Ah, that first concert! Mine was Boston with Sammy Hagar as the opening act, likely on Boston's Don't Look Back tour around 1978. In addition to the huge sound and the festival atmosphere with people singing along to many of the songs, I was impressed by the light show, the dolled-up fans, and the prodigious amounts of pot being consumed (I recall especially a huge cloud that went up during the Boston song "Smokin'"). Things sure are different nowadays...
That sounds like a great first show too. I had forgotten all about the lighters being held up through certain songs... I may have bought a couple to be ready for my next concert. For me, holding up one's lighted cellphone just isn't the same, and I've never done it.
Don't remember when I first noticed it, but the way some female concertgoers really dressed up caught my eye. How could it not in the era of teased hair, lots of makeup, skintight clothes, and inches of heels?
It was a few years later, but the first concert I went to was a "Day on the Green", probably '82, and I went to see The Scorpions. Day on the Green's were long format festival shows at the Oakland Colosseum, and they started at 3 ish and ran until 10 or 11 PM. For you $19, you got to see 5 or 6 bands, many killer, some meh.
Now, the best concert I ever went to was Loverboy opening for Bon Jovi. I went to see Bon Jovi, but truth be told, Loverboy was en fuego. They were AMAZING live, so much energy, so much fun, they killed it.
I also used to go see a lot of shows in small venues in the Bay Area. Gary Moore at Garden City (a club that seated about 300) was just magic.
Whoa, a whole festival? I don't think I'd have lasted, but what a great deal. My brother has said good things about Loverboy too.
I can't pick a best concert (what a surprise, I know), but if pressed, I'd probably say a Rush concert. Which one varies, because there are so many ways to try to quantify "best."
First one I saw was great because first time, but also they were being especially silly, e.g., Geddy sang "catch the fish" instead of "catch the drift" at the end of "Tom Sawyer"; an outdoor show at Riverbend with Mr. Big opening was fabulous; a Snakes & Arrows show I saw at an outdoor WA venue might have been the best sounding show and the setting was magical, but high winds played merry hell with the stage; and of course, seeing their R40 tour in Vancouver BC was really special. I noticed a fair number of the gents around us in the audience starting to tear up near the end ... we knew it was very likely their last tour, and no one wanted the music to end.
Wow, there are some really interesting lineups over the years! For 1982, current me wants to see Day 3 for T-Bone Burnett; 1982 me wouldn't have wanted Day 2 because of Foreigner.
Frankly, I don't remember Foreigner, and I wasn't into Iron Maiden yet, so I was uninspired. Number of the Beast was just released and it just hadn't registered on my radar yet.
What I am seeing in the lineups is Gamma. I never saw Gamma, but Gamma was really Ronnie Montrose and Davey Pattison, and I am and have always been a HUGE Ronnie Montrose fan.
Hell, for a long time he lived on Pierce Road in Cupertino (in the hills) and I would ride my bicycle by his house a few times a week.
Ah, that first concert! Mine was Boston with Sammy Hagar as the opening act, likely on Boston's Don't Look Back tour around 1978. In addition to the huge sound and the festival atmosphere with people singing along to many of the songs, I was impressed by the light show, the dolled-up fans, and the prodigious amounts of pot being consumed (I recall especially a huge cloud that went up during the Boston song "Smokin'"). Things sure are different nowadays...
That sounds like a great first show too. I had forgotten all about the lighters being held up through certain songs... I may have bought a couple to be ready for my next concert. For me, holding up one's lighted cellphone just isn't the same, and I've never done it.
Don't remember when I first noticed it, but the way some female concertgoers really dressed up caught my eye. How could it not in the era of teased hair, lots of makeup, skintight clothes, and inches of heels?
It was a few years later, but the first concert I went to was a "Day on the Green", probably '82, and I went to see The Scorpions. Day on the Green's were long format festival shows at the Oakland Colosseum, and they started at 3 ish and ran until 10 or 11 PM. For you $19, you got to see 5 or 6 bands, many killer, some meh.
Now, the best concert I ever went to was Loverboy opening for Bon Jovi. I went to see Bon Jovi, but truth be told, Loverboy was en fuego. They were AMAZING live, so much energy, so much fun, they killed it.
I also used to go see a lot of shows in small venues in the Bay Area. Gary Moore at Garden City (a club that seated about 300) was just magic.
Whoa, a whole festival? I don't think I'd have lasted, but what a great deal. My brother has said good things about Loverboy too.
I can't pick a best concert (what a surprise, I know), but if pressed, I'd probably say a Rush concert. Which one varies, because there are so many ways to try to quantify "best."
First one I saw was great because first time, but also they were being especially silly, e.g., Geddy sang "catch the fish" instead of "catch the drift" at the end of "Tom Sawyer"; an outdoor show at Riverbend with Mr. Big opening was fabulous; a Snakes & Arrows show I saw at an outdoor WA venue might have been the best sounding show and the setting was magical, but high winds played merry hell with the stage; and of course, seeing their R40 tour in Vancouver BC was really special. I noticed a fair number of the gents around us in the audience starting to tear up near the end ... we knew it was very likely their last tour, and no one wanted the music to end.
Day on the Greens were wild. It was 1982, and it was #2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_on_the_Green#1982
Wow, there are some really interesting lineups over the years! For 1982, current me wants to see Day 3 for T-Bone Burnett; 1982 me wouldn't have wanted Day 2 because of Foreigner.
Frankly, I don't remember Foreigner, and I wasn't into Iron Maiden yet, so I was uninspired. Number of the Beast was just released and it just hadn't registered on my radar yet.
What I am seeing in the lineups is Gamma. I never saw Gamma, but Gamma was really Ronnie Montrose and Davey Pattison, and I am and have always been a HUGE Ronnie Montrose fan.
Hell, for a long time he lived on Pierce Road in Cupertino (in the hills) and I would ride my bicycle by his house a few times a week.
Small world!