Smells like shoebox 3

More scraps of paper from the shoeboxes... This one didn't get left in pants and put in the wash. The Palladium was really that packed and sweaty during my first "real" concert--The Cure on The Top tour in 1984. Amazing. I was under the impression that the band didn't play much because Robert Smith was afraid to fly and would only cross the Atlantic by boat, but after this I'd saw the band play on The Head on the Door and Standing on the Beach. Those would be at big amphitheater-type places full of new wavers; this was a ballroom with goths, post-punks, and doom-and-gloomers.


Charged GBH is one of those bands that you see on a lot of patches and T-shirts, but is hardly ever heard. Well, I saw them back in the day and it was one of the scariest shows I ever attended. It was at this divey ballroom in Long Beach and everyone in line was a mohawk or a skin. Somehow, we survived.


This show at Cal State Northridge's cafeteria was on The Funky Rumpus Tour for The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. It was a show where the Chili Peppers indeed rocked out with their strategically placed socks out. I found a T-shirt in the pit and decided to split it with my friend Jeff who gave me a ride; we went halfers on a second T. I'm pretty sure the openers were Fishbone, who were always red hot.


This was on the Quickness tour. At the time, I thought Bad Brains were old. Now I realize they were still at their peak. The show was like two hours long and HR was like a god--pure energy doing backflips and more. It took place in another school cafeteria, and the openers were Killing Time and Royal Tea.


The Roxy isn't an especially cool place, but it's small and the sound is great. Perfect for seeing MBV on the Loveless tour. (You weren't there? Looks like someone bootlegged it!)


The moment when NOFX became a "real" band and Green Day was breaking. Damn. At this point, I think the guys in Green Day still remembered me from staying at my house and me getting a ticket while driving them back to UCLA to get paid/see a lunchtime show with Samiam.


One of my Gilman Street membership cards. A reminder that I don't buy a ticket for most of the really great shows--just a handstamp or generic stub...