Last night, we had some friends over for dinner. At one point, the conversation turned to music and concerts. It got especially animated when everyone shared their first concert experience.
I love hearing about people’s very first concert. In any given room, the answers can range from Rick Springfield to Poison to the Backstreet Boys to Pat Benatar.
My first concert was Michael Jackson. My older sister drove me and my best friend to the Capital Centre in Washington D.C. to see him. I remember so much about that night, it’s a little strange. I filled many pages in my diary the next day.
What was yours?
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{ 95 comments… read them below or add one }
1974 – Bachman Turner Overdrive at the Milwaukee Arena. Thin Lizzy opened for them. Me and three other HS buddies (I was a freshman at the time) each rustled up the 6 bucks for the tickets. Takin’ care of business indeed!
See you soon,
Terry
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Early 80s – Peter Allen at Westbury Music Fair venue in NY, complete with glittery suit and I believe, dancing on the piano.
Still love Fly Away. I’m a cheeseball.
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Starbucker – how did i KNOW that you’d be the first to comment on this???
erika – cheeseballs are good.
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My first concert was a James Taylor concert in 2001. My daughter gave me and my husband tickets for our 5th anniversary. His concert was in North Carolina
near the Research Triangle Park. It was terrific.
Most of the audience was “of a certain age,” but that
didn’t keep us from dancing and singing along. He
gave 4 encores that night! WOW!
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Suzanne Vega at the Orpheum in Boston, with my friend and her cool older sister. I was maybe 12?
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whitney houston- her voice was breathtaking. i had so much fun. it was a birthday present from my grams!!
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I don’t believe I went to a concert until i was 17…that was 1993, and it was Paul McCartney at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. May as well start with the best!
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John Denver, 1977 (or sometime in the late 70s). I was a kid and can still remember standing on my seat and singing along when he sang “Country Roads.”
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Actual first is hard to say..my parents took us to see lots of people in concert when we were kids. I remember Tennessee Ernie Ford and Wayne Newton to name a couple! (Does anyone else even know who Tennessee Ernie Ford is??)
But my “real first” on my own as a young teen…and boy, does this date me….Bobby Sherman! He appeared at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs back in the…well, never mind the date! I remember screaming nonstop through the entire show!
And TODAY I am headed from Dallas to Houston to see my first Jimmy Buffett concert! Yep, I’ve become a ParrotHead!
Thanks for stirring up the memories!
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Tori Amos…1994. Absolutely incredible. I’ve seen her four times since!
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Some up-and-coming local “garage band” that played at my town’s high school gymnasium in the 70′s. Think they were called “Aerosmith.”
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John Denver when I was 13 years old at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (big outdoor amphitheatre) with my aunt and uncle. I wanted to be him – up on that big stage singing to a huge audience playing my guitar!!! My parents were stodgy and out of touch but my aunt and uncle were hip (although they towed the Catholic line.) My same age cousin and I giggled when we realized the guy behind us was smoking pot – thinking Aunt Janet and Uncle Paul wouldn’t know what it was. But they heard us giggling and took that chance to have a drug use talk with us. A very memorable experience.
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Well, mine WAS Rick Springfield at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. I was in the 9th grade I think, or almost in the 9th grade…maybe 13 years old. Unlike most girls my age who wanted to marry Rick Springfield, I wanted to BE Rick Springfield. I remember seeing his concert on HBO first, rocking out with his guitar, jumping all over stage and singing, everyone cheering for him. I took up the electric guitar for a while after that, but I never practiced enough to get very good.
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Seals & Croft at the Waikiki Shell, 1974. I was turning 14 at the time, my mother wouldn’t let me go unless the older brother went along. He wasn’t crazy about driving my best friend and me to listen to “inferior” music as he called it but he was kind enough to follow through. We sat in the grass area-I was in heaven…
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Styx – when I was in 8th or 9th grade – around 77 or 78 it must have been. Went with my girl scout troop (we didn’t sell any cookies). It was a big exciting event to drive to Albuquerque (100 miles away) to see a rock concert – I still remember much about the night. I wonder what badge we got? I don’t recall “looking cool at a rock concert” badge.
I also attended a keg party with high school boys up in the mountains on one of our overnight trips that year. We were not a very conventional girl scout troop and as I recall the leader (one of the girls fathers) was replaced the next year.
Can’t imagine why.
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I think it was Clay Walker at a outdoor weekend festival when I was around 12. The only thing I really remember was when I met him after, he said “oh my god, look at that hair.” (I have very bright, very curly red hair). I’ve never really been sure if that was a compliment or not…
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REO Speedwagon at the Worcester Centrum (Survivor opened). This was back in, oh, 1984 I think.
My friend Justin Hoffman took me (Abbie Hoffman’s nephew). He had 4th row seats. They opened with “Don’t Let ‘em Go”. Pretty good!
