Imagine if you will, a 15 year-old Boring Old Man, in the winter of 1983. My Sophomore year in high school, and I’d had my musical world turned upside down the previous year being introduced to a plethora of punk rock and early “new wave” bands like B-52s, Talking Heads and Wall of Voodoo.
The house I’d spent most of my life in ’til then didn’t have Cable TV, much less MTV, so aside from college radio my introduction to unusual music came from places like Friday Night Videos, or a weird American Bandstand-type show called MV3 that played on broadcast stations.
It was here on a gloomy winter afternoon that I first heard (and saw) Europa and the Pirate Twins by a Mr. Thomas Dolby.
I was completely floored. I had never in my life heard music like that. Not even close. And I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of ONE GUY making all this music by himself. Now, of course by this time I knew what synthesizers were and I was aware that drum machines existed (though I hadn’t yet seen one, let alone put my hands on one!), but I had no Earthly idea of what could be done with them. I didn’t know anything about sequencers or any of the technical stuff behind the music. I had never seen a computer in real life and didn’t know they could be used to make music. It honestly just seemed like magic. It’s really difficult to get across just how ground breaking this stuff was unless you lived through it. Not only were there new styles of music popping up, seemingly every week, and new technologies at work, but there were new SOUNDS being invented and put on records that had never been heard before. I think it did something to my brain, hearing all these new sounds and musical textures. Once I had been exposed to it, I was never the same. And to this day I hold a certain reverence for this era and style.
All of which is taking the long way around to say, I’ve been a fan of Thomas Dolby literally since the very first time I heard him. I also consider him more than simply an innovator, he leans toward genius in my opinion. And honestly if all you’ve ever heard from the man is She Blinded Me With Science, you’d likely think this statement is simple hyperbole. You have to look at how and when he made his music as much as the music itself to recognize the genius.
I have no idea how often he toured back then, but I never once saw him billed to play anywhere near me. I’m sure he must have at some point, but we didn’t have the interwebs and e-mailing lists like we do today, so it was a lot easier and much more frequent to miss out on shows up until 10-15 years ago. But at long last, I saw the advertisement for the show, I didn’t have a scheduling conflict AND I had the money for tickets. The stars had aligned! And the cherry on top was his show was in Menlo Park at a great venue! Once again avoiding San Francisco, which is always a bonus in my book!
The opening band was Halou, whom I’d never heard of. The Mrs. looked them up and deemed their sound “music to cut yourself to”, which made me laugh but also piqued my interest. I looked them up myself and found a clip of them at the same venue from this past December… The Mrs was spot on. I got through a single minute and had to shut it off. I’m sure it appeals to someone, but not me. Not by a long shot. So I went to the show late and thankfully missed their entire set. Sadly, the Mrs wasn’t feeling well and at the last minute decided not to attend, saving her diminished energy to make it to work on Friday.
Mr. Dolby got started late due to technical difficulties, which was a bit of a drag. We were packed in like sardines in a can and it seemed as though the AC wasn’t working, and I started wondering if I hadn’t made a mistake coming to this show. But finally, after what seemed an eternity, the House lights dropped and the man himself came on stage and launched into…Blue Monday by New Order. “What the Ham Sandwich?!?”, says I. A very curious decision to say the least.
Next up was Europa, the one song above all others I’d hoped he’d play. At that point, I figured I was good and could leave at any time. But then a funny thing happened – I became, somehow, mesmerized.
I’ll admit, for the first 10 minutes or so of the show, I was a little disappointed. The energy was a bit low. Watching one guy on stage behind a bank of gear is not terribly exciting. It was somewhat akin to watching a DJ “perform”. But then I kinda dropped my hyper focus of what the man himself was doing and took in the big picture . He essentially was running a full on multimedia show. He was building songs on the fly, using loops and samplers and keyboards, while simultaneously synced video clips were running behind him with a full light show as the cherry on top. And this turned out to be a show whose sum was greater than its parts. When taken in whole, it was very creative and interesting.
