Old concert memories?

[disneycutie165]

This is a very off-the-wall topic but I've been listening to my aunts tell stories about "their generation"- the 80's. they've told me about going to guns n' roses, kiss, rolling stones, etc. My oldest aunt actually got 2 go 2 a beatles after party & she had a conversation with Paul McCartney himself. My dad also has a great memory of a Black Sabbath concert he went to. A fight broke out in the front row & the band just stopped playing, watched the fight, then when it was taken care of they continued playing like nothing happened!! So after hearing about all the concerts my family has been to I want to hear about your concert memories. Please share & I look forward to hearing them!

[Ian]

Ugh ... you're making me feel old ... but anyway ...

I've seen some amazing shows in my time. One of the most memorable, I think, was seeing Guns -n- Roses here in Philly. It was during the Use Your Illusion tour and they had been hit or miss for most of the tour. Showing up really late, Axl walking off in the middle of a set, etc.

But the Philly show was amazing ... they did start about an hour late, but they more than made up for it by sounding incredible and playing for nearly three hours. Terrific show.

Another good memory ... I went with a couple friends up to the Meadowlands to see U2 on the Joshua Tree tour. We had some pretty lousy seats, but as we were walking up to head in to the show this non-descript little guy walks up and asks if we're interested in buying tickets. Naturally we took a look at what he had and they were really good seats right next to the stage and a couple rows up.

Assuming he'd want a fortune for them (and not, at the time, being possesed of "a fortune") I skeptically asked him how much. I was almost floored when he said, "I just want to get my money back for them ... they belonged to my friends who couldn't make it."

So we bought his seats for face value each, sold our tickets for more than what we had paid for them, made a small profit, and end up with MUCH better seats.

I could go on and on ... I've seen some really amazing concerts ... but I'll let others chime in.

[Pagan]

I've been to so many concerts I can't remember them all, but some stand out....

1. KISS and Blue Oyster Cult ~ Nassau Coliseum, New Year's Eve 1975: My first ever concert. Completely blown away and changed the course of my life. After that, it's what *I* wanted to do.

2. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest ~ Madison Square Garden, 1982: Both at their peak, Maiden on the "Number of the Beast" tour and Priest on the "Screaming For Vengeance" tour. Battle of the titans.

3. David Bowie ~ Madison Square Garden 1978: Robert Fripp played guitar. Three hours of classic Bowie. Amazing.

4. Judas Priest ~ Madison Square Garden 1984: The infamous "Seat Cushion Riot". One idiot cut out the cushion from his seat during the show and threw it in the air like a frisbie. Next thing you know everyone started doing it and the arena looked like a flock of cushions were flying around. Eventually everyone started throwing them onstage, and Ron Halford was laughing so hard he could barely sing. They didn't laugh later...Priest was banned from MSG for a few years and had to pay for the repairs.

5. Bill Joel/Elton ~ Madison Square Garden 2003: Incredible performance by two legends. Never saw anything like that. When they played each other's songs for the encore it was magic.

6. KISS ~ Madison Square Garden 1996: The reunion tour. I might have 35 at the time, but when the announcer gave the famous "You wanted the best...." intro for the original members to come onstage together again for the first time in 15 years and that curtain dropped, I turned 15 again instantly.

7. Black Sabbath and Van Halen ~ Madison Square Garden 1978: Van Halen's first major tour. They blew Sabbath out of the arena. Everyone there knew that the new kings of heavy rock were being crowned on this tour. Sabbath looked old and tired. Ozzy would be fired upon the tour's completion. It stands out to me with mixed emotions. I saw the torch being passed to the future, but at the same time saw the past dying a horrible death.

8. Angel and Livesay ~ The Chance Theater 2003: Livesay is my band...I add this because I was a HUGE fan of Angel in the 70's, and opening for them was surreal to me. Here I was sharing the stage with a band I idolized when I was 17. Meeting them and taking photos with them after the show was like an out of body experience.

Those are just some of the ones that stand out.

[Ian]

7. Black Sabbath and Van Halen ~ Madison Square Garden 1978: Van Halen's first major tour. They blew Sabbath out of the arena.

If it makes you feel any better, I saw VH once only and it was on the For Unlawful tour.

They were awful. Embarrassingly so. Alice in Chains opened for them and blew them off the stage. VH played for like 90 minutes total (which was a disgrace for an $80 ticket ... a fortune in 1991) and I swear they were lip synching. Every song sounded exactly like the studio version. I was so disappointed.