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New Kids on the Block when I was in the fifth grade!! And my dad took me — I didn’t understand at the time how much he had to love me to sit through that for me!!
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Mine was Gloria Estefan when I was 11, so that had to be…1993? She had started touring after her bus accident and people were excited. The people I carpooled to school with had an extra ticket. There were disco balls. I knew a lot of the songs. I became a folkie, but that was a very cool “first”!
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May 1998 – Dave Matthews Band at Foxboro Stadium (Boston). We had “floor” seats – in the 2nd section back. About 25 friends went.
It was the day after my Senior Prom – two of the best consecutive days of my life.
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Steppenwolf. Then I saw Joe Cocker, Santana, and Chicago Transit Authority in the same show for about $8, then on the the 2nd Atlanta Pop Festival for B.B. King, Procol Harem, Hendrix, Poca, John Sebastion, et al, and the Allman Bros. were the opening act `cause they were ‘local’. All this in the space of about a year and a half. Those were the days,CK,those were the days!
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Dare I admit this? Meatloaf!!! I went with some friends from school – who were keen fans in the 1980′s. He needed oxygen several times during the show… It was a weird experience. I thought all rock stars must need oxygen at concerts!?…
Phew! glad to get that out in the open!
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Hey You!!!!
Dave Mason at the New Haven Coliseum when I was 15 years old. Whoo hoo! I loved, loved, loved that man! Still do.
Such a wonderful, powerful, poignant, nostalgic song……………..hey, hey, hey,… we just disagreee………
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NKOTB! At the Rosemont Horizon, near Chicago. Hey, and now they’re back! Talk about coming full circle.
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Not including the concerts at school (which were very exciting because my friends were up on stage under *colored* lights!) it was Elton John in St. John’s coliseum (the old one) in Columbus, Ohio. I took my high-school sweetheart. We were both 16.
I still remember the feeling of awe that something so big and so cool could revolve around the same music I was listening to on the record player. I knew all the songs he was playing and was completely mesmerized.
I still get a touch of that thrill when the colored lights come up…
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Dionne Warwick in Dallas. She was great. I passed up a chance to see Elvis in his last Las Vegas show. Wish I had made it.
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Wow, this question really takes me back. The 1st concert I went to was a Rick Wakeman concert. The towers of keyboards were awe inspiring, and a little frightening. They all looked like they would just fall over and bury him at any minute. It opened my mind and broke my world wide open. (That of course was both good and bad.)
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FAB FOUR!
In 1964, during the Great Mania, my sisters were 12 and 13–just the right age to join the millions of screaming preteens then going insane at the very thought or mention of the Beatles. I remember my sister had a jar to hold the change she was collecting to make a pilgrimage to a holy site in Great Britain—Liverpool, where the deity Paul was born.
Strange as it sounds, our parents were more or less on board with Beatlemania, showing amazing levels of tolerance for this foolishness.
Long story short, Dad purchased tickets for the whole family for the Beatles’ concert at the Hollywood Bowl. An amazing night indeed. We were in the next to the last row, which actually was ideal. The sound was deafening, to be sure, but we were lucky because the unfortunates nearest the stage likely suffered ruptured eardrums from the sonic phenomena produced.
I was only 8, and it was great to be on hand for a part of history. It was also quite otherwordly to witness my sisters going through what can only be termed a severe case of spirit possession. The Beatles were so far away, they were the size of ants, and the music could not be heard over the screaming. You couldn’t see them, and you couldn’t hear them, so as concerts go, it was more like a pantomime. Still, an unforgettable experience—it was like being in the midst of an urban riot, but you could enjoy yourself without threat of violence.
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My first real concert with my family was the inimitable Anne Murray at Irvine Meadows in Orange County, CA. But my first concert of my choosing was Morrissey at Irvine Meadows in Orange County, CA.
Coincidence? I suppose so, because figuring out the ramifications of a cosmic overlap between Anne Murray and Morrissey makes my head hurt.
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1993 Toad the Wet Sprocket. It was awesome, and I have been hooked ever since.
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“Chicago” concert in Minneapolis in the early 1970s with an old boyfriend. Yup, I’m that old. I remembered the smell of dope in the air and seeing people going up the aisle and returning with baggies. I was so young. So naive.
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Rod Stewart and The Faces, at McGaw Hall at Northwestern University, in 1973. Opening act Jo Jo Gunne. I was amazed at how loud it was. I was sixteen.
My significant other, whom I did not meet until about sixteen years later, was at the same show.
TWM
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Hmmm… I recently wrote that I remembered my first concert as either The Kinks or Cheap Trick (they were very close together)… but now I remember I saw Crosby, Stills & Nash before that. It was all a bit overwhelming to me – the lights, the loudness, the crowd. But magic.
