Film/TV Jun 19, 2014 at 12:03 pm

Comments

1
My first concert was the New York Dolls in March of 74. Took a while for anything else to live up to that one!
2
The Police - Synchronicity tour. Frankie Goes To Hollywood was the opening act, I smelled marijuana smoke for the first time at the tender age of six.
3
Paul McCartney & Wings, Kingdome July 1976.
4
Alice Cooper was my first concert too! It was 1986, and I was 14. Awesome concert. At one point he chopped off his own head in a guillotine. The next day I tried to tell other kids at school about the amazing concert I went to, and they all said, "Alice who? Wait... you mean Alice is a guy?" But the teachers knew all about Alice Cooper, so I was able to share the experience with them.
5
AC/DC (TNT tour with Bon Scott) opening for Richie Blackmore's Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio and Cozy Powell (Rainbow Rising Tour) At the Paramount 1978 (Wilkes-Barre, PA - Not Seattle)
6
I'm dating myself for sure: Seals & Croft at the Paramount.
7
Add to six: In Seattle.
8
The Vandals, Unwritten Law and the Ataris at Christmas with The Vandals at the Palace in Los Angeles in December of 1996 or 1997.

That same year I saw Strife, Far, Eyelid and Rainchild at a Unitarian church. That I count separately as my first DIY show.
9
Beck & Pavement, 1996, at the Universal Amphitheatre in Hollywood.
10
Rush, Presto tour, Nassau Coliseum.

Wish I had something better than that. God that album sucked.
11
But I did smoke pot for the first time that night!
12
Pennywise, at the Showbox in Seattle.
13
Weird Al Yankovich in Kennewick (or Richland, I can never remember). BAM.
14
First concert was U2 during their Joshua Tree tour. The whole family went for the second night/show in Phoenix back in 1987. I wasn't that big of a fan, unlike my Mom and sister, but it was still a great outing and we all had a lot of fun. First concert that was my choice was Jane's Addiction in I believe 1990. Front row, crushed by a huge crowd, and all we could do was jump up and down in unison while chanting for more.
15
Elvis in 1958! I was much older than the people in the crowd, but still a lot of fun.
16
With the 'rents: Moody Blues, Portland. Without: Sonic Youth, Portland.
17
Am I crazy, or does that movie poster look like two cat buttholes?
18
With parents: Neil Diamond
With friends: Mr. Bungle
19
Bob Dylan with Ziggy Marley opening ca 1990 (we went for ZM).
Dylan was terrible, and remains the worst concert I have ever seen by far.
20
Weird Al Yankovic at the Hillsboro Oregon fairgrounds.
21
Social Distortion on the flat bottom of the Gotcha Grind contest ramp in 1988 was my first non-Puyallup Fair Mike Love Beach Boys concert. I think SD got all of 5 songs out before the kids tore the place up enough for the plug to get pulled.
22
@4 - I really hope you told your friends who balked at the name "man you really wouldn't understand."
23
The Beatles, Coliseum 1965. Lots of screaming but still nice to watch.
24
10-5-74, Bloomington, IN, The Rocky Mountain High Tour . . . John Denver. A 3-screen slide show of America's majestic wildlands backed up the band . . . and my trajectory from the small-town South was irrevocably set. You can point to certain moments in your life as formative, and this was one of mine.
25
@15 congrats in your first on-topic post. Too bad its bullshit. Why don't you try being a human for a change?
26
JOHN MOTHERFUCKING DENVER.

First one without the 'rents? The Knack.

I ain't proud of it.
27
Duran Duran, which is awesome-sounding at first, until I mention that it was the Big Live Thing tour in 1989 at Seattle Center Arena.
28
The Byrds. In the mercer arena. how far back? well, it was just 'the arena' in them days.
29
Simple Minds & The Call. UCSB 1985.
30
AC/DC when I was 10 in 1991, with my stepdad and his brother, at the Coliseum in Seattle.
31
It was The Mothers of Invention in Washington D.C. sometime in 74 or 75.
32
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. Probably 1984, Kennewick. She wore a red lycra body suit with the neck to crotch zipper lowered to about belt level. That was my first spank bank entry.
33
@28 It's completely gone now, just backstage for the Opera.

