Concerts I've Seen

About a year or so ago, one of the public radio stations in my area sponsored a message board for people to post concert experiences. Here is what I posted. Anybody interested in sharing some of their concert experiences?



I have seen a LOT of concerts and these are just some thoughts on a few of them. I am a child of the 80's and my concert memories start in the very late 70's. My memories are probably not quite accurate and certainly told through the proverbial rose colored glasses.

In the early 80's, NJ changed the drinking age from 18, first to 19 and then to 21. So, the year I turned 18, the legal age changed to 19, and the year I turned 19, the legal age changed to 21. NY, on the other hand, remained 18 to drink. As a result, we used to cross the border and go to places like the Orangeburg Pub (at least I think that was the name of it) and a few other establishments whose names I don't recall. I saw the Allman Brothers at one of these places. The place was crowded but not overly so, and I literally stood 5 or 6 feet from a seated Greg Allman not realizing the significance of it.

At another show in one of these clubs, at about the same time (I have to warn you that I have very eclectic tastes), Lemmy of Motorhead stopped their performance to use the bathroom. A whole bunch of us had the very memorable experience of patting a sweaty Lemmy on the back. As a side note, I had previously seen Motorhead at the Capital in Passaic and it was by far the loudest concert I had ever seen.

Sometime in the 90's my wife had purchased tickets to see America (unfortunately, the lobotomy center was closed that day) at the Garden State Art Center (now the PNC). We got there a bit late and while walking through the parking lot I could hear the band playing. I kept saying to her that it sounded like Yes, either that or America was covering Yes tunes. Well, I don't quite understand what happened but I guess America canceled and (and to my pleasant surprise) Yes replaced them. We ended up unexpectedly seeing Yes in a sparsely populated Garden State Art center with essentially our choice of seats.

Ringo and his All Starr Band always put on a great show and I have seen most of the incarnations and can share several great moments but I'll just give 2. His first tour was great (I saw it at the GSAC in '89) with Ringo, Jim Keltner and Levon Helm on drums, Rick Danko on bass, Dr. John and Billy Preston on keys, Nils Lofgren and Joe Walsh on guitars and Clarence Clemmons on sax. Bruce came out as a guest and did "Get Back." When the song was starting (this is only an approx. quote) Springsteen said something to the effect of, "Man, it is weird to do a Beatles' tune, turn around and have Ringo on drums."

At one of Ringo's more recent tours, he had Greg Lake on bass and some dude from the 80's on keys along with Sheila E. on the drum kit or percussion. After Ringo scurried off stage, the 3 of them broke into "Karn Evil 9," "First Impression," "Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends." I had seen ELP with both Carl Palmer and the one tour they did with Cozy Powell and I will tell you that this particular performance with Sheila on drums was jaw dropping.

First concert was Steven Stills at the Capitol in Passaic. Most concerts by far, Rush. Best encore was Devo when they did Working in a Coal Mine at the Capitol in Passaic. Most regrettable moment was being wasted for Frank Zappa at the Beacon.

A sort of music-related experience, occurred at a now-defunct liberal arts college around '86 in NJ. Timothy Leary was giving a talk to a small group (it was open to the public). I really didn't know who he was at the time and his historic significance but I did know he was definitely stoned.

Funniest mistake on stage was probably during the intro for "Wish You Were Here" at one of the fairly recent Roger Waters shows (I think it was the one at the Garden). There were many guitars lined up in front of the drum riser and one of the technicians snuck out on stage along the front of the drum riser and inadvertently kicked over one of the guitars. Unfortunately, the guitar was live and set at (what sounded like) "11".

The most poignant was Chris Whitley at a small club in Philly a couple of summers ago. I was not familiar with him and a friend of mine was turning me on to his work. He was drinking heavily and becoming erratic during the show (spending most of the time tuning) to the point where he left the stage and canceled the show. Soon after, my friend called to tell me of his passing from lung cancer.

I'll stop now.

ZZ is one to see. I saw them 2 months ago at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (a really big gala here) and boy do they put out the sound for 3 old guys. Saw Zappa 2x. Jeff Beck every time he comes to Houston. Saw the cure when no one knew who they were. They played at Numbers in front of maybe 1000 people.

