Best concerts ever part one

With shows from Ryan Adams, Tori Amos and Something for Kate coming up in the next month or two, I've been doing a bit of thinking lately about the best shows I've seen over the last decade or so. And so you guys get a list. But in the interest of not running out of blog material in the next week, I've decided to break it up. Kind of like Bill Simmons' 33 Best Sports Movies of All Time series, which I'm guessing he has no intention of ever actually finishing. So here they are, the ten best concerts I've ever been to.*

Tomahawk (with the Melvins and Fantomas) at Heaven, 2003

I went to this with Boris, and was blown away. I like Mike Patton, and Tomahawk are probably my favourite of his many bands, but I wasn't expecting anything this good. Part of the appeal I think was the venue - Heaven (now HQ) is easily my favourite place in Adelaide to see bands - the sight lines are good pretty much wherever you are with all the raised areas, and the sound is always great. The sound was spot on for this show, and the guitar tones were fantastic - menacing yet melodic.

This was after Tomahwak's second album Mit Gas had come out, so they didn't have a whole lot of material, but it was a very solid set with hardly any filler. It's fantastic watching Patton perform as well - juggling samplers, a theramin, various microphones, he comes across as equal parts scientist and rock star. After watching this I kind of wished I saw Faith No More live. Mirjana likes to point out that she went to see them when they were in Adelaide at Le Rox, although I think I was in primary school back then so that was probably what stopped me from going. That, and the fact that I preferred the pop-metal stylings of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.

The support acts were OK - Melvins and Fantomas are both bands which I don't mind in small doses, so the 45 minute sets were just about right.

This isn't from the show, but it's a great Tomahawk clip all the same.



* Not in any kind of an order - that would be too hard, and besides, as I think I may have mentioned before, my memory sucks. I'm just happy I can actually recall attending any of these shows.