# Your first "real" concert? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037 "2006-03-19T20:31:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/61 "2006-03-20T05:11:44Z")
> [@zoogirl](#): > > Promise you won’ t laugh? > > Sonny and Cher and Gordon Lightfoot. Guy, not only am I not laughing, I’m envious. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/62 "2006-03-20T05:13:16Z")
Odd man out here… I’ve _never_ been to a concert that was larger than a band playing in a bar. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/63 "2006-03-20T05:33:36Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > August 19, 1983 – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Fastway at the Philly Spectrum. > > Our seats were for shit. We were on the floor, but way, way, _way_ the hell in the back. And to make matters worse, we were directly behind the sound board, so our view of the stage was completely blocked. However, because of this, the crew took our tickets, jotted some new seat numbers on the back, and sent us up to our new seats in the 5th row. 😃 ) That’s pretty bitchin’. And I say as someone who knows how awesome Iron Maiden is live, even though I didn’t see them untill 2003. As for my first real concert, it was when I was 14. I went with two of my friends, my brother (two years younger than me) and one of my friend’s brother (one year younger). Radio 104, a local station, held this big-ass show with _three_ stages. The two non-main stages were facing each other, so when the band on one finished everybody just turned around to see the next one. The headliners were Greenday and Blink 182. We all left before Blink 182 come on stage. Even my 12 year old brother could tell they were gonna suck. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/64 "2006-03-20T05:44:49Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Good Og, **This Space Left Blank** …between you, **ddgryphon** , and myself, we have too many people who live in Louisville hanging around here. I feel so lonely and forgotten! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/65 "2006-03-20T05:48:02Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > I feel so lonely and forgotten! 😃 You deserted us to go to California, pal. Either that, or I need caffeine. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/66 "2006-03-20T05:52:00Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > You deserted us to go to California, pal. > > Either that, or I need caffeine. But I’m back! And I do think the Louisvillians of the board ought to get together sometime. Perhaps the Lexingtonians could wander over this way as well. I dunno. I should, like, start a thread or something. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/67 "2006-03-20T06:05:59Z")
Yeah, you do. Get started, already! ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/68 "2006-03-20T06:45:37Z")
My teen years were a smoky haze, but I think my first concert was John Cougar, as he was called at the time. Second was Rush though, no doubt about it. Grace Under Pressure. Um…in Memphis…sometime in the mid-eighties. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/69 "2006-03-20T07:05:49Z")
**Boston** on the _Don’t Look Back_ tour. Actually, a pretty good show. They were still fairly new, they hadn’t grown old and tiresome yet, and I got a contact high from the people smoking next to me. The next show was better, though: **RUSH** on the _Hemispheres_ tour. Now…THAT was a show. They opened with the entire _2112_ suite (not just the beginning). Did _Cygnus X-1_ and _Hemispheres_ back-to-back. Double-necked guitars, hair down to their waists, Geddy could still shriek like a banshee, radio fame was still in the future. Beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/70 "2006-03-20T07:21:55Z")
I’m not sure what “real” means in this context, but I’m pretty sure the answer is Janet Jackson in 1990. No reflection on my current musical tastes, but hey, I was eight. My first rock concert was Aerosmith, four or five years later. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/71 "2006-03-20T07:53:04Z")
Elvis’ touring Las Vegas Show sometime in the late 60’s (complete with Sweet Inpiration, the gospel quartet and some comedian). It was a family thing – My mother and aunt and all us kids. I still have super 8 footage somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/72 "2006-03-20T08:11:59Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > Elvis’ touring Las Vegas Show sometime in the late 60’s (complete with Sweet Inpiration, the gospel quartet and some comedian). > > It was a family thing – My mother and aunt and all us kids. I still have super 8 footage somewhere. Well, that means you have to create a webpage and make it available for us fellow. I had the chance to go see Elvis back in like '72 and didn’t, one of the biggest mistakes in my life. Other was to go see Tricky Dick Nixon about the same time, another big mistake, heh. I was lazy back then s’pose. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ender\_Will](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Ender\_Will](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ender_Will)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/73 "2006-03-20T08:30:34Z")
My first was Godsmack at the Santa Barbara Bowl in 2003. About ten minutes into the show, a guy got knocked unconsious in the pit. Pretty good show overall. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/74 "2006-03-20T09:21:35Z")
Graham Parker and the Rumour in some pub (Maybe the New York Hotel) Brisbane 1978. Ferocious gig, just ferocious. I was seriously underaged and remember right up until the music started almost peeing myself with fear I’d be caught out. mm ---
**Author:** ![Denis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/75 "2006-03-20T09:24:07Z")
Ozzy Osbourne in 1982 on his _Diary of a Madman_ tour. The incredible Randy Rhodes playing guitar (one and a half months before his tragic death), Rudy Sarzo on bass (before he got into Cheese Metal), Tommy Aldridge on drums (damn! he’s good!), Don Airey on keyboards (nice atmospheric synthesizer whooses, not to mention “Mr. Crowley”). And, of course, the Madman himself. I was 15. Charleston, WV Civic Center. Being me, I have to mention that I later saw RUSH ---
**Author:** ![Denis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/76 "2006-03-20T09:26:37Z")
…(sorry about that, borrowing someone else’s computer) later saw RUSH at the same venue on their _Signals_ tour. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/77 "2006-03-20T12:50:13Z")
**Procol Harum** March '73. I thought it was fine, but the next gig I went to was **Captain Beefheart** , who was awesome; totally changed music for me! ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/78 "2006-03-20T12:53:31Z")
KISS got my cherry, too. International Amphitheater, Chicago, 1979, with Judas Priest opening. I was ten years old and my parents took me. I had never heard of Judas Priest and don’t remember much of them. Now when I listen to _Unleashed In The East_ I think, “Shit, this is probably exactly what they sounded like that night.” First concert without parental supervision was Ozzy Osbourne in 1984 at the San Diego Sports Arena with Ratt opening. The biggest fight I’ve ever seen in my life broke out inside the arena between acts. At least thirty people going at it in the seating area. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/79 "2006-03-20T13:02:08Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > **Procol Harum** March '73. > > I thought it was fine, but the next gig I went to was **Captain Beefheart** , who was awesome; totally changed music for me! Hey! **Procol Harum** for me too, though I think it was '71 or '72. The Opening acts were **Eagles** , first tour, and **Cold Blood**. (Mmmm. Lydia Pensch!) ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037/80 "2006-03-20T13:19:22Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > August 19, 1983 – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Fastway at the Philly Spectrum. I hate you. Of course at that time I was 10 and dind’t know who they were. My first concert was Eric Clapton in 1988 or 89 on his 25th anniversery tour. The only reason I went was because Mark Knopfler was playing with him. It took me until last summer to see Knopfler by himself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-real-concert/349037.md?page=5)