1990-1992
152. San Francisco Int'l SKA Festival. (won tickets)
Gangster Fun, Me Mom and Morgantaller, Let's go Bowling, Donkey Show, The Uptones, Bad Manners and the International Beat (w/Dave and Roger from the EB) Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA. 4/21/90This was another one of those grueling events. We got there at 11:30 in the morning and it ended at like 12:30 am. A lot of great bands. Let's go Bowling stole the show though, they were really amazing! bad Manners put on an excellent show and played all of their ska hits. The International Beat were ok but when Roger and Dave from the original English Beat came out and they did all the great English Beat hits, that was very cool. I recorded some of most of the bands. It was a good day but too long for Lani. This would be the last all day concert she would ever go to with me.
153. The Accused, Lifeline, Stevie Stilleto. $5.00 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley CA. 4/27/90
I got to talk with the guys in the Accused again and they remembered playing out on the farm in El Paso (Sound Seaz). The guitar player said he even recorded some pig sounds to use on one of their lps at some point! I don't remember any other specifics of the show but I am sure that the Accused ripped!
154. Oliver Magnum, The Wicked, and Reality. (won tickets) Omni, Oakland, CA 6/3/90
I don't recall the Wicked or Reality at all. I think they were local bands and the only people at the Omni were fans of the opening bands. I think there were 30 people in a place that holds 900. Anyway, Oliver Magnum were a band that I liked a lot from Oklahoma. I reviewed all of their demos in my zine with great praise so it was excellent to see them live. They had a new singer and he was pretty good. They were incredible live. They played all those classic songs from the demos. I had a really good time meeting them and having a chat. They knew exactly who I was, which was cool, as I had stopped the zine over 2 years ago.
155. Messenjah. (won tickets) DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA 8/6/90I had not idea who these guys were but Tim Garrow, a grad student from Berkeley and I went. The DNA Lounge was a cool place to see a show. I had never been there before. They had a great sound system and the walls were all painted black with weird space age art and shit hanging from the ceiling. I remember that the DJ played this totally amazing song and we asked him who it was and he said it was Mano Negro.. I never did find that band (there is another band with the same name but not the right band). Anyway, Messenjah were really great live. I bought one of their lps and it was a bit to sappy reggae for me but live they were really great! They were a Canadian band. Tim and I would go see them again in a few months!
156. Kotoja (won tickets) Slims, San Francisco, CA 8/12/90
Lani's brother (Brian Kast) and his girlfriend Nussara (now wife) came out to visit us in Berkeley and we all went to this show. Kotoja were a local Oakland band with a couple of guys from Nigeria. They played afrobeat style world music. They were quite good live. One of the secretaries from work, her boyfriend was one of the Nigerian guys in the band. It was quite a good show.
157. Sonic Youth, NIRVANA, STP. (won tickets) Warfield, San Francisco, CA 8/21/90
Who would have known how lucky I was to get to see Nirvana at this point. I don't remember STP at all. I think I went to this show by myself. Nirvana were really raw sounding I recall. I don't know why I did not record them, as I recorded Sonic youth (but my recorder fucked up for the first 20 minutes or so). Anyway, Nirvana were pretty heavy. I remember thinking that Kurt was a fucking sloppy guitar player. I remember that he dove into the audience with his guitar on at the end of the show! Sonic Youth had a big hit on the GOO lp and so were quite popular, which surprised me a bit because a lot of their stuff was so noisy. Th guitar players have their guitars tuned really strangely so they sound really fucked up... I did not really like or dislike them that much.
158. Barnaby's Wild. (won tickets) Omni, Oakland, CA 9/15/90
I have no idea who this band is or why I went?
159. Johnny Winter and Robben Ford. $21.60 Warfield, San Francisco, CA 9/22/90
My good friend Jay Jones (now in Dallas) had turned me onto Johnny Winter. I had of course heard of him but not really got into him like now. I would go on to collect nearly all of the Johnny Winter records on vinyl and become a big fan. Robben Ford, from the yellowjackets, played some pretty laid back blues. He was not too bad. I was a little disappointed that Johnny only played like 75 minutes and tickets were quite expensive, but he still played some great guitar!
160. Messenjah. (won tickets) Caribe Dance Center, Oakland, CA. 11/14/90
Tim was really tired this night and pretty much just sat there. They played two sets but we only stayed for one because it was getting so late. They were just as good as before but the sound was not quite as powerful as at the DNA Lounge.
161. Hawkwind (won tickets) Omni, Oakland, CA 12/16/90
It was great to see Hawkwind back already! The Space Bandits lp was different because they now had a female singer. I really liked the lp quite a lot. I met some really cool people at this show. I met a guy named Brad who had a band called Heavy the World, as well as Chris Bruce, who put out a HW flyer called the Kadu Flyer (RIP). Chris and Mary would become my friends when we moved to Boston. I would trade a few tapes with Brad as well. I had a great seat up in the balcony and made an excellent recording except for a few flaws on side A. It was a cool show since the Omni had enough ceiling etc for all the projections. not as good a show as the 1989 tour but still really enjoyable! The set list was:
Angels of Death, The Golden Void, Check Control, Ejection, Wings
Out of the Shadows, Snake Dance, Night of the Hawks, Star Song>Night of the Hawks, TV Suicide, Back in the Box, Assassins of Allah, Images
Reefer Madness
162. Hawkwind $9.60 I-Beam, San Francisco, CA 12/17/90This was just across the bay so there was no way I was going to miss this one! Instead of hanging back and recording I went and stood right up front. you could not see the show as well but you could see what was going on. The set list was the same as above except that they opened with Needle Gun instead of Angels of Death. It was great to get to see everyone. Dave still hid behind the keyboards a bit too much. Another great show though!! The I-Beam was a really good place to see a show, as the stage was quite high so you could see pretty well from most places.
