Noted musicians I’ve seen, in alphabetical order

CREDIT for this idea goes to nejomo on Bluesky (@nejomo.bsky.social), who thought of it first and posted his own impressive list there. I don’t mind copying a good thing, so I’ve racked my old brain and tried to remember my own list. I specified “noted” in the title because I’ve seen many, many bands that no one has ever heard of (and for a fair number of them, that was appropriate), and I don’t think this would be interesting if it was bogged down in hipsterish obscurity. So here goes:

A: AC/DC, Asia, Alison Moyet, ABC, Tori Amos, Agnostic Front, Laurie Anderson

B: Boston, Brian Adams, Black Flag, Big Country, Bad Brains, Big Audio Dynamite, Tony Bennett, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bad Religion, Butthole Surfers

C: The Cars, The Cramps, Cake, Circle Jerks, Corrosion of Conformity, Shawn Colvin, Phil Collins

D: Dead Kennedys, Depeche Mode, The Damned, Dayglo Abortions, Devo, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Dropkick Murphys, Danzig, Def Lepard, Thomas Dolby

E: Edgar Winter Group, Eddy Grant, The Exploited

F: Foghat, Filter, Fine Young Cannibals, Foreigner, Foo Fighters

G: The Go-Go’s, Garbage, David Guetta, Godsmack, GBH, Green Day, The Gun Club

H: House of Pain, Hole, Hüsker Dü

I:  INXS, Incubus

J: Joe Jackson, Journey, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Jimmy Eat World, Joydrop

K: Korn, Kansas

L:  Level 42, Linkin Park, The Lords of the New Church

M: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Madness, The Monsters, The Meatmen, Motley Crue, Meat Puppets, Misfits, Mojo Nixon, Moby

N: Nazareth, No Doubt, Nip Drivers, NOFX

O: The Offspring, The Oppressed

P: The Pretenders, Pixies, The Pogues, Poison, Political Asylum, Pet Shop Boys, Primus

Q: Queensryche

R: Bonnie Raitt, Ramones, Rush, Lou Rawls, Lou Reed, Ratt

S: The Scorpions, Simple Plan, Stone Temple Pilots, SNFU, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, Soundgarden, Simple Minds, The Smiths, The Steve Miller Band

T: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

U: U2, The Undead, The Undertones

V: Violent Femmes

W: Wasted Youth, Weezer, White Zombie

X: X

Y: Youth Brigade, Paul Young, Neil Young, Young MC

Z: The Zombies

Looking over this list, the first thought I have is a tinge of regret at how many bands I would have liked to have seen that I didn’t. For a few of those, I may still get a chance, but sadly the opportunity for most has slipped away into the mists of time. The second thought I have is that while there are a lot of great memories here, there’s more than a few stories I should probably keep to myself.