Your first concert?

[Madison]

Maybe this has been covered before?


Your first concert.I mean big time concert.


I was trying to remember the date.


Figured it out.
It was August 6th, 1981.
Ozzy Osbourne (Randy Rhoads) and the warm up band was Def Leppard in Bangor, Maine.


I was 13............and.......well......lots of things were being passed around that night.
Clearly......I can't remember all of it.

[DummyLoad]

elton john, yellow brick road tour at boston gardens. IIRC it was 1974 and would have been 14. went with cousins and my older sister.


--pete

[Willabe]

I think that's his best album. Although it's very dark, lyrics.

Mine was Uriah Heap/ Manfred Man, Chicago Amphitheater (bull dozed) spring '73(?) before sophomore year HS.

Smoke all around, knew what it was, but before my time. With my 2 buddies (brothers) from down the street.

Can't remember who got the tickets or why? We didn't know who they were. I do remember it was loud.         

[tubenit]

It was either James Brown or Jimi Hendrix either in fall of '68 or spring of '69 in Shreveport, La.   Don't remember which I saw first?

Also saw Jerry Butler the ice man that same year & took my sister to see the Monkees.

Summer of '69,  I was at the New Orleans Pop Festival with many of the same people as Woodstock.  It was within a few weeks of Woodstock.  Saw Iron Butterfly,  Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat,  Country Joe and the Fish,  Janis Joplin (alone without Big Brother) and many others.

Jeff

[shooter]

Mine was Uriah Heap

I believe that was my 1st also, in Kalamazoo, MI.  '73 sounds about right
and Willabe, you're right, they were loud!! and smoke was green, and, well that's all I remember, except, I did buy their album, somewhere

[Willabe]

Ahh, I had absolutely NO business at that age being there, even though I didn't take part in other activities that were all around.

So much of what I thought I loved back then, in HS, I now deeply regret.

I just think a lot of it was a mistake on my part and that I would have been better off with out it. 

[Ritchie200]

I think I got you beat.  My first was the Beatles in 1966.  It was cold, raining, all I could hear were girls screaming and a tinny sounding PA.  Standing out in the middle of Busch Stadium here in St. Louis.  I was 8 so it didn't really count.  My first REAL concert was Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon tour 1973.  Then Deep Purple Machine Head Tour.  Then Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies Tour.  All in 1973.  Pink Floyd had speakers all over the auditorium and the sound guy was panning it all over - pretty cool for the time.  Deep Purple changed me forever.  Loudest band I've ever heard at the top of their game - unreal.  Alice Cooper scared me!

Jim

[Platefire]

Mine was Credance Clearwater Revival in Shreveport LA. Yes tubenit use to live around here!

Can't remember the date(70's)but it was when Tom Forgety had just quit the band and they were 3 piecing it.Can,t rember who the warm up band was. Seen Foghat about a million times, seems they was the warmup band for everybody.

[shooter]

Seen Foghat

They played a HS! the day before they opened for somebody

I now deeply regret

don't be to hard, if you're like most of use from back when, that time for me *shaped* what is now wisdom... with cred!   The young folks I worked with in the '90's liked that I was honest about *those days* and more than a few took *my word for it* and got "ahead of the pack" in life, me, I'm still; "an 'ol hippie, wondering if I should hang on to the old or embrace? the new" merle haggard?.

[EL34]

I don't remember dates very well

I went to a 3 day festival and there were a bunch of bands
May 29, 1972: 1000 Acres Park, Fremont, IN with Bob Seger & Julia, Teegarden & Van Winkle with Bruce, Frijid Pink, Catfish "1000 Acres Pop Festival"
3 days of yellow sunshine acid is about all I remember about that
Wandering around amongst all the tents checking the whole scene out

Blue Oyster Cult - I remember seeing them early on

Jeff beck, Santana, John Mclaughlin in the 70's sometime

Chick Corea with Al Di Meola, Stanley Clark and Lenny White - Return to forever
Some time in the 70's



Van Halen is maybe the very first big venue type concert
Sometime around the first album in 78

I remember seeing Yngwie in a small club very early in his career
Also, Robin Trower in the same small club
Just missed seeing SRV in that same small club before anyone knew who he was

I do remember that my girl friend at the time did not like Yngwie because he kept egging the crowd on to applaud
He would put both arms out and wiggle his fingers like, come on, I am awesome, applaud for me :)
I thought it was funny

!Yngwie, your new God

I don't know if any of these classify as "Big Time"
Maybe Van Halen?

