Favorite Live Shows

I've seen plenty of great shows, and I am going to fail to remember them all here. But these have left a lasting enough impression that, well, I still remember. There are many that didn't make this list, and I want to give kudos to Sal over at Burning Wood for bringing the topic up. One of my friends is going to call me and say "What?! You didn't include ________!"  Trust me, I just can't remember them all. I saw NRBQ, but it was after Big Al left. I saw Van Morrison and the Kinks put on weak shows that I wanted so much to love. Todd Rundgren, Joe Jackson, Eric Clapton, Boz Scaggs (2 or 3 times), Trisha Yearwood, Robert Palmer, Dwight Yoakam, and many others, all entertained me. But when it comes to that mix of great performance, great vibe, and great timing, these might be my favorite shows:

The Band 1970 Cleveland Music Hall
I was 15 years old. I already loved The Band. My father drove my girlfriend and I to downtown Cleveland to see the show. They were between The Band and Stage Fright albums. They were incredible. No warm-up act. They came out and played two sets, about two hours total. The only time they said much other than "Thank You" at all was when Robbie introduced Lookout Cleveland and said he was thinking of us. I think he meant Cleveland, Tennessee all along, but that didn't matter.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 1973 John Carrol University Fieldhouse
The John Carrol Fieldhouse was a pretty big basketball arena by Jesuit college standards. Bruce was about to release The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, and the band on the back of that record jacket was the band I saw. Vinnie Lopez might not have been what Bruce wanted, but this band kicked butt that night for sure. And Springsteen was the only guitar player, he was super-hot, and they played for three hours, and totally rocked the crap out of the place. They got tighter, and maybe more professional, as a band, but they never got wilder.

Sons of Champlin, The Tubes, 1975 Some small outdoor amphitheater, San Diego, CA
So back in 1969 my older brother sent me and my middle brother seven albums for Christmas. Go ahead, divide seven by two. And do it with adolescent males. Anyway, one of those records was the Sons of Champlin debut, Loosen Up Naturally. I've loved the Sons ever since. In 1975, after finishing school, I road-tripped to California and while visiting a high school buddy in San Diego, I visited a record store. I found the recently self-released Sons of Champlin album (on Gold Mine records, which would later be reissued by Areola) and when I bought the album, the guy behind the register said, "Hey, dude, are you going to see them tonight?" Right then I bought tickets even though the guy I was staying with had to work that night. He went to work. I went and saw the Sons. Champlin, Haggerty, and Palmer were all spectacular. I was surprised, but I liked the Tubes, too.

It really seems like there should be something else between 1975 and 1979. How odd.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Rubinoos, 1979, The Agora Ballroom
Costello was doing This Year's Model and some of Armed Forces and the debut. Oh My God. 75 minutes of full steam ahead Costello and the Attractions. Not more than 30 seconds between songs, and no talk at all. The Rubinoos were playful and charming in the opening slot. They did I Think Were Alone Now and Sugar, Sugar.

Talking Heads 1983 Blossom Music Center
It was the big suit tour, which was made into the movie and album Stop Making Sense. It was very much worth seeing live. The concept was very cool, with David Byrne doing Psycho Killer solo with a beat box, then Tina Weymouth came on for Heaven, and it kept building until there were 10-12 people on stage. Burning down the house indeed.

Ahmad Jamal, 1990? The Purple Onion, Toronto
I went to Toronto to take my wife to see The Phantom of the Opera. The night before (or after?) we went to see Ahmad Jamal at the Purple Onion jazz club. I was mesmerized by Ahmad Jamal's trio. Such an amazing piano player. We sat at the bar about fifteen feet from Jamal, and we could see his hands on the keyboard. Breathtaking.

The Subdudes, 1986? Peabody's Down Under
If you ever have a chance to see the Subdudes, they put on a great show. Peabody's was relatively small, and they rocked it. Their soulful Louisiana funk was a unique. Tommy Malone was a triple-threat singer, songwriter and guitarist. Steve Amedée's tambourine replaced a drum kit way better than it should have.

The Neville Brothers, 1980s, Tipitina's, New Orleans

The Neville Brothers played Tipitina's most Fridays in the 80s, and were scheduled the Friday we arrived, but then the show was cancelled as they were opening for someone on tour. The vacation was already planned, so I went with disappointment in mind. Sitting in a bar I told the bartender the story, and he said that the tour show cancelled and they were playing that night. We went early and held our ground right in front of the stage for many hours through the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, until the Nevilles started about 11:30. They were still playing when we went outside for air at 3:30. It was a super hot night and a super hot show. 

