Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Madison Square Garden - NYC 7/7/77
Point Blank, 1976. Unfortunately, it was pre-Mean To Your Queenie or Nicole.
Provided you don’t count ‘Beatlemania’ which my dad took me to…
Queen, with opener Billy Squier in July, 1982 in Washington, DC. It was, as I recall, Queen’s sixth to last ever US show.
Moody Blues, 1971.
Not including classical concerts and Sonny and Cher at a state fair, it was Black Oak Arkansas, circa 1974. I was in 6th grade at the time and they were my favorite band. My mother was shocked that tickets were like $4. She figured that’s how they paid for the guitars that they smashed.
I saw the hottest band in the land - - - - KISS!!! at Dayton’s Hara Arena 1976
(that was their tag line)
My father took me. It was NOT his kind of music.
new kids on the block. (i know, i know)
Led Zeppelin at Day on the Green in the Oakland Collesium in July 1977. Judas Priest (Judas who? at the time) and Rick Derringer were the openers.
The Beach Boys at Nassau Community College around 1967. They were considered so washed up at the time that, even though it was free, they couldn’t draw 200 people. The opener was the Uncalled For Three, a comedy act (I see now they once appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show!).
Duran Duran, 1984 Carrier Dome, Syracuse
Opening act was Billy Idol
The Beach Boys were considered washed up the year after they released Pet Sounds?
Peter Frampton, 1977
After they tanked (the first time) I saw Joey McIntyre at a fundraiser. He sang Gary Indiana a capella. I sort of knew his sister at the time.
- A double-header with Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins. I wasn’t so keen on Merle, but Marty was my hero. 'Twas also, I think, my first date and a blind date at that. I took a girl from a neighboring town that I’d never met but had got to know over the CB radio. (For the uninitiated, CB radio was a primitive form of social networking, kind of like texting for rednecks). It was held at the state fair grounds and was by far the biggest crowd of people I’d ever seen.
The young lady changed her CB handle after that, the country equivlent of unfriending me, and I never saw her again. Guess she wasn’t a country music lover.
SS
Yes, Alpine Valley (WI), August 1984. May have gotten a contact high from the guys sitting in front of us, who were smoking pot for the entire 3-hour concert.
Also Air Supply, around 1981, I think. It was the summer after 8th grade. Truly embarassing, especially since I’m a guy.
I still remember how, a few days later I bumped into another kid I knew from school. He was into Zeppelin and stuff. He asked what I’d been up to that summer and I said, oh, you know, not much, blah blah blah. “I did go see Air Supply a few days ago, though.” He was incredulous. “YOU saw AIR SUPPLY?” I was so clueless that I took his incredulity to mean that he was really impressed or something. I think I came back with some sort of aw-shucks, no-big-deal, I’m-so-cool reply. “Oh, well, yeah, you know, that’s me. Rockin’ out, hittin’ the scene, checkin’ out Air Supply. Pretty much standard for a cool dude like me.” That sort of thing. It was only a few years later that I remembered that and realized that that kid was incredulous, all right, but not in the way I thought.
Man, I was a dork in middle school.
Korn.
We walked into the stadium and I was like, “Wow, they have a smoke machine!”
Yeah, it wasn’t from a machine.
I was six years old when we saw The Carpenters at Carnegie Hall, with The Raiders opening.
I didn’t have to practice to get there. We sat WAY upstairs.
The Specials, Fun Boy Three, and Fishbone - in 1981.
As an additional question that doesn’t really deserve its own thread, if the OP will allow the partial digression…
In addition to the first, which act have you seen live the most times? For me it’s a toss-up between Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Buffett, with the count well into the dozens for both.