Feel like you've missed out on monumental shows from bands in the past? Feel like you can't see those shows even if you were to go see the band now? I know I do. Here are a short list of mine, which I may add to later.

1. I wish I could have seen Radiohead when they were touring OK Computer. Half of my adolescent memories revolved around that album, and seeing the group perform them when the songs were at their peak would have been awesome. Although, I do have to give Radiohead credit--their performance of Everything in Its Right Place is phenomenal.

2. I wish I could have seen Beck when he toured Midnight Vultures. That is some amazing funk, and I think he's lost most of it.

3. I wish I could have seen Underworld when they were touring Beaucoup Fish. Listen to Everything Everything and tell me you didn't want to be there. You'd be lying to me, and I'd smack you for it.

4. I wish I could have seen Orbital when they were touring In Sides. I just heard a set from that era, and it made my seratonin water.

5. I wish I could have seen Nine Inch Nails when they were touring The Downward Spiral. Trent Reznor will never be the screaming long-haired demon he once was, and to have been there for that chaotic frenzy would have been massive.

6. I wish I could have seen DJ Shadow when he was touring Private Press. Oh, Shadow, how astray you have gone...

7. I wish I could have seen The Propellerheads. Period.

8. I wish I could have seen Nirvana when they were touring Nevermind. If nothing else, I would have been able to simultaneously experience and be a part of the most fitting metaphor for white-teenage angst in the 90s.

9. I wish I could have seen Sasha when he was touring Airdrawndagger. I never really got into him, but after giving that album a few thorough listens, I get a sense of what the experience would have been like. Wow.

10. And then there's the Chemical Brothers. Holy fuck, if I could have caught one of their sets from the Dig Your Own Hole era... Wow. I just checked out their set from Glastonbury 1997, and they had some unparalleled youthful intensity going on. The energy has changed over the years, and I can't wait to experience it again in August, but, indeed, that place in time goes alongside most of the other electronic music that held something absolutely raw and unique, on the forefront of experience.

Agree with Poots on Midnite Vultures. And its MIDNITE not Midnight, Poots, even though you technically have the correct spelling.

I wish I could have seen Jimi Hendrix when he was touring Electric Ladyland. I mean is there really any more to explain?

I wish I could have seen the Chems after every release.

I wish I could have seen Lemon Jelly touring. No album preference. Would be the ultimate though if they could get William Shatner to play 'Go' with them.

I wish I could have seen Daft Punk in their early years. Alive 1997 is beyond a gem. The whole pyramid thing they got today is cool, but they were just bangin in the old day.

I wish I could have seen Leftfield. Again after either release would be fine, however I enjoy Leftism more.

I wish I could have seen Massive Attack after they released Protection. Mainly just to see Tricky and Robert do Karmacoma.

I got more but im tired of typing...

Damn, there's a lot of shows and bands I wish I could've seen - probably too many to list here.

In some ways I understand that there were things out of my control, I haven't been born yet (would've been cool to have seen the Beatles!!) or there's that thing called "hindsight" - like, not being into or aware of a band and realizing later on once you did get into them that seeing a live show was just another missed opportunity.

So.

I'll just point out a couple of close calls I had that I can honestly say will go down as my little life regrets.

1996 - The Chemical Brothers were one of the acts for this big rave called Organic which was up in the mountains here in S. California about 2 and a half hours from where I live. It was stash's idea to go since it was sort of a birthday present and he really wanted to see The Orb and Meat Beat Manifesto who were also on the bill. We didn't know who the Chemical Brothers really were except that they did that Life Is Sweet song - but you know how hindsight is 20/20. Anyway. During the daytime, out in the Inland Empire, it was blazing hot, I mean... really hot. So I dressed accordingly. Because it was so hot I wasn't hungry, so I didn't bother eating anything the whole day. When it came time to drive up the mountain, the sun was hanging low in the sky getting ready to set. As we trekked onward in the line of traffic, I was crippled by a nasty case of altitude sickness. Of course I have never had altitude sickness before and of course, it had to hit me at the wrong time and place. We stood in line to get into the rave, and we had yet another massive trek (this time on foot) up the dry and dusty mountainside. The sun went down and so did the temperature, and I was not prepared. I had a sunburn from being outside all day, and all I was wearing was a thin strappy sundress and a thin leather jacket which was not enough to protect me from the elements. I was freezing cold and the altitude sickness started to hit me really hard and I was dry heaving. Then I got a splitting headache which only aggravated my ailment. It was absolute agony, not pleasant at all! The "thump thump thump" of the music off in the distant thudded in my head and I felt so bad - not because of my being sick but because I was being such a fucking downer and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. We ended up bailing shortly before midnight. And that was my close call with the Chems from back in da day. And a special nod to Tom Chemical for rubbing it in and telling me what a great show it was, and too bad I missed it. haha - thanks for that!! :P

2000 - Richard Ashcroft. He was doing a small intimate show up in Los Angeles at this place called The Knitting Factory which is a cool little venue. One of the label reps who used to come into Tower Records where I worked knew I was a huge fan and he put me on the will-call list. I was so excited!! But stash didn't want to go as his sister and her now husband were in town and they wanted to see They Might Be Giants, and stash didn't want me to go see one of my musical idols without him keeping a leash on me :P so I didn't have much choice but to bow out. Much drama ensued that evening that I won't bother getting into, and in the end we ended up missing They Might Be Giants. Arrrrgh! Talk about putting whirly in a sour mood. Overall, one of the biggest fuckwitted let downs for me ever.

