Jun 142010
 


What’s the best “seat” you’ve ever had for a show?

Mine was probably when Townsman andyr and I stood a row or two back from the 4-inch “stage” that barely held X, when I saw them play in a dance studio (you know, with mirrors and those stretching bars on the walls) in support of Under the Big Black Sun. The band was so energetic, animated, and sexy – and they were right in our faces. It was like in the movies, yet people in Philly didn’t do a lot of stupid slam-dancing back then, so I could stand there in my typical arms-folded stance and bob my head in appreciation. It was my first up-close look at what a band’s onstage dynamic could be, and I’ve never had a better look at a better dynamic since.

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  24 Responses to “Best Seat in the House”

  1. Mine is similar to yours Mr. Mod, only more recently.

    We saw Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 at Johnny Brenda’s a year or so ago and me and the missus were front and center watching Robyn play spidery leads and requesting tea from the bar (I think he ended up canceling the next few nights of the tour due to sore throat…). Off to my right I could see Peter Buck play effortlessly and efficiently on his 12 string Ric. Great show and they even played one of my favorite old Robyn tunes “Beautiful Queen”.

    A top 10 live show for me.

  2. I typically don’t like to be right up front for a show but I was directly in front of Rick Danko when they played Tony Mart’s down the shore about 6 months after Richard Manual cashed it in. Even though it was only 3/5 of the Band, it was still cool to see Danko that close.

    And I was in the balcony of the Troc but off to the side (so close to the stage) when Westerberg was doing his first solo tour. Still probably the best show I’ve seen.

  3. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few great seats.

    I’ve been down front for a few Dylan shows, which was cool.

    One of the most recent was mine and fellow Townsman mickavory’s thrid row seats for AC/DC. That was loads of fun. Loud, but fun.

    I was right in front of the Tower of Power horns in a club in Jackson. That was hair-splitting.

    I got to see Elvis Costello in Memphis at the Hi-Tone (his DVD called “Club Date” was filmed there). That was a cool show. Also caught him a year later at the HoB.

    TB

  4. When I was a teen, I went to see the Psychedelic Furs with a friend. It was the height of “Pretty In Pink,” and they were playing the Spectrum in its “Showcase” configuration. Just before the show, my friend says, “We have to get up close!” and I say, “We ARE close, this is good where we are.” (We were about 15th row, center stage.) “No man, we have to go ALL the way to the front!”

    I didn’t want to stay there alone, so I went with him. Idiot move. I ended up next to a giant metal fence, the barrier between the crowd and the stage. My left arm was getting crushed against the fence and I started to panic – what if something happens and I need my arm? I could hardly move and there was nowhere to go.

    I wriggled my arm up, only to realize that the barrier was taller than my shoulder, which meant that now I could not put my arm down! I held my left arm up in the air through the entire fucking show.

    Richard Butler shook my hand six times.

    The first time he did it, I thought, “Cool! Richard Butler shook my hand!” But by the fourth time all I could think was, “DUDE, stop shaking my hand – don’t you know I can’t put my arm down?!?!”

    These days I prefer more intimate shows, where you’re pretty much close to the stage no matter where you are. I’d rather have my own space and sit where the sound is balanced. I did have amazing seats for a Joni Mitchell show, which was mostly amazing for the experience of having her ten feet away from me.

  5. Also, I used to bar tend at the Warfield Theater in SF and had great unobstructed views for lots of shows there. It was cool because bands would still be doing their sound checks while I was setting up the bar, so for instance, I would see Jerry Garcia and David Grisman bullshitting and noodling around during their sound check.

    One of the bars was down in front on the side by a door to the back stage, so it was really close. I was working that bar when Spinal Tap played there. Les Claypool from Primus showed up at my bar so I bought him a beer. About ten minutes later, he was on stage supplying that crucial 4th bass on Big Bottom.

  6. BigSteve

    Stop me if I’ve told this story before. Maybe ten or twelve years ago a friend of mine from Memphis came to New Orleans for training at one of those big Microsoft seminars. He’d been there a few days before calling and saying, “There’s this big blowout tonight at the Superdome, and I can bring a guest. Some band called Cheap Trick is playing. I don’t want to go by myself.” Me: “Yeah sure, I can help you out.”

    So we got there, and it was summertime, and they had a full carnival with rides and everything inside the Superdome. The rides were covered by Microsoft, and many of the computer geeks were taking full advantage. We walked around a little bit, and then it turned out there was free food. Since this was New Orleans it was actually good free food. And get this, free beer!

    So we loaded up our plates, got beer, and I suggested we not eat standing up but go sit up in the stands and get comfortable while we ate. There wasn’t really anyone up there, so we sat down a couple of rows up from the ‘field.’ And then as soon as we settled in, Cheap Trick came onstage, which was 50 yards away at most. I was like, why can’t all concerts be like this?

