Pretty simple question really, tell us about seeing your first real concert. Who did you see and where/when were they playing? What, if anything, about the event was there that really sticks in your mind as being noteworthy?
My story: AC/DC, December 1990 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium* as part of their Razor’s Edge concert tour. I and three of my friend were standing down in the pit with the rest of the rabble. We couldn’t afford tickets that came with actual seats… and we didn’t care.
The opening act was a group called Love/Hate. I had never heard of them before or since but I would describe them as a basic Metallica clone. General crowd reaction, “GET THE HELL OFF THE STAGE!” They did four songs which most people seemed to think was about three and a half too many.
AC/DC’s show was pretty good overall and was quite a bit longer than I was expecting. I thought they would play for maybe ninety minutes but they ended up going for more than three hours. How Brian Johnson’s voice held out that long is a mystery to me. I still have a couple of the novelty dollar bills they dropped during the “Money Talks” segment
One other thing about the night that sticks in my mind. It was butt-chappingly cold outside. Moving from the stiflingly hot auditorium to the -10F degree parking lot outside was a significant but welcomed shock to the system.
So, if you’re willing, share your story.
Minor footnote about the Omaha Civic, two years prior to the concert, it was the location for the famous “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” speech.
Jethro Tull’s Broadsword and the Beast tour, 1982 (?) at some large venue in L.A. This was a time of resurgent interest in Tolkien, and I really liked the Broadsword album. I don’t remember much about it, other than that Ian Anderson swung onto the stage on a rope, the show was pretty theatrical, and I enjoyed the music.
I bought a T-shirt, and when I got home I discovered that the image of the album cover on the front of the shirt was slightly off-center. So I didn’t wear it much. I still have it in a box somewhere.
In a fit of nostalgia, I bought the CD five years ago. (I have the LP from when it was released.) Every so often one of the songs will pop up on the iPod.
My first show was kind of borderline on whether I’d consider it a “real” concert: Greg Kihn, at Great America in Santa Clara, CA, 1983, at age 12. “Jeopardy” was at the top of the charts at the time. I don’t even remember what their concert venue was called back then, but it was basically an asphalt lot with a stage at one end, with no seats, and could fit a couple thousand people. A few of years later they built an actual amphitheater on the spot. I think there was an opening band, but I haven’t the foggiest who it was.
My first real show, at a real concert venue, was Bon Jovi, at Shoreline in Mountain View, CA, 1987, Slippery When Wet tour, for my 16th birthday. Cinderella opened. They really sucked, but Bon Jovi put on a good show; however, it wasn’t too cool to like Bon Jovi at the time. I made up for it some months later by seeing Pink Floyd.
I saw Bon Jovi a second time, in 2003, and that concert was a lot more fun. I went for free, my boss had a couple of seats in a luxury box at the San Jose Arena (or whatever it’s called). I got to see a lot of free concerts there, in fact.
My first “real” concert was Blondie (with opening act Rockpile) at Merriweather Post pavillion in 1978. Blondie had just released Parallel Lines. They put on a good show, but Dave Edmunds really rocked!
Iron Butterfly with It’s a Beautiful Day and Too People at the San Diego Sports Arena, December 1969. Too People were a male & female acoustic duo. I’ve never heard anything of them since that night, and as far as I can determine they never made a record, at least not under that name. They did a version of “Mr. Bojangles” with a funny ending. (“There he goes…Walking down the road…He tripped.”) Once the electric bands started up, I found I wasn’t prepared for how loud a live rock show was. The coolest thing was that Iron Butterfly announced that the show was being recorded for a live album, and sure enough, Iron Butterfly Live materialized a few months later, complete with “Great to be back in San Diego” patter.
The Untouchables and Timex Social Club at the Tulare County Fair in 1985. Let me just say, there were two very disparate groups of people at that show.
