1st Concert - What's Yours?

[Quad Linda]

Concerts are memories that give us warm fuzzies. Please post the first CONCERT that you attended. A local band/soloist that you heard at a bar doesn't count. It should be someone that you heard in a large concert venue. If they have a dance floor, or tables, it probably isn't a concert hall.

It was '66. Allan Sherman at the Arie Crown, inside Chicago's McCormick Place. The entire complex burned down in '67, was rebuilt and reopened in the early '70's. He did his hit, Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah. Although his career was already in decline, it was a stellar concert. A most clever guy, he sadly died in the early '70's, broke and forgotten. RIP I still remember his music and popped for "My Son, the Box," his complete works issued in 2005 on CD by Rhino Handmade, OOP, limited to 4000.

If you like musical parodies, seek out this guy's music. You will not be disappointed.

 

[hwkn]

Jefferson Starship at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1983[I left after about an hour because it was too loud].......I still remember someone handed Grace Slick a pink elephant right before they went into Whit Rabbit and she kept saying"The pink elephant says F You"over and over.

 

[leevitalone1]

hahahahahaha! I used to love Alan Sherman I forgot about that tune!
I'd have to say it was Louie Armstrong the 1st real show. There was a R&R show can't remember if it was before LA, like in that wonders movie, that had a bunch of different "stars" on a road show. But CRS about it.

 

[Odys]

The Tubes were my first concert, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band opened up for them. If I remember correctly, it was the first concert ever at the Uptown Theater, which used to be a movie house. This was in 1975.

 

[user 1679]

Aside from local bands playing at my high school, the first "real" show I went to was in April '73 at Maple Leaf GArdens in Toronto - Johnny Winter, Slade opened.

 

[leevitalone1]

The Tubes were my first concert, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band opened up for them. If I remember correctly, it was the first concert ever at the Uptown Theater, which used to be a movie house. This was in 1975.

View attachment 5102

Tubes - "don't touch me there" great tune

 

[jdmack]

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Richmond, VA. - Nov. 29, 1977. I was 13. A friend's dad took us. There was no orchestra, which was fine with me. The show was amazing!

J. D.

 

[leevitalone1]

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Richmond, VA. - Nov. 29, 1977. I was 13. A friend's dad took us. There was no orchestra, which was fine with me. The show was amazing!

J. D.

Did Greg do the "flip" with the keyboards? I saw a show where he was suspended and they rotated him in the air while playing.

 

[Quad Linda]

He did it when I saw him 14 years ago. Imagine seeing THAT at your first concert. You might expect that at EVERY concert.

Did Greg do the "flip" with the keyboards? I saw a show where he was suspended and they rotated him in the air while playing.

 

[elroy]

I think it was Billy Joel in the summer of '75 at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. Small theatre, in the round...he played 4 encores! It was great! Didn't think anyone could top that kind of all-out performing until I saw Bruuuuuuuuce a couple years later.

 

[quadsearcher]

Cheap Trick in ~'80, Dream Police tour. Great laser/light show, free picks, sticks, and shirts to everyone in throwing distance. We were in the 4th row and didn't know how loud it was until the next day (and a couple days after, too). Rick Nielson is a great showman. Before that, some great local bands in bars. Back when they "let" underage people in.

 

[dr8track]

http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/player/28-Vortex-I

Please post the first CONCERT that you attended.

