Concerts in memory lane

Last night, a friend and I were talking about My Bloody Valentine recording a new album. I hadn't heard, and the news was really exciting. I mentioned seeing My Bloody Valentine in concert quite a few years ago and I couldn't remember the exact date - 1991? 1992? Of course this friend reminded me that he was born in 1982, which made me feel very old.

I used to keep all my concert ticket stubs, but I rarely do anymore. I have a stack of stubs from concerts I went to in the 80s and early 90s, stashed away in a baggie for safe keeping. Today I pulled them out and reminisced about some of my favourites – one of which was the My Bloody Valentine show (it was 1992).



Another one, also from 1992 was The Sugarcubes (coincidentally, Water from Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week just started playing in my iTunes playlist. Spooky). I'd been wanting to see them for years, and finally they were coming back. My mother was pregnant with my little sister (at the time, I referred to the future baby as "The Sib") and the day they were set to play was also around my mother's due date. Björk and another band member were interviewing at the local radio station, so we skipped school to meet them (!!) but travelling into downtown Toronto from the suburbs by way of public transit for the concert meant I'd be away from her for hours – but I couldn't miss the show! So, I called every couple of hours to check in. Thankfully, my sister decided to not be birthed that evening and I was able to enjoy the concert – we even met another band member at the show (see the autograph: "To Michelle in Toronto. I'm Einar").



One of the earlier shows I went to was also one of the most memorable ones. I was 15 when I saw The Jesus and Mary Chain in 1987 and it was possibly the first show I'd been to that had a mosh pit. I even just found a Wikipedia entry about the show, and what helped make it so memorable:

The band's dangerous reputation culminated at a gig at the RPM club in Toronto in November 1987, when Jim Reid allegedly hit two fans with a microphone stand for spitting on him. Jim was arrested and spent a night in jail. He was subsequently given absolute discharge after agreeing to give £500 to charity.

And this last stub is from one of the many Skinny Puppy shows I saw in the 80s. What made this one so memorable was the show's theme of animal rights. I'd just started getting more involved in animal rights and, at the show, the band played vivisection videos on the screen behind them. Again, another Wiki entry:

Over time, the band became outspoken advocates for animal rights, and used the Head Trauma tour (Europe, 1988) and VIVIsectVI tour (North America, 1988) to draw attention to the issue. The title of the album VIVIsectVI (1988) was a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism (ie. the "666 sect").[8] The album's lyrics dealt with criticism of pollution, chemical warfare, deforestation, rape, cocaine addiction, and the promotion of sexual abstinence to stop the spread of AIDS/HIV. Lead track "Dogshit" was released as a single in 1988 under the name "Censor", while the single "Testure", which denounced the vivisection of animals for research purposes, reached #19 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1989.[10] A music video was produced for "Testure", featuring footage of a man being tortured by monstrous-looking surgeons, augmented with clips from The Plague Dogs and Unnecessary Fuss, and included a statement denouncing vivisection. Key and Ogre were arrested for "disorderly conduct" at a 1988 concert in Cincinnati, Ohio after an audience member, believing the stuffed animal Ogre was "vivisecting" to be a real dog, called the police.

So, although my friend telling me that he was only 10 years old when I was already a concert going veteran made me feel extremely old, it also prompted this reminiscing, which made me feel really good. Almost as good as when I found this little note on my desk this afternoon: