Tuesday, March 17, 2009

20 Years of Concert Tickets.





Seeing as I'm of some Irish decent, it's a little hard for me to discredit a holiday that is celebrated by my people back in the motherland. I however have never been much of a fan of the drunken droves wielding mugs of shitty Killians light. The bastardization of a traditional holiday here in the states is disheartening to say the least. For instance, back in the days when I worked downtown, it was pretty common to have to hopscotch around puddles of puke on the "day after".

So instead of pouring green beer down my gullet at a blitzkrieg pace, I decided instead to stay in last night and work on a project that I've been thinking about for the past few days.

In my 32 years I have seen a lot of concerts. Some great, some terrible, some I don't remember. I have also managed to keep a vast majority of the tickets from said concerts. I have in my collection 120 concert tickets spanning from 1989 to 2009. 20 years of melted faces, blown ear drums and sweat drenched t-shirts. It is quite a trip down memory lane to look at all of the shows that I kinda sorta remember.

For a while I've been thinking of making my concert ticket collection into art work. I went out and bought some high-grade poster board, some glue and a 6 pack of Bittburger and began my little project.

Some fun realizations I had while working on the project:

++ It apparently took me 4 Phish concerts to realize they are the worst band since the dawn of time. Ah, the mid 90's. And drugs.

++ I've seen Robert Plant 3 separate times, and the Led Zeppelin Orchestra once. I've also seen Dread Zeppelin, and Zed Leppelin.

++ I do not have the concert ticket to the first concert I ever remember seeing, which was Van Morrison. I remember that show because I puked up scallops all over my Dad.

++ In a span of three months in 1992, I saw Ice-T, Sonic Youth, U2, and Fugazi. That was before I had a driver's license.

++ I've spent mind-boggling amounts of money on hip-hop concerts. I have seen De La Soul 5 times.

++ I'm proud to admit I've seen Jane's Addiction, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Prince, Public Enemy and Al Green. I cannot say the same thing about seeing Soul Asylum.

++ I have 4 tickets that said I have seen Bob Marley and the Wailers. But I have only seen the Wailers. I don't know why they put Marley's name on all the tickets.

++ One of the coolest concerts I have ever seen was the Brothers Johnson reunion concert. I had low expectations, and they completely blew the roof off the joint.

++ I saw Johnny Cash and Taj Majal at the same show once. That was pretty rad.

Once I have my masterpiece framed and up on the wall, I'll be sure to post some pictures. It actually looks pretty cool.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

jane's addiction first visit to the entry in 89 was an event to say the least. all that power and emotion in such an intimate setting... the 7th street venue could barely contain perry and the band. i had to bribe my way in the door and it was worth it. perry was doing gymnastics on the ceiling while singing at the same time...

-the uncs

Casey Brewer said...

I saw them at Roy Wilkens and then again at the first Lollapalooza.

theryanburk said...

Cool project, man. The first proper show I remember seeing was House of Pain/Cypress HIll at Roy Wilkens circa 1993 - my dad dropped us off out front in his teal Astro van. It had Captain's chairs!

R. Falch said...

I've always wanted to make something similar with my collection of tickets.

My first real concert was The Jesus Lizard, Helmet and the Cows. All I really remember was being frightened of the Cows and dodging David Yow when he threw himself off the stage.

I say "real" concert because I saw the Beach Boys at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair a few months earlier. I am pretty sure John Stamos was in the band at that point, no Brian Wilson and they even threw out Mike Love by then.

Casey Brewer said...

Burk, I saw that show, and we snuck backstage. We figured it was going to be nothing but weed and tits. I think we got some stickers. Wah wah.

Anonymous said...

Yet another Phish punch to the balls? Really Brew? That is really too bad...I let the first couple Phish digs pass on by but here you come again with some Steely Dan force! Donald Fagen is shaking his head and cleaning the bathrooms somewhere up in heaven.

Great idea with the tickets though, a similar project has crossed my mind as well.

Casey Brewer said...

Dude, you're the only friend that I know that thinks of Phish as anything more than a novelty at this point. They are but a blip on the radar compared to the almighty Steely Dan.

Casey Brewer said...

Also, Donald Fagan is still alive and well. He'll likely still be alive when Trey finds the big parking lot in the sky.