The solution is to fire Brian Sabean. He has to be the fall guy for this historically bad free agent signing. Zito couldn’t even get out of April of his 2nd season under the contract before outright releasing him became a consideration. It may not be a serious option at this point, but it is now in the discussion.

Mike Patton pissed in his shoe and then drank it. Not what I would’ve done, but still unforgettable.

Best Concert was my first concert. Ramones at the Greek Theatre in ‘91 or ‘92 (don’t know the exact year but know I was a sophmore is HS). All their songs sound the same but had fun in the mosh pit, which was the first and last time I ever participated.

I also remember I almost went to the concert above (Primus/Mr. Bungle/Melvins) but a girl suckered me into some stupid party. Hey, I wanted to get laid.

could still have matt morris and his contract…boy howdy would that be brutal

My best concert I’ve been to was Arcade Fire at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley last summer. Awesome, awesome show. I love shows where it feels like everyone’s singing along and that was definitely the case there.

I’ve got a few pretty cool ones coming up this month though… Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the 7th, Man Man on the 13th (they put on the most ridiculous live show ever, I saw them open for Modest Mouse last year) and Bruce Springsteen on the 31st, so we’ll see if any of them can unseat AF.

I saw Of Montreal and Grand Buffet last year, pretty good show. Grand Buffet especially are hilarious live.

OK, top 7 i can think of right now:

1. Opening for Fugazi Storyville in like '88? 87?<br />b. Bad Brains Tipitina’s around the same era
iii. Opening for Botch and Dillinger Escape Plan a few years back at Great American
D. Murder City Devils (second to last show)/Intl Noise Conspiracy/Hives GAMH<br />V. John Doe and Neko Case a coupla years back for Noise Pop, also GAMH
f. Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Bottom of the Hill maybe 4-5 years ago
Se7en. Opening for Sick of It All and Quasar (Beastie Boys) in like 97 @ BOTH

also, Barry Zito: please be injured.

I just don’t see this guy getting any better. It is really a devastating blow for an organization that has already been sucking wind for a while. I think we will see a trade where we kick in a tone of money in the next couple of years. Zito will have a tough time showing his face and the organization will have to get him out. Anyway…

I think the Shins, Fiery Furnaces, Rogue Wave show I saw at the Rialto in Tucson was probably one of the best. That or the Spoon & Death Cab For Cutie show in San Francisco.

No one could have predicted what has happened this year. Even with the fading fastball, Zito was 16-10 in his last season in Oakland. If the Giants had signed him at a relative bargain, for $85 million over seven years, his decline still would be astounding. He still would be a free-agent bust.

Even the worst-case scenario didn’t come close to matching what’s actually going on right now, in the first month of year two. Egads.

Also: Radiohead at the Shoreline, June 2001. I prefer seeing bands in much more intimate settings, and never expected the best show I’d ever experience would be in a 20,000-seat outdoor amphitheater. That’s how incredible Radiohead were that night. That’s how much they were on top of their game. They were the Anti-Zito: a bargain at twice the price.

a few weeks ago. They didn’t even play for two hours but Mick looked like he was finally having fun again.

Can’t we just trade him to the Pirates for some young prospects like we do with every other bad trade/signing? I’m thinking they might let go of Ian Snell in return for the Powerhouse that is Zito.

Either that, or does anyone have any “connections”? Would the world really be that upset?

Rock Werchter, Belgium, 2003. Radiohead, Metallica, REM, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, Good Charlotte, Moby, Underworld, Cyrprus Hill, De La Soul, Bjork. 4 days 4 nights, 50 bands, camping out in a small Belgian town. Most amazing experience of my life (other than meeting Willie Mays when I was 7 back at Spring Training in 1987. Everything in life takes a back seat to Willie)

the Giants bullpen just got a whole lot worse

Relient K at Great America several years ago. They played “Take My Breath Away” in front of the Top Gun rollercoaster, which pretty much clinched this vote.

