Pages tagged “Guadalcanal Diary”

I just finished posting the 12 best concerts I've ever seen. Rather than have them all in 12 separate posts, I thought I'd consolidate the list here. I was recently digging through a pile of ticket stubs I've saved, finding cool concert after cool concert, from high school, college and especially, these last six years since we started Paste magazine. There are some big omissions—I've still never seen Springsteen or The Stones. I've only in the last few years checked off Dylan and Prince (neither made the list and only Prince was close). Some of the best concerts I picked are obvious choices. Others are more offbeat or just personal. But all are seared into my memory; for each night, I stood (or occasionally sat) in awe of the performance that was given. So here are the 12 best concerts I've seen:

#11
Guadalcanal Diary
Sept. 15, 1989, Center Stage (Atlanta)
I've had a lot of favorite bands through the years, but the one that held the top spot through my senior year of high school was an Atlanta band called Guadalcanal Diary. They played literate rock songs on topics as varied as the Trail of Tears and unexplained visions of The Three Stooges. The music veered from stately Rickenbacker college rock to loose-as-hell rockabilly. They were smart and fun. Problem was, they were on the verge of breaking up soon after my discovery. So my first time to see them happened to be their final Atlanta show. Each song that they launched into was one that I'd listened to dozens and dozens of times on one of their four albums. I crushed my way towards the very front, danced and sung every lyric of "Watusi Rodeo," "Litany (Life Goes On)" and "Cattle Prod." Guitarist Jeff Wall went on to play in another great live band, Hillbilly Frankenstein, and still plays with The Woggles. Singer Murray Attaway had a very good solo album on Geffen. And Guadalcanal played a glorious reunion show at the Roxy in 1996. I can't wait for the next one.