163. NOFX, Offspring, Pennywise, Jughead's Revenge. $5.00 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA. 2/2/91
Another pretty cool punk show. Who would have thought that Offspring would become this huge band! Ha! All the bands were quite good. Jughead's Revenge played some ripping stuff. NOFX always put on such an entertaining show. Great live band!
164. Candlemass and Atheist. (won tickets) Omni, Oakland, CA 2/8/91
This would be the last time that Candlemass would tour the US. This was a pretty poorly attended show but they were amazing. Atheist was really over the top ripping death metal stuff. I liked some of their songs but not that many. For Candlemass I went up to the barrier and there was another guy there who was totally into it as well. After the show we exchanged phone numbers. This was Pete Bolick! I remember that Candlemass played a new song that was not on any of their lps. I did not record this night but they blew me away! I spoke with Messiah and Leif briefly. Very nice guys.
(From this point on I have actually kept notes in a little book with the ticket stubs, so a lot of the notes here are taken from the original notes made right after the concerts!)
165. PRIMUS, Limbomaniacs and 4 Non-Blondes (won tickets) Warfield, San Francisco, CA 2/14/91
Won tickets on KALX, which was pretty much a standard thing by this time. It was valentine's day and Lani and went to the show. I tried to get my recorder in but got caught at the door and had to turn it into the coat check. Anyway, we only caught a few songs of 4 Non-Blondes. The Limbomaniacs were great!! All white funk band with crazy lyrics and hats... Great stuff..
Primus were really excellent and I remember the balcony feeling like it was going to collapse because the people were jumping up and down.. They played at least three new songs that I had never heard at the time.
166. IRON MAIDEN and Anthrax. $19.50 Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA 3/14/91
It was nearly sold out and this was the 7th time for me to see Iron Maiden, 3rd time for Anthrax. It was very loud. The sound for Anthrax was a bit muddy. The set list was: Got the Time, Madhouse, Caught in a Mosh, Keep it in the family, Indians, Antisocial, I am the Law, I'm the Man, Baba O'Reily excerpt.. I did not record this show.
Iron Maiden were really excellent and Janick really seem to breath new life into the band as I had never seen the whole band be so energetic. Sure, Steve Harris always runs around like mad, but I had never seen Dave move at all and he was all over the place and they all seem to really have a good time. The set list was: tailgunner, Public Enema #1, Wrathchild, Die with your boots on!, Hallowed be thy Name, 22 Acacia Ave, Holy Smoke, no Prayer for the Dying, Clairvoyant, 2 minutes to Midnight, Heaven can Wait, Iron Maiden, # of the Beast, Take your Daughter to the Slaughter, Run to the Hills. I brought my recorder but was caught and had to take it back to the car.
167. RORY GALLAGHER and Chapter Nyne. $13.00 Stone, San Francisco, CA. 3/16/91Don't remember much about Chapter Nyne at all. Rory was great!! he played for about 130 minutes and did a lot of numbers from the new Defender lp as well as some great old ones. He did a short acoustic section of the show as well. It was this show that I met up with a guy named Danny from Albuquerque who had gone to a lot of the same shows as I had but now was a deadhead, as well as liking a lot of other bands. We traded a few tapes and then parted ways as he was too much of a flake. This was the last time Rory toured the US before he died in 1996. RIP..... The set list was:
Continental op, Moonchild, I wonder Who, Don't you start me Talkin', Tatto'd lady, Off the handle, Shinkicker, The Loop, Amillion miles away, Welcome to the End, Kickback Back City, ? , Shadowplay, Last of the Independents, Walkin' Blues, Pistol Slapper Blues, Big Guns, Messing with the Kid, Tumbling Dice, Bullfrog Blues, All around man, Boys are back in Town, Loanshark Blues, Secret Agent
168. NOFX, No use for a Name, Corrupted Morals, The Screw. $5.00 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA. 3/29/91
Was a totally sold out show. I traded tapes (reggae) with the drummer of the Screw for a while. He was a really cool young rastafarian kid (white). It was a great show. A guy from back east named Patt Dunn was out visiting the area with a friend of his so we went to the show. All the bands were quite good. I like the aggressive style of Corrupted Morals. The Screw played a good ska punk style. NOFX were great as well, A great sense of humor!
169. Inner Circle and Hedzoleh Sounds. (won tickets) Slims, San Francisco, CA. 4/4/91
Won tickets on KALX and went with my tennis friend from the USDA, Bruce Campbell. Hedzoleh Sounds I had seen backing Hugh Maekela on the steps of Sproul Plaza at lunch time. They were really good and rhythmic! Inner Circle were now getting really popular and they had one of the old Wailers playing guitar with them. Not as good as when we saw them in El Paso, but they still put on a good show!
170. Yes $22.50 Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA 5/17/91
The seats were excellent and the stage was in the round so you could see great from all views. I thought steve howe was amazing, but the show revolved around Trevor Rabin too much, I thought. The set was nice and varied and they did some cool numbers like Awaken! Rick Wakeman is quite an incredible keyboard player. I did not record because I had never been here before and was a bit paranoid about the security but it ended up they hardly looked at you. They played about 150 minutes.
171. Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Egypt 80. $10 Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 7/26/91
This was a totally amazing concert but because they started an hour late, we only got two hours of music do to the fucking unions not allowing the concert to go past 11 without charging the band double time. I had a great seat in the Orchestra section, row I. I went by myself but I met a really cool guy named Kevin Handley at this show. They only played about 5 or 6 songs in the 2 hours but they were incredible. I think he had 26 people in the band, like 15 drummers, 8 horn players, etc.... His son, who was maybe 8 years old came out and sang Sorrow, Tears and Blood!! I got a very nice recording of this show, which I am very happy about because FELA has now passed on... (RIP 8/97)..
172. LOLLAPALOOZA- $22.00
Janes Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T, Butthole Surfers and Rollins Band!
Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA 7/27/91I got caught with my recorder so I did not get to record this show. I went with Chris Eng, an old penpal, whom I had traded tapes with before moving to California. Rollins band were amazing, so high energy, aggressive and angry! I thought that they nearly stole the show. Ok, they were the best! Butthole Surfers, were fucking weird, I thought they were alright, but they did not grab me the way Henry did! ICE-T had the crowd going nuts and he was quite good. Nine Inch Nails were really excellent. Siouzsie were fucking boring techno pop crap. Ugh... Janes Addiction were actually better than I had thought that they would be, with a great variety of songs and styles. Excellent concert..
173. Pierre Bensusan and Adrian Legg (won tickets) Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA 8/29/91
Lani and I went to this show and had a nice time. We had a table only 15 feet away from the stage near the center. This is a great intimate place for a concert. Adrian Legg started the show and was great. A UK guitar player with a wide variety of acoustic instrumental stuff, with all sorts of different tunings. Piere was great! He played a lot of stuff we knew as well as new stuff. He would joke with the audience and played interesting stuff with tape loops etc.. Got ok recordings..
174. HR and Dub Addxx. (won tickets) Slims, San Francisco, CA 9/15/91
I won tickets on KALX and went to the show with Kevin Handley. The Dub Addxx were pretty good, but they got a bit monotonous when the singer joined them. HR was totally killer! He had a great band and played for over 2 hours. I was quite blown away. HR needs to take some trumpet lessons though, as he is so bad......... I got an excellent recording!
175. Armored Saint, Wrathchild America, Last Crack. (backstage pass) Omni, Oakland, CA 9/21/91
I went down to the club early and had a chat with AS and John Bush put me on the guest list, so I got to hang out with the band, who were some of the coolest guys in the music business. This show was amazing. Last Crack, were a really unique sounding band. I was quite impressed with them, but the crowd was not into them. Wrathchild America were really nice guys and had some great numbers, but overall I did not like them that much. I saw many members of Bay Area bands like Laaz Rockit, Testament, Heathen, etc.. at this show. I wish I had recorded this show, but I didn't. Armored Saint were the best I had ever seen them, fucking incredible! The set list was: Reign of Fire, Tribal Dance, Nervous Man, Long Before I Die, Warzone, For the Sake, Last Train home, Symbol of Salvation, Chemical Euphoria, Tainted past, Dropping like Flies, Can U Deliver, Madhouse, Spineless, Half Drawn bridge, and Another Day!
176. John Palme and Jimmy Bruno (won tickets) Freight and Salvage, Berkeley, CA 9/25/91
It was a fun show. Both are local artists. John Palme was a local cult guy who had some very funny songs like Winnebagos on the Rampage, Electronic Freeway, and Worms. I think Lani went with me.
177. Ben and Jerry's One World One Heart Festival (free concert)
Bonedaddy's. Michelle Shocked, Hot Tuna, Blues Traveler, Caribbean Allstars with Carlos Santana.
Polo Fields, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 9/29/91I went with Kevin Handley on his motorcycle, which was a good thing as there was 50,000 people at this show and it would have taken us an extra two hours to get back to the east bay if we had not had the motorcycle. He was a most careful driver also! My main complaint of the whole show was that it was not loud enough. The Bonedaddy's were really good with an excellent world beat sound, but you could hardly hear them over the people talking. Michelle Shocked played a short set of politically oriented folk songs. She only played like 20 minutes. HOT TUNA were next and played a good set of acoustic stuff. I quite liked them. I recorded them, but it does not sound that good because it was not loud enough. Blues Traveler were who I was really psyched to see and they were great. The fog was starting to roll in and the wind picking up a bit. The temperature would drop from a sunny day in the 70's to the 50's by the time the show ended. Carlos Santana came out and did an awesome jam with Blues Traveler. The Caribbean Allstars closed the show with a great set of reggae with jamming by Carlos, who played the whole set with them. The fog was blowing across the stage really fiercely by now and lots of people were leaving. We stuck it out because they were so good! Got decent recordings of BT and Caribbean Allstars.
178. NIRVANA, Sister Double Happiness and L7. (won tickets) Warfield, San Francisco, CA 10/26/91
Lani really liked the Nevermind CD and the L7 mini lp so I was able to talk her into going to another show. I won tickets on the radio! We had a really good time at this show. All the bands were excellent. I recorded the whole show. L7 were really great. I really liked Sister Double Happiness alot. They were sort of foot stomping hard rock for rough necks! Lani only liked the statuesque female drummer! Nirvana were not very interesting to watch but I really enjoyed the music a lot. The crowd was nuts for them even though they seemed very uninspired as if they were just going thru the motions.
