The Musical Musings 5

[No, that's not the name of the new house band here. The MM5 is what Rob started a couple of weeks back; he envisioned a quintet of commonly linked albums, but I'm broadening the scope a bit.]

The 5 Best Shows I Saw at The Boathouse

The Boathouse in Norfolk,VA was a small venue opened in the early 1980's for those mid-range bands that couldn't fill Hampton Coliseum but still had a decent fan following. It was exactly what it sounds like, an old wooden boathouse on the Elizabeth River next to Norfolk's downtown area that was converted into a concert hall. "Converted" may actually give them too much credit; they built a small stage, installed a chain-link fence for the Beer Garden, and threw up a bar. Other than that, it was just an old, dingy, splintery, not very hallowed hall. It was great. Despite the oblong shape of the arena, it wasn't big enough to have bad places to watch the shows. If you had the energy, though, (and an ID at some shows, as the Beer Garden location did fluctuate) it was eminently possible to achieve up-against-the-stage viewpoints, or damn close to it. The Boathouse was a five-minute drive from my house in high school, and close enough to my college to warrant road trips for the bands who weren't going to play our college arena.

The Boathouse eventually went the way of the . . . rowboat, and nowadays those same intermediate-popularity groups play at the new NorVa facility in the renovated Granby Street area. The Boathouse still stands, though largely obscured by the baseball stadium in the way, and its sight evokes memories of some fine shows over the years. [Noting that I opted out of the Primus/Fishbone concert in 1991 because I had a test to study for (?!!)], the five best live shows I caught at this now-dead venue are, in order:

5. New Potato Caboose / Indecision, 1988

The Grateful Dead were supposedly bound to pass the torch to a number of bands as their reign appeared ready to draw to a close. Whether that ever actually happened is debatable, but most would agree that if any band received the baton, it was Phish and not NPC. Note: Taking their name from a popular Dead song was kind of a giveaway that there wasn't much creative uniqueness. Phish, Blues Traveler, and all of the other would-be followers did it right by doing it their own way. Anyway, the Caboose was surging in the late eighties, with a CD coming out (this equated credibility back then), and this was a blast of a show. Indecision was the VA band for which our high school served as groupie central before college introduced us all to a world of better music. Both bands were defunct (de facto, at least) by the mid-90's. Good fun at the time, though.

4. The Ramones, 1990

Something of a rite of passage to see these guys, even past their prime. The joke that every Ramones song sounds the same was dead on in live form, and it took a few moments into the first verse each time to tell which one it was. I had to endure the show with my musically uninterested girlfriend, since the rest of my friends got high and got lost en route, but it was a lasting good memory nonetheless. 1-2-3-4 . . .

3. UB40, 1988

UB40 has zero street cred these days, and most folks think they never did. Labour of Love took them to new fiscal heights, which led to new reggae depths, and that's all many listeners have ever heard. Freshman year in college, though, the guy across the hall gave me a dubbed tape of UB40's singles from their early years -- all politically-charged reggae tunes, and great ones. By the time I saw them, though, the set was comprised mainly of famous covers and newer stuff. It was still great, they sounded fantastic and the crowd was lively, but I most remember this show for the tunes they didn't play, and how I was probably one of the few who missed them. Oh, and I remember it for our buddy getting his horrible fake ID taken away.

2. Squeeze, 1987

I used to love Squeeze, one of the many bands falsely advertised as the "next Beatles." They didn't stick around on the music scene much after I saw them (a recurring theme here), but they were another band whose live sound equalled or bettered the studio work. Lots of fun, and they genuinely seemed to be having a blast on-stage, which is more than plenty of bands can say, including that other neo-Beatle squad of losers Oasis.

1. Living Colour, 1989

On a whim four of us drove down from Williamsburg to see Living Colour, mainly because we read they were charging a mere $4.99 entry fee. Their fantastic debut album had been on our stereos off and on all year, and we knew we'd enjoy the show. I had no idea it'd be the best concert I'd ever attended. While the music was great, the crowd was ecstatic, and we'd been drinking all the way down to Norfolk, the reason for the superlative had everything to do with the band's approach to playing their tunes to a sold-out Boathouse.

When we showed up at the door, we were quickly informed by the bouncer that the show was, as I said, sold out, and with us on the outside looking in. My friend and hallmate Brian Hightower then went into some sort of alter-persona of part car salesman, part politician, part Shakespearean actor. He explained with puppy dog eyes that we'd just driven down from Charlottesville (a lie, but a perfect one - far enough away to be impressive, not so far as to be unrealistic), that LC was our favorite band (another lie, but like I said, we were into them and could've passed a reasonable test on them), and that we would do just about anything to see them (a third lie, but we were drunk and who knows?). The bouncer shot Brian a "You had me at Charlottesville" look and curtly replied, "20 bucks." A little dismayed at the price, we all reached for an Andrew Jackson when we realized he meant 20 bucks for the four of us. The skinheaded, surly bouncer with a heart of gold, our next screenplay.

Back to what the band did -- they cranked out crisp, charged music for an extended set of way more songs than a band with a single album under their belts usually can provide. More importantly, they understood Rule #1 of live concerts: be thrilled to be there. Lead man Corey Glover seemed to spend more time in the audience than on-stage, diving out into open arms, getting tossed around during Vernon Reid's guitar solos, and singing songs on random dudes' shoulders. Such a great act for this venue -- we were right at the front and it was a moshing melee from the opening note until the end of the final encore. I was stunned by how much we all enjoyed the show, and I never felt as gratified to have been in a concert audience until I saw Springsteen with Evan Lloyd in the 13th row a decade later.

As you know, Living Colour kind of faded from view after that, never living up to that first album (and first tour). I think I heard they recently re-formed. Too bad the Boathouse isn't eligible for a reunion show, or I might have to call Brian and have him road trip across the country. It'd be worth it.