Now come on, you have to tell us why. 
My list is small and decidedly dated. I couldn’t afford tickets most of the time, or I couldn’t get to the venue. But, thinking back:
Late 60s/early 70s - I saw Buffalo Springfield and Herman’s Hermits at the Baltimore Civic Center - my first concert.
Late 70s - two separate concerts at Purdue (I was an usher both times) The Spinners, then Harry Chapin.
80s or early 90s - “The Association” - tho by that time, there were only a couple of original members, hence the quotes.
Mid-90s - 3/4 of The Monkees - Mike wasn’t touring with them.
Sometime I can’t place precisely - “The Kingston Trio” - again, only one original member.
I also vaguely recall a concert in the 90s that was held beside the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, FL - I want to say it was the Beach Boys. We anchored our boat where we could hear but, of course, couldn’t see.
Also waterside, tho I was in the pavilion - Ben Vereen in Baltimore maybe in the 80s?
And I think I went with my sister once to see Peter, Paul and Mary where we sat on the lawn.
Sometime between 2004 and 2010 - Paul Revere and “The Raiders” - I think he was the only original from way back when. That’s the last performance I attended - it was in a very small venue - not even 300 in the audience.
I had graduated from HS in 1989 and joined the Army that summer. I had orders for Turkey after I completed Basic and AIT and I was able to take 2 weeks of leave before going overseas, so I went back to my hometown to visit friends. A group of friends were going to see Jesus and Mary Chain in Chicago (I’m from a NW suburb about an hour away) so I got a ticket and joined them.
I don’t remember the opening act but it was terrible. I don’t think anybody in the audience was entertained at all by the group and when that was over, there was a long wait before the main act and people started getting really antsy. The audience wasn’t moshing but there was this kind of wave going back and forth across the floor. I was pushing into my buddy and singing along to “I Wanna Be Sedated” that was piped over the sound system when a huge bouncer came up behind me, grabbed me in a headlock, said “That’s it for you, you’re fucking out of here,” and dragged me out the nearest door.
In my opinion, I wasn’t causing any more trouble than anyone else in the venue. It’s possible that he thought I was a skinhead or something because I had short hair, but it wasn’t shaved all around, it was just appropriate military length and spiked on top. I had combat boots on but otherwise I wasn’t all punked out or anything.
It’s a funny memory for me now but at the time I was devastated. I’ve always been a bit of a smartenheimer but I was never a troublemaker or destructive or anything. If I was a little bit more savvy I probably could have worked my way back in through the door, but I was young, doe-eyed suburbanite. From what my friends told me, JMC were pretty bad too although one of them got pinned against the stage and hoisted up onto it by another bouncer, so lucky her.
Going to shows now, I admit that I’m appreciative of the bouncers and people working the door. Maybe it’s because I look like a 52-year-old and not a punk kid but they’ve always been cool and helpful and not sweaty, sweary jerks hauling me out the side door.
My friends and I had police dogs turned on us while we were trying to leave a Social Distortion concert at UC Irvine in 1984. Gate crashers had swelled the crowd to a point where the fire department shut it down half way through the set. Things had calmed down and we were already half way to the parking lot when goons from the Irvine PD showed up with dogs and a real chip on their shoulder. I was about to ride off on my Vespa when a dog started trying to pull me off by the cuff of my pants. A cop called him off and chastised me for not clearing the area fast enough.
AIC and Sponge opened for KISS at Tiger Stadium June 28th of 1996. Layne did perform that night but his last live performance was just under a week later on July 3rd in Kansas City before his drug problem forced him off the tour. You were lucky to see him live at the tail end of his career.
Bored during a meeting at work the other day, so I tried making a list of all the bands I’ve seen. It’s over 150 long so far but I’m sure I’ve forgotten some. Of course a lot of those I’ve seen multiple times…I think I’ve seen Alice Cooper over 30 times (and I’m seeing him 3 times this summer).
Probably seen Cheap Trick eight or nine times, same with Joan Jett.
Saw Dorothy last Friday, seeing Ace Frehley next Friday.
Last year I went to see Social Distortion and Bad Religion. At one point I had to use the men’s room and I figured I would do it right in the middle of SD’s set so I could hear the end of it. I went out into the lobby area and I saw someone in uniform rush past me. I didn’t think too much of it other than to make way for the guy, and I continued on my merry way of peeing and grabbing a Bad Religion shirt from the merch table. I got back into the floor where my friend was and noticed the lights were on, there was no music (nothing piped over the PA either), and everyone was talking to each other. I asked my friend what was going on and he said that there was an injury further up in the pit but there were no details.
The audience was pretty cool about the situation, but we ended up waiting over a half hour for CFD to arrive with paramedics. They made their way to the front with their scoop stretcher, then about 15 minutes later the paramedics started walking back out without anyone on it so the audience started to applaud.
