, a beat, or a hook, and "Inside Job" struggles to barely have any of the three.  I have to be able to move along with a song.

James wanted to hear "Black", and they did play it.  He also felt sick half way through the show and sat down for most of it.  I remember being annoyed.  It wouldn't be the last time that a perceived lack of engagement and interest from a concert going friend bummed me out.

At least he wasn't on his phone.

August 03, 2007 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza (Day 1)

Venue:  Grant Park

Lineup:  Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, The Black Keys, G.Love & Special Sauce, moe., Jack's Mannequin

This was my first multi-day music festival.  It was amazing.

I won't go into too much detail about my thoughts on festivals here, because I will have dozens of chances to write about them in future posts, but I will share some basic thoughts about what they mean to me and what they do for me. 

Music festivals are an all encompassing experience.  You're surrounded.  Not just by a big fence, but by thousands of fans, food, sound, trees, a city.  They take up your life and your day.  They exist as a pure, beautiful mess of stimulation.

Personally, they allow me to escape into a world of music, fandom, and emotional expression.  They leave me physically exhausted and they clear my mind and center me more than a whole day of anything else I have experienced.

I attended this Lollapalooza with just my girlfriend-at-the-time Megan.  We decided to go because Pearl Jam, Daft Punk, and Interpol were playing and we had talked about going for awhile.  The lineup might have been the best of the five Lolla's that I have attended.  Day one was a great warm-up and was mostly spent exploring the grounds and seeing some amazing sets.

The first three acts that I saw were just alright, though.  Jack's Mannequin had a particular song on piano that I really liked, and G. Love was fun.  'Moe.', a jam band with a small but rabid fan base,  is an example of a kind of music and/or band that Lolla doesn't host much anymore.  You'd be hard pressed to find any jam band stuff on a lineup in the years that followed, which is perfectly fine with me.

The Black Keys were my personal favorite act of the day.  They still toured as a two piece at the time and tore down the place.  It was so heavy and bluesy and was a delight to watch, even on a hot 80+ degree Chicago afternoon.  They even blew out an amp and had to replace it mid-set.  They were playing that loudly and that hard.  It was really cool.

Seeing the final combo of LCD Soundsystem and Daft Punk still gets me some grief from fans of either band when I mention it to them.  I simply didn't appreciate what I was seeing and how rare and special it was.  I've always thought it was especially cool that LCD Soundsystem played 'Daft Punk is Playing At My House', and then Daft Punk played at their house, literally across the field from them.

Daft Punk brought their light-up pyramid and "played" the same amazing set from their live album that came out that year.  The field was at least half empty, which looking back, is kind of sad.  Pearl Jam fans dominated Lollapalooza 2007 and were across the festival seeing Ben Harper play that night.  Harper would get an appearance from Eddie and they would do a song together that I obviously missed, but I didn't care.  I am not, nor have I ever been a fan of Ben Harper.  He seems like a great guy, but his music has never grabbed me.  It's that soft folk rock kind of stuff that I find repelling and un-engaging.  The kind of music that boring people get high to...

Anyways, Daft Punk was great and I wasted it.  I don't really dance, especially around other people, because I don't want to look like an idiot or something.  I realize that I am idiot for not letting go and dancing, or moving more or doing something more than tapping my foot and occasionally bobbing my head.  Daft Punk never tours and I actually saw them live and I stood there!

I use the memory of my shame as motivation to not be afraid to really get into stuff.  You only live each day once.  There will only be one Day 1 of Lollapalooa 2007.  You don't get a second one.  Let go!  Move!  Live!

June 07, 2016 – Cleveland, OH – Death Cab for Cutie, Chvrches

Venue:  Jacobs Pavilion At Nautica

I've already started writing these concert list blogs entirely out of order at this point, so I figured I might as well write about one show that was fresh in my memory.

This was the fourth concert I attended in 10 days, and a really great time outside at a venue that I have come to really enjoy.  Nautica Pavilion is an outdoor pavilion that's completely covered, but has a cement GA pit and bleachers in the back.  If you are in the crowd, you are facing the Cleveland skyline across the Cuyahoga River.  It is really a cool venue, and has grown to be my favorite in Cleveland.  I only wish they had more decent shows there.

