Ok. You’ve got 2 tickets to 2 concerts

I like the quaint clubs, too.

The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano seats around 300, and another 150 or so can stand around in the back, but it's small enough to feel you're right with the band. The first time I was there in 1987, we saw David Clayton-Thomas. I was a huge BS&T fan. I was able to get a word with him and told him I was sad that he was performing in such a tiny venue when he had the ability to fill up a stadium. He said he loved the smallness because he liked people and being close to them. More recently, we've seen Peter Noone, Justin Hayward, Jim Messina, Al Jardine, Leonid and Friends (Chicago cover band), and others.

The best one was Stages Music Hall in Chicago. It was just a block away from Wrigley Field (if Sammy Sosa had hooked a 500-foot shot that went foul, it might have hit the awning at Stages). We got tickets for Clarence Clemons and The Red Bank Rockers. There were only standup tables for about 200, surrounded by about six bars. It was incredible. He had a reasonable singer to cover Bruce songs.

 

I saw maybe half of a Tom Petty concert as part of a doomed double date at homecoming. The prominent smoke from the tokers around us triggered an asthma attack for the other girl with us and we had to take her to the ER.

If you scroll down on Spotify while a song is playing, it will alert you if they have a tour stop nearby and have a link you can follow to look at their schedule. YouTube has something similar.

 

Only two? Dang. Tough choice.

I'd love to see John Lee Hooker in his prime, in a smoky joint jammin' along at about 2 a.m. with everyone having a grand time.

No. 2 would be Pavarotti. My wife and I saw Renee Flemming several years ago and she was fantastic. I don't know squat about opera but I appreciate what the singers do.

 

One other time machine show: Pink Floyd in Atlanta Symphony Hall, on the Meddle tour, with a Quadraphonic PA. I'd kill to have seen that show. I was a little too young to make that one.

 

U2 was like a lot of bands from the UK (or Ireland, in their case) like The Who, Genesis, The Police and Supertramp who were big in Canada long before they had any kind of success in the US.

I am also a huge fan of U2's work through Joshua Tree, Boy is still my fave album of theirs (I remember being knocked out by "I Will Follow" when I first heard it in the long gone dear departed Record Peddler in downtown Toronto). Their live album from that early era, Under a Blood Red Sky, is incredible. I played that to death too.

 

Riding home from school yesterday, listening to the same radio station I listened to riding home from school 35 years ago, I head "Major concert announcement!" about a show coming to where I went to concerts in the '80s.
Warrant, Winger, Lita Ford, Twisted Sister's Dee Snider, and Molly Hatchet all together in one night!
Saw them all there back in the '80s.

 

Late to the party, but here's my two:

The Who on the Quadrophenia tour. At the height of their musical prowess and before Keith Moon started to lose some of his fastball due to drinking and weight.

The Pretenders on the Pretenders II tour. The original lineup with a set list made up of two great albums.

 

I'm pretty sure the last song of their 1985 show in Toronto was "40" and I can still remember the crowd streaming out of Maple Leaf Gardens singing "How long must we sing this song....". Badass version of "The Electric Co." on there too.

 

A little late to the game here, but seeing the Avett Brothers NYE show in Charlotte was a highlight for me (they rotate Charlotte-Raleigh-Greensboro every year).

But if we are talking about things I wish I had seen, Elvis Costello anytime anywhere in the early 80s. Partly just to be that young again.

 

Motley Crue and Van Halen ... in that order.