    Cheap Trick was actually really good, and after we finished eating we went down on the floor and rocked out with the geeks. It wasn’t real crowded — there were only a couple thousand people there max — so it was very pleasant. It turned out Cheap Trick was opening for Steve Winwood, who was also real good, playing stuff from every stage of his career all the way back to Spencer Davis.

    All in all a great evening, thanks to Microsoft’s largesse. (Actually they charged a fortune for those conferences, so it was thanks to my friend’s employer and to +1.)

  7. Mr. Moderator

    cher, andyr and I had a similar “worst seat in the house” experience when we saw The Clash as Penn’s ice skating rink. We got right up front only to realize that 3000 people behind us wanted to get a little closer themselves. We finally wiggled our way out of there and found a safe place to watch the show. A handshake from Strummer would have been cool, though, before we got free.

  8. Oh, yeah, and one of those Warfield shows was Joe Strummer fronting the Pogues after Shane had drank himself out of the band. I watched that show from the front row aisle of the balcony. No free Cajun food but Great nonetheless.

  9. i used to be a lighting tech at The Troc and The Electric Factory. There were plenty of great shows i worked and got to see and sound checks and all of that cool stuff.
    The best seat for all of that may have been Morrissey. I had to climb 25 feet of rope ladder above stage right and point a beacon light at Moz’s bald spot throughout the entire performance.
    nifty vantage.

  10. ladymisskirroyale

    I was in grad school and went to see Elvis Costello perform in the (glorified) gym at my university. While he was playing “Accidents Will Happen,” an entire tier of the bleachers collapsed. Perhaps the incident had been planned by some vengeful AV guys?

  11. The seat that immediately comes to mind was second row center at the Tower in December 1975 for Springsteen. Bruce did a run of shows between Christmas and New Years. Can’t remember how I got those tickets. I know Geo was with me; were they your tickets or mine Geo?

    A fantastic show that more than matched the seats. I most remember a very lengthy (although it probably wasn’t nearly as lengthy in fact as it is in my memory) guitar duel between Bruce & Miami Steve during Saint In The City.

    The other show that was something special was James Carr back in the mid-90s. I think I’ve mentioned this before so I won’t go into detail but it was in a restaurant/bar with about 50 people, 40 who were there to eat and didn’t care about this legend singing. The other 10 of us were in the back of the room where the stage was.

    Speaking of Robyn Hitchcock, I just saw him last week at the Iron Horse in Northampton MA. A small club in which you have to go to some effort to have a bad seat. But for this show I was at a front table. Not really a good seat despite it’s proximity but someone else had saved us seats. I had a great great view of Robyn’s nostril hairs.

  12. 2004. Van Halen. 5th row. Eddie’s side. That was cool. Jim Carrol Band at a club called Left Bank in NYC around 1980 was a real good one too. I have seen many shows at smaller venues (3,000 seats) where every seat is great and that always rocks.

  13. On The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels tour I nailed tickets the first day they went on sale over the telephone — no internet, remember? They arrived in the mail a few weeks later and on the ticket was printed Row 1. Don’t remember what section they were, just that we had the first row in that section.

    We get to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and the usher keeps walking us up to the front … the FRONT ROW, stage right. Mick and Keith were about 12 feet in front of me a different times during the show. A spectacular experience. I like to believe Mick enjoyed my impersonation of him, which I did directly in his face during Jumpin’ Jack Flash.

  14. As I have mentioned before, I was in something like the sixth row for The Who on the first tour without Entwistle. (Remember, he died a day before the tour was supposed to start.) From that vantage point, it was as if they played with a little bit of the old fire, like they had something to prove.

    More recently, my fiancee and I had very close seats for Echo and the Bunnymen at the Keswick. That was definitely a more ambivalent experience, as we got to watch the guy in the very front row who couldn’t keep his hands off the stage, and generally made a nuisance of himself to Ian McCulloch.

  15. I was in the 1st row at the tower theater to see The Pretenders. The two best guys were already dead. The drummer had his drums appear to be frozen when the band started. I touched Chrissie Hyndes’ leg. She had leather pants on.

