What I Learned Going to 100s of Concerts - Part I

I spent the last few weeks tracking down every concert that I've ever attended. Here's what I remembered ... and forgot.

I was at my parents’ house over the holidays and started digging through a little box where I used to store my concert tickets. This was an oddly emotional exercise. Many of my foundational memories are tied to concerts. Falling in love. Falling out of love. Getting drunk. Getting lost. Getting confused. Thinking I found myself. Actually finding myself. Dreaming of being on stage. Giving up. Assuming that my music sucks. Realizing it doesn’t.

I started entering all of these shows into a spreadsheet, trying to recall as many details as possible. But then I was struck by something else. There were shows that I had tickets for that I’d completely forgotten. So, I started texting lovers, ex-lovers, and friends. I kept digging through that old box of tickets. I logged into all of the digital ticket accounts that I could find. I flipped through scores of photos. And I ended up tracking down (what I believe to be) every concert that I’ve ever been to in my 28 years, excluding cover bands and shows that I played on. So, join me on this musical journey that was part digital detective work and part psychological archaeology.

This will be published in a few parts. If you see an underlined date, it means that you are able to click on it to see the exact setlist that I saw.

Every Concert I’ve Ever Seen: AC/DC - The Bouncing Souls

AC/DC
11/19/2008 (IZOD Center), 7/31/2009 (Giants Stadium)

If I were to list my 10 favorite guitar riffs of all-time, AC/DC might have half of them. They were my first favorite band, and Angus Young was one of the primary reasons that I started playing guitar.

Though they were nearly four decades into their career when I saw them, they still put on one heck of a show. The band’s energy also felt supercharged because my parents managed to get tickets in the 20th row. Somehow those tickets only cost $92. I assume they would be over $1,000 today.

Adult Mom
7/2/2022 (Elsewhere)

If you invite me to a concert and the tickets are less than $50, there’s a very high chance that I will go. That was the case with this show. I was invited by my friends Seamus and knew nothing about the group before walking into the venue. Apparently, the group had been on a bit of a hiatus before this performance. You wouldn’t know it. I was impressed enough to buy one of their records before leaving to go sit on a rooftop in Brooklyn and drink some beers. Reminder: If you have a good time at a small show, you should buy merch or music. It’s one of the best ways to support musicians.

Adult Mom record that I purchased at their Brooklyn show

Against Me!
9/16/2014 (House of Blues - Boston)

If I like a band, there’s a good chance that I will listen to them endlessly. Not shocking. But there’s a small class of acts that I know that I like but don’t actively listen to. The punk stalwarts Against Me! are one of those groups. I enjoyed every moment of seeing them open for The Gaslight Anthem. Then I left the venue and didn’t think about them until I wrote this blurb. I should change that.

Alabama Shakes
6/12/2015 (Bonnaroo)

My friends and I made the 13-hour drive from New Jersey to Manchester, Tennessee to go to Bonnaroo Music Festival in 2014 and 2015. Music festivals - especially those that you camp at - are tons of fun but also very taxing on the body. At this Alabama Shakes show, my friend Monica collapsed from dehydration. Luckily, a Bonnaroovian next to us was willing to let Monica drink some of her water. That brought her back to health just in time to hear an Alabama Shakes set that left me disappointed.

My disappointment wasn’t driven by the band sounding bad. They sounded great. It was the setlist. Much of the concert-going experience is about expectation. I was hoping to hear songs from Boys & Girls, their debut album that my friend Patrick and I bonded over freshman year of college. Instead, they played more stuff from Sound & Color, their second record that I wouldn’t come to enjoy for a few years. At least Monica was okay.

All-American Rejects
5/19/2012 (Bamboozle)

While my memories of this day are vast, this specific concert is mostly lost to the sands of time. That’s a shame. All-American Rejects have at least a few songs that I’d love to remember hearing live.

But let’s turn back to the day rather than the show. This was a hot May day at Bamboozle, a three-day festival held annually between 2003 and 2012 in New Jersey. I was a junior in high school at the time. My mom was so nervous about me making the drive to the Jersey Shore without adult supervision that she had my older cousin come with me and my friend Chris. I felt sort of lame about it at the time, but I remember spending the day with my cousin more than some of the shows we saw. Maybe my mom was just trying to inspire some cousinly bonding.

American Idols Live!
7/30/2008 (Prudential Center)

Each year, American Idol would send the ten finalists on a tour after the season ended. I went the year that David Cook won. Or so I’m told. I have zero recollection of this. I feel like it would have made more sense for me to go in 2006 when Taylor Hicks won. I had been rooting for the grey-haired soul singer all season. That said, I do have a ticket stub from 2008, and my cousin assures me that I was there. Sometimes we’re upset when we forget shows (e.g., All-American Rejects). Sometimes we’re happy when we do (e.g., this one).

