05/07/1998 Our Lady Peace, Black Lab (Buffalo, NY @ Sheas Performing Arts Center)
By Eric | May 7, 1998 11:59 pm
So unlike the Water Street show in February, this time we indeed got Black Lab as openers. Other than the radio singles of Wash It Away and Time Ago, I didn’t really know much of Black Lab’s material at the time, and I wish I would have, because Your Body Above Me is a great album. They certainly held my attention. Since this was the last night of the tour, OLP did all kinds of disgusting stuff to BL’s gear while they were playing, such as Vaseline on the instruments, powder on the drums, etc. A comical end to a good set.
Katie and I managed 8th row tickets for this one, and we met up with a couple other Clumsy Congress members for the first time (Niki and Devon). As this was the 3rd time I’d seen OLP in the span of less than a year (all on the Clumsy tour), between the prior two shows and reading the Clumsy Congress, we kinda knew what we were in for. The setlist didn’t change too much from the Water Street Show, as they just added Hello Oskar. Along with a good number of other people, we got up to the edge of the stage during the encore, which was super-memorable for being the first of a couple times I saw OLP cover Jeff Buckley’s “Eternal Life”. I recall being one of a scant few who knew the song (Thanks Christine!), which led to lots of people looking around, going “How the hell does he know the words??”. One of the more fondly-remembered OLP shows for sure out of the bunch, and another that I happened across a recording of!
Setlist:
Automatic Flowers
The Birdman
Superman’s Dead
Naveed
Car Crash
Carnival
Let You Down
Hello Oskar
4am
Shaking
Starseed
Encore:
Clumsy
Eternal Life (Jeff Buckley cover)
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Tags: 1998, Black Lab, Buffalo, Our Lady Peace, Shea’s Performing Arts Center
04/24/1998 HUM, Frontier (Buffalo, NY @ Showplace Theater)
By Eric | April 24, 1998 11:59 pm
I really can’t remember much about this show, other than I was there. I’m not not the biggest Hum fan anyone’s ever seen, but I do remember having fun at this show, much more so than Fastball the week before.
Due to the wonders of the internet, I found Hum’s setlist:
If You Are to Bloom
The Scientists
Scraper
Afternoon With the Axolotls (new intro)
Suicide Machine
Dreamboat
The Pod
Comin’ Home
I Hate it Too
Stars
Iron Clad Lou
Encore:
Green to Me
I’d Like Your Hair Long.
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Tags: 1998, Buffalo, Frontier, HUM, Showplace Theater
04/17/1998 Fastball (Buffalo, NY @ Showplace Theater)
By Eric | April 17, 1998 11:59 pm
Other than the fact that I have the ticket stub, and went with Katie, I don’t remember much from this show at all. I have no clue who opened. I didn’t think Fastball was all that impressive, I recall being rather bored. Considering I only knew “The Way” and that was it, this isn’t terribly surprising. As any band is wont to do, they played it last.
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Tags: 1998, Buffalo, Fastball, Showplace Theater
04/11/1998 Creed, SamIAm, Cool For August (Buffalo, NY @ The Funhouse)
By Eric | April 11, 1998 11:59 pm
Another place I’d come to see a bunch of shows at, either as The Funhouse on the small stage, or the attached bigger room that they called The Sideshow. This was on the small stage! I now had the Cool For August CD, after seeing them with OLP the year before, so I was pretty much the only one that knew their stuff. They definitely noticed however, as at one point I called out for them to play “Hey You”, and it happened to be next on the list! I think the band kinda got a kick out of that one.
SamIAm felt out of place on this bill, as they were pretty much a punk band, and it just didn’t fit. Don’t remember a whole lot about them otherwise.
As for Creed, this was right as the meteoric rise was starting (My Own Prison was a huge single by now), and they were still playing tiny places. They played most of the tracks off of My Own Prison, and from checking out other setlists around that era, it seems like we probably got to see early versions of some combination of Say I, Young Grow Old, Wrong Way and Bound and Tied. They sounded pretty damn good, and looking at some bootlegs on YouTube from around the same time confirms my hazy memories. Really glad I got to see them at this place, as after this tour they’d never play venues this small again!
