Bjork!
Declare your independence! Declare your independence! Raise up the flag. Higher, higher ...
That's what we heard as we got showered with confetti in the last song of the Bjork concert in Seoul last night. For an anniversary president, I got tickets for Patty. We got standing room only seats right in front of the stage, probably about 14 rows back. Fantastic. Bjork was in full crazy form, jumping around the stage in front of a 10-piece brass band from Iceland, wearing flags on their head and triangles on the forehead. It was a lot of fun, probably one of my top five concerts ever. There were only about 5,000 people there. My ears are still ringing.
The other top four:
Steve Ray Vaughn's last concert ever (w/ Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin). He died in a helicopter crash an hour or two after the show.
Kermit Ruffins in a New Orleans dive jazz bar.
Buckwheat Zydeco in Milwaukee Summerfest.
Midnight Oil in New York. It was a special unpublicized show, and I was standing only about 5 rows from the front in just a small room, not much bigger than a bar.
Honorable mention:
Run DMC/Beastie Boys in Rockford in the early 1980s. One of my first concerts.
Bruce Springsteen in Giants Stadium
Rolling Stones at Alpine Valley near Milwaukee.