quote:
the bayou was a big deal back in the day. it was regular stop on for the up and coming college-sound bands. believe it or not, the police played there more than once. the police really established a circut for that era which rem and others of the same ilk followed.

The Police played at The Kingfish (which was where that gym is next to The Bulldog), a few months after The Sex Pistols played there, around 1978... and the Centroplex (now RiverCenter) in 1981, and The Assembly Center (now PMAC) 1983 or 1984, but never The Bayou, which I don't think existed yet in 1978, when they would have been a small enough band for that... They played somewhere in New Orleans in 1979, can't remember where... but The Police were based in England and didn't just play around the south... they'd put out an album and then do an American tour.

The connection between The Police and R.E.M. was Ian Copeland/F.B.I. Booking (Stewart Copeland's brother... R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry and bassist Mike Mills actually worked as his assistants when he worked for Paragon Booking in Macon, GA, which was The Allman Bros/Capricorn Records booking agency and he was hired to bring in "new rock bands," and when he signed on new wave and punk bands they instantly fired him and he started his own agency) and Ian Copeland (other brother) who was the manager for The Police and owned R.E.M.'s record label, I.R.S. If you don't know why they chose the names The Police, I.R.S. and F.B.I., it's because they grew up living all over the world because their dad was a "businessman," which they found out later was his cover when he retired from the C.I.A.

R.E.M. did play at The Bayou in 1982... R.E.M. and Black Flag are really the ones who kind of pioneered a circuit for touring including the Southeast and its college towns, whereas before that it was just a few of the bigger cities (including New Orleans and often Baton Rouge because of its proximity) that smaller touring club bands would play. If there was a college or community radio station in a town that would give their records a chance, they would find somewhere in that town to play... a pizza place or art gallery or a woodshop if there were no clubs in the traditional sense, and they built a big following that way. And following that, bands on small indie labels could just contact those radio stations to put together a tour and have people have some idea about how they were when they showed up. That was a game-changing thing.

The Flaming Lips played at The Bayou in 1987 or so, then The Varsity a couple of months before they scored a hit with "She Don't Use Jelly" and there were very few people there.

At The Drive-In played at The Varsity in 1998, opening for The Archers Of Loaf, and then at The Spanish Moon in 1999.

Modest Mouse, Cat Power, Explosions in The Sky and tons of others played at The Bayou...