<p>NRBQ! I saw them a couple of time in Boston.</p>
<p>I was in college 1979-1983. The less said about those days musically the better . . . I still have my “A Night At Studio 54” double album that a Senior, to my eternal gratitude, temporarily confiscated. He gave me a Southside Johnny album and Springsteen’s Darkness On The Edge of Town as loaners (Thanks DB!). Still, a few highlights:</p>
<p>Joe Jackson’s Night and Day Album
Prince – 1999
U2 – War
Talking Heads
Bruuuce!
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (humor me on this, one of the best bands to never get that big break)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers</p>
<p>With a nod to the concerts I saw (and vaguely remember):</p>
<p>Heart
Squeeze
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Styx
Kinks
Christopher Cross (yes!)
Bruuuce!
Journey
and, to my eternal shame: Olivia Newton John – the “Physical” tour</p>
<p>Iderochi, we are same vintage. 1961 was a very good year 
U2 “Boy” was also cool</p>
<p>SBMOm, 1961 rocks. I was actually in England doing a year abroad when War came out. I remember there was this big build up on the radio for the new release of this group that I had never heard of before. I had the typical “how good could can they be if they haven’t made it in the U.S. yet” mentality – and then BBC Radio One played “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” back to back on the album release date. Wow. I haven’t been stopped in my tracks very often, but that’s one I remember. </p>
<p>Other acts that come to mind from then:</p>
<p>The Jam
Yaz
Eurythmics</p>
<p>“I was also nearby in same time frame. Do you remember the club/ rock scene with Joan Jett, The Motels, & “867-5309”? Also the bar band NRBQ?”</p>
<p>I do indeed remember them. Also Aztec Two-Step, and Robin Lane, who I used to party with. DudeD, there was a place near MIT/Inman Square that had “Upstairs” in its name…and it was in fact upstairs, the top floor of a 4 or 5 story office building, accessed by elevator, where there was a great jazz club. I saw Stanley Cowell, Ralph Towner, John Ambercrombie, and many others there. It was too cool. And I had a Berklee connection too, a boyfriend who was a very high-level jazz guitarist who turned me on the world of jazz and the club scene up there.</p>
<p>DudeD, Loved your gamelan story. I first heard a gamelan in Ann Arbor in the 60’s – part of the ethic-everything craze. I forgot all about it and when I went to Bali 20 years later hearing the gamelan was like a wave of the subconscious washing over me. Especially in Java it continues to evolve and enchant.</p>
<p>When I was in highschool all we listened to were top forties and MoTown. At UMich in 1965 it was pretty much dance music and the Beatles, then came the summer of love and everything we knew came unglued. Talk about clash of civilizations. I remember going to a Doors concert on campus in which Jim Morrison who was drunk/stoned to the point of oblivion was boo’ed off the stage. The frat band came on and played Gloria. We were as we said at the time, bummed. By the next year we were had all turned on and tuned in and there was no going back. Janis, Jimmy, The Stones, The Dead, Cream, Country Joe and of course Dylan. What an amazing time! It still makes me shiver.</p>
<p>Driver,
Yes … I definitely recall an “upstairs” in the Inman Square area. In fact, I know I saw Abercrombie there (I’ve seen him about 5-6 times, so I had to think about this for a second), also Eberhard Weber, and Warne Marsh. This was also about the time the Windham Hill label was starting – I already knew that it was a touch light and near-jazzy for my personal tastes (albeit that there were some gifted players on that label) – but my wife was not into jazz at all and I constantly tried to find musical acts that we might both enjoy – Alex DeGrassi’s guitar playing in Inman Square was one such middleground.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I first heard a gamelan in Ann Arbor in the 60’s – part of the ethic-everything craze. I forgot all about it and when I went to Bali 20 years later hearing the gamelan was like a wave of the subconscious washing over me. Especially in Java it continues to evolve and enchant.[/unquote]</p>
<p>Somehow I think we could all use another “ethnic-everything craze.” Gamelan music, with its warm and reassuring pulse, can be such a healthy antidote to Western Civ stress. On the other hand, you can already find this in things like Baroque classical music. I used to save Bach for when I had to study for my most important exams; I have a surgeon cousin who will only operate to Bach and his magical harpsichord music.</p>
<p>Under instrumental, has anyone mentioned the Crusaders? I was into them in High School, particularly the “Scratch” album.</p>
<p>I seem to recall that upstairs club too…</p>
<p>Anyone else remember dancing at Buddies?</p>
<p>I am not familiar with gamelan, give me a few specific artists/albums to investigate…</p>
<p>I love world music, particularaly Nusfrat Fateh Ali Khan; Greek music, Indian music…</p>
<p>“Under instrumental, has anyone mentioned the Crusaders?”</p>
<p>Loved them. I still have an original LP called “Live at the Lighthouse” from 1966 that was one of my favorites. This was when they were still the “Jazz Crusaders.” Saw them as the Crusaders at the Academy of Music when Larry Carlton joined them, what a performance.</p>
<p>“Scratch”–was that the red double live album that only had five cuts on it? They really stretched out and took some great long solos. My favorite was the very unlikely jazz cover of Carole King’s “So Far Away.” Wayne Henderson’s trombone solos were especially magical in that one.</p>
<p>Persuasions, especially Buffalo Solider from their Street Corner Symphony album</p>
<p>speaking of a cappella
I saw the Bobs with Pilobolus( modern dance troupe with my older daughters elementary school class - really an inspired pairing</p>
<p>momrath,</p>
<p>I was at Umich in the early 80’s. We used to go to the Blind Pig and Joe’s Star lounge. Were they around in your day? Did the Michigan theatre on Liberty have concerts in your day.