[Willabe]

Seen Foghat

Yeah they were always out on the road.      I sat in at a blues club with Lonesome Dave 1 night.

The young folks I worked with in the '90's liked that I was honest about *those days* and more than a few took *my word for it* and got "ahead of the pack" in life, me, I'm still;

That's good. 

[Ed_Chambley]

The Allman Brothers were headlining at the Atlanta Stadium.  Large show and it did rain which delayed the Brothers.  When the did hit the stage Butch Trucks fell through his drums and someone was pulling Greg onto the stage trying to get him to sit at his organ.

Dicky Betts started playing and singing by himself.  Word was they got ahold of some barbs.  Duane was alive which should give you an idea of the year.  I was very young and was with my cousin and his girlfriend.  I remember I had to reach up to hold her hand.

Next it was KISS and after I get them all mixed up.  I began touring the A circuit after and have seen too many to count.

I do remember the Van Halen concert on 1978 they opened for Sabbath and they (Sabbath) were really off that night and got boo'd.  The tickets were $8.95 including service charges.  Saw Triumph around the same time and the tickets were $3.96.

Saw the Stones in 78 as well, opener was The Stray Cats and as I looked at the marque I wondered why they had a stones song on the sign.  Did not know the Stray Cats yet.  They were absolutely great.

[Platefire]

I remember going to a Lawrence Whelk concert with my Mom and Dad in the 70's. They use to watch him on TV every Saturday night, so it was big deal for them to see him live. They did have a pretty good guitarist that toured with them they let cut loose a couple of times. I got to see Bill and Sissy dancing while the bubble machine was pumping them out. Hot time in the old city 

[EL34]

LOL, that's a great story Plate 

[Ritchie200]

Haha!  Ed I saw that Sabbath Van Halen tour too.  Sabbath had that bomb (from an airplane) set up on stage.  Ozzy came out and was at the front of the stage getting the crowd going but was blinded by the spotlight and got smacked hard in the nose by a Frisbee.  Gave him a bloody nose but he toughed it out.  They put on a great show, I guess they hadn't made a "connection" here yet....  Roth was in the wings watching everything Ozzy did.  First time I saw Foghat, the James Gang opened for them with Tommy Bolin on guitar.  Funny to think back on all the opening bands that went on to be big.  I first saw Kiss when they played at a radio station sponsored kite fly outside at a park on their first album tour.  A local DJ tells the story about how he picked them up from their hotel in the radio station van that only had the drivers seat in it.  He said they were in full costume rolling around in the back when he would go around a corner!  The amps and the PA were powered by a bunch of tiny little coleman generators - oh those poor Marshalls at 70-110 varying volts!

Plate, ah yes, Saturday night with "Anah wonah anah tooah" "Wherent theyah just lovelee" "The champagne orchestra". Lawrence, HeeHaw, and later Carol Burnette were the must watch TV at our house.

Jim

[bnwitt]

The summer of 1973 Houston Coliseum Jethro Tull with opening band Steeleye Span.  Oh my lord the fiddle player in Steeleye Span was incredible.  Ian Anderson kept flying down onto the stage from somewhere off stage at the opening of each song.  My older brother and I were two military brats in a sea of drug addicts.  Pot and booze everywhere and the stoner in front of me passed out with his head in my lap on Qaaludes and ripple wine.  His girlfriend kept screaming he's dead and a cop came up, told everyone to put there drugs away while he was there, listened to his chest, said "He's just passed out"  and walked away.  Everyone went back to passing pipes and bottles.  I'm so glad I was a tea totaler.  I really enjoyed the concert.  Man!!  Great rock and roll.

