My First Concert- What was Yours?

Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Ozzfest, June 15, 1997 was my first concert. Lots of bands I still listen to and love to this day played: Type O Negative, Marilyn Manson, Pantera, and Fear Factory among others.
Caught the same tour in Pittsburgh Pa. it was the loudest Iam ever been too .
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
First one according to my parents was Red Hot Chili Peppers in the 80's...I was 2 and don't remember.

First one I do remember was in 1999 at a dirt track in Midland, TX and that was Pumpjack. Yeah, we didn't have many good bands come around.

Since I've seen tons, but the ones I enjoyed the most was Tool in 2011 and Muse in 2015 or so.

Buddy invited me to a Rammstein concert in San Antonio in September, but I doubt that will happen now.
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
Yeah, I remember my ears ringing for days afterwards. And one hell of a sunburn too
Loudest I remember. Motorhead, Aerosmith, Uriah Heep and Cheap Trick. Not every time, but the guys doing sound did not have any hearing left.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Yeah, I remember my ears ringing for days afterwards. And one hell of a sunburn too
I’ll tell ya what Queensreich topped them for the loudest I’ve ever been to man they could jam back in the day .
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
I’ll tell ya what Queensreich topped them for the loudest I’ve ever been to man they could jam back in the day .
That reminds me. They opened for Heaven and Hell. Heaven and Hell- Sabbath were really loud. I was 5th row. Alice Cooper was at a that one too. Geezer was awesome on bass.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I remember going to one of the Who's "loud" shows back at the Oakland Coliseum and standing near one of the stacks thinking (?) at the time this isn't so bad :)
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
I remember going to one of the Who's "loud" shows back at the Oakland Coliseum and standing near one of the stacks thinking (?) at the time this isn't so bad :)
Yeah. Me too. Tinnitus is a drag. Drumming didn't help.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Geez if I wasn’t jealous before...72 is an amazing year for them. Frustrating that I never had the chance to see them. I’ve seen Phil multiple times and he’s certainly one of my favorite bassists and his shows are great but it would have been amazing to see the band proper. I have managed to see the Stones 2019 , Who 2003ish, unfortunately just after Entwhistle died, and Paul Mc Cartney a few years ago, Dylan in 2000 (actually opening for Phil & friends). So for a kid of the 90’s pretty great.
Living in San Francisco and LA in the 70s was pretty good for the music scene, saw many a great band in Golden Gate Park for free :)
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
Living in San Francisco and LA in the 70s was pretty good for the music scene, saw many a great band in Golden Gate Park for free :)
Living in So. CA. and going to the NAMM show in Anaheim and meeting a lot of those musicians was really cool.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Living in So. CA. and going to the NAMM show in Anaheim and meeting a lot of those musicians was really cool.
When I was working for bands back then meeting the actual musicians happened only once in a while, some were super chill tho.
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
When I was working for bands back then meeting the actual musicians happened only once in a while, some were super chill tho.
My first meeting of musicians was backstage at Don Kirshner's Rock Concert in 1974. Met the whole Steppenwolf band and Brian Auger- great keyboard player.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
My first meeting of musicians was backstage at Don Kirshner's Rock Concert in 1974. Met the whole Steppenwolf band and Brian Auger- great keyboard player.
I'm a long time Brian Auger fan as well as Steppenwolf! Nice!
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
This is a fun thread :). Thanks to the OP, @Dean Kurtz

Did anyone attend one of early rock festivals (or later ones) that started in the later 60s?

