list #1

I really like lists. I had a fabulous time last night at the Blackalicious show while this list rampaged through my brain. It made me feel pre-eminetly blessed for having had this wealth and diversity of musical experiences. The following is a list of all (that I can remember) the musical acts I've ever seen live, starting at the age of 8. I have an ambitious but incomplete collection of ticket stubs from many of these events that have helped me to remember. They are, however, in no particular order because I certainly can't account for them chronologically, but you may notice genre clusters (or you may not when the juxtaposition otherwise was far too surreal and enticing) as one act in a genre often spurred the memory of yet another as I went through this process of recollection.

Blackalicous (last night)
Digable Planets (Saturday night)
King Crimson
Adrian Belew
Drums 'N Tuba (my favorite band of my adult life)
Les Claypool
Les and Frog Brigade
Primus
Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains
Tortoise
Buckethead
Van Halen (Sammy Hagar led)
Ministry
INXS
Robert Plant
Pink Floyd
Olivia Newton-John (my 4th grade hero)
ZZ Top (first time I ever saw my mom smoke pot)
Neil Young
CSN
CSNY
The Grateful Dead (most number of shows...it was a thing, OK?)
Phish (only once)
Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman are Scaring the Children
Willie Nelson
Waylon Jennings
Kris Kristofferson
Ani Difranco (2nd only to the Grateful Dead)
Hole
Beastie Boys
Smashing Pumpkins
Rusted Root
Drive-By Truckers
Alejandro Escovedo
Steve Earle
Steve Earle and the Dukes
Anti-Flag
Public Enemy
Tribe 8
Fugazi
Metallica (a close 3rd to Ani Difranco)
Patti Smith (best show ever)
Bare Jr.
Unholy Trio
Dar Williams
Richard Thompson
Linda Thompson (but not together)
Fishbone
Jesus Lizard
Be Goood Tanyas
Hank Williams III
Assjack
Superjoint Ritual
Bruce Springsteen (Look, I don't care what anyone says, he actually IS the Boss)
(the next brief section of my list brought to you by a junior high school experience in the 80's)
Bon Jovi
Motley Crue
Aerosmith
Def Leppard
Genesis (worst show ever)
G. Love and Special Sauce
The Nields
Ben Harper
Lucinda Williams
Indigenous
Robert Mirabal
John Cougar Mellencamp
Rolling Stones
Paul Simon
Arlo Guthrie
Whitesnake
Living Colour
Ladysmith Black mambazo
Warren Haynes
Jonathan Richman
String Cheese Incident
North Mississippi All Stars
R.L. Burnside
T Model Ford
Nashville Pussy
Doc Watson
Saffire the Uppity Blues Women
Blue Rapture
Jason and the Scorchers
Sons of Ralph
The Cult
Asylum Street Spankers
Dan Bern
Jump Little Children
Scorpions
Tori Amos
me'shell ndegeocello
Chickasaw Mudpuppies
Guns 'N Roses
Danielle Howle
Greg Brown
Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Evens
REM
P. Funk All Stars
Sound Tribe Sector 9
GFE
Orchestra Morphine (never got to see Morphine before Mark died, though, sadly enough)
Goose Creek Symphony
Bob Dylan
Little Feat
Joan Osbourne
Naughty By Nature
Ghetto Boys
Arrested Development
Megadeth
Anthrax
Blues Traveler
Melissa Etheridge
Bonnie Raitt
Marsha Ball
Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Allman Brothers
Neville Brothers
Lyle Lovett
Laura Love
Blue Rags
Bitch and Animal
Bottle Rockets
Southern Culture on the Skids
Korn
Stain'd (tee-hee)
God Speed You Black Emperor
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Reverend Horton Heat
Sonic Youth
Corey Harris
The Wailers (never Bob Marley, though, dammit)
Taj Mahal
Billy Bragg
Night Watchman (Tom Morello)
Zap Mama
Beck
Social Distortion (at the Electric Banana in Pittsburgh!)

Can you believe I have never seen Jane's Addiction? Me neither.