TTHU Gang Post #1 | Our top 3 concerts of all time!

I thought this would be a great segment of TTHU. Joe, Justin, Julian and I all come from different backgrounds. I was born in a cave and raised by she-wolfs and the rest of these guys were born in brothels and raised by she-males. Just kidding, That’s So RAVEN! I’m a little drunk. Just went to the world’s saddest bar in South Station while waiting for my train and had a few shots of Jameson and a $3 Rolling Rock. This fat guy across from me is eating some delicious Chinese food and I kind of want to wrestle him for it except I know I will lose. Anways, back to the post. So this morning I polled the lads to see what their top 3 concerts of all time were and this is how we answered. Joe was the first to reply so he will start the festivities!

#1 Swatch Snow Core Tour Asbury Park NJ,  Convention Hall  1998

I have to say my first concert needs to be in the top 3. It was the gateway to 1,000’s of concerts to come. The venue is where the old big bands would perform back in the day, it is on the ocean and the architecture of the place is amazing.  The lineup was Blink – 182 when Dude Ranch just came out, they still had their original drummer Scott, The Aquabats (the band Travis Barker used to play in before Blink – 182), The Alcoholics and Primus. It was the first show where I met the band, Tom from Blink – 182 gave my friends and I candy, we were 12 I think. It was the first time I had booze spilled all over me, the Alcoholics had a bit where they used to have people from the crowd chug beer and they would dump booze on the crowd. It was also the first time I smelled pot. I thought a tire had caught on fire for the first half of the night, until I realized what was really being burnt.

#2 The Faint, Philadelphia Pa, The Trocadero 2001/2002?

I think this show especially sticks out in my head because it was my intro to electronic music which I would grow to enjoy more and more throughout the years. At the time I think I was 15 or 16. I was not old enough to drive. An older girl who I went to high school with (and am still very good friends with) drove us to the show (I thought this was very fucking cool at the time). I was listening to a lot of punk rock and hard core records at the time and when my friend played me The Faint I instantly fell in love with their sound. In 2010 they may not seem very groundbreaking but at the time no one was rocking the keyboards, synths, and the electronic arrangements in the same manner that they were. This is pre-killers, pre “it’s cool to play a synth” and even pre The Faint being an established band. The venue was only half full, everyone was liquored up, the lighting set up was very minimal. The stage was pretty dark with some spot lights and vicious strobes. There was definitely a mysterious dark vibe to the band that really appealed to me. It was the first show that I went to where no one was moshing but everyone was getting the fuck down and dancing. The entire experience was great, the show, the people we were with and being in Philadelphia, coming from the boring suburbs of Jersey. The bands performance was amazing and super energetic. After the show we hung out in the city till pretty late watching At The Drive in VHS tapes at a friends apartment.  

#3 Sigur Ros, Boston Ma, The Boston Opera House 2005/06?

This show stood out among the thousands of shows/concerts that I have attended over the years for several reasons. The band’s live sonic performance  was unreal. It was one of the very few concerts I have attended where the live sound is better than what is on the record. The visual performance was what really did me in. The entire night was like a performance art piece. As the band performed and the songs grew in intensity, giant screens stretched around the stage (and at times in front of the band) created some of the most visually stimulating images I had ever seen. Sigur Ros could have easily been a snooze fest due to the chill nature of their music but I was on the edge of my seat the entire evening.

*First Show: Blink 182

Those are my top three for now. I have also managed to forget a good portion of the shows I have attended! 

#1 Raffi

I was probably 4 or 5 years old when i went to this epic performance of the most famous child rocker in history RAFFI. I walked into the Boston Garden feeling like a million dollars – the place was packed and i was ready to rock the fuck out. Maa dukes snuck in the good shit: rollos and popcorn with random treats mixed inside, cuz thats how she rolled. The RAFF jumped off with the fire classic “BABY BELUGA” and kidz went fuckin nuts. The moshing started and i went what some people would call OUT OF CONTROL.. Not for nothing it was an epic night for me.

