OK, a fully-stolen half-meme from the Zimmer Zoo this evening.  I couldn’t resist.  Nancy listed all of the concerts she’s been to.  I divide my concert-going experience into two major halves: before and after 1992. NB: this does not include classical concerts, which I couldn’t even begin to catalog.

Pre-1992, the middle-school days:

1. Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine.  To the best of my knowledge, this was my first concert, when I was about eight or nine years old.  I went with my uncle’s then-girlfriend, and we sat on the lawn at the old Poplar Creek.  We may have even gone a second time, but memory is fuzzy.
2. New Kids on the Block.  Hell yeah.  I was about 11 years old.  My dad took me and my best friend, and dragged my very unhappy (and sick) brother along.  If any of you remember when one of them (Donnie?) fell and busted a foot or something and was out for a few shows?  One of those was mine – only four of the five “band” members was present.
3. Barry Manilow.  My mom’s sister-in-law’s sister was playing in his band.  I fell asleep.
4. Paula Abdul.  In the Keanu Reeves, pre-American-Idol days.

1992 to present – things got a lot better

1. U2.  This, to me, marks the dramatic change in quality of concerts that I attended.  And it was a doozy to start high school with – the ZooTV Outside Broadcast tour.  16 years later, and I remember it very clearly.  It was September 1992, I was a freshman in high school, and I went with my friend Dana.  She and I sat on the lawn while her mom and mom’s friend were in the “real” seats.  That strikes me as odd, now.
2. Peter Gabriel.  Must have been about 1993-4, I saw Peter Gabriel twice in close succession.  Once for the tour following the release of Us, and again for his WOMAD festival.
3. Cracker, Gin Blossoms, and Spin Doctors.  Summer 1994, and thanks to the interwebs, I even found a review of the very concert I attended. I seem to remember seeing my history teacher a few rows over, which struck me as very odd.  You know, because teachers weren’t supposed to have lives or listen to current music.
4. Eric Clapton.  The Nothing But the Blues tour.  1995-ish, I think.
5. Lillith Fair.  The very first year.  I looked it up, and that apparently was in 1997.  I don’t know why I feel like it was earlier than that.
6. [Edited to add...] Dave Matthews Band.  Sometime in college, I only vaguely remember it.  No, I wasn’t high.  I just didn’t think it was all it was cracked up to be.
7. MixFest 2000.  It was quite a lineup, inclusive of Tracy Chapman, Lisa Loeb, Vertical Horizon, Macy Gray, Smash Mouth, Guster, Ben Harper, a very cranky Goo Goo Dolls, and of course my beloved BNL.  More on that later.  But it was good times, I was with my buddies Joe and Guido, and it was only a few short months after I moved to Boston but before I met M.
8. Brothers Creegan. This is a little band featuring one current and one former member of Barenaked Ladies (both of whom being the titular Creegan brothers).  Saw them at the teeny, tiny Kendall Cafe in Cambridge.
9. Guster.  I’ve seen them at various festivals and several times opening for BNL, but also at a lunchtime CD release party at the Paradise in Boston.  For the release of Ganging up on the Sun, June 2006.

And, then, there’s Barenaked Ladies.  Get ready for the list…

1. November 1998 – Rosemont Horizon (Chicago)
2. August 1999 – Tinley Park (Chicago)
3. September 2000 – the aforementioned Mixfest (Boston)
4. November 2000 – Providence Civic Center (Providence, RI)
5. January 2001 – Fleet Center, New Year’s Day (Boston)
6. February 2001 – Rochester, New York (I had just started dating M, but already had the tickets, so dragged him on a kind of crazy road trip.  As odd timing happened, my dad, stepmom, and stepsister were in town on a college visit, so he got to meet my parents…)
7. July 2001 – Tweeter Center (Boston)
8. October 2003 – The Orpheum (Boston) – the day Everything to Everyone was released.
9. December 2004 – The Orpheum (Boston) – a holiday concert, whose “opening act” was the Scituate High School choir.
10. November 2006 – Agganis Arena (Boston)
11. December 2006 – Boston’s Symphony Hall, with the Boston Pops  (You know what’s funny?  I may very well have been pregnant at this concert, but didn’t know it yet!)
12. May 2008 – Barnes & Noble (Framingham, MA) – This one was previously documented, as it was actually with kids in tow!

There you have it, at least as best as I can remember.  A little nuts, huh?