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guitarted
Chatterbox
Canada
487 Posts |
 Posted - 12/27/2004 : 3:56:28 PM
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I love great music live but I also enjoy great showmanship in a concert performance.
My mom bought a DVD of the Blue Man Group playing which inspired me to start this thread and ask about some cool things you guys have seen at a concert.
When I was 16, I saw blink 182 lift their drummer above the stage one a platform and spin him upside down while he played a drum solo.
During that same concert Green Day brought three random guys up from the crowd and had them play one of their songs. (Easy enough when the song is like 3 repeated power chords, but still something new to see).
(I haven't seen them in person but...)The Blue Man Group has all sorts of crazy gadgets they make their music from. I was watching this one tune where one of them is banging on this tube with drum sticks and the other two guys are pulling differnt tubes in and out to change the pitch.. pretty neat
please share yours... |
Tim, come to Canada! |
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rubylith
Fluffy-Esque
1915 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2004 : 4:37:52 PM
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True Story:
i saw tim reynolds like a year ago in New Jersey and he was so crazy. He let out an eternal burst of soul that blinded everyone in the room. The glow was blueish and it was God-like. His fingers then began to move so fast that his entire guitar burst into green flames. From then I thought "Whoa" but then, out from behind him, The Pagan Underdogs came to life, breathing and spewing insesent communication in a melodic form. The whole place was going nuts when all of a sudden Tim slowed down and finally stopped his precious song. He went up to the microphone and said "Mind Control"...
Man that was crazy. |
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2004 : 5:20:16 PM
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| i saw a guy smash some guy in the audience in the face with his guitar. it ruled. |
death to false metal. |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 03:07:45 AM
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ONE WORD........GWAR
(guess that's 3 words if you count the "one word" part, anyway, GWAR) |
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy         
"THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS A CRUEL AND SHALLOW MONEY TRENCH-- A LONG PLASTIC HALLWAY WHERE THIEVES AND PIMPS RUN FREE AND GOOD MEN DIE LIKE DOGS. THERE'S ALSO A NEGATIVE SIDE..." -Hunter S. Thompson |
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guitarted
Chatterbox
Canada
487 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 03:46:50 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by dan p.
i saw a guy smash some guy in the audience in the face with his guitar. it ruled.
I once saw a shitty opening band singer get hit in the face with someone's shoe
...now that's true hatred when you are willing to go home one shoe short |
Tim, come to Canada! |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 04:02:52 AM
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I started to think a little more about this and aside from GWAR I have actually seen alot of great shows with many different kinds of showmanship. Showmanship connotates "a memorable show or performance" and as I sit here and brainstorm these are the ones that immediately come to mind. Some amazing, some bizarre, but GOOD? You be the judge.
Band members one by one burning their pubic hair off onstage during the show.....Lubricated Goat(by the way, it smelled fucking horrible in the room for the entire show, almost as unbearable as that fucking....)
....Idiot setting his hair on fire with a candle at the LA Knitting Factory Tim Reynolds show......Oh WAIT! That was ME!!! DOAH!!!
An actual cock being nailed to a plank live onstage....Genitorturers
Band setting a band member on fire with no way to put him out..(forgot the name of this band, but they were banned from the 9:30 Club forever because we had to have security run onstage with fire extinguishers. Very BAD scene!)
Lead singer during the encore drops his pants and takes a shit center stage.(As if that wasn't bad enuf, we were the headliner and I had to go out there immediately after it happened to set up the stage for our set. I told the guy from the club "I'm not cleaning that SHIT up!!" and I didn't. Our singer avoided that part of the stage for the entire set. It may have been the only show where he wasn't center stage for the entire performance over my 2 yrs with them.)..El Duce from The Pagans opening for The Meatmen
riding a Harley across the stage....Judas Priest
leadsinger onstage with 2 broken arms in those bizarre casts with the poles that come up from your waist, that hold your arms up and out and away from your sides......The Cows(one of my all-TIMe fave bands and live acts, also the God Bullies would be on that list and I once saw them BOTH, LIVE at the same show with a crowd of 13. It may have been one of the most amazing concert events of my life, and sadly there was no one else there to witness it)
Kurt Cobain....anyTIMe he took the stage...enuf said!
Red Hot Chili Peppers whenever they take a stage!!!
Ministry whenever they take the stage!!!
Marilyn Manson....ENUF said.....
Al Green live at the 9:30 Club brought literal tears to my eyes, AMAZING!(the only other show to ever do this was Down from the Mountain at Carnegie Hall)
Tim Reynolds onstage in a diaper with Puke Matrix OR just Tim Reynolds onstage with the Invisible Pagan Underdogs
Chris Whitley continuing to play completely acoustic with no PA for vocals by candlelight when the power went out at one of the clubs we played. It may have been one of the most beautiful concert moments I have ever witnessed. The club was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop and it was like you were sitting in your bedroom with Chris Whitley playing only to you. NO AMPLIFICATION whatsoever. PURE CHRIS WHITLEY!!!