A close second would be the Cadence Weapon/Why?/Islands show at Slim’s two years ago. That was fun, even though there were too many teenyboppers.

I’ve seen situations that suck before, but this is the suckiest situation of suck that ever sucked. Now if you’ll excuse me, my damn wiener readers need to comment

Bravo, sir. Bravo.

Best Concert – Andre Nickatina and Equipto at the Blue Agave in San Diego. There were about 20 people there so it was pretty much like a private show. Smoked a blunt after the show with Equipto.

I think this was the right move for two reasons…
Numero uno: He can work to regain something (anything) in sideline and mop-up duty without hurting the teams chances of winning
Numero two-o: I don’t have to look at an upcoming game and worry that Zito may be starting.

Summer of 1983, Police/Madness/Oingo Boingo

The Police were on the Syncronicity tour and in a stratosphere that maybe only U2 has reached since.

Madness had gone from the quirky ska band of “One Step Beyond” and “Night Boat to Cairo” to the grander quirkyness of “Our House” and “House of Fun”.

Oingo Boingo’s greatness seems under-appreicated by people from No CA. I guess you all were listening to Journey while we were partying to the clowns of darkness.

Seeing The Pixies reunite at Freeborn Hall in Davis was pretty exciting, even though Kim Deal forgot how the baseline to “Wave of Mutiliation” went. A John Hiatt performance at Strawberry Music festival when he was promoting “Crossing Muddy Waters” is probably the best musical performance I’ve ever seen though.

3-way tie between the Clash at the Lyceum Ballroom in 1981, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleroes at Brixton Academy in 2001 and Elvis Costello and the Attractions at Liverpool Royal Court, 1984

I have absolutely refused to watch a start since the beginning of the year. Insanity, etc, etc. Every time I think about the 5 1/2 years we still have left makes me want to vomit. I feel there is no positive end to this story and the Giants are mentioned every time a FA doesn’t live up to expectations. Not only mentioned but shown as Exhibit 1A in all-time idiotic ideas.

As for concert, it’s probably cheating but Coachella two years ago stands out for me. The line-up was good, not great, but it was first ever festival experience. Just awesome and enjoyable in so many ways.

Screw ya’ll, I’m saying Green Day. Pop Disaster tour, some year who knows when.

Wish I could say I saw them at Gilman, and wish I could say I didn’t have to watch Blink 182 play like crap while headlining FOR Green Day,, and wish I could say that my girlfriend at the time didn’t choose to fight with me during Jimmy Eat World’s opening set about how come I couldn’t be more masculine, but if you isolate the period of time that Green Day was on stage in Marysville, I haven’t had as much fun at a concert than I did at that one.

Close second, Jimmy Eat World in Oakland a few years ago. The show wasn’t especially good, but the crowd was digging it and the girlfriend I went to that one with was WAY cooler. Plus, that’s where I learned about Mates of State. So, +1 for finding cool new bands because they opened for a show you went to.

Close third, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Greek about two years ago. It doesn’t crack the top because I wasn’t actually IN the theater (sitting on the hill behind the Greek), I couldn’t actually SEE the band, and the sound isn’t as good when you’re not actually in the place. Tied with Petty was a free concert that Cake put on in Berkeley something like 7 or 8 years ago. Cake was one of my favorite bands at the time (still love Cake), and the show was free.

Yeah… I don’t go to many concerts. And I went to most of the ones I’ve been to when I was in High School.

it was before anyone heard of them and Reznor knew if he’d tour with JMC he’d blow them out the water. He did.

Close second – White Stripes at Greek Theater Berkeley. Jack White is PHEnominal.

I made a bet with my Son on Sunday that if Zito gave up more the 5 earnies I would do his dishes on his next turn. I was giving Barry as much positive vibe as I could, only to be let down in the top of the first!

I have prayed the prayers of the dead for Zito too.

The Bus Boys / Stray Cats in 82.