Well, clearly I must have been doing a lot more drinking and drugs during my concert attending years because I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly was my first concert. But... I'm pretty certain my first concert was the Vortex outdoor rock festival in Portland, Oregon. I lived in Eastern Oregon at the time and my friend and I drove my 67 Camaro 200 miles to the concert in McIver State park near Portland. I was about a month shy from turning 17. "In the summer of 1970, some tens of thousands of people converged in rural Clackamas County for an event called Vortex 1. This “biodegradable festival of life” celebrated freedom -- freedom from violence, from drug laws and from clothes. It also served as an elaborate ploy to lure young people away from Portland. And to this day, Vortex remains America’s only large-scale rock festival ever sponsored by a Republican governor." Here is a website that tells all about it; http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/28-Vortex-I
It was my first experience dropping acid, my first experience with electric cool aid and my first "bad trip." I was so terrified that I'd lost my mind that I never touched acid again. (Although I did my fair share of many other drugs in the years to follow.) Frankly, I don't remember any of the bands that played, but in reading about it online it sounds like it was mostly Portland area bands. But because it was a rock festival in the era of Woodstock, I guess it still counts.
Here is a link to a documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting about the event; http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/player/28-Vortex-I

 

[strat54]

Did Greg do the "flip" with the keyboards? I saw a show where he was suspended and they rotated him in the air while playing.

Keith played keyboards, Greg is bass, guitar and vocals

 

[leevitalone1]

Keith played keyboards, Greg is bass, guitar and vocals[/QUOTE


Oh shit! there I go again. It's all part of getting old I think. spelling words back words and switching names.
anyway, did Keith do the flip? I'll get it one of these days. I am the original space cadet.

 

[user 1679]

Oh shit! there I go again. It's all part of getting old I think. spelling words back words and switching names.
anyway, did Keith do the flip? I'll get it one of these days. I am the original space cadet.

The spinning piano was done for a few shows on the 74 tour.

 

[The Rang]

The Tubes were my first concert, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band opened up for them. If I remember correctly, it was the first concert ever at the Uptown Theater, which used to be a movie house. This was in 1975.

View attachment 5102

Wow...

The Tubes were my first concert too, also in 1975.
At the PNE Form in Vancouver.

Have zero recollection on who the opening act was, but I don't think it was Alex Harvey.

 

[DKA]

Jane's Addiction - somewhere around 1990, perhaps? Miami.

 

[georgeshannon]

The Guess Who in 1973 at Bradley University in Peoria. Sugarloaf (Green-eyed Lady) opened.

 

[leevitalone1]

http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/player/28-Vortex-I
Well, clearly I must have been doing a lot more drinking and drugs during my concert attending years because I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly was my first concert. But... I'm pretty certain my first concert was the Vortex outdoor rock festival in Portland, Oregon. I lived in Eastern Oregon at the time and my friend and I drove my 67 Camaro 200 miles to the concert in McIver State park near Portland. I was about a month shy from turning 17. "In the summer of 1970, some tens of thousands of people converged in rural Clackamas County for an event called Vortex 1. This “biodegradable festival of life” celebrated freedom -- freedom from violence, from drug laws and from clothes. It also served as an elaborate ploy to lure young people away from Portland. And to this day, Vortex remains America’s only large-scale rock festival ever sponsored by a Republican governor." Here is a website that tells all about it; http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/28-Vortex-I
It was my first experience dropping acid, my first experience with electric cool aid and my first "bad trip." I was so terrified that I'd lost my mind that I never touched acid again. (Although I did my fair share of many other drugs in the years to follow.) Frankly, I don't remember any of the bands that played, but in reading about it online it sounds like it was mostly Portland area bands. But because it was a rock festival in the era of Woodstock, I guess it still counts.
Here is a link to a documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting about the event; http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperience/programs/player/28-Vortex-I

Now that is a fancinating story, about the show put on to get kids out of Portland. and the bad time you had with LSD. I'm sure being so close to CAL. you got some clean shit, but that is a bad place to do the 1st time. Too many people, I would have freaked too. Plus you were way too young to be tripping. Not good for developing minds. I'll bet you don't remember any of the bands either. But cool story anyway.

 

[JonUrban]

James Taylor (and the Section), circa summer 1972, promoting his new LP "One Man Dog", at the Bushnell in Hartford, CT. First time I ever heard a song live that I owned on LP. It was surreal. A month or so later, I would be in boot camp. Many moons ago.