Superlative shows

Reviewing my concert history has been so much fun that I'm feeling a little bummed about having to come up with a different topic next week. But all things must end, which kind of sums up my three concert posts. You know who I'd still like to see. You know which shows I regret missing. Now, as I willingly get ready to accept the responsibilities of fatherhood and the semi-retirement from the concert scene that goes with it, here are the 10 best performances I've seen, listed in ascending order of freakin' awesomeness:

10. Reverend Horton Heat/Los Straitjackets; 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.; May 15, 2000 – I have to thank my co-worker and good buddy Sid Acker for this one. When he found out I liked rockabilly, Sid kept telling me I had to check out the Reverend. He mentioned as an added selling point that I looked like bassist Jimbo Wallace, who throws his upright bass up over his head and catches it at the end of every show. Sid's got good taste in music, so I checked out the Reverend's recorded work first. I found that I enjoyed it very much, especially the band's sense of humor on tracks such as "Wiggle Stick," Big Red Rocket of Love" and "Bales of Cocaine." It didn't take long to get to a show, either. They tour so much that if you miss them they're likely to be back to your town before the year is out. It was as crazy as I had hoped. All the goodness of rockabilly with all the volume of AC/DC. The showmanship that can only be learned on the road, if not in a bar with a dirt floor. Jimbo would lay the bass down on its side so the Reverend could climb on top of it to solo. During "Five-O-Ford," they would put their fretting hands on the other's instrument while still picking their own, so they'd be playing guitar and bass at the same time. Add to all of this the sublime sounds of opener Los Straitjackets, the Nashville surf band that wears Mexican wrestling masks and speaks to the audience between songs in Spanish only. If that's not enough, they do an instrumental of that dreadful Celine Dion song from "Titanic" and make it fun. The icing on the cake: This show cost five bucks.

9. Old Crow Medicine Show; Merlefest Traditional Stage; May 1, 2004 – I'm a big fan of Old Crow Medicine Show. I've seen them in a club show since this performance, and it was fantastic, but I'm still going to pick the first one as the best. I'd been listening to their self-titled debut CD before going to Merlefest, and really was looking forward to this set. Apparently, they were too. A string band with a punk-rock ethos, O.C.M.S. took the stage ready to kick ass and take names. Mission accomplished, and so much more. Despite the sweltering heat, they played full-bore from start to finish, stomping feet and snapping strings the whole time. They had a buckdancer in front of the stage for a while, and an even more special surprise at the end. They played the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" with a couple of special guests – David Rawlings on guitar and Gillian Welch on drums. Walking back to the main stage afterward, you could feel the surge of the newly converted heading for the merch tent to pick up their CD. If the energy is more important to you than whether the band is in perfect pitch, Old Crow Medicine Show is just waiting to rock your world.

8. BR549; Merlefest Dance Tent; May 1, 2005 – Giving credit again where it is due, HickoryWind's own Stacy Chandler turned me on to BR549. Like Old Crow Medicine Show, I'd got to hear them quite a bit before finally seeing them. Also like O.C.M.S., I've seen them perform outside of Merlefest. In fact, I'd seen them perform earlier at this year's Merlefest. They played the main stage in the morning. I don't want to sound ungrateful to the great staff at Merlefest, but the main stage is the wrong place for this band. They came up on Lower Broadway in Nashville, playing for tips. If you suck, you don't eat. Even if you're great, you might not eat well. Regardless, BR549 took over the dance tent in the afternoon, and the new digs clearly suited them. Within minutes, they had the joint rocking and me as close as I get to dancing. As people started shouting out requests, singer/guitarist Chuck Mead snapped into full carnival-barker mode, reminding the patrons that there's a difference between a request and a suggestion. He rubbed his thumbs and fingers together in the universal symbol for moolah in case anyone was unclear as to what he was saying. I bit. Knowing how much my wife loves "Seven Nights to Rock," I made my way to the front of the stage. I got Mead's attention and slipped him a folded bill. He unfolded the ten, held it up and said, "What's this for?" I told him, and he said "I think we remember that one." He then dropped his low E string down to D, and they proceeded to blow the top off that tent. For the rest of the set, multi-instrumentalist Don Herron played like a man possessed. He rocked the steel guitar back and forth as he played it, laid it down over the monitor to play a solo and ended another solo by picking it up – stand and all – over his head and letting out a roar. I think the only reason they ever stopped playing was that Herron broke some of the equipment. Best 10 dollars I ever spent.

7. The Blasters; The Birchmere, Alexandria, Va.; Nov. 13, 2002 – As I work up the list, I'm sensing a theme. The Blasters are yet another band that cut their teeth playing in dive bars, their livelihood depending on getting the crowd on its feet. They rose to prominence in the mid-'80s but flamed out fast because brothers Dave (guitar) and Phil Alvin (guitar, vocals) just couldn't get along. When this reunion show was announced, I knew I had to be there. But I waited too long, and the show sold out. Our only option was to stand outside before showtime and hope that the house had a few more tickets before showtime. It worked, and The Blasters tore through rockabilly, blues and old-time rock and roll for a couple of hours that seemed like mere minutes. This was easily one of the loudest shows I've ever been to in addition to being one of the best. When it was over, Dave Alvin stepped up to the mike, motioned out to all the tables and chairs and said, "Next time, a dance floor." Unfortunately, there hasn't been a next time. Dave Alvin has gone back to his solo career, and the current incarnation of The Blasters is playing small clubs without him.