He managed to pull together an on-the-spot “mash up”, layering Gary Numan’s Cars on top of One of our Submarines… and then added a melody from The Cure on the same song. It was pretty impressive.
In another artistic intersection, he had a perfectly synced Jason Mraz doing a vocal track on video to My Brain is Like a Sieve, which was performed flawlessly.
After that Mr. Dolby put forth a bit of a tribute to David Bowie, covering Heroes instrumentally, with spliced in video of Mr. Bowie at the Live Aid concert from 1985.
He ended his set with a double- whammy of Hyperactive and She Blinded Me With Science. The former was a little lackluster if I’m being totally honest – without the female vocal parts and the horns, it didn’t have the same impact as the recorded version of the song. But the latter fused in a bunch of cameos and clips pulled from TV and the News with a bunch of famous faces and voices adding “Science!” at the appropriate spots. Again, unexpected and very creative.
And before I knew what hit me, the show was over…
He came out for an encore and pulled out one more song for the crowd, a very down tempo number, Airwaves. Again, a curious choice. But it was done very sincerely and well.
All in all, I can say wholeheartedly that it was a good show. Great? No, not really. But very creative and unique. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m glad I went.
Mr. Dolby sounded great – all his years of work have turned his once quirky and kinda weird voice into something of a crooner’s voice, and while the edges may have been softened, he still sounded fantastic. And I must add, he looked great too. I hope to hold up as well when I’m in my late 60s!
It’s not every day you get to see a living legend in the flesh and I’m grateful that I finally got the opportunity to see Mr. Dolby do his thing in front of an audience.
He stated that this was the first night of a “mini tour” (hence the technical problems that delayed the start of the show), and I don’t know how many more opportunities there will be to see him on stage, but if he’s coming to your town I’d say his show is definitely worth the price of admission.
Thanks to the Guild staff and Mr. Dolby for the fun and unique night of sights and sounds!
I’ve been in a deeply introspective zone lately, searching for “something” lost within me over the last decade or so, and amongst other things that has had me reminiscing about better days gone by, and that lead me to old music, since when I was what I consider the “real” me, my life essentially revolved around music. If I wasn’t at band practice or playing a gig, I was out at shows watching other bands. If I wasn’t playing music or watching others play, I was out dancing. If not there, I was listening to the radio or my vast record collection. The first thing I did in the morning was turn on the radio (they used to play music in the mornings, can you imagine?!?). When I went to bed I always put a record on to fall asleep to. I was OBSESSED.
Any of you that have read my blog for any time will note that music still has a big place in my life even if severely reduced from what it used to be.
Anyhow, during this introspection I found myself looking back at my early days and the things I took for granted or simply didn’t appreciate at the time. Which kinda sprang forth in a comments section over at Dave’s place https://soundday.wordpress.com/2024/05/27/may-27-goths-leading-lady
I started flowing from within all the great opportunities I had to experience music as a Bay Area native and the more I wrote the more I realized I have seen so many great bands in my lifetime and I never thought to keep track of all the shows over the years. My home town seemed so dull back in the 80’s and we yearned for the action of places like San Francisco and Los Angeles… But had I grown up in say rural Iowa or the Louisiana swamps, my exposure would have been so much more limited and I likely would be a completely different and unrecognizable person. Of course, the dull South Bay 10 years later turned into Silicon Valley, which did bring “excitement” to town, just not anything I was excited about!
Anyhow, I figured I should try to reach way, way back and put up a list of all the bands I’ve had the good luck to see. There is no possible way to put this in order, far too many years under the bridge, and I’m sure no matter how long this list gets, I’m going to forget someone. Likely multiple someones. But as I’m getting “long in the tooth” and my memory isn’t getting any better, I’ll put it down for posterity and if anything it will give me something fun to look back on as I continue down the golden path of age.
How I envision myself in my Golden Years!