I honestly can't remember my first concert. We certainly saw a lot of bands at Bumbershoot, Folklife, and the zoo when I was younger.

The first show I went to with friends was probably The Shamen, Prodigy, and Utah Saints.
34
I should be ashamed to admit this, but it was Richard Marx at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, 1989 or 1990. Hold on to the nights, people!
35
The first that I remember was the Four Tops at Ravinia (an outdoor venue near Chicago) in 1985 or '86. I was somewhere around 7 years old.
The first concert I went to without my parents was a hardcore punk show in a basement (also near Chicago) in 1993, on my 14th birthday. I can't remember who played that particular show, I want to say it was Prophets of Rage and Everlast (no, not that Everlast) and maybe Superfly 70? I went to a lot of basement/garage/bowling alley shows in the 90's, I'm sure I'm getting the acts mixed up.
36
Correction! I asked the guy whose basement it was and he says Everlast, Angerhouse, Endpoint and Ice burn. Man, Angerhouse fucking rules.
37
The Clash+The Who+Santana at JFK stadium in Philadelphia!!!
38
Cyndi Lauper, with the Bangles opening. Hampton Coliseum. Pretty wonderful for the 13 year old girl that I was.
39
I want to add that I went to a free concert in Lincoln Park in Chicago to see Sly and the Family Stone in 1969 or 70. They never showed up but Daley's police did and they rushed the crowd and beat people badly. I saw a pregnant woman being beaten with a nightstick. Awful.
40
KISS reunion at the Old Tiger Stadium.
41
@37 I was at that show! (Temple Class of 86)
42
Prince! Ann Arbor, 1982
43
George Harrison in the Coliseum, November 4, 1974. It was compete horsecrap. Second show on the tour and he'd already lost his voice. Billy Preston was great, though.
44
Metallica at the Met Center in Minnesota 1989.
45
I don't remember my first concert. My parents took me to shows and festivals all the time as a kid. I met Donovan (who was gracious) and was scared by Roy Orbison (who looked like he was dead) in Toronto when I was three or four.

The first concert I paid for myself was a benefit in Seattle featuring Hole, 311, Weezer, Green Day, Rancid, and Sky Cries Mary at the decrepit Mercer Arena. I left mid way through, to go vomit in the Dick's bathroom due to a migraine. But Weezer and Rancid were cool.
46
Spice Girls. I think I was 9.
47
@39, my mom was there, and fortunate to only be tear-gassed.
48
@6: England Dan (Seals, if you'll recall) and John Ford Coley, Moorhead, MN.
49
@47 Honest? Wow. That blows my mind!
50
Dead Kennedys - WOW hall in Eugene, 21-April-1983
51
Van Halen, 1984 tour.
52
Styx, Paradise Theater, Paramount Theater, 1982 or so.Tommy Shaw had an EPIC power mullet.
53
accused, ok hotel
54
The Jacksons, Victory Tour - Rich Stadium in Buffalo, NY. I went with my grandfather.
55
1993 Duran Duran touring with "The Wedding Album." The Cranberries were opening. Everyone in my 7th grade class, learning my older brother was taking me to a show, kept asking if I was going to the Pearl Jam concert (which was apparently the same night). I had a blast.
56
Def Leppard
Pyromania Tour, 1983
Lane County Fairground Exhibit Hall
Eugene, OR
Uriah Heep opened.
57
Pointer Sisters-Concerts on the Common, Boston in musta been 83 or 84.
58
1989: New Kids @ the Kingdome, with my mom!