6. Guy Clark, Joe Ely, John Hiatt & Lyle Lovett; Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tenn.; Oct. 17, 2004 – Seeing any one of these gifted songwriters on their own is cause for celebration. But all four together, in an old-fashioned guitar pull? In the Ryman, the mother church of country music? Sometimes I still wonder if it all was a dream, but that's what ticket stubs are for. I took my wife, Sharon, to Nashville as a surprise for her birthday, and we'd seen the Dave Brubeck Quartet at the Ryman two nights previous. That show wasn't too shabby, but this one just made me giddy. Songwriting 101, with the professors picking and singing backup on the others' tunes. Throw in a chance meeting with Hiatt at Jack's Barbecue before the show and autographs from all four (plus Charlie Sexton) afterward, and I'm starting to wonder how this didn't make it into the top five.

5. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; FedEx Field, Landover, Md.; Sept. 13, 2003 – Springsteen doesn't do his legendary four-hour shows anymore, but three hours and change is more than most are giving you for your concert buck. I'd seen The Boss in an indoor arena before, so the real spectacle was seeing how he can carry off the same intimacy in a stadium show. This show was the day after Johnny Cash died, and Springsteen had the crowd eating out of his hand as soon as he opened with a cover of "I Walk The Line." He kept the fans' rapt attention with big hits ("Badlands," "Born to Run," "Born in the U.S.A." and "Dancing in the Dark"), deep-album tracks ("Paradise," from "The Rising"), B-sides ("Pink Cadillac") and covers ("Seven Nights To Rock"). I was drained afterward, and I didn't play a note.

4. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers/Brian Setzer Trio; Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, Va.; July 17, 2002 – If the proverbial aliens landed and asked "take me to your rock and roll" and I didn't take them to Springsteen, I'd take the little green guys to see Tom Petty. As he brought song after song out from the setlist, it started to settle in that this guy has written a ton of songs that have gotten big play on the radio. And he did it without sounding like Bon Jovi. This was a total clinic. The band was tight, and they made it obvious just how much fun they were having. Guitarist Mike Campbell is one of the most underrated players around. This show was made even greater for me by the presence of the Brian Setzer Trio in the opening slot. As a big rockabilly fan, and a huge fan of Setzer's work with the Stray Cats and on his own, it was a joy to watch him dazzle the paying customers with his playing on "That's All Right Mama," "Fishnet Stockings," "Stray Cat Strut," "Sleepwalk" and "Rock This Town." He seemed inspired by the crowd response, too, dropping to his knees to play one solo and perching the guitar behind his head for another.

3. U2; MCI Center, Washington, D.C.; Oct. 20, 2005 – Just a few weeks ago, a dream that began the first time I heard "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was realized. I missed them on "The Joshua Tree" tour. I missed them on the "Achtung Baby" tour. "Zooropa"? Pop Mart? Well, as they would say in "Office Space," I wouldn't say I was missing them. But the release of "All That You Can't Leave Behind" in 2000 rekindled my interest in seeing them. "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" did nothing to drive me away. It's rare when a band can stay together for this long, and by all accounts they're still friends. It's rarer still when a musician can come up with a style that doesn't really sound derivative. When I hear the icy rivulets echoing out of The Edge's guitar, it doesn't sound to me like anything anybody else is doing. And then there's Bono. Like any good frontman, he's part shaman and part full of shit. But when he talks about simple ideas like people coexisting, or putting an end to crippling poverty, or making a difference in the Third World, he makes compelling arguments with diplomacy over shrill rhetoric. As a guy who tends to be conservative, it's nice to go to a show where I feel welcome. And, to tell you the truth, I would have walked through a wall with Bono when this show was over. It completely reaffirmed my belief in music as a means to unite people.

2. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, N.C.; Dec. 8, 2002 – You never forget your first time ... with The Boss, that is. This one had been the top at the concert wish list for a long, long time. More specifically, it had been up there since I was playing the hell out of the "Born In The U.S.A." album (on vinyl) back in high school. As an added bonus, I bought these tickets as a surprise for Sharon's birthday. So there we were, two fans with a common love of "Working' on the Highway" crossing Springsteen off the top of our lists together. Charlotte had just been hit by a terrible winter storm, and much of the city was still without power. It might sound hokey as hell, but it's true: Springsteen and the E Streeters staged a rock-and-roll revival that night, and lifted some folks who were in need of a great night out. This was on "The Rising" tour, so we got a lot of selections from that disc. But there was much more. Just to give you a taste, here was the second encore: "My City of Ruins," "Born in the U.S.A.," "Land of Hope and Dreams," "Ramrod" and, it being so close to the holidays, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." And even though we didn't get to hear "Working on the Highway," we got "Darlington County," which is pretty damn good its own self. Needless to say, it was worth the wait.

1. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble; Portland (Maine) City Hall Auditorium; Feb. 22, 1987 – As hard as it was to make this list, picking No. 1 wasn't difficult at all. My father and I sat in the first row of the balcony for this one, and when it was over we were both blown away by what we'd seen. I hadn't been to many concerts to that point, so it was a no-brainer pick as the best. It's been 18 years, and nothing has knocked it off. Vaughan took the best parts of the great bluesmen and Jimi Hendrix and assimilated it into a muscular, funky style that is often imitated by never quite duplicated. My only regret is that he was still on booze and drugs at this time, and I wonder what he would have been capable on the same night if he'd been clean. I caught him every time I could afterward, the last time after he had sobered up, and he never failed to amaze. Still, nothing can match that initial experience, when a trio from Texas inspired a kid from Maine to wear broad-brimmed hats and dig deeper into the blues. The best part of this show for me was that I saw it with my dad. All these years later, it's one of the best father-son moments of my life.