That'd be the butt, Bob.

That'd be the butt, Bob.

Apparently, that'd really, really be the butt, Bob.

A local two piece (ala the White Stripes) once played a show in an empty lot. They ran a power cord for the guitar amp from a nearby house. They even made it through the entire set before the cops showed up.

For a party my wife and I threw, I had a friend's band play in the basement of the small duplex we were renting. They were set-up next to the furnace. Basements always sound great.

The Celebrity Theater in Phoenix has a rotating circular stage. I don't know how unusual that is, but I find it strange. I saw the Shins there last year and a handful of other shows back in the day.

Living in DC, I've seen shows at all sorts of national monuments. Not that strange, I guess, but really neat-o--Aretha Franklin at the Smithsonian Castle, U2 at the Lincoln Memorial, the Air Force Blue Grass band at the Capitol, stuff like that. The strangest one, though, was Chuck Brown on the plaza at the Library of Congress, facing the east front of the Capitol building. Man, he attracts a rough crowd, even at the Library of Congress.

in a laundromat / dive bar in Cincinnati called Sudsy Malone's. Saw Over-the-Rhine there back when they were just getting started. That place was a fucking dump; acoustics were horrible and you could often barely hear the talent over the drunken fratboys and unbalanced loads.

we have Friday night indie shows at the local coffeehouse here, but I don't think that's all that unusual.

But, one of the best shows I've ever seen in my entire life was a motley crew of kids playing in an unnamed dive we just call the "BAR BAR", in homage to the neon sign out front (minus tee, if you're lurking, it's that shithole out on 23rd and Champa where all the bike messengers hang out). I'd never seen live music played there, before or since; hell the place barely has a floor much less a stage. They were setup between the door and the cigarette machine and the singer stood on an old metal bench that's in the corner. They played, if I recall correctly, a battered violin, some species of accordion-ish thing, 2 guitars and a drumkit that seemed made out of household appliance parts, but the singer had a voice on him that would not quit, and they really did bring the house down. Never have been able to find out who that was and I'm pissed I didn't ask when I was there.

(mrmoonpie: Chuck Brown played at my friends' wedding)

I saw a couple punk shows that included my friends' band god Awful in the gym/cafeteria of a Catholic school. They named their one and only album "What Would Jesus Do?" (years before it became a hip phrase) after a banner that hung on the wall next to the stage.

Back on August 11, 1987, Big Black played their last show here in Seattle, at the Georgetown Steam Plant. I wasn’t there myself – I was living in Sacramento at the time – but Science Girl was. She says it was an amazing place to see an amazing show. And hey look, there’s video footage of the whole thing. (I don’t recall if SG is in any of the shots. If memory serves, I think she might make a brief appearance.)

I saw Dr. Know and The Exploited at a VFW in Milwaukee, years ago. I guess it was weird because you had to walk through the bar to get to the hall, and the bar was packed with all these old dude vets drinking and smoking.

I saw the Fiery Furnaces at Emo's in Austin last year. I guess it's not really strange to see a rock group at a rock club, but FF fans tend to be fey high-school drama students and college intellectuals in horn-rims, rather than Emo's usual clientel, who are more alternative punk and grungy metal types.

I also saw Sigur Ros at a small, formal concert hall. The light show was incongruous.

How about my front room? I came home one time to find that Dave Rave (ex of Teenage Head) and Tom Wilson (of Florida Razors, Junkhouse, and of late, Blackie and the Rodeo kings) were sitting in my living room with my then roommate jamming on acoustics. It was fucking amazing. They ran through tons of cool tunes, from John Henry, to Clash songs, to well, everything.

Back in Baltimore in the 80s my friends the Allmighty Senators mostly lived in this sort of strange loft/squat/space called the Hour House because it was above an old watch repair place. It was severely awesome: every inch of every surface was painted all up and they even had a phone booth shower. There were tons of shows there, not just the Senators. Squats & punk houses are always good places for music.

Returned and Services League clubs and bowls clubs are common venues for gigs in Austraya, particularly in the country towns. I saw The Whitlams at the Yamba Bowls Club and it was one of the best gigs I've been to. It's usually only the hardcore old men left propping up the bar by the time gigs are on, but it's fun to get there early, have a greasy bistro meal and watch the crowd change.