I’m going with GWAR. I saw them twice, one time they had Jello Biafra come on stage and put him in a giant meat grinder. Also, Green Jello opened up for them once.

Slight side-hijack. The LOUDEST band I ever saw, bar none, was the goddamned Monkees. Louder than Rush, louder than Primus, louder than the Melvins, louder than The Who.

The goddamned Monkees. Who’d a thought….

Best concert I’ve been to was Ben Folds and His Piano. Just an amazingly cool show! Second best was Barenaked Ladies, despite the fact that I hate their music. But they put on a really really cool show.

Kihncert 2005: Greg Kihn Band, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Steve Miller Band, $9.85 tickets.

Other than that yea..haven’t really been to many concerts. My music type and money amount has kept me away from a lot of them. Really only others I’ve seen were free ones, only one of note I can remember was a free concert at the boardwalk by Greg Kihn again.

Not really concerts, but I’ll include this here. Rain, who I’ve seen a couple times, is a great Beatles cover band. They’ll go through three different periods and change clothes to fit the times and the dress of the Beatles. Really a cool show, if you ever get the chance to see them go.

Concerts:

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, and Blink 182 (I think, or maybe it was Sum 41, does it really matter though?) at Shoreline. Anyways, I went to this concert to see RHCP and was completely blown away by STP. The Chili’s were good, but STP was awesome and I was nothing more than a casual fan of them. Band 3 was a waste of space. This concert was about 8, 9 years ago.

More recently was the Rock the Bells concert in SF where Rage Against the Machine was playing in August. The concert had Wu-Tang (they were terrible), The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, and Rage headlining. The concert was an insane mess of people, I think they announced something like 100,000 people in the McCovey Cove Parking Lot. Rage was sick and I hadn’t seen them in concert since they broke up and they were still just as good live. Fucking awesome show. I read that most of Rage’s “reunion” concerts ended in riots, sadly I don’t think SF joined in.

Rancid in ‘94, up here in PDX at La Luna, two weeks after I moved here. It’s still probably the most pure dumb fun I have ever had at a show.

Also: Love and Rockets in ‘96. With all the searing Daniel Ash guitar feedback, it was probably the loudest show I have ever been to. I still have hearing damage.

As for Zito…”they” always try to paint a picture of Zito as “the coolest dude in MLB”, but isn’t that like saying “you don’t sweat much for a fat girl”? As much as Barry Zito’s skills on the mound have declined since his singing with the Giants, it still is leaps and bounds ahead of his skills with a guitar and a hot comb. If Barry Zito is “cool”, then so is every douchbag who sits in his dorm room with his “bros” and strums along to god damned Dave Matthews after playing “hackysack” on the quad, but before going out and getting plastered and date raping some eighteen year old co-ed.

I mean, in theory.

It must have been….2000, I want to say. I haven’t been to one since and I’m not likely to go again. But that one Warped tour was the best show I’ve ever been to. Simply because I got to see Less Than Jake, NOFX, Rancid and Bad Religion all on the same day.

Over the years, I’ve missed many that I really wished I could have gone to. There’s this band I really like, Skankin’ Pickle, that I never really got to see. One time, they played with Sublime and I didn’t get to go and my friends went outside to play pool during Sublime’s set. I was like, what did you do that for…? Also, Rancid and AFI (before they started sucking) in Oakland. I did see them together in Berkeley later but I don’t think it was as good a show. At least, not according to my friend who saw both.

Bands/performers who I’ve never seen but wish I could have. Metallica, Operation Ivy (broke up before I knew what was up), Simon and Garfunkle (I wanted to go to the Old Friends tour but didn’t want to pay 70 dollars for upper deck behind a pillar) and Nirvana.

