TT #29 - 13 Best ShapeShifter Concerts

Something a little different for you all this week...

If you still don't know what ShapeShifter is all about, get on over to West of Mars and get in on this international phenomena! Quick! You don't really want to be the very last one to know, do you?!?

I'm a live music kind of girl with fairly eclectic tastes - everything from classic rock to folk to blues to good ole rock'n'roll. I can be equally happy with a tiny smoky club venue as with a huge stadium show. If it live and it's GOOD, bring it on!

When it comes to metal, no one, and I mean no one, can beat Trevor and the boys for pure electricity, I admit, I'm a groupie through and through and I've been spendthrift lucky enough to have the chance to see them in concert many times. So, when it came time to choose a subject for this week's Thursday Thirteen, what better than the 13 hottest ShapeShifter performances ever. I've been following these guys since the early days, so some of these go way back.

1. The Back Door Club, Riverview, way back in the dark ages: I was out in Riverview visiting a friend who'd found herself at the city's Art Academy (no, she didn't study with Kerri) when she suggested we go check out this hot new band that had started making the rounds of the college hangouts. One show and I was hooked.

2. The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ: this was ShapeShifter's first east coast tour and let me tell you they were SMOKING. I think by now they'd gotten a hint that something big was brewing.

3. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ: a few days after the Stone Pony show I found out they were hitting my very own home away from home of the time and dragged half my dorm off to the show. Many new fans were created at that show, and the "artificial enthusiasm" we'd imbibed before heading over certainly didn't hurt. Bonnie even ended up throwing her bra up onto the stage, but I think the roadies got it. (Note from the band: Nope, it's in our wall of fame, along with Rhian's.)

4. Roseland Ballroom, NYC: OMG, ShapeShifter's got a gig in a real NYC venue - and I had tickets!

5. After that they were back to the West Coast again for a while, so I had to make do with recordings, but oh baby, that live show in LA that I recorded off the radio - priceless! I swear I'm gonna find a way to meet them some day, just to tell them how much that show rocked, even through my crappy "just out of college and can't afford any better" speakers.

6. By the time ShapeShifter hit the East Coast again it was opening for that big metal band, you know the one I mean, at Madison Square Garden. The Garden people! The epicenter of rock band success!! My boys are hitting the big time. Holy crap! Susan just reminded me - it was Rises the Night. They're a bit more rock than ShapeShifter, more like the Chili Peppers, but it was a great tour.

7 & 8. I went to two more shows on that tour, just to hear Mitchell's golden voice singing straight to me. Ok, I admit it, to hear Mitchell's voice and to daydream about what I would do to Trevor if I ever got him alone. (This was back at the Meadowlands, back when it was still called the Meadowlands, and somewhere up in Connecticutt. That was was quite an adventure - we got lost for damn near 3 hours and nearly missed the show!).

9-12. I was off working in Europe for a while and almost peed my pants when I found out that ShapeShifter was coming over for a European tour of their very own! You KNOW I took time off that summer and just followed them from country to country. I think Paris was the highlight, but Prague was a very close second.

13. The last ShapeShifter show I caught was back on my own home turf - Madison Square Garden - headlining their own show this time, and what a show it was. They nearly blew the roof off the Garden!

Sadly for my future as a groupie I'm now married with two kids and living in Israel, so I had to stop blowing all my money trailing the band around, but I still live in hope that someday soon they'll come on over here to play the Sultan's Pool - and I promise, I'll be right there in the front row. Hell, if that happens I might even throw my own bra. (Note from the band: Put your name on it so we can thank you properly later, since we know how to reach you. Reply from Robin: damn straight I will, with an invite like that! I'm too old and too married for a fling, but I can sure as hell still party with the band.)





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