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Today 36 years ago I went to my first rock concert. What was yours?


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My first show. Rainbow, Straight Between The Eyes Tour. With Roger Glover on bass. I was 13 and I thought that stage, with the moving eyes above, was the coolest I've ever seen.

I still prefer Rainbow over Deep Purple. 

Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rainbow/1982/johanneshov-isstadion-stockholm-sweden-3db25eb.html

What was your first rock concert?

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Rudimentary Peni (punk band) August 1982 at The Yorker, Nottingham, England. First metal band I saw was Venom at Hammersmith, London, 1985. One of the best gigs I went to was Bad Brains in London 1986...

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Led Zepplin at the university of Iowa. Jan 1969. $2.00 a ticket. Somebody got busted and a awesome drum solo. The sound was kinda crappy. 

Oh yeah!! Kinda flashing back my parents where super pissed when I got home.... 

best conert James Gang and Alice Cooper in Des Moines. 1974. High as a kite and Alice was incredible!! People in spider suits rapelling from the ceiling and freaking people out. Just an amazing show!!

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1980, Pat Benatar

ETA: I had seen several country music shows before that with my parents.  Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Willie Nelson, etc. but PB was the first rock show I saw.  Second and third were Loverboy/Huey Lewis and Blackfoot/Def Leppard (High n' Dry tour with Pete Willis!)/Johnny Van Zant but I can't remember which one I saw earlier.

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My mom says she took me to see Johnny Cash when I was little, but I only vaguely remember it. 

First one I CHOSE to see was Cheap Trick, with UFO and Johnny Van Zandt opening, at Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. We skipped school to get in line at 8am, and ran like maniacs when the gates opened, to be front row center. When you're a kid, seeing your favorite band front row, with Neilsen tossing picks around and the volume making your chest rattle, is a life-changing experience.

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BTO with Leslie West opening, 1975(?), Dane County Coliseum, Madison - $4.50.

Leslie West did a version of 'House of the Rising Sun' that I've never forgotten. Awesome stuff.

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2 hours ago, Ralph said:

Wasp and Kiss. I almost got the body of Paul Stanley's guitar after he busted it up.

 

26 minutes ago, polara said:

My mom says she took me to see Johnny Cash when I was little, but I only vaguely remember it. 

First one I CHOSE to see was Cheap Trick, with UFO and Johnny Van Zandt opening, at Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. We skipped school to get in line at 8am, and ran like maniacs when the gates opened, to be front row center. When you're a kid, seeing your favorite band front row, with Neilsen tossing picks around and the volume making your chest rattle, is a life-changing experience.

In the 80's we used to go to the venue during day time. And then we'd sneak in through the loading dock. There were no real guards. It was a big hockey arena and we ran around the corridors and around the seats on the balconies. Once seated, as well hidden as we could, we could watch the soundchecks, or when they built the stage.

I saw the ticket prices for Ozzys show here in a few months. He sells soundcheck tickets for over 300 $, WTF! Those were the days of inocence. On a good day we'd chat with the stage hands and they'd give us guitar picks and drum sticks. I also witnessed the stage personel saw off the neck on Paul Stanleys guitar, a cheap bolt on import, before the show. It was so that he could smash it during the show. Big disappointment. That ruined Kiss for me. I mean, if you are going to destroy your guitar, at least be a man about it and do it properly. You need to go all Pete Townsend about it, or you should just not bother.

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Black Sabbath.  10th September 1989 at Hammersmith.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  My friend's Dad took us and we watched in awe.  There was no need for dry ice in the smoke filled venue.

Brian May came on for the encore and bearing in mind Queen were no longer touring this was a rare treat.

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With parents:  Elvis, March 14, 1974

Without parents:  Boston with Sammy Hagar opening, October 28, 1978

Kind of killed my interest in Boston, but I went right out and bought All Night Long, which was the live album Sammy was supporting and basically the show I saw.  It's been in the primary rotation ever since.  A 1970's rock show!

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13 minutes ago, mrjamiam said:

Without parents:  Boston with Sammy Hagar opening, October 28, 1978

That combination of Boston and Sammy Hagar was my first rock concert, too.  They played Clemson, SC on January 20, 1979. 

Sammy's band was the original lineup of Montrose with Gary Pihl on guitar instead of Ronnie Montrose.  The keyboard player was Alan Fitzgerald who would end up in Night Ranger. 

Sammy was a rocker that night, running across the stage.  Looking back, he put on the better show, but I was still excited to see Boston. 

I remember the volume being LOUD! 

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May 23, 1980...Cheap Trick at the Philly Spectrum...it may have been the year before but I think it was 1980.... IIRC, UFO opened.

Absolutely incredible show. Second song in was Clock Strikes Ten and I was going crazy!

Now I did see Pure Prairie League in 1977-8 in an open field in front of the Venice, FL fishing pier, but I just happened to stumble across that on my way to go fishing that night....

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There were a few country music concerts I attended with my parents - George Jones, Porter Wagoner (with Dolly Parton), Sonny James (with a young, short-haired, suit-wearing Willie Nelson) - but the first rock concert was Foghat with Styx and Head East, Lake Charles Civic Center, Lake Charles, Louisiana, January 31, 1976. After that was KISS with Bob Seger and Artful Dodger at The Summit in Houston, August 13, 1976.

Foghat Ticket.jpg

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