Iron Maiden
Dio
Pink Floyd
Blondi
Golden Earing
Marillion
Fish
Status Quo
Uriah Heep
Deep Purple
Yesterday & Today

And a couple of others I can't seem to remember right now.


Regards,
Alex

Wow KC opening for anything like poco seems to be a horrible misfit. I love KC and the red era is one of my faves. But KC and Poco?? That is like Rob Zombie and Britney Spears.

I honestly can't remember most of the concerts I've seen. Partial list in no particular order:

Leon Russell, Led Zepplin, Robin Trower, Wishbone Ash, Moody Blues, U2, Humble Pie, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Captain Beyond, Rush (6 or 7 times), R.E.O. Speedwagon, J. Giles Band, Judas Priest, Mahogany Rush (2 times), Journey (5 times), Peter Frampton, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Ronnie James Dio, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Willie Nelson (twice), Waylon Jennings, Chuck Berry, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Clint Black, def Leppard (twice), Foghat (twice), David Allen Coe, Flock of Seagulls, Heart (twice), Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult, Ted Nugent, Strunz and Farah (twice), Billy Idol, Eddie Money, Loverboy, Survivor, Kansas, Eric Johnson, Melissa Etheridge (really didn't want to go, girl talked me into it, was one of best shows ever, lots of lesbians though), Legs Diamond, Cheryl Crow, Boston, Van Wilks, Aerosmith, Mountain, Joe Walsh, Los Lobos, Earth Wind and Fire, Sammy Hagar

I'll edit as I think of more..

Reading the lists above..... I had forgotten so many shows that I saw but didn't list....

Dave... the time I saw Poco, they were badly booked.... from your post...and my experience too, Poco always seemed to get the raw end of the deal. In the show where I saw them..... Foghat opened the show, and they were just fresh outta the box and had "I just wanna make Love to you" ...running up the charts...... Johnny Winter's band was the headliner... IIRC he had Rick Derringer playing with him at the time and played a rowdy version of "Rock & Roll Hoochie Coo"...... both bands were rockers, and there was poor Poco stuck in the middle with their steel and acoustic guitars..... totally in the wrong place at the wrong time.....they played 2 songs...the crowd started booing and throwing stuff at them (firecrackers) ....... in their 3rd song... they stopped playing and walked off stage ...... JW came out a tad early and played a longer show to make up the difference. I really liked all 3 bands on the show and it was a bad thing when they walked off stage like they did... but I can't blame them.

ORIGINAL: jamesg1213
* Knebworth 1990 - Nordoff Robbins Benefit gig, the most incredible line-up...Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Elton John, Tears For Fears, Robert Plant and..umm..Cliff Richard..

I remember DESPERATELY wanting to get to that concert.

ORIGINAL: Slugbaby

ORIGINAL: jamesg1213
* Knebworth 1990 - Nordoff Robbins Benefit gig, the most incredible line-up...Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Elton John, Tears For Fears, Robert Plant and..umm..Cliff Richard..

I remember DESPERATELY wanting to get to that concert.

Quite a surreal gig actually Matt..seeing that many big names in one day was really odd! It rained a LOT as well, everyone was cowering under bin-liners when Robert Plant came on, I remember being one of the few who stood up to watch him. Floyd's laser show was incredible set against the rain though.

Took HOURS to get out as well..

quantumeffect - that's a hilarious story about Lemmy!

I've seen to many to list, so here's my most cliche' concert moment... got free tickets through the company to see Lynryd Skynyrd about 10 years ago - box seats with about a 5 foot drop to the front section below. When they started playing "Freebird" for the encore, some drunk dude stormed into our box, stood up on the railing, lit his cigarette lighter and screamed out "Freebiiirrrddd!!!" as he of course fell off the railing down to the walkway below. He laid there for about 5 minutes as people just walked by and looked at him until eventually a golf cart came and wheeled him off. Wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't there!!

