Yay! I just got front row tickets for the Smashing Pumpkins! It will be my first time in the Front Row! Needed to share, carry on!
I had front row – dead center of the front row – tickets for Derek Trucks/Susan Tedeschi a few weeks ago – damn, you can see a lot that close. Enjoy!
LUCKY YOU!!! I LOVE Susan Tedeschi. Her performance at Clapton’s Guitar Festival thing in Chicago was awesome.
I’ve never had 1st row. I had 4th row for the Talking Heads (along with backstage passes…woohoo!). First Row is on my list of Things To Do Before I Die.
Yeah, I hear that was a killer show.
I like ST just fine – I worship Derek Trucks. (Hi Marley!)
My son bought me the DVD from that Chicago concert. Derek Trucks was with ST at the concert. Awesome show.
I didn’t even know they were still together.
They were my first concert ever. I saw them in…hmmmmm '95 or '96 I think.
During college in 1990, I ran into the school office at about 2 am, at my janitor job. I won tickets to Rush at the Pacific Amphitheater. I had to sneak a night in my dorm room at the beginning of Easter break, and had to borrow a car to take a friend with me.
Being radio station winners, we got into the picnic with the other winners and the DJs. My name was picked out of a hat, and we were put in the front row. Woohoo!
In 1963, during their last US tour, I won a front row ticket to see the Beatles. I was 13 at the time.
My father made me go camping instead. I had to give my ticket away to a girlfriend. She was so close to the stage she touched Paul McCartney.
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:
I forgave my father many things before he died, but never that one!!
“I love doing that!”
For fun, get MamaTigs and her sister together and mention those tickets! Just have a fire extinguisher on hand.
I’ve got a front row ticket for Great Big Sea in Boise in October, which is a huge deal to me even if it isn’t to anybody else here. WOOHOO!!!
Edgar Winter Group, October, 1973. Rick Derringer on lead guitar. Mmm-hmmm. Paid 25 smackers, and two row 7 tickets for 'em.
Bonus: I agitated a bunch of nearbys to scream “Tobacco Road” (from their White Trash Live album) which the group clearly did not want to do…but with all of the screams for TB, they couldn’t refuse.
I’m taking my daughter to see the Pumpkins in Charlottesville VA, but I think the seating is just first come, first serve. It’s an outdoor pavillion/amphitheatre place.
Had some kick-ass seats for the Van Halen show, to the right of the stage and 8 or 10 rows up.
That’s pretty cool, but they did tour North America up to, and including 1966.
Front row only once, that was for Keith Emerson with George Benson, Miles Davis and some other jazz greats. That was as good a time as any, I suppose. That Keith, he could fling some sweat.
I saw Cirq du Soleil’s La Nouba last week from a third-row seat. I’ve seen it before at a greater distance, and I’m glad, because it was great seeing the whole picture at once. But it was really cool to be right up where you could see the faces of the performers. I was watching carefully to see if anyone was “out of character” and they never were. I was especially impressed with one of the bike-riding guys…he was just beaming like the happiest guy on earth the whole time. Also, I’ve always wondered if the spool-throwing girls are actually just very small women, but no. They’re just little girls, less than ten years old, and fucking amazing. When I saw that, it made me cry.
My only front row tickets were for Arlo Guthrie, back in’87? '88?
I got them completely by accident, as the box office was on a corner with a window on each face of the corner. One side had the shutters open but no one in attendance when I got there, and that was the window where everyone (a bunch of everyones!) was lined up. I wandered over to the other window to look at the coming attractions, and as I stood there the shutters opened and I heard, “Can I help you?” I was the first to get tickets! Whee!
ETA: I could see right up Arlo’s nose!
I’ve seen many bands in the front row at first come first serve places, and a lot of times it’s hard to keep your spot for all the jostling. But amongst the bands I’ve seen in the front row are:
– Fountains of Wayne
– Maritime
– Saves the Day
– … and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
I’ve had front row seats for The Witchita Jazz Festival and saw Count Basie and John Coltrane and Sarah Vaughan from the front row.
Also I had front row seats for Barry Manilow.
I used to own and operate a movie theatre in Norman OK. We hosted the Smashing Pumpkins one night. So I was where ever I wanted to be. They hung out in my office.
Ony front row for me was UFO at the Auditorium at UofI. Probably in 1980 or so. I remember being pissed that Michael Schencker wasn’t with them. Caught the bass player’s sweaty towel - a couple of decades ago I knew his name.
General admission, we waited maybe 5 hours and were the first ones in. I remember when one genius up near the doors with us decided he didn’t have enough room, and had the bright idea of shoving everybody back. Worked great for a minute or two, until the other thousand or so people filling up the steps decided to shove forwards … When the doors opened, I gave the genius a hip check, shoving him back so he was pinned into the space behind the door, between the door and a column. For all I know he was the last guy into the theater!