With 150,000 Americans dead (and climbing) from COVID-19, it’s undeniably petty and selfish to bemoan the good old days when you could go to live concerts. But I really miss those nights out, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow strangers, waking up the next day with ringing ears and no money in my wallet.
So as a form of escapism and emotional therapy, I’ve tried to remember the big shows I’ve been to over the years with friends and family…and I’ve gathered up every terrible iPhone concert-photo I could find, and I’m sharing them here.
I highly recommend you grab a pen and paper and try this mental exercise: listing all the live concerts you can remember is probably good for the aging brain — and it just might offer an hour of pleasant diversion from the gruesome nightly news.
Here we go…
21 Pilots
B52s
Belly
Billy Idol
Bleachers
Blondie
Bob Dylan (Twice.)
Bob Mould
Carbon Leaf
Cowboy Junkies
Crowded House (4 times?)
David Bowie
Depeche Mode
Echo and the Bunnymen
Elvis Costello (39 times?)
Erasure
Gang of Four (Twice)
Gene Loves Jezebel
Graham Parker
Human Sexual Response
Joe Jackson (5 times?)
Kraftwerk
Live
Lloyd Cole
Lori McKenna
Marshall Crenshaw
Midnight Oil
Modern English
Morrissey
New Order
Nick Lowe (5 times?)
Paul McCartney
Paul Weller
Pet Shop Boys
Phil Collins
Pixies
Poguetry in Motion
Psychedelic Furs
Pussy Riot
Ray Davies
REM
Ringo Starr
Saw Doctors
Simple Minds
Squeeze (13 times?)
Steely Dan
The 1975
The Alarm (4 times?)
The Bangles
The Beach Boys
The Church
The Cure (4 times?)
The English Beat (5 times?)
The Fixx
The Killers
The Pogues
The Pretenders
The Smiths (1986?)
The Specials
The Waterboys (3 times? 4?)
The Who
Tove Lo
U2 (3 times?)
Van Morrison
Violent Femmes
X
And then there was this guy, my late brother, JB. (Blog post here.)
And this idiot.
bark/bite 