What's the first show/concert you've been to?

As with any thread I start, hope this one hasn't been done already, so, bitte, mods, delete if this is a do-over.

First shows! Formative experiences! Time to show off your excellent musical taste as a teenager, or cringe at what you used to love! There's gotta be at least one member whose first show was Pixies, the Talking Heads or A Tribe Called Quest or something like that, just like there might be a couple for whom a My Chemical Romance show started out their lifelong love of music. No judgement, just stories of terrible opening acts, drunk vomiting during a set, and the nervous excitement of your first live music experience!

My first show was Modest Mouse during their Good News for People Who Love Bad News tour. It was at a big, big venue and my friend and I were really far back. My friend told me to shout out a song I wanted them to play, and I did (it was "Night on the Sun") only to find we were some 30 rows up from the actual stage and no one but he and the people next to us could hear me and he just laughed lol.

 

The first not for kids show I recall going to was when a friend's family went to see Sting and invited me along. I mainly remember him doing an encore where he did a solo acoustic version of "Message in a Bottle" and the whole audience sang along. That was fun, the rest was fine but nothing amazing.

The first show I went to without any adult supervision was Beck on the Midnite Vultures tour at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The whole album was Prince-inspired and at one point a giant bed descended from the rafters and Beck got up on it and brandished a whip. The show was great, I'll never forget it!

 

Jethro Tull. Yes I am old. Now get the f*** off my lawn

 

Jethro Tull*. Ha Ha... Yes, I'm old too!

About the same time was Hawkwind.






*And sitting on a park bench was never, ever, not even over fifty years later, the same again.

 

BB King. I don't remember much except that sweet sweet guitar tone and vibrato sounded even better live.

 

First was probably The Cars in the mid 80's on City Island in Harrisburg, PA. Summer concert, outside and I believe the opener was a forgettable act called Wang Chung.

I redeemed myself for my second concert... U2's Joshua Tree tour in Philly at JFK. Opening act was Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul... with Springsteen joining U2 and Little Steven at the end of the concert for a number of encores.

 

First I can remember was Agents of Good Roots at the (original) Bayou in Georgetown, DC, fall of 1995 or 1996. Me and my buddy Ken, who played guitar in our band, were just happy we could smoke indoors as a couple of teenagers. Brian Jone's vocals were f'ing awesome.

Edit: thread popped BTT, so here's a fun addendum: my GF, who I did not meet until 2015, was also in attendance at that exact Agents show. Crazy!!

 

May 1994 foxboro stadium. There was more than one show I still have the stub. Pink Floyd division bell. I think I saw the 19th show. Ahhh to be 16 again.

 

Outside of local acts in bars, the first big show I remember was Bachman Turner Overdrive at Assinboia Downs racetrack here in Winnipeg. Summer 1984. It was loud. Real loud.

 

I saw them on that tour as well in 1994. Outdoor concert at our stadium. Best sound quality I have ever heard at a concert to this day, especially impressive outdoors. Giant floating balloon pigs while tripping on shrooms. Unforgetable.

 

OK, so I attend Indian-classical-music live all the time, but...

The last rock show I went to was The Grateful Dead. London, 1990-ish. One of the most notable things about it was that the sound was so wonderful that the only time my ears complained was when the crowd joined in with favourites. I wish I could say the same about the supposed-to-be-acoustic but often-over-amplified concerts I go to here.

 

When I was about 5 or 6 my parents took me to see Paul Revere and the Raiders at the county fair. That was cool because I already owned one of their singles and recognized a few others from the radio which was always on in the house growing up.

First real concert I went to was in grade 7 when I went with a friend and his older brother to see Kiss. Some unknown dude named John Cougar was the opening act. To a Junior High boy in the 1970's it didn't get any cooler than Kiss.

Most embarrasing? Probably Huey Lewis and the News. Not because they sucked. They actually did a good show. I just wasn't much of a fan but hadn't seen a show in a few months. And back in the mid-80's you could get into a show for $15-$20 so it was low risk.

 

First concert ever was Stone Temple Pilots in the year 2000 in Houston. A friend of mine managed to win a bunch of tickets and I went with him.

My experience was a bit mixed. I was near the front which was cool, but I was also in the middle of a mosh pit which I did not enjoy. Started a bit of a trend where I couldn’t stand the fans of whatever concert I went to.

First concert I bought tickets to was Weezer shortly after they ended their hiatus and made the green album.

 

The Cure’s The Head Tour 1985 in a run down theatre with some school friends who had an extra ticket. The encore ended with a cover of Gary Glitter’s Do You Wanna Touch Me. It was awesome. Being young was awesome.

 

My first concert was White Zombie, Prong, and The Obsessed when I was around 14 years old. I used to write to bands in the era before we had a computer with internet in the house and one day I got a surprise call from the tour manager of The Obsessed asking if I'd like free all access passes to their upcoming show in Austin, because someone associated with them had received something I'd mailed them.

I knew there was no way in hell my Dad would take me, so the day I got that call I was sitting on the front porch waiting when he got home from work and as soon as I saw him I said "If I can get us free backstage passes to the White Zombie show can I go?" The idea was so preposterous that he said "Sure. If you get free backstage passes I'll take you." (I already knew how to spin shit to get my way early on.)
There was no way that a nobody kid in the suburbs was going to get tickets like that but he kept his word when I proved it to him by calling the guy up.

My dad did not enjoy that show at all but I sure did. It was the "Die, Porker, Die" tour and he sure as shit didn't let me get a tour shirt, but he did let me get the least offensive shirt they had at the merch booth.

Killer show.

 

This is an awesome 5D chess move.

 

Free concert at Midwood Field in Brooklyn (NY) Three Dog Night & America. Both bands were in great form.

 

This is truly epic from my perspective. The first national white zombie album, devil music vol 1 is still one of the best things front that era IMO. I will reach for it before Metallica's black album. Also Prong !!! Huge Wino fan here as well. Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan, the hidden hand !

 

My first non-classical concert (went to a ton with my father) was to the Fugees. Somehow made it close enough to the stage to get spit on by Wyclef Jean (well he took a swig of water from a water bottle and sprayed it). Was probably 1995-1996ish when I was a senior in high school in Tampa, FL. Though I will say seeing Victor Borge with my family several years prior certainly left an unforgettable impression on me.