Coming on the heels of that amazing Guns concert I mentioned (Guns was in June of '91 and VH was in October), it was bitterly disappointing.

[brad192]

One concert that really stands out in my mind is the night I saw Phil Collins on his first solo tour, right after the release of his second solo album. He had Chester Thompson (the Genesis tour drummer) with him, as well as the Earth, Wind, and Fire horn section. They played Hill auditorium here in Ann Arbor, a 2500 seat venue & very intimate.

They rocked the place for over 2 hours, and after their 3rd curtain call the crowd still wouldn't stop applauding, even though the house lights had been turned on. After a few minutes, Phil came out & told the crowd that he was terribly sorry, but they had played everything they knew! He was right too! They had played EVERY song on BOTH of his solo albums, plus a couple of Genesis numbers! It was a magical night.

[Ian]

Actually, I had a memorable Phil Collins concert experience as well, although it was much more recent.

When he did his "First Retirement Tour" a couple years back, I went and saw him play (I absolutely love Phil, Genesis, Gabriel, etc.).

So if you can picture this ... his stage is surrounded by the elevated catwalk that has stairs going up/down both sides of the stage with an elevated walkway across the back. Multiple times during the show he would walk around the catwalk while singing or just chatting and he used it as an opportunity to engage folks in different sections of the arena.

When he started to play In the Air Tonight it was immediately obvious to everyone watching that Phil wasn't playing the drums. Considering the drum portion of that song was, in no small part, responsible for Phil becoming the solo success that he was that seemed a tad odd.

The song progressed and is it got closer and closer to the signature drum portion of the song the buzz in the crowd was noticeable. Was he really not going to play that part? How could he? How disappointing!

The part of the song drew closer and closer and Phil started up the stairs on the right side of the stage, singing "I was there and I saw what you did ... saw it with my own two eyes ... " He starts across the elevated catwalk across the back of the stage and literally the split second before the drum section hits this full drum set rockets up from out of the stage, Phil (without missing a beat) sits down, grabs his sticks, and whales out that section.

Suffice it to say the crowd went bananas!

[MissMaryPoppins]

I saw Madonna in 1990 when she was doing her Blonde Ambition Tour. My uncle was a huge Madonna at the time and anything he liked I liked too. He asked my parents if he could take me to the show, I was 13 at the time, and they let me go. He was able to get amazing seats because he was recovering surgery when he went to buy the tickets and the girl at the window felt sorry for him. I was so excited to be going I couldn't sleep for 2 weeks. The show was at the Meadowlands and we sat in the 14th row in the VIP section. It was a great show and I remember a lot of it. I"m not sure about now but then Madonna was a great performer and she put on a fantastic show. I also remember there were 2 men sitting behind us and my uncle told me later they were actors who were on some TV show he liked back in the 70's. I don't remember which show or who they were but they talked to me while we were waiting for the show to start and made sure i didn't fall off my chair while I was dancing during the concert. I remember coming out of the arena and my ears were rang for like an hour. I didn't have a voice for 2 days because of all the singing I did. It was a great time.

[Ian]

The show was at the Meadowlands and we sat in the 14th row in the VIP section ...

It's really quite amazing the difference in seeing a concert from close-up vs. seeing it from "the nosebleeds."

When I was in my late teens and early 20's I worked with a guy who's brother was a ticket scalper. He could get amazing seats to pretty much any concert I wanted and, since I knew him through his brother, he gave me a bit better pricing than he gave the general public.

I saw some really great concerts from really close up. I had 3rd row seats for Genesis, 2nd row dead center for Peter Gabriel, 8th row for U2, and front row dead center for Billy Joel on The Bridge tour. I literally ended up watching most of the show while leaning on the stage about two feet from Billy. Quite the spectacle ... even got to shake his hand after the show.

[alphamommy]

I didn't go to any concerts until the last 20 years or so, and I've spent my time catching up with all the acts I didn't get to see in the 70s and 80s.

1. Meat Loaf, 2005 - Took DH for his 40th b-day. It was fabulous! We were amazed at how many people got up and walked out before the show was over. I guess they were desperate to get out of the parking lot, but they missed "Bat Out of Hell" and a great encore.