I saw Ricki Lee Jones, Robyn Hitchcock, Los Lobos, Bruce Cockburn, Laurie Anderson and many more at Joe’s and the Pig.
Joe’s only held about 80 people, it was incredible to see some of the big names he got to come. I’ll never forget being on the otherside of a powdery moon one night at Joe’s when Los Lobos was playing. The lead guitar player, who was quite portly jumped off the stage with his guitar mid-song and went straight into the splits. He stayed down there playing through the rest of the song while we danced around him. When it was over we realized he’d only stayed on the floor throughout the entire song because he was hurt and too drunk/high to get up. We helped him back up and he crawled back up on stage and finished the show.</p>
<p>SBmom, my wife was born '61 too…a good year indeed.</p>
<p><em>wince</em>
What a painful thing to contemplate…Cesar Rosas in a splits. Can’t imagine.</p>
<p>LOL Woodwork, what a hilarious image. Like something out of “This Is Spinal Tap.”</p>
<p>Providence was a good bar-band place where big artists sometimes trotted out new material. </p>
<p>A group of my friends found themselves out getting pitchers of beer at a small dive somewhere in greater Providence when the <em>Rolling Stones</em> took the Stage, prepping for their next big tour… AND I HAD STAYED HOME TO STUDY!!! :eek:!!</p>
<p>Saw Bob Marley’s last-ever live concert in Providence. 
</p>
<p>SBMom, sorry for the tardy response (I hate it when work intrudes on my internet meanderings).</p>
<p>As far as specific Gamelan recommendations, I think Momrath might be the person to ask. I learned about Gamelan from classical/experimental artists like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass who were on record as being influenced by Balinese Gamelan music. I liked their stuff and segued to the listening labs at Illinois (Champaign-Urbana). I wound up with some second-hand tapes too, courtesy of my instructor. But, I don’t have the names of any particular artists/groups. Sorry.</p>
<p>A quick look at Amazon.com shows many hits for a Gamelan search. You might be able to find some of the “leaders” by reading some of the reviews.
If you enjoy raga-based Indian music, you’re in for a treat. Gamelan is reminiscent of some Indian music, but it’s somehow more immediate and powerful to this westerner’s ears.</p>
<p>SB Mom:</p>
<p>My wife took me to a Stones concert several years ago at the MCI Center in DC. Great show. My wife said that they were the four skinniest white guys she had ever seen.</p>
<p>DudeD, Bach! You are so right. I don’t know why I never connected Bach with gamelan. Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations puts me over the top.</p>
<p>SBmom, There are thousands of gamelan orchestras in Java and Bali. Supposedly the Javanese school is more creative, Balinese more traditional. I can’t tell the difference. Sometimes the gongs are joined by other instruments, like flutes and strings, or singers or story tellers.The actual performances take place in the villages with an amazing – but distracting – background of people, chickens, motorcycles, vendors. Nobody would dream of just sitting and listening.</p>
<p>Every village has a troupe that plays at festivals and accompanies dance or shadow puppet performances. The quality of recordings is variable. Most are of the ethnologist with a hand-held recorder type. Amazon has several selections, many of which you can listen to on-line.</p>
<p>I wanted to go on the road with Jackson Browne. </p>
<p>I wanted to be Tom Petty’s girlfriend. Liked those scrawny, long-haired types. </p>
<p>I dunno, there was something kinda special about Led Zeppelin, or maybe it was just the combination Page’s transcendent riffs and Robert Plant’s pants…</p>
<p>I wanted to hang out with Joni Mitchell. </p>
<p>Most listened to album during high school: The eponymic Layla (and Other Assorted Love Songs). The combination of Eric Clapton and Duane Allman STILL makes me weak in the knees. </p>
<p>Berzerkeley College Days: The B-52’s played a free gig at Sproul Plaza on a perfect Spring day during my senior year. I have amazing b & w photos of Joe Jackson taken at one of his concerts from about the fourth row at Zellerbach Auditorium. Saw The Talking Heads that same year. For me, David Byrne was Berkeley rolled up into a human being. :)</p>