  16. That was very un-PETA of her, sethro b!

    OK, lemme see. How ’bout The Clash, 1979, The Sixteen Tons Tour, at The Orpheum in Boston, with The Undertones (only time the original lineup was in the USA) as one of the opening acts. First 10 rows (roughly) of seats removed per order of The Clash. My buddy & I ended up about three people back from the front of the stage, right between Strummer & Simenon. When the show got going, and the pogo-ing (that’s right, NOT moshing or slam dancing) started, we shifted around until we were right in front, nearer Joe. His teeth were still rotten, so I got spattered with a fair amount of Strummer spittle….it was great!!! They were like a rock & roll machine at that point (2nd US tour for the 2nd LP). Words do not suffice to explain the effect it had on my li’l 15 year old self. Like The Minutemen song says, “Punk rock changed my life”. Not so much my friend, who, though he enjoyed it for someone unfamiliar w/the band (he was the only one of my friends whose parents would let take my other ticket and go into the city on the bus, unescorted), he was still more of a Rush & Yes fan. I saw The Clash again 6 months later at the same place for the London Calling tour. Also great, but we were about 1/2 way back in seats, so it wasn’t quite as visceral an experience. Also, the guy I went with that time had weed, so we were high. It was better (for me, at least) sober…I can remember it so much clearer. That was only my 2nd “real” concert. My first was Joe Jackson at the Berklee Performance Center on his first US tour. Also pretty great…that band of his was super tight & the sound in that place is excellent. Still, it didn’t hold a candle to The Clash. Oh yeah, The Undertones were great, too…more of a “fun” vibe. I don’t think I’d even heard their record before that show, but I immediately went out and got it after seeing them.

  17. Thanks to my groovy pal Marcus whom I sure I still owe, first row seats – the only time I’ve ever had first row seats, May 11, 1976, Auditorium theater (Chicago), Bob Marley & the Wailers on the ‘Rastaman Vibration’ tour with Aston and Carlton ‘Family Man’ Barret for the rhythm section. Outstanding.

    A couple of years later my brother and I ran a rehearsal studio/dance club thingie and I got to run sound for Bauhaus and Black Flag, among others. The one thing I shall never forget about the Bauhaus show was that they insisted on using all of their 220 eurovolt Marshall gear and lighting.

    Since some bums had stripped all of the copper out of the freight elevator motor in our joint, about eight of us guys had to heist this 400 pound oil-filled step-down transformer up three flights of stairs to the showroom. It was like carrying a small car.

    Also, Peter Murphy and Daniel Ash and them other guys in Bauhaus were REALLY SMALL fellers. All the same size tho.

    The glory of rock.

  18. 2000 Man

    I’ve had good seats or spots a lot. For awhile, I was in Belkin Concert Club, and since they promoted every medium to large sized show in Cleveland, the couple of years I was in it, I sat close all the time. 6th row for Ozzy, 2nd row for ZZ Top in 81, 5th row for Linda Ronstadt, etc. The only time I ever got 1st row was when I got tickets for someone else, for Journey.

    I had 6th row for The Stones with Elvis Costello opening up not too long ago. That was swell! Anymore, I just like to be close enough to see and I go to shows that are in small places anyway.

  19. I believe I was there the night Brian Setzer became a star. He was playing with his pre-Stray Cats group, The Bloodless Pharoahs, a sort of cheesey Art-rock band on a week night at the Hot Club. They had been playing there a lot because David Carroll, the owner, had taken a shine to them and I think was managing them. Anyway, they were somewhat, shall we say flawed, not terrible but just not totally right, most particularly because of slightly goofy material and a singer/organist with a basso profundo voice who might be described as a Goth version of the guy from The Iron Butterfly. Anyway, it was clear that Setzer could play, but he had a self effacing manner on stage, as if he was not aware of how much better his playing was than the act. On this particular night, however, despite or maybe because of the small crowd, Setzer went into one of his solos and it was obvious that a light went on. He pretty much took over with a long, unwinding psychedelic solo, (the band were more along the lines of the Doors than rockabilly) and proceeded to milk it for everything it was worth, walking offstage playing, just extending the part over and over, reveling in the small crowd’s big reaction. A few months later, the Bloodless Pharoah’s were no more, and Setzer turned up in England to lay full claim to his stardom.

  20. I’ve had some great seats over the years . . . including an X show at the old Guthrie Theater in Mpls., where I was right next to Billy Zoom. I had a similar experience as Mr. Mod — what a band! Found out later that Dylan was at the show with his kids.

    I also saw the first version of the Brian Setzer Orchestra from right in front of the stage at the 9:30 Club in DC, which was crazy. It was before anyone knew what to expect, and they blew us away.

    However, my best seat was in the front row at the old Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, for an Emmylou Harris show. She smiled at me, and I thought I would pee my pants. A truly spiritual experience.

  21. machinery

    All the great shows at the 930 in DC in the 80s. Stage was only about 3 feet high and we always stood right in the front so there was never anyone between us and the bands: Minutemen, Black Flag, Replacements (Chickenfrank even to up to play drums) dbs, fleshtones, etc… Always the best seat in the house. Man I miss that place.

  22. hrrundivbakshi

    Funoka’s story reminds me of the weirdest celebrity spotting I ever did at a rock show: I saw J. Geils at the big Iggy & the Stooges comeback show at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC. And, yes — it was definitely J. Geils. WTF?

  23. I saw Fred Gwynne at a Tom Waits show in the late 80’s. They knew each other from being in ‘The Cotton Club’ & ‘Ironweed’ together, but it was still cool to have a smiling Herman Munster walk past me.

  24. Fred Gwynne at a Tom Waits
    they should have recorded something together.

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