Concerts Again

Recently I had four concerts very crammed in together:  Metallica on 5/10 at M&T Bank Stadium, The Obsessed at the Ottobar in Baltimore (5/20), TOOL at the EagleBank Arena (5/24), and Iron Maiden (with Ghost BC opening) at Jiffy Lube Live on June 3.  My brother Matt went with me to Metallica and Iron Maiden, and paid for my ticket too – thank you!   I commented on Metallica earlier, I’ll comment on concerts in general now.

By now I’ve seen over 200 shows since the first in 1984.  Here are my general thoughts and impressions.

Alone?  My ideal companion is my brother.  We see as many shows together as we can.  Occasionally he’ll see Marillion, Transiberian Orchestra, or Jethro Tull by himself (or with his family), but generally we go together.  Now his kids are getting older, they can appreciate shows, so sometimes they come along.  Our parents did not like our type of music and didn’t go to concerts at all.  They were in San Francisco for their honeymoon in 1967 and did not visit Haight Ashbury.  So Matt is conscientious about including his kids – IF they are interested. 

On the other hand, if I’m the only one I know who wants to see a show, I’ll go alone.  All three Tool shows I went to by myself.   If I depended on everyone else, I’d miss a lot of fantastic shows.  It just requires more logistics in getting to and from the show.  But I don’t mind. 

Ages ago, December 2000, I was on the fence about seeing Wishbone Ash.   Andy Powell was the only remaining original member of the band, whose peak years were the early 1970s, including at least one headlining show at Merriweather Post Pavilion on the Wishbone IV tour.   A Namorada Brasileira did not want to go, so it was just me.  Finally I decided, “f**k it, I’ll go.”  Brilliant decision, because not only was Powell on top form, his #2 guitarist, Mark Birch, was also excellent, and the set featured many of their best songs.  To this date I’ve seen the band several times and they’re always fun to watch.    

The Asshole.   Every concert audience has at least one – hopefully the crowd is so large you don’t notice him.  At ‘Maiden it was a guy pushing his way up to the front.  At the UFO show it was a clown yelling for “Rock Bottom” between literally every song, yet “Rock Bottom” is a song the band is guaranteed to play, probably in the encore.  Basically it’s someone who isn’t truly enjoying himself unless he’s ruining it for everyone else.  Alcohol is almost always a factor. 

Generally weed makes the audience more docile and mellow, so the Asshole is almost never present at a Dead show.  In 1992 we had to fight the entire audience on the field for Metallica & Guns N’Roses, yet the audience on the field for Grateful Dead, the same venue, RFK, was cool and mellow.  The sad thing is that musically, I much prefer Metallica and GNR over the Dead; but the Dead audience is far more enjoyable to watch the show with. 

[As an aside:  the nastiest thing about mean drunks is that they KNOW they are mean drunks and they STILL drink anyway.  I say let out all the nonviolent drug offenders – which they should do anyway – and lock up the serial DUIs and drunk abusers.  Prohibition showed us that banning alcohol itself is waste of time, but we should do something about the worst abusers.]

Moshers.  A subset of this.  I don’t think all moshers are drunk assholes, however, too many of them are.  Occasionally the crowd is packed too tight to allow this to happen; also, you can’t do this up in the seated areas.  Other times, the mosh pit is thankfully further back from the stage, allowing those of us who paid to see the BAND PLAY can do so instead of fending off moshers crashing into them. 

At the Black Sabbath concert at Richie Coliseum in 1994, the moshers were out in force for Morbid Angel, somewhat subdued for Motorhead, but when Black Sabbath came on, they were downright obedient, everyone intent and focused on worshipping Tony Iommi.  As it should be.

It was only at a Danzig show in 1994 that I “accepted” the moshing – but still moved away from it. 

“Spinners” are the Dead show equivalent of moshers.  They’re generally SUPER HIGH or dosing and spin away, but generally on the arena concourse, and they don’t bang into each other.  Or it’s the guy on LSD who thinks he’s an amoeba.   Dude at the ELP show in ’86!   WOOHOO!

SHAQ.   If there’s an NBA player in the audience, chances are he’ll make his way to the very front of the audience, right up to the stage, and block everyone else’s view.  To be fair, Shaq is not expressly intent on doing so.  He wants to see the band like everyone else.   He can see over everyone else, but no one else can see over him.  “You make a better door than a window.”

T-shirts Revisited.  The ideal concert t-shirt has the tour dates on the back, and some variant of the latest album cover, NOT a slavish replication thereof, on the front.  I’m conflicted – as I was at the TOOL show – when the optimal front design did NOT have tour dates on the back, whereas the tour-dates-on-back shirt had a dull and boring front design, in this case identical to a shirt I already had.  Ultimately I have to decide:  which shirt looks the best?  And feel free to abstain altogether if none of the shirts are worthwhile. 

