OK.. After 3 tries at making this post I have spent far too long on this than I ever should have.   But the internet cannot beat me so easily!  I press on and never back down. 

I decided to do this project to compile a list of my favorite concert experiences that I have been lucky enough to witness.  This is not a definitive list, it is not in any order, it may not be entirely precise, but it should be pretty accurate to the best of my knowledge.  These are concerts that showed me what live music should be about, these are concerts that blew me away musically, artistically, and inspirationally.  These are the concerts that stuck with me for days after and made me want to better myself creatively.  Again, I have seen hundreds of shows and probably can’t remember them all… these are the ones at the forefront of my mind that stick out and I remember as being moving experiences.  So with all that in mind… I give you…

ERIK’S MOST MEMORABLE CONCERT EXPERIENCES (thus far…)

• Sick & Twisted Tour 2000 Feat. Korn w/ Staind & Mindless Self Indulgence
  June 17, 2000: Chicago, IL: Allstate Arena

My very first concert!  That in itself is pretty awesome.  At the time I was in love with Korn and was a goofy 15 year old.  We sat way off to the side of the stage, in the upper deck of the giant arena.  I got to see ‘moshing’ for the first time from a distance, that was intriguing.  I was also really excited just to see Jonathan Davis jump around and do his thing.  Also,  this was the first time I had ever heard Mindless Self Indulgence and after this concert would go on to fall in love with that band too.  I’m pretty happy about this being my first concert.  I probably still haven’t been to any show like this one since.  But I’ll never forget this that’s for sure.

• High On Fire, Converge, Mastodon, & Dethklok
  October 3, 2009: Seattle, WA: Wamu Theater @ Qwest Field

From the oldest concert to the most recent, it only made sense.  This is the one that got me thinking about making this list.  This concert showed me how great live music can be again.  It had been awhile since I had felt the feelings I felt during this show.  High On Fire came out and set the tone with their crushing dirty metal and that was just the beginning.  Converge (one of my favorite bands [more on that later]) as the underappreciated opener comes out and does what they do.  And what they do is play progressive hardcore music and put on amazing live show full of emotion.  This was my 7th time seeing Converge and each time they do not disappoint and get me excited about music.  After Converge the concert shifted gears and the mighty Mastodon came out and played an extremely heavy set.  They played their new album ‘Crack The Sky’ in it’s entirety along with some of the old hits.  All with wonderful film clips and trippy animations playing behind them on a huge light screen.  If the concert would have ended their I would have been satisfied.  But!  Who else to come out and headline this show than the best cartoon death-metal band, Dethklok!!??  I had no idea what to expect for a Dethklok live show, and within 5 seconds of their set starting my expectations were shattered.  Brendon Small, the creator of the show (Metalocalypse) and band and lead singer and guitarist became a god to me on this night.  To be able to sing the way he does and play guitar is a major accomplishment in my eyes… on top of creating all those animation and artwork to go along with it.  All in all, this concert had it all.  3 amazing bands that were equally good in very different ways.  I was in awe of every bands artistic and creative abilities.  Also this was my very first concert in my new home of Seattle, Washington which is radical.

• Bear Vs Shark, Fear Before The March of Flames, & CurlUpAndDie
  July 28, 2005: Dekalb, IL: The House Café

These 3 bands are 3 bands very close to my heart.  I saw them play a concert together in a very small place.  It was loud, and I was in love.  Soon after Bear Vs. Shark broke up… CurlUpAndDie disappeared… and Fear Before The March of Flames would go on to change their name to just Fear Before.

• Hellfest 2004 w/ Many hardcore / metal / punk bands (see below)
  July 23, 24, 25, 2004: Elizabeth, NJ: RexPlex

My friend Tim and I took a trip out to New Jersey for a 3 day festival of pretty much any hardcore / metal / punk band that mattered at the time.  I don’t think we could grasp how unbelievable Hellfest was at the time.  And believe me we were excited as hell and knew it was something special.  But looking back it’s still this giant thing that looks almost too good to have happened.  We saw a ton of bands,  ate a lot of pizza, stayed in a hotel, and bought lots of merch.  Here are some of the highlights I remember:

