Now this is the kind of weather I can get behind. When the sun shines like this, all I can think of are care free days, drinking something cold and listening to good music. While I generally abhor columns that are lists, I couldn\u2019t resist this time. I wish I have had more to choose from, but here are the top five songs I have ever seen in concert.<\/p>\n
Biko, Peter Gabriel:<\/strong> My buddy Paul and I totally lucked out with outstanding seats for this show in 1987 at Meriweather Post Pavilion. A girl we knew had pavilion seats, but wanted to party on the lawn with some people she knew, so we bought lawn seats and swapped with her. Imagine our surprise when we found ourselves dead center in the sixth or seventh row. And it was the final night for the tour, so the band didn\u2019t hold back. Standing that close to the stage was something I had never experienced and even though all the songs blew me away, the emotion Gabriel put into \u201cBiko,\u201d the song about a slain South African activist, stays with me 20 years later.<\/p>\n Come Monday, Jimmy Buffet: <\/strong>Another Meriweather moment. I had plans to meet college friends for this 1992 show, but had trouble finding them. Eventually, we met up, but I couldn\u2019t find our spot after I headed to the restroom. So with the rain pouring down on a steamy July afternoon. I started at the bottom of the lawn and just walked up the hill until I found my group. Along the way, Buffet sang this classic and I traded high fives with almost every person I passed.<\/p>\n So Lonely, The Police: <\/strong>The first two concerts I saw were The Police. I don\u2019t like them now nearly as much as I did then, but the energy which exploded into the air when they went into the chorus of \u201cSo Lonely\u201d and the house lights burst on still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear this song.<\/p>\n Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: <\/strong>I grew up a huge Springsteen fan thanks to my older siblings. I got a chance to see him on the \u201cBorn in the U.S.A. tour as he really, really, really hit the big time. Thank God I got to see Bruce before he started doing stadium tours and stopped touring with his band. Like \u201cSo Lonely,\u201d this song came at a crucial moment of the set and involved lighting the entire arena so you could see how much fun everyone else was having. But \u201cBorn to Run\u201d is more than a song, and the moment made me understand why this man from New Jersey had such a hold on so many people.<\/p>\n It\u2019s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), R.E.M.: <\/strong>No musical list of mine would be complete without my four favorite Georgians. I have seen them more than a half-dozen times and could probably fill this page with memories from those shows, but until their most recent tour, you always knew you would get a boost from their apocalyptic hit, which ended either their main set or encores. As soon as drummer Bill Berry (or now the drummers who tour with the band since he retired) launches into the rapid-fire drum rolls to start the song, you know that regardless of your problems, there will be days when the sun will shine, the drinks will be cold, and you will feel fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now this is the kind of weather I can get behind. When the sun shines like this, all I can think of are care free days, drinking something cold and listening to good music. While I generally abhor columns that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-music","category-rem","wpcat-3-id","wpcat-11-id","wpcat-5-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}