Las Vegas Weekly

February 5, 2009 · 3:19 PM

These five burned brightest

By Spencer Patterson

The Weekly’s Spencer Patterson has covered more than 50 shows in the Joint since 2002. His most memorable:

1. The White Stripes, September 20, 2003

The conditions were beyond oppressive—brutally loud, swelteringly hot, ridiculously crowded—yet it was all easily worth enduring. Jack was nursing a broken finger, but he still played like a demon on furlow from Hades. “The Big Three Killed My Baby” and “Black Math” were personal highlights, but everything the duo played filled the room with so much sound, you would have thought three guys were on guitar. By the end, I was convinced the Joint would crumble to the ground later that night, having succeeded in its singular purpose for existence.

2. Neil Young, July 26, 2003

Out Town-ish concept album Greendale was the order of business for Young and Crazy Horse … at least that’s what we’d been led to believe. But as Young, guitarist Frank Sampedro and bassist Billy Talbot gathered together near the foot of the stage and cooked their way through an opening, 16-minute version of “Love to Burn,” it was clear our tourstop was in for a special performance. The concert warhorses began to stack up—“Cowgirl in the Sand,” “Cortez the Killer,” “Powderfinger”—and we were taken to lands more majestic than Greendale possibly could have been.

3. The Who, September 14, 2002

Less than three months after bassist John Entwistle died in a room at the Hard Rock Hotel the night before a scheduled Joint performance, remaining Who founders Peter Townshend and Roger Daltrey returned to the hotel for a make-up concert. What ensued can only be described as highly emotional, with band members and many fans spending the night fighting back tears, often unsuccessfully. Hearing Townshend’s unrehearsed tribute to Entwistle at the end of an extended “The Kids Are Alright” on the concert bootleg still sends shivers down my spine.

4. Sigur Ros, April 5, 2003

I knew I’d receive comp. reviewer tickets, but I left nothing to chance, hitting Ticketmaster early to secure front-row seats for me and my wife. Though I was quite familiar with the Icelanders’ recorded music, I was totally unprepared for the sheer power of Jonsi Birgisson’s voice. My wife literally cried.

5. Green Day, December 7, 2004

I’ll admit, I’m not much of a Green Day fan, but we’re talking most memorable here, not favorite. This one was the inverse to the Neil Young show, with Billie Joe and his mates catching its audience off-guard by performing then-new album American Idiot straight-through in its entirety. Most of the crowd sang every word.

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