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Your First Concert?


BiC

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My 1st show was Herman's Hermits, not to impressive right. However the warm up bands were the Blues Magoos and The WHO. I don't even remember Herman's Hermits but I remember the Who like yesterday. I had just got their 1st album and was hooked on My Generation. I had just started playing bass in a high school garage band. I was blown away by Entwhistle, (spelling). At the end of their set when they tore all of there equipment up I could not believe it, I had just bought my 1st real rig and was busting ass washing dishes to pay for it and Pete Townsend was destroying a Super Beatle and a Strat!! I got a chunk of the back of his Super Beatle, wish I knew what happened to it. What great times.

DUKBUT

"If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand."

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I grew up in Highland Park, Il. There's an open air pavillion, Ravinia Festival, which mostly caters to orchestral, jazz, and light pop. Several performers are perennial fav's there. Spyrogyra; Peter, Paul & Mary; Manhattan Transfer... Everyone either shows up with a bucket of chicken and their favorite beverages, or buys from the gourmet stands and restaurant on the perimeter. The best time is had sitting on the no-direct-line-of-sight, level lawn, enjoying great music under the stars.

 

Because we lived there, I'm certain I went to concerts as a child I don't even remember. One of the first I do remember was Harry Chapin, in 1979. I was 12 I know it wasn't the first concert, but it sticks in my memory because I already loved his music and there were two special moments I'll never forget.

 

After sunset, it began raining. The lawn emptied out pretty much, including the small, wooded area directly behind the pavillion. With lights in his eyes, Harry couldn't see in the blackness, that it was raining, nor could he hear it.

 

After one song, he noticed the applause wasn't rolling in from the lawn and squinted hard to see the back of the pavillion. By this time, My parents had packed us up, walked us by the pavillion, and decided to jump the bars into the cheap pavillion bench seats, on the wings. The rain had been coming down on a slant and all the people who had bought those seats were long gone. :D

 

So Harry looks out,apparently heard the rain coming down, then says, "Where'd everybody go? ...Give me a second...", and walks off stage.

 

A minute or two passed. Then in walks Harry, positively soaked! He walks up to the mic and says, "That feels GREAT!" He dried off a bit with towels hurriedly provided by stagehands, then continued the concert in the rain.

 

By the time the concert ended, so had the rain. Harry came out near the gates, sat down at a fold up table and signed autographs for any and all of us who asked. My parents bought me a shirt and I had it signed.

 

I wish now that I'd been older, maybe more mature. I'd said my hellos. I'd thanked him for a great concert and for the autograph. But I couldn't have known that within a few years, Harry, would be no more.

 

Still, it's a wonderful memory from my childhood...

 

(I guess I'm going to have to apologize for the novellas in my sig line, if this keeps up. ;) )

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My first concert was not a normal concert. 1976, JFK Stadium. The official attendance was 105,000 (which is insane, really; they never allowed that many for any subsequent concerts there, including Live Aid--which I also attended). I was 14 years old, and the school year had just ended.

 

The lineup was Yes, Frampton, Gary Wright, and the Pousette Dart Band. Yes had just reunited after time off for all their solo albums and they did all this stuff from Relayer. Frampton Comes Alive had been building up momentum and was HUGE by the time the concert was held. It was really a double headliner. Gary Wright came out with a portable keyboard strapped around his neck, as did his "bass" player. The other band, well, I'd never heard of them then and haven't since (but yet, they got to perform in front of one of the largest stadium crowds in American history).

 

I still have an original, untorn ticket from that show. It was $10, which was absolutely unheard of then for a concert. (The next year, Pink Floyd charged $9 for the Animals tour, which was the second-highest ticket price to date.) I was supposed to meet a friend outside the stadium, but I was late and he panicked, thought I wouldn't show and bought a ticket at the gate, leaving me with an unused ticket.

 

My second concert, BTW, was Jeff Beck at the Spectrum, fall 1976 (the Wired tour in which he recorded his live album). The Jan Hammer Band opened up, then stayed out there and backed Jeff Beck. At the end of the show, Beck handed his Strat out into the audience. Can you imagine being the one to get that guitar?!?

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Well, depending on how you slice it...

 

I remember going to a County Fair Country & Western "All-Star" kind of show when I was only about five or six years old or so. Minnie Pearl, Bill Anderson, Little Jimmy Dickens, folks like that. I had a great time, and got to meet and shake hands with Bill Anderson... or was it Porter Wagner? Anyways, the whole show-biz'n'live music thing had me all excited, little tyke that I was!