Dave

www.soundclick.com/steakbone

ORIGINAL: CreatingNoise

Dave,
Hearing your hilarious account of the dude at the LS concert made me realize why concerts don't seem as "magical" these days. Mainly because I attend without being drunk and stoned, pre-requisites of the concert experience in the old days (pre-1994). Being sober at a Rush concert while the inebriated guy next to me explains how great they are while he simultaneously hoots, sings and spills beer kinda kills the atmosphere. But no worries, I am sure when I was younger there was some dude next to me that got the same thing, from ME.

That was YOU next to me? You owe me for a Zepplin t-shirt dude.

First concert - Kiss - so loud I was deaf for hours when I got out. I think that was also the first time I got stoned on weed.

Worst concert - Stones - bored to tears... I actually wanted to take a nap. Maybe it was all the old guys creaking about on stage I dunno

Best sounding - Tory Amos - incredible sound, minimalist show - thoroughly enjoyed it.

Most memorable - NIN - I even payed homage to it in a chapter of The Old Mans Machine (the entertainment district in Level 9). It was not good, it was sociapathic. The Mosh pit was too rough. The opening act was extreme body 'art'. It was straight out of Hell.

Last concert - Nickleback - a couple of years ago, we (Soph and I) actually crashed it. We both had worked at the venue and knew alternate ways in. We would not actually pay to see them. I think maybe we had drank a bottle of wine for diner and a night out, and ended up crashing the gate as a lark. I do not fully recall. We do a lot of crazy things while completely sober, so we might just have been acting the fools. We will spend some time in purgatory for that no doubt.

ORIGINAL: Susan G

Hi-

I was at the Beatles' first Shea Stadium concert (yes, I'm that old!), and I have my Dad's long photo shots to prove it. I was determined not to scream, but I'm sure I did anyway. You couldn't actually hear exactly what they were doing, but that didn't matter -- I'm sure everyone in the stadium that night sang along and claims they heard every note & word.

I was also fortunate to see/hear Cream in NY early on, not in a "concert" setting, exactly, but in a small club in NYC.

-Susan

I wonder if Paul McCartney or any of the stadion-class-oldies have done the following lately: Play a song or two with the PA equipment of the late sixties. That'd be fun to hear.

I've quit going to concerts 'cause I hate the disappointments caused by bad sound engineering.

In the old days, late sixties, my big(gest?) experiences were Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull.
Best sound system I've ever heard was used by Frank Zappa. I think the PA was mostly Yamaha. Excellent !!!

Those days it was extremely difficult to get the big stars to Finland, because the boat trip from Sweden took an extra day. Now everybody's going to Russia, and throwing a show passing through, so we have more big concerts than we have the audience for. There's about 1 million people in the three cities of the capital district of Helsinki (5 million in the whole country about the size of Germany), so 5-6 stadion class concerts a summer (added with half a dozen of both big summer festivals and ice hockey-hall-size concerts) effectively suck empty the pockets of potential concert-goers.

First Concert - LZ in 1968 in Pasadena CA. Elvin Bishop, Chambers Bros, Brian Auger and Trinity. Each band did two sets.

2nd Concert - Jimi Hendrix, Chicago Transit Authority, Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys

Others I've seen

The Doors
Jethro Tull
Yes
Blood Sweat and Tears
John Hiatt
Matc Cohn
Barenaked Ladies
Van Morrison
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Lee Michaels & Frosty
Robert Cray
Ringo Star and his All Star Band (that night Jack Bruce)
Blind Faith
Wild Turkey
Black Sabbath
Bruce Springsteen
Rolling Stones
Paul McCartney
Cher
Cindi Lauper
Jesse Winchester
Lyle Lovett
Pink Martini
Moody Blues
The Eagles
Stanley Clark
Al DiMeola
Ike and Tina Turner
Mountain
Bob Dylan
Wayne Newton (I was forced to go)
Joe Satriani
Jean Luc-Ponty



Prolly a few dozen more that I can't think of right now.

Hi,

I got into progressive an experimental music and a lot of the pop'ish stuff just did not appeal to me at all ...

Of all the biggies out there, there are only two, maybe 3, that I would love to see in person ... and they are:

Vangelis Papathanassiou
Mike Oldfield
Klaus Schulze
... maybe Peter Hammill by himself ...

