I’m pretty sure I’m posted about this before. I’ll start wil the more personal stories.
A favorite bar of mine that no longer exists in that form used to have live blues and jazz. I would check on there line up from time to time. To my surprise they announced an album release party for legendary blues man Johnny Copeland. I had no idea he had moved to New Jersey. Admittedly he was a niche performer but a few years earlier I saw him on stage with Stevie Ray Vaughan so I was surprised he would be in this tiny club. His daughter Shemekia Copeland opened for him. She was maybe 17 years old at the time. Johnny was very weak. Found out later he was waiting on a heart transplant. He performed sitting in a chair. During one song he just couldn’t finish and Shemekia stepped in and sang the rest of it to him. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Shemekia has gone on to a nice career. Along with performing and albums she has a show on the SiriusXM channel Bluesville.
I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan 7 times. Once me and a buddy took a roadtrip from Maryland to Boston to see him. Another friend got us tickets. We dropped off the two others with us out front then drove around back to park. Just as we were walking up to the venue Stevie and the band were coming out of the tour bus. He stopped and gave me an autograph by using my back as a table. He was really short.
I saw him twice at the pier in NYC. It was a great venue. Just and old pier next to the Intrepid where they used to have concerts. One of those pier shows was the best out of the ones I saw. That was when he brought out Johnny Copeland. He also brought out Steve Winwood to play. It was also one of the shows where the Fabulous Thunderbirds opened. During the encore he didn’t the thing where he played the one double neck guitar with his brother.
I also saw him at probably his low point. It was on Rutgers University. Almost all of his songs became long extended jams. I realized later it was during the worst of his addiction issues. It showed me how incredible Double Trouble was. It didn’t matter where he went, they laid down a foundation and didn’t let the music get lost.
I saw the Steve Morse Band at the Stone Pony from about 5 feet away. I thought then and still think now that he’s the best guitar player ever. I have since seen him live with the reunited Dixie Dregs, Flying Colors and his solo band again.
Saw Rush many times. The first was on the Hold Your Fire tour. I had lost interest after Moving Pictures but this brought me back in. Hold Your Fire might be my favorite album by them.
I’ve been to a few big concert events. As mentioned in a recent thread, I was at Roger Waters The Wall: Live in Berlin. I was at the 121212 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief in Madison Square Garden. I was at two Monsters of Rock concerts in Germany. The first was headlined by Whitesnake but also had Dio and Aerosmith. The next one was on my airfield. The stage was a couple hundred feet from my barracks. The line up was The Black Crowes, Queensrÿche, Motley Crue, Metalllica and AC/DC.