Since my Instagram account is so focused on what records and CDs I'm listening to every day, I thought I'd do something different here instead of a favorite albums of the year post. I haven't watched The Simpsons in years, but I still buy the Simpsons calendar each year for my home office. One thing I like about it is that it includes the birthdays of two famous or cult-famous people for each date. Last year, I jotted down the names of the people I'd seen in person and made a little thread about it on the garbage site formerly known as Twitter, but I thought it'd be fun to make it a year-end post with a little more context, so here's 2023 and 2024 in random celebrity encounters via my Simpsons calendars:
2023
Dave Foley
I saw Foley perform with the rest of the Kids in the Hall during their reunion tour in the early 2000s at The Backyard in Austin.
David Bowie
I saw Bowie on his final tour (the setlist was a mix of greatest hits and recent stuff, with Mike Garson and Gail Ann Dorsey in the band), also at The Backyard in Austin. Wikipedia tells me that show was on April 27, 2004.
Jim Jarmusch
Early 2000s again. Jarmusch appeared at the much-missed CinemaTexas International Short Film Festival to present a program of his favorite short films and do a Q&A afterwards. This was on the UT campus at the Texas Union Theater.
Liz Phair
I saw Phair open for The Flaming Lips in the mid-'00s at Stubb's in Austin.
Wyatt Cenac
I saw Cenac do two separate standup sets at two separate Fun Fun Fun Fests in Austin, probably late '00s/early '10s.
Kevin McDonald
See Dave Foley above.
Andre the Giant
My parents and I helped my nephew and my uncle's then-wife move to San Diego when my uncle was stationed there during his navy service. While there, we went to a WWF show at the San Diego Sports Arena. The Internet tells me this was July 16, 1988. In the main event, Andre the Giant wrestled "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. Andre won.
Mark McKinney
See Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald above.
Adam Yauch
Stubb's again. SXSW 2006. I was in line to see The Fiery Furnaces, on a showcase that was mostly new indie bands. The line was extremely long for that kind of show, making me grumpy. I got even grumpier when someone told me that the line was so long because the Beastie Boys were rumored to play a surprise early set. I did not believe this rumor. I thought people were being scammed by an Internet hoax and messing up my line-avoiding plans. My frown turned upside down when the Beasties did indeed play a surprise early set.
Elvis Costello
I saw Costello play with the Imposters, again at The Backyard, in the early to mid-2000s. I used to see a lot of shows there. Nice, pretty place to see a big act, but getting out of the parking lot after the show was like trying to leave the Hotel California.
Jeff Tweedy
Saw Wilco at Stubb's in the mid-2000s. It was kind of an underwhelming show, but they were in a transitional period between Jay Bennett's firing and Nels Cline's hiring and Tweedy hadn't kicked his painkiller addiction yet, so I caught them at probably their lowest point. I should see them again sometime.
Andy Kindler
Saw Kindler do a ridiculously funny standup set at the original Cap City Comedy Club in Austin when it was a few blocks from my house and not in the fucking Domain (HATE the Domain) in 2013 or 2014.
"Weird" Al Yankovic
I saw "Weird" at Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2010. That man puts on a show. I have fond memories of a friend of mine wheezing with laughter during the Jurassic Park-themed "MacArthur Park" parody: "Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark/All the dinosaurs are running wiiiiild."
Neil Young
Even though Neil is my all-time favorite, I've only had the opportunity to see him once, on the Le Noise tour (with Bert Jansch opening!) at Bass Concert Hall in Austin in 2011. Great, great show, even though a contingent of boomers in the crowd were insanely obnoxious and kept yelling out song titles and unnecessary commentary. I'm not even going to talk about what happened this past year, when the world's most poorly timed lightning storm ruined my one chance at seeing Neil with Crazy Horse.
Neil Hamburger
"Cancel it! Neeeeeeil Haaaamburger's in town." I got to see Gregg Turkington perform as his Neil Hamburger alter ego at the Austin Film Society after a screening of Entertainment. It was a joy and a delight.
Sarah Silverman
Saw her do a standup set at Fun Fun Fun Fest one year. Her contempt for the rock festival audience was palpable, and she stopped mid-joke when her time was up. I get a kick out of artists who despise their own crowds (we sometimes deserve it), but it wasn't my favorite standup experience, especially after seeing great sets from Rob Delaney and Bridget Everett.
Fred Armisen
Here's a weird one. Armisen is someone I saw in person before he was famous. His Chicago-based band Trenchmouth played a house party with a few other Chicago bands passing through my college town of Lincoln, Nebraska in the mid-'90s. I think it was just a few months before the band would break up and Armisen would begin pursuing acting and comedy and about seven years before Armisen was legally required to be in 75% of everything produced in the United States.
