Random Concert Memories Part I (1991-1999)
I’m not that big a music fan. I don’t own a stereo or an I-pod, I hardly ever download music. If I ever feel like listening to music, I’ll stream songs on You Tube, which is a pretty fucking lazy way I must admit.
That considered, it’s actually surprising when I think of the pure volume of live acts I’ve seen in the last decade. Thanks to frequenting the Big Day Out every year from 1999 to 2004, and being lucky enough to attend Live 8 in London – I’ve seen over 100 bands perform live. Here are a selection of random concert memories.
Before writing about the later music festivals, there are two concerts I attended in 1991 that deserve a mention.
Billy Ray Cyrus:
You didn’t misread, I saw Billy Ray in concert. A mate’s parents were heading to the concert with friends of theirs, and at the last minute the second couple couldn’t make it due to illness – so those two tickets were passed onto my mate and myself. I was 13 at the time, and I honestly can’t tell you why I accepted the offer. My colleague and I were two pimply faced teens in a sea of frustrated housewives, and we spent the first hour of the concert sitting in fear. After the shock of watching middle aged women throw their underwear at the mulleted red neck had subsided, my mate started to make armpit farting noises along with the music, much to my delight. This was subsequently halted a song later when a scary looking woman with bottle blonde permed hair in the row in front of us, turned around and verbally abused us for ruining the Billy Ray experience. Twas a strange night, and I think it might have fucked me up for life.
Cliff Richard:
Later that year I got my hands on another “fantastic” ticket. Will’s next door neighbor had won two tickets to a Cliff Richard concert, but couldn’t go because of illness – so the tickets were passed onto Will, and by proxy, myself. It was my second “winning” ticket in under six months, I was starting to feel like Charlie Bucket, except the tickets weren’t for Chocolate Factories, they were for shitty concerts. Will and I were 14 by this time, starting to get a feel for bands like the Chili Peppers and Faith No More, and here we were settling into two hours with the Prince of easy listening. We were the youngest people in the crowd by at least half a century, and I scratched up another awkward concert experience.
Many years later in 2005 I saw Cliff Richard walking through Leicester Square. He didn’t recognize me.
The Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour
A few family members were heading to this concert at Football Park and I got invited along (it was definitely a step up from Cliff Richard). I got a decent berating from my mates for “going to watch a bunch of grandpas sing” (Mick Jagger was 52 at the time, which seemed really fucking old to a bunch of 17 year olds) – but it was quite a spectacular concert. Many of the crowd came out to see the band in action, thinking they would be retiring soon, and that Keith Richards would no doubt be dead in a year.
14 years later, and those fuckers are still going strong. Not even silver bullets blessed by the Pope could kill Keith Richards.
1999 was the first time I hit the Big Day Out, a music festival that had been happening since the early 90s. It seemed a decent activity – seeing a shit load of bands for only $100 (or whatever the price was in ‘99), hell any festival that served alcohol got interest from me. A few of the memories:
Regurgitator, Powderfinger, Superjesus, The Living End:
It was quite a blast seeing all of these Australian bands in the flesh, having heard them so often on the radio. I’ve lost touch with Aussie bands after being in London for so long, to the point where I didn’t know most of the line up of the 2009 BDO. My days in London have warped me: I know the lyrics to most of the S Club 7 songs, but fuck all of the Aussie music scene of the last few years.
Marilyn Manson:
Marilyn Mason appeared at the Big Day Out amongst a whirlwind of rebellious “fuck you society” antics. Some of his shocking acts included a giant lit up sign reading simply “DRUGS” (oh, the subtle rebellion) and ripping up a bible and wiping his arse on it (oh that evil, evil man). I don’t mind a few of his songs, but his on stage theatrics reminded me of a child screaming in a supermarket because his mum wont buy him some candy. His Satanic horseplay didn’t really seem to impress any of the Adelaide crowd, but what could you expect from the citizens of the Serial Killer Capital? The highlight of Manson’s act was when somebody in the crowd hit him with a water bottle, prompting Manson to dive into the crowd and punch the guy. I love that kind of band/audience participation.
Hole:
The ground was packed to see Hole perform, but more out of morbid curiosity than for any musical appreciation. Everybody wanted to see Courtney Love, aka Kurt Cobain’s old girlfriend. A woman that established the Train-Wreck-Diseased-Skank persona before Lindsay Lohan was even out of kindergarten. The band had a couple of decent songs, not that we would know. Love freaked out halfway through the first song citing that a “weird Australian bug” had just bitten her, and wandered off stage. The crowd laughed and cheered thinking it was part of the act, but no, Love never returned. The band tried to go on without her, which didn’t really work (what with Love being the singer/rhythm guitarist and all), so they gave up after half a song. Show was over. Turned out later in the News that the “weird bug” was just a mosquito. Stupid bitch.
Fatboy Slim:
Every year the last two acts of the night are held at roughly the same time – the head lining rock act, and the head lining DJ act; and it can often be a difficult deciding who you will watch. I hadn’t heard of Fatboy Slim at this point, but we stumbled into the Boiler Room (where they house the DJ acts) on the way out and caught the last few songs. Six months later Fatboy owned the air waves. That’s the beauty about Music Festivals, you can often see big acts without knowing it (and conversely, see headlining acts that break up a year later).
