Concerts: Who Was Your First Rock Show?

[Paragon]

This is pretty embarassing - but a friend invited me to see a Christian rock group called Petra when I was in junior high. I'd never heard of them, but I'd also never been to a concert before - so I went.

I tried to adopt all the "rock concert movements" (one-armed fist pump, the "Spider-Man" hand - until I was told later it was "Satanic") I'd seen on MTV, but I was mostly just creeped out.

I can probably trace the beginnings of my Catholic Lapse to that day.

[EstimatedProphet]

1. The famed "Black and Blue Tour"

Black Sabbath/Blue Oyster Cult
Didn't care much for BOC but Sabbath (with Dio) ROCKED!

[BeatleBoot]

2. Rick Derringer

and yes, his encore was "hang on sloopy!"

[bahrbearian]

3. Jimi Hendrix in 1968, Seattle.

[Emboldened Chimp]

25. You lucky bastard!

You lucky, lucky bastard!

[Seeking Serenity]

4. Elvis in 1976

I was 10 and some friends of my parents took me.

[UnAmericanJoe]

5. AC/DC

Tacoma, WA around 1988-1989.

[FlyByNight]

42. Me too...

in the Hartford (CT) Civic Center; the Blow Up Your Video Tour. They're lots of fun.

[ablbodyed]

6. I went to see....

Kiss with some Marines. It was the most moronic waste of time I have had. What drivel.

[Birthmark]

7. Led Zep, circa 1975

[gonefishing]

99. Same year at MSG.

[gonefishing]

8. Grand Funk Railroad

A week latter I saw Sly ant the Family Stone.

[livetohike]

9. Tommy James and the Shondells

1967 in Pgh.

[flamingyouth]

10. Go-Go's and the Fleshtones

Eagles Auditorium, Seattle, late 1981. It was great!:hi:

[Whitacre D_WI]

31. Oh, that sounds NICE!

"Roman Gods"-era F'tones with the Go-Go's....

That's an amazing bill.

[flamingyouth]

34. Precisely - they were amazing

Esp. the Fleshtones, even though they were the opening act.

[Whitacre D_WI]

36. "Hope Come Back" is one of my favoritest songs ever.

[FlashHarry]

62. The Fleshtones STILL rawk!

I got really drunk with Peter and Keith once at a festival in North Carolina. Fun guys. Can't be killed by natural methods.

[flamingyouth]

76. I'm jealous!!!

I would love to meet them. :thumbsup:

[FlashHarry]

77. Heck. You probably still can.

They still tour. Offer 'em drinks. That's sure to get the conversation flowing. (Remember when Peter Zaremba hosted an early version of MTV's 120 Minutes?)

[flamingyouth]

81. Yes! And he was by far the best host

He has always had the best suit jackets.

[Lisa0825]

11. First ROCK concert was Rush-Signals.

First concert of any type was Leo Sayer!LOL

[frylock]

12. kiss - love gun tour

summer of '77. I was 11 years old at the time, and had to beg my parents to let me go. My uncle took me and three of my friends, and we were all KISS freaks at the time! Cheap Trick opened for them.

[Twillig]

21. Wasn't that the 'destroyer' tour?

Who can tell, they released so many albums so quickly to cash in that it doesn't matter.

That was my first arena show. It was fun.

[southpaw]

38. KISS - Dynasty Tour - 1979

soemtimes the truth is a bitch...

[gonefishing]

100. Kiss at the Becon Therater mid seventies!

[Arwennick]

13. Beatles

1964 New Orleans Minicipal Auditorium

[aquaman]

14. Molly Hatchet

When I was about 12.

[TNDemo]

15. Hey, I know a guy in Petra.

My first concert was Chicago.

[Bertha Venation]

72. Do you still know the guy in Petra?

Is he still a fundy?

BTW: Chicago? I'm green with envy.

[TNDemo]

112. Haven't talked to him in years.

We went to a fundie school but he was always the loosest of the bunch and look how I turned out. :) They always seemed like a local band for the college and we were stunned when they were on the Grammys.

[LWolf]

16. Loggins & Messina

1974; jr. high.

[Redneck Socialist]

17. Ratt, Twisted Sister, Lita Ford and Cheap Trick

My sixteen year old self was quite impressed with Lita Ford. :headbang:

[Hemprus]

18. Black and Blue tour

[oneighty]

19. Jerry Lee Lewis

57 or so. Charleston arena, in The Holy City.

180

[aquaman]

87. how was that show?

[oneighty]

102. How was that show?

It was 'Goodness Gracious, Great Balls Of Fire', GOOD'

It was a small crowd sitting on fold up steel chairs which later became weapons when the fights started.

I swear the lead-in singer was a very young Conway Twitty, but that is pure guessing long after the fact.

