In 1993 or so I went to see The Breeders in concert. I had never seen the Pixies before they broke up and really liked The Breeders (3/4 of the band), so I wanted to see them. Unfortunately, they were opening up for Nirvana. I hadn’t jumped on the Nirvana bandwagon, and was a bit annoyed that I’d get a 45 minute set sandwiched between Shonen Knife and Nirvana.
The show was at the Astro Arena. The floor was sold out, but I made it down there. The 45 minute Breeders set was incredible. With only 45 minutes to last, they let it all hang out, and I was thrashing all about the floor.
Having paid for the ticket, I stayed for Nirvana and was blown away. It was an amazing show. Soulful, raw, painful, beautiful. I was a Nirvana fan from then on, and still am today.
The Pixies had a reunion tour a few years ago and it too was in the Astro Arena. One opening band, The Killers. They were The New Big Thingâ„¢. I had several friends totally hooked on them. I had heard one or two songs, unimpressed. As I stood at the back of the arena, it was way too loud and fully lacked any dynamic range – it was either on or off. And every song seemed influenced (stolen?) from a different 80’s band.  As if each time they wrote a song, they put on a great old 80’s album and wrote a song that sounded like it would fit.I had a college professor that said “stealing from one source is plagiarism; stealing from many is research.” I tried to heed his words, but I still didn’t buy it.
The Killers have a new album out, and everyone’s raved about it since it came out. I just won free tickets to the show in September, so I think I’m gonna go buy the new album so I’ll have a better chance of enjoying the show. Will I appreciate it more this time? We’ll see.