I too will enjoy much better mental health with Zito hidden away in the pen (though I fear for the plan to have him emerge from it in Philly’s bandbox, of all places).
I can’t help thinking about a couple of starts at the end of the spring, though, where he seemed to be back on track. On Mar. 21, against the Chisox, his line was as follows:
5 2-3 2 0 0 3 4
Hard to imagine, right? And it wasn’t as if the Pale Hose were throwing in all the rooks; most of their every day guys were out there, at least while Barry was pitching.
The previous one v. the M’s was on NBC-11, and the results were piss-poor. However, I remember watching innings 2, 3, and 4, thinking that the dude looked in command. I was actually impressed with the way he was going after hitters.
So, yes, the overwhelming evidence suggests that the guy is toast. And yes, yes, sample size and all that. But , looking at these recent performances, I can’ t help but think that a radical turnaround is still possible. Just wish I knew what the difference was.
Oh, and first concert was my best: general admission to AC/DC in Ottawa, Canada as a fifteen year old. Sweet!

...if they hadn’t completely left out Sober. I will never forgive them for that.

Haven’t been to too many, but saw Metallica whilst promoting St. Anger. Fantastic show despite them being past their prime. For those Metallica fans, the St. Anger songs don’t suck as much when they’re played in concert. I’m pretty sure it’s Lars’ trash-can drums that ruined the recorded version.

This is one of the worst situations a franchise has ever been in. Bullpen, outright release, lengthy sabbatical…every answer sucks. I’ve seen situations that suck before, but this is the suckiest situation of suck that ever sucked.

It kind of reminds me of Rennie Stennett. Decent to good player, signed to a five-year contract in ‘79 for $3 million, a lot back then. Limped noticeably. Didn’t hit, covered space between left and right feet at second base. The Giants ate the last three years.

So there is some precedent. If Zito doesn’t pitch any better than this, there won’t be any choice but to eat it all. It’s not like you can toss him out there to go 0-25.

Talking Heads, Greek Theater, 1984.

i want to stay positive and say he does have the time to salvage this season. at this point all we are hoping for is a .500 pitcher- crappy return on the investment, but it is what it is. if he can find his control and just relax, we can transition him back into the rotation after some time.

best concert was pearl jam at g.g. park while they were boycotting ticketmaster. i was on a school trip to “inner-city san francisco” (i went to s.i., they wanted to show the kids how the other half live and we ended up mostly in my neighborhood; guess who was the only scholarship kid there), and one of the gals was a big p.j. fan so we went to the park just to hang out in front and listen. some stoned hippies ended up giving us 4 tickets for $10 each (face value $25, being scalped for 4x that much) and we saw bad religion open for pearl jam. eddie vedder ended up puking after 5 songs, so neil young emerged from the audience and just took over the rest of the concert. it was flippin surreal.

the next day in the chron they announced they were refunding everyone the $25 for the tix, so it was a pretty badass show that we got paid to see.

My favorite is probably The Who in Marysville on their first reunion tour in… 2000 was it? Amazing, and i never thought it would be a reunion and stadium show that would be my favorite.

For Festivals: Coachella with Radiohead, Pixies, T(I)NC and surprise guest Beck and Kraftwerk in the dance tent was amazing, but Southside Festival in Germany with ‘05 comes close with New Order, Beck, Rammstein (Live in Germany is amazing), 2Raumwohnung, Wir Sind Helden, Die Aerzte, Fantomas, and Oasis , also there contribting but not putting it over the top were AUWKUBTTOD, RobocopKraus, Dresden Dolls(I’ve seen them better), Dinosaur Jr, NIN.

Numbers, Coachwhips, or Point-line-plane and Radar were some other amazing shows. or Experimental Dental School. or Inteligence and AFrames. no it was Black Eyes (the dischord one.) well or something.

I hate Zito.

I don’t go to concerts because drug use severely bothers me. It’s really hard to find a popular music concert where people aren’t doing drugs. So, I just don’t go. Lame? Sure. But I avoid massive freakouts/meltdowns that way.

That said, I go to many orchestral concerts at the local JC. Can’t mosh there to the tuba solo but I have heard some very outstanding programs there. They did a Vivaldi program not too long ago that didn’t include the Four Seasons (Four Seasons is overrated and overdone to the point of tedium IMO) and actually included one of his bassoon concertos. I was very pleased.