Jerry Lee wore a silky white shirt soon soaked with sweat and soon opened down the front. He stands up at the piano striking at it as if in anger.

About then the fights started. My wife and I left.

It was a GREAT show, no doubt.

180

[Feanorcurufinwe]

20. Jethro Tull

77 I think

[Parrcrow]

24. Me too

About the same time too.:hippie:

Holy cow!
Hey I lost my Popeye Pez dispenser at that show. Did you find it?

[qwertyMike]

22. Gene Vincent & Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee

Years agooooooooooooooooooooo 1961???

[SOteric]

23. How did you guess?

:7

[SOS]

26. Bob Marley and the Wailers

Boston 1978.
Seen many since, but this one's still my favorite.

[aquaman]

88. you are lucky to have seen that show...

[cedahlia]

27. Nine Inch Nails

great show, but shitty, shitty seats where I couldn't really see a damn thing. It was worth it, though.

[Emboldened Chimp]

28. KISS - Asylum Tour

I was 13, so I didn't know any better. They wore no makeup, the place, small as it was, was half-filled, and the music was terrible. Luckily my tastes have vastly improved since...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

53. KISS WITH makeup (1983)

At the Maracanã stadium in Rio.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

29. Stevie Ray Vaughan....................

at the(now-levelled)Syria Mosque on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Got to meet him before the show, too.

[tigereye]

54. I was some great shows at the Mosque

Lou Reed, REM, Joni Mitchell, Al Stewart, the Ramones, Black Sabbath, BOC; that was a cool, but very hot and sweaty venue. RIP.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

80. Saw Warren Zevon play in the basement.................eom

[slackmaster]

30. Led Zeppelin, San Diego Sports "Aroma", 1973

The very Led Zep concert portrayed in the movie Almost Famous.

I was 15 years old.

[Whitacre D_WI]

32. My parents took me to Crosby, Stills, and Nash when I was 8...

...but the first "rock" concert I saw was when they took me to see Springsteen when I was 13.

The first rock concert I went to sans folks was probably the Dead Milkmen.

[tigereye]

55. Oh the Dead Milkmen were fun

saw them at another late lamented Pgh venue, the Decade, where a lot of early punk bands like Chrissie Hynde and the Police played before they were a big deal. Also saw the Replacements there... they were all that one could imagine, drunk and disorganized!

[MissMillie]

33. Electric Light Orchestra

During their 1978 "Out of the Blue" tour. It was kind of cool. The stage was a big spaceship and the top of it lifted up and the band was inside.

It was also back when they had cello players and all. Good fun.

[gmoney]

78. ELO? Me too...

My dad took me, and to this day, he complains about how tremendously loud it was.

[NNadir]

35. Jimi Hendrix at Madison Square Garden.

I saw Cream shortly afterward in the same place.

I guess I'm pretty old.

[slaveplanet]

37. Day on the green #3

July 78
23rd- Ac/Dc(Bon Scott vocals) was Opening for Aerosmith, Foreigner, Van Halen(David lee Roth) and Pat Travers at Oakland Stadium for the "Day On The Green" festival.

most memorable
November 3, 1991
"Laughter, Love and Music", 350,000 people gather at Golden Gate Park to mourn the passing of Bill Graham, Steve Kahn and Melissa Gold with a celebration of music.

Journey
Robin Williams MC
Santana
Greatful Dead & many more

free show

[Taverner]

39. IRON MAIDEN BABY!!!!

Piece of Mind tour!


Actually lemme restate that...Cousin took me to a KISS concert in 77 when I was seven, and I really wonderd why everyone was so poor that they had to share pipes and cigarettes and all....

[thestatusquo]

40. No Doubt

[Gildor Inglorion]

41. The Grass Roots & Canned Heat...

and on the same bill: Ray Stephens and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. A huge concert in Chattanooga in (I believe) 1969.

[Old and In the Way]

43. Steppenwolf / Tony Joe White

1969 or 1970

[northofdenali]

44. Eric Burdon & War, 1969, Fairbanks, Alaska

then Jefferson Airplane in Anchorage later that same year.

[Steven_S]

45. Another oldster...

James Gang, don't remember the year '70 maybe. Then King Crimson, not exactly rock.

[Spirochete]

46. Creedence C learwater Revival

in 1971. Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

[shanti]

47. elton john at the hollywood bowl - 1973

i'll NEVER forget it.

[Bonhomme Richard]

48. Seatrain at the first Earth day in Philly.

Still remember it well.

[HEyHEY]

49. Beach Boys!

I was seven and my Mommy took me.

[FarLeftRage]

50. Something called "Woodstock"

I believe it was billed as 3 days of "Peace, Love and Music"...
Rained there too and sleeping in my cousin's '62 caddy was no joy either.

