19990912 - FarmAid 1999

 

And the concerts continue! This was a busy year, and a particularly busy month. This show was a double-date with Dave, Cindy, Teri, and myself. Honestly I had high hopes for the show, and we left a little disappointed. We actually left early. It was a long day, and it was taking forever between acts. Since this was being broadcast, they had to build commercial breaks into the set, it wasn't a lot of fun waiting it out. To sum up from the Farm Aid webpage:

In 1999, Farm Aid ventured into the Washington D.C. area for the first time. The concert energized farmers and advocates and became a rallying point for a flurry of events. Hundreds of farmers came to Washington bearing an urgent message for legislators: “Act now to stop the destruction of family farms!” Their primary target was the “Freedom to Farm” bill that had been in place since 1996. This bill had resulted in record profits for multinational grain traders and big food manufacturing companies while leaving family farmers bankrupt. The Farm Aid events inspired farmers to keep on fighting for fair prices and educated the public about important farm issues. The concert aired live on CMT: Country Music Television for the second time. The stellar lineup included Susan Tedeschi, Keb’Mo’, Deana Carter, the Barenaked Ladies, Dave Matthews Band, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and others. The music was so good that it went on for an extra half hour!

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19990908-09 Springsteen

 These shows were originally scheduled for my birthday! But, the schedule was a bit hectic and the shows were moved to September 8 & 9. Teri and I flew in for the shows. Our first time traveling for shows since the R&R HoF show in 1995. We had good seats for the first night, but GREAT seats for night two. For the show on September 9, they were second row seats. For this tour you had to pick up your tickets in the the first 17 rows from will-call. The attendant who gave us our tickets remarked, she had never given anyone second row seats before. Being right on the stage makes a difference, and a much more enjoyable show.

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19990831, 0901, 0903 Springsteen

 

Local Springsteen shows! Until 1995, these were the only type of shows that I would consider. I tried to make the most of them. I liked the idea of community and getting together with fellow Springsteen fans. I planned a gathering at a bar across from the arena for all three shows with a nice turn out from the locals and non-locals. Attendees signed the banner with a message they want to send to Bruce, or to remember the day. 

19990831

There were six of us together, myself and Teri, my brother Chuck and his long-time live-in, Barbara (RIP), and Dave and Cindy Brown. It was great that we could all attend the show together. I think everyone had a great time.

19990901

Second night had great seats that were right at the stage. Just like the previous night, we had a gathering at the bar across from the arena. On this night it was Dave and I attending the show. I wasn't sure that he would want to take in back-back shows, but he was all for it and we had a great time together.

19990903

The third of the shows on this DC run brought it all home. I wrapped up the gathering at the bar and it was good to see all these people on a common joy of wanting to go to the Springsteen show. I went to the show with Shannon LaVoy, who we drove to NJ in July. Originally I didn't have anyone to go with, but I posted a message on the group message board and she said she would go. I thought that she was going to the show with some of her friends and as she put it, 'If I can get a GREAT seat, I'll see my friends later.' So we went to the show. 

This show was special for me as I finally heard my all time favorite song, Jungleland, performed for the first time. I had a great time and glad that I ad three great nights of Springsteen shows!

 

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19990726 - 27 Springsteen

 

The first of many Springsteen shows which I would attend on this tour. For these two shows, my brother Chuck joined me. We went up to these shows together to see the show and see NYC the following day. Also joining us on our ride was a friend I had met in the local Maryland community, Sharon Lavoy. We had met up several times at the local group get gatherings and got a long well. 

As part of the encores for the first night, Bruce did an odd song, Freehold. This was basically and ode to his home town. He hasn't played this song with the whole band since this performance. You never know what will happen.

On the second night, the seats were behind the stage. My brother, being a musician, enjoyed seeing what takes place behind the stage at a massive show. He seemed more into the production, then the action on stage. But we had a great time, just two brothers hanging out together. It really wasn't until this point in my life that we did this. Until 1998, he was typically under some kind of influence and really not pleasant to be around. 

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Influences outside of the concerts that will affect the concerts I see going forward

 

Technology catches up with music.

In the mid-1990’s the Internet became useful. I know it had been in academia for some time, but the common folk got their first taste of it around this time. This led to the raising of various newsgroups and forums about various music. Specifically, Bruce Springsteen.  A couple of the well know groups at the time were Lucktown Digest, Bruce Ticket Exchange (BTX), and RMAS (rec.music.artisit.sprignsteen). This gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about Springsteen, and music in general. Before this, I was dependent on local radio, and the occasional Rolling Stone piece. This kept me up to date on rumors and facts about the artists in near real time (or at least within a week). This also made it easier to meet up with other, local, Springsteen fans. I met several people this way, and we are still friends to this day.

Also around the mid-1990’s CD writers became affordable to the masses. My original unit that I bought from CompUSA was a Sony 2.4x writer for $300. At the time, this was a bargain (previously similar drives were over $800). When I bought it I had planned to use it to copy software. But I soon figured out that it could copy music CDs also. I had a couple of bootleg cassettes, but copies would degrade after a couple copies, so I really wasn’t a big collector. CDs never degraded. I borrowed a couple of CDs from Flynn ‘The Boots’ McLean and started from there.   Also, at the time, blank media was pricey, about $5/disc. Many of the bootleg shows were 3 discs, which would be about $15. I didn’t get every bootleg I could get, just a few that seemed interesting.