My first big arena concert was Beastie Boys and Fishbone in 1987
Denver Pop Festival, 1969
Three night festival, I went to the first night, with Big Mama Thornton, the Flock, Three Dog Night, The Mothers of Invention, and Iron Butterfly. I was fourteen.
There was some kind of riot at the gates.
And I did not know it at the time, but the final night of the festival would be the Experience’s (Jimi Hendrix’s band) final performance together.
My first concert was Rick James(1981, Kalamazoo, MI Wings Stadium). Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall tour was that same year and my mom didn’t have enough to take the kids. So they were supposed to sneak off without telling us but my cousin who did get to go spilled the beans. So probably because of the guilt factor she took us to see Rick James.
The car broke down on the way to Kzoo and we had to leave it there and cram into one of the other cars. I’m sure there was weed smoked at the concert but don’t remember encountering it. I wandered off by myself to get near the stage and didn’t see my family until the concert was over.
Meatloaf came to VT for his ‘Everything Louder than Everything Else’ tour (someone with better google-fu than I can maybe find specific show dates), and the opening band was the Screaming Cheetah Wheelies. I was 13 or 14.
My first concert was a three-day outdoor love-in near Mt. Rainier in Washington state. A Woodstock wannabe. The year was 1970.
Even though the only things I remember were the nude swim in the mud hole and watching some McChord Air Force boys jump in in from overhead (and worrying that they were going to be unwelcome) I must have been there.
Probably Blue Öyster Cult, Hammersmith Odeon, London, 1982/3 maybe? Went up on the train with friends - my mother was very nervous. I thought all those guys in denim and leather and mullets were so cool. Now I’d laugh at them.
The first concert I remember being at, I must have been 4 or 5, 'cause my dad and mom were both there. So…'78-'79? Steve Goodman, somewhere with a large lawn - perhaps Ravinia or even Grant Park. I remember my folks walking me down to the edge of the pavillion seating and pointing to this leeetle teeeeny tiny dude on stage. In my memory, he was short, with a jewfro and sunglasses, wearing some sort of white jumpsuit. But I can’t imagine Goodman wearing a white jumpsuit, even in 1979…
The first concert I paid my own money to go see, a band of my choosing? INXS, with Cheap Trick and, opening, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. September of 1988 at Alpine Valley. My friend had bought two tickets and me one, but mine was lawn and hers pavilion. So we talked her dad into trading tickets with me so we could be together in the pavilion. We PROMISED, SWEAR TO GOD!!! that we would come out sometime during the show and switch with him.
No, of *course *we didn’t! We were 14 year old girls watching Michael Hutchence sweat on people in the first row and wishing desperately it was us! Duh!
Oh, and I caught a girl’s hair on fire with my lighter during Cheap Trick’s “The Flame”. Oops. People wore too much hairspray in the '80s. (It was only like, four hairs, I swear.)
Not counting free concerts in parks or churches, my first concert was Quiet Riot on their Condition Critical tour, at the Forum in L.A. Whitesnake was the opening band. I was with my brother and a couple of friends, and before entering we stopped at a t-shirt vendor outside the building. We bought shirts and returned to the car to change, then headed to the entrance.
I then realized I didn’t have my ticket with me. I returned to the car to see if I left it there while the rest of my group went inside. Nothing turned up in the car, and I was sure I had lost my ticket. Whitesnake started their set while I was still in the car.
I decided to re-trace my steps and went back to the t-shirt vendor, and to my amazement, my ticket was there, in a display case. My despondency turned to excitement when I told the guy that was my ticket. He looked at me and said that I had an honest face, and gave it to me.
I made it to my seat before Whitesnake finished their set, and all was good for the rest of the evening. The shirt turned out to be a muscle T, and I do not have (and have never had) the right physique for that, so I never wore it unless I had something over it to cover up the arms.
“Night Ranger”, early 1984. I won the tickets on the radio because my sweetie wanted to go, and we were both in high school and didn’t have the money. So I won them.
