Concerts attended in the great City of Toronto. So many cool venues. Missing a few good ones…including Porno for Pyros/Flaming Lips – Concert Hall – (1993), Phish (1992 & 1993) Spectrum and Concert Hall, The Cranberries (1994) Warehouse, Pearl Jam (1996) Maple Leaf Gardens and Big Audio Dynamite/Live/Blind Melon (1992) at The Phoenix.
Bowie and Nine Inch Nails in Toronto. September 1995. I was such a NIN fan – and Bowie said he wasn’t playing his hits. So we (regrettably) left Bowie’s set about 5 songs in. It was a stupid mistake, since Bowie is on my Mount Olympus of Rock Gods. U2 “PopMart” ticket stub from June 26, 1997. My buddy Rick and I attended. We were watching the Buffalo Bills game before having to split for Toronto. The Bills kicked a game winning OT field goal when we were somewhere near St. Catharines. The concert was pretty amazing. The first concert where we purchased tickets online. It was a whole-new thing. This festival was the precursor to many bigger fests (Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Coachella, etc…) . It was an amazing array of mid-1990s acts that ruled the airways. The Tragically Hip, Goo Goo Dolls, Bush, Live, Porno for Pyros, Everclear. We had a great camp spot in the woods. My three buds and I were going to crash in my Buffalo apartment, wake up early and head up to the concert site three hours away in Ontario. We were so amped up, we decided to leave Buffalo around 9 p.m. on Thursday, and finally fell asleep in our tent at the festival at 5:00 a.m. The mighty Jane’s Addiction in Toronto on October 5, 2001. The thing I remember the most about this show was that it was 24 days removed from the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party in Toronto on August 10, 2007. Cool venue. Not sold out. A fun, one-time album. Ministry, Sunday, May 4, 2008 at the Kool Haus, Toronto. Pretty sure this was the loudest concert I’ve ever attended. I had a business meeting the next day and could barely hear my colleagues talk. Black Sabbath ticket stub. Air Canada Center, August 14, 2013. This show was utterly beyond special. 48 hours after the concert, my friend (attendee) called me and said, “I can’t get that concert out of my head.” I too had the concert running through my brain. Ozzy, the band, the crowd, were all on fire that night. I saw Sabbath once before and it had the same effect on me. No one was cooler than REM at this point in the universe. Some buds and I stayed overnight in a hotel, just down the street from the Maple Leaf Gardens. The crowd treated REM like gods. I wasn’t the biggest Pink Floyd fan, but I knew this was a show not to be missed. Rick, Kim, Matt and I journeyed to the show in Toronto. I remember the opening notes of the show starting and for the first time ever, was in somewhat of a stampede. We survived. Seemingly…one out of two people were sitting, watching the show, and smoking weed. The crowd gave a sustaining five minute standing ovation at the show’s end. We ended the night around 4:30 a.m. ish dropping everyone off. Matt spilt a whole cooler of water in my back seat of the 1979 Audi. That’s how the night came to a conclusion. A wild 35,000+ people filled the hill overlooking the stage. They had to stop the show a few times because the crowd was so fired up. Cheap Trick opened…added bonus.
