It poured last night in Phoenix and this morning my son Connor had an ear worm — he couldn’t get Rain in the Summertime by The Alarm out of his head. Why a 14-year-old kid even knows about The Alarm is a story for another day, but when he mentioned it I told him I saw The Alarm in concert in 1984 when they opened for The Pretenders at the California Theater in San Diego (remember that show Zac Shess?). This led Connor to remark: “You’ve been to a lot of concerts. Like 20,” he said. Well, more like 100 I replied. When he mentioned I was lucky to have seen so many cool 80s bands, I told him I was fortunate to live in places like San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area where great bands performed. I’ve lived in Phoenix for 18 years now and a lot of lesser known bands skip the desert when they tour.

I started thinking about how many live shows I’ve seen over the years and I thought it might be fun to try to list them all. It’s probably nowhere near 100 and it’s probably not all that impressive a list compared to some. I’m sure I’m missing some. Nevertheless, in no particular order:

• The Kinks (my first real concert. 1979. San Diego Sports Arena)
• The Who
• John Cougar
• Loverboy
• Rush
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Adam Ant
• Duran Duran
• Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper
• The Beautiful South (2)
• Ben Folds
• Counting Crows (2)
• Maroon 5
• Depeche Mode
• Morrissey
• Erasure
• Everything But the Girl (2)
• Gorillaz
• Howard Jones
• Joe Jackson (3)
• Little River Band (2)
• Jack Johnson
• John Legend
• Midge Ure
• Mike Doughty
• Crowded House
• Ziggy Marley
• Peter Gabriel
• Inner Circle
• Sinead O’Connor
• Paul Weller
• Peter Case
• R.E.M.
• Tori Amos
• Indigo Girls (2)
• The Untouchables (2)
• X
• Stan Ridgway
• Steely Dan
• Tears For Fears (3)
• The B-52s
• Sun 60
• The Cranberries
• Berlin
• The Gap Band
• Sparks
• Madness (2)
• Oingo Boingo (2)
• The Police (2)
• Billy Joel (2)
• Squeeze (2)
• The Hooters
• Jill Sobule
• Edie Brickell and New Bohemians
• The Pretenders
• The Alarm
• The Beach Boys
• Coldplay
• G Love and Special Sauce
• Zee Avi
• Spyro Gyra
• Chris Isaak (2)
• Seal
• U2 (3)
• 10,000 Maniacs
• English Beat
• Sara Hickman
• Deborah Harry
• Red Rockers
• NRBQ
• KC & The Sunshine Band

What about you? Are you a big concert goer? What are some of the best shows you’ve seen over the years?