In an effort to get to know the listening styles, and live music attending habits of fellow moggers, I thought this would be a good time to share where you have seen good live music around the world. For me, it's been constrained primarily to the US. Regardless, I've been to a number of cities around the US and seen some decent bands in the dark and dingy night clubs of America. Sometimes these shows were even in the day light hours!
Feel free to share the cities, location, and venues you most adore or remember.
Pittsburgh, PA - Hot Water Music/Alkaline Trio, Club Laga
Phillidelphia, Lancester, & Hershey, PA
Baltimore - Fletcher's - Luna
Washington DC - 9:30 Club, too many to count
Annapolis, MD - Ram'sHead
Columbus, OH, Akron, OH - Clinic
Austin - SXSW - '06 & '07
New York, NY - too many venues and shows to count but Bowery Ballroom was a favorite of mine
Brooklyn, Harlem, Poughkeepsie, Long Island, NY & Hoboken, Rutherford, & Sayreville, NJ
Wilmington, DE
Los Angeles/Hollywood - House of Blues
San Diego, CA
Noddingham, UK - Louis XIV & The Rakes
Virginia Beach - Millencolin & 10 Ft Pole
Boston, MA - Editors (fantastic live!)
Portland, ME - Bon Iver @ Space
Where have you gone and been to see live music?
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Aside Greece (duh!), I've see music at London (Hyde Park, festival, best act Queens of the Stone Age) and Astoria (Art Brut), Dublin (Malahide castle, Arctic Monkeys) and Madrid (just a huge space outside the city, festival, best acts: Jesus & Mary Chain, Arcade Fire, Scissor Sisters, PJ Harvey).
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Oh, and Paris, La Maroquinerie, Blood Red Shoes.
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Virenze, Italy - Teatro Communale - Tom Waits
Atlanta, GA - The Point (too many bands to count)
- Variety Playhouse - Flaming Lips, The Residents
- Earthshaking Music - Chris Cutler
- The Star Bar - Uz Jmse Doma
- The Earl - Suicide and more vands than I can count
- The Omni - Phish halloween Show 1996
Philly - The Electric Factory - A Tribe Called Quest (last show, I think)
- The Cheswick - John McLaughlin with Dennis Chambers on drums
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Mainly confined to Uk(most major venues,most festivals)
Two or Three overseas. Please don't ask me to name individual groups or artists I'll be here all night!
I think the most impressive recently has to be Muse at Wembley-as seen on the H.A.A.R.P DVD
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Wow. Muse played Wembley? I didn't even know. I'm really intrigued w/ the venues of the overseas shows.
Contra - seeing Waits in Italy must have been a treat. His show is incredible - anytime, anywhere.
Anna - you've been everywhere in Europe! Wish I could do that again. I agree that SS are indeed fun live but haven't caught Arcade Fire OR J&MC - it just wouldn't be like the old days. Saw PJ Harvey at a festival in something like '95 but only remember her playing "Down By The Water"
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But but but I still have to pay respects to Berlin, Amsterdam and Scottland :)
Of course you can do it again! Get it in your schedule and take it one trip at a time (that's what I do). :)
J&MC were very good, and I didn't feel like it was a we-want-your-money kind of reunion (regardless if it was or not) :)
Btw, Editors are always fantastic live, are they not?
I am hoping I will see Clinic at some point.
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Clinic was a great triple bill - Apples in Stereo and The Standard (way under-appreciated band here in the states who can't keep a record contract to save their career). That's another good topic - best openers.
Editors are amazing live - huge, epic sound. They totally blew away the openers, Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV when I saw 'em months ago.
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Eric I came to this post thinking it was going to be about places (like clubs or venues) that we have seen music. I wish my list was as long as others, but Minnesota is where I have seen almost all my music shows. Outside of here, there are two:1. Chicago and 2. Fargo
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PA - Phillidelphia, Harrisburg
OH - Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Cuyahoga Falls
KY - Newport
NY - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Poughkeepsie
NJ - Asbury Park
SC - Hilton Head, Charleston
GA - Savannah, Atlanta, Athens
NC - Atlantic Beach
MA - Cambridge
IL - Chicago
IN - Indiannapolis
FL - Jacksonville
Ireland - Dublin, Sligo, Galway
aaand...I that's all I can remember off the top of my head.
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That's quite a variety - impressive!
Kevin - tell me more about the clubs in Minni - are there a lot? Is there a venue for each stage of a band's career (ie baby band, developing, mid-level, pretty big, superstar)? Are there any defunct clubs you've been to? Do they extend outside of the city?
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Wow, lets see............