[HEyHEY]

51. What stock?

:-)

[FarLeftRage]

52. My private stock of Canadian whisky

that's what stock...

Heard about the gin dude, hope you're okay.

[tigereye]

57. I think the first concert was Jethro Tull

in the mid seventies. Might have been Yes.

[HEyHEY]

58. Oh I was just kiddin about that

Someone started a post that said "I just drank 32oz of water"

I was just jerkin around..

I actually used to live in a town called Woodstock.

[Sticky]

61. Woodstock, New Brunswick? n/t

[Sticky]

56. No Nukes

I was green - the bands were fantastic! Jackson Browne's song Before The Deluge was a show-stopper.

[rucky]

59. Jellyroll Morton at Preservation Hall

kidding, I'm not that old.

Black Sabbath & Quiet Riot

[FlashHarry]

60. Kinks/Romantics '82!

My thirteenth birthday present from my Dad--along with my first electric guitar!

[NMDemDist2]

63. Jimi Hendrix

was such an eye opener, i never realized there were so many hippy freaks on the planet hehehehe

[ldf]

64. herman's hermits/rolling stones

first concert, spring 1964, herman's hermits, jacksonville civic auditorium, we kids were accompanied by two mothers (we were so embarassed, but had a good time anyway)

first ROCK concert, rolling stones, summer 1964, jacksonville coliseum. mom did NOT attend that one.

:-)

[mac56]

67. Allman Bros. Band at Metropolitan Stadium in MN

Fall of 1973. Opening act was the Charlie Daniels Band.

Add on edit: The Guess Who played my high school auditorium in early 1971. Not sure if that counts.

[Kat45]

65. Paul Revere & the Raiders, at the Hampton Beach Casino

My parents took me. The first "real" concert I went to was the Allman Brothers at the Boston Garden. The Eagles were the opening act!

[GOPisEvil]

66. Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band - 1983

:-)

[Sticky]

73. Was it the Against The Wind tour?

I had tickets for that one but he cancelled the show a week before.

[GOPisEvil]

75. I think it was for The Distance.

Against The Wind came out in 1980.

[toddzilla]

68. motley crue 1984, theater of pain tour..

hell of a first show. it was so loud you couldn't understand alot of it.

[-..__...]

69. Blue Oyster Cult.

In El Paso (it was around the time "Agents of Fortune" came out.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

82. I'm envious.........................eom

[-..__...]

95. Wait... there's more!

The reason I was in El Paso was that I was in the Army at the time; my unit had been sent to Ft Bliss for two weeks of training.

We had the weekends off, and on one of those nights, BOC was playing the local arena (it wasn't a very large venue, IIRC).

Myself and 4 buddies were fairly early for the show and we took our seats off to the side of the stage (did I mention they sold beer there, at a rock concert). We were probably there an hour when some stage hand came up to us and asked us if we'd like to be a security detail of sorts (why us 4... maybe it was the GI haircuts?). As an incentive we were told we could go back stage afterwards and meet the band (actually, we got snookered on that because they never let us backstage :( ).

The "security detail" involved standing up in front between the stage and the crowd (we had saw horses to stand behind to protect us from the mob).

:headbang:

The stagehand guy gave us a few simple instructions: just prevent anyone from trying to get up on the stage and duck down just before the intro to "Born to be Wild" (as there were several fleshpots about 10' from our heads).

The opportunity to see the band up close had it's downside though... once the show started there was no way to get through the crowd to fetch more beers,...and! There was nowhere to "bleed our lizards" from the beers we had already had consumed.

Well, after about 30 minutes into the show neither dilemma was sitting very well with any of us. There was no solution to problem #1 (NO BEER!), but in typical drunken, adolescent GI stupidity, we found a solution to problem # 2 (swollen bladders); simply duck underneath the tarp that covered the front of the stage and heed natures call (perhaps I should mention at this point that underneath the stage were miles and miles of electrical cables as thick as your wrist).

Anyhow, the band and laser show was incredible (this was before laser shows were verbooten)... it was like something from Starwars, and none of us had our wieners fried by hosing down high voltage lines surging with enough juice to power a small city). Oh yeah, I forgot to duck when the flashpots went off. If not for the "Ranger" haircut, the results could have been disastrous. :nuke:

So, anyhow as I mentioned earlier; we never did get backstage to meet the band... Eric Bloom can suck my cock!

[Droopy]

70. Judas Priest around 1988

I wasn't a big fan, just knew a couple of their songs. I don't really know why I went. It was alright when they played the songs I knew and the experience of seeing a live show I guess made it worth it.

[Bertha Venation]

71. Don't be embarrassed about Petra. Mine was Amy Grant -- and I saw her 5x

No kidding.

