Hey, me, too! At Barton Colosseum, Little Rock, 1976. I was 13. Perfect age, perfect time. I was pissed because the fire marshall would let KISS use their pyros, but Gene Simmons came out and spit extra blood to make up for it.
:smack: wouldn’t, that is…
Beach Boys, Buckinghams, and Tommy James and the Shondells, 1967.
My girlfriend and I sat in the last row of arena and watched and laughed as all the (younger) girls screamed and screamed at each of the acts. I’m not sure how good any of the music was because of that. Tommy James hadn’t yet gotten into his psychedelic phase, so he was pretty much a waste, but the Buckinghams were coming off their best hits, and the Beach Boys of course had just finished one of the greatest runs of hit songs in the history of popular music. So whatever I heard had to be pretty damn good.
Jeff Beck and Mahavishnu Orchestra on Friday, June 13, 1975. I bought five tickets, but had two people back out. Total cost was $31.50.
Overkill ! \m/
I can’t imagine seeing Mahavishnu Orchestra live, it would blow my mind. Billy Cobham is some sort of deity IMO.
While my junior year of high school was significantly earlier than yours, my first “real” concert was my sophomore year. I went with two friends, one of whom was old enough to drive and, despite my overprotective parents, we didn’t have to have an adult drive us. And so it was that I saw Katrina and the Waves open for Wham! I have to say, I still have great memories of that show.
Nice one!
Iron Maiden, Halford, and Queensryche, Glen Helen 2000. In family tradition I managed to have a migraine, but I came with Excedrin, so it was all good. 
At first, in digging back through my increasingly hazy memory, I thought it was the (very odd) double billing of Mamas & Papas plus Little Stevie Wonder at some huge auditorium in Seattle (with Vanilla Fudge as the opener, who were seriously resentful that apparently their one and only hit had never hit the charts in Seattle). But it also could have been Simon and Garfunkel at Carnegie Hall, just around the time Bookends came out.
In both cases, the shows were fantastic, so it doesn’t really matter which one came first!
Jethro Tull, 1975. Awesome!!!
3 Doors Down & Tantric with special guest Shinedown at Rupp Arena, January of 2004.
Dont remember the year … it would have been late 60’s or early 70’s …
Creedence Clearwater Revival with Bo Diddley as the opening act.
Interesting. That’s the month before I was born. Sixteen years later, in 1987, I saw my first concert: also the Moody Blues, at Sandstone Amphitheater outside Kansas City.
It was either Huey Lewis and the News or Phil Collins, in the summer of '85. I saw both within about two weeks of each other; I can’t remember which was first.
Primus, 1996, at the 9:30 Club in DC, on their Tales from the Punchbowl tour. Me, my dad, bro and a friend.
I was but a wee lad at the time, so my dad came with me when I went up front by the mosh pit for a while. I enjoyed it. Unfortunately I hadn’t bought all their CDs by then so I couldn’t follow everything.
I was suprised at the low sound quality compared to a CD, and how hard it was to make things out. It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard, but afterwards some of the employees commented that they were relieved that it wasn’t too loud. Afterwards we went and briefly heard a metal band at the Black Cat. It was insanely loud, even in the back. I couldn’t bring myself to take out my earplugs even for an instant at the front. One drunk guy wasn’t as bothered and spent his time dancing alone with his head right next to the stage monitors.
It’s actually the only big-name rock concert I’ve been to. I’ve been to the Blues Festival at Wolf Trap with BB King et al a few times, local festivals, and a couple Battles of the Bands.
I caught that tour when it came to Winterland in San Fransisco. When Beck and McLaughlin had their guitar duel at the end, the place went nuts!!
Jethro Tull. Broadsword And The Beast.
That would be the Bee Gees Spirits tour around 1980. Saw them two nights in a row. I lost 25% of my hearing, but boy did I have fun.
Sadly, my first real concert was New Kids on the Block when I was in grade 7. Luckily my musical tastes improved rapidly, and by the end of high school I’d seen U2, R.E.M., Violent Femmes, Smashing Pumpkins, and Green Day, among others.
Cheech and Chong in their heyday. With Jesse Colin Young as the opener.