A lot of these bands will be a little obscure since that’s where most of my love lies within musical realms, and a lot of them you will have NEVER heard of, since they were local bands that never made a big splash outside our local scene. Nonetheless, it’s all part of my heart and soul, ingrained in my DNA.
An old, dear friend recently said to me in a text “You just touched on what I think is one of the best things about music–at its best, it’s like a Time Machine that immediately transports you to a time and place. We had some great times driving around, shooting the shit, and listening to what I think has to be the golden age of college radio.” Amen!
So without further blathering, here is a somewhat complete, but random-ordered list of that bands I’ve been lucky enough to see with my own eyes, to hear live and in-person. A lot of the people that helped make me who I am. I’ll keep the commentary to a minimum, lest this become a novel…
The earliest concert I remember, I must have been 10-12 years old, was Paul Revere & the Raiders at Great America, an amusement park in Santa Clara. It was a July 4th celebration and as a kid, it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Little did I know what the next 45 years would bring!
Around that era I also saw Papa Do Run Run, a local surf band, ala the Beach Boys, performing at a car show. I LOVED surf music as a kid (and all the Beach Blanket movies!) and I was officially hooked on live music!
In 6th grade I saw my first real Rock & Roll cover band play. (back then 6th graders weren’t allowed to attend dances, so the band played a concert the night before the dance for us youngsters.) To this day I can remember them playing “Hold the Line” by Toto, which was one of my favorite songs at the time, and I was absolutely blown away by the sheer power of the sound. I had already been playing the drums for a few years by this time, and after that night I didn’t want to do anything else! One of those literal life-changing events.
The next one I remember was a fairgrounds show with the Steve Miller band and Quarterflash (remember them?!?) I believe that was the summer between 8th and 9th grade.
After the initial toe-dipping of those early shows, things really took off and after that it’s all a blur…
During my high school years (’82-’86), I saw Adam Ant, the Police, Oingo Boingo, the Fixx, Thompson Twins, Madness, Red Rockers, U2, the Tubes, Pablo Cruise, Bonnie Hayes & the Wild Combo, INXS, Wire Train, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Belouis Some, and the Church. Probably a few others, it’s all a bit fuzzy…
In my Senior year, I was in a truly serious band and we played our first nightclub gig 5 days before my 18th birthday and that club – the Laundryworks in San Jose – became my home away from home. I was down there 2 or 3 nights a week seeing every local band I could, and there were some GREAT bands in San Jose back then… A usual night would have 3 bands – a 30 minute set from the opener, a 45 minute middle set and then a headliner that played until last call. It was glorious, and felt like a place just for us and all our fellow misfits.
Some of the bands I can still recall from back then, that stand out after all these years, were Grey Matter, Swing Party, Daddy in His Deep Sleep, Juliet Slip, Never Say Never, London Down, the Kingpins (the most entertaining Rockabilly band I’ve EVER witnessed!) and the absolute cream of the crop Epic Rumors. EVERYONE in the scene thought Epic Rumors were going to be “the next big thing” but alas, it never came to pass. It should have, they were fantastic! Along with all those great local bands, they had a number of “national” touring bands come through, such as Game Theory, Dinosaur Jr., Robert Seidler (of “Christian Boy” fame), Camper Van Beethoven, Firehose… I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones that stick out. The Laundryworks is also where I first met Brian “Brain” Mantilla, drummer extraordinaire. He was playing with a great band called Big City, and would later go on to help form Funk/Punk pioneers Limbomaniacs (who I saw COUNTLESS times!), he played with Ted Zeppelin, a Ted Nugent/Led Zeppelin “tribute” band (only nobody was calling them tribute bands back then) and later for both Primus and Guns & Roses with Buckethead. One of the most nerve racking shows I ever played was when we opened for Ted Zeppelin and I knew Brain was in the audience…He was sooo good, even back then, that all my self-confidence and baravdo went right out the door!
