It Was Twenty Years Ago Today!
Actually, it's more like fifty years ago. There have been any number of recent threads where people relate how they saw so and so back in 1972 at such and such a place. Examples would be the Allman Brothers opening for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East, the James Gang opening for Led Zep on their first American tour, the Airplane, QMS and Big Brother at the Aragon, etc etc.
My question is -- HOW DO YOU EVEN REMEMBER THIS STUFF?
Don't get me wrong, I remember any number of concerts from the late 60s onwards, but I suspect I've mis-remembered or outright forgotten probably just as many. I just couldn't tell you how many times or exactly where or when I've seen McCoy Tyner, Hall & Oates, The Blasters, The Feelies, Steel Pulse, Marshall Crenshaw, Parliament/Funkadelic, Buddy Guy/Jr. Wells, Roomful Of Blues, etc. Somethings are just a little blurry.
Did you write this stuff down in diary?
I saw the James Gang open for Led Zeppelin in Syracuse in about 1970 or 71. That was not their first US tour; in fact, I'd seen them a couple years before that at the Laurel Pop Festival in Laurel, MD. Starting around 2006, I started keeping a spreadsheet of every concert I went to. Interesting to look back on this stuff.... |
I wish I had written it down and saved it. I saved all the ticket stubs and t-shirts. I used to write down the playlists but I didn’t keep it. Now there are web sites with a lot of the concert information including playlists. I do remember my 1st show. Montrose with Sammy Hagar opened for Black Sabbath on their Technical Ecstasy tour. Ozzy came out for the encore with a laser cannon pointed at the audience. I fainted and when I got up I was hooked for life. |
@bassbuyer - early Montrose was amazing; one of the first shows I saw when I moved to San Francisco was Montrose at Winterland; I'd never heard of them; their first album had just come out, but holy cow they blew me away. I remain convinced that if Ronnie and Sammy hadn't had ego issues with each other, that band could have been the American Led Zeppelin. |