“Hold your applause,” one of them waved us off. “We’re not done yet.”
A few minutes later, they reappeared with an automatic loading stretcher with wheels, made their way back to the front again, and things got quiet once more for several minutes. Then they came back again with the empty stretcher, again telling people that they were working their way past that they weren’t done. They came back a third time with a heavy-duty stretcher and moved back up towards the pit area. Finally, they came back with a guy on the stretcher, everyone was applauding and cheering, and the guy strapped down on the stretcher was pumping devil horns with his fingers while being wheeled out, so he didn’t seem to be in too bad of condition.
Social Distortion came back out and picked up where they left off. They sounded great and the audience was very responsive. I think it may have helped that the band was over halfway done with their set so they had their most popular songs at the end. They didn’t lose energy with the long wait though, so props to them for that.
I tried finding out what happened the next day but Google searches didn’t yield any info at all. In March, however, I stumbled across Mike Ness on TikTok eating a kale salad and I asked him what happened in the comments. He replied that the guy had a seizure and the response was slow due to a high rise fire in the area. Then they had to wait until he was OK.
First concert was OMD in a bar called the Salty Dog in Buffalo, NY. They were very late because they got stuck at the border driving down from Toronto.
Best concert doesn’t fit with most of this thread, but I had front row seats to see Itzak Perlman and I was blown away.
Never saw the doors but in the late 80s I went to an Echo & the Bunnymen concert and when they came out on stage I said to the guy next to me, “Wow, that keyboard player looks just like Ray Manzarek.” Turns out Ray was touring with them.
About two weeks before everything shut down for Covid I took my 12 year old son to see Arlo Guthrie. I had previously seen Arlo back in the 80s and had a great time so I thought this would be fun. My son knew Alice’s Restaurant and knew Arlo’s father wrote “This Land is Your Land.” Arlo’s daughter Cathie opened and performed with her father. 3 years into Trump’s first term it was just what we all needed when Arlo had us sing along with him to Alice’s Restaurant, This Land is Your Land, and finally The Time’s They Are a Changin. I think a lot of us were in tears at the end.
It’s been a long time. This won’t be a complete list, but I’ve seen Chicago at least 3 times, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Genesis, CSN, Springsteen, David Byrne and the Moody Blues. I’ve also seen Jerry Seinfeld live. There are so many more, I just can’t think of them at the moment.
Last year I got tickets to see Stevie Nicks for my wife. It was a much better concert than I expected. It’s not a concert I would go to on my own. It was an outdoor stadium concert. About 3/4 of the way through people in front of us were yelling for paramedics. We couldn’t see what was going on but we started hearing that someone was having a heart attack. Then we heard someone was doing CPR. The paramedics were onsite and got there pretty quick. A short time later they were bring the stretcher through and the guy was sitting up talking to them. I guess it wasn’t as bad as the rumors going through the crowd.
We’d gotten reservations in a fancy French café on the third floor looking down on the local zócolo, the city square. We hadn’t scheduled it to watch the zydeco/salsa concert, but we had the best seats (windows were open, great sound).
Then, halfway through, we watched over the buildings as a line of inky black clouds crept toward the crowd (who couldn’t see them yet).
It was kind of festive watching brightly-colored ponchos and umbrellas blossoming open as the rain started falling.
I’ve mentioned here before that my kids asked me what bands I saw “back in the day”, and I had to stop and think. And think.
See, I grew up going to Summerfest in Milwaukee. Every single day, all day, each summer since '71. Distracted by our big group of friends, rolling around on blankets (no seats, just grass/dirt), drinking and smoking and laughing, we barely noticed when one band replaced another.
So there I was, telling the kids “Ummm, I remember one day with… very horizontal bands… lots of members. Blood, Sweat and Tears, Santana, then… Mahavishnu Orchestra, New Riders of the Purple Sage, oh, and Quicksilver Messenger Service…”
Kids: “Those were bands?!?”
And since Summerfest put out a coffeetable book with the setlists by year, they actively kept that info locked down. So for years we’d be asking old friends “So who was it played in between Mountain and John Sebastian in the pouring rain?” “Which year?” “How should I know? The one with the mud!”
But we got to watch George Carlin get arrested for his “Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television” (He calls them The Milwaukee Seven).
That was me, when a friend dragged me to see some youngster from Asbury Park.
Bruce climbed up on top of one stack of speakers, we were right below him… and wow, it was awesome the way that the power chords were SO loud that they’d move the speakers back and forth and they’d BLOW OUR HAIR!
(Why did we never think “Gee, this might not be the best thing for our ears…”?)
.
Don’t tell my family, but it was almost worth it. What a show.
I saw some bands at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia Md in the 80’s. CSN shows at $15 a pop. Always a great time.
