It was a real old-fashioned rock’n’roll night last night. The band was the Hold Steady, and they played loud and hard, with two (sometimes three) guitars, bass, and drums, and the oddly charismatic Craig Finn declaiming at the mic. The venue was the Fillmore, and I rolled out of there around midnight with the full complement of schwag: CD, poster, apple, hardly used earplugs, and resulting ringing in the ears. Overhead the Goodyear Blimp drifted by, and it read “Ice Cube’s a Pimp” for some reason. It was a good day.

This new addition makes today as appropriate a time as any for me to update my Bands I’ve Seen List. The way Cecil does this, with the names of the bands along the left side of his blog and thus easily updatable, is probably smarter. This way I’m going to have to post a new list every year or two for the rest of my damn life. Well, I guess things could be worse.

I’ve been debating whether or not to include last night’s opening act, who started strong but went on too long and finally vanished in a cloud of mediocrity. Generally I include opening acts when they’re someone I want to claim and leave them off otherwise. Some years back, for instance, there was a Morphine show that was led off by a band called the Dirty Three, who my friends and I agreed was one of the worst acts we’d ever seen. They went on to have a fairly distinguished career, and every time I read some critical plaudit, I got confused. Had we been that wrong? Had the D3 improved that much? Well, never mind; they still don’t make the list.

AC/DShe (x2)
Ade, King Sunny
Air
Amadou & Mariam
Ash, Daniel
Bauhaus
Beck (x3)
Belly
Beta Band
Beulah (x2)
Blackalicious (x2)
Black, Frank (x-many)
Blind Boys of Alabama
Bowie, David (x3)
Breeders
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Built to Spill
Burnett, T-Bone
Butthole Surfers (x3?)
Buzzcocks
Camper Van Beethoven (x?)
Cave, Nick
Chao, Manu & the Radio Bemba Sound System
Chilton, Alex
Clinton, George & the P-Funk All Stars
Costello, Elvis
Cracker (x3)
Cramps
Cure
Darondo
David, Anthony
Del the Funkyhomosapien
Depeche Mode
Devo (x2)
Dimmer
Doe, John (x2)
Dr. John (x3)
Eskimo
Fall
Flaming Lips
fIREHOSE
Foetus
Funky Meters (x?)
Gabriel, Peter
Galactic
Grateful Dead
Guy, Buddy
Harvey, PJ
Hold Steady
Hooker, John Lee
Hooters
Jane’s Addiction
Jazz Butcher (x2)
Jesus & Mary Chain (x3)
King, B.B.
Kool Keith (x2)
Kraftwerk
Latryx
Levy, Barrington
Lords of the New Church
Los Lobos (x3)
Love and Rockets (x4)
Loved Ones
Low Pop Suicide
Lyrics Born
Malkmus, Stephen
Meat Puppets
Monks of Doom
Morphine
Murphy, Peter
Musselwhite, Charlie
Naked, Buck & the Bare Bottom Boys
Negativland
Oranger
Overwhelming Colorfast
Ozomatli
Pavement (x4)
Pere Ubu (x2)
Perry, Lee
Pixies (x5)
Presidents of the USA
Rev. Horton Heat
Richman, Jonathan
Roots
Semisonic
Shriekback (x2)
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars (2008)
Sippy Cups (x3)
Sisters of Mercy
Sly & Robbie/Taxi Gang
Soft Boys
Sonic Youth
Spencer, Jon Blues Explosion (x2?)
Spiritualized
Starlight Mints
Sugar
Television
They Might Be Giants
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Thin White Rope
Throwing Muses (x2)
Tin Machine
Tortoise
Uncalled Four
Voice Farm (x?)
Waits, Tom
Wire
Wolfgang Press
Wu-Tang Clan
Young Fresh Fellows
Ze, Tom