Doug Martsch playing acoustic/solo in a friend's garage in Boise. Earlier that day we'd all just heard that his friend and former Treepeople bassist had committed suicied. Doug, cancelled the show, then upon the urging of his wife Karena, showed up at the last minute and played nothing but requests for 2 hours. It perhaps the most catharctic scene I'd ever witnessed.

Every Spiritualized show from 1995-2001: psychedelic rock with more timeless melodies, hairpin-turn dynamics, soul, and retina-fucking images than anyone else working in the post-My Bloody Valentine atmosphere.

I have many more examples from 26 years of gig-going, but I have a music section to put out.

Speaking of catharsis, I saw Carla Kihlstedt play a solo show at Polestar a couple years ago. Her good friend, the wife of her bandmate Mark Orton, had just died, and she worked through it one of the most intense and riveting performances I've ever seen, made all the more so due to the fact that it was in a small room to maybe 20 or 30 people. She broke out in tears a couple times, as did most of us in the audience.

totally normal, but i saw beck on his odelay tour. until that point i didn't think much of him. that single show made me a huge fan. they were so rehearsed, so tight, yet seemed to enjoy every fucking moment of performing. it was amazing.

he worked so hard i became a diehard fan at that moment. i think the next day i dropped like 150 on beck related musical items at record stores.

bands, don't let anyone tell you that touring doesn't sell records.

I wouldn't say it was up there with my most memorable shows, but I too was there to see Beck. It was at DV8. I think I was... 17? Beck was okay... But Karp really sealed the deal for me. I distinctly remember the singer climbing on the amp stack and ripping out guitar strings with his teeth.

That Lightning Bolt show was fucking great. I'm pretty sure I was at that Japanther show too.

I will have to think about some of my favorite show. I'm into a ton of different music, so it's hard to pin down any handful of live shows as being the best, especially when most of what I fo make it out to is exceptional.

My Bloody Valentine at the Avalon Theater in Chicago in April of '92. Everyone I've talked to who saw them that year agrees that they knew there on the spot, while it was happening that this would probably be the best show they'd ever see. Fourteen years later I'm still talking about it. Such noise, force and beauty; symmetry, two men and two women, white t shirts and jeans, opening up the universe and pointing at this, and here, and there. Ending with 18 minutes of swirling white noise, the sound at the end of time.

Crash Worship at the Weathered Wall, summer 1994. People fucked, screamed, drank from silver wine box bags, ate fruit handed them from a naked woman on a stretcher borne through the crowd like a goddess. I thought we were all going to die and welcomed it. We still are.

Modest Mouse at the Crocodile, 1997. Isaac Brock spun around on his neck as he played 'Doin' the Cockroach'; eyes like headlights, visionary.

Camper Van Beethoven, the Mineshaft, Charlottesville, Virginia, Halloween 1989. The last mad gasp of one of the great weirdo rock bands. Everything good about being a hippie (and there isn't much). People slammed to 'Havana Gila'.

Screaming Trees at Bumbershoot, 1997. Kind of the same thing, only darker.

Wilco, Sasquatch 2005. God, this band is good.

Yes, My Bloody Valentine from 1992 (and 1989) in Detroit and Toronto--my ears are still ringing. Closest thing to being in a sonic tsunami I've ever experienced, save for that one Glenn Branca show in 1982. I think half the audience at that one brought a class action suit against Branca for grievous loss of hearing.

Eric and I already talked about this but, without thinking TOO hard, the first two shows that come to mind would be the Hives with the (International) Noise Conspiracy and the Anniversary with the Get Up Kids, both at the former Graceland. Why? Because all of those bands were on the brink of 'making it' at the time (the Hives were actually opening up for TINC) and the energy at both shows was un-fucking-real. Oh yeah, can't forget about the Murder City Devils last show, on Halloween no less (best Halloween ever) at the Showbox. Oh and an honorable mention goes to the Les Savy Fav and the Faint show at the Showbox a few years ago. It seems like everyone I now know was at that show and EVERYONE was dancing. Sadly, that's the only time I've gotten to see one of my favorite bands (LSF that is). I slept on that Lightning Bolt show (idiot) but, that Japanther show was something else. I could go on for days. Good times.