1. Talking to Jon Hunt (singer of Dead to Fall) about being from the chicagoland area, and seeing them play on a small stage that looked like a basement area, with pillars among the crowd… and the circle pits.
2. Seeing Converge on one stage and then turning my head slightly to the right and seeing Dillinger Escape Plan start right after them.
3. Mest getting booed and heckled for their entire set.
4. A huge tattoo expo.
5. All the merchandise… and if I had enough money I never would have stopped buying.
6. Getting the Terror ‘One With The Underdogs’ CD before it came out.
7. Eating slices of Pizza inside the RexPlex for lunch each day, and Dominos Pizza at the hotel each night.
8. The gigantic line outside to get in each morning that stretched around the huge complex.
9. All the hardcore kids and good feeling I got from doing something so far away from home for the first time.

Here’s a schedule I kept that has a list of all the bands that were there and times they played:


Pretty awesome right? Right!

• The Dillinger Escape Plan w/ KA
  June 21, 2002: Chicago, IL: The Fireside Bowl

There are 8 things I remember about this show:

1. It cost 3 dollars.
2. It was the first concert I’d ever been to with Pete, and his first concert at the Fireside Bowl (and maybe first concert ever… he’s still thinking…).
3. The Dillinger Escape Plan singer ripping off a chunk of the ceiling and holding it over the crowd like a club.  It was scary, and awesome.
4. The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist with duct tape on his ear as a bandage for a sick looking cut.
5. The Dillinger Escape Plan drummer being very very very good at drums.
6. Being smashed between the packed in crowd and the thigh-high stage.
7. The Dillinger Escape Plan ending their set with a cover of Billy Idol’s ‘Rebel Yell’.
8. A weird 2 piece band named KA as an opening band… they were weird, and I barely even remember them.

• The Mars Volta & A Perfect Circle
  April 16, 2004: Chicago, IL: The UIC Pavillion

2 bands with unforgettable stage presence.  The mars volta with their improvisation and spastic style and A Perfect Circle with dead on CD quality and mesmerizing stage set up.  An amazing night with amazing bands.

• Glassjaw, Movielife, & New Found Glory
  April 26, 2001: Chicago, IL: The Metro

Glassjaw showed me something I had never seen before.  Raw emotion.  I remember wanting to be Daryl Palumbo, on stage singing like a madman.  Also, looking back this was just the weirdest show ever… Before anyone hardly knew these bands and such a strange mix to be touring together.  I ended up getting the singer from Movielife’s autograph on my ticket stubb, along with somebody from NFG on the other side.  But I don’t remember that very well… I just remember standing in the audience looking up at Glassjaw and loving it.  I would go on to see Glassjaw a few other times and they always had that effect on me.  So much emotion.

• Sigur Ros w/ Amina
  May 9, 2006: Chicago, IL: Civic Opera House

Sigur Ros is the best band you can see live.  I mean I might say that about a few bands… but without a doubt, if you get a chance to see them, you do it.  2 hours of just unreal shit that will leave you stunned for weeks.  I want to describe everything they do and just the ambience and lighting and sound quality… but it won’t do it justice.  So just go if you have a chance.  Also I am 99.9% sure I saw Jon Hunt (the singer of Dead to Fall) at this concert sitting a couple sections to the right of me. And that is cool.

• Converge, The Hope Conspiracy, American Nightmare, & Thrice
  November 28, 2001: Chicago, IL: The Fireside Bowl

My very first Fireside Bowl experience and I wasn’t fucking around.  All of these bands are pioneers in what they do.  If you know the Fireside Bowl or have heard about it… yes it is tiny as hell, yes it is dirty as hell, and yes it is insane.  Seeing these bands in that environment for the first time I was blown away.  The crowd was intense and it was a completely new experience and probably changed my life that night.  Showing me what bands could be like and how concerts could be so much smaller and personal.

• Sundowner w/ Pat Ford (Colossal)
  May 2, 2008: Dekalb, IL: The House Café

Sundowner is a solo acoustic side project of one of the singers in The Lawrence Arms (my absolute favorite band).  His name is Chris McCaughan and if you like the Lawrence Arms he’s the one with the NOT raspy voice.  I am jealous of pretty much everything this guy does.  From his song writing abilities, guitar playing, to his good looks.  So seeing him play acoustic songs in a small café was a huge highlight to my concert going experiences.  He played his songs, Lawrence Arms songs and some new songs that still haven’t been released that I still think about over a year later.

