by Sideshow
I like concerts. I go to a lot of concerts. I go to a lot of good concerts. But there are only five on this list. Why, you ask? Because these are my most favoritest concerts. Of all time. They were really, really good. And that’s why there are my favorite. And that’s why they are on this list. Enjoy.
1. The Hold Steady; TT the Bear’s Place, Cambridge MA; 11 September 2005
Seeing the Hold Steady live is like doing crack: the first time is universe-altering, the subsequent three or four times are life changing and you become addicted, and any more than that will make you fear for your well-being. (This, of course, coming from a person who has never done crack. It’s all hearsay.) This show was universe-altering. Besides the fact that TT’s is about as big as a living room and we were basically sitting on the stage for their set, it was, most importantly the first time I saw my favorite band. The set was heavy on their most popular tracks (“Yr Little Hoodrat Friend”, “The Swish”), but it was also the first (and probably last) time we’ll ever hear the band play songs like “Crucifixtion Cruise”. The raw energy running through the band was absolutely palpable. Before the Pitchfork ratings, before the Spin articles, before the Bowdoin party pit, this was the quintessential Hold Steady show: loud, unapologetically drunk, and songs that make it acceptable to hug your neighbor, spill beer on your girlfriend, and hi-five the guitarist after a solo. Every person needs to experience this.
2. Spoon, Crooked Fingers, Fiery Furnaces; Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge MA; 7 April 2003
When did I realize that this show was going down as one of my all-time greats? Was it when Eleanor Friedberger danced next to me after the Furnaces’ set? Or maybe when it was when a bare-footed, mustacio’ed cowboy from Crooked Fingers was grinding with his upright bass in a way that would have made a porn star blush? Perhaps it was when Spoon played “Paper Tiger” and I nearly kissed Mort in a moment of lucid euphoria. Britt Daniel drank too much, instigated his band mates, and played the heck out of some incredibly catchy pop tunes. And we had a front row view for the mayhem. You know a show is worthy of a top spot when you put on the band’s albums on the ride home and rock out as hard as you did at the show.
3. Radiohead; Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA; 21 August 2003
Ho-hum. Just your average 2.5 hour setlist playing twenty-six of the greatest songs of our generation, I suppose. How good are Radiohead live? I was alone, sober, and in the 57th row of a sizable stadium, and the sight of Jonny Greenwood hunched over his axe, buzz-sawing his way through “Just” illicited The World’s Best Fist Pump Ever.
4. Colin Meloy; TT the Bear’s Place, Cambridge, MA; 2 February 2005
Coline Meloy (and please excuse the cliched fan-boy reference here) was clearly meant for the stage. He could have been a great actor or a stellar comedian. Hell, he could have lived in the 17th century and done dramatic Shakespearan readings and still gotten the chicks. Instead he decided to write a bunch of great songs and then play them live. Throughout the course of the evening, he led the crowd in handclaps to set the beat for “Los Angeles, I’m Yours”, played a never-before heard b-side from Her Majesty, and told jokes about Saadam Hussein effigies. He also finished out the set with the single greatest song I have ever seen live: a 10-minute rendition of “California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade”, in which Meloy single-handedly played the lead guitar, bass, and percussion at the same time.
5. Some Random Weezer Cover Band; TT the Bear’s Place, Cambridge, MA; 29 October 2006
Holy shit. Where to begin? In the history of never ending indie rock math equations, this may have been the strangest possible combination of factors. Ok, let’s try this out: shitty emo-pop band + dressing up exactly like Weezer * playing The Blue Album note for note / 12 people in attendence ^ DKraft and I turning TT’s into Stowe Inn 101 or Mayflizzle 4 by jumping around and yelling into the “speakers” ! getting the entire crowd from shoe-gazing foot-tappers to moshing banshees during “Say It Ain’t So” = The best $8 I ever spent. Honestly, if I had a lighter, it would have been blazing the whole 37 minutes.