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My sister and I went with my parents and our neighbors to see The Bangles at Summerfest in Milwaukee. I was eight or nine — we thought we were so cool.
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It was Dizzy Gillespie just before he died. I think it was a middle school band field trip, and we were all very excited to be seeing a living legend despite the fact that we were in the nosebleed section. My band teacher kept admonishing the trumpet players not to imitate his style because it was bad form
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Fall 1981, The Rolling Stones “Tattoo You” tour, at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. An all-day affair with Journey and George Thorogood and The Destroyers as opening acts. I was in 9th grade. My sister was a senior in high school. She and her friends had an extra ticket, so the let me tag along. 6 Jersey girls in a wood-panel sided station wagon heading south on the New Jersey turnpike for a rock ‘n roll experience! What a day. The people-watching was remarkable (and a little scary), the stadium show experience was overwhelmiong and the music was awaesome. Good times…
Come to think of it, my sister and I have been to another great show. Michelle Shocked at the Ritz in NYC (formerly Studio 54). I think it was spring of 1989. That woman can really sing! She and her band even sounded better live than they did on their Captain Swing album, which is a great album. My brother joined us for that one. Good times indeed!
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Kid Video! Do you remember them? they came to Israel, I was probably about 12-13, and so ecstatic.
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My dad took me to the Springfield Civic Center when I was nine or ten to see John Denver. Still some of my favorite music!!
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I couldn’t tell you the year. I am going to guess that it was around 1976/1977. I saw England Dan and John Ford Coley at Six Flags in Arlington Texas, with my parents. I remember reveling in the energy of the crowd at 6 or 7 years old. The one song that really stands out in my memory is “Soldier in the Rain” and what a powerful song that was.
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The Beatles, August 1964 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, NY. I was 14 and in luv with Paul. You could not hear any music because everyone was screaming their heads off. I loved every second even though I though I thought I had gone deaf with the ringing in my ears. I saw them again at Shea Stadium August of 1965, and remember being annoyed at the oh so immature screaming fans cuz I was so grownup at 15. NOT! Gotta laugh.
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1st with adults – The Bee Gees at Miami’s old baseball stadium (now torn down).
1st without adults – Black Sabbath! With Ozzy Osborne. Egads what was I thinking?
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Geez, I feel like such an old geek. My first concert was January 12, 1974, Seals and Croft at Penn State; which was three days before I met my husband; I thought I would throw that in there. It was festival seating but I managed to ride the crowd and get third row floor. Yes, I feared for my life but it was so worth it. And sitting here remembering that I still can’t believe that 1) I went – by myself; and 2) I did what I had to to get a decent seat – considering crowd crush wigs me out. I still like much of their music but almost never hear it.
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1965? 66? (I am truly ancient.)I know I was around 16ish and it was either The Rolling Stones at the Long Beach, CA auditorium or Bob Dylan at the Hollywood Bowl. What I remember most is Mick Jagger singing Little Red Rooster and Dylan doing Mr. Jones. I do remember, also, that I was with the same boyfriend at both.
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1983 or 1984 (can’t remember precisely now), and it was Triumph, the Canadian rock trio. Lots of lasers and smoke and cool special effects. My ears rang for days afterward (at future concerts, I brought earplugs!). Great band, really put on a great concert. I saw them several more times after that, in fact.
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Belinda Carlisle at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee (a venue I think you’d love) for my 12th birthday with my sister. We got a limo and my twin and I drove in the stretch limo to the concert while my dad hid in the back watching us.
It was great!
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Gene Pitney in Richmond, Virginia. He whistled that great part in “Only Love Can Break A Heart.”
Do I win oldest award here?
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My first concert was JOHN DENVER in 1977 at the Oakland Coliseum (Oakland, CA). I was 17 and I went by myself because none of my friends liked his music. I saved up my babysitting money, hopped in my ’67 VW Beetle, and sang along with every song. At that point in my life I owned every record he released and was just starting to branch out. My first non-John Denver album I bought was by The Surf Punks (and it’s been downhill ever since).
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My first concert was probably the Beach Boys after a Cincinnati Reds baseball game once summer when I was young. I was, of course, with my family.
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Hard to remember — NightRanger @ Six Flags, maybe? Or maybe it was Huey Lewis & the News (at a “real” venue)? But you get the jist….. I thought I was SOOOO worldly at that point!
=-)
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Good Golly, Sly and the Family Stone, mid 70′s, at a small state college in Nebraska. They were 3 hours late and the crowd busied themselves throwing beach balls around which I thought was just the wildest thing!! Saw Steve Martin during his ‘arrow through the head’ days. We thought we were on the cutting edge!
Hey Mackie, a big cheer for Tennessee Ernie Ford!
Great question Christine. Thanks for the memories.
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