Have been to many a concert from old Blue Eyes, The Boss, Rolling Stones, Celine Dion, Teddy and Luther, heck even seen The Village People, Depeche Mode and Counting Crows but the best concert had to be Earth, Wind and Fire at their pinnacle at The Forum.

I just noticed that Mountain Winery is going to have one show featuring ABC, Belinda Carlisle, Human League and Dead or Alive this summer. That would be a fun show at a great venue, especially if Belinda does Go Go’s stuff.

Where are some of the better venues in the general SF area where popular bands will play at? Thinking about taking the wife for a concert sometime and I’d like to browse bands that are coming to the area.

I saw them in Denver sometime around ‘97, with the Gourds also on the bill. That pairing really rocked.

Other best concerts:

X, 1981. At the Russian Hall or the Scandinavian Hall or some other sort of ethnic-group hall in SF. I remember the bemused grandmotherly types manning the coat check. Billy Zoom, on that night at least, was the coolest human being on the planet.

George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars at a club in Boulder, mid-90s. They played for four hours non-stop, musicians cycling in and out regularly. My wife and I finally wore down from dancing and had to leave. I thought “we must be getting old, it’s only been an hour or so and we’re already checking out…” and when we got back to the car I was sure the clock was wrong.

Peter Gabriel, around 1984, at the Greek in Berkeley. I saw a lot of great shows at the Greek, actually – REM, Elvis Costello, to name two. Gabriel put on an amazing visual show, to go with a crack band (Tony Levin et al).

Oh yeah…Zito. Small hope: if his problems really are mental, working in no pressure situations might let him sort it out and figure out how to be a Kirk Reuter type pitcher. Best case, we get $126 million dollars worth of Woody!

... they say he was injured when they bought him, and collect the insurance on his contract, assuming they have some.

Best concert was Frank Black in Omaha, Cult of Ray tour, 1996. I got a ride with a total loser who sat out in the parking lot the whole time, went in by myself, held the bassist’s hand during Frank’s solo of “The Last Stand of Shazeb Andleeb,” and got a pick. Rode home writing the setlist in the back of “Nine Stories” paperback I had brought with me for the drive. Best. Ever.

This thread makes it very hard to study for med school exams. Damn you distractions!

With this latest, at least we can make fun of those ESPN know-nothing pundits who think they can provide insight on how to fix the Zito debacle. Did anyone see Skip Bayless make an ass out of himself this morning?

in Vancouver at the Commodore. Dope Venue, rad show, great crowd.

There are a few things that make me okay with this move (besides the whole “zito sucks” thing). I’m happy to see Misch get a shot, mostly.

However, I think Zito can’t stay in the bullpen for long (no more than two starts, for sure). I can’t handle Zito as a sucky middle reliever at that cost. If this is just a way of skipping a start, but giving him a little work a few innings at a time, leaving him time to work with Rags, I don’t mind.

I think I’ll be going to see Willie Nelson in a month or so, that should be an interesting show. I’m sure the amount of marijuana smoking going on will be ridiculous.

greatest show for me was a Slipknot headlined show for the Iowa album that got canceled cause it was scheduled for 9/14/01, and well for some reason public gatherings of large masses weren’t appropriate again yet. the show happened a month later, opened up by Ramstein followed by system of a down. great sound, and a great pit all night. lost a lot of blood that night from a lovely boxer’s cut on my eye.

second best was a Deftones show last year where their equipment kept fucking up so they said fuck it fixed what they could and played the adrenaline album in it’s entirety.

and i’m hoping to add Ministry and Meshuggah to the list at the end of next month for what will Ministry’s final show ever as a band.

Chulk …. geez!!!!!

Tashner…. ARGH!!!!!

Bring him home… 12 hits… from this handicapped offense.

Bo…cock…................... bunt…

Benji?????