Dumbek's Random Stuff

9/23/82 - The Who/David Johansen

There were two concerts I really wanted to go to around this time: Van Halen and The Who. My parents told me I couldn't go to both - I had to pick one. hmmm...Well....This is officially The Who's "Farewell Tour". Van Halen is gonna be around forever. I probably better see The Who, while I still have a chance. Despite the completely erroneous logic, I still think I made the right choice. There was obviously no Keith Moon, but this would be the only time I got to see John Entwistle.

There were two shows at the Capital Centre. I completely bombed in getting tickets for either of them. A friend of mine (who already had tickets) told me his Dad could probably get me a pair. Thrilled with just getting in the door, I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor when my friend handed me a pair of sky suite tickets. Those are the big luxury boxes around the edge of the arena (private bathrooms, big comfy chairs and couches, etc. ) Not only that, but we pretty much had the suite to ourselves, except for the one other couple that we were sharing it with. And, God bless 'em, they were willing to buy a 16 year-old kid beer. Sweeeeet.

I remember being really annoyed with getting David Johansen as the opener. I had never heard of the New York Dolls back then. All I knew was that Animals medley that MTV played all the time. I liked it, but c'mon. 2 days later in Philly they got both The f--king Clash AND Santana to open. We get David Johansen? hrmph. It was an amazing show though.

The farewell lasted about 6 years, until they went on tour again. By then David Lee Roth was long gone from Van Halen. I skipped their next DC show in 1989 to go see The Grateful Dead in Philly instead. I didn't see The Who again for 25 years. Same for Van Halen.

23-09-1982: Landover, Maryland, Capital Centre
Substitute, I Can't Explain, Dangerous, Sister Disco, The Quiet One, Eminence Front, It's Hard, Behind Blue Eyes, I'm One, The Punk And The Godfather, Drowned, A Man Is A Man, Cry If You Want, Who Are You, Pinball Wizard, See Me Feel Me, 5.15, Love Reign O'er Me, Long Live Rock, Won't Get Fooled Again, Young Man Blues, Naked Eye

(setlist from The Who Concert Guide)





9/23/84 - The Fixx/Andy Fraser - Rec Hall - Penn State

Stop laughing - I like The Fixx. They had a nice little run of singles back in the day. One of those quintessential 80's bands. We were pretty starved for decent music in BF, Pennsylvania. I was more than happy to go to this one. All the new wave townie high school kids came out for this one. All I remember about Andy Fraser is that there was a song where the lyrics went something like:

It's Danger You
It's Danger Me
It's Dangerous!

Really. Something like that. My friends and I still chuckle about that one. Anyway - He's still around. And he made this song/video for Obama. Good for him.





9/23/89 - R.E.M. @ Merriweather

The second night @ MPP. My last show on the Green tour. I remember being surprised at how different the setlist was from the previous night. The core of the set was the same, but we got a bunch of songs we didn't see the night before: "Driver 8", "Auctioneer", "These Days", "Strange", a cover of "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?", and a bit of "After Hours" and "Dark Globe". They played both "Belong" and "Low" again, too. Excellent.

Had I known R.E.M. was about to take a 6-year touring break, I would have tried a lot harder to see more shows. At this point there were playing in the area at least once a year. There was really no need to chase them around yet. A wouldn't see them again until June 1995 in Chicago.







9/23/05 - Q And Not U/Supersystem @ The Black Cat

The final Q&!U show. The crowd was like a who's-who of the DC scene. I think half the crowd were people from other bands. There were folks from Minor Threat/Fugazi, Beauty Pill, The Make-Up, Smart Went Crazy, Helium...Henry Rollins was there too, although I'm not sure if it was this night or the previous night. I imagine it was this one. This show was kind of a big deal.

Q And Not U kicked ass. The crowd was going nuts the whole time.




9/23/06 - Two If By Sea/The Hard Tomorrows @ DC9

This was a CD Release party for Two If By Sea. Possibly The Hard Tomorrows, too, but I'm not sure. Two If By Sea is a great band out of Baltimore. Slightly dark, but danceable indie rock, with a bit of an 80's vibe to them. I wish they played in DC more often. The Hard Tomorrows were a lot of fun, too, but I didn't get to see them very much. This was the last time I got to see them, before they broke up. Did I mention how cute their lead singer was? Anyway - Both bands are very much worth looking into. Dumbek says "two thumbs up" to both.


ummmm....I just realized Two If By Sea broke up. Bummer. I hate it when that happens. Another example of why I need to get back into seeing local bands when I have the chance. sigh...