music friday

Mikey Dread, The Warfield, 1980. Opened for The Clash. Dread, a leading DJ in Jamaica, hooked up with The Clash around 1980, touring and recording with them, especially on Sandinista! One of the best things to come out of their collaboration was "Bankrobber", the single of which had a dub version from Dread. Here are both:

Gang of Four, American Indian Center, 1980. One of the more surprising concerts of my life. I loved the first Gang of Four album, Entertainment!, but for some reason I didn't figure out from that record that they were a great dance band. Seeing them live convinced me. Here is that show:

Pee-wee Herman, Wolfgang's, 1983. I'll be honest, the site and date are educated guesses. This was before Big Adventure and Playhouse. As I remember, we had seen Pee-wee on Letterman. He toured with The Pee-wee Herman Show, which HBO showed at one point. Our seats were in the front, stage left. That's Phil Hartman as Captain Carl.

Jim Lauderdale, ?, late-80s. I know I saw him. He was an opening act. But I don't remember who was the headliner, I don't remember the venue, I don't remember the date. I remember my wife wasn't impressed. He's best known as a songwriter for folks like George Strait, and people from Elvis Costello to Lee Ann Womack have recorded his songs. There's even a documentary about his life:

Comments

[Scott]

I hope to find time to watch that Gang of Four performance. My experience with them was similar. I liked Entertainment! a lot when it came out, but somehow the connection wasn't really complete. And I didn't think much of the second album. But when I saw them live in London, On, supporting their third album, I couldn't believe how incredible they were. Good as some of their records are, that night at least they blew their own recordings out of the water. To this day, it stands as a top 5 show for me.

[Steven Rubio]

Sound is great, but that GoF video is audio only.

[Scott]

Hmm, well I will for sure miss Jon King's impenetrably sinister scare as he stood almost motionless on stage while delivering guitar squall on par with Jimi Hendrix, but hey--can't have it all.

[Scott]

Sorry, sinister "stare" though "scare" is ok too.