Here's Part 2 of a Virtual Ticket Stub Gallery tour of bands I've seen in their original lineup (or in partial groupings thereof). Part 1 listed bands I saw with their founding configurations intact. Now, let's look at groups who were one player shy of their charter membership when I saw 'em perform:
BLOTTO [5/6]
My first Blotto show occurred during a visit to Albany in the spring of 1981. The occasion was a lost extended weekend with some friends, the venue was J. B. Scott's, and the band consisted of Bowtie Blotto, Broadway Blotto, Cheese Blotto, Chevrolet Blotto, Lee Harvey Blotto, and Sergeant Blotto, Chevrolet having recently replaced Blanche Blotto. No offense to Mr. Chevrolet, but Blanche looks kinda cute in the photos I've seen (like the one directly above), so I kinda regret missing out on seeing her. Chevy hit the road [HAR!] after that, and Blotto was a quintet from then on. I only saw them a few more times in the '80s, but I remained a fan. In 2006, I saw Blotto one more time on April 1st--no foolin', really!--with the Flashcubes at Turning Stone Casino. And they did indeed play something good.
COCKEYED GHOST [2/3]
This one may be a ritual splitting of hair's separation from landing in the complete original lineup category. In the '90s, I'd been corresponding with Cockeyed Ghost frontman Adam Marsland for a while, and a tour brought the group to Planet 505 in Syracuse. 1997, I think. The touring group was the same lineup--guitarist Marsland, bassist Rob Cassell, and drummer James Hazley--that had recorded most of their 1996 debut album Keep Yourself Amused. But Hazley had been a later addition to the group, and hadn't played on their first single, "About Jill"/"Disappear," which featured Paul "Wally" Presson keeping time on the A-side, and Kurt Medlin poundin' on them Pagan skins on the flip. Splitting hairs, but technically I saw 2/3 of OG Cockeyed Ghost.
The gig itself was fascinating and invigorating. Editors at The Syracuse New Times allowed me to write an article hyping the show, and I was able to get the Flashcubes' Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin added to the bill as opening act. A splendid time was strongly implied for all.
The evening provided a quirky note of interest when I met another attendee, a woman from Cockeyed Ghost's L.A.-area stomping grounds. I don't remember her name, but she said she was married to one of the members of SoCal stalwarts the Jigsaw Seen. She was in Syracuse for a funeral, and was surprised to read my New Times rah-rah about Cockeyed Ghost's Planet 505 show. That seemed exactly the sort of event one could use to lift one's spirits, should one's spirits be in need of lifting.
At 505, someone introduced us. We'd never met before and didn't know each other at all. The weird thing was when she realized she and I had in fact spoken on the phone the past Christmas. I had been at home moping my way through the holiday season, recovering from chicken pox (not a great thing for someone my age), when David Bash happened to call me from his home in California. Why? I have absolutely no recollection. But his call cheered me up a bit. He was having a party, and he passed the phone to one of his guests and bid her to share some good vibes.
And yeah, that guest at Casa Bash happened to be the same Jigsaw Seen-adjacent pop fan who turned up that night at Planet 505. You saw that comin', I'm sure. Weird the way these things unfold.
But it's how we keep ourselves amused.
THE KINKS [3/4]
The first two (out of three) times I saw the Kinks, they still had three-fourths of their classic well-respected men in place, with guitarists Ray Davies and Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory, missing only bassist Peter Quaife, who left in the band in the late '60s. Avory also left by the time of my third and final Kinks show in '89.
My third Kinks concert was weird, taking place in a college gymnasium that (on a separate visit) smothered the sound of the Ramones. A mid-'80s arena show was my second live Kinks experience.
But my first Kinks show? I was in paradise.
LET'S ACTIVE [2/3]
I saw a bunch of shows when I lived in Buffalo, late 1982 to early '87. I think I only saw a small number of shows at Buffalo's punk club The Continental; my Continental gigs included Johnny Thunders (YEAH!!!, and making up for a missed opportunity to see Thunders with the Heartbreakers in Rochester a few years earlier), the Waitresses (perhaps with the original lineup, definitely including singer Patty Donahue), and the Bangles. Oh, and Intergalactic Burnt Toast. Obviously.
I also saw a two-thirds original edition of Let's Active at The Continental, with Mitch Easter and Faye Hunter, without Sara Romweber, who had already split from the band. Good show, of course, but my primary memory of the night is calling out a non sequitur request for "September Gurls" during Let's Active's set. Hunter seemed surprised and amused, and said, "Did someone just request Big Star?" It was not a common song to request at club gigs in the '80s.
They didn't actually play it, mind you. When a band responds to an unsolicited audience request, every word means no,
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS [4/5]
1989 at the great New York Stater Fair: Tom Petty hisself, with Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Stan Lynch, plus Howie Epstein, who had replaced original bassist Ron Blair a few years back. Fantastic show, but its unique highlight was its encore, when Axl Rose strolled onstage to join in for renditions of "Free Fallin'" and Bashful Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." This was just shortly before the Guns N' Roses singer appeared with Petty on The MTV Video Music Awards that year--maybe just days before--and Axl's State Fair cameo was a complete surprise to the audience.
(We'll circle back to this show a few paragraphs south of here, when we discuss its opening act.)
THE RASCALS [3/4]
In either the very late '80s or the very early '90s, I saw the Rascals (formerly the Young Rascals) play at a bar in East Syracuse. Eddie Brigati opted not to participate in this reunion tour, but Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli did, and it was very, very cool. All four of the Rascals eventually made it back to Syracuse for a higher-profile gig at The Landmark Theatre many years later, but circumstances--I WAS OUT OF TOWN, DAMMIT TO HELL!--prevented me from attending.
THE REPLACEMENTS [3/4]
I was a latecomer to the Replacements; I don't recall even hearing them prior to MTV airing their video for "Bastards Of Young," but I must have heard them on WBNY-FM when I lived in Buffalo. In any case, my first of two Replacement shows was on the Don't Tell A Soul tour in 1989, by which time Bob Stinson was long gone. So: Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars, plus newer replacement Replacement Slim Dunlap at The Lost Horizon. The 'Mats later told Rolling Stone it was the single worst gig of the tour. I...suspect they may have been drinking that night. Shhhh. Don't tell a soul.
(My second and last Replacements show was when they opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the above-mentioned State Fair Grandstand date, also in '89. I liked 'em. Most of the Petty audience did not.)
THE ROLLING STONES [4/5]
You know who was missing: Brian Jones, who died in 1969, twenty years before the Steel Wheels tour brought the Stones back to Syracuse's Carrier Dome. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman, of course, with Ronnie Wood having replaced Mick Taylor, who replaced Mr. Jones.
I had made a lame attempt to get in to see the Stones at the Dome in the early '80s, hoping a scalper was desperate to unload his/her supply. You can't always get what you want. In '89 I tried the radical move of actually buying tickets. See? If you try sometimes, you get what you need.
This was, I think, my first ever time inside the Dome. Subsequently, some friends took my wife and me to a Syracuse University men's basketball game in the early '90s, but I didn't really become an Orange fan until much, much later. I saw a few games at the Dome after that, the most recent occurring in 2017. I saw the Stones there again in 1994, and Paul McCartney in 2017, probably mere weeks before my last in-person SU hoops game (so far). I do see the Dome (now JMG Wireless Dome) on TV a lot. Go, Orange!
The Steel Wheels tour came to Syracuse the same week I saw the Kinks in Oswego. Not a bad week, right?
This series concludes tomorrow, with three acts for whom I've seen all or most of the original lineup...but not at the same time.
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| Photo by Dana Bonn |
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