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Tags: 1998, Buffalo, Cool For August, Creed, SamIAm, The Funhouse
03/07/1998 The Tea Party, Foam (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
By Eric | March 7, 1998 11:59 pm
So a night after the Variety Club show, and only one week after OLP at this same venue… more Canadian goodness with my first time seeing The Tea Party!
Foam was the opener, and I don’t remember a thing about them whatsoever. The Tea Party, on the other hand, made quite the impression on this first timer. I didn’t own Transmission quite yet, but I knew quite a few of the songs. I definitely remember the cool keyboard opening of Army Ants, and the crowd was so densely packed that I’m pretty sure my feet weren’t touching the ground during the entirety of Fire In The Head. Also, as would be per usual at a TTP show, upon playing Sister Awake plenty of people lit up. They played The River as an encore, which I was told was rare on that tour.
I also have no idea where I found this setlist, as there’s practically no information on this show anywhere online. I ended up on a mailing list somehow and got the flyer in the mail for the show after the fact. Bizzare!
Complete Setlist:
Army Ants
The Bazaar
Fire In The Head
Psychopomp
Transmission
Sister Awake (acoustic)
Release
Save Me
Temptation
Correspondences
Aftermath
Sister Awake
Blues intro / The River
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Tags: 1998, Foam, rochester, The Tea Party, Water Street Music Hall
03/06/1998 Variety Rocks: Treble Charger, Ron Hawkins, Irving Klaws (Buffalo, NY @ Showplace Theater)
By Eric | March 6, 1998 11:59 pm
The Variety Club telethon is held every year in Buffalo, and they’ve held an annual rock show to benefit the Club as well. It’s usually local and regional acts, and this year was no different. I think it was like $5 to get in, and I really had nothing better to do, so I checked it out. This was the era of “There’s a show? Do I know anyone? No. Do I care? No? Cool, lets go anyway” for me. There were more bands than I have listed here, but I have no idea who they were (A check of the Buffalo News archives says: Alison Pipitone and the Cash Cows head a list of performers that include Treble Charger, Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails, Yolk, McCarthyizm, Oui 73 and Irving Klaws). The Irving Claws were a three-piece band, with a stand up string bass. Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails were pretty good as I recall, even though I didn’t know him as being from Lowest of the Low at the time. Treble Charger was a Canadian band, and I don’t remember much about them either. This show also started my trend of meeting people at shows (this was the first one I went to flying solo), and fostered a connection with some people on the old Our Lady Peace bulletin board (the Clumsy Congress). I was spotted wearing my OLP shirt by someone in the crowd (Hi Katie!), and after subsequently being identified on the CC, it led to a fun summer of hanging out and concert attendance with her and a couple of others. This show could probably be considered as having a butterfly effect on a ton of my subsequent concert-going!
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Tags: 1998, Buffalo, Irving Klaws, Ron Hawkins, Showplace Theater, Treble Charger, Variety Rocks
02/28/1998 Our Lady Peace, Jack Drag (Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall)
By Eric | February 28, 1998 11:59 pm
My first show at Water Street! Myself, Jon, and his girlfriend at the time wandered up the Thruway for this. The opener was Jack Drag, who in no way were memorable, save for the fact that a good number of us were hoping it was Black Lab instead, which would have made for a better opener (and did, later that May).
This was a typical US Clumsy show for the era, heavy on that album, with Automatic Flowers as the opener. I seem to remember this being the first time I ever saw the strobe-light treatment for The Birdman, and they used a video screen as accompaniment for some of the songs (the middle part of Naveed in particular, with Sol Fox reciting the actual Our Lady Peace poem).
Mike Turner’s guitar cut out right at the beginning of Let You Down. It came back in for a bit, they soldiered on with the song for a bit, but it eventually cut out again, and he was none too happy about it… Mike ended up knocking over a mic stand, and they abandoned the song. They kept it electric-guitar free for a little while longer, as 4am was the next song. The rest of the set continued on with no issues, and while Clumsy started the encore, a take on the Beatles’ Dear Prudence finished the night off. A fun show, and one I can listen back to as someone recorded the show, and I have a copy of it!