I went to the Atlanta Intl. Pop Festival in 1969. It occurred on the 4th & 5th of July, about a month and a half before Woodstock. Woodstock got much better press coverage, was famous for a thunderstorm & mud, and had that movie & album. Atlanta showed how outdoor performances could have first rate sound systems and display many bands in one location. Some were surprising disappointments to me, and others were surprisingly good.
Over twenty musical acts performed at the event. I saw most, but not all of them:
  • Blood, Sweat & Tears
    There were 3 large bands, with horns, BS&T, Chicago, and PG&E. I found BS&T kind of boring.
  • Booker T. & the M.G.'s
    I didn't know they were still around, but I loved them. They commanded the crowd's full attention while the sun was still very hot.
  • The Butterfield Blues Band
    If I remember their performance, and I'm not sure I do, it was disappointing, as if they were not well rehearsed, or needed some warm up.
  • Canned Heat
    Kind of awesome and amateurish at the same time. Alan Wilson stood out among the others. He had to be one of the all-time best freakish sounding voices I've ever heard. He was also an outstanding harmonica player.
  • Chicago Transit Authority
    They were the best of the large band with horns format. They really swung, and the crowd got into them.
  • Joe Cocker
    He performed with his first band, the Grease Band. I'd never heard of him before, but he was great. The crowd, most of whom didn't seem to know him either, got into him in a very big way. (I saw him again in May 1970 as Joe Cocker and The Mad Dogs & Englishmen. There was a stage full of musicians and singers, maybe 40 people.)
  • Creedence Clearwater Revival
    I was a CCR fan but was disappointed with their performance.
  • The Dave Brubeck Trio w/ Gerry Mulligan
    I can't remember them at all.
  • Delaney and Bonnie and Friends
    I also can't remember them.
  • Grand Funk Railroad
    I wish I didn't remember them. They were positively awful.
  • Ian & Sylvia
    Why were two Canadian folkies left over from the earlier 60s there at all?
  • Tommy James and the Shondells
    They were a Top 40 AM radio act, so I had low expectations. They were better than I expected.
  • Janis Joplin
    She owned the crowd. She showed why she was so awesome.
  • Al Kooper
    Boring.
  • Led Zeppelin
    I thought I knew LZ from hearing their 1st two LPs – all too often. I thought they would be boring. Performing live, they were far better than I expected, and I instantly became a Led Zeppelin fan. On LP, LZ was all about Robert Plant their singer. It was easy for me to get overdosed on his singing. Live, they were all about Jimmy Page. He was exciting, dynamic, and he owned the crowd.
  • Pacific Gas & Electric
    I remember seeing them, but I may have taken a nap.
  • Johnny Rivers
    He was ok, but see nap above.
  • Spirit
    Another band I didn't know, other than one Top 40 hit from earlier in the spring of 1969. They were extremely good live and captured the crowd's attention, similar to Booker T & the MGs, while the sun was hot. Their drummer, a bald guy in his 40s was excellent. We were all used to too many mind-numbing long drum solos where all semblance of a beat was lost. This guy (named Ed Cassidy) did the obligatory long drum solo but never lost the rhythm, and finished it on the beat. The rest of the band was much younger, but all played up to the same standards. I also became a Spirit fan because of their performance at Atlanta.
  • The Staple Singers
    I also didn't know them at the time, but enjoyed them entirely. Later, in 1970 they became much better known. They clearly had years of experience singing together.
  • Sweetwater
    Yet another excellent band that I knew nothing about. I loved their performance, but remember little of it. They quickly fell off the radar screen and I never knew why, until the internet came along. They had a sad series of disasters that ended their careers too early.
  • Ten Wheel Drive
    Their act was quite similar to what appeared in the Woodstock movie.
  • Johnny Winter
    He had a huge stack of amps, and as he opened, his first 2 or 3 notes knocked out the electric power for over 45 minutes. Eventually the power came back, and he managed to put on a good show despite the unexpected trouble.
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Biggest festival I attended was the US Festival in 82. Plenty of Day on the Green shows. Huge bluegrass festival in the early 70s at Marin Civic Center. Going blank on others... :)
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
This is a fun thread :). Thanks to the OP, @Dean Kurtz

Did anyone attend one of early rock festivals (or later ones) that started in the later 60s?

I went to the Atlanta Intl. Pop Festival in 1969. It occurred on the 4th & 5th of July, about a month and a half before Woodstock. Woodstock got much better press coverage, was famous for a thunderstorm & mud, and had that movie & album. Atlanta showed how outdoor performances could have first rate sound systems and display many bands in one location. Some were surprising disappointments to me, and others were surprisingly good.

