Best Triple Bill You've Seen

Comets On Fire, then Earth, then Kinski.

Nirvana/Breeders/Melvins Salem, OR 1994

High Llamas then Mouse On Mars then Stereolab.

1992, surely.

Echoing donut's 1997 S'lab/High Llamas/MoM dealie

Monster Magnet into Swervedriver into Soundgarden, early 1992 = nice

Trying to think of a recent lineup that worked so well, hm...I enjoyed the Beta Band into Kid Koala into Radiohead back in 2001 but I couldn't say that was a knock-me-dead experience, too far away from the stage for the Betas.

more recently:

2003: GYBE, Black Dice, Polmo Polpo
2002: Scion + Tikiman, Tomas Jirku, naw

Amazing.

jawbreaker, ween, foo fighters circa 1994-1995

This bill could have been even better if it ended up being Wipers instead of Jawbreaker, which was how it was originally advertised.

"Fugazi/The Ex/Shellac - Congress Theater Chicago...2002 maybe? "

I tried to get tickets but it was sold out to a Fugazi/Shellac show in Chicago, but it seems like it was more like in the summer of 2000.

Voivod/ Faith No More/ Soundgarden

This was also a pretty good one.

Bond's Casino

Just kiddin. I wish!
Great how many of these three band bills include JAMC.

The Lips more or less premiered The Soft Bulletin that night -- the audience was positively stunned (that part, I agreed with).

Flock of Seagulls
NRBQ
Squeeze

or

Nub/Penthouse/Gallon Drunk, dublin castle, the first Camden Crawl (can't remember the year)

The Primus Fanclub impressed me mightily by chanting lustily, "You suck! You suck! You suck!" after every Primus song.

The Pixies were my fave band on the bill. Black Francis was exceedingly dapper in a formal black tuxedo. However, Black began to look uncomfortable in the tux as he was sweating heavily. I recall at one point his face was beet red and he had inserted the entire bulbous mic head with the foam cover still on it into his mouth and then breathed/screamed into it. Does he still do stuff like that? I haven't seen the Pixies reformed.

Frankie Knuckles, yes, but Nub? Gauge? And '97 is a bit late for The Paradise Garage… oh…

I don't remember any other triple headers, apart from Festivals.

Is there anyone out there fortunate enough to have attended the quickly aborted Public Enemy / Sisters of Mercy / Gang of Four package in 1991?

Holy crap! I'm gonna go with either Air Miami/Glass Eye/Stereolab (my first 'lab show, in a tiny venue, '93?) or Josephine Wiggs Experience/Buffalo Daughter/Luscious Jackson, a Grand Royal package tour in '96, but neither of those come close to the abovementioned.

By all rights my alltime trifecta should be Brave Combo, with Minneapolis locals/faves Boiled in Lead and Safety Last opening, in '83. It was my golden birthday party, and BC are the craziest party band on the planet, but I was having girlfriend trouble that night.

Haha - the bastards cancelled two days before I was gonna see them!

So the best I can do (and it aint bad):
Fairmount Girls
Ass Ponys
Scrawl

sometime, once.

S*M*A*S*H/Echobelly/Elastica, LA2, February 1994.

Yeah, I know, but it was my FIRST EVER GIG and I'd just lost my virginity that afternoon and hell, it was a really good gig.

Murphy's Law/the Toasters/Fishbone at the Ritz in the mid-80's

Gang of Four (Mall-era), Public Enemy, the Sisters of Mercy at Radio City Music Hall in the early 90's

the Dead Milkmen/2 Live Crew/Fishbone at the Palldium during a New Music Seminar in the early 90's

The Winner:
Redd Kross/ D.O.A./ the Circle Jerks at the Ritz in the mid-80's

Likewise the 120 Minutes tour at the New Ritz: Blind Melon, Public Image Ltd. and Big Audio Dynamite.....which was a big audio mistake.

House of Pain, ICE-T and Public Enemy at the New Ritz in `92. Soudns good, right? Onyx opened up as well. Trouble was, Ice and PE didn't think the show got enough advertising, so there was a three hour wait between HoP and PE (Ice-T, though spotted in the crowd looking pissed off, declined to perform). PE came on at around 2am and played a truncated set. Very frustrating. House of Pain were interesting to see (this was around the height of "Jump Around"'s chart dominance.)

Oddest: Bonnie Prince Billy/Sigur Ros/Bjork, Coney Island.