Nirvana set list was:
Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, Aneurysm, Drain you, School, Floyd the Barber, Smells like Teen spirit, About a girl, Polly, Breed, Sliver, Lithium, Love Buzz, On a Plain, Negative Creep, Blew, Dive, Rape Me, Territorial Pissings
179. Christopher Parkening $.6.50 Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 11/7/91He had a guest guitar player named David Brandon. Christopher is a classical guitar player who trained with Segovia. He is clearly very talented but he seem to lack the emotion that Pierre Bensusan had in his playing. He also played without any amplification in this huge hall so if anyone made the slightest noise in the whole place it was louder than him. the recording is really hissy due to the low signal. Did not record the last two songs. The best songs were when he played with David Brandon.
180. Judy Mowatt w/ Sly and Robbie. (won tickets) DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA 11/12/91
This was an excellent show. I went by myself and had a perfect spot dead center on the balcony. Great roots reggae with soulful vocals. Robbie and the guitar player were great but I thought that Sly was pretty lame. The drum sound was really weak. Great show! Excellent recording as well.
181. Johnny Winter and Ian McCleagan. $16.00 Warfield, San Francisco, CA 11/16/91
Ian McCleagan from the Faces opened the show and he was awful. I went with Kevin handley and we had front row on the balcony seats, which was great. Johnny had a cold this night so he had a little stand with water and a box of Kleenex. This might have explained why he only played for 70 minutes. He was really great though. Got an good recording as well.
182. ATTILA $16.00 War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA 11/30/91
This was the first opera that I had ever been to and it was quite good. Samuel Ramey was singing and he has got an incredible voice. The soprano was really powerful, she was so loud! Our seats were up in the top balcony to the left, which was not great but not that bad either. It was a fun show. I think we both enjoyed it quite a lot. It was a really good stage production.
183. Chieftains. $6.00 Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 11/7/91
This was a really fun show. They were celebrating their 29th year together. The UC Choir came out and sand a song with them and they had some really cool traditional Irish dancers. They played about 100 minutes and it was a fun show. Not loud enough though. I recorded it anyway and it does not sound too bad.
184. OJ Ekemode and Shambala. $8.00 Ashkanez, Berkeley, California 12/14/91
This was the first show that Shambala ever played and they were not too bad. a world beat combo with 2 female vocalists. OJ Ekemode was a really cool guy. I asked him about playing in Albuquerque, as we have some friends there who have seen him do some great shows. He said that he really liked playing there.. I thought that they were great live. I only stayed for the first set as it was so late and I was tired!
185. Savatage, Contempt, Life and Death and The Outcast. $5.00 Omni, Oakland, CA 1/17/92
I went to the show alone and missed the first two bands. Contempt played a mixture of heavy slower stuff that would then speed up. It was nice that the singer actually sang rather than shouted! Savatage were way too loud! They did not do that many old songs but a good mixture of the newer stuff, which was quite good. Streets was an excellent record. This would be the last time I saw Chris Olivia play guitar live. He would die in a car crash in the next year. he was a great underrated guitar player as well.. I really like him.. Decent recording but a little distorted due to the high volume!
186. Fates Warning, Skeletal Bliss and Obscurity. $6.00 Stone, San Francisco, CA 1/22/92
I had been waiting a long time to see Fates Warning. This was far from the ideal line up but they still put on a pretty good show. I met up with Kevin at the show. He showed up after work. obscurity had an empty sound and needed a 2nd guitar player really badly. The female singer was not too bad. Skeletal Bliss, for a thrash band, were really good. I was quite impressed. What ever happened to them? Fates Warning were really tight and quite good. Frank Aresti was a great guitar player. I was disappointed that they only played 1 song out of all the first 3 records, which are the best they ever did, IMO.
187. Daevid Allen and the Magic Brothers, Hieronymous Firebrain. I-Beam, San Francisco, CA 2/26/92
Hieronymous Firebrain were fucking awesome! The band was formed by Jonathan Siegel from Camper von Beethoven. This band was totally different though and was a progressive folk rock style. Jonathan played guitar, violin, and mandolin. I was really impressed with these guys.
Daevid Allen was really cool. It was just a three piece with violin, guitar and keyboards. The keyboard player also played digeridoo. It was a pretty mellow show but really interesting with chants to start and end the concert, sort of a spiritual thing... The music was excellent.
I met Paul Hoover at this show, someone who would turn out to be a great friend and I would go to a lot of shows with in the future until we moved out of the bay area. We had a lot of the same musical interests.
188. Skid Row and Pantera. (won tickets) Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium, Oakland, CA. 3/8/92I went with Paul to this show and it was really loud. Pantera were ok, but the new stuff is to repetitive thrash style. The crowd was really into them though. Skid Row really surprised me and were quite good and heavier than I thought they would be. They had a huge stage show with moving lights, fire, bombs, smoke... I recorded both bands.
189. Armored Saint and Life and Death. (won tickets) Stone, San Francisco, CA 3/1/92
I went to this show by myself and I had hoped to meet up with Armored Saint again, but never did get the chance. I did say hello to Joey Vera. Life and Death were ok. They used fast and slow paces and were not just all out thrash. Armored Saint were great! They did not play as long of a set as last year. They played one new song called Den of Thieves, which was on some movie soundtrack.. I got a pretty good recording of the show.
190. Frank Marino, Harold Hinkel and DJ Burns Band. (won tickets) I-Beam, San Francisco, CA 4/9/92
DJ Burns band were a pretty decent band. they played a sort of blues metal style. One of the lead guitar players thought he was Slash, with all the rock star moves. Harold Hinkel was interesting but he came across as a 2nd rate copy of Michael Hedges. Frank was fucking amazing! I was a little disappointed that other than a couple of songs the set was identical to a few years back. He played one new song. I got a pretty good recording. I saw at least two people get busted during the show for recording.