[zendragon63]

First REAL concert was Led Zeppelin at the Kingdome in 1977. Right in front. Thundering drums, Page and Plant ripping it up. I thought it was incredible and I got serious about the guitar. Should have left well enough alone though--in a fit of nostalgia, I youtubed the concert a couple of years ago and came away with the realization that they were pretty sloppy then and I must have been pretty stoned. They were still the best raw power blues group. IMHO of course. Regards

dennis

[jojokeo]

This is fun reading... and reminds me of a Foo Fighters concert in the sweetly revamped Inglewood Forum home of the LA Lakers & Kings among other things and before the Staples Center. But now it is mainly a concert only venue. I got invited and tickets were so high in the nose bleed section that I was dizzy from vertigo is was so steep. Ha! So I was with my lady and another female instigator friend where we snuck down around the lower middle area but still more than half way from the stage on the side. This wasn't easy because we're talking actual seating, no standing stuff. But much better and the neighboring people were very friendly & generous if you know what I mean? But not good enough for our friend so she goes down to the floor seats on the floor level and finds more seats for us but now towards the end so further away from the stage but smack dab center. Like being behind the basket or goalie net. So now we're looking at the large screen behind Grohl and exactly centered with the speaker system and turned out really well from an audio standpoint for sure.

Then all of a sudden in the middle of one of Dave's stories as he always does, he walks down a long cat walk towards us and from the ceiling a smaller sub stage begins to lower. Before we all realize, there he was right in front of us along with the entire band! We can't believe it. It was circular with microphones evenly spaced around it. They all took their spots with mostly acoustic instruments and Dave begins to talk about his first concert and the many times he had to sit in places like we were in. He said he understood and always has a place in his heart for this and is why he had the stage and set-up to do this special little up close thing for those of us back there. Then he asks all the band members one at a time who was their very first concert?! It was like a hazing ritual taunting and teasing them all and telling them to tell the f-ing truth about it! The audience ate it all up and my lady friends and I couldn't have had a better vantage point of the entire thing. They went on to play a bunch of stuff for almost an hour. It was just so way cool and sick as can be.

Now getting to the point of my first concert was actually in the same venue and was the Styx in about 1978 or 79 after they came out with The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight albums and I think right before Paradise Theatre? They were really rolling along at this point and Tommy Shaw always did catch my ear with his catchy solo phrases. I'll always remember it starting out with the stage completely black and silent. Then rising up from below the stage floor was Denis playing solo piano sing "Lady" with a white tuxedo and the different colored spotlights hitting him and changing colors. It's still a great visual that really set an impression and then when the band came time to all join in, they all came flying onto the stage with more lighting effects cranking out the power chords and probably is much more of a moment in my mind after all the years than maybe it was at the time? But for me and my first big concert it was something really impressive and left an imprint. Now before this I got to hang at EVH's and in Dave's parents basement around '77 and that was unbelievable too but wasn't my first "official" concert show so to speak.

[silverfox]

New England Blues Festival. Around 75 or 76. Can't find any history on it but Muddy Waters was there and I remember two things real well about his performance. He played La Grange and there was this chick being sort of crowed surfed and she was completely smashed on something and topless. First time I'd seen either. That was my first real big concert. Prior to that it was James Montgomery Blues Band in Danielson High School Auditorium. Packed.

Train Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY3bJL4jdeU

Maybe, perhaps... the East Coast Blues scene is 2nd only to Chicago. East Coast blues is where I got my start in music.

silverfox.

[Ritchie200]

I think I may have told this story...  Back in the mid 70's I saw Slade at a fairly small theater with floor, first, and second balcony seating.  I was (am) an huge Slade fan but did not hear they were coming until a few weeks before and ended up disappointed in the second balcony.  About half way through their set the power went out just as they started Get Down and Get With It.  As soon as the emergency lighting came on, we hit the stairs and ran up the center aisle of the floor to the stage.  Noddy Holder doesn't need a PA with his booming voice.  Nobody was leaving and after a few minutes he came out to the front of the stage with an acoustic guitar.  After giving the St. Louis power company crap about not being able to provide enough electric to power the mighty Slade, he started into Get Down again unplugged with just the drummer.  It was like a european soccer match with everyone doing the singalong - but you could still hear Noddy above it all!  After many minutes into an extended version, the power came back on.  Without skipping a beat they finished the song out electric.  This was the result of a band who had paid its dues in pubs and dives and years of touring - it was seamless as if they had planned it.  Everyone was going totally bonkers and they had the crowd in their hands.  The band had huge grins and were obviously proud of what they had done.  What a great show and special experience.  I also heard that Noddy penned Far Far Away at a hotel here in St. Louis on this tour talking about "I've seen the yellow lights go down the Mississippi".  What a great band.


