re: When Live Music Mattered In BR

Speaking of tall people..



frick Cressman, check out Bill Walton's creamy thighs

I live 500 yards from the old track, I moved to prairieville in the 80s and the banks were still up. I used some of the busted concrete to make a walk way ( I was young and poor aback then) I've played guitar all my life and never new this. There's a spec house subdivision there now. What a great era for music . Thanks for posting this.

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TreeDawg

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Boy, how times have changed. My concert list reads like the R & R Hall of Fame. Many of the concerts @ Independence Hall we snuck into. And the Pop Festival was a total once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were regulars @ the Warehouse. Drove there all the time from BR with no problem getting permission. Oh, and don't forget The Speakeasy !

Nice find !

BWT, I was @ the 7 p.m. show.

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That same year at the LSU Assembly Center (PMAC) I saw Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, many others......we were so damn lucky.

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I saw Emerson Lake and Palmer at the PMAC, would have to have been 1974 or 75. The sound system was in quad, saw a guy climb up the scaffolding of the speaker stacks and crawl inside one of the bass cabinets, pretty sure he is deaf today if still alive.

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Right on, to this day I do not know how my Mom let me and a friend drive ourselves to New Orleans at 15 years old to see ZZ Top and Skynyrd (1975).......RIP Tulane Football Stadium.......

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And Skynyrd no showed-then a riot commenced with people throwing watermelons and ice chests onto the crowd from the stands...The police showed up with nightsticks...crazy shite...

When I was at LSU in the 80's I saw:

Bayou

REM
Flaming Lips
other bands I can't remember. The Bayou didn't have bands there on a regular basis....sorta once every couple of months.

Chimes-The main live music place in BR then....anybody remember Johhny Palazallo (sp). He was a psuedo mafia guy wannabe that booked music there.

Guadalcanal Diary
Flat Duo Jets
Mojo Nixon
Beat Farmers
True Believers
US Times
Living Liks
Ants Climbing a Tree
Lower Chakras
Dash played every Tuesday....or Thursday night for either no cover or $2....something low. This is when Dash was young and Fred was drumming and Hoakie was free-bassing.
Dick Nixons
Shot Down In Equador Jr.
Picket Line Coyotes
Drivin' and Cryin-They also played at a skating rink in some part of town like off Government or Florida..
Downy Mildew
The Reivers
a hundred other bands i can't remember.

LSU Student Union
Red Hot Chilli Peppers

George Straight at some gawdawful large arena like place downtown.

Siouxie and the Banshees may have played in BR but it may have been NOLA.

The ShitDogs used to practice in a garage across the street when I lived on Violet St.


I also hosted the local rock show on KLSU on Friday evenings. I was the co-host when they changed the name of the show from "Local Lobotomy" to "Saturated Neighborhoods". Lot of Sh*t went down at that time and my co-host was either fired or forced to quit. I was basically her intern so I took over. That's also when we moved from the Stadium to Hatcher Basement. I got to interview Kevin Kinney, Alejandro Escovedo (True Believers), the dude from Rev Horton Heat, Jim Heath, who showed up unannounced about 9:30 one night when no one else was in the studio. Said he was passing through town and trying to get his music out there. He looked like a serial killer but I let him in anyway.

Johnny P is still doing shows in BR ....

Some good shows at the Bayou during my time as well. Billy Goat, Modest Mouse, At the Drive In, Eliot Smith (though that may have been the Varsity), Frigg a go go, The Reverend, Modern English, Slobberbone and many more i have forgotten.

Live music absolutely still matters in BR ... And i saw it first hand in the spring when 150 people showed up on a Wednesday to see Damien Jurado.

Back in the 1970s, there were a lot of good punk and new wave shows here. The Sex Pistols had a gig at the Kingfish on Perkins (think its where the Southdowns Village Shopping Center is now). A guy who used to be a librarian at the Advocate showed me some old ads from other shows at the Kingfish around that time - Elvis Costello and the Attractions and The Ramones were both there. R.E.M. and The Police both played at the Bayou in the early 80s.

I started at LSU in 1990, so I missed seeing the Pixies at the Bayou. But I saw a lot of good bands at the Varsity. Saw No Doubt open for Public Enemy in fall 1992. A few months after that, I saw Blind Melon play a $5 show there. Think Hootie and the Blowfish did a free show at the Varsity not too long after I graduated. Dave Matthews played at the Varsity too around the same time.

I dunno, sometimes I get down on the music scene here. I think we're hurt by the proximity to New Orleans and lack of a concert venue that's about House of Blues sized. And I wish some of the venues here were better about booking interesting acts. (There are way too many cover bands playing at the Varsity) But I remember that this past spring Weezer and Dr. John both played free shows within walking distance of my house and I feel better.

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And I wish some of the venues here were better about booking interesting acts. (There are way too many cover bands playing at the Varsity)

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Who do you want to see?