I drove Joe, Chuck, and Alan up and had not been feeling well for most of the day.  I was still incredibly sore from playing kickball two days prior and I ate something that did not agree with me, so I was questioning whether I wanted to go at all earlier in the day.  I have only ever not gone to two concerts that I had bought tickets for, and both of those were because rither myself or someone in my family was in the hospital.  I was incredibly glad that I went.

We arrived just as Chvrches started and they put on a great show.  I may be judged for this thought and opinion, but lead singer Lauren Mayberry is incredibly powerful and incredibly cute, and I mean that in the most respectful way possible.

This was the fourth time that I had seen Death Cab.  I saw them the first time almost twelve years earlier at the legendary 'Vote For Change' Pearl Jam show in Toledo.  They have put on a great show every time I've seen them, but at this point I wish their sets were more varied dynamic.  I would gladly see them multiple times on the same tour, but for most casual fans, there isn't much of a reason to see them more than once every couple of years, because their sets are going to be almost identical.  I'm also just a little bummed that I haven't heard a single song off of my favorite album, 'We Have the Facts, and We're Voting Yes', since the second time I saw them in 2011.

These are criticisms that I feel bad even bringing up, especially considering how good they can be live.  They are full of energy, have near perfect musicianship, and play each song with feeling and an attachment and connection to the crowd.  Death Cab are always really enjoyable.

April 20, 2009 – Cleveland, OH – Travis, The Republic Tigers

Venue:  House of Blues

This was the first concert that I attended alone.

No one else that I knew was a fan of Travis, and I don't blame them.  Travis are like if The Bend's-era Radiohead and early Coldplay had a baby and then that baby mellowed out and lost it's edge almost immediately upon being born.  Travis are harmless and inoffensively catchy, and they are not for everyone.  They aren't even for me anymore, since I haven't found myself listening to them in years, but at the time, I liked them and I really liked their album The Invisible Band.  

I had a significant, but she didn't like Travis and had something to do,  so I decided to not let that spoil my chance to see them live, so I went.  I liked it.

When you are by yourself at a concert, you are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of strangers, but you're still alone, and it is freeing.  Maybe it says more about me and the people that I spend time with, but I have always felt at least a little self conscious at concerts.  I might not sing as loudly as I would want or even move around very much, if there is someone I know there.

At this show though, I didn't care.  I sang along loudly to every song I knew, and jumped up and down as hard as anyone else on the floor when instructed to during Flowers in the Windows during the encore.  They put on a solid show and I even dug some of their newer songs, even though those albums are even more mellow and uninteresting than their older stuff.

They are so inoffensive, harmless, and positive that I feel bad criticizing them.  They don't deserve it.  I really did like them and still have a soft spot for them.

Anyways, don't get me wrong, I prefer going to shows with someone else, but I won't let my desire to share something with someone stop me entirely from experiencing something that I want to see or do.

It's sad really.  Not the going alone.  Not that in the least.

What's sad is that I feel more free to act and show how I feel when I'm alone.

I have a feeling I'm not alone in feeling this way.

Concert History Updated!

Concert history has been updated with my 91st, 92nd, and 93rd shows:

93. June 03, 2016 – Cincinnati, OH – Bunbury Festival (Day 1) – The Killers, Mudcrutch, Haim, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires, The Wombats, The Mowgli’s, The Shelters

92. June 02, 2016 – Nelsonville, OH – Nelsonville Music Festival (Day 1) – Courtney Barnett, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Water Witches, Sega Genacide, SaintSeneca

91. May 28, 2016 – Columbus, OH – Eagles of Death Metal, Thelma and the Sleaze

Full blog entries will be coming eventually.

June 24, 2003 - Columbus, OH - Pearl Jam, Buzzcocks

Venue:  Polaris Amphitheater

My second Pearl Jam concert and an amazing time.