Other contenders:
Scorces/Double Leopards/Jackie O Motherfucker
Black Forest-Black Sea/Comets on Fire/Sunburned Hand Of The Man
Arab on Radar/The Flying Luttenbachers/USA IS A MONSTER

Ha, I was at this show. Didn't remember it being NMS-affiliated, but maybe that's because I was still a civilian in those days, not the jaded rock hack I am now.

Hard to come up with any nominees, since there's usually only one or at most two bands on a bill I wanna see. I guess I'll cheat and say Slayer/Judas Priest/Black Sabbath at Ozzfest 2004.

Oh, wait - Motorhead/Dio/Iron Maiden at MSG, 2003.

Haha, I'll gladly take The Locust over the stale-joke AOR.

In SF we got: Quest For Quintana Roo/Arab On Radar/Lightning Bolt/The Locust in 2000 and then just Arab On Radar/Lightning Bolt/The Locust in 2002.

High Llamas then Mouse On Mars then Stereolab.

db :: i saw almost the same bill with Plush taking the high llamas spot here in vancity.

DFA 1979/Big Business/Oxes

(I'm cheating as T-dot's Controller Controller opened, and.. well, I can easily forget they were on the bill. Also These Arms Are Snakes headlined, and I can easily skip them anytime.)

The Rapture
The Locust
Blood Brothers
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

The Rapture
LCD Soundsystem
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

Ooh! I saw Big Business at the Triple Rock about six months ago....hott stuff...good lord did they have a big stack of amps! Very cool.

Pavement/Wilco/Dirty Three - 1995?

Liars / The Notwist / Sonic Youth - London (Shepherd's Bush Empire, I think) 2002

Sonic Youth seem to be on a lot of everyone's great triplebills.

Also in 1992, I think: Bikini Kill/Bratmobile/Heavens to Betsy at Wetlands. Pretty unforgettable.

And I booked an Airlines/Utensil/VPN/Tall Dwarfs bill at Under Acme that I was very happy with in, I think, early '93--maybe late '92, actually.

1. The Cure/ Love and Rockets/ Pixies - Dodger Stadium Sept. 8, 1989
2. Jesus and Mary Chain/ Curve/ Spiritualized - Hollywood Palladium Nov. 21, 1992
3. Sonic Youth/ PJ Harvey/ Nirvana - Hollywood Palladium Aug. 17, 1990
4. House Of Love/ Catherine Wheel/ Ocean Colour Scene - Nov. 14, 1992
5. Flaming Lips/ SeBADoh/ Robyn Hitchcock/E.A.R.(Sonic Boom) - San Francisco Fillmore July 28, 1999

1994-ish: Enslaved/Marduk/Immortal

I saw that tour too - CNE in Toronto. Although now Alex in NYC has me going crazy after listing this lineup:
Sugarcubes/Public Image/New Order
Which I think I saw as well at the CNE, but my memory is fuzzy.

Here's what's confusing me: You see, I definitely only saw New Order once at the CNE. But I've also definitely seen both those combinations of opening acts at the CNE too (E&TB/GLJ and PiL/Sugarcubes). Curious. I know that INXS factors in here somewhere - I saw them at the CNE around this time, and one of those two combinations must have been the opener. I think. Any guesses?

Mercury Rev / Buffalo Tom / My Bloody Valentine (Spectrum, Toronto, 1992)

I saw a couple of gigs featuring my favourite live band ever, Th' Faith Healers, with some great support/headliners, but I was too pissed and euphoric to remember who they were, I suspect.

I need to go and dig out tickets, I have memories of good double bills with good support but I can't place each support to each gig. I'm sure Glasgow's staging of Radio One's Sound City in 1994 threw up some cracking triple bills but as I stumbled through the whole week in a haze of alcohol and gigs (seeing Pulp, Boo Radleys, Oasis, Buffalo Tom, Charlatans, Wonderstuff, Credit to the Nation & Chumbawumba and about a gazillion others) I can't remember who played with who. I do remember nearly vomiting on Taylor Parkes' shoes though.

Hold on, how? (I ask because PJ Harvey didn't release anything until late 1991 at the earliest, for a start.)

polvo, unwound, sonic youth
memphis, 95

Wow!

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), May 26th, 2005 1:15 PM. (Ned)

Also, Nirvana played LA in 1990 but it was at Raji's not the Palladium.

Taylor Parkes isn't a bird, but I could have mentioned the fat minging bird that he was with (Caitlin Moran) for bonus C-man points.

