Reply #14: Best concert was Bruce Springsteen in Chicago ,Sept. '78 (just edging out Bruce in '75) [View All]

[abq e streeter]

The Uptown Theater....The best live band who ever to set foot on stage to play a rock and roll show, and absolutely at the top of their game. Four hours long and the entire crowd screaming for more after all the encores were over and the roadies were already moving equipment off the stage.

Honorable mentions: Stones in Denver 1994 (Mile High Stadium), just for the sheer spectacle of it, and for the fact that a friend was playing (and still does) as a sideman for them (he got us the tickets), and it was surreal seeing him up there with them even though , obviously, that's why we were there in the first place.

Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros at the Metro in Chicago in 2000. The power and charisma of this man was almost overwhelming. Mitch Ryder in 78 and 79 had a similar effect on me; just in a couple of small clubs in Chicago; maybe the most powerful singer I've ever seen.

Bob Dylan and The Band...opening night of Dylan's comeback tour in '74 at the Chicago Stadium...musically brilliant (it was Dylan and the Band together; not a case of one opening for the other) and an electric atmosphere; a feeling that this was a historic cultural occasion and then the music lived up to everything the anticipation had built up to.

P.S. Glad you liked the Chicks. Did a show with them, before Natalie came aboard (and several years before they became famous), in front of probably about 100 people at the New Mexico State Fair in '92, and want to let you know that at least back then (and I suspect still), Martie and Emily (and Laura, eventually replaced by Natalie) were the sweetest, nicest, most down to earth people you'd ever want to meet.

Also gotta mention Alice Cooper in Galesburg Ill. in 1970 at my college's homecoming dance(!)...Such an incredibly tight band and doing a show that was, at the time, so utterly shocking and innovative and unique. The massive amounts of hashish in preparation for the evening probably enhanced the experience somewhat too.