Top 5

I went to a gig on Sunday night - Peter Murphy singing the songs of Bauhaus.  I'd been a little leery of going.  It's been a lot of years since Bauhaus were in their heyday, and I worried that it might just end up as a sad parody.  I saw Bauhaus on their reunion tour in 1998, and it was great, but it's been another 15 years since then....

I needn't have worried.

It was great.  A friend of mine, a film reviewer, said on the way out that he thought it was one of his top 5 gigs ever.

That took me by surprise.  I enjoyed the show, but I'm pretty sure it's not up there in my top 5.  But of course that got me thinking about what might be my top 5 gigs ever.

Music has always been incredibly important to me.  Some of my best friends are musicians.  My partner of 16 years is a sound engineer and we have a music studio in our dining room.  I support the bands I love financially when they need it, and always passionately.  Going to live shows is something I've always held sacred.  But what would my top 5 shows be?

I don't know...

Definitely Einsturzende Neubauten.  They seriously have to be the best live band ever, and I have, and always will, travel to get the opportunity to see them play.

Kristin Hersh the first time I saw her, at the Paramount, long before I started running the place.  She'd just put out her first solo album, Hips & Makers, and she sat on stage, told hilarious stories and sang her songs.  It was very memorable.

The Cramps.  I saw them on Halloween 1991 at the Town and Country Club in London.  They brought Mae West back to life....

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Forum in Melbourne.  The perfect venue for this particular band.

The Ramones and The Dammned on a double bill at the Brixton Academy.  Both were past their prime by then, but you could still see what made them who they were.

Lydia Lunch & Rowland S Howard at the Camden Underworld.  I went alone to that one, and never regretted it for a minute.

Nine Inch Nails in 1991, with support from a band I loved and never heard about ever again, The Wolfgang Press.

Bauhaus, at the Nine Thirty Club in Washington DC.  I went with a good friend who I used to go to gigs with in London every week.  My partner and I both went, and it was the first time he got to see me as the rabid fangirl I actually can be.

And there are so many more.  I really couldn't make a top 5 list.  Each gig had its own energy and each show has its own set of memories - who I was with, how much I loved the band at the time, how long I'd waited to see them.

Do you have a favorite show you've been to?   What was it?