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

America for me, too, with Karla Bonoff opening, at Red Rocks. I was 12 or 13. Wasn't really a fan of the band, but my friend loved them and his mom wouldn't let him go alone (and he didn't want to go with her). Felt very grown-up.

First big concert that I bought my own tickets for was Prince, 1986, also in Denver. He was shirtless, Sheila E was playing percussion, and JONI MITCHELL got up on stage to sing backup on "Purple Rain". It couldn't really have been any better.

 

Boston at Hilton Coliseum in my Iowa hometown. Sometime in the 90s, I would have been a teenager detassling corn for spending money that summer. Google looks like it would have been August 1995.

 

haah...saw a few random shows in vegas a while back, one was for the beetles in treasure island(?) I wasn't very impressed with it, only really enjoyed one song (come together). Should've brought some earplugs, but that's on me. Still waiting to attend a show by an artist or group that I like.

 

This was the tour for that album, right when they were blowing up. Hell of way to kick off my rock and roll journey. Not too long after that, my mom gave some friends of mine and I ride in the back of her truck to see Gwar, Neurosis and Brutal Juice at The Abyss in Houston. Years later I found a VHS bootleg of Gwar's set from that night while browsing at a record convention.

 

Pink Floyd at the London Docklands Arena in '89.

 

1973. Flint Michigan. Grand Funk Railroad. (Age 14).

<hiatus whilst family moves to Arizona>

1980. Pink Floyd. Los Angeles. The Wall.

(And a scheit-ton more live rock in LA in 1980 as well… <grin>)

 

Leon Russell, the Carney tour. He was at St. Louis’s Kiel auditorium. 1972. I remember that he played the jumping jack flash/Youngblood medley, just as he had done for the Bangladesh show with George Harrison and friends. I saw him a few times after that, but this was the greatest show of all. One of my favorite albums is Carney.

 

Weird Al - 1996 - Kern County Fairgrounds. I was 12 years old and Weird Al was my favorite thing in the world.

He had a surprising amount of costume changes and actually put on a great show.

 

The Soft Machine, The Chambers Brothers, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis, and Jimi Hendrix at the Singer Bowl in Flushing, Queens 8/23/68. Had to get my older sister to bring me and a couple of buddies. Oh, and I went to Woodstock, too. Yeah, I'm pretty damn old...

 

David Bowie, Glass Spider tour, 1987. I was a teenage St john's Ambulance cadet doing first aid at Kooyong, where the Australian open tennis used to be. I only saw half the show because we were under the stands in the first aid room much of the time, but, one of the dancers was injured, so we wound up going backstage. The dancer we had assumed to be a woman turned out to be an androgynous guy in a body stocking. (I don't think I'm mis-gendering him. It was a stage costume). Bowie came in briefly to check on him, wearing enormously high platform boots. All quite eye opening for a fairly sheltered, nerdy kid.

Those shows wound up killing Kooyong as a live music venue. It's nestled in amongst Melbourne's priciest real estate, so the noise complaints from Well Connected People forced Bowie to slash the volume after the first show, much to his disgust.

http://www.bowiedownunder.com/glassspider/4.html

I'm not counting a show by some godawful American Christian "rock" band in the gym of my school, which was memorable mainly for extinguishing any interest I had in religion. I mean, I'm all for singers rambling on about Satan and demonic posession between songs, but there are limits. Even my devoutly religious friends were like, 'What the hell was that shit'. . .

 

My parents took me to a handful of Dylan shows as a kid in the 80's and then complained about how he was too drunk to sing. First concert on my own was 95 or 96 Rage Against the Machine with Jesus Lizard playing at the local college auditorium, which I thoroughly enjoyed and am not too embarrassed about.

 

The Beatles sha stadium in 1965 I was 14 went with my cousin & brother.

 

Bob Seager and the Silver Bullet Band in late 1977 at St. John's arena Columbus.Ohio.

 

1987. Depeche Mode Music for the Masses. Shoreline amphitheater. The people I went with are still very close friends and my wife was also at the concert. Oh, and I still have the t-shirt.

 

Ahahah. I grew up in Yukon, which was not a hotbed of concert activity at the time. My first real concert was Europe in Lyons, France when I was on a year long student exchange. Do Do Di Do/Di do di do do. I went on to see a bunch of French bands and then Simple Minds, also in Lyons. That was memorable.

 

I don't have much memory of all the opera my parents took us to. Mainly the predictability of my mother needing to elbow my father awake when he'd start snoring during the third act. You could set your watch to it.

 

First was The Go-Go's touring for the Vacation album, maybe in '83. "Coolest" was BOC playing as Soft White Underbelly in some club in the SFV, also mid 80s. Most badass, Motorhead at the Hollywood Palladium 1984.

 

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/1989/market-square-arena-indianapolis-in-63d68ecf.html

 

Adopting @Wilson 's 3 categories...

First: Elton John - Athletic Park, Wellington NZ, 1980 (I remember it being in the 70s, but the internet says not).

Coolest (possibly also most badass): The Cramps - The Powerstation, Auckland NZ, 1986 (Rockin' & Reelin' in Auckland New Zealand was recorded from their show there the following night).

Most badass: Motorhead, Nashville Pussy & The Reverend Horton Heat - Princess Theatre aka Flames Central, Calgary AB, 2009.