4th row, mom sat down with earplugs the whole time while I stood on my chair & lost 25% of my hearing in my right ear..
59
Ps That was also my mom's first concert!!
60
I grew up near Monterey California .. my first concerts were the jazz fest in October starting when I was about 5 or so in 1968, though I don’t remember much more than running around in the sun and dancing.
61
Kiss with Wasp, Valentines Day 1986 at the Seattle Colliseum (which you newcomers may know better as Key Arena). Now I get to work behind the scenes there. I'm sure quite a few of the older guys I work with helped build that one.
62
Van Halen with special guest The Fools, 1981, Spokane Coliseum (the old one with the acoustics of a tin can), $9.50 admission. Fantastic show.
63
The Gogo's
64
It seems regrettably likely that my answer is "Collective Soul" via some free tickets from a radio station. Approximately worth the price of admission.
65
My memory going that far back isn't always so great.
I guess it was my mom taking me with her and my sisters to Barry Manilow at the Paramount (I think) and it was 1976 (I think). I really didn't want to go but my mom said it was cheaper than a babysitter. Or maybe it was the Doobie Brothers with my sister.
My brother promptly undid that with Alice Cooper "Welcome to my Nightmare" (1977-ish).
Or, maybe it was Ted Nugent, then Alice Cooper, whatever.
66
"Weird Al" Yankovic, on the U of MT's drama dept stage. He put on a really entertaining, funny show.
67
Pearl Jam at the Key Arena, 1995. I won the tickets off the End. I was a master of speed-dialing that year and also won tix to Radiohead and Better Than Ezra, both seen at the old Club DV8.
68
The Kinks with The Blasters at the Paramount in Portland in 1984. My friend Eric's mom dropped us off at the theater right when the doors opened, and being 14-year old kids we had no idea what to do except sit in our seats and wait till showtime. In retrospect this turned out to be a very good thing, as The Blasters were really great and opened my eyes to all kinds of American roots rock. The Kinks were great too, but they were definitely in their arena rock phase, so we just got the big hits and no deep cuts.
69
Pat Benatar & David Johansen, 1981. I think I was in 8th grade.
70
@68, me too, but at the Vancouver Coliseum. I was 16 and we split a pint of tequila before the show, missed the Blasters and I barely remembered the rest.
71
I love this thread.

Either John Denver or Arlo Guthrie in Duluth, MN. I don't remember which came first.

First one that mattered: I saw a bunch of stuff around age 15 like the Phones, Suburbs, and the like, but I count the Circle Jerks at the Fargo Civic Center in 1986 as one of the most influential.
72
my mom paid me five dollars to go in her place to see reba macintyre (sp?) and the statler brothers when i was like 7, so technically that was my first. but then when i was about 10 i gleefully watched night ranger for free through the fence at the puyallup fair. first concert i deliberately procured tickets for was the power station and omd when i was 12. had someone's mom chaperoning us, but we still felt so big and cool.
73
@68, 69 - i remember my sister was supposed to go to that when it came through seattle but my parents objected on the grounds that anything called "the kinks" might not be for kids. she was 13, there was nothing she could do. man, she was pissed!
74
(sorry, meant to say @68, 70)
75
I'm too poor to have gone to many rock concerts, so I'm not sure why I can't really remember which one was first. But in the 1980s I saw U2 twice--once at the Cow Palace in San Francisco with Lone Justice opening for them on the Joshua Tree tour and I think another time at the Oakland Coliseum preceded by the BoDeans, whom I don't even remember, and the Pretenders(!). I think the only other concert I went to that decade was an Amnesty International concert with a number of acts. I think I recall Joan Baez, the Neville Brothers, and Sting, though there may have been others. This was probably also in San Francisco. Figure out when these three took place and you'll figure out which was the first one I went to.
76
MC Hammer, Kool Mo Dee, Heavy D & the Boyz, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock and The Boys at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

Yo.
77
Pearl Jam w/ The Ramones, San Diego 1995. Went with my mom. She still listens to them a lot whereas I've moved onto bleaker pastures.
78
The Cars 1978, Nick Gilder Was The Opener.
79
Mountain, at the Orpheum in Boston, around about 1966 or 1967.
80
@15: What, you're 90 years old now? I guess that would explain a lot.
81
My parents took me to see live music regularly as a kid. The first concerts I remember (besides the local symphony) are Ravi Shankar and Ray Charles. I'm not sure which came first. I was five years old for both.