Bass player attacking a member of security(not at the 9:30 Club)in the barricade with his bass guitar from the stage. Knocked him unconscious..........Daniel Ash/Love & Rockets(formerly of Bauhaus)
The first TIMe I saw Janes Addiction.....when they were opening for Love & Rockets(different show, not the one mentioned above)before even their first album had come out. I remember hitchiking to that show in a blizzard. The show had been sold out for weeks and I was not going to miss it. When I got there, there were maybe 100 of the 800 expected. Because I had gotten there so early I was front row for one of my faves Love and Rockets. There was this opening band I had never heard of and by 1/2 way thru their set they were my FAVE band of the moment. So much fucking NRG!!! They stole the show, which wasn't hard since after my brutal trek for L&R they came out, played literally 3 songs, and then the bass player(again Daniel Ash) got so pissed at the sound he leaned down and handed me his guitar mid-song(which I quickly passed to the big, giant, mean looking roadie who came running across the stage at me, although it crossed my mind for a split second to try and run with it LOL)and walked offstage never to return. The guitar player played for another minute and half and then threw his guitar down in disgust and walked off and 30 seconds later the drummer, who was still playing, threw up his sticks and walked off. We were sure they would come back, they never did, but at that point I really didn't care because I had discovered my new FAVE band. I even got to meet them after the show and tell them how I thought they were gonna be HUGE! They laughed as did my friends who I had met there who all told me I was crazy and that "THEY SUCKED!!". They couldn't believe I liked them. I told them all that nite, "You watch, those guys are gonna be HUGE, mark my words". A few weeks later their first album came out and my friends who worked at the record store I worked at(same ones from the concert)bought me said vinyl lp and CD for Xmas almost as a joke, as if to say "See Fluffy, we told you these guys sucked!". I loved it. Much to their dismay they had to hear me play it in the record store all the TIMe. HEHE A year later "Nothing Shocking" came out and the rest is history as they say. Side note, all my friends who hated them that nite ended up loving them after "Nothing Shocking"(as I laughed to myself, "I told ya so!!)
Lead singer with his back to the audience for literally the ENTIRE show......Jesus and Mary Chain
Iggy Pop at the old 9:30 Club with Andy McCoy from Hanoi Rocks playing guitar to a Sold Out crowd. The most sold out we had ever been.
Oh, and Iggy Pop carving his chest up with a broken bottle live onstage.
Terrible Ted Nugent swinging from PA stack to PA stack on a rope wearing a loin cloth.
Watching Billy Cobham play drums with Glass Managerie.
Frank Zappa conducting.
Ahmet & Dweezil Zappa's 37 song medley of classic rock riffs all strung together. TRULY AMAZING! I still hope to get a bootleg of this one day. I asked Dweezil if he was ever going to release it and he laughed and said "Do you know the copyright problems we would have with licensing all those songs in there? Maybe one day a live version will show up as a b-side or hidden track." Much to my dismay, it has not. I should prolly call Dweezil and remind him I'm waiting.
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick with a six-necked guitar(and PLAYING IT!)
Ice-T with his speed metal band Body Count.
Ian McKaye of Minor Threat/Fugazi
The kid at a Pantera show who stage-dived off the PA stack into the crowd, only the crowd didn't catch him and he broke his back....very sad.
Black Eyed Peas...the first TIMe I saw them live, long before they were huge. For a rap band they put on the most energetic, ferocious, intense show I had ever seen. I compared them that nite to the best Nirvana performance. I told this to their tour manager who subsequently must have told the band my critique because one by one the band came by to meet me and shake my hand. LOL Sadly, I have seen them a number of TIMes since and they never have recaptured that "rock & roll circus" atmosphere of the first TIMe I saw them. I went there expecting just another rap band and boy was I wrong!(Happily)
and lastly...Ashlee Simpson's "HOe-down" on SNL!!!
(......and did I mention GWAR!!!!!) |
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy
"THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS A CRUEL AND SHALLOW MONEY TRENCH-- A LONG PLASTIC HALLWAY WHERE THIEVES AND PIMPS RUN FREE AND GOOD MEN DIE LIKE DOGS. THERE'S ALSO A NEGATIVE SIDE..." -Hunter S. Thompson |
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Evergreen
Yak Addict
960 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 07:23:57 AM
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Cool story about Janes. You got to meet Perry and Mr. Perkins? Awesome! I'm still trying to get over the penis nailed to the plank image .