Around that general time I saw Wire Train a few more times and got to meet and hang out with the band backstage at a few gigs. Great guys, AWESOME band. A Top 10 list band for me, no question! A new club had opened up in Santa Clara called One Step Beyond and that place was like a dream come true. I played a bunch of gigs there, went dancing there a couple hundred times and saw so many great concerts there! Where to start… Wire Train, of course, CONCRETE BLONDE – 3 times(another Top 10 band for me and AMAZING live!) the Ramones, the Replacements, Screaming Trees, Flesh for Lulu, Aztec Camera, Erasure, Unforgiven, Cheap Trick, Nina Hagen, Book of Love, Fishbone, the afore-mentioned Limbomaniacs, House of Schock (drummer Gina Schock’s post- GoGo’s band), Mission U.K., Sisters of Mercy, the Bolshoi, Ministry… That club also holds the distinct honor (?) of having hosted the only two concerts I ever walked out of because the bands were So. Completely. Awful. First was Doctor and the Medics, just embarrassingly bad. The next one was Gene Loves Jezebel. I liked their records a lot, but live they were excruciating! So bad it hurt my ears AND my feelings!
In other places in generally that same era I got to see Squeeze with the Hooters and the Truth opening – awesome show at the Berkeley Greek Theater, a spectacular outdoor venue. I saw the Church again, Peter Murphy, Echo & the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cult (Guns & Roses were the opener, but we got there late and only caught the last song! We had NO idea who they were at the time, nobody outside of LA did). R.E.M. with the Three O’clock opening, I saw U2 again, I saw Adam Ant again, the Pretenders twice, the Bodeans, Let’s Active, Kid Creole and the Coconuts(AWESOME!), Lone Justice, Primus a dozen times in assorted club venues, before the Seas of Cheese album dropped… Psychefunkipus (probably spelling that wrong), Wire Train again…
Then I went through a short phase of jazz shows – Fatburger stands out as the best of them. I was 5 feet from the stage in a place that held maybe 200 people, it was astounding. I saw the Yellowjackets, Michael Franks, Dave Weckyl, Steve Smith, Vinnie Colliuta… a few others I can’t name. What can I say, I tried. I fully admit that I admire the musicianship of top notch jazz players, but I just could never get too into the music. I like it OK, I’m just not well versed in it and just kinda prefer my jazz in the background.
Oh, I completely forgot about my “jam band” phase – I saw the Grateful Dead at least 6 times, maybe 7, we saw Dave Matthew’s Band I think 3 times. And to top it off, one show with Phish. Of all of ’em, DMB was the most fun and musically impressive of all of them in my opinion. His later music puts me to sleep though, haven’t been to one of his shows in close to 20 years.
Then there are the “classic rock” shows, oh my goodness… The Rolling Stones (at the time the most expensive tickets I’d ever purchased BY FAR, and one of the worst stadium shows I’ve ever seen. Never. Again. The Who twice. OUTSTANDING!!! Rush three times and every time was unbelievably great. Steve Winwood, Steve Miller again, the Doobie Brothers (twice), Peter Gabriel, Bon Jovi (technically, I was working on their tour with the opening band, I never actually bought tickets and went to a Bon Jovi show, but I saw a lot of them and they were a LOT better than I thought they’d be – VERY professional, I’m just not a fan of their songs. Except “Runaway”, that’s a killer), and also Pat Travers. That show holds the distincion of being the LOUDEST show I’ve ever attended. My ears were ringing for 2 days afterwards, no kidding. But he was great… And for a while in the late 80’s my band was a top pick opener for “oldies” bands coming through town and we opened for the Guess Who, Elvin Bishop, Tommy Tutone, the Tubes, the Bay City Rollers, amongst others so I saw at least bits and pieces of those band’s sets.
In the more recent past, we’ve seen Sting (amazing band, amazing talent!) with Squeeze opening, Better Than Ezra, Lenny Kravitz, 311 – three times now (the first time was on their “Grassroots” tour at a club in Palo Alto, mid 90’s… KORN was the opening band and they were horrible. If I weren’t so hyped to see 311 for the first time, KORN would’ve been the 3rd band I walked out on in my life. Ironically, a few years later I heard them on the radio and really liked them. I would have NEVER guessed they would have amounted to anything, much less world wide stardom!)
