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Madison Square Garden, 1987. Which Two Shows Do You See?

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honolulu horn

honolulu horn 6226

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I saw Pink Floyd and U2 on their tours in 1987, both at the Erwin Center...separated by about 3 days as I remember. Pink Floyd on a Friday night and U2 on a Sunday night, I think.  What a badass weekend at the Erwin Center. 

That U2 show was one of top 3 shows of my life. But I'd easily swap out Pink Floyd for Bowie or for the Beastie Boys / DMC (especially if the show was at MSG). 

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honolulu horn

honolulu horn 6226

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On 6/24/2021 at 7:30 AM, Deej said:

1987 would have also been the year The Cult released "Electric". I have no doubts that would have been a great show. 

You're right. That year they were touring for Electric, and I saw them at the old Palmer Auditorium for that tour...opener, Guns n Roses. Crazy show. 

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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On 6/24/2021 at 6:00 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Yeah, that Tom Petty concert would have been great as well.

Saw him 4x. I've seen many of the biggest acts in rock history.  He was the best rock showman I've ever seen. The right mix of music, engaging with the crowd, and pace.  He had crowds in the palm of his hands throughout his entire show.

Edited by Onboard 2.0
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honolulu horn

honolulu horn 6226

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3 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Saw him 4x. Seen most of the biggest acts in rock history.  He was the best rock showman I've ever seen. The right mix of music engaging with the crowd, and pace.  He had crowds in the palm of his hands throughout his entire show.

One of my biggest live show regrets was never seeing Petty. Good on you. 

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Wiler77

Wiler77 1628

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5 hours ago, honolulu horn said:

One of my biggest live show regrets was never seeing Petty. Good on you. 

I saw him for the first and last time when he played his last show in Austin right before he died.

One thing I was struck by was how tight the music sounded.  There was great energy, Petty sounded great, and they sounded so in sync together.  Maybe they were always like that, maybe that's just what it sounds like when you've been playing together for 40 years, maybe it was just a good night...I don't know.  But my thought as I was leaving was how serious they took their job of putting on a show.  I was devastated when Petty died that I'd never get to hear them play again.  Definitely regret not seeing him sooner.

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stc

stc 1500

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each of the 10+ times i saw tom petty i thought to myself that it might be the last chance i had to see him. unfortunately the may 2017 show at FEC was indeed the last time. never pass up those opportunities. david bowie is the one i regret not seeing the most, strongly considered seeing him at the backyard in 2004 but i was in college and $50 was a lot of money. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Shit, I had no idea Bowie played the Backyard in 2004 and we used to go see a lot of shows there back in the day.  

Here's the setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/david-bowie/2004/the-backyard-at-bee-cave-bee-cave-tx-13d2d155.html

Fuck, how'd I miss that?  That's a big regret of mine, that I never saw David Bowie anywhere, any year.  Was glad I got to see Tom Petty twice (2003 & 2006).  Not many old school bands left on my bucket list.  Plan to see Elton John when he rolls through Texas next year.  I still need to see what's left of the Who.   

But yeah, I still look at this MSG list.  You don't think of 1987 as a particularly great year for Rock 'n Roll.  But fuck me, what a fun year that woulda been in Midtown.  

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Zone Read

Zone Read 299

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I saw the Cars, Rush, Bowie around that time in other venues.  Rush and Bowie were 2 of the best I've ever seen.  As someone said earlier, the Cars were a terrible live band.  Only saw Petty on the tour before he died, even if he was slightly better in his prime that may have been 1 of the 2.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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44 minutes ago, smuggs said:

The only time I saw Petty was at the ACL thunderstorm show. We almost left but I am so, so glad we didn't. One of the great concert moments of my life.

That was one of the two times I saw him live.  Rush was always a great concert.  Saw them in Chicago and Wisconsin a few times growing up (early 90's), opener was a fucking horribad hair band called Mr. Big.  But I was looking at their MSG '87 setlists.  Excellent, but not overwhelmingly so.  