• Coheed & Cambria Neverender Tour (day 4)
  October 31, 2008: Chicago, IL: Riviera Theater

This was a special tour where Coheed & Cambria played in New York, Chicago, and London for 4 days in each town.  Playing one album in full each night.  I saw the fourth night in Chicago in which they played ‘Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow’ in it’s entirety.  I didn’t know that album very well but after seeing this concert it has become probably my favorite Coheed & Cambria release.  I had been seeing them for years before this, since their first album ‘Second Stage Turbine Blade’ came out.  So it was especially special to notice how much they have grown and grown over years to be able to do something like this.  They played a scary movie on a screen in the background (it was Halloween) and put on a great show playing the album straight through pretty dead on.  As a special bonus the guitarists side project, Davenport Cabinet, Opened for Coheed and that was one of his first and only live shows ever.  I’d like to thank George Maltsiniotis for winning the tickets and giving them to Tim and I to go to witness the rock.  It was much appreciated!

• Alkaline Trio, The Lawrence Arms, & The Donnas
  November 1, 2002: Chicago, IL: The Metro

This was a special Halloween show.  There was a 45 that was passed out free that had a cover Alkaline Trio did of The Misfits song ‘Halloween’ and that was very awesome.  The show itself was great.  We stood up in the balcony of The Metro and could see everything so clearly.  Alkaline Trio had dressed up as Priests and had a giant upside down cross as the backdrop to the stage.  It was a beautiful thing.  Naturally, the Chicago crowd sang along to Alkaline Trio and The Lawrence Arms and that was great to see.  This was around the time that I actually started to really really like the Lawrence Arms.  I had seen them before but I feel like this was the first time I actually was actively paying attention and enjoying the show they put on.  They dressed up as a clown, a bum, and… I can’t forget what else.  Hmm.. All I know is that the Donnas were there too, and they are hot chicks who like to rock n’ roll.

• The Lawrence Arms New Years 2008/2009! W/ The Copyrights, The Arrivals, & Off With Their Heads
  December 31, 2008: Chicago, IL: Reggie’s Rock Club

This one was a life changer.  I went to this by myself because I couldn’t miss out on a Lawrence Arms New Years bash of a lifetime.  So I went, and drank, and met people, and sang songs, and thought about life, and enjoyed the best Lawrence Arms set I’ve ever seen.  It’s a weird thing when you go to a concert by yourself… all the people that go alone tend to gravitate towards each other and before you know it you got a little concert buddy to hang with and talk about music and how you ended up alone to enjoy the rock.  That was a cool experience in itself.  Off With Their Heads put on a really great show that made me buy 2 of their albums that night, and they have become one of my favorite bands ever since then.  I just remember a lot of things happening in my life at the time of this concert and to go it alone and be able to think about everything while seeing great music was really important to me.  It was a pretty big turning point to a lot of things I was thinking about and the way I live my life.  Along with the excitement of a new year and seeing my favorite band, it was a great way to begin a new year and a new way of thinking.

OK OK OK… I know what you’re thinking… ‘’This has been extremely long and boring! Why did I read this and why am I still reading!?’’ and fear not… the end is in sight. But first… There are plenty of concerts besides the ones listed above that I really enjoyed but I just couldn’t remember much about them or cared to write more about them, so here’s a short list of bands that I loved and/or will always love seeing live:

1. Hopesfall
2. Every Time I Die
3. Fairweather
4. The Liars Academy
5. Saves The Day
6. Die Homey! (…because I drum [and sometimes sing] in that band  and because we rock.)
7. Dead To Fall
8. Pelican (they hold the title for loudest concert I’ve ever heard… seriously. Whoa.)
9. Russian Circles
10. The Antenora (because they are rad dudes and friends of mine who make/made great music)

There you have it, I know it was a lot… But it was fun making.  I think you can get a good idea at what I like, and also maybe some insight into what a live performance should make you feel.  If you read all these words then you are a champion and I thank you. 

Now what are some of your favorite concert experiences??