2. Bob Seger, 1996 - This is likely more special because we're from SE Michigan, but we saw him at Pine Knob, sitting on the hill, on the last night of the tour. One guy sitting near us was so drunk/stoned/both that he couldn't stand up and was taken out before the show even started. Bob did everything, had old band members with him, and did a bunch of obscure stuff that I'd hardly ever heard. I'll never forget that show!

3. Billy Joel, 1998 - We went with BIL and his girlfriend. We had upper deck seats, near the stage. Just before the show started, some guy walked up to us and announced, "This is your lucky day!" He had lower deck seats, but his cousin was a roadie who got him back stage passes. He decided to find a group of 4 and gift his tickets to them. We took the tickets, and took off running to the lower deck on the opposite side of the arena. The show started before we got there, but when we did, we discovered that we were about 14 rows off the main floor, near the corner of the stage! The sax solo from "Only the Good Die Young" was played about 20 feet from us.

4. The Eagles, Hell Freezes Over tour - During the second half of the concert, Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey, and Don Hendley all did some solo stuff. When Walsh was playing "Ordinary Average Guy", they were flashing pictures of guys in the crowd on the big screens near the stage. At one point, they showed a profile of a guy who, just before they turned of the camera, took a hit from a joint. I doubt that he ever knew why the whole place was laughing.

[Carolanne]

Hmm, let's see what I can dig up. I've been to a lot of concerts, but I'll post what I can remember off the top of my head.

August 2009, Weezer/Blink-182: DH & I went to this mainly for Weezer--we love the Weez! Weezer put on an awesome show--Rivers Cuomo is a very energetic performer--the band just has a lot of energy. Rivers sang a song while bouncing on a trampoline (and did not lip sync). Blink-182 is another story. I like their music, but DH & I ended up walking out maybe 4 songs into their set. The volume was jacked up WAY too loud for their set, you could barely understand what was being sung. The onstage banter was atrocious--it was so bad that even the local rock DJ's went on abou how bad it was. I think it was a day later that DJ AM passed away.

October 2005, Foo Fighters/Weezer: Probably one of the best concerts I've ever seen. The Foo's just played an amazing set--totally rocked. Weezer was awesome. The ended their set with "Island in the Sun". The venue went dark, then a spotlight came on & out of nowhere Rivers Cuomo popped up in the center of the venue & started an acoustic version of this song.

July 1994, Billy Joel & Elton John Face to Face tour: I'm a huge fan of both, and this tour was like Christmas to me. It was the first & only time I ever camped out for tix. The show was AWESOME. They played close to 4 hours.

These days, I don't know. I'm just not feeling the concert thing anymore. I don't know why that is. I'm more into comedy shows these days.

[Pagan]

Can't believe I left this out...

Trans-Siberian Orchestra...many times, many places.

Quite frankly, the best live concert experience you can have. At no time will you ever see a more eclectic and talented lineup of musicians onstage at the same time, and I highly doubt any other concert experience will make you feel more emotion.

If you've never seen them, you must.

[DisneyDog]

Recently saw Rush for the first time. Oh. My. God. Those guys can ROCK. It's hard to believe that they are all around 60 years old and they played for 3 hours and still didn't come close to playing all their music. I'm really more of a Phil Collins/Genesis kind of girl, and the best concert(s) I've ever been to have been 3 Hooters concerts (Philly's gift to the world!), so this music was a little loud for me (I went along with my DH.) But, still, it was an amazing experience, and I'm really, really glad I went.

[diz_girl]

My list probably makes me sound older than my 41 years. That's because DH is 8 years older than me. He actually told me two memorable concert stories.

The first was during the bicentennial summer (that was 1976 for you under-35 Intercotees) and Jefferson Starship (or Airplane, or whatever they were called then) was playing a daytime concert in Central Park, NYC. DH's oblivious mother drove him into the city and dropped him off - DH was only 14 or 15 at the time. He was so early that he waited near the stage with a group of a few other people who had some beer. Well, Grace Slick comes out, sits down, and asks for a beer. So he was sharing a beer with Grace Slick.

The second was a Led Zeppelin concert at MSG. People in the crowd were taking the napkin holders from the snack bars, setting them on fire and lobbing them from the balcony. Sounds memorable to me. Was Pagan there too?


