Husker Du in '82 and '86
Sonic Youth in '88
Naked Raygun w/ Santiago Durango
The Stooges around '69 or so
Gang of Four in '79
Pavement in '93
The Velvet Underground ('68, in the short time between Nico's departure and John Cale's departure)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre in '96 on a good night
The Jesus Lizard, any period
Blur with Graham Coxon, any period
Nico and John Cale at this one show on the lower East Side of New York in maybe 76, 77? I forget the venue
Joy Division (not Warsaw, not the Stiff Kittens, not New Order)
Fugazi, any period

u-men
the sonics

Aside from any fantasy choices, the gig I am really pissed off about missing was Swans at Middlesbrough Arena in the early nineties. They were touring the Love Of Life album, which at the time I didn't hear but which became one of my favourite records (and still is) much later on. Not a great many bands of quality play here, but there are occasional fits and starts when a new venue opens up with enthusiastic management, before it gets taken over by the kneecappers and becomes a coke house. This was such a time. Love Of Life is probably not regarded all that highly by fans of the older Swans stuff I imagine, but I think it's beautiful. So for gig that I could have been at and was probably within a mile of, that's the one.

Okay, back in fantasy land:

SOULSIDE
SPACEMEN 3
AERIAL M
FIRST-ALBUM-PERIOD TORTOISE (did anyone see them then?)
DEAD KENNEDYS (with Jello, obviously)
PINK FLOYD (any line up containing four members before 1979)
SLINT (Why didn't I go to the reunion gigs? Cos I'm a fool, that's why)
THE JESUS LIZARD (To be completely obvious, but it is what it is)
JERRY LEE LEWIS (Every performance I've ever seen of him looks completely insane, like he must have got the audience going properly mental. That must have been something)
BLACK FLAG (any line-up, I'm not fussy. To witness a band who put that much work into what they did and to be so real, I'd be happy to be at their worst gig.)

In fact, if we're going into proper fantasy land...

THE BIRTH OF THE HARDCORE SCENE, USA, LATE SEVENTIES / EARLY EIGHTIES. (and I'm not idealising it because I'm sure there was some horrible shit went on, but it's obvious there was just a massive sense of self-empowerment going on with a lot of people at the time, way more than the British punk scene. I don't know - I bet it was alright if you could keep your head above water.)

The Velvet Underground (any era with Lou and John)
The 13th Floor Elevators (before Roky went to the nuthouse)
The Gun Club (Fire of Love lineup)
The Minutemen
The Sonics
Judee Sill

Tori Amos' early solo shows promoting 'Little Earthquakes'

Beefheart - of any time period

Big Black

Bongwater

Bottle Rockets (original lineup)

Butthole Surfers of 'Hairway To Steven' era

Chrome (not like they toured, but...)

Deep Purple Mark I
Deep Purple Mark II up through 1973 or whatever

Devo on 'Freedom Of Choice' or 'New Traditionalists' tours

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac of the 'Then Play On' era

Funkadelic from 1971-1975-ish

Galaxie 500

Grateful Dead with Pigpen

Hawkwind from 1971-1975-ish

Lunachicks

Curtis Mayfield

Mazzy Star

Naked City

Portishead

Any possible Residents shows up to and including the CUBE-E tour.

RUN-DMC & JAM-MASTER JAY

Servotron

Sly And The Family Stone

Snailboy/Shorty

Snakefinger

Ultra Vivid Scene (maybe?)

Uncle Tupelo

Frank Zappa

agent202 wrote:SUICIDE

i saw Suicide in 2001...i know this sounds like it's something that should be outright terrible, but somehow it was one fucking amazing show! they put out what was supposed to be another really bad album after that, but live they were fantastic...oh, and Alan Vega rubbed my head...and i hi-fived both those dudes!

Husker Du
Tar
BITCH MAGNET

Hawkwind, Circa 1972
Black Flag, Chavo era
Led Zeppelin, 72'-73' -ish
DA (Chicago band from late 70's Early 80's)
Butthole Surfers, @ 1984-85
Pere Ubu, Peter Laughner era
The MC-5
The Stooges
Mission of Burma, Horrible Truth era
La Peste
Chrome
Nick Turner/Helios Creed
Husker Du, Zen Arcade era

sly phil wrote:Tar

Ah yes. Very much infuckingdeed. TAR.

Bo Diddley