oooooh I almost forgot, I saw Nirvana at some little dinky club in Seattle before they were signed. I count that as one of the worst shows of my life....Kurt Cobain was so loaded he was forgetting words, missing his entrances, and just generally a piss poor performance.

Couple Others:

Blue Öyster Cult at Xhale in Fredrick Maryland. Not a tiny place, but surely no stadium either. Unfortunately, their soundman must've been on drugs, because they sounded like they were singing through mud.

I used to do stage crew for Trax in Charlottesville (Gone now). Saw a bunch of bands there, and that was about a 900 person club:
Sun Ra, P-Funk, Molly Hatchet, Phish, DMB (They recorded "Remember Two Things" in the upstairs room), Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, Mojo Nixon, They Might Be Giants, Dead Milkmen, Widespread Panic.

Also saw Lyle Lovett, Robert Hunter, and Little Feat in a 1500 person theater.

U2@ the 'Rock On The Tyne' festival in 1980. They were about 4th down the bill. There was maybe 1500-2000 people there, which is very small to them now.

I saw Chicago just a couple of nights ago at the Pechanga Indian reservation (1200 seat). They were very tight and everyone had fun.

I've seen Nirvana, Soundgarden, Primus, Pantera, White Zombie and Live all at the same 1000 capacity venue.

Galactic and Widespread Panic played a show at our area's largest venues, but there couldn't have been more than 400 people there total. Very good show.

I believe the backstreet boys will be playing at the 9:30 soon. I'm afraid i won't be there.

in clubs/space that seat 1000 or less:

massive attack
roni size
goldie
solex
cornelius
acid mothers temple
marshall allen/sun ra arketrsta
art ensemble of chicago
gil scott-heron
fela anikulapo kuti
einsturzende neubauten
dj rupture
dj spooky
plaid
mercury rev
sonic youth
pharcyde
tribe called quest
gang starr (several times)
dj premier
de la soul
keith rowe/fennesz
la monte young
spiritualized
stereolab
mono
peter gabriel
robert fripp
old and new dreams
oregon

there are others that i cant think of right now

indi.arie and O.A.R. in one of the conference rooms here in the building... lunch concert for the employees :)

barry manilow at the VH1 Studio...

I've seen Staind in two small venues - Deep Ellum Live in May of 2000 (when they were still touring for Dysfunction) and at the Grenada Theater in 2003 when they toured with Lo-Pro and Static-X after releasing 14 Shades of Gray.

I also saw Cold at Deep Ellum Live, and Linkin Park at the Bronco Bowl a few days before Meteora came out.

Tophat - I used to live in Charlottesville, and have family that still do. I remember Trax very well - my uncle used to go there quite a bit, and saw DMB there many times. It's pretty cool to hear about it from someone else - small world, isn't it?

I also saw Ozzie Osborne with Randi Rhodes at a 300 seat theatre on the Bizzard of Oz tour. Def Leppard opened the show (they were kids then). Saw Deep Purple at a club in Virginia Beach Va (with Richie Blackmore) and Frank Zappa in front of probably 300 people too.

I was supposed to see Shinedown in a little club called Avio here in Lexington early last summer, but it was canceled the day of due to "technical difficulties that could not be resolved."

I saw Lacuna Coil, POD, and Blindside at Bogarts, which was at no more than 3/4 capacity (which is probably around 500). This was just last summer too, after POD already had a platinum record.

While this will only matter to metal fans,

I've seen Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, and Symphony X, in crowds of maybe 150.

I saw Great Big Sea(really only big in Canada I guess) with about one hundred other people. The Mosquitos, while I don't know if they're big(I saw them on the MTV) were there too.

Lets see where can I start:

Metallica in a private, unknown concert in a club in NYC
Janes at Hammerstein
Metallica at Hershey Park Arena
Guns at the Ritz

I saw The Ataris at this place called The Social in downtown Orlando that holds maybe 500 or so people. This was a few months before their last record came out and blew up all over radio. Sugarcult opened for them and they're sorta big in some circles.

I saw ICP at The Club @ Firestone in Downtown Orlando which is bigger than The Social but only holds maybe 1000 or so people.

I'm terrible with numbers so I might be way off lol.

I saw Jimmy Bufett at a now closed deli in my hometown around 1992. He used to own a plantation on a road I lived on in SW Georgia that ran into Florida. His place was about 5 miles over the line, where it turns from pavement to dirt. Anyway, he did it as a promotional thing since he knew the owner well and frequented the place. It wasn't a long set by any means. Just a few of the standards, a few autographs, and he was gone.

The Allman Brothers in the early '70s at a junior college gym.

Ted Nugent at my college student center in 1974. Memorable because I met him, and he let me tape his concert, as long as I promised I wouldn't sell it.

