Top Ten Club Shows I Can Remember Attending ...

Top Ten Club Shows I Can Remember Attending ...

These are not the sorts of events that have the ephemera I love to save. There aren’t ticket stubs. I may or not have paid cover for some of these shows. The dates are a bit foggy. Some of the clubs no longer exist. I cannot remember all of the other bands that played. Basically, this is what comes to mind when I think of club shows over the years.

1 - Dharma Bums / Young Brians - March 1991 The Big Dipper - Spokane WA - it was snowing and a weeknight and it was packed and it rocked like you would not believe ... the bands themselves commented on this during the evening ... there are just nights where things click and for whatever reason this night everything just rocked ... I can even remember thinking at the time that this was better than most of the arena shows I had been to over the previous few years and had paid much more money for ...

2 - Forced Entry / Bitter End / Condemmed - 1990 - Central Tavern - Seattle WA - I am still surprised the building is still standing, but then again it has handled earthquakes. This was a night of absolute thrash metal where I mostly sat up high on the side and looked down on the stage. There is even a review of this in an issue of City Heat.

3 - Kristen Barry 1990 - Central Tavern - I love this woman's music - a separate blog entry is forthcoming

4 - Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers / Heartbreak USA - 12-06 - Highway 99 Blues Club Seattle WA - great bands I've seen before, and even together, with too small a crowd, so I was able to just enjoy the music ... I did get the opportunity to teach Sabrina to two step a little and dance a song with Ruby ...

5 - Big Feeling - Spokane WA 1991 - I just remember the acoustic solo version of Staying Alive and that is enough to make this list. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the club there in Spokane and there weren’t many people there, which was not fair. There were a couple of decent bands in Spokane back then and this is one of them.

6 - Vinyl Avengers/Gold Spikes/The Davanos - OAT 2006 Seattle and LRH Seattle 2006 – exchange a couple guys and these bands change names but not quality, I saw them all a bunch and they are always great, so not one particular show here since there were great times to be had, I am simply putting them on the list on general principle ...

7 - Katrina Benefit Jam - Sept 2005 - Little Red Hen Seattle --- a who's who of local country and rockabilly for a good cause, packed and fun night, and the mixing and matching of musicians was really cool, there is simply so much quality in the genre in the Seattle area these days ...

8 - Knut Bell and the Blue Collars - EMP - 12-2003 - Liquid Lounge – I went to just get out of the house. I had no idea who was playing but just hoped for something worth seeing. I ran into an ECS member and my friend said to stay for a couple songs. I stayed for a couple sets. A girl flashed me. This show led to so many other things down the road that I am hesitant to think about how some things would be different for me today.

9 – (Unknown) Irish singers - Kell's - 6-05 Seattle – I went with my aunt and mom to take them to an Irish restaurant and we decided to hang out for a while. My mother had never bought me a drink until an Irish Coffee that night, I was almost 38 when this happened. There was a small band of three Irish singers on stage and it was very, very cool.

10 - BOC - Under The Rail - Seattle WA - 1993 - I am hesitant to add these guys to the list since they are arena rock big boys, but it was a club show after all. We stood right up front, some local bands opened (Bathtub Gin and ???) ... amazing ...

Honorable Mention - My Violent God – small short lived club near Northgate in Seattle - 5 people 93/94ish – I went with my brother to see an artist friend perform. It was kind of a strange experience to have the entire club to ourselves, it was almost like being at a rehearsal. It really wasn’t a good Top Ten type of show, but worth noting.

Honorable Mention - The Swain's – I have seen these guys several times, but both nights on one wild weekend in 6/05 was when it became clear I knew how to dance ...