191. Bad Religion and Coffin Break. (won tickets) One Step Beyond, Santa Clara, CA 4/14/92
This was the first show in a while that I could get Lani to go to. She really liked Bad Religion a lot. We felt out of sorts though with all the young kids there! It was hot and smoky in the club.. Coffin Break were really good. They had a new bass player and a 2nd guitar player now. The new material sounded really good though. Bad Religion were fuckin' great. The singer Brett, his voice was really trashed. They played a great mixture of the old and the new. It was all quite good. they played for 70 minutes, all high energy. It was a tight security at the club and the search was really tough but I still got my recorder in!
192. Culture and Dub Addxx. (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA 4/15/92The Dub Addxx were improved over the last time I saw them open for HR. The lead guitar player was really jamming, but you could not hardly hear him. They had a Jamaican DJ come out for part of the set which livened things up.
culture were really good. Some roots reggae, some dance hall, etc.. Joseph Hill and the gang were getting really old but sounded great. They seem to play most of the older stuff at the end of the set. Songs like This Train, International Herb, etc.. We met up with Kevin and his girlfriend Judy at the show. Pretty clean recording of Culture!
193. Marillion and Da Da. $13.00 Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco, CA 4/16/92
Paul and I went to this show and what a club. it was a very fancy place and all tables. You were seated and the place looked like a place where rich Italian Mafia guys watch strip shows! Great sound system! Da Da were really good and quite eclectic. A very talented guitar player.
Marillion were a band I had been waiting to see for some time. Unfortunately Fish was no longer with them and I really did not like the new lp very much, too poppy. I thought that they were really good at times and really boring when they played the new pop crap. I was pretty impressed with the new singer though. This was the last show of the US tour and I got an excellent recording, even though I missed the very beginning due to a fuck up.
194. Badlands and Cat O'Nine Tails. (won tickets) Omni, Oakland, CA. 4/18/92
Cat O'Nine Tails were not too bad. I liked the guitar sound and riffs.
Badlands were really good! Jake E. Lee was fucking excellent. Did a lot of long jams and the rest of the band was able to keep the songs flowing well. Ray Gillan was pretty good also. It was so loud and Jake had a sticker on his amp if it is too loud then you are too old! Only about 200 people at the show, probably due to the fact that Soundgarden were also playing that night. I am sure this was the more jamming show though! I got a pretty decent recording and they played five new songs. Ray would die of stomach cancer in the next year, which really sucks... The set list was: High Wire, Tribal Moon, Rumblin' Train, Healer, Shine On, The River, Soul Stealer (fucking amazing!), Sun Red Sun, Your love is Whiskey, All your Love,195. KANSAS. $23.00 Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa, Konocti, CA. 4/24/92
My cousin Craig Wall was visiting and he is a big Kansas fan so we made the two and half hour drive north to this resort town to see Kansas. They were really great but only played for 65 minutes because they were doing an early and late show. I got an excellent recording. I was a bit surprised that the whole set was taken from music of the 70's. NOt a single tune from later than 1977! We met Steve Walsh and the bass player. They were both really nice. Steve looked pretty wasted though, but his voice was pretty good.. I asked him a question about the live at the Whiskey and he had mentioned that his voice was bad that night so all the vocals on that live lp were redone in the studio at a later time. It was good to see Kansas again after 13 years!
196. Sugarcubes and Cracker. (won tickets) Warfield, San Francisco, CA. 4/27/92
Paul Hoover and I went to this show. Cracker were ok but nothing special at all. The crowd really liked them a lot though. I thought that the Sugarcubes were interesting but sort of like the B-52's in a way. There sound was so awful and they could not get it sorted out. They stopped the concert twice and had a ton of problems with the PA. When they turned the stage monitors towards the audience, that was when we left.
197. Hieronymous Firebrain. (won tickets) Heinz Afterworld lounge, Oakland, CA. 5/8/92
This was a great intimate show. They played a mix of old but mostly new songs. The bass player was sitting down due to having a newly broken leg. he actually had an IV in his arm but he still played well despite the circumstances! They are (were) such a great band. Paul and I talked to them for a while after the show and I was surprised that they were not more into psychedelic progressive music like their style would suggest!
198. Blues Traveler and Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. $16.50 Warfield, San Francisco, CA. 5/22/92
This was one of those totally amazing concerts. I did not know who the hell Col. Bruce Hampton and the ARU were, but they blew me away. Who the hell was that guitar player and what about the amazing bass player!! I went with Kevin, Paul and Paul's friend john who was visiting from PA. The ARU were really amazing. We would go see them many times after this! Amazing set!
Blues Traveler came out ripping and then slowed it down with 2 new songs.. It was a great show, but I was a bit bummed that we had to leave to catch the last BART train back to the east bay. We left at 11:55 and they were still playing. They were playing Close down that Park when we walked out (I think). I got pretty decent recordings of the show! BT were an awesome live band!
199. Ca Ca and Swallow my Pride. (won tickets) Berkeley Square, Berkeley, CA., 5/29/92
Swallow my Pride were a really good tight funk rock band. They jammed! CACA was the Limbomaniacs with Larry from Primus playing lead guitar. They did all covers of Frank Zappa. Great fun to see and they were such good musicians that they could pull it off. Les Claypool came out in a weird costume for a few songs, which was way cool! The drummer Tim even showed up for some misc percussion on a number or two as I recall.. Because they had a stabbing at the Berkeley Square, they had this metal detector you had to walk through, so it was impossible to get a tape recorder in. Some of the songs played were: Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch, Keep it Greasy, Stick it Out, More trouble Everyday, Torture never Stops, Muffin Man, The Black Page, Wino Man, Dumb all over.