Here's my list of memorable concerts, but nothing as memorable as those -

1 - The Who (1997) - Quadrophenia tour - Best live band ever. It was awesome. They were incredible, as good as or better than their prime, and Daltrey's voice was as good as ever. First time I noticed Zak Starkey (Ringo's son) on drums.

2 - Jeff Beck (late 90's) - Loudest concert I've ever heard. But Beck is great, so he doesn't need the volume. My ears are still ringing.

3 - Madonna (1985) - The Virgin Tour - She was decent, but what was more memorable was the opening act of the Beastie Boys. This was before anyone whew who they were. I don't know about now, but at the time, they were horrible performing live.

4 - U2 (1985) - The Unforgettable Fire Tour - My first concert ever - I was 15. In the Spectrum - We had terrible seats, against the back wall. But it felt like an intimate concert and you didn't feel that you were far away from the stage.

5 - Duran Duran (2005) - I loooooved them in high school, but never saw them then. Fast-forward 20 years and I got to see the original lineup in Pittsburgh. As we drove away, we drove by their tour bus and they were in it. But I was too chicken to meet them. Say what you want about them, but they are excellent musicians. DH actually liked Power Station, which had John Taylor on bass and Andy Taylor on guitar. He was surprised that I told him that they were really from Duran Duran.


BTW - I think it's a hoot that Pagan lists all of these metal acts and then...the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

[Ian]

4 - U2 (1985) - The Unforgettable Fire Tour - My first concert ever - I was 15. In the Spectrum - We had terrible seats, against the back wall. But it felt like an intimate concert and you didn't feel that you were far away from the stage.

I was lucky enough to catch that tour in '84 at The Tower. You want to talk intimate? Looking back, it was unreal being in that small a venue with such a BIG act. Of course, they weren't quite as big back then, but still ...

We were about 10 rows from the stage in the middle. AMAZING show!

[In my dreams]

Summer of 1978
FIRST CONCERT
age 17- went with best friend and her 14yr old brother whom my mom bought a ticket for because she couldn't stand the thought of me and my friend going alone

Milwaukee County Stadium-open seating,stood in line for hours (in the fall of that year there was the trampling deaths at a concert and open seating became a thing of the past)-Thank Goodness!!

Headliner: The EAGLES with Pablo Cruise and The Steve Miller Band AWESOME!!

I still think of how cool we thought we were, and actually it's one of my best teen-age memories

[brad192]

A couple more...

Robin Trower in '84. Kind of wierd too! It was at the Masonic in Detroit. We arrived about an hour before the show & headed for the bar to get a drink. I expected a "rocker" type crowd, but here was a bunch of 30 & 40 somethings standing around having polite conversation. Very strange...

The concert though, was AMAZING. Robin played all the hits, plus a few new things he was working on. 'Too Rolling Stoned' started, and his solo lasted 25 minutes! Fun night.

The second is a little different.

I sing in a local community chorus, and have been a member for 20 years. Back in the late '90's (I don't remember the exact year) we were approached by the advance team for Judy Collins. (For those under 40 she's a folk singer who was very popular in the late '60's/early '70's. CSN's 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' was written about her.)

They needed a local chorus to - 1) Open the show for her, and 2) Sing backup for 3 of her songs. Of course we jumped at the chance. They sent us the music & we began to rehearse. After a few weeks, it was time for the show.

We arrived for sound check, met her lead, who was also her keyboardist and proceeded to go through all the stuff you need to do before a concert. About halfway thru the process Ms. Collins shows up. Wow...Just Wow. Stunningly beautiful, gracious, and seemed genuinly glad we were backing her up, she had a great dialogue with us, and then we rehearsed all the numbers with her. It was an eye opening experience to work with professionals like that. We broke for dinner & returned for the show.

8PM curtain, we opened the show. We did about 5 numbers, received a nice response from the audience, and left the stage. Judy came on & started her set. Since we were to back her up for the last 3 numbers of her show, we got to see the balance from the wings/audience.

We returned to the stage & backed her on her last 3 songs. The thing I remember most though, is that she was wearing a long, flowing, white satin-type dress. When she got up fron the piano to sing, the follow spot was on her and......well......there was little left to one's imagination, if you know what I mean.

It was an incredible experience working with professional musicians & a memory I will never forget. I even got a personal autographed poster from the event, which is one of my prized possessions. We got a nice thank you letter from her a few weeks after the show too.

Oh, and her blue eyes were amazing!