Saw Deep Purple there on their Perfect Strangers tour. My ears were ringing for days afterward. Lesson learned. For the finale -Smoke on the Water, one of the enormous beach balls that the crowd was knocking around, hit the bass player and he flubbed the easiest riff in rock.
Saw Neil Young there playing an acoustic-only show on his Freedom Tour. That was sweet.
Saw Jerry Garcia, Sting, Jame Taylor, and Robert Plant there. Separately of course lol. I think The Band opened for James Taylor but maybe it was someone else. I do remember the huge aerial marshmallow battle that some jokesters started on the lawn and then somehow, promptly and efficiently stopped. For a few minutes, everyone was into it and the air was full of flying marshmallows.
Saw Rush at the Capital Centre on the Power Windows tour. I was way, way stoned. Some Boomer Hippies in back of me passed me a joint and told me to keep it. Well, I don’t remember much after that. I did not/do not like Power Windows or anything after that. The Boomers made it clear that they didn’t like the new stuff either.
Saw the Grateful Dead with some friends in Hampton Virginia. There was a cool place to camp near there and I wandered around completely baked, meeting all manner of people that I would normally never meet. I don’t get the obsession that some people have with that band though.
Saw U2 at JFK on the Joshua Tree tour. It was a pretty kickass show if you like old U2. Bono fell and hurt his arm but continued anyway.
Saw AC/DC at the Baltimore Civic Center on their Blow Up Your Video tour. Steve Young was filling in for Malcolm and he looked and played so much like him, that I didn’t even know. I had wanted to see AC/DC since I was 10 but by Flick of the Switch, I think they had jumped the shark in terms of new songs. They still put on a good show that night but you couldn’t pay me enough to see them now. Brian Johnson croaks like an old man; which he is. Bon Scott was the cool one anyway.
Saw Michael Hedges at the Eugene Country Fair. He was amazing, as you might imagine.
Saw the Cherry Poppin Daddy’s at the WOW Hall in Eugene when a stagehand snuck my friend and me in the side door. Not my cup of tea but they were pretty high-energy; I will give them that.
Saw a number of Piano recitals at the U of O for free. That started my love of Mozart.
Saw Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists at some basement venue in Portland that is not there anymore. It was very loud but the synchronization of that many players was impressive.
Saw Tony Levin in a Portland bar that my friend dragged me to. It was a very underwhelming show and standing-room-only. Standing that long was awful.
Attended two different shows of the California Guitar Trio. One was at Portland State which was pretty formal and one was at the above bar (sitting in a booth this time). At the bar, they played a crazy rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody that had the entire place belting along, including some amateur opera singers apparently. It was a good time. Those cats can play!
Saw Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka Shankar play in Portland. That was pretty amazing but Ravi tried to nonverbally tell the soundboard guy to turn up Anoushka’s mic numerous times and the soundboard guy was not paying attention at all. You could tell that Ravi was getting more and more pissed off about it until the soundboard guy finally caught on.
Ravi had a huge diamond ring on his finger and it would catch the stage lights often in such a way that made it glint radiantly.
I dislike crowds. The only band I would go to see nowadays is Ozric Tentacles.
I am sure as soon as the edit window closes, I will remember more lol.
RFK not JFK. Darnit! =p
I saw Rush at the Capital Centre on the Hold Your Fire tour. Until I saw that show I wasn’t into anything after Moving Pictures. That concert changed my mind. Hold Your Fire became my favorite album of theirs. Saw them 7 more times after that.
Digs quote:
And since Summerfest put out a coffeetable book with the setlists by year, they actively kept that info locked down. So for years we’d be asking old friends “So who was it played in between Mountain and John Sebastian in the pouring rain?” “Which year?” “How should I know? The one with the mud!”
You should try to get a copy of that MilwaukeeFest book from the library and photocopy the shows you attended.
Impromptu show I went to recently with a friend; Joy Lapps. I don’t listen to jazz and know nothing about it, but it was a very fun show! Very different from my usual punk rock scenes!
Excellent idea! I’m embarrassed that I never thought of that…
I’m off to the “LI’BARY”!
Just went to a concert last night.
AC/DC at Northwest Stadium near Washington DC. Take that @by-tor
Goodness is Angus looking, um, “spry” is a good term for it. Big shock of white hair, still in the red schoolboy costume, it’s funny and sort of charming. Did they put on a good show? Generally, yes, though it was really just the Angus and Brian show.
The show was really for the nostalgia, not for their current chops, nobody is going to avoid losing a step when they hit 70. I never saw them before, and wasn’t even that big a fan until Kid Cheesesteak decided to become the world’s foremost AC/DC fan. HE wore the red schoolboy costume (green A hat) and got more complements than I could count.
It was still a fun show, even with Angus not quite being quick enough with his fingers, and with Brian being a bit croaky. I’m glad I went, I don’t think there will be another chance.