What is your biggest music fandom mistake?

cafreema

Moving this discussion over from the what are you listening to thread. In 95 or 96 (I suppose I could figure out exactly when, but meh) I was at a show at First Avenue and at the time they would pass out complimentary tickets to upcoming shows that weren't sold out. My buddy and I got tickets to see some band with a weird name we and our friends had never heard of. We made fun of the name for a little while and obviously didn't go to the show. A couple weeks later, we and everyone else had heard of The Fugees. We've kicked ourselves ever since, and it seems unlikely that I'll ever have another chance to see them.

What's yours?

Craig

thomnottom

I'll copy the one from the other thread, too.

A couple of my sisters and some of their friends were in New Orleans in the mid-90s. My one sister really wanted to go to this small club to check out an up-and-coming soul/R&B singer. Nobody else wanted to and she missed the show. A year or so later she released her debut album...

thomnottom

Oh, once I was on the other end of this:

Back in '96 a friend of mine and I decided to try to get tickets to see Soundgarden at Roseland in NYC (it was their 2nd of 3 nights. Another friend didn't bother and figured he would catch them next time. The scalpers were ridiculous, but it turned out that there were still tickets at the box office for 20 bucks. We went in and had a great time. Told the other guy all about it. Then they cancelled the 3rd night because of Cornell's voice troubles and... broke up 6 months later.

Lowlife

Went to a party in London with a held by some friends. One of the guest's was road manager for the Kinks at that time. As usual had a few beers before we arrived so was a bit drunk. The night went on at this rather stunning lady was there who I thought looked like someone I knew. As I was single thought it might be a great idea to get to know her better.

Got chatting but either my somewhat drunken chat up lines were not much good or she thought there was someone better out there, She was very nice about it but got badly ribbed by all when friends met up a couple of days later.

The lady concerned has made a few great records which I have bought over the years, one of which could have been named after me!

Bad Thoughts

Copied from the listening thread:

When I was just out of high school, I got a call from a friend, who needed a bass player for a private function--a birthday for the adult kid of a record exec. We met up with a drummer, who was a rather nice guy, jammed a bit, set out a set list with some covers. I was told that some of the drummer's bandmates would show up and would want to play some of their songs: would I be able to keep up, he asked? We played. The miniscule guitarist showed up, and he was a complete ass. We played a little. I let him play my bass for a few songs (it's a nice G&L fretless). The singer showed up--another asshole, just more spastic. A few more songs. We tried some of their songs, which I didn't get. I kept hoping that the bass player would show up, but never did. I handed my bass over to my friend for a few songs while I relaxed. Soon, the singer left, followed by the guitarist a few songs later, and the three of us continued for another half hour. A few months later my friend played the record they just released for me. I thought it was decent, though more "metal" than what I liked.

I didn't miss my brush with major music celebrity; I was clobbered by it. They were assholes. They became bigger assholes.

cafreema

Lowlife - You guys probably don't get Portlandia over there, huh? Aimee Mann had a fantastic guest spot in one episode playing herself, but down on her luck and working as a maid. The same people who hired her, also had Sarah McLachlan as their gardener.

Aimee Mann on Portlandia.

Craig

Brighternow

Similar to Craig . . .

Back in 1994 there was announced a show in Jazzhouse Montmartre in Copenhagen with a guy called Jeff Buckley.
Being a huge fan of his father Tim, I thought it could be interesting, but for reasons I can't remember I decided not to go.
The less than 100 people who made their way to the show had an experience for their life.

Lowlife

Cafreema,

No we dont get that here but thanks for the link, really good

thomnottom

@Craig - I LOVE that sketch. Great show.

Plong42

I just missed seeing U2 in a small downtown church in Grand Rapids....never heard of them at the time.

cafreema

Portlandia can be somewhat hit or miss for me, but it seems like whenever music is involved they kill it. The episode from a couple weeks ago where they took back MTV was fantastic.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's episode with Dirty Projectors and some guy names J Mascis at a festival for "gentle bands".