#2 Ghostface Killa

Me, my buddy E, and Ryan, on a whim rolled to the paradise to see if we can scalp a few tix for the big Ghostface Killa show, and we scored. We got in there, got to the front of the stage properly placed right behind a midget (little person), who was a huge ass hole and YES i got into a fight with him. The show started and shit was dope and it was crazy packed. Ghost was dappin’ me and E up the whole time and eventually gave me the mic and we did the chorus to “I LIKE IT RAW”…SHIT WAS SICK!

#3 Rock the Bellz

I was invited to roll to rock the Bellz at Great Woods from my boys in House Of Pain.(Everlast, Slaine, etc.) We got out there early and it was sooo fucking hot but it was packed with half naked chicks and madd free beerz “WORD”. We got backstage and I got meet some of my idols, KRS 1, NAS, MOS DEF, RAKWON, DAMIAN MARLEY, to name a few. Shit was off the hook and I had an amazing time. The last performance was Nas and Damian together, which still to this day was the most amazing duo to rock together that i have ever seen.

*First show: Grateful Dead

#1 Ben Harper

I am huge Ben Harper fan. Dude has a voice that could make your mom cream in her pants. I saw him with his new band, The Relentless 7, at the paradise in Allston. This dude is used to playing sold out shows at the Bank of America pavilion, so to see him in this really intimate venue absolutely blew my mind. I think i might have lost 10 pounds jamming my face off.

#2 Cold War Kids

I saw these guys at the Wilbur Theater, which was a perfect spot for them to play at. It was one of those shows where everything was choreographed: from the lighting, set-list, and the background of the stage. The thing that really blew my mind was that the way they sounded was spot on to how it sounded on the album. The huge neutral brown stage curtain, the beat up guitars and piano combined for an amazing ill ass show!

#3 Little Brother

Hip hop shows tend to lack in performance when all they have is backing track as opposed to a live band. Not the case with Little Brother. They absolutely MURDERED the show. They brought the funny and the energy with the performance that got the entire crowd RAGING! Its shitty that they are no longer a group because the two of them made some ill ass hip hop to genre that absolutely hurting.

*First show: Family Values Tour.

#1 NIRVANA (1993)

My friend’s older sister agreed to take us to see Nirvana at the ripe old age of 14. She was 21, reminded me of Kelly Bundy from Married with Children, and bought me a 6 pack of MGD Draft and my buddy a 6 pack of Zima. She put it in the backseat with me and an off-duty police officer ran over to the car and started grilling her about minors in possession. She freaked out, floored it, hopped a median, and did about 100mph for the next 30 miles. She was yelling at us to drink all the evidence, which was a tall order for two kids. I finished my 6-pack mixed with swigs of Orange Gatorade to cut the taste and my buddy pounded 6 Zimas, which is like pounding 6 Smirnoff Ice’s or 6 penises. We arrived safe at the venue and parked next to some gnarly long haired alternative dudes in their van who were smoking weed with some groupie sluts. My boy opened the door of his sister’s Ford Probe and a bunch of empty Zima bottles hit the pavement and right after he puked his guts out in front of all the cool old dudes and their betties. One of the dudes looked at him and said: “Dude that was fucking gross.,” and all of his friends laughed at him. My boy got called Zima for the rest of high-school. Oh yeah, Nirvana was dope.

#2 Pavement (1996)

Zima and I were into Pavement since the early 90’s. So when they did a huge tour of the Southwest we told our parents that we were spending the night at each other’s houses for a week. Meanwhile, I was working at Motel 6 and booked a week’s worth of rooms that we may or may not have payed for. We saw Pavement at least 5 times on that tour, smoked with Malkmus, and pretty much decided we could never see Pavement again because it could never be as epic.

#3 The Postal Service (2003)

This tour was unbelievable. It was a totally unique sound at the time and Death Cab wasn’t the Death Cab you know now. Jenny Lewis of childhood stardom (The Wizard, Troop Beverly Hills) was singing and there were projectors and The Postal Service(much like the Faint) were just a little too ahead of their time. The beauty of this show was NO ONE could say they had seen them before, because it was their first and only tour. It was all diehard fans singing and dancing together in a tiny spot about the size of Middle East upstairs. I think it was $10 and they never toured again.

First Show: They Might be Giants (with my mom)