Also from FACEBOOK: OK, here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw as #1 (you can remember that, can’t you)?
CATHY'S DISCLAIMER - as I have spent much of my career working in live music venues and with artists who perform in concert, I will attempt to list only ones that I saw outside of my job or would have seen as a fan even if it weren't my job. This also doesn't count the bands local and regional to where I lived... but I loved you Bill Wray, The Cold, Lil Queenie, The Times, Bas Clas, The Backbeats, Lenny Zenith and Pop Combo, Charmer, etc. Not in order...
Childhood through College
1. New Christy Minstrels x 2
2. The First Edition
3. The Carpenters
4. Loretta Lynn
5. Elvis Presley x 2
6. Gino Vannelli x I can't remember but it was a lot!
7. Elton John
8. Liza Minelli
9. Paul Williams x 2
10. John Prine x too many to count
11. Randy Newman x 3
12. Neil Diamond
13. Shaun Cassidy (hey, Bill Mumy was in his band!)
14. Jackson Browne x 5
15. Heart x 3
16. Journey x 3
17. The Babys
18. The Police
19. Jimmy Buffett
20. Billy Joel
21. The Producers x too many to count (Hi Kyle! Hey George!)
22. REM x too many to count
23. The B52s x 3
24. Jonathan Richman x 5
25. Joe Jackson
26. Steve Goodman
27. The Go Gos x 3
28. The Romantics
29. Psychedelic Furs
30. The English Beat
31. Don McLean
32. Harry Chapin
33. Blondie
34. Kris Kristofferson
35. LeRoux x too many to count
36. David Bromberg
37. The Eagles x 3
38. Richie Furay
39. JD Souther
40. Linda Ronstadt
41. Emmylou Harris
42. Fleetwood Mac x 5
43. Iggy Pop
44. The Kinks
45. Dan Fogelberg
46. Kenny Loggins
47. Ray Charles
48. Leon Russell
49. Marshall Crenshaw x 4
50. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band x 7
Oh darn, that went by too fast. I'll have to do another 50 for post-college, rest of my life concerts! Now the order is likely to get really random...
1.The Church
2. Barry Manilow x 4 (don't hate!)
3. Dwight Yoakum
4. Alex Chilton
5. The Bangles
6. Billy Bragg
7. The Jackson 5 (Victory Tour)
8. Johnny Cash
9. Crowded House (and Neil Finn and Finn - that's Neil and Tim)
10. Elvis Costello x not sure but more than 10
11. Frankie Goes To Hollywood (why, Lisa, why?)
12. Bob Dylan x 4
13. Elliot Smith
14. Robyn Hitchcock
15. Coldplay
16. Sam Phillips
17. Counting Crows
18. Death Cab For Cutie
19. Sufjan Stevens
20. The Shins (Thanks Gary!)
21. Iron and Wine x 3 - so far...
22. Richard Buckner x 11
23. Simon and Garfunkel
24. Badly Drawn Boy
25. Black Crowes
26. Lucinda Williams x too many to count
27. Brendan Benson x only one but he's going on tour soon, fingers crossed!
28. 10,000 Maniacs
29. Robyn Hitchcock
30. Jules Shear x 6
31. The Ramones
32. The Buzzcocks
33. Lollapalooza 1.
34. Roger McGuin
35. Indigo Girls
36. X
37. Wilco
38. The Jayhawks
39. Matthew Sweet x 4
40. The Wallflowers
41. Pete Seeger
42. Bruce Springsteen x 4
43. Tom Petty x 2
44. Lou Reed
45. Tom Waits x 4
46. Syd Straw
47. Steve Forbert x 8
48. Squeeze x 3 (plus a few more of Glenn Tilbrook)
49. Ryan Adams
50. Sloan x 5
Oh heck, that doesn't even come close to covering it - and I haven't even pulled out the ticket stubs. I know most of my friends will have similar trouble limiting it to 50 or even 100!