First Arena Concert - 1989 - The Cult opening for Metallica on the Justice for All Tour
First Club Concert - 1990 - White Zombie (as an unknown punk band) opening for Slayer on the pre-album tour of Seasons in the Abyss
First Stadium Concert - 2000 - Metallica headlined, Korn, Kid Rock, System of a Down and Powerman 5000 opened.
Hey BKB, make sure you check the time the train leave NYC that night. I had to leave concerts from MSG midway through because the last train to New Haven left early, since it had to hit all the stops in between. I’ve also been stuck in the city after missing it, which was no fun.
In June of 1995, when I was 13, Collective Soul played a free concert at a park in Toledo. My friend Jenny went with me, and all was well until my parents insisted on standing behind us, my mom clutching her purse, my dad looking pretty annoyed… we were so embarassed.
When the smell of pot smoke finally wafted out to our section, they got us out of there pretty quick.
First big concert? That would be ‘Australian Made’ at Endeavour Field, Australia Day, 1987. Mental As Anything, I’m Talking, The Triffids, The Saints, The Divynls (Chrissie Amphlett flashing her knickers every ten seconds or so), The Models, Jimmy Barnes and INXS.
Got through the gates about 11am, the concert started at 1pm and ran til 9, 9.30 that night. No shade, so I had the absolute worst sunburn ever - I practically glowed in the dark, and I was in pain for three days, not to mention the peeling, yuck - but it was a pretty decent day out.
Omigod the memories. It was Kiss at the Lakeland Civic Center and I was fourteen. What was my mother thinking? gulp that would have been about 1978!!:eek: I remember hearing people talking about passing “bowls” around and I had no idea what they were talking about:rolleyes: . My next concert was AC/DC in '79 and I was an old pro by then.
1970 - Santana
Here we go:
In order of their appearance, all at one show at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia
Pousette-Dart Band
Gary Wright
Peter Frampton
Yes (with Patrick Moraz on keyboards)
I’ve checked it out, it leaves at 1 and the concert should end about an hour before that. I still have to get from MSG to the train station (Union I think, not Grand Central, it’s the one that’s NOT at MSG). Still, I might try to persuade my parents to give us an hotel room in the city, or close to it, for the night.
Jethro Tull at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, 1978 or 79…
it was amazing!
Hey, another Aussie! Welcome to the SDMB, Hook!
Now’s when I make you feel old. 
My first big concert (discounting the piddling affairs in my years of minority) was the Big Day Out Festival way back in 1998. (For the foreigners, Big Day Out is a summer show that tours Australia in New Zealand every January/February. It’s usually headlined by a few big international acts and several first-string Aussie acts.)
At the 1998 festival, I can remember seeing Hole, Marilyn Manson, Fatboy Slim, Manic Street Preachers, Korn, Groove Terminator, Powderfinger, Jebediah, the Living End and a few more decent bands. I had just turned 18 so I was allowed in the licensed drinking area. Tickets were about $65, IIRC. Pretty steep, but well worth it for the full day’s entertainment.
(Ha! To save money, my friends and I bought OJ and vodka the day before. We used syringes to inject the alcohol into the sealed OJ bottles, which the unsuspecting gate-people let us in with.)
The show kicked off around 10am and went until 11pm-ish. It was a stinking hot day (the bouncers were reduced to hosing down the crowd) and I was badly dehydrated by night. No regrets, though; it was fucking fantastic.
Peter Gabriel in San Francisco -12,000 people, 1982 or 83. (Amazing show, still one of the best ever).
The Who - Oakland Colliseum, Day on the Green, 60,000 people, 1983 or 84. Opening groups included T-Bone Burnett and the Clash. That was a lot of fun.
I’ve only been to two in my life.
Survivor/REO Speedwagon double-bill in the Seattle Colliseum (before it was Key Arena) In early ‘86. REO was doing Wheels are Turnin’. I don’t recall if Survivor had an album attached to the show.
Billy Joel in the Tacoma Dome, 'round about '90 or so. The Storm Front tour.
Duran Duran 1983
Many more in between and since, but I have to mention The Who in 1989. Apparently no one told them the definition of the word farewell.
BKB, Metro North runs out of Grand Central Station.
First concert ever: Donny Osmond and the Osmond Brothers, circa 1978, Washington, D.C.
First “big rock concert” - does the U2 Joshua Tree tour count? 1987 in Munich, Germany.
My first big concert? The famed SImon & garfunkel show at Central Park, New York, in… 1981?
The sound was great, but I couldn’t get within half a mile of the stage, and trees were blocking the view. Every ten minutes or so, a breeze would blow the branches aside, and I could vaguely see someone strumming a guitar… but I honestly don’t know whether that was Paul Simon or a member of the band.
Regardless, it was a wonderful show, and a fun evening spent with 499,999 of my closest friends.
My first was when I was 4 years old. My dad took my syster and myself to see 3 Dog Night for her birthday. I didn’t make it to anouther one for 8 years. Then I made up for it, by seeing Kiss, Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd in a two year peroid.
Others I have seen:
Mettalica
The Who
Rolling Stones
Def Lepard
Scorpions
Dokken
AC/DC
Poison
Ratt
Quite Riot
Talking Heads
Ozzy
Black Sabbeth
Greatful Dead
Beastie Boys
Cheap Trick
Bachman Turner Overdrive
Van Halen
Queensrich
ZZ Top
The Black Crows
Stone Temple Pilots
Marilin Manson
Greenday
Korn
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Joe Satriani
Steve Morse
The Dixie Dreges
Cypress Hill
Alice In Chains
Mothers Finest
George Thurogood
Jane’s Addiction
Kid Rock
No Doupt
311
Plus many more I can’t remember right off hand and many opening acts. As you can tell I go to as many shows as I can. many of these I have seen more than once.
Va
Err . . . Van Halen, 1984. I couldn’t hear again until 1985.
Queen and Billy Squier at the Capital Centre, Landover, MD.
Whoo! I even got let out of juvie early to go.
Well I’m still a youngin’ but I’ve seen a few (though I’ve missed out of a bunch I would’ve KILLED to see because of my year long “exile” to europe)
First one was back in Victoria BC, mustve been 93 or 94 maybe, Weird Al Yankovic, that was awesome. My first “rock” concert. Then a few years later I went to the local Rock Radio big show with Deftones, Papa Roach, Jimmy’s Chicken Shack (or whatever its called),** Dandy Warhols, Kottenmouth Kings,** and a bunch of other bands I don’t remember. The only band I liked at the time was Deftones, and I don’t even like them anymore, so I don’t really know why I even went. Then over the next year or two I saw some smaller shows, but none the less awesome, The Misfits (the new, crappy ones, but a good show anyway), the Melvins, with Hank III and I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting something. But there you have it.