# Your first concert experience? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010 "2010-09-25T15:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![mkecane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@mkecane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkecane)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/81 "2010-09-27T01:28:32Z")
Helmet, June '97, Summerfest in Milwaukee It was a good show. The main memory was that I went with my brother, his g/f (now wife), and his friend. We took spots in the front row, just right of center, well before the show, and held that spot through. I still have scars on my forearms near my elbows, though they’re barely visible now, from holding my spot against the wooden barrier wall. At one point, some older guy started pulling my leg up to try and lift me over to security so he could get my spot. “You’re going over.” Fortunately, I was still pretty strong from high school athletics, and I basically stamped my leg down, said hell no, and kept him farther away than me. Bastard. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/82 "2010-09-27T01:41:41Z")
> [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](#): > > August 1982. San Antonio, TX. I was 15. > > A triple bill. > > \*\*Girlschool \*\*opened, supporting their \*Screaming Blue Murder \*album. > \*\*Iron Maiden \*\*was next. This was their \*The Number of the Beast \*American tour. > \*\*Scorpions \*\*headlined. This was their \*Blackout \*tour. > > My sister’s friend was driving, but she screwed up the directions so we missed most of Girlschool’s set. But Maiden and Scorpions on what I still consider their best tours at the height of their popularity?!?! Mind blowing! > > …and thus set me on a lifestyle of many nights spent in dark rooms and bright lights with thousands of people for many years. ::sigh:: Michael Schenker was a client of mine for a few years. He was doing pretty well for basically coasting (it seemed to me) for 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/83 "2010-09-27T02:09:46Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > My first “REAL” concert was Paul McCartney and Wings in the spring of '76. I’m certain I have the stub somewhere in storage to confirm the exact date (Off the top of my head I think it was around Memorial Day). > > I wasn’t 16 yet, and my old man would have put his foot in my ass if he knew I had snuck out down to Chicago. > > And it was a lonooonnnng concert. They played almost everything they had put out to that point. (Except I don’t recall them playing anything from [RAM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_%28album%29). But my memory might be bad). They played almost everything else they had put out to that point. And remember, this was 1976. PM&W had a lot of other hits the next 4 years after that. They did play a couple of Beatles songs. > > I’d have to ask a life long friend of mine what we paid for those tickets. Whatever it was, I assure you, we got far, far, FAR more than our moneys worth. I saw them in '76 in Detroit. I remember getting chills when McCartney sang ‘Yesterday’ with an acoustic guitar and a lone spotlight. I don’t remember the ticket price, but I’m sure it was less than ten bucks. mmm ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/84 "2010-09-27T02:48:02Z")
Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep, sometime around 1970, in the Woodinville Dome. The Woodinville Dome was a large horse arena located in Woodinville, at the time a small town northeast of Seattle. This was in November and the arena was open on the sides and the cold wind blew through the place the whole concert. The strange part is someone thought a dance floor was needed and one was put in right in front of the stage over the dirt floor. Needless to say, there was no dancing. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/85 "2010-09-27T03:13:17Z")
Houston, 1967. The Byrds. Quite a show. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/86 "2010-09-27T04:29:34Z")
My first was KISS at VFL Park in Melbourne Australia 1980. Man what a concert, I took my 10yo to see his first ACDC this year! ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/87 "2010-09-27T04:35:27Z")
My dad tooke me to see ELO on their “Twilight” tour in Pittsburgh sometime in the early 80’s. Hall & Oates were their opener and we had one helluva time. It was a blast seeing a 60 some year old guy singing along to everything 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/88 "2010-09-27T16:40:39Z")
I guess that would have been Jethro Tull, at the Boston Garden, during their _Thick as a Brick_ tour in 1972. I was a junior in high school, living a pretty sheltered life in suburban Rhode Island, and going into the middle of Boston at night with a group of friends to see Tull was quite a heady experience. IIRC, Wild Turkey opened for Tull. On our way out, we happened upon some crowd-control action – police with dogs… the only time I’ve ever seen that. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/89 "2010-09-27T17:18:45Z")
That probably would have been Eric Johnson at Austin’s Armadillo back in '76. It was that or Point Blank sometime the same year. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/90 "2010-09-27T17:25:28Z")
I saw Herman’s Hermits sometime in the 1960s at the Ballroom on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City (the original one, before the fire and they replaced it with the geodesic dome ballroom. I also saw the Cowsills and the Supremes at the Steel Pier, but they were on the stage in the other theater, and I’m not sure that counts. If that doesn’t count, it was Rick Wakeman at the Boston Opera House (later renamed the Wang Center) in 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/91 "2010-09-27T17:30:12Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > It was waaaaay back in 1975. **Kiss** at Cobo Arena in Detroit. > > This was one of the shows they recorded for the [Kiss Alive!](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:g9ftxql5ld6e) album. > > The photo on the back - the two guys holding the Kiss sign - was taken at Cobo. > > Very memorable. > mmm The 1976 version of this concert, at Cobo, with Uriah Heep as the opening act. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/92 "2010-09-27T18:06:40Z")
