31 Days of Music – Day 27

Day 27 – Artist you’ve seen live the most

I’ve lost track over the years but I’m fairly certain this is a three way tie between seeing concerts by Oingo Boingo, Neil Young and Lyle Lovett.  A pretty diverse list now that I look at it.  For years I used to keep every ticket stub from every show I saw but then I lost a few here and there.  I still have about 90% of the stubs from the shows I saw.  Robin came across the box a few months back after I thought I had lost it.  I tossed them on the scanner and made the image you see.

Oingo Boingo – As Punk Rock from the 70′s was forming into the New Wave of the 80′s I discovered Oingo Boingo with the release of their first EP.  I played the hell out of their albums and had the advantage of seeing them live 5 times between 1984 and 1988 since Portland was so close to their home base.  The last time I saw them was on Feb 9th, 1998 at the Starry Night with my brother Tim.  We were slam dancing like crazy until the frat boy twits showed up and thought slam dancing consisted of tossing random punches into the crowd.  The scene changed and shortly after so did their music.  The band dropped the Oingo and modified their sound.  I still enjoyed it but it was not the same as the Ska-New Wave days when they were on A&M and MCA records.

Neil Young – I moved to Bend Oregon for school in 1986 my musical tastes expanded backwards into the past.  Music in the late 80′s was pretty dismal and I retreated into what had come before.  I started listening to more and more Neil Young and when I moved back to Portland in 1990 I had the opportunity to see Neil 4 times in the 1990′s.  Solo Acoustic, with Crazy Horse, with Pearl Jam and with a small Band.  I saw him in intimate theaters and outside at racetracks.  Every show was a really good show and I enjoyed them all.  Just this year I got to see Neil a 5th time on July 19th 2010 solo but it definitely was not acoustic.  I can say without hesitation that this last time was by far the best time I have ever seen him live.  It was an amazing show and the audience was treated to a real gift of watching Neil take all hist old tracks and strip them down, break them apart and put them back  together  in a totally new way.  He also debuted 7 of the 8 tracks on his latest release Le Noise.

Lyle Lovett – I had heard Lyle off and on but never really paid more than a casual interest in his stuff until 1997 when I met Robin and she really turned me on to his stuff as well as Tom Waits.  Our first musical date was at a Lyle Lovett concert and together we have seen him 5 times through the years.  I never realized how diverse his musical style was until I started diving into his stuff.  This really comes out when he plays live. One minute he can be singing twangy country, the next a slow blues piece immediately followed by big band swing.  We have seen him with his large band most of the time but one of the most memorable shows was seeing Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark, John Hiatt and Joe Ely all solo acoustic on the same stage together.  They were swapping stories and singing what ever came to mind.  No set list was used, they just let the music of the person next to them take us all on a journey.  One of the best concerts I have ever seen.

Tags: 31 Days of Music