Top 40 shows I saw that I will always be grateful I was there:

Well the very first show I ever saw was the Brady Kids in the Seattle Opera House the last day of school in 4th grade. Which can be nicely bookended with Jeff Beck at the Seattle Arena the first day of school my junior year of high school, for the “There and Beck “tour.

My first rock concert, though, was Kiss with Cheap Trick opening, July of 1976 for the Love Gun tour (“Christine Sixteen”) when I was 12. When Peter Criss’s drum set rose about 30 feet above the stage to reveal a mural of a huge cat with swirling eyes. Also back when Rick Nielsen would start a song wearing five different guitars and tossing each one off after a riff, before he had the five-necked guitar invented.

Bruce Springsteen in the Seattle Center Coliseum, 1980. The River tour, when part two of the show opened with an operatic ten minute version of Point Blank with the stage all bathed in blue that I’ll never forget.

The Who in the Seattle Center Colisum 1981, a mere six weeks after the Cincinnati tragedy.

The Ramones, all three times (Subterranean Jungle tour, Too Tough To Die tour and the Farewell Tour)

Roxy Music at the PNE, 1982. The Jam in Kerrisdale Arena, Vancouver, 1982. The Clash in Kerrisdale Arena, Vancouver, 1982 as well as the Poole Arts Center in England a few months later (as well as opening for the Who in the Kingdome a few months after that too.) All of these shows were for the last tour for each of these bands.

John Cale at the Metropolis, Seattle 1983. A venue that was short lived and for the longest time I thought I was the only person who ever saw a show there. I still can’t remember exactly where it was. I remember it being on a corner in Pioneer Square. It may be where The Last Supper Club now is, but I can’t be certain. It had no downstairs like the Supper Club now has at the time.

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense tour at the Seattle Arena, 1984. Exactly as amazing as the film is.

The first time Brad Mahugh played me Moonshadow (the first time I’d ever heard the song) on his guitar. 1984

Springsteen in Wembley Stadium, London, on July 4th 1985 (when of course he opened with an acoustic version of Independence Day before the usual set opener, a thundering version of Born In The USA) and Jonathan Richman at the old BBC Riverside Studios the very next day, July 5th, with a magician as the opening act.

Live Aid in Wembley Stadium, July 17, 1985. I paid 90 pounds for a scalped ticket, which would have been about 150 dollars.

Miles Davis twice in one night at the Royal Festival Hall in London, August 1985. In line to get tickets earlier that afternoon I met Balthazar who was in England from Switzerland and we were both really excited about seeing Miles for the first time. Later at the show we ran into each other again and both sat together and enjoyed the show. After it was over we stood outside on one of the balconies raving about Miles and after a few minutes we both went to the bathroom together and two other guys who were already in there asked us if we wanted their seats for the next show that night. We said sure and got to see him again at the late show.

The Pogues at the PNE, 1988. For the If I Should Fall From Grace With God tour, when they were an absolutely blazing band, I’d never seen such melodic fury on stage before, long before Shane went downhill.

Leonard Cohen at the Seattle Paramount, 1988 and 1994. The last gentleman left in North America.

Sinead O’Connor’s show at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1990 for the I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got tour had been announced for a while and I still didn’t have tickets. One Saturday morning when I was living in the Notting Hill Gate area I went to see a Yoko Ono exhibit at the old BBC Riverside Studios and since I was going to be passing the Odeon anyway I thought I’d pop in and see if there were any tickets left. It was completely sold out. But as I stood at the ticket window a new show had just seconds earlier been announced and I got the very first ticket available. First row, front and center.

Nick Cave at the Brixton Academy, June 1, 1990, the only London date he played for the Good Son tour. Then later that year he finally announced more shows and I saw him again at the Glasgow Apollo, but his voice was shot after five songs as he profusely apologized and had to cut the show short.

Cocteau Twins at the Glasgow Barrowlands, the Heaven or Las Vegas tour, 1990

Sonic Youth at the Glasgow Barrowlands, the Goo tour, 1990

Manu Dibango at the Seattle Arena, 1991

Nirvana and Pearl Jam opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, January 1992 at the Salem Armoury just a few weeks before Nevermind was released as well as their appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Tom Waits at the 5th Avenue Music Hall, October 1999. Tom played two nights. How I chose which night I was going to see him was based on the the fact that the Mets were in the playoffs against the Braves. I went on the night they didn’t have a game, the first night. But I have a bootleg of the second night and I preferred the set of songs they got the second night. But what’s weirder is an online friend I’ve still never met in real life was going to get up early and get tickets for us with her credit card. She couldn’t get through online at all and later found out that a hurricane was heading straight for the coastal state where the VISA credit card processing place is so they evacuated all the employees. The show sold out immediately even though no website orders got taken so I got a scalped ticket on the street minutes before showtime for 90 dollars. Some row in the double letter section, but when Tom came out he entered from the rear of the hall and stopped every few feet tossing confetti out of his suit pockets. He stopped six feet away from me on his way down front.

Warren Zevon at the Earth Day concert at the Moore with Little Feat and Shawn Colvin also on the bill, 2000.

Roger Waters at the Gorge, 2000, when the band came out onstage and Roger stepped to the microphone and said “We’re not quite ready to begin yet…” when suddenly I noticed a light in the sky and looked up to see three lights in the sky and they were slowly getting closer and closer as they came low just above the gorge. The lights got huge and started to rise when all of a sudden you realized “It’s a fucking jet!” and it flew a mere few hundred feet over the stage and the crowd as the band kicked off the show right as it was overhead with “In The Flesh” from The Wall. The most amazing way to start a show I’ve ever seen.

Performers I’m glad I got to see right in the nick of time: John Lee Hooker at Parker’s ten years before he died, Dizzy Gillespie at Jazz Alley a year before he died, Lionel Hampton at Jazz Alley a year before he died.

Best times I saw the performer I’ve seen most times: Bob Dylan, at the first show of his I ever saw at the Cal Expo Amphitheatre in Sacramento, June 1986, when I’d hitchhiked down from Bellingham the day before. And a few months later in Mountain View, August, when Al Kooper was in the band and John Lee Hooker was brought out on stage. Bob opened for JLH when he first arrived in NYC in 61.

Best performer whose shows all seem to run together in my mind because each time you see him he’s so talkative with the audience that it’s like you’re meeting him for drinks in his living room: Richard Thompson.

Top 5 Bands You Wished You’d Seen But Didn’t

Van Morrison at the Royal Albert Hall, I had tickets for the 11th row, the same day as the funeral of my grandmother, October 11, 1989.

Ride in the Glasgow Barrowlands, 1990. I had to find another flat that day. That’s a story in itself.