Humble Pie (with Peter Frampton) in 1972, at the Summit in Houston. I was 13. No contact high for me, I was doing the real thing! Amazing experience.
I saw so many concerts in my teens. Doobie Brothers, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Bob Seger, Jimmy Buffett… I was the ticket-buyer - using my mom’s credit card to call them up and repaying her with collected monies.
:: wanders off singing “Thirty Days in the Hole”…
Very interesting. I saw the Beach Boys, Buckinghams, and ? and the Mysterians the same year at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. Maybe the same tour but with a little different lineup. The Beach Boys had released ‘Pet Sounds’ in late '66, arguably one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time. IIRC, they pretty much covered the entire album in their show. I remember wondering how they could possibly pull off the multi-layered vocals on “Good Vibrations”, yet somehow they managed. It was an amazing show.
sigh
Eurythmics was my third concert and that show started a lifelong love affair/semi obsession with Annie Lennox’s voice. I have seen them perform on three other tours, but the first one was the best, at one of the best places in Philly, The Tower Theater. They invited the crowd up onstage with them to boogie along to “Right By Your Side”.
Arlo Guthrie and Judy Collins, at Blossom Music Center, in the late 60s. Arlo was the opening act, and infinitely more entertaining than Collins.
I saw a lot of concerts there: PP&M, Joan Baez, Poco, Janis Joplin, Jackson Browne. Great venue.
Very first concert?
The Beatles in 1964. Almost could not hear the music over the screams.
My first real concert (besides the Christian contemporary ones my parents made me go to…not that they were bad) was The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over tour. I saw them in Texas stadium when I was 20.
Since then I have seen Matchbox 20 w/Lifehouse and another band whose name escapes me right now; Rod Stewart; Madonna; The Rolling Stones…
I saw and later met the 5th Dimension from backstage back in what must have been '69 or '70 but I’m not sure that counts since I was with my parents. Dad was with a record company.
First “real” concert was probably in the late '70s, Foghat with a pre-Phil Collins Genesis. A band we were at the time unfamiliar with opened with two songs, Judas Priest.
Oops, forgot about Eric Johnson in '76 at Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters.
And me three. At Cobo Hall in Detroit. 1976 it was! I was 14. There were no lack of pyrotechnics.
My first (and only) big arena concert was Skid Row and Guns N’ Roses at the Nissan Pavilion, Northern VA. Around 1991 I think.
September 1985, Night Ranger at the KS State Fair.
To my thinking you win the thread.
Nic
“Air Supply” at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa. I was 19 and afraid that I hadn’t done enough teenaging before turning 20. My friend Janet and I paid $50 each for 2nd row tickets, and sat in the pouring rain for the whole concert. It felt like we’d paid our life savings for those tickets! That’s the extent of my teenaging.
…Oh, and “Huey Lewis and the News” at the Golden Bear. Anybody else remember the Golden Bear?
Wow am I lame, but my first concert was Huey Lewis and the News at Madison Square Garden in Indianapolis, circa 1986 when I was in 7th grade. I remember he did this long thing with a friggin’ drum machine, and the audience was like, Oohh, Aahh, how cool is that! Now I look back and think…how lame is that??
Since then I’ve seen BareNaked Ladies four times and U2 twice. Has that washed the HLATN stench off of me yet??
I was just wondering if I won. 
some other early concerts
Simon and Garfunkel 4th row center seats
Jimi Hendricks 12th row.
Cream’s good bye concert
Doors Hollywood bowl
Jefferson Airplane (right white rabbit was released IIRC),
Grateful dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company
First ever show - Prince, Parade Tour, Wembley Arena, London, UK 1985 or 1986. Mom chaperoned sis and me. It was probably a bit much for my 13- or 14-year-old senses, especially the extended bed humping scene. Mom’s comment: “He’s nasty, but he’s very talented.”
First show unchaperoned - U2, Joshua Tree Tour, Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas 1987. There were hardly any kids our age there. At the time U2 was like a college rock or KLBJ-listening adult thing. It was bad ass.
Very proud of my “firsts.”
Depends. Has my seeing Allison Krauss, Ray Charles, Live, Counting Crows (2x), Ben Folds, Fiona Apple, Aerosmith, et al, wash Corey Hart and Rick Springfield from mine?
I’m sorry to be the one to break this to you both but…there is no cure. Though you may have beaten it into remission, only regular doses of R&R will keep it at bay. I feel you both have a real chance at a regular life with periodic concerts and jammin’ with headphones in-between. You understand of of course that you will need to continue this treatment for life.
Well, shit.
Goes off to listen to something angry
I saw Def Leppard on their Hysteria tour in 1987. I was seventeen, and I felt like the oldest person on earth who had never been to a concert!
My kids have already been to a concert: Stevie Nicks, a few months ago in Tampa. My fourteen year old daughter is her number one fan. My nine year old boy wants to go see Billy Joel or Alice Cooper.