On our way to Chicago for the Billy Joel concert, Bronwyn Green and I bemoaned the fact that we’d been to so many concerts, but couldn’t remember them all. We decided to sit down and tally them up. We did not endeavor to put them in any sort of order, though. Here is my list of artists I’ve seen live. At least, what I can remember:
Lee Greenwood Technically my first concert. Battle Creek Airshow, sometime in the ’80s. Went with my mom.
Hootie And The Blowfish What I tell people my first concert was. 1994. Went with my mom.
Rusted Root The first time I learned what pot smelled like.
Joan Osborne She opened for Rusted Root, the night after she lost every Grammy category she was nominated in to Alanis Morissette. It came up.
Alanis Morissette Twice, once for Jagged Little Pill, second time because she toured with Tori Amos.
Tori Amos Five times, including a show Bronwyn Green was at, before I knew her. She mentioned this in front of my Baba, who said, “Oh, my granddaughter was at that show! I think you two would like each other.” Met Tori twice. One of those times, I puked on the sidewalk.
R.E.M. Twice on their tour for Monster.
Radiohead When they opened for R.E.M.
Patti Smith Twice with R.E.M., including her first performance in like, twenty years or something.
Oasis
Bush
No Doubt Not as good live, I can tell you that for free. Saw them with Bush.
The Goo Goo Dolls Not as good live. Saw them with Bush.
The Verve Pipe About a billion times. They’re a local band.
Green Day In front of the stage in the pit. Billy Joe said, “If that girl with the pink hair falls down again, somebody help her up!
Dave Matthews Band I remember nothing about this concert. Not because of weed, but because I was on sedatives because I’d been in a…we’ll say it was a plane-landing accident the day before. Probably should not have tried to go to anything for a while.
Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers Front row center. Lots of eye contact with Steve Martin, which was very weird.
The Black Crowes Birthday present from D-Rock. Second row, amazeballs.
Tony Bennett Really recently, too. And he’s still got it, baby!
Mandy Patinkin Twice, and got to meet him once. He gave me a kiss on the cheek.
Rufus Wainright With Tori Amos
The Cranberries Just as good live.
Barenaked Ladies Someone puked on my coat.
Sarah Brightman She flew on wires. There were glitter canons.
Flight Of The Conchords Worth the ticket price, definitely.
Korn (I worked concessions at a Family Values show. Counting this because I couldn’t escape the music)
Incubus (see above)
Orgy (see above)
Rammstein (see above, but they’re the one band I was excited about. I was excited about Ice Cube, but he left the tour literally the date before this one)
Limp Bizkit (see above)
Ani DiFranco
Richard Marx Actually awesome concert. He’s really funny, you should go see him if you have a chance.
The Living End
Indika
Gavin Degraw With Billy Joel
And of course, Billy Joel, twice.
You can check out Bronwyn Green’s list here. And share in the comments the musical artists that you’ve seen. I very much want to be envious of you all.