I had a questionable vehicle at the time, so my Dad followed me down to Columbus, just in case there was an issue.  My brother Joe rode down with my Dad, and my buddy Ryan rode down with and was going to attend the concert with me.

Just a couple of months after my first Pearl Jam show, the fan club seats still were based on Seniority in the club, but you could get better seats if you waited in line and picked them up earlier.  Ryan and I stood out in 90+ degree heat for a few hours in the afternoon, behind hundreds of fans, and got some tickets that were about ten rows from the back of the amphitheater.

The Buzzcocks opened and played their asses off, with no breaks between most of their songs.  Pearl Jam took the stage as the sun was going down directly behind the lawn.  Eddie wasn't feeling well and his voice was a little rough throughout the bight.  I saw him laying down on what looked like a mattress on the side of the stage during a solo at one point, but he still gave a great performance and brought the energy.

An Improv that fans have titled 'Lost In Ohio' was really amazing, as was the sing-a-long during Jeremy, and the Neil Young cover 'Fuckin Up'.  Rarities like Evacuation, Red Mosquito, and Footsteps made me very happy, as I was already in the habit of using their shows as another chance to "collect" their songs.

The crowd was sun burned, drunk, and excited.  I felt a splash on the back of my shins late in the show and I was pretty sure that it was vomit from the drunken 50 year old behind me.  Ryan and I went and ate at a Waffle House after the show.  I think it was the first time either of us had been to a Waffle House.

I had a great time over the day and half that we were down in Columbus, but Ryan was just a friend I drug along and he wasn't a Pearl Jam fan.  At Waffle House, he told me he was homesick and was looking forward to heading him.

We had been gone since that morning.  It was really lame of him to have said that and I am still mad about it all these years later.  I don't put up with people not relaxing and enjoying themselves.  It shows a lack of vision and no love for adventure.

It's also just a shitty thing to say to a friend who is obviously enjoying himself on a short trip to see his favorite band.  I don't let people's comments like this get me down anymore.  If they can't enjoy themselves on vacation or away from home, it's not my place to make them have a good time, however, I owe it to myself to not let them ruin mine.

October 25, 2008 - Cleveland, OH - Matthew Sweet

Venue:  Beachland Ballroom

Another concert I don't remember a whole hell of a lot from, because I was not familiar with Matthew Sweet's music.  I'm still not familiar with his music, but I do remember that it was a pretty good show.  I've heard him on satellite radio a couple of times in the last year and I actually remember some of the songs.

His song 'Girlfriend' is good pop rock garbage, and the video is wonderful.  In the video (from 1991) his translucent head is floating in front of some anime of people fighting and dancing.  It's really stupid, you should watch it.

This was yet another concert I attended because my girlfriend Megan was a fan.  At the time of this concert we were no longer together and just trying to be friends.  We would go to one or two more concert after this one, as friends, and then I would mess that up by being a possessive weirdo and not letting it go that she was already dating someone else.

That's a story for another blog post, but this concert just stands as a rare example of me actually making friendship work with an ex.  It was good for a minute. 

People move on and you eventually become the dumb asshole of the situation.

That's life sometimes.

April 1, 2005 - Oxford, OH - O.A.R.

Venue:  John D. Millet Hall at Miami University

This was the second time I saw O.A.R. (in a five month span), and the third and final time I would attend a concert with my friend Libby.  Libby was a big fan of O.A.R., and I liked some of their songs and loved going to concerts and hanging out with Libby, so we made the long drive down to Oxford, OH.

It was a four hour drive to this show and there are two main things that I remember about it:

1.)  Libby drove, and if she hadn't I might be dead.  We took a weird way to get there and drove through old farm roads and suddenly happened upon Oxford pretty close to show time.  The drive there wasn't the bad part; it stormed almost the entire way home.  Not just a little rain, but just dumping buckets and not being able to see more than a dozen feet in front of the car most of the wayPoor Libby got us home safely though and I'll always be thankful for that.

