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First Concert Memories


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Posted

In a previous thread, I mentioned I had left the living room to attend a local jam.

Anyhoo, the guy who hosts the jam is something of a classic rock trivia expert, and he always puts "on this date in music" tidbits in the e-mails he sends out.

Before the monthly jam, he asks that you put in song requests, so anyone who attends can work on the songs the others want to play.

I requested "Space Oddity".

When I got there, the host guy said that Rick Wakeman did the keyboards on Space Oddity before joining Yes. I didn't know that.

He then mentioned he saw Yes in 1974.

So did I, it was my first "real" concert.

1974, Yes at Cornell University.

Memories:

A friend and I hitched a ride from Syracuse to Ithaca, and another friend who went to Cornell had the tickets.

Some local kids saw us an said "we can sneak you in for a dollar!" I said we already had tickets. They said "So what, sneak back out and sell those tickets!" Somehow or another, this seemed like a good idea to my Syracuse friend and me. Needless to say, my Cornell buddy was of far superior intellect and wisely used the tickets we already had! We stupid Syracuse U-ers did sneak in, and we never did sneak out to scalp the tickets we already had. So we paid an additional dollar for the thrill of sneaking in.

I wasn't too familiar with Yes, but I knew "Roundabout", and some Fragile stuff.

They played the entire "Tales of Topographic Oceans", which made everybody restless.

Jon Anderson said "Hello Rochester!", and got booed. He then did some song and dance about the previous night's show and attempted to make amends by saying "Hello, Ithaca!"

Steve Howe was great!

What was the first concert you saw?

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Posted

KISS Love Gun tour in 1977, with Styx opening. Styx had just released Grand Illusion. My bud's big sister and her boyfriend took us to Fort Worth and I'll never forget it being the first time I smelled marijuana LOL.

Posted

Van Halen, 1979. I was 12 and had been playing guitar for 2 years.

Hadn't heard of them, my sister had an extra ticket.

I became an instant fan, of course!

Posted

First show was England Dan and John Ford Coley, 1975 at the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago. My older sister and her boyfriend took me, I was 11.

Great theater, building was a small castle, very ornate. Too bad they shut it down not long after and turned it into a cheese shop (no joke). Which, I'm sure, some of you would say it was before the turnover just because of ED & JFD playing there...

Posted

Cheap Trick.

Louisville Gardens

April 1979

I was right down front getting smashed against the barricade. I took this photo with a 50mm lens. I did not own a zoom at the time.

Rick-1.jpg

Posted

Kinda embarassing, but we were into them at the time... ever heard of The Dead Milkmen? Real popular on college radio in the late 80's. I was 14.

Next one was AC/DC Razors Edge tour w/ L.A. Guns opening. Awesome!!! I was 15. Ever seen the movie Detroit Rock City? That was my life trying to get to see AC/DC.

Posted

Other than peeking in the door to see the Rolling Stones in 1966 at Big Reggie's Danceland in Excelsior, my first concert was Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown and Ten Years After in late 1968/early 1969 (don't remember exactly but it was winter and before Woodstock). They were all on the same bill for $5.50 general admission at the Minneapolis Armory. I still have the ticket stubs stashed away somewhere. :lol:

That was the "real" Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. If you've never heard them, check them out -- IMHO the best in hard core British blues :(

Posted

It was 1976, I remember getting on the bus to go to the concert - the rest is pretty "hazy"....

Posted

First concert was the Beach Boys opening for Chicago. Only thing I remember was thinking that was on odd pairing.

But then I saw Bob Seger open for Kiss. Talk about odd.

Posted

the kinks, dallas convention center 1980 (i was in jr high).

they had just released their excellent comeback live album "one for the road", which was all over the radio ("lola", "all day and all of the night"). great show!

2nd show was the cars (boring),

but the third was thin lizzy's chinatown tour, at the small SMU mcfarland auditorium, which was frickin awesome!! my older brother got so stoned he puked, ha.

kinda lost track after that, i went to a ton of shows, including several texxas jams (rush, VH, deep purple). good times.

Posted

Kinda embarassing, but we were into them at the time... ever heard of The Dead Milkmen? Real popular on college radio in the late 80's. I was 14.

Next one was AC/DC Razors Edge tour w/ L.A. Guns opening. Awesome!!! I was 15. Ever seen the movie Detroit Rock City? That was my life trying to get to see AC/DC.

they are from philly seen them several times

nothing to be embarrassed about

Posted

Queen - A Night at the Opera tour (Cleveland, OH at Music Hall)...I think it was 1975.

