Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Cup of Panamanean Coffee from Stumptown
If you read the comment from the first part of this Top 5! you would have to agree that, yes, this does sound like we have been transported into the life of Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. I think it is an ism for men and some women in my generation. I tried to get help for it but sadly the medicine made me old and cranky. And if you read that same comment you could decipher, with some mad detective skills, who edged out the Boss on this list…no pun intended. The fourth best concert I have been to is U2 and Public Enemy at Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin.
I would say that this was U2, Public Enemy, and Big Audio Dynamite, but the morons I went to the show with did not understand the finer things in life. In fact they were terrible tailgaters too. In actuality, they were bad concert goers altogether: talking during the show, missing a good opening act because they did not want to get there too early, and numerous other things I care not to get into at this time. But that said, how could the Fly and the Flav not top anyone’s list?
This was the Zoo TV tour. The tour right before Bono went bonkers! Now the Boss had ‘em beat with the venue. Alpine Valley beats Camp Randall Stadium anyday! Plus we were all the way up at the top of a 60,000 seat football stadium, so the visuals were not as good. The clock on Flav was a mere dot from where I sat…A dot on an ant wearing funny sunglasses. But for me you do not go to a concert for the visuals. You go for the music. And Bono, the Edge, Chuck D, and Flava Flav did not disappoint.
At that time I was wholly familiar with all of U2’s music. They were the next logical progression from the Police as favourite bands go. In fact, Boy is still one of the best albums of all time. But I was less familiar with Public Enemy because I was still one of those stubborn people who thought all Rap and Hip Hop was about guns and gangs. I knew of a couple of Public Enemy’s songs, but never really listened to the words. And like the Boss several years earlier, this show made me a fan. I was just coming into my own as a socialist at the time and some of their words struck me. Unfortunately for them I was there for the headliner.
I could say that U2 was a disappointment for all the hype I gave the show. But that would be a lie. With the excitement I had at the time - I would liken it to the excitement people had for the Beatles in the early 60s - there was no way they could disappoint. They went through all their new stuff, played most of the Joshua Tree, and played enough off of Boy and War to make every fan happy. Plus did their schtick with the huge TV and the call to President Bush (Senior not Junior.) It was a moment I wished I could have shared with my brother who was a U2 fan once in his life.
It is hard to believe after writing this that there are 3 shows that were better than the Boss, The Edge, The Fly, and The Flav. I know a few people that would have these folk at the top of the list. And if I were not such a maniacal music fan, they would top mine as well. But sadly they are only at 4 and 5. Stay tuned. Up next some boys from Britian invade the Windy City and I get my first, and only experience, with a scalper.
Prost!
the confucian, music-loving brewer