Live shows I wish I hadn't missed


A poster on the "favorite live shows" thread suggested a thread dedicated to shows that were missed, a topic that seems interesting to me. Though I’ve seen my fair share, there ARE a few I regret not having been present at. They are:

- Bob Dylan with The Hawks, at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Fall of 1965. I didn’t yet get Dylan, but later met and worked with a couple of guys who had and were at that show. Oh how I wish I had seen and heard them!

- The Band’s live debut at The Fillmore Auditorium in 1968. Their first live show as The Band (formerly The Hawks, of course), after the release of their game-changing Music From Big Pink album. I didn’t yet get them, so passed. Duh. Everyone was there, including big fans George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who flew over from England specifically for the shows.

- Bob Dylan with The Band, the 1974 Before The Flood World Tour, their first together since 1966. The live recordings are just great, I can only imagine what it was like in person. Tickets were by lottery only, and Bill Graham received ten times as many requests for the San Francisco show as there were seats. My ticket request was not chosen, damn it.

- The Last Waltz. I moved away from the Bay Area on November 1st, 1976, just in time to not be able to attend The Band’s farewell show at Winterland. Though I don’t care for about half their guests that night, it would have been nice to bid farewell to the original incarnation of one of the (if not The) greatest Rock ’n’ Roll bands of all time.

Other bands/solo artists I like or love, but somehow managed to never see live: Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, and Little Feat. Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Loudon Wainwright III, The Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Roy Orbison, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

When I lived in Sherman Oaks, CA, I got to know another resident you may know of, songwriter/singer Billy Swan (he had a hit with his song "I Can Help"). He told me he saw Elvis, Scotty Moore, and Bill Black perform on the back of a flatbed truck in Tennessee in 1955. Wouldn’t that have been somethin’?! I’m also too young to have seen Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Hank Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, and The (Johnny Burnette) Rock ’n’ Roll Trio.

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I turned 16 years old on New Years Eve 1976 and that's when my concert history started. Since that time, I've been able to see most of the artist that were touring and were of interest to me. Jimi Hendrix died before I would have ever had an opportunity to see him. I was not a Bob Dylan fan back then, so no interest in that and I don't care to see him at this point in his career. So from my concert lifetime, I think these are the ones I missed and regret:

Pink Floyd - Animals Tour
The Police - Back in their Heyday
Neil Young - In the late 70's/80's, (but not now)
Johnny Cash 
John Hiatt (hopefully still have many opportunities)
Warren Zevon
The Highwaymen

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones off the top of my mind....
Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore East on December 31, 1969! I went instead to the Greatful Dead show 7 days earlier!
Was at the MSG box office in 1975 or 76 to buy Bad Company 1st tour tix. Just then, Who tickets went on sale. I chose Bad Company.
I’m a dummy.

Missed last tour of Deep Purple.
Decided not to go to small clubs during school nights to see early Police and U2.
Could have gone to Live Aid, but had no desire to stand in a hot, sweaty stadium for 15 hours.

Very few regrets. I’ve seen many hundreds of shows either as a friend of promoters, bands, or by purchasing tix myself.


Michael Jackson during his Thriller tour because I thought $35 for a ticket was too much!