Oddly enough, I find that I’ve taken several people to their first concerts. I took my little brother to go see Aerosmith and Jackyl. My friend Jason and I saw Cheap Trick, with Joan Jett and House of Lords opening. House of Lords was a band that featured Gregg Giuffria. Not a bad band, but not particularly impressive, either.
I took my friend Erik to his first, which was Motley Crue with Lita Ford opening. My first serious girlfriend and I went to Lexington, KY to see Metallica. This was the “Black” album, and they didn’t have an opening act. They had a video (behind the scenes kind of thing) that ran about 1/2 hour before they came on. And a different girlfriend and I went to see Stryper/White Lion.
If memory serves, it was probably Jimi Hendrix at Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino back in 1970. Saw all the good groups there before it burned down.
I honestly have no idea. 1978? I remember him bursting through a large sheet of paper, and this noise that could shatter concrete being generated by thousands of shrieking girls.
Eric Clapton at the Pacific Amphitheater
I think I was 15 at the time, so that would have been 1983. The opening band was called Graham Parker and the Shot.
A double-header country show with Marty Robbins and Merle Haggard. At the state fairgrounds, Boise ID. I was 16 and blind-dating a girl I’d only met over the CB radio (the 70’s kids version of a cell phone to all you young whippersnappers).
A date backed out so I bought another pair, gave them to my brother and his fiancee, and went anyway. The extra ticket? I shouted “Who wants an extra ticket for free?” in line.
When a dozen people shouted “Me”, I wrapped it in a quarter, tossed it up into the air & yelled “Catch”.
A better story was the Police ‘Ghost In The Machine’ Tour a month or so later on.
We were waiting all night when a gang of 20 thugs (from scalping agencies) with knives, chains, and nunchucks tried to come up and tell us all they were first in line. Sadly for them, by then there were almost a thousand people waiting on line by then. "Never try to start a riot with a switchblade, dipshit."
First “real” concert I attended with famous musicians was a Beach Boys show with my family circa 1995 (age 12).
First one I attended without parental supervision was Rage Against the Machine around 1999.
First club show I attended was probably AFI in 2001. Shortly after I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with then-mostly-unknown Neko Case opening. That was a good one.
Quite possibly Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs at the National Guard Armory in Anchorage, mid 60s. No wait: probably The New Christie Minstrels a couple of years earlier.
Adam Ant with The Romantics. Feb. 3rd, 1984 at Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, AL. Strip tour.
I was 15 and I still have the concert shirt. (Like this one…)
I’ve only ever been to two arena-type concerts in my life (I prefer clubs and halls, I suppose) and the first one was Steve Miller Band at the Capital Center in Largo, MD (a little outside DC), 1978. The second was the Rolling Stones at RFK Stadium, Voodoo Lounge tour, 1994.
The Four Freshmen, in the student union at Southeast Louisiana College in Hammond, Louisiana, 1957. Pretty small house, maybe a couple hundred, in folding chairs.
First outdoor “event” concert would be the Monterrey Jazz Festival, 1961, where I saw Dave Brubeck and Odetta. Everybody orderly and considerate and appreciative. If there were any drugs, I didn’t know about it.
Other than the “young people’s concerts” when we piled into a school bus in grammar school and went downtown to hear the symphony, the first concert I saw with my parents was the New Christy Minstrels in 8th grade (1964). The Rooftop Singers opened.
First show I saw without my parents was in 1966 - James Brown and the Famous Flames at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium.
My first “real” show was 10,000 Maniacs in June 1993 at Poplar Creek (Chicago). This would have been about two months before Natalie Merchant left the band so I guess it’s a good thing I went to go see 'em. It was a good show although Poplar Creek was a pretty crap venue and it was no tragedy when it closed down a year later.
My son just got tickets for Coldplay in Soldier Field this summer for his birthday. It’ll be his first concert of any type – nothing like diving full in with a stadium show.
1972 at the Dane County Coliseum, Madison Wisconsin. Three acts with the headliner being The James Gang. The middle act was The Five Man Electrical Band who had the hit " Signs" all over the radio. But the most memorable thing of the night, in retrospect, because at the time it ment nothing to any of us, was the opening act. It was a new band out of California called The Eagles.
I went with a schoolfriend; but she wound up not having the money for a ticket last minute, after I’d already booked transport, so I decided we should just both try our luck together (getting permission from my parents caused quite a big argument- Dad said I could, Mum disagreed, pretty much the only time I remember them seriously arguing about what I shouild be allowed to do, and I was not going to waste the permission), and fence hopped. It was really simple, someone had already pulled a secton of fence down. People were climbing over the fence right by the main gate, no attempt at enforcement.
Despite Glastonbury’s mudfest reputation, that year was glorious, dry and incredible.
David Bowie was headlining (I actually didn’t rate it that much at the time, but I’ve since seen footage, and I have no clue what the hell I was thinking, it was pretty damn awesome), also watched Nine Inch Nails, Moby and just loads of random weird stuff. I think it still rates as the most exciting weekend of my life.
I now live close enough to Glastonbury that I occasionally go shopping in the village (mostly to laugh at the hippes, I’ve developed a kind of hippy bingo to play there), but, though I have been to quite a lot of other festivals and random concerts, I’ve never tried to go to that festival again.
I’m sure it’s still really worth a visit, but it cannot possibly be as good again as it was for me back then.
First gig was in grade 10 in '81 seeing one of Ozzy’s earliest post-Sabbath gigs with his Blizzard of Ozz band in the crusty old Memorial Arena in Victoria, BC.
Cool seeing Randy Rhodes holding his flying V vertically almost the whole time, struttin about.
Motorhead backed up, and at one point, Lemme - pissed off with the sedate Victoria crowd - yelled, between songs, “WOT’S THIS?!?!? A FOKKING TEA PARTY?!?!?!”
