As most know I got more death threats this weekend, which is always fun. So to take my mind off it I was constructing a list of the top 10 classic rock concerts I ever went to. It actually became 11, because I couldn’t find anyone of these I would drop from the list. They aren’t in any particular order, just as they came to my mind I tossed them up. This is basically an open thread for you foggies like me. I used to listen to nothing but classic rock, now I only listen to angry Irish music, and books on audio tape. And Mike and Mike.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, little-known TSO fact #245,128: my job in High School was ticket scalper. Yup. At Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York. We devised this plan where you pay like $500 and become an endower or somesuch of the center. Most the people with that kind of cash wanted to see Barbra Streisand or the Boston Pops and shit. So we would get tickets the day before the general unwashed public and then sell them. Like tickets to then virtually unknown Guns and Roses opening for Aerosmith. We made a killing on those tickets. Likewise Heart, believe it or not. Two obese women singing about sex, but damned if they didn’t pay for beer money for a week or three.<\/p>\n
Anyway, again, in no order, here’s the best 11 concerts I ever saw, although none of the videos are from shows I actually saw.<\/p>\n
1) Grateful Dead, Box of Rain.<\/p>\n
I went to 54 Grateful Dead shows between 1987 and about 1997*.\u00a0 (Make that 1995.\u00a0\u00a0Jerry died in 1995.\u00a0 Let us not forget, a US Army Veteran.)\u00a0My most vivid memory was getting stuck in Syracuse going from a show somewhere in Canada to New York City. Like 3 days I was stuck there, with no food but what they had in vending machines. The only concert I ever inhaled at, albeit it was a balloon was at Rich Stadium in Buffalo. That was the day I almost lost a testicle on a picket fence too, as we had General Admission seats, and if you were the first to get to the front, you stayed at the front. I got stuck on the damn fence, tore my pants, but still made it front row. Thankfully I had a ton of liquid pain killer. My buddy passed out during the 6 hour wait and ended up with one half of his face so sunburned he looked like Janus the two faced God.<\/p>\n
I’m picking Box of Rain because every time Phil sang it he screwed up the lyrics. Of his own song.<\/p>\n