The David Bowie setlist is just unreal and he always delivered in New York.  The Dead and Floyd also bring great setlists and both were in their sort of second renaissance as live performers after a few years wandering in the wilderness.  I respect some of y'all's choices, but I'm more driven by a great setlist than I am by a "great performer" vibe.  Example would be Paul Simon, bursts back onto the scene with  a few sound (stolen mostly from Los Lobos), and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him live a few times back in the 90's/early 2000's.  But his MSG setlist is kinda short and kinda "meh."  But at the time, it was a breakthrough tour, so I dunno.  

Did I hear correctly, he and Edie live part time in Dripping Springs?  

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South Austin

South Austin 53220

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1 hour ago, Lobo said:

 Did I hear correctly, he and Edie live part time in Dripping Springs?  

Not sure about that, but wouldn't surprise me as she's a Texan.

Not to derail the thread, but I always thought Edie Brickel was meh . . . until I saw her live for the first time ever at Hotel San Jose during SXSW in 2019, and thought she was excellent. 

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yoladu

yoladu 4190

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you definitely have to consider that the year is 1987. Not a huge Madonna fan, but she was arguably at the apex of her career here. Check out the set list:

Open Your Heart

Lucky Star

True Blue

Papa Don't Preach

White Heat

Causing a Commotion

The Look of Love

Dress You Up

Material Girl

Like a Virgin

Where's the Party

Live to Tell

Into the Groove

La Isla Bonita

Who's That Girl

Holiday

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smuggs

smuggs 9397

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1 hour ago, yoladu said:

you definitely have to consider that the year is 1987. Not a huge Madonna fan, but she was arguably at the apex of her career here. Check out the set list:

Open Your Heart

Lucky Star

True Blue

Papa Don't Preach

White Heat

Causing a Commotion

The Look of Love

Dress You Up

Material Girl

Like a Virgin

Where's the Party

Live to Tell

Into the Groove

La Isla Bonita

Who's That Girl

Holiday

A jam right there.

 

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HornPhD

HornPhD 1389

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 Beasties/Run-DMC and Bowie.

I was at the Run-DMC show at Fat Tuesday on 6th Street (1999?). It was an extremely small crowd. 50-100 people. As a teen in the 80s, I played Raising Hell over and over. So, seeing them play in that situation was surreal. 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28928

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6 hours ago, smuggs said:

The only time I saw Petty was at the ACL thunderstorm show. We almost left but I am so, so glad we didn't. One of the great concert moments of my life.

A thunderstorm? Hell, I saw Phish in Raleigh, NC during Hurricane Danny in ‘97 (Walnut Creek 7/22/97). Okay, it probably wasn’t technically a hurricane anymore by that point. But the rain was brutal and we still had a break from it as the eye passed over us so it was close enough. During the shortened second set the band actually jammed in response to the thunder and lightening. I was in the lawn and wearing a thin little plastic poncho that was just enough to keep my pack of cigarettes dry. After the show, the cops were nowhere to be found and traffic was a nightmare trying to get out of the lot. 

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Dennis Taylor

Dennis Taylor 19344

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1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

A thunderstorm? Hell, I saw Phish in Raleigh, NC during Hurricane Danny in ‘97 (Walnut Creek 7/22/97). Okay, it probably wasn’t technically a hurricane anymore by that point. But the rain was brutal and we still had a break from it as the eye passed over us so it was close enough. During the shortened second set the band actually jammed in response to the thunder and lightening. I was in the lawn and wearing a thin little plastic poncho that was just enough to keep my pack of cigarettes dry. After the show, the cops were nowhere to be found and traffic was a nightmare trying to get out of the lot. 

Rain at a pfish concert? At least the fans got a shower that month

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Underdog

Underdog 29163

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6 hours ago, yoladu said:

you definitely have to consider that the year is 1987. Not a huge Madonna fan, but she was arguably at the apex of her career here. Check out the set list:

Open Your Heart

Lucky Star

True Blue

Papa Don't Preach

White Heat

Causing a Commotion

The Look of Love

Dress You Up

Material Girl

Like a Virgin

Where's the Party

Live to Tell

Into the Groove

La Isla Bonita

Who's That Girl

Holiday

No Borderline no care...  how many costume changes in her show?  

