The Band — Circa 1995 — Free?
Street festivals, county fairs, ethnic celebrations…every weekend I scour local events calendars to see if there is anything remotely interesting to see around DC, especially for free. (Oh look, Weezer is playing a free show at a Microsoft store in Arlington, VA on Aug. 11th!)
Last summer, I saw The Bangles (who are still keeping it together) at a county fair. I’ve seen Al Green (fantastic), Joan Jett, Kansas (umm), Soul Asylum, Gin Blossoms, Etta James, Old 97s (at an Italian Fest in Chicago!) — some good, some bad.
But the most memorable free show was seeing the 1990s version of the Band at a Taste of DC festival…circa 1994 or so. They sounded great, Danko was there, and there they were playing in front of about 500 people at some side stage.
In the spirit of season, what’s the best show you’ve ever seen for free?
For me, hands down, it was this one:
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/brooklyn.html
An incredible night of leonard cohen’s music with folks such as Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Linda Thompson,
Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla – two singers who have sung backup with Cohen for years, finally getting the chance to sing lead, and a crack, totally vibey backing band which included Tony Scherr and Steve Bernstein.
Hal Wilner produced the concert and chose some deeper songs, not the obvious standards, though we heard a few of those too. For me, of all people, Teddy Thompson stole the show with a beautiful rendition of “Tonight will be fine.”
Everybody in the audience was rapt and fully aware that they had experienced something amazing – and for free!
Never being a big festival guy, perhaps I don’t have many free summer shows to select from. I’m trying to remember who may have blown me away from Spring Flings of my college years, but at Northwestern it always seemed to be Buddy Guy and at Temple it was Fishbone. Ugh, on both counts.
I saw Lucinda Williams at an outdoor concert hosted by WXPN at a park near me in South Jersey, maybe 10 years ago. She was very good, especially when she sang that one type of song that sounded like “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” or whatever her rocking hit was.
Funniest free concert I must have seen was Mountain outside a frat at George Washington University. Leslie West was seated on a stool. Drummer Corky Lainge (sp?) fell off his drum stool mid-song.
Muddy Waters with opening act the Blues Brothers at Chicagofest, August 1979. I’m pretty sure it was free.
The Blues Brothers were only known as a sketch on SNL. Unbeknownst to me at the time they were in town shooting the Bluss Brothers movie. I thought they were funny and very entertaining but at the same time I thought they were making a mockery of the blues and showing disrespect to Muddy. I didn’t have long to feel conflicted because they only played for about five minutes.
Muddy was still fantastic at that time and although I don’t usually enjoy outdoor gigs, his performance made the indignity of watching from a chaotic mob of grubby stoners bearable.
Best free concert I ever experienced was the time Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band played the Parkway in Philadelphia Oct2008. It was part of the Obama campaign. He played his most popular songs including one I think just right for the occasion. “Born in the USA” At least the title’s relevant. It was one of the last events my husband I was at before he passed from an acute leukemia. His prognosis extremely ppor.His healthcare was the best. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. For years I couldn’t listen to Springsteen. Just this year2012 I could finally enjoy his music. Rock on!!!
Sorry to hear about your husband. That’s a meaningful free concert.
I don’t recall seeing Muddy at one of those events a couple of years later. Good story.
I just caught the 4th of July concert on the Parkway in philly. The Roots were the backing band. I mercifully missed Joe Jonas. I caught some of Queen Latifa, Common and all of Darryl Hall and surprise guest Lauren Hill. Not usually my cup of tea but it was really well done. And I had all access passes so before it started, I snapped a picture of Center City from behind Questlove’s drum kit.
Worst ever: I’ve mentioned it several times before but it was prog supergroup UK in 1977.
Those free 4th of July concerts in Philadelphia can be pretty good. Best one I’ve ever seen was Ray Charles in 97. He wasn’t in the best voice but was a cool, entertaining guy throughout.
I also wandered into a LiveAid offshoot concert in Hyde Park in the mid 80’s (SportAid) which had Tears for Fears and a Hollies reunion, among some lesser British pop-new wave of the time.
Yes in retrospect it was a meaningful concert for me. Glad I can listen to Springsteen now. He’s the boss. Thanks.
Summer in the mid-80s in D.C., I remember going to a day-before Independence Day protest concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial featuring local acts and then the Dead Kennedys. Machinery and I went to the show on that really hot early evening, and had a good time participating in the stage diving and other hardcore sanctioned activities. It was a far more enjoyable show than The MAN’S Beach Boys snooze the next day.
Some other freebie shows I’ve thought of since the post . . .
Suzanne Vega (Herndon, VA — Labor Day Festival)
Nellie McKay — a Christmas show at the Kennedy Center
Mamas & The Papas before John Phillips passed on — weird, but interesting to see him up there. (Herndon Festival, again)
Patty Loveless (Sioux Empire, SD, County Fair)
Suzy Bogguss — (South Dakota State Fair) She made John Hiatt a lot of money covering “Drive South” a year after I saw her.
