KING CURTIS & THE KINGPINS february 1965 a barn dance venue ...no cover charge in East Middlebury, Vermont...audience of about 100 ...they opened with Memphis Soul Stew, fatback drums, Cornell Dupree on guitar, and a skinny left handed kid with his hair in a process, introduced as Jimi James...said he was on his way to England...he showed us how guitar should be played...to this day i contend he played on Otis Redding's Ole man trouble on Stax. the rest is history. |
Hawkwind 1974 at the Allen Theater in Cleveland OH |
A triple-header featuring George McCrae, Samantha Sang and BT Express. |
My first concert was: Murray the K presents @ the Brooklyn Fox in '64.
I was 15 then & about 20 of us (The Innocents) went to see 20+ of our favorite groups.
It was the who's who of R&R.
Smookie Robinson & the Miracles, Frankie Valle & the Four Seasons, The Tymes, The Drifters, Ben E King, The Shirelles, The Angles, Jan & Dean, The Platters, Bill Baker & the 5 Satins, Len Barry & the Dovells, The Capris, The Earls, Jay & the Americans + some other great groups that I now can't remember anymore.
Needless to say - I had the time of my life & so did my kid brother (13) who had Francine sitting on his lap throughout the show.
I may not remember every group there, but will always treasure the 3+ hours that December.
I still will never forgive myself for not buying the LP on the way out of the theater. |
Hey Kurt Tank-
I was at the The Dead in Oakland on Chinese New Year too!!! I thought it was a very cool show-first time seeing the dead. I also saw Dylan back them up a few years later in Anaheim. |
Van Halen at the Fabulous Forum in LA!!! It rocked. |
Oops, my last post didn't work the way I thought it would.
First concert: The Association |
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Blood, Sweat and Tears and Vanilla Fudge at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia in May, 1968. Moved out to Seattle in July and spent the next three year's attending Rock Concerts at the "Filmore of the Northwest", Seattle's Eagles Auditorium. |
Jimi Hendrix, Dorton Arena Raleigh NC. |
Technically it was Canned Heat playing at my high school dance, SoCal 1968. First paid concert was Vanilla Fudge opening for the Bee Gees, same year. Interesting combination, to say the least. |
The Axiom...Houston, Texas...1989...the Pain Teens (so incredibly cool) with lead singer Bliss Blood (so undeniably hot) opening for Sleep Chamber (to this day I think one of the most intimidating bands to jump off a stage). Not for the faint of heart...even now I can almost feel I was there just last night/this morning. Couldn't hear for two days...so great and only five bucks...what a deal. |
The Who - St. Paul Civic Center, October 15th, 1980. I was 15. Keith Moon had died less than a year before this tour, so Kenny Jones drummed for the. Simply awesome. |
Santana. Fee concert in Isla Vista, at UC Santa Barbara. Before they went to Woodstock and became famous... |
1st concert I gave?...in 4th grade.
The school band did a Christmas Concert. I played Coronet that year... or as my first year in band, 3rd seat Trumpet.
First concert I saw? ... The Nutcracker. I think I was in 3rd grade. it was done on a weekend by a local High School's Senior class band, and drama dept.
First rock concert? .... Sorry... Not sure who I went to see... I think I had to many vitamins that day. Well, they looked like vitamins.... and that was over 30 years ago.
I'm on a strickly organic diet these days... thank Goodness too... Them vintage '70s vitamins nearly killed me. |
Edgar Winter Group in Madison Square Garden circa 1973 . . . I remember being more wowed by the drugs being offered for sale in the Men's room. My buddy and I were 15 and took the train in from NJ. My how times have changed. |
for some reason my parents let me go to the clash's rock the casbah tour... when i was 11. i was lucky to survive.
the thing i remember most vividly was that a guy climbed one of the speaker towers and, essentially, hugged it through the whole concert - with his left ear pressed right up to a cone, and it was LOUD. i doubt he heard too much out of that ear for months, if ever.
as my brother said: at least it wasn't altamont... |
Ramones at Rutgers University (for some reason it doesn't show the 'subject' line in these postings... |
Rutgers University Auditorium. Their first song had me covering my ears – and I still felt like a knife was being pushed into my eardrum. It actually hurt. The SPL was probably around 140dB. I ran out of there, but I'm still paying for it with hearing loss at certain frequencies. C'est la vie!
I became an audiophile that same year... so it was a good thing after all.
Alón |
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Velvet Underground
MC5
Buddy Miles Band
Summer of 1971 |
Kiss, with Judas Priest as the opening act. Sept 5, 1979. |
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I went to see Elvin Bishop and Lee Michaels in Fresno at Selland Arena in 1972. Great show.
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The Monkees and the Box Tops in Seattle 60's..it only got better from there! |
ELO, Deep Purple 11-Dec-1974. Dio was scheduled to open the show and cancelled at the last minute. $6.50 got me a dozen rows from the stage. Eldorado and Burn were the tour's featured albums.
