Gheorghe's Milestones in Music

A recent survey conducted by the Clarence Institute of Finding Shit Out (CIFSO™) shed some light on some of the foundations of musical event attendance by the gheorghies through the years. Its intent was to allow GTB writers and readers alike to develop a contextual understanding of some of the posts and comments where rock and roll music is the topic. I dare say that we have learned a lot.

Note: if you consider yourself a gheorghie (a. get help, but b. . . .) and you were not surveyed, please do not take offense.  CIFSO standards and practices ensure a level of disorganization, gaps, scattershotness, haphazardry, outdated e-mail addresses, and erroneous data collection.  By our very design we incorporate a percentage error plus or minus 37.  It's what we do.

On to the findings.

We wanted to learn about concerts attended.  It's our belief at CIFSO that something as simple as the purchase of Snow's Twelve Inches of Snow is an egregious music error, but it's one easily made (sort of) and without much consequence.  (Like twelve bucks or so.)  It should not reflect too poorly on the purchaser nor render his opinion of Social Distortion's major label debut moot and meaningless.

Going to a show, though?  Well, mistakes can be made, but in our statistical expert opinion, it's a far more telling barometer of the quality of rock music taste.  Or lack thereof.  It says a lot about you if you have seen Billy Joel 27 times. Or moe.  Or Ned's Atomic Dustbin.  Or Garth Brooks.  Or the Weather Girls.  And the knowledge of whom you pay and/or travel to see rock it out helps serve our reading audience with background information.  Let's face it, reading Dave's well-crafted post from yesterday with the backstory that he either: (a) pays to see Jersey Shore cover bands meticulously cover old songs while he hates the original versions of those old songs, (b) was an indie pioneer and saw the Flaming Lips in a tiny room in college, or (c) got a hard rock band tattooed on his leg and then went to see them more than any other act . . . well, the more you know . . .

Anyway, that stuff plus the gheorghies' original foundations of seeing music once upon a time, as well as how far each concert-goer was willing to travel for a certain act all makes for good intel . . . for filtering out the bullcrap of some yahoo who broke their cherry on Warrant and made connecting flights to see Toby Keith.

Here we go.

The first question we asked of the GTBers was what their first concert was.  Who took your rock show virginity?  You always remember your first.  Unless you're Dave.

G:TB's First Concerts

TR: Whitesnake/Great White
Danimal: O.M.D. opening for Thompson Twins '85
Marls: Herman's Hermits/The Turtles
Squeaky: The Cars, Hampton Beach, NH
Zman: John Denver
Dave: either Sting (Dream of the Blue Turtles) or R.E.M. (Fables of the Reconstruction) with the Feelies, 1985
Mark: Warped Tour (Fishbone/Rancid headliners)
rob: Chicagoooo!!!
Shlara: The Jacksons (as in Michael and his brothers) Victory Tour at RFK
Whitney: The Monkees (w/ Herman’s Hermits); Grateful Dead a few months later.  Apparently I was born during WWII...
TJ: Steve Winwood, 1990, SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center – great venue). Warren Zevon opened for Winwood. That is correct – Warren Zevon opened for Steve Winwood. Almost 30 years later I’m still baffled by this.
KQ: Go-Go's at Kings Dominion. BoDeans opened.
Mr. KQ: Peter Frampton
Clarence: Eddie and the Cruisers at Tony Mart’s, followed quickly by Stillwater

CIFSO can draw some interesting conclusions here, both individually and as a group.  But we won't. That's not what we do!  Instead we will let you do that in the comments.

We followed that question with this one: What's the furthest you ever traveled for a rock and roll show?

