Part 2 of my favorite music venues:
RANCH BOWL
1600 S. 72nd St., Omaha, NE 68124
RIP (2007)
The Ranch Bowl was the site of my very first REAL concert; That is, a band I liked and I wanted to see. I had been to concerts before, usually someone my parents liked or worse, a Christian rock artist I had no interest inbut was forced to go to because they were positive. Yeech! Yup, I saw an Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith double bill. And yup, I still wake up at night in cold sweats because of it.
A lot of times people tell me they saw their first concert around the age of twelve, thirteen, or even younger. I had no interest in music until I was thirteen and even then I lived in a town that never made the touring route of any band I had a remote interest in. If you wanted to see a good band, you had to travel to Omaha or Minneapolis. It wasn't until just after the seventeenth birthday that I saw my first concert.
It was Toad The Wet Sprocket. Okay, I was young and it was before the exploded. Pale is a good album, too, kids. But it was at the Ranch Bowl, a bowling alley with a bar/music venue attached at the front, and luckily for me they were able to have all-ages shows despite the liquor license. I had gone with my sister and her husband and met a couple of friends there who were attending also. I was able to squeeze right in front for my first show and it was just right. I was born.
The thing about the Ranch Bowl is that it was the perfect size. It was just big enough that it could fill a decent size crowd and no matter where you sat/stood you could see the band. In a town the size of Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York it would be too small for most the bands I saw play there. In Omaha, it was just right. And I learned later that year how right it was.
That same year I attended the
U2 ZooTV tour for the
Achtung Baby album. It was my first stadium concert and I was shocked and dismayed at the experience of having to watch a band from the nosebleed section. Was that speck down there
Bono? Did I even care anymore? No, I didn't. I left that show not only finding the whole stadium rock scene to be complete and utter bullshit but I was disappointed by the concert experience altogether. It felt like they only wanted my money and shat out this run-of-the-mill show that I had already seen previously on MTV the day before. (And, yes, I dissolved my U2 love right after)
Some three months later short of Christmas my friend Justin and I heard about an upcoming
Mudhoney show at the Ranch Bowl. I had bought their album
Piece Of Cake, seen their videos on
120 Minutes, and read enough to have my interested thoroughly piqued. With my friend Justin we bought tickets and traveled the hour and a half down to Omaha during the cold Midwest winter to see the show.
We had arrived early that day.
Way too early. The doors weren't even about to open and we were the first in line but we had no where else to go so we decided to just stand there and wait. And then Mudhoney walked through the door.
At the time in my life it was unfathomable to view musicians as a persons just like myself. It's not like today where I see the drummer of
Green Day buying tickets for a movie or
Danger Mouse walk past my house. This was when I would see music videos of
Bruce Springsteen,
Tom Petty, Mudhoney, etc. and in my head they were all on the same level. In fact, Mudhoney's music was so much better than most of what I heard at the time that they were exactly in the right company of Tom and Bruce. So when they stood right there before me, having just stepped off their tour van and looking confused as to where they were to play I was in awe.
I nudged Justin and whispered "That's them!" We watched as they were let in to the Ranch Bowl and listened their soundcheck as the crowd gathered beside us. When the doors finally opened we secured a place up front and were subsequently blown away. Mudhoney performed for everyone from the front to the back of the room. They were enjoying themselves and ripping it up.
Mark Arm swung the microphone around, catching it in the small rafters just above his head and struggled to loosen to it as the band laughed and played on. A fight broke out in the crowd at the side and they even stopped to watch!
From that day on Mudhoney had secured themselves as one of my favorite bands. I'd stay with these guys on a sinking ship! But more importantly it taught me that my favorite venues are those small, intimate ones like the Ranch Bowl where the audience can really connect with a performer. From there on I saw some excellent performances by
Bob Mould,
Buffalo Tom, and
Matthew Sweet. I almost saw
Pavement there on the Crooked Rain tour but the show was cancelled. That would've been incredible!
I've learned the Ranch Bowl closed it's doors to build a Wal-Mart in it's place. Another one bites the dust. *sigh* Whatever may have caused their demise, it was an amazing place that housed some of amazing shows. Sending love to you, Ranch Bowl!
Make It Now comes from Mudhoney's 1992
Piece Of Cake, the album they were touring in support of at the time I saw this show. Here's what I've always had to say about Mudhoney... They are the second coming of
The Stooges. Grunge, schmunge! In their heart they were always a garage band. You know how you listen to your Nuggets boxset and cry that there are no bands as good as there were then? They're been here the whole time, brother! Wake up!
For more info:
Mudhoney:
http://www.subpop.com/artists/mudhoney