Fleetwood Mac opening for the Eagles in 1976 in Atlanta's Fox theater. Not too many people had heard of Fleetwood Mac then. I was front row center, and still have a picture of Stevie Nicks' bloodshot eyes. My girlfriend at the time got me backstage afterward, too.

Jimmy Buffet at the Fox also.

Crap, I fogot about the Ataris. I saw them here in Midland in a crowd of about 150. It was just after their Boys of Summer cover had become a small hit.

i saw public enemy in a venue that holds about 600...also saw oasis in a bar in dundee that held about 100...jurrrasic 5 and j-live in a venue of about 1000...franz ferdinand in a living room...snowpatrol in a bar of about 80 or so ...erm i'm sure that there are others...

Haha. I was there too. It was awesome.

I've seen Staind a ton of times in small venues. They are from the area(guitarist used to live down the street) so I saw them once or twice before their major label debut. Then again after Dysfunction when they played in an exhibition hall. After their last release I saw them play with Static-x at a small club in Springfield, MA.

I've seen Static-x a few more times each in tiny club settings. I saw Ra, soil, shinedown, and many others at Pearl St. in Northampton, MA. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at the Webster in Hartford. BB King and Bela Fleck both at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, MA.

There have been more I'm sure but I am rather tired right now and can't think of them off hand.

Guns and Roses at The Whisky in L.A. and Motley Crue at The Troubador in L.A. both before they became famous. The Los Angeles Metal Scene in the early 80s was fantastic. KNAC rocked.

I just remembered that Art Alexakis (lead singer of Everclear) did a solo acoustic set at my university outdoors to maybe about 100-200 people. I was working his merch table that night and got to meet him. Amazingly nice guy. After his show he stayed and signed every single autograph, talked to every fan, took pictures and didn't leave until after every fan was gone and even spent some time talking to the volunteer workers while they were tearing down the stage and whatnot.

Apocalyptica in the Knitting Factory two weeks ago. I was about 2 feet away from them, and I got to meet them all afterwards. I got their signatures, and the drummer's too.

Back in the old days, around '74 or so, I went out for a night of underage drinking. We ended up in a small bar being entertained by Cheap Trick. I only remember this because they hit it big not long after. That same year Styx played in my high school gym. That one I DO remember, because our principal stopped the show and kicked everyone out due to it running too late for a school night.

My friends keep telling me about the time they saw Bif Naked at The Mod Club in Toronto. Like a hundred people. Ten dollar fee, and the best concert they had ever been to, hands down.

It is now known that if there is ever any band they have even a remote tolerance for playing at The Mod Club, they're going and dragging all of us.

I almost saw Summers End and Everything Falls Together at some local concert places around here.
But they shut the show down....First time they have EVER done that
What a bummer =/

If I mentioned names likeAl Hirt, Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Satchmo, Louie Belson, Lional Hampton, Count Basis to name a few would any one here know who I'm talking about. I loved big bands and small combos. I played the trumpet for 50 years. I pity people who haven't experience playing with a group. Well, it is what it is. Different stroke for different folks.

Maroon 5... and yea... they're dorks now. But they played Nine Inch Nails and AC DC, and well that earned a little respect. I saw them at Columbus, Ohio. With a crowd of about 75 people at the most.

just saw the decemberists with a couple hundred people. very good show, i only wish i had been able to listen to their new cd a bit more first.

Queens of the Stone Age at Mac Hall in Calgary last sunday on 3 hits of ecstacy. The place was on fire so I went crowdsurfing.

Probably about 1000 people.

Nine inch nails, Astoria, London March 31st 2005. About 1500 people.

--jaded

I don't know how "big" the guy is, but he is/was on tour with Steve Vai, so he must have a bit of a following...

I saw Eric Sardinas in a small bar in Kansas City a couple years ago. Probably somewhere around 200 people. Awesome show!

EDIT: I completely forgot, I saw Deftones with Glassjaw in Lawrence. I can't remember the name of the place, but there couldn't have been more then 5-600 or so people there.

The Rollins Band at the Grenada in Lawrence. No more than 300 people, very "personal" show. The stage was pretty low and crowd-surfers were getting pulled on stage by Henry Rollins, and thrown back into the crowd. Great, great show!

Absolutely, I've seen Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, and Chase (major trumpet band, remember them?) in a high school auditorium. Along time ago, but just saw Maynard ferguson last year also. I too, have played trumpet for about 30 years. Great Musicians.

The best for me was seeing Cowboy Junkies in a little bar in Madison, Wisconsin, on a spring night in the late 80's, and then seeing them at the Civic Center the next fall. In the spring, they were nobody, and in the fall, their set was almost the same, but the crowd was incredibly different, and thousands of people bigger.