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Concert Review: Violent Femmes @ Anderson Arena/BGSU, 1997

I know it was in the Spring of 1997, but I’m not exactly sure of the date. Unlike all the other concerts, this one I had a personal involvement in. The Bowling Green State University Universities Activity Organization had approached our radio station in the Fall of 1996 to get ideas on bringing a musical artist to BG in the Spring around the same time the station was researching the same concept. As I just moved into the Programming Director role, I got picked to work with the UAO and review a list of artists they had already narrowed down to based on costs.

As we were an alternative rock station, alternative rock bands made sense for us. The UAO crowd had a different idea, preferring a safe pick like Blues Traveler or The Steve Miller Band. Utlimately, UAO made the final decision and went with the Violent Femmes, who pretty much a legacy act by 1997 and not relevant to our station.

Some politics went on that I wrote about at the time (and comes across as pretty immatuer and whiny, to be honest) and the show was not enjoyable from a personal standpoint, though the band was fine, and afterward while helping them load out turned out to be relatively nice and friendly guys.

Concert Review: Howlin Maggie @ Frankie’s Inner City, 1996/1997

Sometime after the release of their first album, Honeysuckle Strange, Howlin Maggie made the trip up to Toledo to play Frankie’s Inner City. The name is truthful, the club was in downtown Toledo, a place I did not visit very many times during my years at college in Bowling Green.

The club was split into to sides, one for bands and one for a dance club and DJ. We realized upon arriving that the band side was woefully empty, and the club side was packed. And loud. Very loud. There were (maybe) twelve people there to see Howlin Maggie, who despite the small audience, were glammed up and rocked as if they were playing a 20,000 seat venue.

I made the mistake of wearing the t-shirt of the bandI was going to see, a fact that my friends Keith, Jason and Billy who accompanied pointed out without mercy.