200. Charlie Musselwhite and Jackdaws. (won tickets) Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco, CA 6/5/92
I went with Steve Zeiger to this show. Jackdaws were a three piece rockabilly/blues band from San Jose. They were really pretty smoking. We enjoyed them a lot. Charile Musselwhite was really good as well. He played a mixture of upbeat and slower blues numbers. He seemed like a pretty damn good harmonica player (totally different style then say John Popper). One of the best songs was when he came out and played solo on electric guitar. Apparently he does not do this very often. He played about 105 minutes and I got an excellent recording!
201. Pablo Moses and Fenton and the Elevation band. (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA 6/17/92
I had no one to go with so I went alone to this show. Fenton were really great roots reggae! Sister I-Live (Fenton's wife) joined them after four or five songs and I didn't like her very much at all, she does all this dancehall crap. Pablo was fucking awesome! I wish I had recorded the show. He played the whole first side of his best lp, A Song. 1/2 of Pave the Way and the rest I did not know, but he really stuck to his classics! It was the same backing band on guitar, bass and drums that Culture used a few months back! Great roots reggae show!
202. Fenton and the Elevation Band, Earl Zero, Sister I-Live. I-Beam, San Francisco, CA 6/24/92
I won tickets on KALX and went with Kevin. There were only 28 people at the show which was disappointing. Fenton was great, roots reggae! Earl Zero was cool also but he was trying too hard to get the crowd into it and there was not crowd. I didn't like Sister I Live, too dancehall rap style reggae stuff. Yuk. We only stayed for the first sets so we missed Earl Zero's full set. I got a pretty decent recording.
203. GAMMA, Nady Alliance and Vizion. (won tickets) Stone, San Francisco, CA. 7/10/92
I went with the pigfeeder (aka Scott). It was a totally sold out and packed show. The crowd was really loud and drunk and mostly 25-35 years old, blue collar, beer swilling crowd! Several fights were started! The female drummer for Nady Alliance was really great. The Gamma band seemed to be really into the show as was the crowd. They played all old Gamma songs and were really excellent. I got a decent recording but missed the last two songs because I flipped the tape to early and only brought one tape. I feel very lucky to see this show as it was a pretty rare appearance of the original line up.
204. LOLLAPOLOOZA II Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA. 7/19/92 ($25.50) Lush, Pearl Jam, Jesus and Mary Chain, Soundgarden, ICE Cube, Ministry, Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
All I can say is wow! This was some show. Sold out, hot and sunny and I got the tape recorder in this time around! We had great seats right on the front of the balcony grass section. Lush were from the UK and played an interesting set of dreamy flangy sound. Mostof their stuff was pretty good. Pearl Jam had the crowd going wild and there was a slam pit started near us soon after they started and we had to move. The pit created a lot of dust and dirt and I was a miserable wreck the rest of the day due to the dust in the air. You can hear me sneezing on some of the recordings. Pearl Jam were great, with a sort of 70's hard rock sound (this is from my original notes written after the show). Jesus and Mary Chain were really boring. Enough said! Soundgarden were really good but their sound was not that great compared to other bands before them (or after).. I wanted a longer set, only 45 minutes! Ice Cube had the crowd up and going but not the way that ICE T did last year. ICE T was at this show actually and did a bit of announcing. He only played one NWA tune and was pretty vulgar overall. Ministry were fucking awesome!! Super heavy and they were the first to play after it was dark and could use a light show. They were great and heavy as hell. None of the bands were loud enough before Ministry though, at least up on the grass where we were. RHCP were fucking great as well. They played quite a bit of older stuff and a great cover of Cross Town Traffic by Hendrix. It was a fun and exhausting day!
205. Allman Brothers Band and Blues Traveler! $25.00 Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA. 7/24/92
There was a heavy search on the way in but no problem for me! Went with Paul and my friend Rich Neese from the Nutritional Science department at UC Berkeley. It was nearly sold out and we had great seats dead center and five rows behind the soundboard. Blues Traveler started at 7:30 and only 1/2 of the crowd was there but they smoked! Warren Haynes came out and jammed one number with them. Great 60 min set! Allman Brothers were amazing! They played for nearly three hours and did a lot of cool numbers. Nobody Knows was really amazing. Good recordings of both bands!
206. CACA and Mouth. (won tickets) I-Beam, San Francisco, CA. 8/1/92
Cliff Heller was in town so we went to this show! Mouth were an all instrumental band featuring Herb from Primus on drums. This was their first show and they were great. A three piece band; Chapman stick, guitar and drums. They were all instrumental and sounded a lot like 73' King Crimson!
CaCa were great! Tighter than the last show and the singer was dressed like Zappa except the bathrobe! The Set was really cool. Les Claypool came out as a tortured man during the Torture never stops and as a magician at the end of the show. Titties and Beer and the Wet T-shirt contest were both great! A very fun show. I wonder if they still play around. I got a pretty decent recording of both bands! They played some pretty challenging Zappa numbers!
207. WASP, Mystic Rage and Brass Tacks. (won tickets) Stone, San Francisco, CA. 8/2/92
I went to the show alone. It was a pretty small crowd. Mystic Rage were awful! WASP were really good but it was the same set as 3 years ago except 4 new songs, which were all really excellent. Blacky is an excellent song writer, I just wish he would get a new stage rap. He has been saying the same thing between songs for 10 years! The new guitar player was good but no Chris Holmes. He tired to dance around to much like Warren in Ratt and use Jake E. Lee moves. The show was pretty short, only 70 minutes. This was the last US show before heading off to England.