Don Dixon and Marti Jones, 1986-88?, The Empire
The Empire was a less than great venue in Cleveland, but this was when they were trying pretty hard to break Marti Jones. The band included Jim Brock and Jaime Hoover, and they were so incredibly tight. One of my favorite live recordings of all time is Marti's Live From Spirit Square, and this show was all of that, albeit on an considerably earlier tour.

Lucinda Williams, 2001 The Odeon
There is no need to exclude sentimental favorites. My soon-to-be-wife and I saw Lucinda touring behind Essence. Lucinda and the band were smokin' hot. The definition of sultry. I'm sure there were people that went home talking about the way we danced.

Proclaimers, 2008 Beechland Ballroom
They had the full band with them, and they are just such great songwriters and singers and so much good fun. Rock that doesn't mind the pop. And delivered with verve. My friend Bob was aghast that not everyone was dancing! I've seen several other fine shows at the Beechland. It's a great room when the sound is right.

The Band

It's a bit of a surprise that I haven't yet dedicated an entry to The Band. I've mentioned them a few times, but I've done pretty big career overviews of Robert Palmer, The Sons Of Champlin, Van Morrison and The Beatles. It seems like I should have gotten to The Band.

Let's make sure we understand each other. This will not be an unbiased review of the artists' output. I loved their first four records. At the time they were released, I would have been less your friend if you dissed them (although we didn't say "dissed" back then).

I'm not sure what to say about Music From Big Pink 1968. It is everything anyone you read says it is. There's a million reviews and old print articles archived. This record is the meaning of the musical term (coined thirty years later) Americana. It is country, R&B, blues, New Orleans funeral march, bluegrass, and Buddy Holley rock 'n' roll wrapped up in a blue plate special for your ears. The stoming piano-driven rock of To Kingdom Come,  the funky country stomp of Calidonia Mission, the ensemble lead vocals of We Can Talk, the lead guitar and pulsing R&B of This Wheels On Fire, not to mention The Weight ("take a load off, Fanny") and Garth Hudson's amazing organ opening to the rocking ode to frontal anatomy that is Chest Fever. The record never stops.

From there came The Band 1969, with Up On Cripple Creek, Across The Great Divide,  The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Rocking Chair, The Unfaithful Servant, and King Harvest (Has Surely Come). And every other song on the record. If you haven't heard this record, you can't really fully understand American rock and roll. Don't buy that crap? Go listen to it.

Their third, a disappointment to some, and even I must admit that side two is what really makes it, is still the group living up to their potential, and a fine record. Stage Fright 1970 side one feels like treading water, and Todd Rundgren's slightly sterile engineering doesn't help. Strawberry Wine and Time To Kill sound great today, and the recording is especially good on Levon Helm's drum kit. Side two is just a classic. The final three tracks, Daniel And The Sacred Harp, Stage Fright, and The Rumor are well worth the price of the record or CD. The Rumor is just beautiful.

1971's Cahoots found the band stretching out, and not everything worked. But enough of it did, and Life Is A Carnival, 4% Pantomime (with Van Morrison), and Where Do We Go From Here? were particular highlights. The River Hymn is another classic.

If there is a hallmark to this group, it is their organic sound. Levon Helm's drums always sound just a little like sticks on cardboard, Richard Manual's piano sounds like a small upright in someone's parlor, the reedy twang of Robbie Robertson's Fender Telecaster, always without effects, the high lonesome tenor of spot-on bassman and vocalist extraordinaire Rick Danko, and the deeply American sound of Garth Hudson's Hammond B3 organ.

In 1972, The Band made Rock Of Ages, one of the best live double-LP packages you can find anywhere. Adding horns arranged by Allen Toussaint, the live performance is exquisite. The 2-CD reissue contains the entire concert, including Bob Dylan's four-song set with the group.

After those first four studio recordings, things get dicey. 1973's Moondog Matinee finds The Band biding time with covers of oldies rock and roll from the (mostly) fifties. It's fine, but dispensable. Their last two, Northern Lights, Southern Cross 1975 (with at least a few good ones-Acadian Driftwood and It Makes No Difference) and Islands 1977 were mostly unnecessary. But those first four, and especially the first three, remain classics today, and you can hear today how different they were from their contemporaries.

1978 saw The Last Waltz, the soundtrack of the movie by the same name, that documented their star-studded farewell concert. It has it's moments.

The group resumed in 1983 without founder-songwriter Robbie Robertson, and I've heard at least some of the three records they released. It's sadly not the same. All of the members have made solo recordings, and of those, Helm's have been the most successful. Robertson seems content to confound his listeners at every turn, and hell if he's ever going to do anything that sounds like the band that made him famous.

Own the first three. If you're too young, think of it as a music history lesson.