First concert without my parents: Metallica, on the And Justice for All tour. My brother took me. I was eleven years old.
82
Aerosmith, in Cincinnati, '75. Earlier that year, my mom refused to let me go to see The Who, when Keith Moon was still alive. Three years later, Kenny what's-his-face had replaced him on drums when I finally got to see The Who--at THAT concert, where 11 people were trampled to death (thanks to the genius security team who decided to open only 2 doors out of 20). The end of festival seating in Cincinnati.
83
Chalk up another first concert cherry popped by Alice Cooper - Seattle Coliseum, June 21, 1975, Welcome to My Nightmare tour. Suzi Quatro opened. I was so *bummed* because Alice never once stopped between songs to egg on the crowd like I heard he'd done on the tour my friends had gone to the year or two before. But I did smell weed being smoked for the first time that night... it would be another few months before I got the nerve to try it out myself after 8th grade peer pressure got the better of me.
84
Cheap Trick at the Paramount in the summer of I think 1982. Mom forced me to take my sister, because it was her birthday and that was what she wanted. Even with earplugs, the sound vibrations pounding my innards made me feel sick, so I sat out the show in the lobby. After it was over, she walked past me and couldn't hear me yelling her name. She has 8 kids and Jesus now. It was awesome, or something.
85
(exlcuding local folkly stuff, etc which I'd have been doing since I was 5, mostly obliviously)

First (w/parents): Meat Loaf, Manchester 93ish
First (w/out parents): Lightning Seeds, Manchester 96ish
First (not even dropped off by parents): Idlewild, Manchester University 96
86
@85. Actually that last one is bullshit.

First (not even dropped off by parents): Radiohead (w/ Super Furry Animals) 97.

-Idlewild was in 98-
87
Judas Priest and Dokken in the Tacoma Dome, 1986.
88
Kenny G...and Peabo Bryson, Austin, Tx? *sad face* *shrug* If it helps to know, I thought he was Michael Bolton. I blame my dad. I was only 12ish? Unfortunate. Unnnnfortunate.
89
Bruce Springsteen, 1988, Tunnel of Love tour in the Tacoma Dome. With my mom, for which I make no apologies. I was 16.
90
Sonny and Cher, 1972.
91
OMG: Fleetwood Mac 1980 Tusk Tour....yikes! I had a gay crush on Stevie Nicks...didn't every gay kid in the 80's?
92
Sting, Nothing Like The Sun tour, at the Dane county coliseum in Madison WI. Must have been around 1985?
93
Soundgarden, Bumbershoot, early 1990s. Oh god... <3
94
@85, Foonken2, you saw the Lightning Seeds? I am jealous.
95
Grateful Dead, RFK Stadium, 1995. About three or four months before Jerry died, actually.
96
Kool & the Gang, 1983. Somewhere in Chicagoland, I'm guessing Poplar Creek, but that was a long time ago.
97
@39.. i was there too.. easily the worse show i've been to. a hot summer day and people waited all damned day. i remember a guy rushing the stage naked on acid and then cpd bullshit. a 'riot going on'
@76 ..i was there too.
but my first was the temptations, gladys knight and the pips, ' the duke of earl' - gene chandler , the comic, pigmeat markham,hedaliner was bobby blue bland, but i begged my mom to go because i wanted to see if dionne warwick was a real person..god.. she wore a braid that stretched down her back like sade and she had the hugest gap in her front teeth.
when she sang 'walk on by' and 'message to michael', i sighed my first public sigh. it was 1964 at the regal theater in chicago and i was 9.

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