Re: Best gig you've ever been to?
My rockin' days culminated with a Christian band called Vector. Played at Cornerstone '86 in Chicago with them, stopping at another festival in Kitchener (Toronto) beforehand. At the Kitchener gig, the band that preceded us had a great honky-tonk piano player; I was really impressed. As I was tearing down after our performance, he came up to me and complimented my playing (I played a rack of four synths/samplers and a drum machine; totally opposite in style). It took me a sec, and I almost wet myself when I realized with whom I was speaking. The band's name was Vision, and this was Billy Powell, former keyboardist for Skynyrd. He came up to me, and liked my playing! What a really cool guy.
Damn, I just googled to learn that he passed away this year, in January. RIP man, your kindness was a highlight of my musical adventures, and your playing legendary.
A few days later, we headlined the first night of a three-(four-?)night festival in Chicago, at Cornerstone. Thousands of people, flicking their lighters, and many, wearing our t-shirts, packed the green in front of the huge stage, whistling and yelling like crazy just prior to curtain call. I was amazed; I didn't think more than a handful of people outside our hometown even knew who we were. It was almost time for my moment of fame. I had the first three minutes all to myself, and had prepared a tour-de-force synth/sample/sound-effect intro with which to dazzle the crowd.
In those days, samplers had limited, volatile memory and no built-in hard drives. Sound data was loaded from floppy disk, and took a minute and a half in the case of my Prophet VS. I was set up on a very tall wheeled platform, which allowed me to get everything ready at sound check, pull one AC chord, and roll my rig off stage. Set up before the gig would just be a matter of rolling it back out, tapping into AC, powering up and loading my sounds.
Seconds before the curtains went up, an excited stagehand ran behind my rig--and tripped over my AC chord. My rig went dead, and my heart broke. I yelled at Jimmie Abegg, our guitarist, and told him he'd have to take the intro. He did, the crowd went wild, and the concert was a great success. I forgave the poor guy who messed up without any hard feelings. Shyte happens. But man ... I really wanted to command that crowd for a few. It was so big, and they were so into us. Oh well, maybe another opportunity will present itself in the future, if I ever get off my arse and return to doing what I love best.
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As far as attending concerts goes, I'd have to say Kansas at Day on The Green in '79 or '80. The Eagles on their reunion tour at Mountainview, Pat Travers on Snortin' Whiskey, NiN on Fragility, Missing Persons on Rhyme and Reason, and Tears for Fears on Songs from the Big Chair tours get honorable mentions.
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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
#Hillary4prism 
) - my God what a genius!
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