As a kid, I almost got sucked in by a band called “Steve Millar & Diamondhead” at the Minnesota State Fair — thinking it was, you know, Steve Miller.
Sorry for your loss. Thanks for that wonderful memory.
I can’t remember last week half the time, but some shows that happened 20 years ago are seared in my memory. That’s the Power and the Glory of rock right there!
The Staple Singers – Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Richard Thompson – Central Park Summerstage, NYC
Jr. Brown – same
? & The Mysterians -same (got to meet the band before the show, through friends who put out a live record of theirs. ? is a trip and a half!)
Big rockabilly fest featuring a load of Sun Records guys (off the tip of my brain, I remember Sonny Burgess & Billy Lee Riley…I need food) and Ronnie Dawson. I think it was at the Wollman Rink in Central Park around ’90 or ’91, I think.
There were probably a few others…They were all free and they were all great. Now I must feed.
When I was a student at Tulane in the early 70s, they would open the semester with a street dance, closing off the main thoroughfare through the campus. One year (maybe ’73?) they had the Meters. I knew who they were, but I didn’t really know much about them. This was when they mostly played in bars, and no one I knew went to those bars. Anyway they were awesome, especially since stretching out to fill the time meant that Leo Nocentelli could let his Hendrix flag fly high. I remember passing around pints of Southern Comfort, and the music seemed to go for hours.
Fred Wesley, 2012 — unbelievably amazing
Trouble Funk, 1985 — great
Jason & the Scorchers, 1985 — good
Danny Gatton, 198…7? — amazing, as always. The first time I ever saw him live, and my mind was suitably blown
Beach Boys, 1986 or something — awful
Huey Lewis & the News, 1985? — mediocrity personified
… funny how I can remember all the shitty shows from my college years, but between then and 2012, it’s a big blank.
Another George Washington U. free live show was an outdoor one by David Johannsen (sp?) before he became primarily Buster Poindexter as a performer.
It was a fun R ‘n R show, but what I remember most was that he and the band showed up much later than the expected start time. D.J. hits the stage and says something to the effect of “Sorry that we’re so late. There was an accident on the way here. A baby might have been killed.” It was really funny the way he knocked the air of frustration out of the crowd with that way off-color comment.
Were the Fleshtones & Lyres shows I saw while in D.C., also GWU freebies (I’m presuming you were there for both of those, too)? Those were fun.
I usually associate “free” shows with outdoor events. I do remember seeing Fleshtones and Lyres in D.C., but I only recall seeing them indoors. If it was a paid show, they were worth it!
David Johansen — pre-Buster — stayed in a hotel in downtown Mpls. I worked at. Some groupie girls kissed his door with heavy lipstick — all over the door. I wish I would have taken a picture before I had to clean it up. This was circa 1983 — I didn’t know who the hell he was, but if girls liked him enought to do that . . . I thought I would check his music out.
Another memory was The Lords of the New Church watching me run a snow blower at the same hotel. I don’t think they’d ever seen one in action . . . or a big snowstorm.
Yeah, they were indoors, but I’m pretty sure they were GWU events..and I think they were free. AndyR might remember. We hung out with The Fleshtones after their show (many Spinal Tap jokes were told, as it was new at the time).
The David Johansen Band (feat. Huw Gower of The Records on gtr.) played my college in N.H., too….spring of ’82, I think. I got him to sign both my Dolls LPs. That one was outdoors, and The (freakin’) Pousette Dart Band were part of the bill…I did my best to ignore them. The Johansen Band was really good.
Ugh, I remember that Johansen one despite how much beer I must have had. I’d rather have heard someone tell dead baby jokes, which possibly were in vogue at the time, replacing their previous ethnic counterparts.Or maybe they replaced elephant jokes.
Saw a free Fountains of Wayne show on G Street that was pretty good about six or eight years ago. They signed cds afterwards and were appropriately goofy.
I saw Ray Davies perform live in Boston for free in 1998 promoting the Storyteller CD. He was supposed to be at the downtown Borders just signing CDs & do a couple of songs, but so many people showed up that they moved to the Old South Church across the street & Ray performed for about an hour. The highlight was when he looked around @ the Colonial-era interior & proclaimed “I shall reclaim this building for Britain!”
I saw Merle Haggard do a free show at the Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa back in ’81 or so. The show was a tribute to Bob Wills and was supposed to be recorded for a live album. It was at noon(!) and was broadcast on KVOO, the same time and station Wills used for his broadcasts back in the day. It was only supposed to last for a half-hour, but they ended up playing for more than three hours. Many of Hag’s sidemen were Wills alums, and they played nothing but Bob Wills tunes the whole time. What I remember most was how much FUN they had. I’d never seen any group just plain enjoy themselves like these guys did. Swapping solos, egging each other on, and just…grinnin’. The only other time I saw that type of pure musical joy was watching King Sunny Ade with a 16 member band on a tiny stage. Two very different shows (although both had killer steel guitarists!!) but the same level of musical joy.