Tomorrow: the trip down memory lane continues with further asinine musical anecdotes (2000-2002).
That considered, it’s actually surprising when I think of the pure volume of live acts I’ve seen in the last decade. Thanks to frequenting the Big Day Out every year from 1999 to 2004, and being lucky enough to attend Live 8 in London – I’ve seen over 100 bands perform live. Here are a selection of random concert memories.
1991:
Before writing about the later music festivals, there are two concerts I attended in 1991 that deserve a mention.
Billy Ray Cyrus:
You didn’t misread, I saw Billy Ray in concert. A mate’s parents were heading to the concert with friends of theirs, and at the last minute the second couple couldn’t make it due to illness – so those two tickets were passed onto my mate and myself. I was 13 at the time, and I honestly can’t tell you why I accepted the offer. My colleague and I were two pimply faced teens in a sea of frustrated housewives, and we spent the first hour of the concert sitting in fear. After the shock of watching middle aged women throw their underwear at the mulleted red neck had subsided, my mate started to make armpit farting noises along with the music, much to my delight. This was subsequently halted a song later when a scary looking woman with bottle blonde permed hair in the row in front of us, turned around and verbally abused us for ruining the Billy Ray experience. Twas a strange night, and I think it might have fucked me up for life.
Cliff Richard:
Later that year I got my hands on another “fantastic” ticket. Will’s next door neighbor had won two tickets to a Cliff Richard concert, but couldn’t go because of illness – so the tickets were passed onto Will, and by proxy, myself. It was my second “winning” ticket in under six months, I was starting to feel like Charlie Bucket, except the tickets weren’t for Chocolate Factories, they were for shitty concerts. Will and I were 14 by this time, starting to get a feel for bands like the Chili Peppers and Faith No More, and here we were settling into two hours with the Prince of easy listening. We were the youngest people in the crowd by at least half a century, and I scratched up another awkward concert experience.
Many years later in 2005 I saw Cliff Richard walking through Leicester Square. He didn’t recognize me.
1995
The Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour
A few family members were heading to this concert at Football Park and I got invited along (it was definitely a step up from Cliff Richard). I got a decent berating from my mates for “going to watch a bunch of grandpas sing” (Mick Jagger was 52 at the time, which seemed really fucking old to a bunch of 17 year olds) – but it was quite a spectacular concert. Many of the crowd came out to see the band in action, thinking they would be retiring soon, and that Keith Richards would no doubt be dead in a year.
14 years later, and those fuckers are still going strong. Not even silver bullets blessed by the Pope could kill Keith Richards.
1999: The Big Day Out
1999 was the first time I hit the Big Day Out, a music festival that had been happening since the early 90s. It seemed a decent activity – seeing a shit load of bands for only $100 (or whatever the price was in ‘99), hell any festival that served alcohol got interest from me. A few of the memories:
Regurgitator, Powderfinger, Superjesus, The Living End:
It was quite a blast seeing all of these Australian bands in the flesh, having heard them so often on the radio. I’ve lost touch with Aussie bands after being in London for so long, to the point where I didn’t know most of the line up of the 2009 BDO. My days in London have warped me: I know the lyrics to most of the S Club 7 songs, but fuck all of the Aussie music scene of the last few years.
Marilyn Manson:
Marilyn Mason appeared at the Big Day Out amongst a whirlwind of rebellious “fuck you society” antics. Some of his shocking acts included a giant lit up sign reading simply “DRUGS” (oh, the subtle rebellion) and ripping up a bible and wiping his arse on it (oh that evil, evil man). I don’t mind a few of his songs, but his on stage theatrics reminded me of a child screaming in a supermarket because his mum wont buy him some candy. His Satanic horseplay didn’t really seem to impress any of the Adelaide crowd, but what could you expect from the citizens of the Serial Killer Capital? The highlight of Manson’s act was when somebody in the crowd hit him with a water bottle, prompting Manson to dive into the crowd and punch the guy. I love that kind of band/audience participation.
Hole:
The ground was packed to see Hole perform, but more out of morbid curiosity than for any musical appreciation. Everybody wanted to see Courtney Love, aka Kurt Cobain’s old girlfriend. A woman that established the Train-Wreck-Diseased-Skank persona before Lindsay Lohan was even out of kindergarten. The band had a couple of decent songs, not that we would know. Love freaked out halfway through the first song citing that a “weird Australian bug” had just bitten her, and wandered off stage. The crowd laughed and cheered thinking it was part of the act, but no, Love never returned. The band tried to go on without her, which didn’t really work (what with Love being the singer/rhythm guitarist and all), so they gave up after half a song. Show was over. Turned out later in the News that the “weird bug” was just a mosquito. Stupid bitch.
Fatboy Slim:
Every year the last two acts of the night are held at roughly the same time – the head lining rock act, and the head lining DJ act; and it can often be a difficult deciding who you will watch. I hadn’t heard of Fatboy Slim at this point, but we stumbled into the Boiler Room (where they house the DJ acts) on the way out and caught the last few songs. Six months later Fatboy owned the air waves. That’s the beauty about Music Festivals, you can often see big acts without knowing it (and conversely, see headlining acts that break up a year later).
Tomorrow: the trip down memory lane continues with further asinine musical anecdotes (2000-2002).
posted by Beef at Saturday, May 09, 2009
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