October 24th 1994, Killing Joke at the Opera House

Killing Joke's show at the Opera House in 1994 was excellent, a monstrous wall of Post Punk/Goth brilliance performed by a group of legends who had made a huge impact on a variety of musical genres. Touring in support of the "Pandemonium" album, the show brought together the original line up of Jaz Coleman, Geordie Walker, and Youth for the first time in years, and they were an intensely tight and dynamic unit even despite having not played with each other for so long, a tremendous indication of their individual talents and their chemistry as a group. 

The show opened with the three of them walking in a line onto the stage to much applause, with Coleman wearing a large black jester's hat with bells that bobbed and shook as he walked and his eyes were lined with thick layers of kohl. It was a particularly sinister look that was more than a little unsettling, and I distinctly remember turning to my friend Bevin and telling her that I was kind of scared of him. By the end of the first song the jester's hat had been ripped off and the kohl had run in streaks down Coleman's face like tears, giving his eyes a bleeding look that was still kind of scary but looked absolutely awesome.

As far as reunion shows go it was different from the approach that most bands take where they stick to the nostalgic side of things and play old hits from back in the day. Instead Killing Joke chose to focus on their new reunion album, playing most of "Pandemonium" with a few classics thrown in, and in retrospect I think that was the best choice they could have made. This wasn't a reunion designed to celebrate past achievements, this was an effort to continue and build on their legacy, and that meant moving forward with new material that was just as strong as their earlier efforts. Newer songs like Millennium and Pandemonium all sounded great, vital and monstrous and really heavy, mixing well with older songs like Love Like Blood, Requiem and others, crafting a consistently solid show that highlighted their skill as a group and the ways that their individual talents complimented each other so well. 

It was an excellent show, a great performance that impressed me on a variety of levels, and I'll always remember it for the band's confidence and strength in their delivery, and how they didn't need to rely on the hits to be awesome...

October 19th 1994, Oasis at Lee's Palace

Oasis' first show in Toronto at Lee's Palace in 1994 has kind of a legendary status among fans, a band poised on the edge of stardom playing a small venue following the release of their first album just before they made it big. I'll admit though that based on the strength of that show I wouldn't have expected them to become as popular as they did. 

 

I had enjoyed the Supersonic single when it was released, and they were getting a lot of good press in the UK music papers so I was curious to check them out, but the show just didn't appeal to me. They were pretty static, not very dynamic, and to be honest I thought that they were kind of boring. Admittedly though, the live version of Supersonic was kind of great and they closed out the show with a really good cover of I am the Walrus, which was kind of a gutsy choice and sounded pretty cool. 

 

Certainly not the worst show I've ever seen, but definitely not one of the best. Admittedly I was always more of a Blur fan myself, so maybe the experience was just lost on me?

August 6th 1994, Nine Inch Nails at Molson Park in Barrie

 

I've made a few posts about Nine Inch Nails recently, but at the risk of repeating myself I think that it would be an oversight not to mention their show at Molson Park in Barrie on August 6th 1994. Sharing the bill with Soundgarden, this was the Toronto stop on the first leg of the tour to support "The Downward Spiral", and it was spectacular. Where earlier performances I had seen showed an incredible potential in the band, this show saw all of that potential realized in an outstanding set that was mind-blowing from start to finish. 

I don't think I can really do this show justice in terms of a description, I don't really have the vocabulary to fully put into words the immensity of what was happening on stage, but I can tell you that this tour was a significant turning point in Trent Reznor's career in terms of his reputation and recognition as a performer, as an artist, and as a visionary. Over the course of an hour and a half he channeled equal parts rage and alienation, anger and isolation, desperation and maybe even a little bit of hope too, all of it delivered from the edge of a deep, dark, nearly bottomless abyss. In the years to come, Reznor would be able to tame that side of himself and channel those feelings into his work more effectively, more succinctly, and more artistically but there's no question that this era in his career he was delivering raw, intense, and emotional performances that stand as some of the best he would ever do.

A week after the show in Barrie, Nine Inch Nails would perform pretty much the same set at the Woodstock '94 event and that performance gained them a lot of well-deserved recognition and praise. You can find video from the Woodstock show quite readily on YouTube and I really encourage you to check it out if you haven't already seen it. With the exception of all the mud, Nine Inch Nails' set at Woodstock pretty much perfectly captures all of the same energy and intensity of the show they played in Barrie, and I'm sure you'll agree that it's an especially spectacular moment in the history of an especially spectacular artist...