Moving forward to the late 1990’s, on Internet sales pages like eBay, you could buy some shows at a reasonable price. I bought a few that would seed my collection, put my list of shows out there on the Internet to make trades, upgraded my hardware, the price of CDs fell to less than $1 per disc, and I was off to the races. Technology also improved to make this easier.

In the fall of 1998, Bruce Springsteen released a boxset of 4 CDs called Tracks. This was a set of B-sides, outtakes, and unreleased music that spanned his career. This provided the catalyst to reunite the E Street Band. In 1999, the band got back together and was off to a year and a half World Tour. This is what I had been waiting on most of my adult life, since 1985 anyway, and I didn’t want to miss it.

From 1999 to the present, there are A LOT of Springsteen shows. I probably have attended over 100 in this time-frame. I’ve joked with Teri that she knew I liked Bruce the first 5 years of our relationship, but didn’t quite understand what the level of this obsession truly is.

19990529 HFStival

 

Now that they moved the concert to Baltimore (for one year) and there were a lot of bands that I liked on the bill, I attended my first official HFStival! Attending this show with me was Dave and his sister Julie. And it was a great show. I liked it from start to finish and thought that all of the performers did a great job. The line up:

Jimmie's Chicken Shack

Lit

Blink-182

Silverchair

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Orgy

Sugar Ray

Live

Goo Goo Dolls

Moby

The Offspring

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The show started around noon, we got there to check out the scenery. This was the first event to take place at the new home of the Ravens and football wouldn't be played until the fall. While pulling into the stadium, there was a couple having sex in a car, literally going at it, parked along the road approaching the parking lot. This was just he start to a weird day. There was a bunch of vendors giving away various promotional items, one was Playboy magazine. They were handing out calendars. I could have taken one home, but it was more fun to make paper airplanes and launch them from the upper deck of the stadium. I had a lot of fun, and the bands were great!

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19981219 Aerosmith

 

Originally, Teri and I were planning to go to this show. Shortly before the show took place, my brother Chuck, got himself sober and clean. I thought a nice treat would be to go see a band that did the same thing. This was the first show we either of us attended at the new arena in DC, so this was something new to experience.We settled into our seats and checked out the opening band, Candlebox who had a 'hit' at the time. 

Between the bands a drunk guy sat next to Check and talked his ear off. Basically just being annoying as all get out. The guy eventually moved on. After which, Chuck asked me, "Did I use to be that annoying?" And the answer was YES! Kind of a payback for all the times he had bothered all the other people.

Aerosmith was out promoting their album, Nine Lives. The show was very good over all, and it was really great to go out with my sober brother. I hadn't seen him sober in nearly 10 years at that point.

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19980730 George Thorogood

 

This was an interesting show for a few reasons. During the summer of 1998, I was working a lot in lower Delaware. I was staying there for the week, and would come home on the weekend. This show was on a Thursday and I needed to high-tail it home to meet Ray Dizon and Russ Doyen at my house, and we were heading to DC for the show. Since I had the party van, the guys liked me driving. I made it, we went down to the show. This was the first time and as it turned out, my only time of going to the Bayou, as they closed about a year later.  

The setlist was pretty much a typical Thorogood show at this time. It was really good and we had a good time. Then after the show, the boys decided to paint the town. We hit a couple of near-by strip clubs. It was great hanging out with the guys, doing guy things! We finally got home around 3AM. I took the next day off of work. Back to Delaware the following Monday.

19980701 Metallica

This was the celebration for the local Baltimore radio station, 98 Rock, to celebrate the Year of 1998 Rock. A lot of radio stations will have a promotional concert, usually each summer. And because this was the year of '98, 98 Rock celebrated with Metallica. 

The show itself was very good and I was happy to see my second Metallica show of this tour. I flew solo to this show as no one else wanted to join me, that's okay. I have no problem attending a show alone. It was convenient as it was just over at Merriweather.

 

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19980613-14 Tibetan Freedom Concert

 

This was a two day concert, but I can only find this ticket stub. Russ and I went to the show, Russ was wearing a huge, sombrero type hat and went into the crowd. 

The line-up was very much a variety of acts. Breaking out the setlist of each would take a bit, but it was a great show over all. Really it was a day and a half show. On the afternoon of June 13, severe thunder storms rolled through the area. Where I was sitting, about one section over a loud BOOM was heard. I initially thought it was someone lighting off an M-80 firecracker. In reality, it was lightning striking the stands. This stopped the show.

The next day we were back out there and the organizers trier to get a couple of the acts that were suppose to play Saturday. It all turned out well. I enjoyed the show and supported the cause.  

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19970801 Counting Crows/Wallflowers

 

During the summer of 1997 I was commuting a lot to Coatsville, PA. I was installing computer networks and computer equipment for the school district there. During this commute I listened to toe Counting Crows and Wallflowers CDs about 100 times each. When this show came around I was so excited! As it turned out, this was one of my favorite concerts of my life!

I loved the bands and the setlists. It was one of those perfect nights! I didn't know that it was Adam's birthday and the audience ended up singing Happy Birthday to him. Additionally, WHFS recorded the show for broadcast over Labor Day. This was my last show before being 30 years old. 

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