Oh, yeah, and there was that time my best friend (see the Danger Danger entry above) won tickets to the Dr. Feelgood Tour, a/k/a the last time Motley Crue was worth a damn.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
Post-break, I've now seen:
Robin Trower twice. If you do not know who he is, check the albums For Earth Below, Day of the Eagle, Bridge of Sighs, and Long Misty Days.
I waited, seriously, 33 years to see this man live and OMG was he worth it. He's both precise and joyful in his playing, and I chewed my parents out rudely for not taking me with them to the 12K-seat Memorial Coliseum in Portland in 1976. When I was like 5.
Queensryche twice--see an earlier post.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo. If you get a chance, GO SEE THEM. Even if you've never heard of them. They're incredible, and since I asked super nice and was very respectful, they let me touch the Grammy Award that was touring with them at the time.
Always makes my list of the most amazing things I've gotten to touch/hold. At the end of the set they invited anyone who wanted to come up on stage and learn some Zulu dance moves (they're all ethnically Zulu), and although I hid behind a stage curtain I did dance myself into an actual asthma attack. Totally worth it.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy!!! In, get this, a 140-seat high school drama department. These guys are the KINGS of American swing and have played for at least 3 in-office Presidents of the US. You don't have to love swing to find yourself groovin to their cover of "Minnie the Moocher"! I told them they were one of the best Christmas presents I'd ever gotten and the trumpet player looked like he was gonna cry.
Alice Cooper, again, with Rob Zombie on the Gruesome Twosome leg of Alice's Theater of Death tour about 6 years back. We drove 350 miles each way, in a gale-force side wind all the way to Billings. Alice was worth it. Rob was not.
The Reverend Horton Heat, think we made 2 of the 3 shows we had tix for but missed the last one cuz the only available driver came down with the flu super bad
. If you're unfamiliar with The Rev, the easiest way I've come up with to describe him is "If Weird Al had a drunk uncle from Texas, it would be The Rev." He and his bassist, Jimbo, are AMAZING. They do the coolest stunts (like when Jimbo lays his upright bass on its side and Rev hops up ON IT; it's specially reinforced for this). I have him, and a few others on this list, on my new Twitter account so I can find out about upcoming shows.