Great show and I still have the program.

Posted

WBAM (The "Big Bam") caravan shows in the mid-'60s in the state colisuem in Montgomery, Alabama. Usually about ten acts performing several songs each. Over the years, participants included Lou Christie, the Blues Magoos, Ray Stevens, the Electric Prunes, Sandy Posey, the Royal Guardsmen, the Buckinghams, Herman's Hermits, the Who, Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs, Sonny and Cher, the Zombies, Neil Diamond, Peter and Gordon, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, the Hollies, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Animals, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Cyrkle, the Lovin' Spoonful, Roy Clark, Chad and Jeremy, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Count Five, the Turtles, the Barbarians, the Seeds, Billy j. Kramer and the Dakotas. Many were in such lineups several times (seemed like Lou Christie was at every one of 'em).

As for an extended concert, that would have been the Yardbirds (w/ Jimmy Page on Telecaster, which was down around his kneecaps), June 1968 on a flatbed trailer in the main straightaway of the ridiculously-monikered Montgomery International Speedway.

Posted

The Nuge, supported by Nazareth and the Michael Stanley Band, circa 1978. Ah, the days of festival seating, with reefer in the air...

Posted

The New York Dolls at the Michigan Palace - 1973...

Amazing! Loud... Raw... Pure rock-n-roll - with New York attitude... The Dolls were dressed very glam! Lots of lipstick and heels! Great stage show! The drum kit was pink! And they were soooooooo loud they blew out the sound system... It was repaired hours later and the show finished around 2 am... The show rocked! David Johansen, Johnny Thunders, Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan... They "trashed" Detroit - and loved every minute of it!

I can honestly say - not too many shows have ever topped it! And to think it was my first... Little did I know...

I always hear people talking about the Dolls as an influence... I can proudly say: "I saw them!" "Wow!"

Posted

That would be Aerosmith, during the "ROCKS" tour (Tempe AZ), Fall of 1976.

Outdoor stadium. Everybody but us (and the cops) was smokin' it up... talk about "contact high"... :(

Rick Derringer opened, followed by JEFF BECK w/ the Jan Hammer Group playing lots of BBB & WIRED.

Third act Lynyrd Skynyrd was a no-show... something about a couple of car accidents a few day prior... :lol:

Tyler was totally wasted and Aerosmith only played about an hour... still, it was great!

Posted

Spring 76, Outdoor Arena - RFK, DC

Nazareth

(missed em)

Nugent

(who is this crazy guy running all over the stage?)

Lynyrd Skynyrd

(Gads, they kicked butt. Stole the show)

Aerosmith

(Full-on Lumbering Brontosaurus mode. Sloppy but fun)

Posted

My Dad took Bro Steve and I to see the Ventures. They were playing at a little club in our town in between "Big City" venues, and we were WAY underage. At first, they didn't want to let us in, but my Dad spoke to the owner/manager, and he agreed to let us sit on the side of the stage as long as we didn't drink anything. :( Thought that was pretty cool - we got to meet the band, and Bob Bogle and Nokie Edwards gave us picks.

The first un-chaperoned concert came shortly afterwards - we saw Blue Oyster Cult with Foghat (Shooting Star was the bill opener). I remember the lights coming on during "Slow Ride", and seeing this incredible blue haze over the entire place...

Posted

My first concert was the "Mississippi River Jam" in a baseball stadium in Davenport Iowa, 1979. UFO, AC/DC, Nazareth and Heart. I remember being blown away by Angus... And Bon Scott running through the crowd right past us with Angus on his shoulders, and Angus mooning the audience. And the smell of pot. And being SICK of The Logical Song and Supertramp in general after hearing it played all day between acts.

Second concert was Van Halen on the 1980 Invasion/W&CF Tour, with Talas opening, at Western IL University in Macomb. THAT show set the bar pretty high. One crazy thing I remember (besides all the funny DLR banter) was Eddie would run up to his stacks and drop kick one and then just stand in front of it while it rocked back and forth like it was going to fall on top of him :(

Posted

It was 1976, I remember getting on the bus to go to the concert - the rest is pretty "hazy"....

LOL- seems like alot of shows were like that!! :(

My first was Charlie Daniels mid 70's, older brother took me and schooled me in the ways of the daze and got me hooked on southern rock.

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