G:TB's Longest Road Trip for a Show

Zman: NY to Boston to see BRMC with Squeaky. NJ to Boston to see Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr, and Living Colour with Squeaky but he didn't get the tickets so we saw a bluegrass band instead. So 225 to 250 miles.
Whitney: San Francisco for Outside Lands Music Festival ’14. Non-festival: Wilco in Brooklyn with Squeaky or the RnR HoF opener in '95 with Evan.
Squeaky: While living in VA saw a band at the Crocodile Club in Seattle. Can't remember the band but it was an offshoot of Mudhoney. And also 54-40 in Vancouver.
Mark: Smokin Grooves Tour - Cleveland, OH (Jurassic 5, The Roots, Outkast)

rob: Does JazzFest count? If not that, we saw King Sunny Ade at Millennium Park in Chicago last month.
Shlara: Foo Fighters in London
Danimal: U2 in Chicago
Marls: Don Ho in Honolulu
TR: Saw a Panic run at the Wiltern Theatre in LA in '01
TJ: OK, well, if you count Latham as my home, I guess it’s the Tribe Called Quest concert I saw at William and Mary. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever traveled to see a concert – I’ve always seen concerts in close proximity to where I was living at the time. [Ed. Note: Lame.]
KQ: That's probably Sister Hazel in Atlanta.

Mr. KQ: B-52’s, Orlando, FL circa 1981
Dave: Daytona! Primus/Salt 'n' Pepa/Ugly Kid Joe/Naughty By Nature [Ed. Note: a couple of other gheorghies were there as well, so this might be their actual pick]
Clarence: Spinal Tap, Cleveland / Detroit; Nick Rivers with special guest Autobahn in Germany; Infant Sorrow at the Greek

As CIFSO could have predicted (but didn't), answers ranged from inter-continental to barely across town. Interesting, mildly.

Finally, the crack engineers of this survey felt that its centerpiece had to be the band each of the group has seen most.  There are few truer gauges of your musical taste than the artists you have plunked down cash and gone to see the most.  One stray visit to a Dead show is one thing, but if you have seen 73 Phish concerts, we can assume more things about you.  Prejudices are created, like chances are you don't think of "Ringwald" when I say "Molly."  You get it.  This is like KGB.  Answer questions, please, comrade.

G:TB's Musical Acts Seen the Most in Concert

Okay, children, it's time for a game.  Match the gheorghie to their most-seen band!

The gheorghies:
(Ed. Note: The Gheorghies is a good name for a band . . . if it's not already taken)

Clarence – Danimal – Dave – KQ – Mark – Marls –Mr. KQ – rob – Shlara – Squeaky – TJ – TR – Whitney – Zman

The concerts (and how many times):

- U2 - 6 times 
- Aerosmith (3 times between 1994 and 1998) 
- Probably Pearl Jam, though Carbon Leaf and Sister Hazel are up there. (I could count but I was under the impression there would be no math.) 
- Drive-By Truckers (5 or 6 times and Jason Isbell twice). Allmans 4 or 5 times. 
- Widespread Panic (35-40x) 
- Either Old 97’s or They Might Be Giants. If you count Rhett solo shows, it's probably the former. (8ish) 
- Wilco (~17 times) 
- Has to be The Cult! (7?) 
- Either The Allman Bros or Springsteen (Sorry, 70’s and early 80s a bit of a blur) 4 or 5 each 
- The Roots (7-8 times) 
- Foo Fighters (like 8 or 9 times). Everyone else is only 4-5 times: U2, Grateful Dead, Bruce, Old 97's, Glen Hansard 
- Reverend Horton Heat (4 or 5 times) 
- Bob Mould (7 times) Widespread Panic, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order (4 times)

- Either The Zack Attack or Wyld Stallyns, maybe 69 times each . . . although I spent a lot of time seeing Dr. Fünke’s 100 Percent Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution, much of which I don't remember thanks to the forget-me-nows

Make your picks at home and wait for the Answer Key to published in this space soon.  Good luck!

CIFSO's survey is complete.  Please do not find fault in the process. Because there is none.  Just learn about your co-bloggers, judge if you must, mock as a rule.  Enjoy.  (And go see more shows.)

Love,
Clarence