2.) A random college student said one of the funniest one-liners I've ever heard in the crowded men's bathroom before the show.  The phrase stood alone and was neither preceded or followed by an explanation.  I was just done peeing in the stall, and as I turned around and he approach and prepared himself for the urinal he loudly said, "So I was giving my grandma a bubble bath last night, and she dumped in the tub."

Everyone in the bathroom laughed and I was in awe.  I don't think I've heard anything more perfect in a public bathroom in my life.  I have thought about his reasons for saying it, and I realized that I don't care.  The mystery is part of the appeal.

I'm sure O.A.R. played the Poker song and I'm sure that they had a lot of energy, but honestly I don't remember anything about the performance.  This show would close out my short-lived jam band phase and it would be the last concert I would attend until I would see Pearl Jam again multiple times in 2006.

Extremely Fast and Pointless Music Review: Radiohead 'A Moon Shaped Pool' (2016)

A Moon Shaped Pool is more than a good Radiohead album, it's just a good album in general.  After their last effort, The King of Limbs, I was left with an empty feeling and a hook-less, fairly musically joyless record.  A Moon Shaped Pool is as if their albums In Rainbows and Amnesiac had a baby, and it is a melancholy masterwork.   It is as inspired and emotional as I could have hoped; almost dangerous in it's ability to pull you in. The most brilliant thing about it (and it sounds like bullshit) is that the album grows on you and drips and seeps into you until it finds those cracks that move you.  It makes you feel anxious, lost, alone, and disillusioned.  Let it in.  Live with it.

Five stars.

December 08, 2007 - Cleveland, OH - Silverchair

Venue:  House of Blues

Seats in the balcony at the house of blues.

I have never been very into Silverchair, but my girlfriend Megan was and they were good at Lollapalooza four months earlier, so we decided to see them again.

If I am not familiar with a bands music, I tend to remember very little of what actually occured at their concert, and this is one of those cases.

You would think that they would play their songs that made them big in the nineties, but they actually didn't play Tomorrow at this show or many other shows around this time. 

Avoiding the old songs, because you're not that band anymore, and instead, playing your new stuff is the coolest, most accepted and universally loved thing that a band can do, so I'm sure no one had an issue with it.  As I stated, I didn't really care, because I've never been a fan, but it still makes me think.

People blatantly avoiding their past success and trying to recreate themselves anew is something that has always been fascinating to me.  Their motive and reasoning is always a curious thing, and I always wonder if they are doing it for the right reasons.  Do they owe the old hits to their fans?  Do they care?

I don 't think that Silverchair tour, or even exist as a band anymore, and I heard that the lead singer divorced Natalie Imbruglia recently.  I've had a crush on her since the Torn video.

I looked it up.  Imbruglia has played Torn at almost every god damn show for the last 20 years or so.  I wonder if she's happy with that?  I'm guessing her fans are.

February 23, 2008 - Cleveland, OH - VAST, White Light Riot

Venue:  Beachland Ballroom?

I remember almost nothing about this show.

I knew it would happen once or twice.  I knew there would be a show or two where I wouldn't be able to recall any major details.

My girlfriend at the time, Megan, liked VAST and like a handful of other concerts I attended from 2006 to 2008, I only went because she was a fan.

Not being familiar with VAST's music, before or after makes it extra hard.

I think this was the show in which we took one of Megan's friends up to the show with us.  He was this big dude that I never knew very well and he got drunk at the show.  On the way home he talked about how the entire mid-west is on a tectonic plate and that, at any moment, we could all blow up.  I might be mixing this memory up with a time that we went to Annabelle's in Akron with the same guy.

I still think about the tectonic plate thing from time to time.

The opening band, White Light Riot, set up and played their set from the middle of the floor I think, but I could be mixing this show with another one.

I don't remember what VAST sounded like.  I have no recollection of what they looked like.  All I know is that, 10 years ago, I was there.  I know this because I was keeping my list of concerts at the time.

I can't even find any evidence that this show took place.  There is absolutely nothing about it on the internet.  I was thinking about watching some videos and reminding myself about what VAST was like, but I am just going to leave it a mystery.  There's enough shit in my head already.