208. BHUNDU BOYS and Orinoco. (won tickets) Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 8/12/92
Lani won tickets on KALX. We went together. The Orinoco dance troupe were ok. They had great drummers. Bhundu Boys (4 of them) were really good. Hit music! A lot of the songs sounded too much a like but they were fun to dance to. We had a good time.
209. Pantera, White Zombie and Trouble. (won tickets) Warfield, San Francisco, CA. 8/18/92
I went to this show with Paul. I had also won tickets to see Henry Kaiser the same night so we knew we were not going to stay for the whole show so we could catch Henry at Slims. Trouble only got a 30 minute slot but were really excellent! White Zombie were not good at all. We only stayed for 15 minutes or so. All their guitar riffs sounded the same. They had some good ones but it was just crunch a crunch a crunch.. So off to Slims we went.... I did record Trouble though.
210- Henry Kaiser and Friends., Glenn Spearman Double Trio. (won tickets) Slims, San Francisco, CA. 8/18/92
We got there in time to see the whole Glenn Spearman set, which I am not sure was good or not. Great musicians making a lot of noise. I guess they call it jazz..... We found both groups to be barely tolerable as it was all free form noise making, with no structure at all.. We left after 45minutes of HK and his noisy friends. Saw Kirk Hammet and the drummer from Faith no More at the show. I wonder if they paid?
211. Spin Doctors, Mo'Fessionals, Wallflowers, Junior Brown. (won tickets) Warfield, San Francisco, CA. 8/29/92
I went with my old college friend from NMSU, Rose Downes and a friend of hers from East Berlin whom she had met at a music conference there. Junior Brown were really cool! I enjoyed their short set. The Wallflowers (Bob Dylan's sons band) were really boring.. ugh.. Mo'fessionals were pretty good but I was not in the mood for there type of funk, rap and rock mix. The Spin Doctors were really good. I was quite surprised as I have hated all of their poppy commercial tunes but live they really stretched out all the numbers to 6-8 minutes with good funk guitar jams. They had a great bass player.. I got decent recordings of most of the bands. I don't think I recorded Junior Brown.
212. Hieronymous Firebrain and Granfallon Bus. $3 Starry Plough, Berkeley, CA. 9/3/92
I had never been to this cool Irish pub in Berkeley before. It is a very small intimate place that maybe holds 120 people. I went with Paul who was also a big fan of Hieronymous Firebrain now. HF were playing without their 2nd guitar player this night so all the guitar duties were on Jonathan. Grandfallon Bus were a folk rock type sound and Jonathan sat in with them. They had a sort of 60's feel to them. They supposedly have a CD out on a label from New Mexico? HF were really great at this show doing a lot of improvising and interesting twists to what might be considered normal rock music. The set list was: Stress, I Remember, Garden, Relax, Free Form Freakout (Flame), Lose this Skin, It's Fine, Shine, Improv
400 Years, ?, Over and Over (w/ members of Granfallon Bus)
Encore:
Jonathan solo acousticThis was a really memorable show!
213. Outback. $8.00 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley, CA. 9/15/92This was another really amazing show that I am sorry that I did not record. A great intimate setting. Acoustic guitar, digeridoo and drums (4 members). They played a mixture of English folk mixed in with influences from Australia, Cameroon, Morocco, etc... Lani and I went with Steve Zeiger. The digeridoo was great and added amazing sounds and rhythm to the music. You tell that the dig player was working hard. Makes me have a lot of respect for the people who play that instrument!
214. A tribute to Miles Davis with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wallace Roney, Tony Williams, and Roy Hargrove. Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA. 9/19/92
I won tickets on KALX and went with Paul. We sat really close to Carlos Santana (only five seats away)! I have never really been into jazz very much and this was the first real jazz concert I had ever been to. Tony Williams and Ron Carter were really amazing! I got a pretty decent recording, about 100 minutes!
215. Widespread Panic- Slims, San Francisco, CA 9/17/92I won tickets on KALX and Rich, and I went. Paul showed up for the 2nd set! It was a totally sold out concert and hot as hell inside the club. It was funny how they never really communicated with the audience at all but just played their music. The first set was like 75 minutes and the 2nd set about 90 minutes. I only got 45 minutes of each set as my tape recorder overheated in the middle of each set. I really enjoyed them though.
216. Trouble- Stone, San Francisco, CA 9/26/92
This was a really fun time but disappointing also. I had just got a new microphone for me recorder so I had the wrong setting on and the recording of the show is totally distorted. Also, Pigfeeder and I did an interview on the bus with the guitar player Rick Wortel and it did not come out at all because of the mic setting. We missed all the opening bands because we were hanging out with the band but Trouble were awesome! These guys are really cool and down to earth! Mostly focused on material from their latest two records though. They did a killer version of Children of the Grave but I did not get it on tape because I flipped to early! Paul also went to the show and I saw Pete and his friend Mike as well. The set list was:
The Sleeper, Hello Strawberry Skies, At the End of My Daze, RIP
Fear, Memory's Garden, The Misery Shows (Act II), Touch the Sky
Pray for the Dead, Guitar solo, Black Shapes of Doom, drum solo, Scuse Me, The Tempter, Bastards will Pay, Psychotic reaction
Children of the Grave217. Sister Double Happiness- Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, CA. 10/7/92
This was a free lunch time concert. This was my first time to really try out my new microphone and it worked great! They were great! They played several new songs and about 35 minutes. I quite liked this band. I wonder what ever happened to them??