Personally, I don’t like highly complex designs.  At the AC/DC show (Rock or Bust), I chose a Back in Black variant.  The others were a confusing mess.  Many of Maiden’s recent designs were a bit too busy.  The same was true of last year’s Black Sabbath shirts.

The other issue is lines.  I missed several songs of the Sabbath set just waiting in line for shirts, although I was fortunately able to hear them.   Then when you get to the front of the line, the shirt you want is out of stock.  And yes, this still happens at a show that’s the first on a tour. 

Kids.    Some people bring their kids to the show.  I have mixed feelings about this.  Very small children are unlikely to enjoy themselves.  Probably 8 or 9 is the youngest.  Moreover, you can’t expect the audience to behave itself simply because you brought your kids, so rampant foul language and possible drug use (usually just marijuana, and LSD and shrooms are orally consumed anyway) may compromise the experience.  I saw a couple bring their 8 year old boy, who did NOT appear to be really enjoying himself.  We’ll see if he changes his tune when he talks to his peers: (“you saw Iron Maiden on their last tour?? Cool!” “Yeah, whatever”). 

What’s That Smell?  You know what I mean:  either sativa or indica.   Sometimes you smell it and can’t identify who is responsible.  Though at Dead and Phish shows, the smell is almost ubiquitous.  

What’s He Doing Here?   I saw one guy at the Maiden show who appeared to be alone and none too excited about the show.  Maybe he was extremely stoned.   For the most part, the audience appears to be very much excited.  Hopefully not expressing that excitement by moshing.

Basic Format & Variations.   Generally the show is at night, with an opening act playing for 30-45 minutes, a brief break, and the headliner playing one 90 minute set, including the encore.  Checking Setlist Wiki, I see that Metallica has played many shows with multiple encores.  The encore is usually 1-3 songs, often the most popular, but sometimes a wildcard.  The Dead play two sets, both 90 minutes, with or without an opening act.  Clash of the Titans, 1991, had three headliners, Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth, each playing 45 minutes instead of 90 minutes.

Setlist.  I’ve noted this before:  most bands play the same set (list of songs) every night of the tour.  TOOL and Blue Oyster Cult vary this with one wildcard slot per set.  The Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic and other jam bands play a different set each night.  In the Rush documentary some fan bragged at seeing Rush 40 times.  That means multiple shows on the same tour:  when each night’s set is exactly the same.  Moreover, Rush make it a point to play their songs verbatim as they are on the albums.  Clutch and Pearl Jam are the only non-jam bands I’m aware of which play different sets each night.   Neil Fallon said, “sometimes even I don’t know what we’ll be playing…but it would be too boring playing the same songs each night.” 

“The Whole Album”.  That’s been a recent thing.  Judas Priest played all of British Steel; Rush played all of Moving Pictures; Jethro Tull played all of Aqualung.  Iron Maiden played a set of material from the first four albums (Iron Maiden, Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind) exclusively.  With the exception of Tull, which played the songs out of sequence and alternating with non-album tracks, these bands played the entire album from start to finish in the same sequence as the original album, which really takes the drama out of the equation.  (Yes, I’m the guy who doesn’t consult Setlist Wiki before the show.  I want to be surprised.) 

With regard to Maiden’s 4 album deal, the problem with that is that when it comes to those songs, it’s always the same songs, e.g. the only song from Killers is “Wrathchild”.  As a practical matter that meant they put “Phantom of the Opera” back in the set – though they’ve played it before with Bruce Dickinson.   In Rush’ case, since side A of MP gets heavy play anyway, it was adding side B (“Camera Eye”, “Witch Hunt”, and “Vital Signs”) to the set. 

Ideally the band should add in songs which have never been played live: “The Necromancer” (Rush), “Thrill of it All” (Black Sabbath), “Strange World” (Iron Maiden), etc.  Rob Halford joked about playing “Run of the Mill” again, but they did add “Never Satisfied” back in recently.  Priest’s early albums have a much different feel which I – and many Priest fans – love. 

Having said all that, the bands I’m referring to are mostly older, and Facebook shows us older rock stars seemingly dropping like flies.  Sabbath had to tour with Tommy Clufetos on drums because Bill Ward was unfit to tour (and has been for decades).  I appreciate that they tour at all, so I can’t give them too much grief for unimaginative setlists.   Keep up the good work, as long as you can, and we’ll keep seeing you, as long as we can.