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Setist says "Dress You Up-Material Girl-Like a Virgin" was played altogether, medley style.  So it's really 16 songs done in the time of 14 songs, with no set break and no encore.  That's not worth burning 1 of 2 shows on.  I'm telling y'all, you gotta think about quantity as well, you may get marooned back there with nothing but advanced knowledge of UT football 1987-1997 and some places to score blow near the hotel 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28928

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3 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Rain at a pfish concert? At least the fans got a shower that month

Har har! How clever. What we call the “Wooks” only make up a tiny percentage of the audience but that’s all the squares see. Go watch the Woodstock movie and you’ll see that a lot of the audience weren’t long haired hippie freaks. Same for Dead shows. Same for Phish shows. Most of the Phish crowd back then were middle class college kids and young professionals. I haven’t been to a show since 2004 but I doubt much has changed other than maybe some in the audience are older than they used to be back then.

Coincidentally, my only visit to MSG was to see Phish on NYE ‘95 which I generally refer to as the best concert I’ve ever seen. That’s partly due to the quality of the performance, partly due to the overall experience. There were about a dozen of us, friends old and new from all over, mostly New York and Ohio. We were all staying at the Hilton in Queens. We all sat together in a single row in the lower bowl. However many of us there were, the row had one extra seat and that’s where we piled our coats. Not a single one of us had a ticket for any of those seats but nobody ever came to kick us out.

Best Reba ever.

 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28928

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9 minutes ago, hullabelew said:

Didn't realize she was so rude. 

Well then you just weren’t paying attention. It took me a lot longer to learn she was a Phish fan. It took a number of times hearing her make references to Phish lyrics in her reporting until I got it. This is a pretty decent compilation:

 

 

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Buzzrock

Buzzrock 15136

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Also left out:
John Mellencamp
The Squeeze
Howard Jones
The Association/Blood Sweat & Tears/Tommy James and the Shondells/The Righteous Brothers/Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Janet Jackson


Robert Cray opened for Clapton
Waysted opened for Maiden (literally no clue who that is)
Lonnie Mack opened for Huey Lewis
The Del Fuegos and the Georgia Satellites opened for Petty
Level 42 opened for Madonna
Keel opened for Bon Jovi (no clue)
Gaye Bakers on Acid opened for Cult / Idol
Little Steven opened for U2
Icehouse opened for The Cars
Tommy Shaw opened for Rush
Voice Farm opened for Depeche Mode

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Buzzrock

Buzzrock 15136

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Upon further reflection: Momentary Lapse of Reason was a pretty legendary Floyd tour, probably the greatest one without Waters. It was the basis for the Delicate Sound of Thunder double live album and has my favorite version(s) of Comfortably Numb. That would be hard to miss.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Some of the shows that went into making "Pulse" were also legendary, but yes the 2-year tour that is "Momentary Lapse/Another Lapse", that was a brilliant reprise of Floyd without Waters.  "The Wall" tour from 6-7 years earlier was, and still is, a very unique experience of the album played in 95% of its entirety with very little deviation.  But these shows at MSG and others on the "Momentary/Another" tour were their best in a decade and the best they ever did subsequently.  

The 1st and 3rd shows by the Dead are very strong contenders along with David Bowie.  I'll never decide.  But I know top pick is Pink Floyd.  

Does this twitter thread referenced in the OP, does it have other noteworthy venues by year?  It's a fun nostalgia trip.  I tried googling famous venues by year but it's a lot of hodge-podge shit.  I know somebody's already done the legwork, just hard to find.  concertarchives.org is pretty good but there's lot of holes there.  

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South Austin

South Austin 53220

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45 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

Upon further reflection: Momentary Lapse of Reason was a pretty legendary Floyd tour, probably the greatest one without Waters. It was the basis for the Delicate Sound of Thunder double live album and has my favorite version(s) of Comfortably Numb. That would be hard to miss.