I went to a few reclaim the streets parties, where we'd take over some road and play music (generator on a trailer for the amps and speakers) and dance until the police came. Do doofs count too? I've been to some awesome bush doofs absolutely in the middle of nowhere. Punk picnics are fun too.

There are a few churches that have been turned into clubs. I used to frequent a blues' bar in a church, it's now a dance club. And former morgues - Fabric in Spitalfields was a morgue, as was (the former) Van Gogh's Earlobe in Brisbane.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros played in my office building, but sadly I wasn't in London at the time. Billy Bragg also played there last November, but tickets sold out really quickly and I missed out.

in vegas there are really no venues for all ages local punk shows so they used to run a generator up to these caves, bonfires and fistfights. good times indeed. Another venue was The Tubes which was a lot with a bunch of those sewer drainage tubes being stored.

I saw Phish play at the Cincinnati Zoo. At the end of the show Trey told everyone to be quiet on the way out because the animals were trying to go to sleep.

Crosby, Stills & Nash played Candelstick Park after a Giants game back in the 80's. I was obnoxiously drunk and heckled David Crosby unmercifully throughout their set. Given that the stage was set up in the infield and we were up in the bleachers, I doubt he heard me.

Plus he was probably pretty coked-up at the time.

What, me or Crosby?

There was this awesome little festival that took place on the front yard of a house that my friend was renting an apartment out of once. In Baltimore. In July. The bands set up on the front porch (which was the only entrance/exit out of the house, naturally) and my friend lived on the first floor.

That was a weird, weird day. But I got a free t-shirt out of it because they asked me if I was old enough to serve beer (I said no, because I was only 20 at the time) and they frowned at me and said "well we need some more chicks serving and we'll give you a shirt" and so I ended up doing it anyways.

Still have the shirt. It's awesome.

I saw The Ruins and 4 or 5 other bands in the basement of a place in Bed Stuy called, no kidding, Princess Natalie's Glass Palace. When you hear there's a show at a place called that, you go. On the ground floor was an AA meeting room and the top floor was a dance studio or party room. The basement was set up jamboree style - every band had a little area, some of them tented. Crazy, fun show.

My ex boyfriend's basement.
My own attic.
A backyard out in the country with a huge bonfire going on behind it.

A five foot section of a tiny pizza place. i just wanted pizza but became trapped by the ten member band.

I went to Athens once for a show, and only when I got there did I realize the venue (the "Ultramod Compound") was a dodgy student house on the outskirts of town. So we saw the show jammed into the living room of an unairconditioned house in August. (And it fucking rocked.)

There were five or six bands playing, but the only one I remember is the Wee Turtles.

I saw the Make-Up play in someone's living room once, back in '95. Svenonius was climbing on all the furniture, it was pretty great.

Old workers' barracks in an abandoned gravel pit. The place used to belong to a bikers club, I think; the walls were covered graffiti (sci-fi pictures with naked girls). A friend of mine threw his birthday party there; the party was open to pretty much everyone. The only condition was that you had to bring with you something to drink (not everyone did). In the end, the place was packed; quite a few of these people were complete strangers. The bands, local punk groups (real, hardcore punks), were simply horrible, but it was still a lot of fun.

A rented storage locker in Port Chester, NY. later the same night, I almost passed out on Matt Dillon.

gaspode, that is freakin' awesome. For the rest of my life, I'll be telling people that I know someone who saw Chuck Brown perform at a wedding.

And trust me mrmoonpie, it was awesome. (Was also in the middle of Nowhere, PA, and I'm sure CB and his crew were thinking the whole thing was nuts.)

I once saw a band perform in the afternoon in front of a Ruby's and Jamba Juice. It was weird, because everyone was utterly confused as to why there was even a band there playing in a shopping plaza.

tr33hugger, do you happen to remember which VFW.

For playing shows, I've played in peoples living rooms, lofts, basements, practice spaces, and I once tried to put on a show in my car (seriously).