If you had a time machine that could take you back to any one specific tour (but ONLY one), who would you go see?

MetalSucks

Well, of course there are a thousand and one bands I would like to see, or wish I had seen but never did, so I’m going to morph this question into one about bands I could have easily seen but didn’t, for whatever reason.

I missed a chance to see Suicidal Tendencies in late November of 1990.

Likewise with the Black Crowes in the summer of 2007, I think. That one’s kind of iffy — I don’t care much for self-indulgent jam bands live, but I do love a lot of their songs, mostly from Amorica onward. It might have been worth sitting through a lot of excess guitar noodling for that.

Went to Raleigh, N.C. in August of 1994 to see Pantera with Prong and Sepultura opening, only to be informed at the gate that Sepultura had withdrawn due to Max Cavalera injuring his knee at an earlier show. Never have seen them since.

But the most head-slapping one of all has to be, again, in November of 1990, about a week before the S.T. show, in fact — Jane’s Addiction played at a gymnasium on campus in town, and I didn’t go because I didn’t really know who they were at the time. A few weeks later, I bought Ritual de lo Habitual and was entranced by it. That record is still a magical one for me, the kind that instantly transports you back through time to whatever was going on at that point in your life, and for me, what a beautiful time it was. Half a year later, they were broken up.