218. Tim Blake, Trancemission, WIGWAM. Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA. 10/7/92
Kangaroo Moon were to play but cancelled and were replaced by a very cool local band with a guy from Australia on digeridoo. They were a three piece of Dig, clarinet and drums.. Quite an interesting mix. Wigwam ended up being just two guys and while most of their songs were ok, they were pretty boring. Tim Blake was pretty cool and had a good light show. I was a bit disappointed with the fact that most of the music was pre-recorded and he activated the next program on his Mac and then played a guitar synth that he hung around his neck. He played for about 100 minutes and it was a good mix of new and old stuff. The new stuff was sort of poppy though. Not a bad show and I got an excellent recording!
219. Ozzy Ozbourne and Alice in Chains. Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA. 10/8/92Won tickets on KALX and went with Scott (pigfeeder). We missed the first few songs of Alice in Chains. I found a spot where I could see on the floor for AIC. They were not too bad. The singer was in a wheelchair with a broken leg! I got an ok recording. Ozzy was fuckin' great! He opened with Paranoid and had a great light and visual show with huge stacks of TV monitors, where he showed lots of cool images as well as close ups of the band. He was incredibly demanding of the audience and they responded! He played about 105 minutes, which probably the longest set I had ever seen him play. Too loud, but I got a good recording and Zakk Wylde was amazing!
220. Jethro Tull. Warfield, San Francisco, CA. 10/14/92
$25.00This was the best I had ever seen Tull. No opening act and two sets of killer material, , mostly old classics, many I had never heard live as well a lot of acoustic material. Played for 125 minutes and I got an excellent recording! Paul and I had a great time.
221. Eric Muhs and David Slusser. Bates Motel, San Francisco, CA 10/18/92 $5.00
This was a real strange setting, as the show was inside someone's apartment and there were 16 people there. Each artist played for about an hour. I went with Malcolm Humes and his girlfriend Katt. Eric was all improve, making various noises and recording on top of them. He was ok. David was more interesting and he actually played some stuff that was tuneful but also very experimental. Pretty interesting evening.
222. Col. Bruce Hampton and the ARU. Slims, San Francisco, CA. 11/2/92
This was a totally amazing show. I left the place totally floored! They played two sets and played for a total of 150 minutes. I went with Paul and had an incredible time. I spoke with Jimmy Herring for a bit and he is a great guy. These guys are amazing. Guitar, Electric mandolin, 4 string guitar (chazoid), 6 string bass and drums. They even had a guest sax player on a few songs. The Col. is totally insane but the music they create around his weirdness is mind blowing! Incredible show, the best jam show I had ever seen!223. Black Sabbath, Exodus, and Skew Siskin. HJK, Oakland, CA. 11/13/92
This was the last show of the Dehumanizer tour. After this the band went to southern California to perform a show with Rob Halford on vocals and then the reunion! Anyway, Skew Sisken were pretty cool. I did not like their originals too much but they did a great cover of ZZ TOP and the Kinks. Exodus were ok, but somehow I expected more from them. It all sounded too much the same. Black Sabbath were in top form. Geezer sounded great. I felt that Vinnie was the weak link. The new material was by far the best stuff they played. I thought that the old material was all to predictable. Great show though. Tony never disappoints! Great recording of Sabbath but I missed the encores of Neon knights and Paranoid.
224. Youssou N'Dour. Slims, San Francisco, CA. 11/21/92
$18.00
I went with Tim Garrow and Steve Zeiger. It was hot and packed and I was really bummed that they made an early and late show out of it. It was a great show though and Youssou played a variety of songs from his last three lps. He had a great band of like 12-13 people. I got a pretty good recording but it could have been better if they had turned up the volume. Great show though!
225. Hieronymous Firebrain. Bear's Lair, UC Berkeley, CA. 12/3/92 $3Hieronymous were opening for a band called Grey Season, whom we did not stay for as Paul and I both had colds! Although they played a lot of the same songs they really sounded different. The band really seem to be evolving. I talked with the drummer Russ, who was a student at UC at the time, very cool. Excellent short set. I met up with a really cool guy whom I would later become good friends with named Bobby Fiesel at this show. I recorded the show.
226. Richard Sinclair, LACH, Padmasmbava. Red Vic Hotel, San Francisco, CA. 12/12/92 $6.00
I met quite a few cool people at this show and sat at a table with Richard and had a long chat about what it was like playing music in the early 70's as compared to now. Padmasmbava were really good but they were not amplified enough so the dish washer was louder than the band as the kitchen was right near the stage! They played a really laid back style of blues. Lach was a folk singer and ok, but not great. Richard was very mellow, just playing solo acoustic and electric guitars. He played a lot of Hatfield and the North, Caravan and Matching Mole tunes as well as some new material. He played for nearly two hours but my tape recorder fucked up so I only got 45 minutes. I went to the show with Malcolm and Kattt.
227. Grateful Dead. Oakland Coliseum, CA. 12/13/92 $27
I had never seen the DEAD before and living in the bay area I figure you have to do it at least once, even if you don't like them, and I don't still.. I went with Paul, who has seen them 75 times or something crazy like that. Anyway, I was pretty blown away by the quality of the sound. The Sound system was totally amazing, unfortunately the music wasn't. I still think they sound like a 2nd rate bar blues band. Not sure what people hear that I don't? It was a really cool scene and the people were all really cool, but I was not into it. I thought that they were pretty boring.