Morrissey: May 14, 1997

I had already been living in Chicago for several years by this point, but went home to Michigan to see this show with a friend. I was fairly young when the Smiths broke up (i.e. no driver's license yet) so I never had the chance to see them. I saw Johnny Marr play with The The shortly after the Smiths' split, and fronting his own group in the aughts, but this was my first time seeing Moz.

We were, um, lucky enough to see Kristeen Young open -- the infamous opening act that got booted a few months later for making unseemly sexual comments onstage about Moz. At our show, she was just as obnoxious, basically moaning about not getting enough applause and saying that the '90s band Morsel (which had an amped-up flute that for some reason seemed like a neat idea at the time) was better than the Stooges, but we were basically too dumb to appreciate them.

Morrissey was good, but his fans were so ardent they made it seem like the second coming. He sang a mix of solo material and some Smiths classics, including a rousing "How Soon Is Now" performed in front of a backdrop of James Dean photos. Some obsessions die hard. The band, as expected, was a bunch of young, good-looking rockabilly boys.

To some extent, giving the people what they want bordered on schtick. Although Moz was still a handsome devil (ahem!), he needn't have taken his shirt off four times. Love him or hate him, Morrissey is Morrissey, but I sometimes wonder how far much farther he could go artistically if no one expected a quiff, hot backing boys, movie idol backdrops, angst, and shirtlessness. Because a lot of those songs are damned good enough on their own.

Gene: October 18, 1995

Gene were sort of lumped in with Britpop probably due primarily to their timing. Their debut album, Olympian, frankly was a bit more mopey than anything I'd call Britpop. It garnered plenty of comparisons to the Smiths, although that's mostly due to Martin Rossiter's Morrissey-like crooning.

I can't say I recall much about this gig, although I do remember Menthol opened. It was an odd choice because the two bands didn't have much in common musically, with Menthol being more of a straight-ahead, hard-rocking indie band. Later they'd change gears somewhat with Danger: Rock Science! which nodded at '80s new wave (a weakness of mine, to be sure). At the time, though, I'd say they were fairly nondescript and in retrospect so was Gene.

The Kelley Deal 6000: May 10, 1996

Kelley Deal is best known as a member of the Breeders, along with her twin sister and Pixies bassist, Kim. In 1994-5, she was busted for heroin possession and went through rehab for her addiction. Emerging from the negative publicity, she assembled and fronted her own band for a time. The Kelley Deal 6000, as they were called, showed Kelley's songwriting, playing, and singing to be every bit as quirky and cool as Kim's. I just wish they'd hung around longer. Kelley's continued to record and perform with the Breeders and took part in a one-off release from the Last Hard Men with Sebastian Bach and Jimmy Chamberlin, but sadly hasn't released any additional solo albums. (By the way, she has also found success as a crafter, selling hand-knit bags and writing a how-to book.) 

I saw TKD6K in Ann Arbor twice: when their first album came out in 1996, and a year later when they released another. This show was in support of the debut, Go to the Sugar Altar, an eccentric but very catchy collection of tunes. Before the band went on, I was at the bar when Kelley came up and asked for a Coke. When the bartender feebly joked, "With rum?" she nicely but firmly replied, "Oh no, I don't do that anymore." A good sign, for sure!

Kelley, along with a band that included Jimmy Flemion of the Frogs, played her quirky songs, gave appreciative thanks, and at one point introduced her parents, who had traveled out from Dayton for the show. And that sort of typifies what all the Kelley Deal shows I've seen have been like: There's something very homey about her performances, she comes off as nice, and she seems to genuinely take pleasure in making music and sharing it with people. I was glad to see that vibe was retained when she most recently played with her new act, R. Ring, who hopefully will record some new material soon.

Midnight Oil: October 15, 1988 & September 17, 1990

I saw Midnight Oil in concert twice within two years. These tours were in support of the best-known of the Australian band's albums (at least in the U.S.): 1987's Diesel and Dust (featuring "Beds Are Burning," "The Dead Heart," and "Dreamworld") and 1990's Blue Sky Mining. I still admire the band's melding of socially conscious lyrics with unabashed pop hooks. They had a lengthy career, but never made much of an impact on the American charts after their 1987-90 heyday.

At the 1988 Masonic Temple show in Detroit, the opening act was Graffiti Man, a.k.a. John Trudell. Trudell has an impressive history as a Native American activist, so in that regard his pairing with the politically involved Midnight Oil makes sense. However, the crowd was not receptive to his blend of poetry and traditional instrumentation, and at one point, Trudell tried to calm then down by saying "peace, man" while holding his fingers in that famous hippie V.

Peter Garrett is a very tall, thin fellow with a shaved head, so he definitely makes an impression onstage. He wore something like coveralls and danced in herky-jerky motions. Although he has a somewhat intimidating look, his stage presence was very sweet and cheerful. Midnight Oil was a very good live band, so it's a shame they very rarely perform anymore. Rather, Garrett has served as a Member of Australia's House of Representatives for several years, working on environmental, education, and arts issues.