We have a lot of small venues to go see smaller bands. Most of these bands would be of your local variety, but a few of these smaller bars attract bigger names. The ones I like the most are -
1. Turf Club - Great, Great bar.
2. Poodle Bar - Big rockabilly venue, Vibro Champs play there a lot
3. Liquor Lyles - Saw Brian Setzer there, so close you could touch him
4. Cedar Cultural Center - Saw Billy Bragg there, incredible
5. 400 Bar - Saw Golden Smog play a week after the Promise Ring. One of the best weeks of shows I ever saw
6. Varsity Theater - Right on campus at the U of M so they get a lot of smaller college radio bands to come play. Saw the Shout Out Louds there, such a great time.
From here you have some of the bigger venues, ones that attract bigger name bands.
1. Triple Rock Social Club - Punk bar owned by the boys in Dillinger Four. Highlight here was the filming of a NOFX video which I got to be in
2. First Ave. - Probably the biggest spot in Minnesota to play. I can not even count the amount of shows I have seen there but the two stand outs have to be the Pogues and Janes Addiction.
3. The Myth - realitivly new, have not seen a show there but am planning on going to see Motorhead when they come
4. The Orpheum - Of which I am sure almost every city has a concert hall named this. They have musicals here as well as music acts. One of the only places that have rows of seats, and sitting for a concert is sometimes rather fun. Wilco and Belle and Sebastian are the two best shows I have seen there.
The Fine Line - Another place that you get to sit and watch the shows, added plus in my book. They bring in a lot of VH1 type of acts, but for some odd reason they brought the brittish rap act The Streets in once and I loved every moment of it.
Then you have your large venues, and those consist of two places.
1. Target Center - Terrible when it comes to sound, but have seen quite a few shows there. Three shows that stand out are Sting, the Cure and the Beastie Boys with A Tribe Called Quest
2. Roy Wilkins/ Excel Energy Center - Great place to see bands once they tore down the old and put up our new hockey stadium. Got to see Nirvana play there, happy to say I got to see them.
We have outdoor venues as well, these mostly are for big shows like the Vans Warped tour.
1. Harriet Island - Have seen the warped tour there as well as many of the free shows that get put on during our Taste of Minnesota
2. MN Zoo - Great thing about our zoo here is that they have music at the zoo and they get some pretty good bands to come play. A few years ago I saw Ween play there, and it was incredible. Outside seating in a natural amplitheater........doesnt get any better than that.
As for places that have closed, there are 3 that I miss a lot.
1. Foxfire Lounge - Place to go see punk bands and tickets were never more than 7 bucks. Didnt matter who was playing, and their menu was awesome. Stand outs there include Face to Face, Get Up Kids, Reggie and the Full Effect and many others.
2. The Quest - For a while this was First Ave.'s main competition when it came to getting acts, and they almost put First Ave. out of business. Then there was a fire, a promise of re-opening and it hasnt opened again. Such a great place to see a show, never a bad seat in the house. Added plus was an on site camera crew who would record the bands and play the concerts on the televisions in house. Gotta pee, can still watch while doing so. I have seen a lot of bands here, but one Blink 182 show seemed to take the cake for me.
3. Ground Zero - Another First Ave. type of venue and not really sure why they stopped bringing in music. Used to go there a lot, then they stopped having music acts all together. Now it is more of a club, but every Wednesday night is Bondage a go go. Get your leather and come on in for a good time........oh, favorite show here had to be ALL.
God that was a lot of typing and hopefully a good description of the music scene here in MN. I do have to add I have seen a show in Kansas, drove to go see the final performance of the Get Up Kids before they broke up. Lucero opened and it was an all around awesome time.
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what I wouldn't give for a rockabilly club nearby! oy. being that this is staid old Connecticut we have few intimate venues that offer non-mainstreem acts. mostly cover bands cranking out Free Bird and Brown Eyed Girl. However I have beared witness to Keith Richards sitting in impromtu with a house band at The Georgetown Saloon, which was quite a treat (he lives in a nearby town). And saw Jose Feliciano there too. We get a lot of rock retirees here. Also we have the Ridgefield Playhouse which attracts some good stuff...I saw Richard Thompson and Rufis Wainwright there, but everyone was home at 9pm sharp.
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Even better is the fact that my friend drums for the band the Vibro Champs. Nothing like being on the guest list, especially for the Brian Setzer show
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Come ON you're killin me here!
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gotta brag when you can!
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First Ave. and Ground Zero both sound great and what a name for a club like Liquor Lyles! Was it Minn. where Warped and Ozzfest collaborated a few years ago (more like 6 or 7 years ago)?
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Kind of, the Warped Tour seems to wander around these parts and they head to different venues in order to get the show done. This year it was Catebury Park, then it was the Metrodome parking lot for a while and the year it was with Ozzfest it was in Somerset Wisconsin which is only a 40 minute drive from here. I was at the warped tour that year and it was crazy. Great line up on both sides, and it was funny how the two crowds did their best to stay apart.