October 31, 2004 - Columbus, OH - O.A.R.

Venue:  Promowest Pavilion Indoor (Lifestyles Communities Pavilion/Express Live)

My friend Libby liked O.A.R.

I enjoyed hanging out with Libby.

I ended up getting a couple of O.A.R. CDs and found some songs I liked, so I went with her.

This was a Halloween show and it was actually a lot of fun.  A couple of Sublime-y, jammy bands opened for them and one of the featured a singer dressed as Uncle Sam.  Uncle Sam could dance like no other, and later he came up on the balcony with Libby and I, where Libby recognized him and smacked him on the arm pretty hard to get his attention and tell him he did a good job.

Libby dressed as a pirate wench, or something like that.  I dressed up as myself, which meant (at the time) that I was wearing a hat, t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes.

I don't remember much about O.A.R.'s performance.  They had a good energy.  They played that poker song at the end.  They jammed and lost my attention from time to time, it was a good show.

April 25, 2003 - Cleveland, OH - Pearl Jam, Sparta

Venue:  Quicken Loans Arena (Gund Arena, at the time)

This was my first Pearl Jam concert and it's still perhaps, my favorite concert of all time.

In the Spring/Summer of 2001, I had a membership at the Louisville Public Library in Louisville, OH.  I would mostly take out CDs and listen to the at home on a portable Sony CD Walkman while lying in bed.

One day I checked out a Pearl Jam album called 'Live on Two Legs', which is a live compilation recorded from their 1998 tour'.  I had never heard any band put more heart or energy into a live performance.  Before 'Live On Two Legs', I only knew Pearl Jam's early 90s grunge songs, and had no idea that they were absolutely amazing live.  I never ended up developing a strong connection to their first records, and instead, I ended up developing a deep love and connection to their weird, more alternative albums, as well as their live albums from their 2000 tour.

I am a very rare example of a Pearl jam fan, that doesn't worship their early career output.  Their 'middle' period albums, 'No Code', 'Yield', and 'Binaural, are still my favorites and stand beside anything else they have done.

Pearl Jam would quickly grow tobecome my favorite band, and as I bought and listened to more of their records, I knew that I absolutely had to see them live.

I had just missed their 2000 tour, which had wrapped up months before I found their CD at the library, so I had to wait a couple of years for their new album and tour.  and thequality of the seats was based on seniority.  Tickets through the Pearl Jam fan club came in pairs and I really had no one that I knew that was anywhere near as big of a fan as I was, so I just went with my good friend James.

James was a trooper, because he was alright with getting to and standing outside the arena hours early, so we could get slightly better seats.  Ten Club tickets, at the time, were based on seniority, but you could improve your position within a a block of seats by getting to the box office early.  We ended up with tickets about 20 rows back on the side (on the aisle!!!!), and they were great.  I don't think there was a bad seat in the house.

Opening band Sparta consisted of some of the members of the then defunct 'At The Drive-In', and they underwhelmed, but I didn't care at all.  I was too excited.

They played 28 songs, including 17 songs in the main set and 11 in the two encores.  Corduroy into Grievance into Save You into Do The Evolution was tremendous.  Lukin into Not For You was amazing.  You Are and Daughter in the first encore were fantastic, and then Eddie played People Have The Power, with just him on electric guitar and Matt on drums and I actually said "Wow!" out loud when he hit the "Freeeeeeee-dommmmmm" part towards the end.

I could write a paragraph about each song they played that night, because I have literally heard them over and over dozens of times since then on the officially released bootleg.  It's still my go-to Pearl Jam live album, and as of writing this I have seen them 13 times (with tickets for 14 and 15 purchased).

It sounds hokey and weird, but it's true; Pearl Jam has been incredibly important to me over the last 15 years.  Their music has inspired me and helped me through some rough times, and their live shows are some of the highest points of the last decade and a half of my life. I am thankful to them and incredibly excited to be one of their fans. 

Simply put, I would be a very different person if I hadn't picked up that beat up library CD 15 years ago.

