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I posted yesterday about seeing Aerosmith and the Black Crowes, and as a coincidence that date coincided with our first Tori Amos gig. Here are some hastily put together thoughts.

Only in youth would you have the means and a healthy desire for road trip adventures that would motivate you to drive from St. Louis to Louisville, KY by taking a route directly through Champagne, IL and West Lafayette, IN.

That’s what Alex, Scott, Kyle, Tom, and I did around this time in 1994. The reason for such roundaboutedness was so that we could see our first Tori Amos show.

It was a grand 4 or 5 days of hanging out with my homies and seeing a show by someone who I was verifiably obsessed with. There was something really cool about that show being in a different town.

Tom was attending Purdue at the time and stuck around for the summer. We had a blast hanging out there for a few days. After hanging out during the day and raiding unlocked academic buildings during the wee hours, we caravanned down the length of Indiana to Louisville. Scott and Kyle in his Jeep, Alex and I in his Olds, and Tom and Dan in Tom’s Grand Am.

Much revelry ensued.

We had a little time to hang out in Louisville before the show and took a few pictures, some of which became a series known as U2 Album Covers. Had I noticed this coincidence of dats before yesterday I’d scanned some and posted them along. Maybe in a day or two when I get some time to monkey with our scanner (can’t be too hard)

The McAuley Theater was really nice. Held about as many people as the American Theater here, but with just one balcony that hung out almost as far as the floor seats (where we were swankadelic in the middle of the 8th row).

Tori started a tradition of having a simple songwriter open for her. The opener was a native american called Bill Miller and he was pretty good.

Her performance was everything I wanted it to be, as you can imagine I had very high hopes. The highlights for me were: Silent All These Years (which is probably true for any gig), Bells For Her, China, Precious Things, Baker Baker moistened the eyes a bit, Me & A Gun was very draining (it still is), and Angie (Rolling Stones cover) was fun. Speaking of covers, it was cool to hear American Pie roll into Smells Like Teen Spirit in person. I came out of the show with a new appreciation for Spacedog and Mother and a loathing of Cornflake Girl which continues to this day.

After the show we hung around at the back of the theater and got a couple of pictures of Tori.

If you were there dig upon the set list.

McAuley Theater, Louisville, KY 7-17-94

1. American Pie –>
2. Smells Like Teen Spirit
3. Crucify
4. Icicle
5. Precious Things
6. Waitress
7. God
8. Silent All These Years
9. Happy Phantom
10. Angie
11. Me & A Gun
12. Bells For Her
13. Cornflake Girl
14. China
15. Spacedog
16. Mother
17. Baker Baker

I don’t remember where we did after stalking Tori but Aldon, one of Shag’s friends from Miami Of Ohio, put all of us up in her father’s basement. It was very random and very fun. Tom slept on the bar because the stairs weren’t as comfortable as he thought.

The next morning we got on the road back to St. Louis (Tom and Dan rolled back to Purdue) so we could get back with time to spare to see Tori again, this time at the American Theater. Shannon (Miller), her boyfriend Eevon, and two of his friends joined Scott, Alex and I.

The show was great. I remember it was hot. Bill Miller opened, he did the same set but it was interesting to see the little nuances. I was really happy that she opened with Spacedog since it had been in my head all day. She did a short improv before that has introed the song many times since. While the set list wasn’t too far off Louisville’s she did close the show with Winter (even though a nuclear powered orange light cycled right into our eyes every 4 or 5 seconds) and having heard China the night before, I was quite satisfied hearing the trifecta of contemplative tunes. Leather was really good too.

This is the setlist from here.

American Theater, St. Louis, 7-18-94

1. Improv
2. Spacedog
3. Leather
4. Icicle
5. Precious Things
6. Happy Phantom
7. God
8. Silent All These Years
9. Waitress
10. Bells For Her
11. Me & A Gun
12. Baker Baker
13. Cornflake Girl
14. American Pie –>
15. Smells Like Teen Spirit
16. Angie
17. Winter

There don’t appear to be tapes of either of these shows out in circulation (though I haven’t searched in a while, perhaps i should) so to commemorate this lofty and auspicious occasion here is a live studio version of Baker Baker performed for the NPR show World Cafe in Spring 1994.

Last night before dinner we gave Porter gave some yogurt to munch on while Trish prepared fondue for our dining pleasure.  Porter, seeing that Trish was melting a pot of cheese and cutting up bread and pickles, started spooning the yogurt from his little bowl onto his plate.  He was very casual about it.  When he had completed his task he presented his empty bowl of yogurt and declared, “I all done wif yogurt. Fondoo.”

What?  Little stinkerpotamus (I say in a squeeze-his-chubby-cheeks voice).  Times like this it’s convenient that we don’t have a dog.

As I write this, at 11:30pm, Mike (Winship), Dave, Scott, Alex, Mike (Grasso) & his girlfriend at the time Julie were sitting in the parking lot at The Arena after seeing Aerosmith (with the Black Crowes opening) waiting out the traffic and what was surely a trip to Steak N Shake. No, wait. It wasn’t Steak N Shake, I think it was some fast food joint along Manchester road. We were trying to set off the weight bar so that the drive thru would serve us on foot. I’m sure we could have easily driven thru but what kind of fun was that?

Mike, Dave, Shag, and I were in the 19th row center while Alex, Grasso, and Julie, were somewhere in the middle but in the circle. I seem to remember they were behind where a hockey goal would have been and someone was dishing out pot from a backpack full of the stuff.

The show itself I remember as being very awesome. I was full on into Aerosmith at the time and the band hadn’t quite become the prom ballad machine that I perceive them to be now. I didn’t keep set list when we saw the show but I remember digging the songs Young Lust, Rag Doll, Walk This Way, Dude Looks Like A Lady, and a few others. More than anything though it solidified a love of live music.

I had bought the Black Crowes tape hearing that they were opening for Aerosmith and enjoyed the heck out there set.

Aerosmith data from that era seems hard to come by but I found the Black Crowes’ set list at the tied-for-best Black Crowes website, Crowesbase.

The Black Crowes
17 July 1990
The Arena – St. Louis, MO

1. Thick N’ Thin
2. You’re Wrong (early version of Sting Me)
3. Twice As Hard
4. Sister Luck
5. It’s A Sin
6. Hard To Handle
7. Stare It Cold
8. Jealous Again
9. Struttin’ Blues

To commemorate, here’s the song Live Too Fast Blues from a short, brilliant bootleg that I’m an asshead for selling when I was broke a long time ago. It was recorded in the Soho section of London at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. I think I converted the tape I had to a CD but don’t for sure. I’ll have to find it now that I’m motivated.

Another similar post to come.