- The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic, Summer of 1964 (you never forget your first ;-) . Brian Wilson on Fender bass and falsetto vocals, Mike Love on obnoxiousness.
- The Beatles at The Cow Palace in S. San Francisco, Summer of 1965. Not a very good live band. Honest ;-) . I was standing about ten yards from John Lennon. Only fifteen years and a few months later he was shot dead in NYC.
- The Electric Tingle Guild (Mark Loomis’ and Gary Andrijesivich’s post-The Chocolate Watchband group. The Watchband are the legendary Garage Band you see in Riot On Sunset Strip), at The Wutzit Club (a "Teen Center") in San Jose, 1968.
- The Electric Flag (with Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, and Mark Naftalin), at The Santa Clara County Folk/Rock Festival, Summer of ’68. The Doors had to follow them ;-( . Open act that day was a local group named Fritz (you know who their two front-persons were, right?).
- The Who at The Avalon Ballroom in SF (or was it The Fillmore?), 1968. They performed the "A Quick One" Suite for their first set, returning to do individual songs and then blow up everything. Wow.
- The Jeff Beck Group at The Fillmore, 1968. At that time, my favorite guitarist (I hadn’t yet heard Ry Cooder ;-) . At one point in the show, Jeff mocked Rod Stewart.
- The Who at Winterland in ’69, performing Tommy. Jealous yet? ;-)
- The Band at The Berkeley Community Theater, 1970. If I have to tell you why, you wouldn’t understand ;-) .
- The Beat (Paul Collins, not the U.K. group) at The Whiskey Au Go Go in late 1979. A master Power Pop group, as dynamic as The Who. Their debut album is essential listening.
- Rockpile at The Country Club in Reseda, CA, late-1980. One of the very best bands in Rock ’n’ Roll history, headed by Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe.
- Squeeze at The Roundhouse in London, December of ’81. It was fun seeing this great Pop Group surrounded by their countrymen.
- Dave Edmunds at The Ritz in NYC, 1982. Rock ’n’ freakin’ Roll, baby!
- Marshall Crenshaw and his 4-piece band (with Graham Maby on Fender 6 bass and harmony vocals), The Ritz in 1982. Fantastic Power Pop.
- Big Joe Turner backed by The Blasters, Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd, mid-80’s. Big Joe, one of the last Rock ’n’ Roll originators to go (Jerry Lee Lewis is the last man standing). In The Blasters at that point in time was Little Richards’ original tenor sax man, Lee Allen. For you younger fellas, guitarist in The Blasters was Dave Alvin, his big brother Phil on lead vocals and sweating.
- Foster & Lloyd, the Country (Foster) / Rock (Lloyd) duo, at The Roxy Theater on Sunset, mid-80’s. I don’t know who was in their band, but they were really good.
- Sometime in the 80’s I went to see The Plimsouls (Peter Case’s Power Pop group) at a little hole-in-the-wall Punk club on Ventura Blvd. in the Valley. They were the headliners, with an opening act whose name I was not familiar with. Can you imagine my surprise when Los Lobos started performing?! OMG, they were GREAT!
- Little Village on a sound stage in Burbank, 1992. THE Supergroup: John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. Their sole album isn’t great, but live they were.
- NRBQ at The Roxy in Hollywood, a coupla times in the 90’s. Grossly under-acknowledged and appreciated band (not by hipper musicians, such as Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, Richard Thompson, Costello, Bonnie Raitt, etc.).
- Iris Dement, twice at The Troubadour in W. Hollywood in the 90’s, once at The Egyptian Theater in Portland, Oregon, 2020. My favorite singer/songwriter. Of all time.
- Bob Dylan at The Pantages Theater on Hollywood Blvd. (a great Deco-style theater), early 2000’s. Really really good, unlike the last time I had seen him (outside at The Greek Theater) in the early-90’s. Terr-i-ble.
Yes, I know.....many more than three. But this is the last time I’m doing this, so I thought I’d get it all down ;-) .