Not interested in any of the supergroups, although if Amon Duul 2 comes around I might like to see them, but the various recordings of anything they have done recently are sad and sadder and sadder still ... maybe it is time to let go of the sky-bytes and do something else!

Starting in 68 or so
Blues Magoos, The Who and Herman and the Hermits
Andres Segovia
Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar
Man of La Mancha (1968 - Chicago)(same day as Shankar)
Some Pow wow near Green Bay had over 20 bands, of which some are still around, though many of them are just curious shop material.

Moved to California:
Moody Blues (Forum)
Yes - (Long Beach Arena) Tales of Topographic Oceans
Pink Floyd (Hollywood Bowl 72,Forum 75 the day of the big drug busts), Forum 77, Anaheim Stadium, The Wall)
Babe Ruth with Iggy and the Stooges (Whiskey a Gogo)
Tangerine Dream (Santa Monica Civic - 1st tour)
Hawkwind (Santa Monica Civic - Space Ritual Tour)
Nektar (Santa Monica Civic)
Tangerine Dream (Greek Theater - back side of live album is what the trees looked like with the lasers going through it)
PDQ Bach (Arlington Theater)
Man and Hawkwind (Space 1999 Tour)
Deep Purple and Leon Russell - Long Beach Arena
Rare Earth with Nazareth and Black Sabbath - Hollywood Palladium
Roxy Music - Hollywood Palladium
Tangerine Dream - Portland Or (86 or 87)
Stevie Ray Vaughn and Robert Cray (Salem Fairgrounds)
Alan Stivell - Portland Or
Gong - Portland Or (95)
Gong - Portland Or (97)
Porcupine Tree - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Brand X - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Magma - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Per Lindh Project - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Lana Lane and the Rocket Scientists - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Bondage Fruit - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Buckethead - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Gong - SF Progressive Music Festival 99
Damo Suzuki - Portland Or
University of Errors (Daevid Allen) - Portland Or
Dream Theater and Fates Warning
Queensryche and Dream Theater

Best presentation was Nektar and their Light Theatre ... light show heads and tails above anyone else.

Best fidelity would have to go to Pink Floyd in the Hollywood Bowl in 1972 ... and talk to anyone about that wind going around the speakers 15 minutes before the show! And breaking into One of These Days to start things off ... awesome opening and then some!

Most amazing display of music and blow people away goes to Magma in SF .. they got a 15 minute standing ovation that had Christian Vander in tears in the back.

Most amazing display of music ability and substance: Richard Barbieri in PT .. his Prophet 5 took a spill and all day long people tried to fix it, call Radio Shack call this call that ... nothing worked ... he spend 5 hours backstage through 3 other bands ... I could not tell the difference and some roadie kept trashing the band ... they sounded magnificent to me ... and not only gained respect but appreciation for the beauty of the music itslef ... it takes a good man to dedicate himself and know his craft so well that he could program another synth or two to replicate some of the sounds and things he wanted to do or had done before ... I'm sure that Dave Smith is not happy with that spill!

Best show yet ... Gong when they brought Pierre Moerlin with them in 97 ... they had a bottom to it that made the music rock very strongly and then he was also light when he needed to. This was a perfect example of what power something can have in the right hands ... conversely when they had Pip it was too jazz'y and the strong stuff was weak, or when they had Chris it was ... well ... just a really nice time keeper ... nothing special.

Worst audience: Anaheim Stadium for Pink Floyd ... got tired of kids screaming "rock'n'roll" ... and Roger telling them to shush.

Who I’ve seen: [in order from 1976]

Buddy Rich - Drummer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer a.k.a. ELP
Queen
Rush [1x]
Max Webster [Kim Mitchel]
Rush [2x]
Elton John
Sweet
Frank Mills
Don Henley
Roxette [Last few songs of]
SteppenWolf [Free Tix]
Styx
Kansas
Rickie Lee Jones
Corrs
Rush [3x]

Would[’ve] like to see[n]:

Boston
Peter Gabriel
John C. Mellencamp
Bowie
Allman Brothers [in whole or in part]
Eric Clapton

Any Deadheads, Pink Floyd, Zep, [In whole or in part - any left over, that is]
Dimeola, Satriani, etc.

j