A cello blew up during ELO's show. Ritchie Blackmore came back with an open, mostly full, dripping bottle of whiskey to use as a slide during the encores. The first of many awesome shows.
Relax, have an Oso Lupulin Maximus Imperial IPA and listen to some Legendary Blues Band... |
Pink Floyd Division Bell Tour. I was 17 if memory serves. Early 90's at Toronto's old Ex Stadium. I still have flashbacks. |
Aerosmith and Rick Derringer @ Selland Arena in Fresno California 1974 |
Judas Priest/Great White Joe Louis Arena June-13-1984. The mighty Priest had an off night, Great White was the better band. |
Bo Diddley, Reading Fairgrounds, Reading Pa. During the 60's I was one stunned teen...WOW |
Frank Zappa, May 1979 at Providence Civic Center. Probably $12 I think? |
The Monkees at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1966. |
Styx, 1983, Kilroy Was Here tour, a pretty good show. |
The Boomtown Rats opening for Frank Zappa and the Mothers, I'm sorry to say I left during Zappa's first song. I was too young to appreciate him yet, 1979 or 1980. |
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@ The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I won tickets to KBLA 1500 am The Yellow Rolls Royce Contest and Everyone who was big back then performed. The Seeds,The Association,Sonny and Cher,The Turtles,Tommy Roe. I mean I can't remember them all and I didn't win the Rolls Royce. |
The Monkees at Maple Leaf gardens in Toronto 1966.
After that things improved.
In 1967 I saw
Cream at Massey Hall
Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart, Ron Wood , etc.) |
My first concert Was way too long ago.
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Ry Cooder, Slide Area tour, Newcastle, England, 1982 was the first. Then it was onto The Boss' Born In The USA tour, Newcastle, Eng in 1985 and also Dire Straits' Live in '85 tour(same city). What a great way to start.... |
Kiss in 1975. Can't remember the opening band. Don't ask why. |
Blue Oyster Cult in Niles, IL (at an ice rink!)in '76. Rory Gallagher opened. |
Chicago in Memphis at the Mid-South Coliseum. August of 1971. Tickets were $4, $5 and $6. I had just graduated from high school and this was my first rock-n-roll show.
I suppose I should add that I went to the Grand Ole Opry and lots of country music shows with my folks through the years. Even saw Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, the Carter Family and the Statler Brothers in 1968. But the Chicago show is what I consider the first. |
Bachman Turner Overdrive. My mother made my older brother take me. Him and his friends bought me a pack of cigarettes and made me sit about 40 yards away from them so they could meet girls |
Bengla Desh concert August 1st 1971 night show. George Harrison sounded great and his voice was even better than his records and his guitar playing was incredible as well. The tickets were $7.50 for first promenade excellent seats I believe. Needless to say and unbelievable concert and a tough act to follow. |
Nielson Pierson, then Cold Blood came on, then Boz Scaggs came on....Tower of Power was the headliner.
Cal Expo, Sacrament, CA
Wolfman Jack was the Concert MC. Spring '74 |
Pearl jam in '02 (I'm a youngn) |
Focus, in a plush little theater in Maastricht, Holland in '72. |
James Brown at the Sports Arena Toledo |
1977 - Joe Jackson on first US tour for look sharp - Asbury Park convention center in nj |
Miles Davis, at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY circa 1961. Of course Miles couldn't actually STAY at the Brown, given the racial tone of the day, and even though Louisville was/is not Deep South, but the Northern Gateway to the South--those prejudices exsisted strongly back then.
The evening was more than a little bit interesting for a fledgling Alto Sax player such as myself--Miles arrives almost two hours late because of flight delays as we were told. We're all waiting patiently, when off stage right, I hear these incredible tones coming forth--chromatic scales. For those of you who aren't musicians, that is an excercise that you learn early on...all notes of a scale, sharps and flats, going from lowest to highest, then back down, quick, quicker, fast, then as fast as you can. It is good for the 'chops' AND allows your fingering to be mastered for adlibbing quickly.
Of course Miles' doing it was almost like "Music Magic", (sorry Chick) moreover it was a lesson, I never forgot...if Miles can play chromatic's I should sure as hell do it.
They played for a couple of hours--some guy in the back wanted to hear, "Bye Bye Blackbird" and screamed out his request at the end of every song. To his incredible patience (though not known for it), Miles played it--he and the whole group did a fantastic job--and oddly it was a personal highlight for me.
Miles was already a legend of sorts and certainly worth the $5.00 (if I remember correctly) for the ticket.
Later that fall, on New Year's Eve, I played my own first professional job, at a Catholic Church Dance, earning, what for me at the time was a fortune...$40. for a 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. job.
For a 12/13 year old boy, this was a launch pad for a love of music that's lasted a lifetime...and,he was pure magic.
Larry |
Led Zepellin at the pavillion in NY.The drummer was so stoned he could hardly stay in the chair.Second notable was Mothers of Invention at the fillmore east.That was 40 years ago. |