1994 - Dead Can Dance. I had the fucking tickets in my HAND earlier that day!!! They were given to me by a kindly label rep who knew I was dying to see them. I made the mistake of giving the tickets to my roommate at the time for safe keeping and she promised me she would only be a little while visiting with her dad and taking care of some family business. Well, come 9pm, my roommate was still out and she had our damn tickets. This was before everyone had cell phones so I had no way of getting ahold of her. She comes strolling home 10 after 9 and says "OK, I'm ready to go now!" And I was livid because the show was in LA and we wouldn't have made it there by the time the show was over. Another opportunity, pissed away.

OK, now that I've relived these memories, I'm really freakin irritated at this moment...

Nope. I've seen all the bands I like - Prodigy, Chems, Crystal Method, Underworld and I wouldn't have wanted it in any other era.

Come on.. A Chems show without Hey Boy Hey Girl? Or a Prodigy show without Spitfire? No thanks.

And I have Simian Mobile Disco and RATM to still see... but they're still touring!

Oh for the love of God see SMD.

Hey Boy Hey Girl is great, but by no means the pinnacle of Chemical energy. But I hope I didn't give the impression that I don't absolutely love, with all of my heart, the Chemical shows I've seen and still have yet to see. ;-)

@Bosco--MIDNITE. FINE. MAKE ME SPELL WORDS INCORRECTLY. :-p

@Whirly--Aw, god damnit. I meant for this to be a thread conjuring benevolent hypotheticals where you could wander through your mind at the thought of experiencing treasured moments, albeit imagined ones. Sorry for the frustration.

hehehe, I was just passing the time on my lunch hour, really. I think the irritation was more to do with my lunch hour being over and still being stuck at work, and less to do with missed gigs.

Ah well...

I'm quite happy with the gigs I've seen, though. I've seen a lot of bands I wanted to see, and a couple of bands I've seen multiple times so it's all good. As for conjuring up hypotheticals (benevolent ones of course), that'll take some thought.

hmmm... It's weird because the missed opportunities sort of override any hypotheticals. There's bands I want to see, yes of course. For me, if it's out of sight it's out of mind, it wasn't meant to be so that sort of makes some sense. Like, I'd love to have seen a load of Chems gigs all over the world over their career, but that's obviously impossible - but I'm not upset or left wondering "what if" because that's just the way it is. Or something.

One right off the top of my head was a Fatboy Slim set that he did at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. It was on a weeknight so I couldn't make it, but that would've been a real fun show with an interesting setting to boot.

I wish I could've seen Air when they did a gig at the Hollywood Bowl a few years ago. I'd love to just chill at an Air show, and I've always wanted to go to the Hollywood Bowl. Sitting on the grass just chillin to tunes with the nice warm buzz of booze trickling through my veins sounds... I don't know. Kinda cool, I suppose.

The Charlatans did an instore meet n'greet and performance at the Virgin Megastore in Los Angeles around the time Us And Us Only came out (brilliant album, by the way). Again, it was a weeknight and stash was working a 16 hour day and I couldn't get a sitter. It would've been really cool to see this amazing band do a sort of impromptu gig. I got to make up for lost time since I saw them play at Coachella, so all's well.

And I know it might sound really hokey or like I'm showing my age or something, but I'd love to see an orchestra. They used to have orchestras perform at this outdoor venue near my house in the summertime - but the venue is rarely used anymore and the developers have bought up the land and are going to build houses. There's always the Hollywood Bowl, though. My parents - or maybe it was my grandparents - whoever it was, it was certainly a looooong time ago) saw the London Philharmonic do an all nighter there. Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 was played as the sun was rising and I think that would be something worth seeing and hearing just once.

Totally agree with wanting to see a Orchestra. I would love to hear some Beethoven or Franz Schubert.

It's kinda sad because the best radio station in Chicago is actually a public radio station that plays just Classical music. However, they play some amazing pieces of music.

I wish I could have seen Pink Floyd on their "Obscured By Clouds" tour or their "Meddle" tour.

I wish I could have seen Primus on their "Tales From The Punchbowl" tour.

I wish I could have seen Meat Beat Manifesto on their "At The Center" tour.

I wish I could have seen Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers on their 1999 tours.

I wish I could have seen the Chemical Brothers in 1997 in Glastonbury, as I am listening to this set right now. Damn, Three Little Birdies Down Beats is awesome !

I wish I could have seen Fatboy Slim

I wish I could have seen Daft Punk in 1997

@Ben_J -- Daft Punk in '97. Wow, yeah, that's one I definitely missed out on. I was 16 at the time... :-( Same with the Chems. But I've been listening to that Glastonbury set for the past few days and absolutely loving it. I just like the fact that they didn't have so much material to play through, so they took their time and fucked around on all their tracks in such a funky, funky way.

"3. I wish I could have seen Underworld when they were touring Beaucoup Fish. Listen to Everything Everything and tell me you didn't want to be there. You'd be lying to me, and I'd smack you for it"

Fuck yeah. So many times ive listened to that cd thinking " if only i wouldve been there ". The everything everything live cd is in my top 3 favorite cd's ever!

And a new one:

I wish i couldve seen Genesis. Period.

Ya'll might think FTW! But i looooooooooooooove Genesis. I listen to their live cd a lot " the way we walk " and i loooove it love it loooooove it.

I Wish I Could Have Seen Joy Division,Johnny Cash and Cabaret Voltaire Live. Also wish I had been to the first Social night, that would have been pretty special!