Donovan at the Felt forum, NYC in 1970.

groups playing.

He soon after banned her from going out with me, not that big of a loss, for me...ha ha...

Back in '86, we went to see Van Halen.
The opening act was BTO.
On "Takin' Care Of Business" Randy Bachmann played an extended solo.
Now, they were solid, and Randy is a good guitar player, but during that long solo I couldn't help but think "No offense Randy, but nine of these 20,000 people cane here to hear YOU play guitar."
I couldn't help myself.

Don't remember specifically, but I was never into popular music even as a kid. I've only ever been to one rock concert, the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels show some years ago, which was fun but I never felt any need to go to another one.

the Stones are a good one to choose!

That’s some serious licks. Jorma and Dave, two of my favorite just-under- the-radar pickers.

Back in Black Tour

Those guys were tight.

Auditorium Theater in Chicago. We were in the highest level, the gallery. Talk about the nosebleed seats!

nosebleed seats there too.

I believe it was at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

in the afternoon. So beautiful!
Still have a slide ('79) of the northern rock formation!

Circle Star theatre, San Carlos CA, 1969.

The first concert where I bought my own tickets and drove myself was a triple bill of Kansas, Thin Lizzy, and The Cars (their first national tour) in 1978 at the Cow Palace.

Kansas was awful.

The other two rocked.

Only time at Circle Star; a unique and weird venue with a rotating stage.

My mother took me and we sat in an auditorium (probably Olympia Stadium in Detroit) filled with screaming pre-teens. I loved it; my mother, not so much.

Every other concert after that, my mother would just drop me off at the door. Hey, years later, I sat through two Julio Iglesias shows with her, so as far as I'm concerned, we were even.

he said something that made the audience laugh. My mother asked me "what did he say?" and I said "I don't know. I wasn't listening."

Grand Valley State University 1974. First concert I worked stage security. It was wild, lol.

Kansas opened. Battle Creek, MI.

Grand Valley was called a state college back then, if I recall correctly. I remember seeing a play there in the early 70s.

Thomas Jefferson College (where all the hippies went), William James College (for those who didn't like grades -- it was pass/fail), and the traditional College of Arts and Sciences. It was so "70s" back then, lol.

I went to the wrong Aerosmith show!

The Coliseum has been closed for a few years now.

My mom got a younger coworker and her boyfriend to take my brother and me. Since we were going “into the city” of course we had to dress appropriately. Slacks, zip up boots, short sleeve dress shirt, and a tie. I was maybe 11 so I just went with it and sat beside the couple who took us. My brother was 13 or 14 and was mortified. He ditched the shirt and tie behind a fire extinguisher and met up with his friends.

I just remember that everyone else was in black and it smelled funny in there.

I was probably about 12. His TV show was going color that fall and he previewed several matching sweater/slacks outfits.

First rock concert was Sha Na Na.

My first date with my future wife was an Alice Cooper concert. (I’m a romantic devil!)

October 5, 1981, Pittsburgh Civic Arena, 2 days before my 16th birthday. I wasn't allowed to go to concerts in those days & I had to fight tooth & nail to go see my favorite band at the time!

Concerts at Three Rivers Stadium.

My best friend and I went (13-14 yo) to see them at the Agradome in Vancouver. We took the bus over from West Vancouver where we lived.

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I dove right into the deep end!

in rural Washington, outside of Seattle, April 1968. This was the precursor of the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter than Air Fair in the same area later that year.

This was in 1971 if my memory is correct, and REO Speedwagon was an unknown band at that time. The show was in Monterrey, Ca, and I remember listening to Tower of Power later that night at the final Fillmore live show on KSAN radio out of San Francisco.

They came out on stage riding Honda 50 scooters and wearing the WIDE candy stripe shirts.
Mind Blown.

The first time I ever saw a band in person whose music I had heard on Top 40 radio was The Gentrys, whose hit at the time was 'Keep On Dancing' circa 1965. It was at the grand opening of a department store here in Huntsville called Pizitz. So it was kind of a little mini concert, with a few dozen people there crowded around a little raised platform.

You sure did get up and go to the washroom frequently!

My brother had hitchhiked to the west coast and jumped the stage in Boulder to kiss Janis, continued west and hit the Fillmore and saw Hendrix , Country Joe & the Fish, and who knows who else. He was eventually taken in by Hell's Angels and got an infection when some biker chick insisted on piercing his ear with a knitting needle (?!) and he wound up in the ER with a bad infection and had to call home for a ticket back--not terribly disappointed because the Manson murders just broke... (apparently yeah, *those* Hell's Angels). It was a weird adventure for a guy who hadn't even graduated HS yet.

