Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - What bands did you hear/like before they became famous?

Charlatan · 12-01-2006, 05:19 PM

Like roachboy I have many friends who are cooler than I. They have some great stories (though I am not sure that anything short of having the Stooges as your house band will be good enough).

One friend tells a great story of going to this small bar in St. Catherines to see The Police on their first tour. They weren't doing any gigs in Canada but managed to get invited to play this tiny little bar in a tiny little town. They drove up from Buffalo and put on a kick ass show.

Another tells of seeing U2 in Ottawa at Barrymore's (a locally famous concert hall). The guy who booked them was very in the know about what was cool. He was on of the first North Americans to book them. They were generally unknown at that point except to a few cutting edge types. By the time they started the tour though, they had their first cover on Rolling Stone (when being on the cover meant something). Suddenly they were huge (by independent music standard).

This same guy caught REM at the same place. The band went over to Hull (Quebec bars are open later and were way cooler) with a bunch of people from the audience and hung out.

The only two bands I can say I saw early on, and I'm not really a fan of either is The Barenaked Ladies and The Tragically Hip. The Ladies did a series of gigs in Ottawa at a small night club. This is when they were still just pushing their yellow cassette around and hadn't released an album.

I caught the hip twice. Once at the small campus pub (Gord Downie fell off the small stage while flinging his, at the time, really long hair around) and then they opened frosh week the following year.

12-01-2006, 05:19 PM	#37 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	Like roachboy I have many friends who are cooler than I. They have some great stories (though I am not sure that anything short of having the Stooges as your house band will be good enough). One friend tells a great story of going to this small bar in St. Catherines to see The Police on their first tour. They weren't doing any gigs in Canada but managed to get invited to play this tiny little bar in a tiny little town. They drove up from Buffalo and put on a kick ass show. Another tells of seeing U2 in Ottawa at Barrymore's (a locally famous concert hall). The guy who booked them was very in the know about what was cool. He was on of the first North Americans to book them. They were generally unknown at that point except to a few cutting edge types. By the time they started the tour though, they had their first cover on Rolling Stone (when being on the cover meant something). Suddenly they were huge (by independent music standard). This same guy caught REM at the same place. The band went over to Hull (Quebec bars are open later and were way cooler) with a bunch of people from the audience and hung out. The only two bands I can say I saw early on, and I'm not really a fan of either is The Barenaked Ladies and The Tragically Hip. The Ladies did a series of gigs in Ottawa at a small night club. This is when they were still just pushing their yellow cassette around and hadn't released an album. I caught the hip twice. Once at the small campus pub (Gord Downie fell off the small stage while flinging his, at the time, really long hair around) and then they opened frosh week the following year. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke Last edited by Charlatan; 05-19-2008 at 04:28 PM..