Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Beginning of my year-end Lists, evidence of my questionable blogging subject matter, or, how I, like John Sellers & Letterman, dig lists

Top 5 Groups I Wish Could/ Would Reunite and Stay Reunited

1. Rage Against the Machine
2. Grandaddy (of the Sumday era, not the Fambly Cat)
3. Pavement
4. Soundgarden
5. Nirvana (I wish)

Top 5 Groups I am Not Proud to Admit I once Really Liked (but i really did like them)

1. Devo (at least the one song I remember of theirs)
2. 3rd Bass
3. A Flock of Seagulls
4. ABBA (cut me some slack; I was eleven)
5. Men at Work

Top 10 Best Groups I have seen Live in Concert

1. Beastie Boys
2. Fugazi
3. Rage Against the Machine
4. U2
5. Against Me
6. Public Enemy
7. Beck
8. The Rolling Stones
9. The Who
10. Built to Spill

Top 10 Groups I wish I could have seen Live in Concert

1. Bob Marley & the Wailers (One Love, people)
2. Led Zeppelin
3. Queen (mama mia, mama mia)
4. Prince ** (more for the show than the music)
5. Jimi Hendrix
6. Black Sabbath (War Pigs and Paranoid alone would make it worthwhile)
7. The Smiths
8. Nirvana *
9. Janis Joplin
10. Sarah Chang **

* When I was in college, some of my friends went to see a New Year's Eve show with headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and a new relatively unknown band called Nirvana. I still can't remember what possessed me to not go.

** There's still a chance.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw Black Sabbath several years ago with Ozzy and it was the best concert I have ever been to. And they opened their set list with War Pigs. It was awesome.

Lee Herrick said...

Cool, David. That song is a classic. I even liked/loved the first Ozzy record...but Black Sabbath was the real deal. I hope to see them one of these days.

bjanepr said...

Awesome lists, Lee. I saw Soundgarden such a long time ago at a Lollapalooza at the Shoreline Amphitheater, and they played early on in the day, so now it's hard to remember how good they were. The final act for the evening was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I definitely remember Ice Cube and Ice T getting on stage with them and rappin with Anthony Kiedis. That was hot.

Also, you know who puts on a good show? (I mean, apart from Nine Inch Nails) Digital Underground.

Tim Gonzo Gordon said...

Great post, Lee...gives me some ideas for future posts!

I was lucky enough to see Bob Marley and the Wailers not once, but twice in Portland in 78 and 79. By the middle of the show at the old Paramount Theatre, everybody was dancing in the aisles.

I also wished I could've seen Zep and Hendrix...Beatles would fit nicely on that list too.

Saw Queen on a tour with Thin Lizzy - this was right at the height of 'Bohemian Rhapsody's' popularity, and both groups were at the top of their game.

Missed Nirvana when they played here in Salem at the Armory...don't think I knew who they were at the time!

Great stuff...

Lyle Daggett said...

I've actually gone to so few live music concerts that I'm not sure if I have a Top 10 Best that I've seen. On my short list though would definitely be Joni Mitchell (I've gone to hear her twice), and Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie (heard them perform together with a backup band).

Among the bands I wish I'd heard live, the Beatles and the Doors would be at the top of my list. (Joplin and Hendrix would be way up there too.)

And in the not-proud-to-admit-I-really-liked-once-but-did category:

The Monkees, The Association, Smith (obscure one-hit wonder flash-in-the-pan band in the late 60's), The Go-Go's, and the Carpenters. (Yes, I said it, the Carpenters.)

I would have put the Tijuana Brass on the last list, but I actually still kind of like them now and then.

Collin Kelley said...

There's no shame in loving ABBA. I watched Muriel's Wedding again the other week and was singing along. If they were to reunite and tour, I'd go to the concert.

I wish Roger Waters would rejoin Pink Floyd and they would do another tour. That would be amazing.

Lee Herrick said...

barbara, i'm jealous you saw soundgarden. i love(d) them. i think chris cornell's voice is being wasted in his current group. and yes(!) to digital underground.

thanks, gonzodex---i appreciate it. bob marley in portland, queen and thin lizzy; you've seen some great shows. i think it's a rite of passage to sing 'bohemian rhapsody.' freddie mercury's underrated as a singer.

lyle: dang. arlo guthrie? how awesome is that? and you know what, when you said the go-go's, i nodded in agreement. i had 'we got the beat' on 45---i think if belinda carlisle were a rapper, 'we got the beat' would be her hit hip-hop song.

Collin: Pink Floyd. Absolutely. And ABBA: I agree. They were cool. 'Take a Chance on Me.' That reminds me of another group I liked from that era: ELO.

Collin Kelley said...

ELO rocks!!! "Turned to Stone" is one of my all time favorite songs.

Leslie said...

I think you should reconsider Lee...ABBA rules!

Do you like Sufijan Stevens? That was one of the best live shows I've ever seen...and Bjork, and Sugor Ros, and Nick Cave, oh, and Tom Waits! and David Bowie at the Warfield in SF...I think I'm going to start my own lists. thanks!

Lee Herrick said...

Bowie at the Warfield must have been awesome. That's one of my favorite venues. I haven't seen Stevens, but I'll have to check it out...looks interesting. & I am glad I'm not the only one who liked ABBA (there are several of us around, apparently). I'm going to have to try and unearth my ABBA LP. I saw the Smashing Pumpkins (before they went techno-weird) at the Warfield---Grandaddy, too. They were very good.