And speaking of Perry, I saw Pornos for Pyros at Great Woods (now Tweeter Center) in MA. 1/2 way thru the show their stage dancer Pandora was parading around on stilts in a huge gay 90's type of dress. She got too close to fire from the pyrotechnics and her dress went up in flames and caught the stage on fire. Pandora went down, the place went silent. Stephen Perkins was the first one to get to Pandora, got her dress extinguished with a rug that was on stage. Someone else got the rest of the fire out. The band carried Pandora off stage. The whole audience still silent. About 5-10 minutes later Perry came out and told us for the first time ever he was at a loss for words, they took Pandora to the hospital, the cords were burned up to the sound equipment and he hoped we didn't mind if he and the guitar player did some acoustic stuff. They sat down and played for another 40 minutes or so while a couple guys were changing cords and scrambling around the stage. Following, the whole band came back and played awhile longer. Crazy, but cool to see how understanding the whole crowd was when they had to cut the show short. I may have told this story here before but it still amazes me how it all unfolded. All very surreal
Another time I saw Pearl Jam stop playing in the middle of a song (that'll get everyones attention)to give security shit for roughing up people in the crowd too much. Jeff telling security "they aren't causing any harm they just want to mosh. I'm standing up here watching you be unnecessary assholes. Lighten up or we stop playing till you do". |
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 11:32:03 AM
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| my cousin just saw gwar with dying fetus opening for them not all that long ago. i wa going to go, but then i realized i like neither gwar nor dying fetus. espcially gwar. but ESPECIALLY dying fetus. |
death to false metal. |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2004 : 9:30:45 PM
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Evergreens P4P story reminded me of a similar story from 9:30 Club which was the ultimate example of showmanship, much like CW's continuing in a powerless club.
Well whe we first opened the new 9:30 Club we had lots of problems with the city and our electricity. Don't remember exactly when it happened but at some point the city turned off our grid with out asking or notifying us. Yo La Tengo was the band that was supposed to perform that nite. We worked all day to get the power back on, but the city was not working with us, so we had to cancel the show. In the spirit of not letting the fans down, Yo La Tengo played a set acoustic on the sidewalk outside our club to the people who had not gotten the word the show was cancelled and made the trek to the club. It was a genius moment in Rock and Roll for me. Something that reminded me not all bands are only in it for the buck, but some actually do care about their fans and wouldn't want to disappoint them even if it meant playing on the sidewalk in the cold. Hats off to Yo La Tengo.
Similar to guitarded's Green Day story, Billy Corgan did a spoken work show at our club.....I must preface this, I am a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan but not big Billy fan, so I went to work not expecting much and certainly not expecting to LOVE the show and discover a whole new respect for a man I had come to despise.(Personal issues I won't go into LOL)The show was amazing. Saw a personal side of him that really appealed to me. He was funny and seemed very comfortable in his own skin. He did a Q&A with the audience and nothing was off limits. He was witty and thought provoking and truly engaging. It seems innacuous enuf described here but you had to be there. He captivated the whole room. It was truly amazing and very sublime. At one point a girl told him how he had inspired her to take up guitar and he asked her to come to the stage and play one of her songs for him and the audience. She had a hard TIMe holding back tears and didn't in the end. It was beautiful. The moment was, I didn't like the song so much. LOL But for him to do that spoke volumes about who is as a person and how he feels about his fans. He also brought someone up and had them play one of his songs and that was quite funny. He really interacted well with the whole room. Well like I said, it sounds trite here as I read it but it was an amazing event to witness first-hand and certainly quite unique. |
Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy
"THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS A CRUEL AND SHALLOW MONEY TRENCH-- A LONG PLASTIC HALLWAY WHERE THIEVES AND PIMPS RUN FREE AND GOOD MEN DIE LIKE DOGS. THERE'S ALSO A NEGATIVE SIDE..." -Hunter S. Thompson |
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KevinLesko
Alien Abductee
3712 Posts |
Posted - 12/30/2004 : 02:08:13 AM
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Agreed, Awesome stories everyone.
I just saw Green Day last month, and they did the same thing, except they liked the guitarist so much that Billy Joe told him to keep his guitar for kicking so much ass! That's pretty cool.
Flaming Lips: Wayne making an entrance in a giant bubble from outer space. Not to mention having about 20 men on stage in fluffy animal outfits.
Tool: I almost came to tears just because they stated to play, and because they rule THAT much.
Peter Gabriel: introducing Tony Levin to the audience with the most sincerity I've ever heard.
TR: Screaming his Pledge of Allegiance at Winston's Beach Club this past Aug.
TR w/ Dave and Friends: Going to his knees, and soloing with his teeth during a cover of Sly and the Family Stones "Thank You" which brought the entire Staple Center's crowd to its feet.
Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten: each reaching over and plucking a random chord on each others instuments, and then solo'ing off these random plucks. My discription is doing this no justice.
