I.C.E. Phil's Grandson's Place, Kitchener Ontario: 1992? I.C.E. was some guy who won some talent contest that's put on every year by 102.1 in Toronto. He never did anything else that I know of, and the only reason I've even heard of him was because he hired my ex-husband to play guitar for him for a while. So I caught a few shows in order to show support to my ex. It was reasonable boppy pop music, but nothing that really stuck with me. Eventually the band kind of dissolved under it's own inertia. I never did find out what the initials stood for. Iggy Pop Kitchener, Ontario: 1986 Warehouse, Toronto Ontario: October 30 1999 I've seen him a bunch more times than are listed here, but those are the only dates I could find when I looked him up. First time I saw him live was at some little venue in Kitchener on his Blah, Blah, Blah tour. Not his best album by a long stretch, but the beginning of him seeing some long-deserved commercial success It was a fantastic show, Iggy Pop is a wildman. It was probably the smallest venue I've ever seen him perform in, and we were able to get right down to the front of the stage in the flailing madness. In fact, that might have been the gig where I came home with a black eye. Every subsequent gig has been just as energetic and insane and incredible. He's what, 57 at the time of my writing this? I couldn't do that shit when I was 30 and at the top of my game. Man's my fucking hero. I'd donate an internal organ just for the chance to have a couple of beers and shoot the shit with him for a night. Ill Scarlet 360, Toronto Ontario: June 6 2003 I caught this act at NxNE the year I worked for LD50. A young looking band from butt-fuck Ontario with a lot of energy. They had a very punchy bass that added a lot to the sound. Their slower songs reminded me of King Cobb Steelie, but a lot faster and rockier. They used dynamic tempo to add some variety, but there wasn't much variety in the singing style. They only used one singer. The music was not ska - I only note this because all the rest of the bands were that night - but there was a definite influence there, especially in the base lines. They brought in horns at one point, but I couldn't see the stage well enough to figure out if it was live or a track. They did try to talk to the audience but it was pretty one-way. The venue was three-quarters full, but it was still early in the night and people were mostly schmoozing and getting settled in. Still, they got a reasonable response. They did a lot of chatter to pump merch and there was on stage chatter with each other. Insane Clown Posse Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte North Carolina: January 29 2001 I saw these guys when I was visiting a friend. I told him the dates I was going to be in town and he told me that him and some buddies were going to see Insane Clown Posse and did I want to come. I had heard vague stories about their shows, so I said sure, what the hell. The reaction I got from the people I told this to clued me in that this was going to be somewhat of an unusual show. The audience once I actually got there was clue number two. Lots of people in makeup and brightly coloured clown wigs, carrying fake axes and other props and just juiced out of their minds. Well I dunno what I was expecting, but the show was a fucking scream. They wore silly outfits and sang sillier songs. There were strippers in g-strings and clown makeup or big clownheads dancing around on stage and acting out the lyrics, including holding up signs and waving axes around. They sprayed what must have been gallons of Faygo all over the audience using gigantic power hoses. At one point my buddy threw me his leather jacket so that he could go jump around down front. He came back absolutely dripping, threw his arms out and yelled, "TASTE ME!" Everybody stuck to the car seats on the way home and it smelled kinda funky the next day, but holy crap was it ever hilarious. InXS Kingswood Music Theatre, Maple Ontario: 21 October 1982 The first time I ever even heard of InXS was watching some new music show in University. They were followed by The Psychedelic Furs and I remember being struck by the contrast - Richard Butler was sitting on a chair, smoking and laconically singing Pretty in Pink, while Michael Hutchinson leapt all over the stage for The One Thing. I ended up seeing them in concert the summer I had a season's pass to Canada's Wonderland. At the time, season pass holders could get tickets to shows at their Kingswood open-air venue before anybody else and for a really low price. As a result, I saw a lot of shows there that summer. I took my youngest sister to see The Go-gos. I was more interested in InXS, who were opening. Both of us came away very happy. There were a bunch of other acts I saw that summer as well, just because I could get the tickets for cheap. Off the top of my head I remember Men Without Hats, Blue Oyster Cult and the Spoons opening about 10 times. Iron Maiden Kingswood Music Theatre, Maple Ontario: September 5 1983 I ended up seeing Iron Maiden because I was dating a metal-head who really liked them a lot and I got him tickets for his birthday. The music isn't really my thing, but they still managed to put on a highly entertaining show. For values of "entertaining" that included me pissing myself laughing at the big puppet. Seriously, they had this gigantic dessicated-looking thing swinging around on stage creating havoc in the band while they were playing. Everybody around me was shreiking like crazed wolves and I was laughing my fool head off. It was hilarious. After the show things got really weird. Kingswood is serviced by buses that go into Toronto and after the gig there was a massive crowd of people waiting to get home. Since Kingswood was a part of Canada's Wonderland, there were also a number of people leaving the fairgrounds. Only the buses wouldn't open their doors. Hundreds of people were getting really restless as the bus sat there idling and wouldn't let us on. Somebody kept yelling about us getting back up on the sidewalk - the crowd had spilled onto the road - but there was no way of climbing back up into that press. At one point a woman with a baby was trying to get to the bus, and the driver opened the window and yelled at us to make way for her. The crowd parted to let her through, the bus doors opened, she scurried on board - and the doors closed and the bus pulled away with only her inside. People lost their shit. There was much yelling about trashing the buses from some of the kids in the audience. Looking around there were more than a few people who looked like they were quite capable of doing of some trashing, but all of them were standing back and smoking a cigarette or quietly watching the action. The bf and I finally hiked to some place where we could call a cab. To this day I have no idea what the hell was going on. I can only imagine that back in '83 people still thought that if you wore a leather jacket that clanked when you walked you must be a badass. Last Updated December 30 2005.
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