 

Not much later, the Allman Brothers, The Band, and The Grateful Dead, possibly more, all played the infamous "Summer Jam" festival at the racetrack here in Watkins Glen, NY. We lived within hearing range, and I remember listening to all that strange, swirling, echoing music wafting over the hills and through the haunted woods, standing there in the back yard.

 

The funniest thing I remember from that was when another kid blurted out in dismay, "A bunch of Hippies stole my little red wagon!!" They sailed down the hill on his Western Flier, never to be seen again!

 

Lots of Church music, small traveling groups doing various styles of "Gospel" music, some late-night loiterings in front of bars where bands kicked out AC/DC and Thin Lizzy covers, a few wild "Battle of the Bands" affairs...

 

Then, in December '81 or thereabouts, I went to a huge Who concert at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY. That was the next to last show on that tour, billed as their final farewell, when they were still performing as a real band, not a traveling review with an army of hired musicians. The line-up was Townshend, Entwhistle, and Daltry, with Kenny Jones on drums and a guy known as "Rabbit" on piano and keys. Kind of the other book-end to your show, dukbut!

 

Originally posted by dukbut:

"However the warm up bands were the Blues Magoos and The WHO. I don't even remember Herman's Hermits but I remember the Who like yesterday."DUKBUT

Sorry if this wasn't too concise and succinctly "my first concert"; please forgive the ramble down memory lane! Memory Lame?!?

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Mom & dad dragged me to a John Denver concert for my first concert. First rock concert I went to was ZZ Top's Recycler tour. Great show! Moving sidewalks, lasers, explosions and lots of other cool stuff. Billy, Dusty, and Frank know how to put on a show! :thu:

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Well, since others are fessing up, I guess I can say what my real first concert was. I mentioned my first rock and roll show was Foghat at Pine Knob in Michigan. My very first concert was there as well, a band whose lead singer and drummer always comes up in the "guilty pleasures" threads about "Whose voice do you secretly love but won't admit it in front of your hip friends?" Yup. My very first concert was The Carpenters. The secret's out. And ya know what? It was a great show. One thing they could really do well was harmonize...their band. That guitar player was a phenomenal player as well.
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Originally posted by bluestrat:

"First rock concert I went to was ZZ Top's Recycler tour. Great show! Moving sidewalks, lasers, explosions and lots of other cool stuff."

Whoa, that's gotta be some sort of cosmic inside joke... Billy Gibbon's first touring rock band was called The Moving Sidewalks. They opened for Jimi Hendrix. Ever hear of him?

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

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Originally posted by Tedster HoffMonster:

Well, since others are fessing up, I guess I can say what my real first concert was. I mentioned my first rock and roll show was Foghat at Pine Knob in Michigan. My very first concert was there as well, a band whose lead singer and drummer always comes up in the "guilty pleasures" threads about "Whose voice do you secretly love but won't admit it in front of your hip friends?" Yup. My very first concert was The Carpenters. The secret's out. And ya know what? It was a great show. One thing they could really do well was harmonize...their band. That guitar player was a phenomenal player as well.

When I was a kid I had a big crush on Melanie, remember her ?? I thought she was really cool.

 

"Candles in the Rain" ??

 

I went to one of her concerts with a cool friend of mine, he thought she was a dork when she played

"Rollerskates". For the next couple of weeks he was singing,

 

"I got a brand new pair of rollerskates,

You got a brand new key",

 

and we'd bust up laughing.

 

She was great in concert though !!!!

Living' in the shadow,

of someone else's dream....

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Ronnie James Dio, for his "Last in Line" tour. The sound was excellent, and the stage show was magnificent! Definitely the best concert I've ever been to. Twisted Sister opened, but their sound was off--guitars were too loud, drowned out the vocals. Bummer, I liked them, too!

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Hmmmnn... "Elton John"...

 

Now, that's a scary, Halloween screen-name and avatar!!! :freak::eek::thu:

 

Trick-or-treating as a man who's always in costume!

 

Lee Flier should appear as Keith Richards, and the two of you could slam each other back and forth, like they do in real life!

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Originally posted by Dances With Werewolves:

Hmmmnn... "Elton John"...

 

Now, that's a scary, Halloween screen-name and avatar!!! :freak::eek::thu:

 

Trick-or-treating as a man who's always in costume!