DJ Bonebrake
Saw Bonebrake drumming for X at one of the Fun Fun Fun Fests. They were fucking great.
2024
Rob Zombie
When I first got to college in 1995, I went to every live show I possibly could, from local hardcore shows in abandoned warehouses to arena bands I didn't even like. I was making up for lost time. The rural small town I grew up in didn't really get much in the way of live music unless you wanted to see Lee Greenwood at a nearby county fair, so the only two live shows I'd seen prior to '95 were a Wilson-less, Mike Love-led Beach Boys and Guns N' Roses (with Blind Melon opening). A high school friend was in town with some of his newly acquired college friends, and they wanted to see White Zombie and Filter. I didn't care about either band (though the early White Zombie records, when they sounded like Swans and Birthday Party, are surprisingly decent; they were long past that by this point), but I was just excited to see any live show that wasn't Lee Greenwood. I was bored by Filter, but White Zombie had enough theatrical shenanigans to keep me entertained. Not a great night of music.
John Cooper Clarke
The British punk poet is involved in one of my weirdest Austin airport experiences. I was picking up my wife at the airport in 2015. As I waited at one of the escalators for her, a former coworker I hadn't seen in a few years was also there, waiting for her boyfriend. Then Rick Perry, during his presidential run, comes down the escalator, grinning and schmoozing. A few minutes later, John Cooper Clarke, one of the most distinctive-looking guys ever, appears on the escalator. This is even weirder than the time Fatboy Slim was in line behind me while I was buying a turkey sandwich and then I saw Kinky Friedman as I was walking back to my gate to eat the sandwich. My wife finally comes down the escalator, and I tell her what she's missed.
Brutus Beefcake
I saw Brutus Beefcake at another WWF show, this time in Rapid City, South Dakota, in November 1988. (I can't believe I talked my father into two wrestling shows in the same year. My dad was convinced we were forever on the brink of financial ruin, and this was way out of character for him.) Beefcake was working his barber gimmick at this point, and he defeated Ron Bass. Can't remember if Bass was "Outlaw" Ron or "Cowboy" Ron at this point, but I prefer Bass in his early '80s territory days. If this had been a shoot instead of a work, Bass would've killed Beefcake. Yeah, I'm throwing around the wrestling lingo.
D'Arcy Wretzky
This was the moment when I decided to only see live shows I cared about and also the moment when I realized I didn't like arena shows. On a whim, I decided to hop in a car with a friend of mine and his friendly, non-scary drug dealer to see Smashing Pumpkins in either Kansas City or St. Louis ('96 was a while ago) when they had an extra ticket. My high school enjoyment of the Pumpkins had run its course, and it was a long drive to a boring, passionless show, except when they brought out the late Dennis Flemion from The Frogs on keyboards. He had the pizzazz the Pumpkins were lacking. It was another long drive home. The novelty of seeing any live show at all had worn off, and I was starting to understand that I liked live music in a rock club or house party or small theater way more than I liked sitting in an arena and seeing corporate show biz.
Josh Homme
I've never seen Homme front his own bands, but I did see him play drums for Eagles of Death Metal one SXSW. I think it was that same Beastie Boys year. It was in some Sixth Street club I've never been in before or since, and I got yelled at by a real jerk of a club owner for standing too close to a VIP stairwell entrance.
Dizzy Reed
Dizzy Reed played keyboards for Guns N' Roses when I saw them live on the Use Your Illusion tour in Rapid City, South Dakota with my uncle in 1992. I was a sophomore in high school. I was excited, but I also thought it was too loud, though I'd never admit that at the time.
Brian Posehn
I saw him do standup at one of the Fun Fun Fun Fests. I miss those fests. Usually, festivals are a horrible nightmare, but those were well-organized (except for the clusterfuck final year), thoughtfully curated, and not horribly overcrowded.
Maria Bamford
I've seen her do standup twice. Once at one of the Fun Fun Funs, and once headlining at Cap City with Jackie Kashian opening. She's one of the best.
Werner Herzog
Another CinemaTexas festival. I really miss those film festivals. Herzog showed two of his short films and did a Q&A at the Texas Union Theater one night, and showed two more and did another Q&A at the original Colorado Street Alamo Drafthouse the following day. He showed Lessons of Darkness, Bells from the Deep, How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck, and The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, which are four particularly strong Herzog shorts. He gave it the full Herzog in the Q&As.