I had the Delicate Sound of Thunder double cassette and VCR tape, and wore those fuckers out.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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^

You and me both.  It was my big christmas present of 1989 (8th grade)...a gift set of the double CD and VHS concert tape.  I mostly watched the concert tape over and over again because of Rachel Fury, the saucy backup singer.    

Probably cost my mom a week's pay to buy that gift set.  But that's what really turned me on to Pink Floyd.  I had saved up and bought a few used cassettes and recorded albums from other friends to blank tapes.  But Delicate Sound of Thunder, and then a few months later I bought "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" and then "Dark Side of the Moon" and I've been hooked ever since.  Despite the shitty atmosphere and acoustics, one of the best concerts I've ever attended was Pink Floyd at the Alamodome in 1994.  

But what I wouldn't give to see them at their live show peak in either the late 70's or late 80's.  

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Hate

Hate 20247

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I was at that Alamodome show as well. We had horrible seats way up in the nosebleeds. We ate a bunch of shrooms in the parking lot and the echos from the horrible acoustics of the dome made for some interesting sounds. The thing I remember most about that show was sitting too high to really get the affect of the lasers and the giant pig that fell from the stage set…or did I imagine that while tripping. I’m pretty sure that did happen.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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2 hours ago, Hate said:

I was at that Alamodome show as well. We had horrible seats way up in the nosebleeds. We ate a bunch of shrooms in the parking lot and the echos from the horrible acoustics of the dome made for some interesting sounds. The thing I remember most about that show was sitting too high to really get the affect of the lasers and the giant pig that fell from the stage set…or did I imagine that while tripping. I’m pretty sure that did happen.

the giant pig fell, can confirm.  We've talked about a lot of shows, but I guess not this one.  We were on the floor, in the back right...and I mean...way the fuck back.  Right before the permanent seats rose up.  Visually and setlist-wise, it was an incredible show...but the sound just sucked ass IIRC.  That place is just horrible for every fucking event, football, basketball, concerts.  But I think I paid less than $30 for one of the best concerts I'll ever see for the rest of my life, so not bad overall.  I was the only one in my group who had a fake ID so I was probably half-drunk for most of the show and probably took a hit or two off a joint.  But that show would have been fun on mushrooms.  

 

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yoladu

yoladu 4190

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20 hours ago, Hate said:

I was at that Alamodome show as well. We had horrible seats way up in the nosebleeds. We ate a bunch of shrooms in the parking lot and the echos from the horrible acoustics of the dome made for some interesting sounds. The thing I remember most about that show was sitting too high to really get the affect of the lasers and the giant pig that fell from the stage set…or did I imagine that while tripping. I’m pretty sure that did happen.

why did this come to mind?

image.jpeg.04e017a77a1030b5281cd0e9a93a4b17.jpeg image.jpeg.e796b6e4a211d8dd538342644a46a10c.jpeg

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TexPx

TexPx 2335

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^
You and me both.  It was my big christmas present of 1989 (8th grade)...a gift set of the double CD and VHS concert tape.  I mostly watched the concert tape over and over again because of Rachel Fury, the saucy backup singer.    
Probably cost my mom a week's pay to buy that gift set.  But that's what really turned me on to Pink Floyd.  I had saved up and bought a few used cassettes and recorded albums from other friends to blank tapes.  But Delicate Sound of Thunder, and then a few months later I bought "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" and then "Dark Side of the Moon" and I've been hooked ever since.  Despite the shitty atmosphere and acoustics, one of the best concerts I've ever attended was Pink Floyd at the Alamodome in 1994.  
But what I wouldn't give to see them at their live show peak in either the late 70's or late 80's.  

Saw them on the Animals tour at Tarrant County in ‘77. Quadraphonic sound. Pretty awesome.
Good concert year for me. Also saw Yes, Genesis, Queen, and Peter Gabriel.
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