Most recently, and a lot of these are already written about in this here blog, in no particular order we have Jack White (MESMERIZING!!), Foreigner, Loverboy, HooDoo Gurus, Des Rocs, Grandson, Magic City Hippies (about seven times), Dogstar (about 5 times in the last year, and over a dozen times their first time around in the 90’s), Lettuce, Steve Vai, Steely Dan, Steve Winwood (a LEGENDARY performance!),Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, Weezer, Cage the Elephant (OUTSTANDING!!), Night Ranger, the Offspring, Polyphia, X, Bow Wow Wow, Royal Blood, Missing Persons (twice now, but I try to forget the second time!), Ashe, K.Flay, Lyrics Born, the Dip, Qveen Herby, Young the Giant (GREAT SHOW!), Chic with Nile Rogers, Duran Duran, Parliament Funkadelic… I know I’m forgetting a few just from the last couple years. Just check my previous posts!
A co-worker recently asked if there was anyone I hadn’t seen that I still want to, and I honestly couldn’t think of anything. Though there are certainly a few that I wish I’d seen before it was too late. The CLASH is my all-time favorite band and I never got to see them. I would have loved to see a Diamond Dave- era Van Halen show. Stevie Ray Vaughn. Jeff Beck. King Crimson’s 80’s lineup with Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin and one of my favorite drummers of all time, Bill Bruford. I wish I’d seen the B-52s in their early 80’s prime… I’d love to see Sade, but I don’t believe she’s done a tour in close to 20 years, so I’m not holding my breath on that one. But honestly, if I could never see another concert, I believe I’ve been truly blessed to see as many as I have. Live music has been one of my greatest joys for over 4 decades and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of absorbing as much as I could!
Reading through all this, if I had to make a Top 5 list of shows I think it would be the following:
#1 Missing Persons reunion show in Los Angeles- late 90’s (?). Unbelievable. And I got to meet the band before the show. Terry Bozzio is my biggest inspiration as a drummer BY FAR, so that one holds the number #1 slot from here to eternity.
#2 Concrete Blonde, first tour ’86(?). Powerful, heartfelt, dangerous, all wrapped up into an amazing set.
#3 311 at the Keystone Palo Alto, Grassroots tour ’93ish. Unbelievable energy AND technical prowess.
#4 Jack White at Shoreline Amphitheater, 2022, +/- I STILL cannot describe what I witnessed that night. The closest thing to a religious experience I’ve had as an adult.
#5… I dunno, now it’s getting hard! Cage the Elephant was amazing, the first times we saw Des Rocs and Grandson were both mind-blowing.. Every Magic City Hippies show has been off the hook… Nikka Costa, whom I forgot to mention above – seen her twice and both times were awesome! Too many to choose from! Suffice it to say I’ve seen a LOT of spectacular shows!
When I talk to folks about shows I’ve been to, I know to most it sounds unbelievable, or exaggerated at the very least, but I swear if anything I’m leaving a bunch out! By contrast, I’ve been to exactly ONE NFL game in my entire life (and it was a work outing, not something I chose to do) and I went to ONE MLB game when I was about 10 years old. I went to a few San Jose Sharks hockey games, cuz free tickets. The ONLY sport I like and have invested any time in watching is soccer, and I only do that in person, I haven’t watched sports on TV, including the Super Bowl, since Michael Jordan was playing for the Chicago Bulls. And honestly, I don’t even remember exactly when that was…early 90’s? Late 80’s? I haven’t stepped foot in a movie theater in 5 years, and before that MAYBE once a year. Maybe. My point being, everybody’s got their something. Some people love sports. Some people love movies. I’m ALL about music, especially LIVE music!
Thanks for stopping by and taking a trip down memory lane with me!
