Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bands I've Seen

This is sort of a work in progress, as I know I've seen other bands, and I've seen many of these multiple times. It's an interesting mix of genres-punk, metal, folk, rock, jazz, and more. I'm sure I'll come up with others I've seen, but for now, here are 194 bands I've seen live.

.38 Special
AC/DC
AC/DShe
Aerosmith
Agents of Good Roots
Aldo Nova
Alice In Chains
Allman Brothers Band
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe
Ani Defranco
Anthrax
Aquarium Rescue Unit
Arlo Guthrie
Armored Saint
Arrested Development
Babes in Toyland
Bad Brains
Bad Company
Badlands
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Bent Sirkis
Big Head Todd & the Monsters
Biohazard
Black Crows
Black Label Society
Black Sheep
Blues Traveller
Bob Dylan
Bob Weir/Ratdog
Bon Jovi
Bonham
Britney Fox
Bruce Hornsby
Bryan Adams
Butthole Surfers
Cheap Trick
Corey Harris
Crash Test Dummies
Cry Cry Cry
Damn Yankees
Dangerous Toys
Dar Williams
Dave Matthews Band
David Crosby
David Wilcox
Day By The River
Deep Banana Blackout
Def Leppard
Del tha Funkee Homosapian
Dinosaur Jr.
Dio
Dr. John
Eddie From Ohio
Eric Clapton
Extreme
Faith No More
Fiction Plane
Fierce Nipples
Fishbone
Flogging Molly
From Good Homes
Front 242
Gene Clark
Govt Mule
Grateful Dead
Great White
Greg Brown
Guns N' Roses
GWAR
Hackensaw Boys
Henry Rollins
Hot Tuna
Ice Cube
Ice-T & Body Count
In Flames
In This Moment
Iron Maiden
James
James Taylor
Jane's Addiction
Jazz is Dead
Jesus and Mary Chain
Jewel
Jimmy Buffett
Joan Jett
Joe Jackson
John Cale
John McCutchen
John Wesley Harding
Keith Urban
Keller Williams
KISS
Kix
Kreator
L.A. Guns
Lab Report
Lenny Kravitz
Levon Helm
Little Big Town
Little Feat
Living Color
Los Lobos
Lucinda Williams
Lucy Kaplansky
Lush
Lyle Lovett
Merl Saunders
Meat Loaf
Megadeth
Metallica
Mickey Hart
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Ministry
moe.
Moon Boot Lover
Mose Alison
Motley Crue
Moxy Fruvous
Mr. Big
Mucky Pup
Mudvayne
Murphy's Law
Naked Puritans Philharmonic
Neil Young
Nine Inch Nails
Nuclear Assault
Ozzy Osbourne
Pantera
Pearl Jam
Pennywise
Pernice Brothers
Pete Seeger
Phish
Pigface
Pink Floyd
Poison
Poor Excuse
Primus
Prong
Public Enemy
Rage Against the Machine
Ramones
Ratt
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Ricky Warwick
Rob Zombie
Robert Cray
Roger McGuinn
Rolling Stones
Rusted Root
Scorpions
Scotch Greens
Seven Nations
Shawn Mullins
Skid Row
Slaughter
Slayer
Son Volt
Soundgarden
Soulive
Soup Dragons
Souxsie & The Banshees
Spin Doctors
Spiritualized
Steve Kimock
Strangefolk
String Cheese Incident
Sweet Honey In the Rock
Tesla
Testament
Creatures
Cult
The Dead
Fiendz
Kinks
Long Winters
Nields
Other Ones
Police
Samples
Tossers
Undead
Wreckers
Tom Tom Club
Tool
Toshi Reagon
Traffic
Trey Anastasio
Ugly Kid Joe
Whitesnake
Widespread Panic
Yngwie Malmsteen
Young Black Teenagers
Ziggy Marley

Sunday, February 03, 2008

The Geekiest Thing I Ever Did?

A little over a year ago (November 13, 2006, to be exact), I did something pretty geeky. Yeah, I know-I do lots of geeky stuff, but this may be one of the geekiest fanboy moments I've ever had. We were in Rhode Island for my cousins wedding, and I decided that since we were near Providence (although, truthfully, ANYWHERE in Rhode Island is "near" Providence...) we were going to take a side trip and go visit a cemetery. Not just any cemetery, though. Swan Point Cemetery, resting place of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, author of The Call of Cthulhu (among many other stories).

It was a foggy, slightly rainy morning when we headed out on our trip to find my favorite authors grave site, and we spent a fair amount of time just finding the cemetery itself. Not that it was hard to find, we just weren't familiar with Providence, and made several wrong turns getting there. Once we were there, we went to the information center and printed out a map and directions to the grave. Ah, so it should be easy now, right? Not so fast. First we spent a good half hour driving through the cemetery, making wrong turns and seeing lots of ornate headstones and beautiful landscaping, but not quite finding the place we were looking for. Swan Point is a beautiful, very old, historic cemetery, and seems to be more like a park that happens to have thousands of people buried in it than a cemetery.

Eventually we found the spot we were looking for (we had actually driven right by it at least twice): Grave of H.P. Lovecraft, Lot 5, Group 281, Swan Point Cemetery, 585 Blackstone Boulevard, Providence. What next? Why, take a couple pictures, of course! A few of HPL's headstone (with it's famous inscription of "I Am Providence"), and then a couple shots of me and my wife next to the larger family monument. I'm glad Laura has a sense of humor for all my geek passions, as HPL wasn't even on her radar before she met me. Yet here she is, posing for a picture next to his grave. I'm a lucky guy. After spending a little time at the grave, we drove around the cemetery some more, looked at some of the other headstones (and there are some huge and magnificent ones there), enjoyed the scenery, and even took a little walk down to the edge of the Seekonk River.

Then it was time to get back on the road, and head into the East Side of Providence for a few hours walking around with my brother & sister on the grounds of Brown University on College Hill. Then once again we were headed back to Virginia after a nice long weekend.

That may be one of, if not the geekiest, fanboy things I've ever done. Have you ever visited the grave of your favorite author? What are you supposed to do at an authors grave-read from their books? Leave a memento for the next fan to find?

What are some of your geekiest moments?