November 09, 2006 - Cleveland, OH - Hot One

Venue:  Beachland Tavern

This small show was the first one that I attended with my former girlfriend Megan.  She and I were into alot of the same musics and we just generally shared a love of live music.  I have her to thank for later going to my first Lollapalooza, and instilling in me a love of music festivals.  I also have her to thank for this list of concerts, because she was the only person I had ever met who kept a list of the shows she had attended and it inspired me to make a list of my own.  The ever growing Word document with all the concerts I've attended dates back to 2006 or 2007.

Hot One was a side project rock band featuring Nathan Larson of Shudder to Think, they only released one album, and it's actually pretty good.  Megan was into a lot of smaller 90s alternative rock, shoegaze, and post-hardcore bands, which is why I would see this band as well as bands like VAST and Silverchair while I was going out with her.

Hot One played 'dirty' alt-rock with a swagger and attitude that reminded you of Eagles of Death Metal.  Their album was alright and they were alright live.  They had a song called Fucking that I still like and think about from time to time, even though I probably haven't heard it in 5+ years.

There were maybe 15 people at the show that night while Hot One was playing, and afterwards it was easy to meet the band and talk to everyone.  At one point Megan and I were talking to Nathan Larson about his voice, and I bring up a Rolling Stone article I read about how Bono from U2 has to be on pure oxygen on the plane in between shows in order to preserve his ability to sing.

Nathan humored me and said that Bono has to do that because of how much he sings and all II remember is feeling like such an asshole.  It might have been all in the head, but I still cringe when I think about bring up Bono and U2 and that dumb Rolling Stone anecdote to this poor guy and with his 15 fans in a shitty Tavern in Cleveland.

Hot One wouldn't make another record, and more importantly, I wouldn't bring up Bono to anymore struggling 90s artists that are just trying to make it long after their peak of popularity.

June 29, 2004 - Cleveland, OH - Dave Matthews Band, Keller Williams

Venue:  Blossom Music Center

This is the first and only Dave Matthews Band concert I have been to, and it was the first of only a few shows I attended with my friend Libby.  Libby and I would end up exclusively going to jam band concerts (this and O.A.R. later).

I was into DMB's earlier output and I still consider their third album, 'Before These Crowded Streets', to be one of my favorites, but I find myself listening to DMB less and less each year.  Like my waning fascination with progressive rock, my interest and fascination with jam bands would see it's end before too long.

We had lawn tickets and Keller Williams played solo acoustic to open and was fine.  I recall that the Black Eyed Peas were originally slated to open, but cancelled and were replaced by Keller Williams, because they were blowing up at the time.  I might not remember this correctly though, because I cannot seem to find any evidence that this happened, but I don't know why my brain would make something like that up.

Dave Matthews Band put on a good show and played a few of the songs I wanted to hear, including 'The Stone'.  They were touring with some new songs that didn't have clear titles yet, but most of which would be on their next record, and I had no complaints about their set or their new material.

The crowd was almost entirely drunk white dudes, many of which were dancing and lovingly mocking Dave Matthews guitar playing and footwork.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, imagine a man playing guitar with the strap tightened up almost as far as it will go, who is also moving his feet like Linus does in the old Peanuts cartoons.

One guy nearby had a tower of beer cups stacked next to him in the grass that made it to at least 12 by the end of the night.  He also ended up flat on his back, sleeping by the time the band closed with Rapunzel.

October 21, 2004 - Columbus, OH – CAKE, Northern State

Venue:  Promowest Pavilion

The second time I saw CAKE was with my friend Liz in Columbus.  This was also the first time, of many, that I would go to the Promowest (or Lifestyles Communities and late The Express Live) Pavilion, although this was an indoor show.

They were touring their new album, Pressure Chief, and I bought a brown and pink shirt with the album logo on it, as soon as I walked in the door.  I wore that shirt until it started getting holes in it.

The opening band was, Northern State, an all girl three piece hip-hop group and they were good.  Some jackasses in the crowd booed them at times, but it was undeserved.