My first rock concert was **Kiss** at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in '78. I was nine, in third grade. I went with three of my brothers…our mother took us. She had made a deal with us that if all four of us could get report cards with nothing less than a ‘B’ grade on them, she’d take us. Years later, she admitted that she never expected us to really pull it off - she figured one of us would get a ‘C.’ My first concert, sans parents, was **the Clash** at the University of Buffalo in (I think) '81? My brother & I were allowed to go along with our college-aged sister. Mom, of course, was unaware that we were smoking pot & drinking beer with our sister and her friends before & after the show. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/93 "2010-09-27T18:59:35Z")
My first real concert was Kenny Rogers in San Diego, back in 1982. I think it was at the Sports Center. I am not a huge Kenny Rogers fan, but my fiancee was, and so I bought tickets. We were up in the nosebleed seats, about 4 rows from the back and 2 miles from the stage. I think they were selling mixed drinks at one of the concession stands, or else the drunk girl behind us had sneaked in a bottle of Jack Daniels. This drunk girl spent the entire time screaming, “Sing Lady!!! Sing Lady!!!” in our ears, and literally drowned out Kenny Rogers and Dottie West. Every single song he sang was ruined by the incessant, “Sing Lady!!!” And then, near the end of the concert, his voice started in on that song: “Lady, I’m your knight in shining armor and I love you …”. The drunk fool behind us immediately started crying and screaming, “Oh my God … He’s singing Lady!!!”. Over and over and over. Made me want to kill someone. Only the sight of Dottie West in whatever tight clothes she had poured herself into kept me from strangling the girl behind us. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/94 "2010-09-28T00:12:01Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I saw them in '76 in Detroit. I remember getting chills when McCartney sang ‘Yesterday’ with an acoustic guitar and a lone spotlight. > > I don’t remember the ticket price, but I’m sure it was less than ten bucks. I’d have to go up by my Ma and dig through my stuff in storage. I don’t remember what the face value was, but I’m thinking we paid more than $10 from the guy we got them from. Did they play as long for you as they did for us? Maybe my memory is bad but I could swear they played for almost 3 freaking hours. Sometime in the 70’s I was at a show with my parents and one of the acts was Lou Rawls. This was in the early 70’s but I don’t consider it my first concert experience as I hated it, didn’t want to be there, and was bored out of my mind. Plus I was with my parents. THAT can never count as a first concert experience. My rules, I make them up!😛 ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/95 "2010-09-28T00:54:16Z")
Good lord, well here we go. My first concert experience was at the age of 12, to see … The Monkees, in September 1968. Couldn’t hear a note over the constant screaming of the girlhorde, and was so far back in the old [Sydney Stadium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Stadium) I couldn’t see all that much either. But I remember it - or at least scraps of it - vividly, and it didn’t stop me going to scores of rock concerts in the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/96 "2010-09-28T13:36:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My first major concert was a notorious one: August 2, 1968, at the Singer Bowl in New York. > > The Who, who were still something of a novelty in the US, were the opening act. As had become traditional for them, they closed their set by demolishing their instruments and equipment on stage. > > Jim Morrison and the Doors were the headliners. Morrison caused a near riot when he walked into the crowd and then later left the stage abruptly. > > A few weeks later I saw an even more spectacular concert in the same place, with the Chambers Brothers, Janice Joplin fronting Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Jimi Hendrix. Wow. Just, wow. I saw… ahhh, skip it. Well, there were first few Summerfests: I saw… nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/97 "2010-09-28T16:47:12Z")
Mine was Aerosmith / Black Crowes. Philly Spectrum, just ast the Crowes’ first album came out, so about 1990, when I was 16. Aerosmith was great, the Crowes su-u-u-ucked. First time I ever smelled weed. I remember being almost deaf for about 24 hours afterward. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/98 "2010-09-28T17:07:09Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Sha Na Na in 1972. They were pretty good and I’m not much of a fan of 1950s oldies. At the end the drummer threw his sticks in the audience and my roommate, standing in a different section, got them. He was more of a fan memorized their arm movements to “Chantilly Lace” by The Big Bopper., My very first concert experience was Sha Na Na as well. I must’ve been around 7 or 8, which would have made it '78 or so. I was big into their tv show and '50s music in general at the time, and loved it. It was at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD., and I went with my dad. Actually, now that I think about it, my first “grown up” concert also had a '50s vibe to it – it was The Stray Cats in '82 or '83 on the Built For Speed tour. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/99 "2010-09-28T17:23:08Z")
Thanks for the thread! I found [a concert ad](http://www.concertposterart.com/poster/display/John-Mayall-1969-santamonica-Concert-Poster-Type-Ad) for the 1969 John Mayall concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, my first concert. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010/100 "2010-09-28T17:25:56Z")
U2, _Unforgettable Fire_, Worcester (MA) Centrum Auditorium, 1985. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-concert-experience/555010.md?page=6)