Dumbek's Random Stuff

10/16/95 - R.E.M. @ USAir Arena - Landover, MD

This show and the next night blur together. 2 nights in a row. Same venue. Similar seats. Similar setlists. And it was 13 years ago.

Anyhoo...Nearing the end of the Monster tour. My 5th R.E.M. show of the year. I never really liked "I Took Your Name" as an opener. It wasn't powerful enough. The real show started with "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" and it took off from there. Typical Monster setlist. A good chunk of that record...a few songs from the yet-to-be-released New Adventures In Hi-Fi..."Revolution" (another unreleased track)...The setlist was almost exclusively Warner Bros.-era tracks, with the exception of "The One I Love, "Begin The Begin" and "ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF)". The good news on this tour was that they were rocking again. The bad news was they were completely ignoring the I.R.S. years. That's not all bad though. "Country Feedback" is just mesmerizing live. "Drive" is totally rocked-up, giving it a nice hard groove. "Star 69" f--king slayed.

I remember being near the back of the floor, directly to the right of the soundboard. Plenty of room and great sound.

I Took Your Name / What's The Frequency, Kenneth? / Crush With Eyeliner / Drive / Wake-Up Bomb / Binky The Doormat / Losing My Religion / Begin The Begin / Undertow / Bang And Blame / Strange Currencies / Revolution / Tongue / Man On The Moon / Country Feedback / The One I Love / Pop Song 89 / Get Up / Star 69

encore: Let Me In / Everybody Hurts / Java - Band Intro / Orange Crush / Departure / Stars N Stripes / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

According to the R.E.M. Timeline (where I got the setlist), "Stars N Stripes" is a Grant Lee Buffalo song. OK. (shrug)





10/16/2005 - Henry Rollins (Spoken Word) @ The Black Cat - Washington, DC

Yeah...well...I didn't actually go to this one. I ended up going to see the Foo Fighters instead. w00t!



10/16/2005 - Foo Fighters @ 9:30 Club - Washington, DC

Oh, hell yeah!

I have a talent for getting tickets to tough shows. I'm really good at working the ticket system to my advantage...I know lots of people who are avid concert goers...I basically know how the ticket game is played. That's all worthless, though, when the tickets are only given away via a radio station. Ugh. I was forced to listen to DC101 for a week, trying to get tickets for this one. I failed miserably. I got through exactly once and was the wrong caller. Dammit.

Anyway - long story short - a friend called in a favor from someone and managed to get me a ticket. Dumb luck - all at the very, very last minute. Whew. My friends rule.

Another all-time favorite show. The setlist was perfect. The crowd was rockin'. Dave was totally charming and ...dare I say it...kinda hot. Seeing him playing guitar while standing on the bar and doing a shot is one of those moments I'll never forget. I f--king love this band.

My full review is here. A bunch of pics, too.