Although I haven't seen Midnight Oil since 1990, I did see Peter Garrett once in the early 2000s, before Midnight Oil stopped touring. He was eating alone in a diner I frequented during my lunch breaks when I first moved to Chicago; the band had played a couple doors down at House of Blues the previous night. Of course I recognized him (you can't miss that guy) but I left him to eat in peace.

Echo & the Bunnymen: January 29, 1988

Like the INXS show I recently posted about, this was another fairly intimate show at the University of Michigan's Hill Auditorium that I feel fortunate to have seen. This turned out to be the last tour by the classic lineup of Echo & the Bunnymen that included drummer Pete de Freitas, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1989. Having endured a number of personnel changes and a hiatus, the Bunnymen are active today, but only guitarist Will Sargeant and singer/guitarist Ian McCulloch remain of the '80s version of the group.

The opening act was the Leather Nun, whose affected abrasiveness provided a very odd counterpart to the Bunnymen's slightly psychedelic pop. The Bunnymen were in good form and played many of their singles, including "Lips Like Sugar" and "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo" from their then-recent eponymous album. I remember them really rocking "Do It Clean," from their debut, Crocodiles. I also remember a girl in front of us who danced in a crazed way during certain songs, then would basically collapse into her seat for awhile.

As we often did for shows at Hill Auditorium, my friend and I waited out back to sneak a peek at the band as they boarded their tour bus. I remember McCulloch looked really worn out and not particularly happy. And that was likely the case; he left the band later that year to launch a solo career.

INXS: October 17, 1987

This is one of those shows I feel really lucky to have seen. INXS had been kicking around for years by this point. Although they were stars in their native Australia, in America their career momentum built steadily but slowly. By this time they had a number of minor hits under their belts -- among them "Don't Change, " "Original Sin," and "What You Need." Tracks from their last album, Listen Like Thieves, got lots of airplay, but it wasn't until Kick was released -- in the very month of this show -- that they had a true blockbuster.

I don't think Kick had dropped yet (and I'm pretty sure I bought it the week of its release), but if so it was brand new and this was the first taste the audience got of the new material -- songs that were to become ubiquitous over the next year: "Need You Tonight," "Devil Inside," "Never Tear Us Apart," "New Sensation." The next time the band played in Michigan, it was at an arena in Detroit. This was the last taste of intimacy before they hit the big time.

They interspersed the new songs with those older singles, which this crowd knew by heart. They were always so solid live, and Michael Hutchence was really underrated as a frontman. He had it all: charisma, a powerful voice, and a sexy strut. One funny memory of him stands out: A bunch of kids sort of mobbed the tour bus after the show. The crowd didn't disperse even after the band boarded the bus, so the driver finally started to pull out slowly. Hutchence was visible in the window and he had such a frightened look on his face, as if he thought the kids might be run over. Of course, we all quickly got out of the way! For him, maybe it was a taste of American stardom to come.

BoDeans: May 14, 1988

This is one of the few bands I have to wonder about seeing. I suppose they are inoffensive enough, but not particularly memorable or inspiring.

I don't remember much of anything about this show, but I do recall that afterward my friend Bonnie and waited at the alleyway where everyone who plays the Michigan Theatre has to exit to get to their tour buses. Sammy Llanas, who is probably best remembered for being annoying in an already annoying Robbie Robertson video, totally brushed us off. He signed our photos or whatever we were carrying, but I think he actually grunted at us. Kurt Neumann was very nice and polite, but Bonnie made some joke, then said she was being facetious, and he had no idea what "facetious" meant.

Had there been some sex or drugs, we would have encountered all the negative stereotypes about rock musicians in a single night!

Smithereens: October 13, 1988

No, there was never (to my knowledge) a Jimmy Smits-fronted band called Smitereens. Poor Smithereens; the typo on the ticket seems symbolic of the lack of respect they get. They were a pretty great band in their day, though. At the time they were touring for their second album, Green Thoughts, largely overlooked now, but full of great songs including "Only a Memory" and "House We Used to Live In." They had already turned out the wonderful "Blood and Roses" on their debut, and I recall hearing great live versions of all those songs that night. Even though the band has become kind of a footnote in rock history, I recall this being one of the best live shows I've seen. The crowd was really into it and by the end of the set the band was running out of songs and had the audience call out Beatles songs for them to cover. They ended up doing a kick-ass version of "Rain."

It was always easy to find the tour bus at shows in Ann Arbor so before the show my friend Bonnie and I made our way to it and peeked inside the window. Unfortunately, all we saw was a TV showing... well, let's just say the back of a woman's head. We shrieked and ran away, never to know exactly who was guilty of watching porn on the tour bus.

The last I heard about the Smithereens was that the lead singer was a super conservative and would play in your living room if you paid him enough.