To Those Who I Have Rocked

...I Salute You.

It's hard to believe it's already been a whole WEEK since ComicCon! I'm still rolling on the high, though. Here's something I've learned since then: Norman Reedus has an Instagram account and there are several people with Twitter accounts who stalk him. No wonder he wears shades when he's doing public appearances! Mystery solved. His Instagram is pretty cool except for one thing: most of the women who comment on pictures he posts of his son...his son who is a child. It's more unsettling than Toddlers & Tiaras.

So my Line Buddy got me thinking about bands because she's a teen and wanted to talk music, of course. When my front row/Paddy's Day/Boston Garden experience failed to impress her (??!?!) I listed some other bands and realized a few things:

• I go see the same people a lot - and tickets are expensive these days so I rarely ever go anymore. I'd have to really, really love the artist...and even then I'd probably pass.


• "Indie" doesn't mean what it used to. It's a thing now. Like the word scene. It's a label. I learned that through Instagram hashtags. That's how I stay hip-ish, I guess. So when I said, I used to go see a lot of indie artists and she squealed, I LOVE INDIE! WHO? HOW ABOUT ___?! I was like............hmm. I don't think that means independent label/small/college radio anymore.
  


• She didn't think I was a teenager after this discussion. Oh well, I'm not, but it felt good for the ten minutes she didn't know.

Who have I seen? Lots, and it's pretty eclectic...just like high school I didn't fit into a box but rather a venn diagram. Alternative (before that was a thing, too) meets new wave meets metal meets goth meets glitter girl-next-door. Later I got into indie folk rock so I've been to a lot of festivals - festival people I left out of the collage. Except for Sarah McLachlan. She represents Lilith Fair...and I was at the very first one in Camden. It was a great line-up and I ran around seeing as many of these people as possible.

My first concert was Metallica. I went with a few kids from school (one who went on to be in that MTV show, Road Rules, and then make public appearances during his five minutes at places like The Middle East and Kaiju Big Battel). I remember going to the restrooms and there was a line outside the men's room...when I walked into the ladies' room there was just one chick fixing her thick black eyeliner. Pretty nice, huh? She said. She didn't mean her eyeliner, though it was. I envied girls who wore a lot of make-up. She meant that for the first and (probably only) time EVER the girls didn't have to wait to pee.

The most insane concert I've been to would definitely be the Green Day/Juliana Hatfield weekend double-header. The former was at the Hatch Shell and the later was on a floaty boat outside the Cambridgeside Galleria. We showed up really early for Green Day (hello, FREE!) and hung out. It rained so we went back to our dorm to change. When we came back it had gotten pretty crowded. Then it became so crowded you wouldn't move and the shoving was so hard you'd just sway being held up by the dominoes around you (and hope to heck you wouldn't fall because people who fall in scenes like that never come back up). Then bottles started flying. Then Green Day got angsty(er) and left. Then there was a riot. Bottles were flying and smashing and cops in riot gear were charging at us on horses. Riots aren't my thing. It doesn't go on my venn. My friends and I combat crawled to the Charles St T stop but there was rioting everywhere - even on the subway so we were only safe once we got back to our 'hood (Harvard Sq).

I mentioned Juliana Hatfield up there. I really wanted to see her, too, but I was worried about another riot. My friends and I were brave because she may've been a riot grrrl-type, she isn't really someone you riot over. Right-o. When we got to the Galleria there were like 20 people on the steps, including Juliana then she went to her little floaty boaty and sang some songs about love and angst. It was great and wasn't part of Rescue 911 like the Green Day Incident.

No, really, that happened! Spectacular and bizarre, right?

Moving on.

I've seen Tori Amos the most - she's my Forever Songstress.

Weird Al wins for kookiest.

The Black Crowes are amazing live.

Belly, I wish you were still together but I still treasure the music you once made. Same goes for The Murmurs (Leisha Hailey had to run off and be famous).

I didn't want to see Bob Dylan but I did because he did a double header with Ani Difranco in the pouring rain. Misery.

Jewel opened for Belly. It was supposed to be Catherine Wheel but they got the flu. Instead of rock I got to year yodeling. I thought it was awful. Her manager heard me say that and said, "That's Jewel, you know. She's going to be big someday." Yeah, right, I thought - but whatdayaknow. Not the first time I've had to dine on my words.

Radiohead was a treat. It was general admission and I got up to the second row. That was another crush-situation where you can feel your ribs bending and you're being held up by the people around you. It was after The Bends had been released. I think.

Strangest: The Crystal Method. This was when electronica had broken through to mainstream. It was out of raves and onto the main stage and that was just weird. You had the radio listeners just standing there staring at them do their thing (which is boring) then the party kids in the furthest corners dancing.

Lady Miss Kier needs her own article so I'll get to her eventually.

Van Halen rocked. The Vince Neil Band opened and I can't tell you how disappointed I was because Motley Crue has always been one of my tip top favorites (still) but those glam-bands liked to bicker back then.

Phish shows galore...

The last band I went to see was Nouvelle Vague. They're a French band who does covers of new wave/punk songs in a super sultry style. So new-old-new-style.

I'm not really hip to the new scene and that's OK because once upon a time ago I saw Guns N Roses, front and slightly right of center, on St Paddy's Day, at Boston Garden. ...and that REALLY ROCKED.

There are so many bands I wish I'd seen but I wasn't allowed to go to concerts until I was 16. The Psychedelic Furs are on tour and will be in Philly this week...sadly without The Go-go's, but! I've seen them live before! Like, totally. It was rad. The Furs are only $20, though. What a deal. I could.........but probably won't. I wouldn't impress Line Girl with that one, either, but I'd be mega-psyched.