I was like 10 then, and not allowed to do anything so exciting... However, the college next door to us sponsored Ravi and I was allowed to go. He did everything from his live Monterrey album, and it was awesome! For all the improvision in Indian music, it was amazingly close to the album (and more).

With comedian Kip Addotta opening. I was just a little kid, so most of his jokes went right over my head.

Tickets were $5, and sold at a tiny hole-in-the-wall downtown shop—Nick Toppings (?).

I'd love to go back in time and be a teenager in 1964 (I wasn't born until '66).

The clips in this YouTube reaction video brought back favorite memories of the delight they brought into the world.

In the early 60s. Bob Dylan, unknown, came on the stage and they sang Blowin' in the Wind and maybe one more song together.

Honolulu. The opening act was a new up and coming band from England named The Who.

Back here in NYC in '67 a DJ was holding a multi-band concert way down in Brooklyn while we lived about 2 miles from the top of Manhattan Island. Almost positive Hetman Hermits were the headliners.

My cousin had turned me on to The Who in '67, and they were on this bill. But my parents wouldn't let me travel all the way down there. I was 14.

the first concert I attended was the North Carolina Symphony playing, among other things, Stravinsky's Firebird ballet score.

The first non-classical concert was either Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys or Allman Brothers. My older brother took me to both, and I can't remember which one happened first.

Freshman in high school.

My uncle took me and a couple cousins. Early '71 would be my best guess.
I was a freshman in HS.
Pretty sure it was at the Chicago Amphitheater, but I may be misremembering.
What I'm sure of is that is was the loudest thing I ever heard to that point.

First rock concert... Henry Gross, War, Golden Earring, The Doobie Brothers. May 10, 1975, at Folsom Field in Boulder.

Great post!

For me it was Grand Funk Railroad. I lived in Corpus Christi, TX and we didn't get a lot of big names. It was around '72 or '73.

And of course Trigger but he didn't sing.

The Beach boys and Sam the sham and the pharaohs, sometime around 64.

With POD at the Ranch Bowl.

at Constitution Hall in Washington DC. I fell asleep.

“Earth Angel” in the schoolyard of P.S. 183 in Kew Garden Hills, Queens. They were in the 7th grade and I was in the 8th, although I was slightly younger. Sure didn’t sound like Pat Boone!

😄
NYC'r here. Not my first concert but saw S & G at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in ? '68, or '69. My dad drove me, and my cousins out there.

The planes heading LA Guardia Airport occasionally drowned them out!

I might have been to a Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concert first.

Even without those connections concerts then were hardly any more expensive than going to the movies.

I suppose this would have been paradise had I been interested in music but I was a weird kid more interested in electronics and computers, obsessively so. At smaller venues I'd be bothering the audio and lighting guys if I got the chance.

It's not a concert, it's an off-Broadway musical, but I remember Godspell was a pretty big deal so maybe that counts.

The first concert I attended as a wild young thing with an actual girlfriend, not a kid dragged along by family or peer pressure, was Rickie Lee Jones. It was not a good time for Jones, she required a whole crew to prop her up, much like Ronald Reagan did during his second term. The audience was subdued, haunted by memories of Janis Joplin.

With my first girlfriend. Jim Morrison could hold an audience in his hand.

played w/some friends at a coffee house I wuz like 14. The audience was kind

No Dwayne, of course, but Gregg, Dickey, and the boys were in fine form.

Arnold Layne. Did you see at the Mellon Arena?

They had a rotating stage, which sucked, but what did we know. We were kids.

It was so long ago, but they played in a very small Seattle venue in maybe 1967.

1976

The Long Run Tour.

Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, VA

No opener.

Three and a half hours.

They opened with 'Hotel California'.

However...

The first rock concert that I ever attended was the talent show where myself and two friends played two songs that we wrote. Two guitars and a drummer. We were all 11-12. Both of us pulled our amps over, and, during his solo, the drummer lost a stick. He did not have a replacement. We were playing in the gym, half court, and that stick literally hit the wall under the basket. He had to get up... in complete silence... walk over to the baseline, retrieve his stick, wall back, and continue the solo.

Oh, what a night.

They were very good.
My buddy Angelo played violin.
The first one where tickets were not free - The Limelighters.

Senior in high school. Our whole class went up to King's Island in Cincy on school buses. They locked us in for the night--whoo whoo, a big deal!

Actually, I guess the first concert was in grade school when we went to the Louisville Symphony Orchestra. I fell asleep.

I was about 11. My Uncle played Viola in the orchestra so I suspect we got in free.

My grandfather was Maitre’d.

I don’t remember most of the acts but I do remember Lenny Welch.

Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles

Shea Stadium July 1971. I still have the tickets.

It was the "Louder than Concorde, but not quite as pretty" tour of 1976