CAKE put on a good show, but I had some issues with John McCrea's performance.  I am fairly sure that he was drunk (or high), and he sang everything a half a beat slower than he should have, which made it really hard and weird to sing along.  He also complained about all the college 'bros' in the audience and introduced 'The Distance', by saying that it was for the frat boys.

Maybe the crowd was douche-y and deserved the attitude from John after booing the opener and being kinda shitty.  It was still a good show and a good time with my friend Liz.

Yet another person I went to some concerts with years ago, that I should give a call.

March 20, 2004 - Cleveland, OH - Dream Theater

I looked carefully at my entire list of shows that I have attended, and I remember the absolute least about this one.

I know that this was the last concert I went to with my buddy Nick.  After this show we drifted apart and he got with this girl that everyone universally hated.

This show was also the final death gasps of my short lived fascination with progressive rock.  I would not attend another 'progressive' show of any kind after this.  Seeing Pearl Jam live the previous year and my growing love for mainstream alternative rock (Modest Mouse, Death Cab, The Shins, Queens of the Stone Age, etc), created some distance in between myself and the highly skilled noodling of bands like Dream Theater.

I do have vague fuzzy memories of being bored at this show.  It just started to lack heart and, going forward, without my buddy Nick in the picture to drive the interest in it, Dream Theater was to fall by the wayside.

November 29, 2002 - Cleveland, OH - Planet X

Venue:  Peabody's Down Under

I was asked to go to this small club show by my friend Nick, who I had attended all of the Dream Theater shows with, as well as the CAKE show.  This would be one of the last concerts I would go to with Nick, and the second to last progressive rock show.

Planet X featured one of Dream Theater's ex-keyboardists, guitarist Tony MacAlpine, and an amazing drummer named Virgil Donati.  They were purely instrumental.  Their music was all masturbatory noodling and shredding for people who wanted to see people who are very good at their instruments do cool shit with the instruments.

Nick and I got to the show early enough to get front and center at the stage.  The first band, a local high school rock band, pulled a bigger crowd than Planet X and ended up surrounding usat the front.  Some unhappy high school girls talked about us behind our backs, wishing that we would move.

The second band, a low-tier Stone Temple Pilot's sounding band, surprised no one when they covered Sex Type Thing.  The house music that played in between bands was an awful Saliva or Limp Bizkit song played very loudly, on repeat.  Between the shitty opening bands, the shit-hole venue, and the shitty house music, I distinctly recall not having a very good time.

Planet X took the stage with a crowd of no more than thirty people in the venue, and did exactly what everyone expected them to do, which is to say that they proved that they were good at guitar, drums, and keyboards respectively.

The highlight was Virgil Donati's drum solo towards the end of the set.  I haven't seen anyone play drums that fast since.  His arms were literally a blur as they went back and forth and across all of the drums. 

I'm not sure if it was musical, but it was amazing.

September 07, 2002 - Pittsburgh, PA - Dream Theater, King's X

Vanue:  AJ Palumbo Center

Four days after seeing Dream Theater in Cleveland, and five months after seeing them in Philadelphia, my friend Nick and I saw them once again in Pittsburgh.

The concert was in the gymnasium of a downtown Pittsburgh college.  I remember a basketball hoop 'cranked' up and hovering above the band during the show.  King's X and Dream Theater put on a good, although much shorter show than their 'Evening with' show in Philly.

On the way there, Nick drove up to an intersection in downtown Pittsburgh that made absolutely no sense.  There were 4 or 5 different lights and and roads converging, and I clearly recall him just winging it and driving through.  I told people about that intersection for year later, and everyone always added that Pittsburgh was shitty place to drive.

I witnessed one of my favorite tour shirts at this show as well.  An older dude with a pony tail was wearing a beat up old 'Moving Pictures' Rush tour shirt from 1981.  It had holes all over it and was faded with twenty years of washing and wear, but it was the real deal.  I was blown away.

Something tells me that that shirt still hasn't been retired, and in the next couple of decades, a long haired prog metal fan might be buried in a very worn old Rush shirt.

I fully support his final wishes.