Pulp were last minute additions to that week's lineups, incidentally, as Kurt Cobain had been hospitalised (this was the week before his suicide) leading to Hole having to pull out of their, I think, Charlatans support slot (honestly, I can't remember who played with who, and I was guest-listed all week so don't even have ticket stubs to verify against)

if memory serves was one (or two) shows only, in L.A. One of 'em was a pay per view. Livig Colour opened for the Stoens the entoire tour, G N' R was an add on just for that (or those) specific dates.

I believe that weas also the show where Axl warned that too many of the band memebrs were dancing with Mr. Brownstone.

That's got to be Sonic Youth/Nirvana/STP. There's even a sticker for it, which I've got around somewhere. STP were female-led so that's where the confusion must have come in. The date's about right, though, since I saw it six days later in Seattle (an off night for all, said The Rocket at the time-me, I didn't know any better).

It was 100% without a doubt Nirvana when Bleach was the only thing out. It was a show I will never ever forget. When they were finished they tore up the stage and just went crazy. The audience was in such awe at what they had just witnessed that the buzz in that place was intoxicating. It could have been the best band in the world who came up next and they would have a hard time beating that opening band. So they day Nevermind came out I was one of the first in line.

Notes: During "Love Buzz," Kurt jumped into the audience and allowed members of the crowd to play his guitar for a minute before going back onstage.

Time to play In Utero for old time sake.

Back to your regularly scheduled program. :-)

Justin had just left HOD (who has just released Dustbowl), and Godflesh hadn't released anything by then. God were astonishing that night, probably the best show I saw them play.

that was the first time i understood why a light show behind the band might be a good idea, or even a great idea.

Aye. And the audience went crazy! Living Colour was the odd band out here - they were OK, but the few people in the audience was basically ignoring them.

Who is also the same Bob Durkee of Fartblossom Studio, Toxic Shock Records in Pomona and Pillsbury Hardcore. Only mention him because my first band was on one of his "It Came From Pomona" cassette comps.

Mr. Hull, in Chicago this bill was Sonic Youth/Die Kreuzen/Laughing Hyenas at the Metro in 1988. SY did "I Wanna Be Your Dog" with members of both of the other bands, IIRC.

>1985 The Minutemen / Black Flag / Ramones

:jealous:

...

Going back through some lists I'd written up, I found some bills that were either really interesting at the time or more in retrospect...yes, at some point I stopped keeping track.

Volcano Suns/Squirrel Bait/GG Allin - Exit 1986

Killdozer/Laughing Hyenas/Urge Overkill - University of Notre Dame, 1988. Mike Gerald humped the crucifix hanging on the wall of the South Dining Hall. Good times.

Tar/Slint/Urge Overkill - Cabaret Metro 1990

Superchunk/Seaweed/Geek - Czar Bar 1990

Eleventh Dream Day/Repulse Kava/Antietam/Freakwater - Cubby Bear 1990

Stuart Moxham/Ashtray Boy/Liz Phair - Czar Bar 1990

Scrawl/Tar/Cannanes - Lounge Ax 1991

Red Red Meat/Grifters/Ass Ponys - Lounge Ax 1992

Seam/Bedhead/Tortoise - Lounge Ax, 1994

Peter Jefferies/Alastair Galbraith/Sandra Bell - Lounge Ax and Uptown Bar, Mpls, 1993

Unrest/Stereolab/Gastr del Sol - Metro 1993

Yo La Tengo/Versus/Sea and Cake - Lounge Ax 1993

Peter Jefferies/Paul K. & the Weathermen/Fire in the Kitchen - Empty Bottle 1995

Hon. mention:
5Style/Sea and Cake/Tortoise, "Millions Now Living" tour.
Beans/Ex-Models/Tortoise, 2004.
Distemper/Dag Nasty/Descendants, 1986. Oh, the long lost Distemperhouse days...

...Best part was, I booked the show, and had no idea Bikini Kill were coming/playing. Also, my band opened.

Plus, yeah, that Fugazi/Shellac/Ex show was awesome.

Idlewild/Glitterbox/Midget

in that order. Little Roddy Woomble threw himself round the room like a maniac - you'd have never known they were bottom of the bill.

Most entertaining for me was probably

Some local band/Gay Dad/Mansun

but I know that's just me....

all wicked! fugazi were a-bloody-mazing!

Forum , London, 2003 or 2002 i forget?

1971- savoy brown, faces, and Ladies & Gentlemen, the GREASE BAND

And as for that Blue Cheer/Pink Floyd/Jeff Beck thing: DOUBLE WOW!