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Band bucket list

Last week I wrote a winter concert preview (click here) and I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in the season’s offerings.

There are some interesting shows scheduled, but nothing I felt particularly excited about. That all changed the next day, when I learned that Jane’s Addiction had announced a concert date at the Palace Theatre. I was ecstatic. I went online Saturday morning, as soon as the tickets went on sale, and bought tickets for myself and two friends. Another friend I spoke with actually became a Palace member so that she could buy presale tickets. When I saw the New England Sports Fan Friend on Saturday, he said that he, his wife and two other friends had purchased tickets on Saturday morning.

Obviously there’s a lot of excitement about Jane’s Addiction, at least among my small circle of friends and acquaintances. (“I wouldn’t want to see Jane’s Addiction at this stage of their career,” one of my friends sniffed, but he was in the minority.) In fact, I haven’t sensed this much enthusiasm for an Albany concert announcement in a long time. What can explain it?

After giving it some thought, I realized that Jane’s Addiction is on my band bucket list — the list of bands I’d really like to see before I die (or before they die). I ran this theory by my friend who bought tickets for Jane’s presale, and she said the same thing — that she desperately wants to see Jane’s Addiction before they disband forever. We both agreed that it would have been better to see them back in the early 1990s, in the heyday after the release of the band’s great album “Ritual de lo habitual,” but that we’re still pretty excited to see them now.

In any case, the Jane’s Addiction announcement got me thinking. What other bands are on my band bucket list? (Bucket list is an expression I kind of hate, but I can’t think of another thing to call it.) After some careful consideration, this is the list I came up with:

— Prince (I recently made four mix CDs for four separate people, and each one contained a song by Prince. I guess that’s my mix CD trademark.)

— Bjork

— Madonna

— The Beastie Boys

— David Bowie

— The Twilight Singers

Now for some younger bands who are currently on the band bucket list, but haven’t proved their staying power:

— Arcade Fire

— Vampire Weekend

— Spoon

— The Baseball Project (The Baseball Project played Albany a couple years ago, and I would have loved to see them, but it was the same night I had tickets to see U2 — another band on my band bucket list — in Boston.)

There are also some bands I hold out a remote hope will get back together someday so that I can see them, such as:

— The White Stripes

— Jawbreaker

— REM

— The Replacements (Periodically, there’s some speculation about whether the Replacements will ever get back together, and someone — most recently Tommy Stinson — always shoots it down. The Replacements probably shouldn’t get back together, but if they did, I’d be rushing online to buy tickets in a heartbeat.)

I also have a short list of bands that I’ve seen, but so long ago that seeing them again would count as a completely new experience. This list includes:

— The Afghan Whigs (The Afghan Whigs are actually touring, but they’ve only announced four dates, and three of them are overseas and one is in Asbury Park. I can see where it would be fun to travel to Barcelona to catch them in concert, but I should probably save that money for something practical, like a new car.)

— Radiohead (I saw Radiohead just after the release of their second studio album, “The Bends.” Since then, they’ve become one of the greatest living rock bands. I loved seeing them in a small Cleveland club, and I’d love to see them play a larger venue in front of thousands of adoring fans.)

— Paul Westerberg (Since a Replacements reunion will probably never happen, the least Paul Westerberg could do is go on tour again in his life.)

— The Black Keys (I saw the Black Keys five or six years ago, when they opened for Beck at SPAC, and I’m ashamed to admit that I wasn’t really into them, and spent most of their set in SPAC’s beer prison, drinking overpriced beer with my friends. Now the Black Keys are HUGE, and they have an awesome new album, and I would love to see them.)

Got a comment? Email me atsfoss@dailygazette.net.

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