GREAT topic and conversation starter! I can't pick/rank 10 but I'll make some occasional observations in this thread...and share two memorable shows representing two extremes -- a folk act and a rock act.

TIS -- The Buckinghams! I think you can still see them in Chicago on the summer festival circuit along with The Cryan' Shames, The Ides of March, and some permutation of the New Colony Six!

DMF -- these lists ALWAYS have a club date involving The Replacements. Mine would include seeing them at The Cubby Bear in Chicago around the same time...there was a big drunk guy throwing pennies at the band!

MaryCas -- Bromberg, Buffet, Bonnie Raitt and that crowd were regulars on the Lincoln Ave. folk club circuit in Chicago at that time. Buffet would perform at the Quiet Night in Chicago. He was so entrenched in the Chicago folk scene, his picture appears on the cover of Steve Goodman's album "Somebody Else's Troubles."

As a student, I saw Steve Goodman in Champaign, Illinois on a snowy day in December just before final exams in 1977. His flight from Chicago was delayed. His opening act, Harry Waller, played for nearly 90 minutes. And when Goodman finally hit the stage, he played solo for close to two hours, then brought Harry Waller on stage for his encore of nearly 30 minutes.

Here's one where the band, the venue, and the year all click. I saw Guns 'n' Roses at the Danville Civic Center (Danville, Illinois) in 1988. Last year of the Reagan administration, distressed blue collar town during an economic recession, hard rockin' band, 4500 people crammed like sardines into a municipal ice arena, lots of guys in mullets, and girls in black tank tops. The band had cancelled a bunch of shows earlier in the tour and people wondered whether or not they would show-up that night. They did. They came, they saw, they rocked.

Start a thread on music...and I'll ramble all night.

tony b.