Your first concert was to see who and when?


I'll kick off with Pink Floyd at The Bay Hotel, Sunderland in February 1969.

newton_john

Jimi Hendrix Massachusetts, Boston Gardens 1970.     Jimi died the 18th of Sept 1970..

Jefferson Airplane / Hot Tuna / It's a Beautiful Day

Feb. '70 Anaheim convention Center CA

1st Dead Show 12/28/70 El Monte Legion Stadium LA CA

It was 1969, I believe. I was a freshman at Ga.Tech and had a friend going to Mercer in Macon, Ga. Led Zep was playing there (of all places) and I believe the venue was some auditorium on campus but maybe it was somewhere else in Macon. Anyway, I rode my motorcycle up there and stayed with my friend. They were promoting Zeppelin 2, it had just come out. LZ hadn't really "made it" yet and put on a terrific show. Later that year or maybe the next it cost me $1 to see the Allman Bros. and Janis Joplin on the GT campus.

Liberace!  At the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh.  I must have been about 12 years old.  I loved music and I wanted to be in show business.  My mother was...not entirely pleased, but she took me to see him.  I was surely the only young man in an audience full of blue-haired ladies.  I thought his garish outfits were a hoot.

@buellrider97 

I was 15 years old. First out of town concert. My dad had to take me. I sat up front on bare floor, no seat, second row center, 5 ft from stage which was only 2 ft high. They were right there! It was in the casino that burned down soon after during a Zappa concert. That's where the Deep Purple song Smoke on the water came from. Very small venue, maybe a thousand people. Page had longer hair than Plant, that's how long ago it was. The Bonham solo was done mostly barehand and he started bleeding and keept going. I took a dozen pictures. To say it was memorable is an understatement. In September of that year, Hendrix was scheduled in the same casino. I had tickets. He died in August. Easily the biggest music disappointment in my life. I cried for a week, no shame in saying that. A long life has so many ups and downs, it's kind of a crazy roller-coaster ride when you look back.

Rush, Signals Tour, December 1982 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I was 17 and bought beer at the concessions. No ID necessary. Remember those days?  Mind blowing show.

@baylinor  Led Zepplin in Switzerland 1970 ! Wow , you’re my Hero. I only saw them once at Oakland Coliseum Day on the Green, the Saturday show. That was the day Peter Grants crew beat up Bill Grahams security. They played the next day and if I’m not mistaken that was their last concert here. But I could be mistaken as that was many brain cells ago. 😎

Leon Russell at the old Oiler Baseball Park in Tulsa, probably in 1971. A hippie chick stepped in front of my dad’s 1964 Chevy Nova station wagon when he was dropping me off, and she swore at him with the f-word. I thought he was going to launch himself into the stratosphere.

ELO at the Anaheim Convention Center in So.CA.  I believe it was 1976 or maybe early 77.  I was especially blown away when they did Roll Over Beethoven!   Couldn’t believe when the cellist were laying on they’re backs playing using they’re feet to hold the cello up in the air.  Was so good I can still see it.  
I think I saw Dave Mason shortly after that.  Would have been right after the Dave Mason Certified Live album came out.  In his prime then!

Wow, these are some amazing time machine fantasies.  I was either not born yet or waaay too young for most of the classic rock ones.

My first was Joan Jett, Ministry, Flock of Seagulls, and The Fixx all opening for The Police, Comisky Park, July 1983.  I remember spending a lot of time trying to avoid pot smoke.  How ironic. 

Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell tour (Ronnie James Dio’s first, I believe) at the Jacksonville Coliseum in 1980ish.  I was 15 and somewhat bowled over by the whole thing. 

October 1972, 11 years old my sister took me to see Harry Chapin at Aquinas college basketball court. Bob Seager was opening act.

Then March 1973 same sister took me to see Jethro Tull at Jenison field house at MSU east lansing.

I've been hooked on live music ever since

Beethoven's 5th, Hartford Symphony, mid sixties.

Judy Collins, 1968

Kinks, 1971

Iowa State Fair 1975

Santana, Fleetwood Mac, Head East.

Pretty much a day of it, back when bands just played and didn't worry about how long.

The Kinks in 1979 or 1980 at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles (Inglewood, to be exact). 

Led Zeppelin 1975 at the Greensboro Coliseum.  I still have many of my ticket stubs including from this concert.  Just imagine - $7 to see Zeppelin.  Second time I saw them in 1977 the price had gone way up to uh.. $9.

 

The Beach Boys in the Summer of 1964 at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, with Brian playing bass and singing falsetto.

The opening act was The Tikis, a Surf band from Santa Cruz. A coupla years later they changed their name to Harpers Bizarre. Future Warner Brothers record producer Ted Templeman was a member.

 

My first rock concert was The Doors, Fillmore East, March 22. 1968, 8PM show, as a 14 year old HS freshman with HS buddies.  What an introduction to rock concerts.  

Classical music was well before that, I believe at 10 years old seeing Carmen at the old Metropolitan Opera House.  I also remember seeing Young Peoples Concerts,, New York Philharmonic, Bernstein conducting at Philharmonic Hall at an early age.  My parents got me hooked on classical.  
 

Jazz was before that.  Probably at 8 years old.  I can visualize to this day Guy Lombardo pulling up to the stage at the Jones Beach Theater in his stunning wood power boat and leading his orchestra.  

The Jackson 5. I think it was around 1971 (plus or minus a year) at the Charlotte Coliseum (Charlotte, NC). It was one of the best concerts that I have ever seen.

Wow some amazing concerts here!

Mine was during a family visit to Phoenix in 1970.  The headliner was Three Dog Night, but the opener was Blues Image, still one of my favorite bands.

The following year, we visited Phoenix again and were eager to see another concert.  Opened the paper and found the ad, Three Dog Night again!  This time the opening act was little-known band, the Doobie Brothers.

Two great concerts!

 

 

Vanilla Fudge in I think 1967. I was in middle school. They were/are fantastic!

March 28, 1986. Rush Power Windows Tour, Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Marillion was the opening act. It was a fantastic show!

Cream Chastain Park ATL 10/27/68.  I was 16 and it was life changing.  Been playing guitar ever since.

Right after I returned stateside from Vietnam, August 1971, Alexandria, LA, Rare Earth. 

Heart, Cheap Trick opened. 1978 Green Bay, WI Brown County Arena.

Love the responses being put forth; so much great stuff from back in the day!

 

My first "concert" I attended was in 7 grade.  Christmas concert. 1968ish. To see my Parents and an Audience.   KIndah had to.  My second year on trumpet.

Jimmy Hendrix in San Diego in 1968 I think (It was just after being introduced to smoking marijuana- before going to the concert). Of course, it was amazing!

Besides John Denver and Paul Winter when I was really young with my mom at St John the Divine in NYC, the first real show I was at was, Believe it or not, New kids on the block in 1989 when I took my high school girlfriend as a birthday present. I hung out in the back of the venue, Syracuse I think, and smoked and trash talked the band even as we hummed along with the melodies we all knew by heart.

1979 ZZ Top on the Deguello tour at Cincinnati Gardens. I was in eighth grade and Joe Perry Project opened the show.

What a great question…Rare Earth, 1972, I was in the 8th grade. My mom dropped me and my best friend Jeff Stapleton off at ASU’s The Varsity Gym, Boone, NC! RIP Jeff….

Kansas at the Amphitheater in Chicago either 83 or 84. Back up band was John Cougar and the Zones playing I Need a Lover that Won’t Drive me Crazy.