First concert: Miami Sound Machine
My high school girlfriend won tickets to see this band at an event called the Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa. They were really good, but they only had one record out at the time, so they opened the show with "Conga" and then for kicks, they closed the show with "Conga," too. We didn't care, because great fucking song.

Last concert: Hot Chip
The highlight of this show was their cover of the Beastie Boys track "Sabotage," which Joe Goddard proceeded to claim was written by Hot Chip. I suspect some subset of gullible kids had no idea he was joking.

Best concert: LCD Soundsystem
I saw LCD Soundsystem for the first time at the Sasquatch Music Festival on their going away tour. This was my introduction to their music, actually, and it was really compelling. You could see tons of other artists who were appearing at the festival that weekend crowding the backstage areas to watch; it was a momentous event. Years later, when they reunited, JenMoon and I flew to San Francisco to see them, getting to the venue early enough to be the first in line to get in, and to be front and center for the show (this is my habit honestly). It was like they'd never taken time off - they were just perfect. This reunion tour inspired two of my short plays actually: THIS ISN'T HAPPENING and YR CITY'S A SUCKER.

Worst concert: Dr. Octagon
The artist pulled some young women from the front of the crowd onstage and proceeded to do some non-consensual stuff that made me walk out of the concert. I went to the show because DJ Spooky was the opener, who was very good. Interesting trivia: DJ Spooky once spun at a cocktail party we hosted at my camp at Burning Man, and I drove him to the airport later that week from the playa. Okay, maybe that's only interesting trivia to me.

Loudest concert: C'mon, what asshole takes a decibel meter to a concert. That said, the answer is The Go! Team.

Seen the most: Peter Gabriel
For our honeymoon, JenMoon and I drove up and down the west coast to see Peter Gabriel six times on the "Growing Up" tour, and I'd seen him two other times. If we had stayed in Seattle, we would have had a chance to volunteer at a fundraiser hosted by Paul Allen where Peter Gabriel was one of the guests; he flew up from California to attend, which is where we were at the time, driving between concerts. Our friend Beverly volunteered and got to meet him, and mentioned to him that we were on tour following him. Consequently for the last two shows we saw, we took a sign that said "ON OUR HONEYMOON." During his song "The Barry Williams Show," his shtick was that he had a big TV camera trained on the audience that displayed a live feed on giant video screens above the stage, and for those two shows, he put our sign up on screen. This is not as awesome an interaction as meeting him might have been, but it's what I got.

Most surprising: Arora (formerly known as Sonos)
Our friend Beverly was having a birthday shindig in Hawaii, and she flew Arora over to perform a surprise concert in the backyard of the big house we'd rented. So, this is literally the most surprising concert for me. But honorable mention goes to the time I saw Nine Inch Nails (a band I don't normally listen to) at Sasquatch while high on ecstasy, which was in. fucking. credible. This was their tour with Jane's Addiction, and when Jane's came out after NIN, it was embarrassing. Perry Farrell treated the show like a lounge singer doing karaoke versions of his songs. It was laughable compared to Trent Reznor's absolute commitment to musical excellence, which was very inspiring to witness.

Wish I had seen: Queen with Freddie.

Next concert: I hate music, fuck off.

1/31/20