Despite the fact that I was born in the 60’s, fell in love with music in the 70’s only to become wildly obsessed with music in the 80’s, there were a lot of really original, talented bands in the 90’s that I really dug. There was a ton of crap too, don’t get me wrong. Boy Bands, anyone?
We were fortunate to have one of the earlier “alternative” stations in the Bay Area – the Quake, and then Live 105, but these guys below were all getting the love from college radio first. Ahh, the good old, pre-internet, music discovery days!
Today’s flashback is dedicated to the wild, untamed, bands of the 90’s that continued to blaze new trails in Rock & Roll!
The first song I ever heard from 311 and it knocked me out! Saw them live for the first time touring for the follow up album and I’m still a fan!
These guys got a lot of grief in the press, but if you ask me this was a great song from a great album. Their biggest hit was nothing like the rest of the record, and their one “Pop Hit” bought them a lot of undeserved slagging.
Ok, technically this was released in ’89, but the 90’s were all about NIN. This is where it all started.
I was lucky enough to know Primus as just another local band trying to make a name for themselves and saw many a live show before they blew up! Incredible live shows, off the charts musicianship!
Another local band I used to see all the time – sometimes WITH Primus! Pure energy, stellar playing, non stop groove. They should have been huge. The world wasn’t ready…
These guys were really unique. Another cool Bay Area band. The Skin album is very eclectic, but chock full of great songs. Rented my drum kit as backline equipment to them for one of their gigs in Palo Alto back in the day… Got a major label record deal but sadly never really caught on.
As I’ve mentioned a few times lately, I’ve been in a bit of a funk and having a heck of a time digging my way out of it. So today, I turned off the news, steered clear of the doom and gloom websites and jumped into some good ol’ music.
Now, I love all kinds of music – from the 1940’s all the way up through new stuff coming out today and across pretty much all genres – but when I really need a boost, when I really want to shut down the niggling voice in my head that won’t shut up about the world at large, nothing and I do mean NOTHING does it for me like Power-Pop from the mid 70’s through the mid 80’s. To this day it still gives me the feelz, in the best possible way! So without further delay, here are a few gems from days gone by. Back when music was played by musicians and vocal harmonies were sang, not multi-tracked and auto-tuned to the point of absurdity. Back when college radio was the BEST thing on the airwaves! Enjoy!
Hi, I’m J, and I’m a Power Popaholic!!
Enjoy your weekend everybody. Get out there and enjoy life!
Back when I was a kid music was going through some serious growing pains. It was the early 1980’s, Disco was D.E.A.D., Top 40 music was horrendous and punk rock was being diluted by “New Wave”, and I mean no offense by that. With but a few exceptions, New Wave music has held up better over the decades than a lot of punk has, but I digress…
New Wave was a blanket term that covered a lot of sub-genres. You had the synthesizer pioneers like Depeche Mode and Eurythmics, the New Romantics like Adam and the Ants and ABC, the grittier guitar-based bands like R.E.M. and the Replacements and all sorts of combinations and mash-ups along the way. Rockabilly made a comeback in the EARLY 1980’s, due to the Stray Cats bursting onto the scene, and they somehow got embraced by the New Wave crowd as well. It seemed there was a band with “Cats” in their name popping up every 7 minutes, you couldn’t keep track of ’em all!
One of the smaller sub-genres of the day was sort of a rockabilly/New wave/southern rock & roll hybrid, called by some “Cow Punk”. Personally I never really cared for that moniker, it seemed derisive and frankly there wasn’t a whole lot of “punk” to their music, other than a high energy and a quick tempo. Nonetheless, for a good 5 years or so, these cow punks kept slippin’ out the barn and winding up on college radio, where I became enamored of the sound. Big shout out to KSJS, KFJC and KSCU, those crazy college kids opened my ears and my mind to SOOOOO much amazing music back in the day…
So without further adeue, I present some of my all-time favorite “cow punk” tunes, or as I refer to it – that Twang Sound! Slip on your boots, straighten up the Bolo Tie and Enjoy!