Setlist:
Automatic Flowers
The Birdman
Superman’s Dead
Naveed
Car Crash
Carnival
Let You Down (cut off)
4am
Shaking
Starseed
Encore:
Clumsy
Dear Prudence
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Tags: 1998, Jack Drag, Our Lady Peace, rochester, Water Street Music Hall
02/20/1998 God Lives Underwater, Fluorescein (Buffalo, NY @ Showplace Theater)
By Eric | February 20, 1998 11:59 pm
This show is notable for a number of reasons, not least of which was it was on my 18th birthday! Since I never got my blue card, this was also the first night I could legally drive after 9pm, how convenient! It also was a kinda-sorta-not really date with a girl from high school. To this day I’m not sure how interested she ultimately was in either me or the band, but whatever, I got to see a show and we ended up having a good time. It was also the first time I’d see a show at the Showplace Theater (and certainly wouldn’t be the last!)
The only thing I really remember about Fluorescein is that they were ridiculously loud. Apparently they had a single called “Cathy’s On Crank”, but I don’t ever remember hearing it. There was apparently a local opener called Transparent also, but I don’t remember seeing them.
GLU was up after them, and this was one of my first experiences with the phenomenon known as “our album isn’t out yet but we’re gonna play a ton of stuff from it anyways and you won’t know it”. Life in the So-Called Space Age wouldn’t be out for another month, yet six out of the ten tunes were off that album. At least we got Don’t Know How To Be, No More Love, All Wrong, and Nothing. Despite this, we had a lot of fun at the show, and I’m pretty sure this was the first time I had a barrier spot for the duration of a show. I distinctly remember the drummer messing with the DAT machine for the backing tracks, but they also had a full band, so no cries of FAKE here. I seem to remember the place being decently full, probably not packed to the gills, but a good showing.
Setlist:
Intro
Rearrange
The Rush is Loud
Dress Rehersal For Reproduction
Alone Again
From Your Mouth
No More Love
Can’t Come Down
Don’t Know How To Be
Nothing
All Wrong
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Tags: 1998, Buffalo, Fluorescein, God Lives Underwater, Showplace Theater
08/06/1997 Soul Coughing, Star Kicker, Lance Diamond (Niagara Falls, NY @ Hard Rock Cafe)
By Eric | August 6, 1997 11:59 pm
This was a free show in the street adjoining the Hard Rock, apparently for the first anniversary of the restaurant (so says this article). The Goo Goo Dolls were also in attendance and made a presentation from the stage. I only know that it was Lance Diamond and Star Kicker that we saw as openers because I found the info online! This is definitely one of those “I know I was there, but I barely remember the show” type of deals. As far as Soul Coughing goes, I really only knew Super Bon Bon at the time, but it was a good and fun show nonetheless. These guys put out a LOT of bass, but it wasn’t overpowering, got the crowd into it. Due to further internet research, I found the setlist:
Tell The Mermaid
Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago
White Girl
Disseminated
Soft Serve
Soundtrack to Mary
Miss The Girl
St. Louise is Listening
Blueeyed Devil
Sleepless
Bus to Beezlebub
Idiot Kings
Mr. Bitterness
Super Bon Bon
Moon Sammy
Down To This
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Tags: 1997, Hard Rock Cafe, Lance Diamond, Niagara Falls, Soul Coughing, Star Kicker
07/24/1997 Link80, The Creepers, Johnny Revolting (Tonawanda, NY @ Discovery Records)
By Eric | July 24, 1997 11:14 pm
I never really forgot about this one, but much like the Wide Mouth Mason show, it never made the list because I had zero idea when it occurred! Thanks to trolling the archives of the really cool @buffaloshowfliers account on Instagram, I came across the flier for the show! Cross referencing against setlist.fm, I nailed down the year to 1997.
Having said that, I can’t remember who I went with, or how we got there as, I didn’t have my blue card to drive after 9pm, so I certainly didn’t drive. Could’ve been someone else driving, could’ve been our bikes. I have no idea. It was during Canal Fest, so I’m assuming that’s why I was down there in the first place. Regardless of that, I have memories of being upstairs at Discovery for the show, and I know I saw Johnny Revolting, but couldn’t tell you a thing about either the Creepers or Link 80. I had a Link 80 poster for their album “17 Reasons” on the back of my door for quite awhile at home – I never did get the album. It’s pop-punk with horns, not anything I would have been into at that time.
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Tags: 1997, Discovery Records, Johnny revolting, Link80, The Creepers, Tonawanda