Craig

Germanprof

I grew up in rural Lincolnshire, far enough from anywhere where bands or any kind actually played that I think I just missed everything as a default setting. The one instance of missing a specific thing that springs to mind wasn't exactly my mistake, more a set of circumstances, and it concerns Bruce Cockburn. I discovered him in the early 90s and gradually accumulated quite a few of his albums - by the mid 90s it might be fair to say he was my favorite musician. Then in 1995 I actually moved to Toronto (where he lives) for two years for graduate study. The thought that I might be able to catch him live was an exciting prospect. The whole of my first year there he didn't play anywhere in the area as far as I could discern. After a year I had to travel down to the US for two weeks to work on a writing project with someone (the first step on the trail that led to me teaching in Michigan). When I got back to Toronto I learned that during my brief absence Bruce had at short notice given a free open-air concert down by the lake. And then nothing for the next year.

I did eventually get to see him, three or four times, but I was not happy about that summer.

Katrina

Back when they just started call waiting on landlines, my roomie (the one who wouldn't stop playing Styx's Mister Roboto ugh, hate it still to this day) was talking to her boyfriend and wouldn't let a call through....I missed Bruce Springsteen on his breakthrough River Tour. Wow, was I pissed when I heard the next day what I'd missed.

Saw him about 25 years later, but it just wasn't the same - kind of lame, actually. Very disappointing.

BigD-Bluez

Easy one for me. In 1973 I had a roommate fond of this English quartet whose previous several albums had tended towards a psychedelic space-rock kind of vibe that I hadn't found that attractive (they are still the albums in their catalog I listen to least) so when he said he had tickets for a show at Radio City Music Hall and some mes... well never mind that part, I passed on the event. I did not actually become a fan of the band until some time later, at which time I kicked myself in the ass as best I could for having missed the Dark Side Of The Moon tour of Pink Floyd.

Muggsy

Katrina, I saw Springsteen in Philly on the River tour in the summer of 1981. It was probably the fourth or fifth concert I'd ever seen, and it's still in my top ten. I've seen him a bunch of times since then, and have enjoyed them all but that was the best.

My big miss was passing on Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck when they did a co-headlining tour a few months before SRV died. I was living in Atlanta and they were playing an arena show (at the Omni, I believe). I waited until the day of the show, and tickets were still available but the weather was lousy so I blew it off. Figured I'd catch them next time.

On the flip side, I did see Jeff Buckley at a tiny club called The Point in Atlanta, and he was incredible. I remember being there with a few people, including a friend of a friend who owned a local indie record store and was NOT impressed with the show. He left about halfway through. Moron.

I also saw a blues guitarist named John Campbell, well worth seeking out if you haven't heard him, at Blind Willie's in Atlanta the day after my 30th birthday. He was amazing and did a version of When the Levee Breaks that still gives me chills. He died of a heart attack about a month later, only 41 years old.

greg

I actually used to live not that far from GP in a very similar community (but a decade or more earlier) so not many opportunities to see much live music until I went to college. One of my cousins lived a few miles from where I now live. An up and coming Liverpool band, not yet to reach the top of the charts, so it must be 50 years ago, on their first UK tour played in the local cinema, about third on the bill. She asked if I wanted to go, but I wasn't old enough to easily get there (I was 12 at the time- I think it was someone like Cliff Richard she wanted to see), so missed the only chance I'd ever have to see them play (You know the band's name...!) Some years later, an American artist was doing the aforementioned River tour, I think his second tour to the UK). I applied for tickets, the cheque got paid out of my bank, but they never arrived (in the days when you had to pay by cheque not credit or debit card). I discoverd a couple of years later when there was a court case that my tickets and a few hundred others had been stolen in the post. But on the other side I was fortunate many years ago to see Paul Simon at a small folk club - it was on his way to that gig that he wrote Homeward Bound on Widnes Station.

choiceweb0pen0

My biggest mistake has been not wanting to go to live shows alone. I missed out on hearing Midlake a few years ago because my concert buddy was extra flakey at the time. Now that I live near their hometown of Denton, TX, I hope to catch them play at some point.

BigD-Bluez

My biggest, and likely last, mistake would have been going to a show alone - Richard Thompson, some years ago at the Bottom Line on Valentine's Day. I found out about it late and when I went to the box office there was only one ticket left. Being a wise and prudent man I didn't even consider taking it as I doubt my better half would have much appreciated being alone on Valentine's Day. Valar Morghulis, but not that day.