who surprised and who disappointed

Zaikesman's mention of Brian Setzer reminded me of perhaps the biggest positive surprise I've ever had at a concert.

We saw Brian Setzer's Big Band at the House of Blues in Chicago many years ago. He was phenomenal, and his band was exceptionally tight from the first note, but Brian's demeanor was wary. He didn't know how the audience was going to react to his new music and the big band style. By the third song, the crowd was completely won over, and Setzer and his band proceeded to blow the roof off the place. He looked like he was having the best time of his life.

Outstanding show. I've seen the Setzer Big Band twice since then at their annual Christmas shows. Yup, definitely the biggest surprise in my concert going history.

Dan: Don't forget Ani Difranco too (not that I've had the displeasure of seeing her live... ;^) About Evelyn Glennie, my comment as our group filed out of the hall was to the effect that it only makes sense, when you think about it, that what we'd just witnessed came across as an assault of rote mechanical virtuousity totally divorced from any feeling of artistic communication or musical soul -- after all, the woman *is* completely deaf. A technically awesome but ultimately meaningless (to me) oddity that I'd like never to endure again.

Tvad: By the time of that Stray Cats show I mentioned, they were already well on the down slide of their rather meteroric little career, and the Plant surprise was by far the highlight of that show. Contrast that with a few years earlier when I saw the band on their first tour in '82, before they even had an American record deal -- if anybody ever thought these guys were pretenders or some kind of joke (which they quickly began to justify thinking of them as), that first show was one the most amazing I've ever witnessed in my life. Yeah, I know in one respect they were simply mining a style that had come and gone before they first picked up instruments, but they recombined it, very successfully at first, with a contemporary punk approach, and you would not believe the explosion of music, energy and sound that came off that stage, from just three guys with a grand total of one slap bass, two drums (kick + snare) and one cymbal, and one old Gretsch guitar plugged into only an echo box and an old Fender amp. Absolute excitement, could more than hold their own alongside vintage Dave Edmunds, Blasters, X, Rockpile, Cramps, Robert Gordon, Shakin' Pyramids (seen 'em all), too bad they weren't ever near that great again in later years, but more recent claimants to the throne like the Reverend Horton Heat or Southern Culture On The Skids have nothin' on the Cats in their heyday. Even so, their singin' and lyrics do seem pretty unintentionally comical in retrospect if you go back and listen to the records. Hadda be there, I guess. BTW, I've never been able to stand Setzer's Big Band, which to me is either a pale imitation at best, or a smarmy desecration at worst, of the postwar jump-band style ;^)

I've never been able to stand Setzer's Big Band, which to me is either a pale imitation at best, or a smarmy desecration at worst, of the postwar jump-band style ;^)
Zaikesman (Reviews | Threads | Answers)

Guess I won't buy you a ticket next time they're in town.

I forgot to mention the band that surprised me the most, mainly because I'd never heard their music before seeing them perform: The Waterboys. They opened up for U2 on the "Unforgettable Fire" tour. They still had Karl Wallinger (who later started the band, World Party) on keyboards, and by the time they closed with the song, "This is the Sea", I was slack-jawed. Lucky for me, I saw them again the following night. They were absolutely mesmerizing, and 20+ years later, the album "This is the Sea" is still one of my desert island discs.

By far the best live concert I've been to was a small gig where australian alternative act Shriekback played the small campus theatre at my Uni in 1987. They were positively electric, and brought the house down. You had to have been there.