Victor Wooten solo: Levatating while soloing.
Audioslave: Watching Tom Morello be the guitar monster that he is.
Chris Whitley: playing to a very small crowd once at the coach house, but saying fuckit, I came to play, and I'm going to play.
quote:
Chris Whitley continuing to play completely acoustic with no PA for vocals by candlelight when the power went out at one of the clubs we played. It may have been one of the most beautiful concert moments I have ever witnessed. The club was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop and it was like you were sitting in your bedroom with Chris Whitley playing only to you. NO AMPLIFICATION whatsoever. PURE CHRIS WHITLEY!!!
That sounds so beautiful, I wish I could have witnessed that.
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god
Kevin |
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guitarted
Chatterbox
Canada
487 Posts |
Posted - 12/30/2004 : 5:10:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by KevinLesko
I just saw Green Day last month, and they did the same thing, except they liked the guitarist so much that Billy Joe told him to keep his guitar for kicking so much ass! That's pretty cool.
he did that for our guy too i just didn't mention it hahaha. I saw the guy later leaving the concert and noticed it was just a shitty korean squire. |
Tim, come to Canada! |
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thomasode
Yak Addict
565 Posts |
Posted - 12/30/2004 : 6:18:21 PM
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| I just saw GWAR about a month ago. and has anyone ever heared of GG Allin? |
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KevinLesko
Alien Abductee
3712 Posts |
Posted - 12/30/2004 : 8:09:14 PM
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quote:
and has anyone ever heared of GG Allin?
Isn't that the guy who plays guitar for the SNL band? |
god
Kevin |
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Arthen
Alien Abductee
USA
4845 Posts |
Posted - 12/30/2004 : 9:48:04 PM
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Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, about seventeen people on stage, playing great music, while he had a broken leg after his incident with a bull.
DMB playing The Dreaming Tree, Pig, and Spoon all in the same show.
Driving 7 hours from Sacramento, CA to Eugene, OR to see TR play from two feet away. One of the best nights of my life. Then getting paid back three years later we he showed up about seven minutes away from where I live.
Getting backstage passes during a concert from Sean Kelly of The Samples in San Francisco.
Kevin you took the words out of my mouth about Vic Wooten. His solo act was amazing and the magic was well done. Same with the Flecktones, any time they play they rule.
BNL improving songs on stage, hilarious.
Weird Al Yankovic!!! Guilty pleasure, but puts on one hell of an entertaining show.
Keller Williams. |
Steve Hackett: "I'm my own opening act, you see."
Tim (before "Faceoff"): "Peace, love....and SEX!"
cbenc41@hotmail.com |
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GuitarGuy305
Alien Abductee
USA
2007 Posts |
Posted - 12/31/2004 : 10:48:35 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by KevinLesko
quote:
and has anyone ever heared of GG Allin?
Isn't that the guy who plays guitar for the SNL band?
G E Smith.
Adam |
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Oozle
Chatterbox
USA
108 Posts |
Posted - 12/31/2004 : 10:58:06 AM
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Most of my favorite memories are from the old 9:30 club where i had the opportunity to meet quite a few incredible all time favorites of mine. Um, Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols (NEVER mention nancy lol). the Damned and singing Happy Talk with Captian Sensible. Rankin Roger of the English Beat ( I spent 2 days showing him around DC, GREAT time!). Jellyfish after a show in Baltimore, they came out and sat at the bar. A month or so later, another jellyfish show in Baltimore at another venue, they saw me in the crowd and pulled me onstage with them. Fishbone is an incredible show anytime but in Flordia, i had an asthma attack and they stopped the show to make sure I was ok. I've seen them many times, but taking them with us after a show in DC to a club was really cool. Of course TR, three incredible shows so far. Two solo and one Dave and friends. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy put on the most incredible show at the Ram's Head in Annapolis with a teensy stage and a huge band, LOL. They all hung around after the show and talked with those of us still there. Didn't get to meet him, but Meatloaf put on a great VH1 storytellers show, very personable and interactive. Ummmmm.... My best friend lived in the same house with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters/Nirvana, and I pretty much lived there for about a year. Many others I can't think of right now..... I went to so many shows at the old 9:30 I was there pretty much every night for a couple years.
These people who had brought me in with thier incredible music and showmanship and (for the most part, there are always exceptions lol) and showed me they were also incredible people personally. |
ren :) |
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Oozle
Chatterbox
USA
108 Posts |
Posted - 12/31/2004 : 1:27:33 PM
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| gg allin was def a showman. LOL died as hard as he lived. Ummmmm... jabbers and murder junkies if i'm not mistakin. |
ren :) |
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thomasode
Yak Addict
565 Posts |
Posted - 12/31/2004 : 2:19:01 PM
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This guy was seriousely crazy. |
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Good Showmanship