The Answer
11/19/2008 (IZOD Center), 7/31/2009 (Giants Stadium)

A few weeks ago, a reader asked me if a small band opening for a big band actually benefits the small band. I didn’t have a good answer, but I know that after I saw The Answer open for AC/DC that I bought two of their songs on iTunes. Though they didn’t end up becoming that popular, the comments on their YouTube videos suggest that a lot of people first heard them as an AC/DC opener. In other words, opening for a AC/DC conferred some benefit on The Answer.

Anvil
7/31/2009 (Giants Stadium)

An influential 1980s heavy metal band that never really crossed over into the mainstream, Anvil also opened for AC/DC. I guess your band name has to start with an “A” to get booked on an AC/DC tour.

ayokay
6/2/2022 (Irving Plaza)

ayokay got his start when the nostalgia-soaked collaboration with his childhood friend Quinn XCII called “Kings of Summer” went viral in 2016. I was working a job I hated when that song came out and was quickly infatuated with it despite paying almost no mind to the artist behind it.

Cut to 2022. I was seeing the electronic artist Emmit Fenn when I heard the opening pitter of “Kings of Summer” emerge from the speaker system. Apparently, ayokay was opening. Those 2016 memories came rushing back as the song washed over me. It was a good reminder how much had changed in my life in the last six years.

Arctic Monkeys
6/15/2014 (Bonnaroo), 10/14/2018 (Austin City Limits)

These two shows - both at festivals - were very different. The first was during Arctic Monkeys’ brash AM tour. The second was during their more subdued Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino era. Both shows were great, but the most vivid memory I have from either was not something the band did but something that happened during the set.

As the quartet played their balled “No. 1 Party Anthem” for the Austin City Limits crowd, a college-aged couple was passionately making out about ten feet in front of me. This felt very on the nose given that the song is about a man searching a club for a specific girl and then praying the perfect song comes on as he approaches her. It was like I was in a coming-of-age movie.

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The Avett Brothers
6/15/2014 (Bonnaroo)

According to Setlist.fm, The Avett Brothers have played over 1700 shows. That means they’ve played live on over 20% of the days in the last 22 years. When you see them on stage that amount of practice is apparent. This is a band that can lift you to your highest highs and throw you to your lowest lows in an hour-and-a-half.

Bad Suns
4/2/2016 (Matthew Arena at Northeastern)

My friend David had been proselytizing about Chance the Rapper to me for at least a year. When we saw Chance was Northeastern’s spring concert, I reached out to my friend Casey, a student there at the time, to see if she could get us tickets. She could.

Though we were there for Chance, Bad Suns being an opener - a band whose debut EP I was very into and whom I previously interviewed for a now-defunct website - was a mostly welcomed surprise. I say “mostly” because the venue had some of the worst sound that I’ve ever experienced. It was difficult to hear certain parts of the set.

Barnaby Bright
3/2/2014 (The Red Room at Cafe 939)

Sometimes when I think about a random band that I saw, I’ll search for them online - as if they’re a long-lost friend - just to see if they’re doing well. Barnaby Bright is one of those lost friends. I saw them open for Bear’s Den in a room of no more than 50 people at the Berklee School of Music. I am happy to report that as of 2023 both members of the married folk duo are not only still making music but are also now parents.

barnabybright

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Bear’s Den
3/2/2014 (The Red Room at Cafe 939), 6/11/2015 (Bonnaroo)

Being a touring musician is hard, especially when you are operating on a low budget. I was reminded of this when I watched one of the members of Bear’s Den play both the bass and drums at the same time the first time that I saw them. Luckily, when I saw them again a year later their fortunes had improved enough that the duo was now a full-fledged band, one instrument to each person.

I was introduced to Bear’s Den by my friend Thomas during our freshman year of college. He discovered them as a supporting act for Mumford & Sons, (so that’s another point in favor of the opening-for-a-big-band-is-good-for-a-small-band argument). Their song “Pompeii” - rerecorded as “Above the Clouds of Pompeii” for their debut album - is still an all-time favorite of mine.

Bela Fleck
6/14/2015 (Bonnaroo)

My guitar teacher growing up described Bela Fleck as something to the nature of “Bach on the banjo”. No description could be more apt.

