- Mon, September 11, 1995; Foo Fighters Concert at Liberty Lunch (405 West Second)
- Wed, Oct 18, 1995; Matthew Sweet, Dog’s Eye View at Liberty Lunch
- Wed, Nov 8, 1995; Rancid, Lunachicks, Liberty Lunch
- Thur, Nov 9, 1995; Everclear, Ruth Ruth, Magneto USA, at Electric Lounge (302 Bowie)
- Thur, March 21, 1996; Refreshments and Dishwalla at Electric Lounge
It all started, as most things seem to do for me recently, with Turntable.fm. Someone played a Spoon song, and I heard a lyric about the “Electric Lounge.” I immediately recognized the name as a venue here in Austin that exited the first time I lived here, but not the second. I remembered seeing shows there, wondered what had happened to it, where it used to be. (I find that I know the city a lot better this time, and so don’t really have any idea of where I was before and how it corresponds to where things are today.)
Googling it, I found not only the address, but a couple of shows that I know I attended. Which led to looking up Liberty Lunch another live music venue (not surprisingly, both locations have recent construction/condo/developments there now). Which led to some information on a couple of the shows I attended at those venues, most notably Foo Fighters at Liberty (after which Dave Grohl hung out in the back till every autograph seeker/fan was gone, turning down one guy’s invitation to go play pool with, “I would love to man, but we gotta get back on the road to Dallas tonight”) and Dishwalla with Refreshments at the Electric. Both of these shows stand out in my mind very distinctly.
Those memories were good ones, are still, and made me miss those days when I was young and stupid, living hand to mouth, going to school in the morning, working at the Doubletree hotel till 11 and running to a live show after work. I remember buying two tickets to every show, even when I didn’t know who I could take with me. Even taking my roommate Bill to see Rancid (he slipped out of the club to go watch a Red Sox game at the sports bar down the street and came back for the encore. He told me after: “those guys would have been all right if the guy could sing at all”). Standing alone with a Shiner waiting for the band to play.
Hm, it starts to sound kind of sad when I think too much about how many of those shows I went to alone, but the truth is that it wasn’t. It was amazing. I saw more live shows in that time than I’ve probably ever seen in any other time of my life. And big rock bands, that were just getting started. It was special to me, and it holds a good place in my heart.
But the most interesting thing I’ve taken from that, aside from the wave of nostalgia that sweeps over me as I think of more bands to look up, was the date of that Foo Fighters show. I remember sitting out back waiting for Dave to leave the venue and walk to the bus with the other fans. I remember telling him that I had seen him with Nirvana a couple of years previous in Oklahoma City. I remember him signing my ticket and still not leaving just to see what else he would say—not just to me, but to anyone.
What I did not remember is that day was September 11, 1995.
The reason I didn’t remember, of course, is that that date had no significance at the time. Only now, in retrospect, can I look back and think, “wow, six years later, the World Trade Center would be destroyed, and it will change all of our lives.” Weird perspective to have, even now.
Of course, there was lots of stuff I didn’t know then. That I would move to NYC with a guy I didn’t even know at that time that would prove to be the best friend of my adult life. That I would move to Los Angeles, live with a Swiss girl, be a camera guy on a Disney television show. And of course, the millions of other things that would happen AFTER 9/11. Oh how much of my life has changed since then. And I had no clue. I just wanted to talk to Dave.
I’m glad, though. What would I have done with all that information? How do you live your life knowing what’s coming the whole time? How do you concentrate on the present if you know the future? What would that moment mean to me if I had known what would happen in 2001?
I hope to think of more shows I saw here in Austin, and look them up. Record the dates, so I can always know. It’s a bit of chronology I never had, a good way to track my first time in Austin, which is such a blur in my memory. Because those were some of the happiest moments of my time here, and I don’t want them to disappear the way the clubs that held them have.
Foo Fighters Setlist:
- Winnebago
- (Late! cover)
- I’ll Stick Around
- Butterflies
- Wattershed
- Big Me
- This is a Call
- Weenie Beenie
- For All The Cows
- My Hero
- Oh, George
- Podunk
- Alone + Easy Target
- Exhausted
- Down in the Park (Gary Numan cover)
- Good Grief
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