The Concert List to End All Concert Lists.
I started to going to concerts at a young age; I can honestly say I don’t remember a damn thing about my first concert. My mother and father took me to see Harry Chapin every year at Carowinds, until they split up and thus we no longer did family outings. In fact, my mother likes to tell me that while pregnant with me she had some difficulty making it through a Harry Chapin show, as it required her to sit on the floor, something not altogether comfortable for a woman 6 or 7 months pregnant. I suppose I have them to blame for my teenaged groupie syndrome as well, since yes, that is a picture of me, aged 4 or 5, sitting on Harry Chapin’s lap. I’m pretty sure that brush with fame at such an impressionable age is what made me think it was absolutely necessary to show up 5 hours early for the LA Guns concert at the 4808 a decade later, lest we miss our chance to meet them before the show.
I have been to a lot of concerts in my lifetime. From arena spectacles to the little club shows, I’ve spent a lot of time watching bands & artists pour their soul out on stage (or at least sweat profusely under the lights) while sacrificing my hearing for the experiences. Mostly for my own entertainment, I’ve begun to compile a list of all the concerts I’ve seen. Even with my super-memory, I’ve forgotten many dates, opening acts, and exact locations, and at the time that I’m publishing this, I’m positively sure this list isn’t even comprehensive. I’ll be updating it periodically, as my memory is jogged, or when I have a new entry to add. I’ve limited the listing to bands that were of a national exposure level - meaning no Charlotte or Southeastern area bands unless they actually achieved some level of notice outside of NC, or they were opening for a national act at the time. The list of Southeastern based acts would likely be well over 200 bands, many of whom I saw multiple times, and heaven knows, lots of those were so utterly forgettable that even I have long since lost track of who they were or why I was there in the first place. This also doesn’t include one band that I saw many times in LA, that eventually was signed to Virgin Records (though their album was never actually commercially released) or another band I saw in LA that had one of the guys from Weezer in it.
Again, this is mostly for my entertainment, but if you find it at all interesting, you might want to bookmark this entry, as I fully intend to update it as time goes on. I may also illustrate it later, with pictures and ticket stubs, etc. when I get all of this stuff out of storage. I’d also like to state, for the record, that the majority of this was completed from my memories. A little research was needed to place a year or a venue sometimes, but really, I have a lot of this lodged in my brain. That might explain why I can’t seem to remember to close the bedroom window before I leave in the morning; the memories of seeing Elliott Smith 7 times take up the space that would normally control that. However, for some reason, my memory is *much* clearer for the events that were more than 12 years ago; the Internet is helping a lot with 1995 (which was a really good year for me apparently) and beyond, but 1993 and 1994 are very fuzzy. I can’t really explain that.
Some keys to reading this list: A entry with a link will take you to a story I’ve told that mentions this event, just in case you might be interested. (At the time of posting this, there’s only the one, but there are more to come when I’m inspired enough to tell them. Special requests for specific events may be honored.) If you see a question mark, either in parentheses by itself or after a name, it’s because it’s something I’m not entirely sure about. If you happen to have information that will complete that entry, please let me know. There are lots of notes in italics, mostly for me, some for your reading enjoyment.
In chronological order, best I can remember it at least:
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had one of these lazy days… going nowhere, doing nothing, just lying around and being a vegetable for a little bit. (Today seemed to be the right day, what with the late April snow and all.) I’m sure for many people that sounds incredibly boring, but for me it’s blissful. If I could, I’d do this this at least once a week. 