Billy Joel
8/7/2014 (Madison Square Garden), 6/14/2015 (Bonnaroo), 2/20/2020 (Madison Square Garden)

I recommend everybody see Billy Joel even if they’re only a casual fan. He still sounds great. He plays everything you want to hear, along with a few covers and deep cuts. And he’s sort of funny. I have a distinct memory from each Billy Joel concert:

1. 8/7/2014: My dad and I went to this show. For the fourth song, he gave the audience a choice between “Vienna” and “Summer, Highland Falls”. My dad and I love the latter, but we knew there was no chance it would beat out “Vienna”.

2. 6/14/2015: We knew the people standing around us at this show must have been on drugs because they told my friend Tom - maybe the worst singer that I know - that he had a beautiful voice as he sang along to “She’s Always a Woman”.

3. 2/20/2020: This was the last large event that I went to before the COVID-19 pandemic. We sat behind the stage because it was cheaper. I was worried the seats would ruin the show, but it’s actually very cool to watch from that angle.

Bleachers
9/12/2021 (The Rooftop at Pier 17)

Bleachers was my white whale concert for a long time, meaning the band that I love that I have not seen live for whatever reason. Their white-whale-status was especially upsetting given that I could have seen them a few times in the past. This show was worth the wait, though. Frontman Jack Antonoff looks like a nerdy guy from your math class, but once he starts singing over a Juno synth, you can’t help but feel like you’re being moved by the spirit.

Blues Traveler
7/4/2023 (Red Rocks Amphitheatre)

I have a rule that whenever I am in Denver that I have to see a show at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. My girlfriend Devin and I were going over 4th of July, so we checked the calendar and saw the harmonica-driven jam band Blues Traveler was playing. We convinced our friends Matt and Caileigh to join us despite none of us really caring about the group. “You’ve got to see Red Rocks,” I kept preaching to them. I don’t think they’ve forgiven me since.

The set started out strong. They played a few of their hits, along with Tom Petty and Van Halen covers. Then the heavens opened. What started as a drizzle became very painful hail. Everybody ran for cover. Red Rocks doesn’t have much cover, though. I was worried that we were going to get killed in a crowd crush. The show was called off shortly after we reached shelter. Despite this, you should still go see a show at Red Rocks.

Bob Dylan
11/14/2014 (Orpheum Theatre), 12/5/2019 (Beacon Theatre), 11/21/2021 (Beacon Theatre), 11/21/2023 (NJ PAC)

When you see an artist more than twice, you’re likely to get their good, their bad, and their ugly. There is no artist more exemplary of this principle than Bob Dylan. I’ve seen him perform the most miserable hour-and-a-half of music of my life (e.g., 11/14/2014). I’ve also seen him perform the most transcendent hour-and-a-half of music of my life (e.g., 12/5/2019).

Unlike someone like Billy Joel who plays everything you want to hear, Bob Dylan plays everything he wants you to hear. If he wants you to hear 15 gospel songs he wrote an hour before the show, that’s what he’s going to do, even if you walk out. In a way, that’s what makes Bob Dylan who he is. His vision is somehow both uncompromising but willing to change at a moment’s notice. It’s in this tension that his music thrives.

Bobby Womack
6/14/2014 (Bonnaroo)

When I saw Bobby Womack, I couldn’t name one of his songs. All I knew was that he played with Sam Cooke, among many other legends. When you get a chance to see a legend, you should go whether you know their music or not.

My friend Tom and I got situated at the back of the crowd a few minutes before Womack’s early-evening Bonnaroo Music Festival set began. Moments later, a man wearing assless chaps and nothing else decided to stand in front of us. It was not a pleasant sight, so we didn’t last much longer at the show. Bobby Womack was dead two weeks later. This was his last performance.

Womack performing what turned out to be his last concert at Bonnaroo 2014

BØRNS
4/1/2015 (Paradise Rock Club)

I can recall four things about BØRNS opening for Misterwives in 2015:

1. He played by himself

2. He played his now-classic song “Electric Love”

3. He covered Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party”

4. At one point he said, “I’m BØRNS. You’re BØRNS. We’re all BØRNS,” which my friend and I still jokingly quote to this day.

The Bouncing Souls
6/14/2014 (Bonnaroo)

“We have to go,” I told my friends, “The Bouncing Souls are punk legends, and they’re from New Jersey.” As proud New Jerseyans, everyone was sold. Kind of. My friends Val and Monica decided to stand on the outskirts while the rest of the gang - Chris, Tom, and I - found a spot near the front. Val and Monica ended up being the smart ones. The crowd quickly turned into a violent mosh pit. We spent the next 10 minutes trying to escape. I guess I prefer my punk music from a distance.

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If you’ve made it this far, comment some of your favorite concert memories. I will be back in a few weeks to work my way through more shows! Also, check out my latest single if still haven’t.