 

Lee Flier should appear as Keith Richards, and the two of you could slam each other back and forth, like they do in real life!

Lee is Slammin' enough already. :)

 

Yeah, i always wanted to be elton john

(in the same voice as the sneaky butler in Mr deeds) "i do not know why".

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Originally posted by djwayne:

Originally posted by Tedster HoffMonster:

Well, since others are fessing up, I guess I can say what my real first concert was. I mentioned my first rock and roll show was Foghat at Pine Knob in Michigan. My very first concert was there as well, a band whose lead singer and drummer always comes up in the "guilty pleasures" threads about "Whose voice do you secretly love but won't admit it in front of your hip friends?" Yup. My very first concert was The Carpenters. The secret's out. And ya know what? It was a great show. One thing they could really do well was harmonize...their band. That guitar player was a phenomenal player as well.

When I was a kid I had a big crush on Melanie, remember her ?? I thought she was really cool.

 

"Candles in the Rain" ??

 

Actually, "Candles in the Rain" is a cool song. Rather spooky...and they used to play it on AM radio. It seemed like a pretty heavy topic type song for your standard crappy AM pop fare.
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Oh yes Melanie, that song "Candles in the Rain" was written about the people at the Woodstock festival who just went thru a down pour, The rain stopped and everybody was lighting candles, Melanie wanted to capture the spirituality of the moment. I also read that many people didn't understand the song and it got banned at a few stations, even still, it hit number 6 on the Billboard's charts.

 

From what I've read she's also still touring and doing shows. I found a few old pictures of her on the net, and now I remember why I had a crush on her !!! She's a cutie !!

 

I used to play her album a lot back then.

Another hit she had was "Look what they did to my song, Ma".

Living' in the shadow,

of someone else's dream....

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Can't remember for sure.

The first few I saw:

- The Monkees, with Jimi Hendrix Experience as the warmup act. - - Col Ballroom, Davenport Iowa

- Canned Heat - Brady St. Stadium, Davenport Iowa

- Johnny Winter - Brady St. Stadium, Davenport Iowa

- Grand Funk Railroad - - U of I, Iowa City

 

These were somewhere between '66 and '69..

Due to a combination of young age and excessive contraband consumption, the exact dates are foggy....

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Oh yes Grand Funk Railroad, I saw them too back then. They had this huge bay of colored light bulbs behing the stage, and during the song "American Band", it lit up like a huge flashing American Flag. It was a cool concert at Cleveland's Public autitorium. 20,000+ fans, I don't have a clue about the date, but I remember the concert.

 

"Mean Mistreater" was one of my favorite songs back then.

Living' in the shadow,

of someone else's dream....

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Originally posted by Tedster HoffMonster:

...The Carpenters...One thing they could really do well was harmonize...

I saw a TV program once on The Carpenters and someone in the show said that Karen Carpenter had absolutely perfect pitch.
There are two theories about arguing with a woman. Neither one works.
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I attended my first concert with my parents in 1965, at the Baltimore Civic Center. It was Bob Dylan's first electric tour, with The Band backing him up, in support of Highway 61 Revisited.

 

 

I saw these bands on this tour, too. The thing I remember the most were the outfits worn by the Blues Magoos - They came out in the dark with all these flashing colored lights on their clothes. Don't know why flashing lights would have stuck in my mind?! :D

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Originally posted by BobbyD.:

Black Sabbath in 1978 at Madison Square Garden. I was tripping my face off. Opening up was this unknown band called Van Halen.

 

Peace

 

Bobby

In the words of the Monty Python crew, "You lucky, lucky bastard!!" I wish I could have been to a Sabbath show, but I was only 4 when the band broke up in '79. :(

BlueStrat

a.k.a. "El Guapo" ;)

 

...Better fuzz through science...

 

http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html

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Originally posted by gatorwing:

Originally posted by Tedster HoffMonster:

...The Carpenters...One thing they could really do well was harmonize...

I saw a TV program once on The Carpenters and someone in the show said that Karen Carpenter had absolutely perfect pitch.
She definitely had the perfect voice to sell songs. Quite a tragic story there, too. Just goes to show you don't have to be in a metal band abusing tons of substances to self-destruct.
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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KISS at the Capitol Centre (outside Washington, D.C.) in 1977 (I think...).

The opening act was this relatively unknown Australian band.... AC- something.... ;)

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