Jim

[vibrolax]

Jan 10 1974: Bob Dylan and the Band at the Hollywood (FL) Sportatorium.  Tickets were $10, which was very very high for them days.  Opening act: Baker Gurvitz Army, featuring Ginger Baker. 

[alerich]

The Allman Brothers were headlining at the Atlanta Stadium.  Large show and it did rain which delayed the Brothers.  When the did hit the stage Butch Trucks fell through his drums and someone was pulling Greg onto the stage trying to get him to sit at his organ.

Dicky Betts started playing and singing by himself.  Word was they got ahold of some barbs.  Duane was alive which should give you an idea of the year.  I was very young and was with my cousin and his girlfriend.  I remember I had to reach up to hold her hand.

I remember hearing about that show from some of my friends. As they described it" "There was a rain delay and Gregg had nothing to do backstage but drugs." Heh.

My first was KISS September 4, 1976 at the old Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Bob Seger was the opener. This was a few months before "Night Moves" came out so nobody really knew who he was in PA although he had a big following in the Midwest.

[darkbluemurder]

Mine was Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in Germany 1980. Line up was with Graham Bonnet/voc., Roger Glover/b, Cozy Powell/dr and Don Airey/keys. I won the ticket in a radio lottery. The show was good but unfortunately the sound was not as good as it could have been. However, Ritchie's guitar tone made up for that.


Cheers Stephan

[Ritchie200]

Mine was Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in Germany 1980. Line up was with Graham Bonnet/voc., Roger Glover/b, Cozy Powell/dr and Don Airey/keys. I won the ticket in a radio lottery. The show was good but unfortunately the sound was not as good as it could have been. However, Ritchie's guitar tone made up for that.


Cheers Stephan

 

Jim

[Willabe]

Yeah, Jim kinda likes the git' tar picker in that band.     

[Ritchie200]

Yeah, just a little...

GroundhogKen reminds me every time we talk about the time he saw Rainbow and how he tracked them down to the hotel they were staying at.   AND how he had a beer with Ritchie in the hotel bar........

Jim

[Willabe]

Ooooohhhhh........   

[P Batty]

August 5th 1966.

Dayton's, the biggest department store in Minneapolis, had been giving a series of afternoon concerts in its 8th floor auditorium. Tickets were $1.25. A few weeks earlier I had seen The Astronauts, a surf band from Colorado, play there. There was usually some sort of merchandising tie-in with these 'concerts'. On this particular day it was Yardley's of London, and featured a fashion show.  A local band played tepid covers of pop songs (I'm the Pied Piper) while the models did their thing and handed out cosmetic samples to the girls in the crowd.

Then the featured band came on. The group had had some success on the charts but was still trying to break into the American market.  When the curtain opened I immediately notice that they had a replacement on bass guitar. I hoped he would be as good as the original one, but I had really come to see the lead guitarist.

The group was called The Yardbirds.

The lead guitarist was Jeff Beck.

The replacement bass player was some guy named Jimmy Page.

http://henripix.tumblr.com/post/18510214151/jimmy-page-in-minneapolis-mn-on-august-5th-1966

[Ritchie200]

Now that is too cool! 

Haha!  I just saw the Astronauts in a movie called Wild on the Beach from 1965!  I sent the clip to Jojo because it had the most horrendous sounding Tele I've ever heard!  A surf band from Colorado?!?!

Jim

[P Batty]

The Astronauts looked pretty sharp, they had blond Fender Showman amps that matched their guitars and suits!

They were transitioning to more of a folk-rock sound when I saw them. I don't remember what they played except for the encore, which was Buddy Holly's I'm Gonna Love You Too.