If you could, what live performances would you enjoy re-living?

I just flashed back on seeing Lucinda Williams at a pizza parlor somewhere in L.A. in the late-80's. Her s/t Rough Trade album had just been released, and I loved it. There were only a half-dozen people in the place.

The stage was tiny, her drummer David Lindley playing not a full set but a rub board. She had her original L.A. band, with Gurf Morlix on Telecaster and harmony vocals and Dr. John (not THE Dr. John, but an actual doctor) on standup bass.

Who woulda thought her Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album a decade later would elevate her into a major star? I had been introduced to her earlier in the 80's, at a Long Ryders show at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. (her then-husband was their drummer). She was very shy.

I saw her a few more times before CWOAGR broke big, last at The Troubadour, quite a step up from the pizza parlor. After the CW album, it was into big theaters. Last time I saw her, she had Jim Lauderdale playing acoustic rhythm guitar and singing harmonies, and the great Jim Christie on drums, whom she had just stolen from Dwight Yoakam's band. Fantastic!

I am of an age that allowed me to see some artists & bands live that many of you would loved to have seen and heard, but that now are just not that valued by myself:

- Jimi Hendrix at Winterland, ’68 and ’69. First time great, second time tired, like he was treading water.

- Cream at The (original location) Fillmore, ’67 and ’68. Thank God for Eric Clapton that he heard Music From Big Pink, and saw the light. ;-)

- The Nice (Keith Emerson’s pre-ELP band) at The Fillmore. Gawd do I hate Progressive "music".

- The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe & The Fish, in the Panhandle in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco during the Summer Of Love.

- the doors (lower case their doing, not mine ;-) at The Santa Clara Folk-Rock Festival in San Jose, Summer of ’68. They closed the show, Fritz (Stevie Nicks’ and Lindsey Buckingham’s local Garage band) opened. However, The Electric Flag (Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles’ band) were incredible!

- The Beatles at The Cow Palace in South San Francisco, Summer of ’65. Disappointing, just not that good. Of course, by that time I had been going out to see local Garage bands like The Chocolate Watchband (seen in the movie Riot On Sunset Strip), The Trolls (later Stained Glass, two albums on Capitol Records. Bassist/singer/songwriter Jim McPherson was later in Copperhead with John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service), The Syndicate Of Sound ("Hey Little Girl" hit single), The Otherside, and many, many more.

But the worst, by far, was The Rolling Stones at The Staples Center in L.A., early 2000’s. SO lame, nothing but cliche’ Rock ’n’ Roll Star posturing. Even worse---empty, vapid "entertainment"; they sounded TERRIBLE. How embarrassing.

I have a friend who saw The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band live at The Fillmore in ’69. Member Roger Ruskin Spear (how’s that for a name?!) was a sculpturer and electronic tinkerer, and had made a robot in very human form. He brought it along on that USA tour, controlling it’s onstage movements with a remote control.

The group’s first four albums are really great. We first saw them as the band performing in the underground club scene in The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film. Member Neil Innes would later create (along with Monty Python’s Eric Idle) the Beatles parody group The Rutles. They made an album and the mockumentary film All You Need Is Cash (before This Is Spinal Tap. Funnier, too). Neil plays the "John" character, Eric the "Paul". George Harrison appears in the film playing a reporter. Playing drums in The Rutles is one-time Beach Boys member Ricky Fataar. See it if you can.

Anyone who was fortunate enough to have seen NRBQ when Al Anderson was in the band will tell you what a great live band they were. Even better than their records, which are pretty damn great.

A favorite of Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and every good musician I know. Sorry Stones lovers: when David Sanborn introduced them on his TV show, he introduced them as "The best Rock ’n’ Roll band in the world."

I saw then twice, both times at The Roxy Theater on Sunset in Hollywood. So hot! Amongst the best 4-piece bands I've ever seen and heard live (along with Rockpile and Little Village). The Beatles were of course a 4-piece, but live they were not so hot. Honest!

Oh, and The Beat (Paul Collins, not the UK band) at The Whiskey in late '79. THE Best Power Pop band I've ever seen live, including Cheap Trick and The Who. Their debut album is really, really good.

Billy Swan told me he saw Elvis, Scotty, & Bill in Tennessee in 1955, performing on the back of a flatbed truck. What I wouldn't give to have been there!

@roberjerman, you left out Mickey Waller on drums! I too saw that lineup, at the original Fillmore in San Francisco.

I’d love to revisit seeing The Beatles at The Cow Palace (S. SF) in ’65, The Who at The Carousel Ballroom (I think) performing A Quick One in ’68, Leonard Cohen at The Universal Amphitheater in L.A. (very dramatic!), Rockpile at The Country Club in Reseda, Little Village on a soundstage in Burbank, Dave Edmunds at one of the big NYC clubs (The Ritz?), Marshall Crenshaw at same, and Big Joe Turner backed by The Blasters at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd.

The one I wish I hadn't missed was seeing Moby Grape live.