[amandabeech]

74. Santana

at the old Chicago Amphitheater--what a barn! It was '68 or '69, when I was in jr. high. I went with my older cousin and a couple of his friends. Carlos was amazing and the percussion section was really tight! It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. But I haven't seen Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. Tour, Bob, tour!!

[SarahB]

79. Sting

[starroute]

83. I can't really remember -- rock sort of snuck up on me

The first concert of any sort I attended was in 1963, when a folkie friend dragged me to see Joan Baez at the old Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. After the intermission, she brought on this guy I'd never heard of (though the audience obviously had) named Bob Dylan. That was kind of interesting . . .

In the summer of 1964, I was visiting a different friend in Forest Hills and we got inspired to buy some bubble solution and go blow bubbles at all the screaming 14-year-olds who were waiting in line to see the Beatles. That was pretty interesting too, but since we didn't actually attend the concert ourselves, I don't suppose it counts.

Now that I think about it, the first live rock I saw may have been the bands that played for free on the Cambridge Common in the summer of 1968. Most of them sucked, but a few were pretty good. I recall being impressed by the Allman Brothers doing "Tied to the Whipping Post" and by a band called Sweetwater that I believe played at Woodstock and then sank without a trace.

[woofless]

106. I remember Sweetwater.

Their lead, Nansi Nevens had a catastrophic car wreck and I don't think they were ever successful again after that, although they did try.

[minkyboodle]

84. don't laugh too hard at this one

ZZ Top with the mighty George Thorogood opening up for them... good times lol

[GOPisEvil]

85. Why would we laugh?

ZZTop puts on a great show. Thorogood does, too. I've seen them both, but not on the same bill.

[Radical Activist]

90. Kick-ass!

I saw Thorogood open for BB King last year and he was great!

[gonefishing]

98. If that was the one on Long Island I was there!

[ellie]

86. The Who, Eddie Money and the Clash

the fall of 1982 at the Pontiac Silverdome. I skipped school and told my mom I was skipping school to go. She didn't care.

[Radical Activist]

89. U2 on the popmart tour

I got started late but it is still one of the best concerts I have ever seen.

[Reverend_Smitty]

94. That was my first one too

I was 12 (1996) and I saw them in Philly at Franklin Field. Crappy seats and bad sound but still memorable. I saw them again last time they were in Philly I guess it was back in 01

[Radical Activist]

105. Wasn't it great...

I loved it when the lemon started spinning around, turned into a giant mirror ball and then opened up for the band to walk out of. The best part is that I won the tickets for free as part of a radio contest. It was the first rock concert ever held at the TWA dome in St. Louis. After that I started going to concerts all the time.

[Reverend_Smitty]

108. Yes

It was a sensory overload. The stage was huge and the concert was almost like a theatrical production. The only band that I have seen that has come close to that level of showmanship was the Rolling Stones

[Radical Activist]

109. Again we agree

When someone asks me the best concerts I've been to I always name U2 and the Rolling Stones. Age hasn't stopped the Stones from putting on a great show. I've seen them twice and they know what they're doing.

[WillyT]

91. Black Sabbath !!!

When Ozzie was a mere lad.

:yourock:

[alfredo]

92. Sam Cooke, Jerry Butler, Ruth Baker, The Coasters, The Five Satins,

and others. It was a wild show.

It was at Parkway field in Louisville Ky in the late 50's.

[AmandaRuth]

93. B52s at the Pyallup Fair.

This is luvamericahatebush's daughter, MINIluvamericahatebush. The B52s where my first concert, and dad and I snuck in! XD. I had a great time.

P.S. When Madonna comes around, mom's gonna take me to that!!!!!! WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!

[SnohoDem]

96. No, Who was not my first rock concert,

Josephus (local), It's a Beautiful Day, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead ('68 or '69 Houston, TX) May have had Jefferson Airplane, too.

[patriotvoice]

97. Ministry

EOM

[FrankBooth]

101. AC/DC

Seattle, Spring 1982.

[LuLu550]

103. The Beatles

I'm old

[woofless]

104. Jefferson Airplane

1968 at Pirate's World in Dania FL. I was 16 and straight and still remember it well. DAYUM, Grace could rip it.

[ronnykmarshall]

107. The Supremes - 1974

It was at Magic Mountain and line up was Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong and Scherrie Payne. Florence Ballard was in the audience.

[Nikia]

110. Rob Zombie- 2 years ago

I wasn't allowed to go to rock concerts when I was a teenager which is a little strange considering that my father was in a rock band.

[durutti]

111. The Cramps

1997.

[sendero]

113. Rod Stewart...

... in 1973. Not because I wanted to see him, but a certain girl/woman did :) To his credit, he put on an engaging show.

Too bad it didn't work out with her and me :evilgrin:

[Wickerman]

114. Five Man Electric Band

Iowa State Fair - maybe 1971?

Signs, Signs, everywhere a sign - long before Tesla.