A Live History of Dez

My buddy "Walter Evans" (aka Kyle) put up an audacious list on Facebook yesterday. He listed the 50 artists he could most remember seeing in concert. Of course, I had to do my own, but I didn't restrict it to 50. I went for as long as I could remember. I stopped at about 75 (repeat shows didn't count, so even though I've seen Springsteen 6 times, that was still only one entry on the list). After I posted the list, I quickly remembered about 20 more. (Problem: I forgot some good opening acts). So, I would say an accurate count would be around 100 artists I've seen live. Some multiple times. Interesting fact: I've seen Jimmy Page and Robert Plant separately, but never together. Which got me thinking, what were my favorites? (I can't believe I've never listed this before). So, my Top 5 shows I've seen...

5. At Number 5, there is a 5-way tie. Shut up, it's my list, I can do what I want. In 5th place are:

Jeff Beck (Austin, some small club, 2001 I think: I went alone, front row to watch the greatest electric guitar player outside of Hendrix ever);

Dire Straits (Houston, Astroworld, 1984: my first ever concert, went with my sister, lots of marijuana smoke around us, Dire Straits at their peak);

Peter Gabriel (Houston, The Summit, 1992, with Johannes and Angelo: Always a favorite artist of mine, Gabriel gave a very theatrical show, 8th row);

The Police (Houston, Toyota Center, 2008, with Mrs. Dez: A favorite band of mine who broke up in 1986 and therefore I was resigned that I would never get to see them live. Their surprising 2008 reunion tour rectified that, and they did not disappoint, they sounded better than ever); and

Stevie Ray Vaughan (Houston, Astrodome parking lot, 1989, with Mark, Walter, Johannes, ANCIANT, Bryan and others, at the front of the stage: I was fortunate enough to see SRV live about 5 times before his death. This was the Miller Lite Festival, we saw The Who later that night in the Astrodome, but SRV was playing in the hot Houston summer sun in the parking lot during the day. The fire department had to hose down the crowd. I believe I remember ANCIANT passing out from the heat, really. Maybe I'm wrong. SRV rocked hard in the Houston heat.)

4. U2, Houston, The Summit, October 1988
U2 on The Joshua Tree tour? When those opening, chiming arpeggios from Edge on "Where The Streets Have No Name" opened the show? 'Nuff said. Went with my sister.

3. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Houston, Jones Hall, 1989
You never know what to expect at a Neil show. Depends on his mood and what he feels like playing. I went to this with Dre and Johannes. I've seen Neil quite a few times, but this was the first time. He was touring for This Note's For You, a big band blues record (one of his many odd 80's excursions). In the Houston newspaper before the show the article specifically warned not to expect any of the old favorites. Neil was only playing blues numbers on this tour. Well, right before the show he fired his band and called up Crazy Horse to finish the tour with him. So it turned out to be a Neil's Greatest Hits show, as well as some great rarely played gems. He did a 45 minute solo acoustic set, then came out with Crazy Horse. The perfect Neil show. Not going to play the old favorites? He did "Cinnamon Girl," "Down By the River," "Mr. Soul," "Heart of Gold," "Old Man" etc. etc. I guarantee you he read the newspaper article and played this stuff just to be contrary. Add a little "For the Turnstiles"? He was also previewing a bunch of new songs from his forthcoming record Freedom. Lucky for me, Freedom is one of Neil's best records of his career. So we got to hear a handful of awesome new tunes to boot. Speaking of hearing. This was the loudest show I ever saw. My ears rang for days after. Neil's popularity was also kind of low at this point, so Jones Hall is a theater sized place. We were in about the 5th row.



2. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Dallas, Texas Stadium, Summer 1985
Bruce on the Born in the USA tour? Untouchable. Images from this show are so vivid in my mind. It was not just a show. This was an Event. A football stadium full of fans, there was such a great vibe in the whole place. And Bruce delivered his usual 3 and 1/2 hour party.

1. Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Houston, Rockefellers, Summer 1992
I've seen Bela many times since this first show, but none have come close. It was a matter of timing and expectations. Bela and Co. were touring for their second record, and their first two records were definitely their best. This was also the best line-up of the band, before Howard Levy left. Also, Walter Evans, Johannes and I (and I think Johannes' Dad was with us too) went to this show with zero expectations. It was summer, we were bored, we decided to catch this banjo wunderkind and his band because we had nothing better to do. We left converted believers. Many goosebump moments. Victor Wooten demonstrated a whole new level of bass playing that we did not think possible. I still remember the moment it clicked, it was halfway into the first song, "Frontiers." The first half of the song is abstract jazz noodling. Moderately interesting. But then the song locks into a funky groove worthy of James Brown. I still remember when they locked into that groove; Johannes, Walter and I all exchanged surprised glances. This was not what we expected. From then on the show was amazing. And the whole band were super cool after the show, hanging out, shaking hands, chatting with the fans.

Other memorable moments (and not necessarily for the music):

* My sister pouring a drink down some obnoxious dude's pants at Tom Petty;
* Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck on a double bill in 1989, playing together on the same stage during the encore;
* Eric Clapton, 5th row. Obnoxious stoned dude behind us lecturing that drugs are bad as Clapton played "Cocaine" (evidently weed is fine.) Same show, walking around the parking lot for an hour looking for our car;
* CSN the first time was awesome. The second time they were terrible. They were great again with Neil;
* Meeting Stephen Stills after we saw his show at Laurie Auditorium at Trinity U;
* Dancing like a fool at Duran Duran;
* John Mellencamp gave one of the better shows I've ever seen the first time I saw him. The second time was one of the worst shows ever;
* Santana: I went with Willis and Eric. In the parking lot, a big dude parked next to us, asked us to wait before we got out of our car, pulled out a catheter tube and pissed all over the concrete next to our car, said "thanks" and left. Eric then dropped my cassette tape in the puddle of urine and picked it up and asked me if I still wanted it;
* Tenacious D was freakin' funny;
* Watching the Fabulous Thunderbirds play "Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up" with my band in high school. We covered those songs. We all realized that we played them better than the T-Birds did at that show. That was cool;
* Seeing The Who;
* Watching Omar of Omar & the Howlers bend his guitar neck instead of using the whammy bar;
* Buddy Miles in Aspen;
* Traveling with Walter Evans on a whim to Dallas to see Bela & the Flecktones. We knew he was playing outdoors in downtown Fort Worth, so we drove around in a cab until we saw a crowd of people. Then we went back to the airport, slept in the terminal and ate Twinkies for dinner;
* Lyle Lovett in San Antonio at the Majestic Theater;
* Going to see The Allman Brothers Band and being disappointed that Dickey Betts was not playing with them because as Gregg Allman informed the audience, "brother Dickey's in jail. We hope he gets out soon";
* Stanley Jordan at Rockefellers;
* Albert Collins at Rockefellers where he had a super long guitar chord and went out of the club and played his guitar solo in the street outside of the club and the patrons followed him out on to the street;
* The Tragically Hip at Fitzgerald's and Gordon Downie's stream of consciousness lyrics in "Long Time Running";
* Strength in Numbers in Telluride; and
* Tom Jones in Vegas.

How about you? What are some of the most memorable shows you've seen?