Over twenty musical acts performed at the event. I saw most, but not all of them:
  • Blood, Sweat & Tears
    There were 3 large bands, with horns, BS&T, Chicago, and PG&E. I found BS&T kind of boring.
  • Booker T. & the M.G.'s
    I didn't know they were still around, but I loved them. They commanded the crowd's full attention while the sun was still very hot.
  • The Butterfield Blues Band
    If I remember their performance, and I'm not sure I do, it was disappointing, as if they were not well rehearsed.
  • Canned Heat
    Kind of awesome and amateurish at the same time. Alan Wilson stood out among the others. He had to be one of the all-time best freakish sounding voices I've ever heard. He was also an outstanding harmonica player.
  • Chicago Transit Authority
    They were the best of the large band with horns format. They really swung, and the crowd got into them.
  • Joe Cocker
    He performed with his first band, the Grease Band. I'd never heard of him before, but he was great. The crowd, most of whom didn't seem to know him either, got into him in a very big way. (I saw him again in May 1970 as Joe Cocker and The Mad Dogs & Englishmen. There was a stage full of musicians and signers, maybe 40 people.)
  • Creedence Clearwater Revival
    I was a CCR fan but was disappointed with their performance.
  • The Dave Brubeck Trio w/ Gerry Mulligan
    I can't remember them at all.
  • Delaney and Bonnie and Friends
    I also can't remember them.
  • Grand Funk Railroad
    I wish I didn't remember them. They were positively awful.
  • Ian & Sylvia
    Why were two Canadian folkies left over from the earlier 60s there at all?
  • Tommy James and the Shondells
    They were a Top 40 AM radio act, so I had low expectations. They were better than I expected.
  • Janis Joplin
    She owned the crowd. She showed why she was so awesome.
  • Al Kooper
    Boring.
  • Led Zeppelin
    I thought I knew LZ from hearing their 1st two LPs all too often. I thought they would be boring. Performing live, they were far better than I expected, and I instantly became a Led Zeppelin fan. On LP, LZ was all about Robert Plant their singer. It was easy for me to get overdosed on his singing. Live, they were all about Jimmy Page. He was exciting, dynamic, and he owned the crowd.
  • Pacific Gas & Electric
    I remember seeing them, but I may have taken a nap.
  • Johnny Rivers
    He was ok, but see nap above.
  • Spirit
    Another band I didn't know, other than one Top 40 hit from earlier in the spring of 1969. They were extremely good live and captured the crowd's attention, similar to Booker T & the MGs, while the sun was hot. Their drummer, a bald guy in his 40s was excellent. We were all used to too many mind-numbing long drum solos where all semblance of a beat was lost. This guy (named Ed Cassidy) did the obligatory long drum solo but never lost the rhythm, and finished it on the beat. The rest of the band was much younger, but all played up to the same standards. I also became a Spirit fan because of their performance at Atlanta.
  • The Staple Singers
    I also didn't know them at the time, but enjoyed them entirely. Later, in 1970s they became much better known.
  • Sweetwater
    Yet another excellent band that I knew nothing about. I loved their performance, but remember little of it. They quickly fell off the radar screen and I never knew why, until the internet came along.
  • Ten Wheel Drive
    Their act was quite similar to what they did in the Woodstock movie.
  • Johnny Winter
    He had a huge stack of amps, and as he opened, his first 2 or 3 notes knocked out the electric power for over 45 minutes. Eventually the power came back, and he managed to put on a good show despite the unexpected trouble.
So cool you saw that show. I had the record which included the Isle of Wight.0 My first big one was CAL JAM 1 at Ontario speedway in California 1974. Rare Earth, Earth Wind and Fire, Seals and Croft, Eagles, Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Emerson Lake and Palmer. I am a huge Deep Purple fan and they were my fav that day. I actually enjoyed them all.
 
Swerd

Swerd

Audioholic Warlord
Was Earth Wind & Fire good that day? It really was hit or miss with those early festivals. Just getting there could be a nightmare for the bands. And the performance schedules were more fiction that real.

Some bands needed to warm up, and the 30-40 minute format per band prevented that. The Grateful Dead said that was their problem at Woodstock, and why they didn't allow their performance to be included on the LP or the movie. I suspect that problem was more common than we realized at the time.
 
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NINaudio

NINaudio

Audioholic Samurai
Over the years, I went to many of the Ozz-fests after the first one. For a while, they were a great value for seeing multiple rock/metal bands that I liked. I used to see Type O every October in NYC when they would tour. It still never feels quite like Halloween without seeing them in concert. The band I saw the most after Type O would be NIN, and those concerts were always a treat with great visuals as well. As far as meeting bands, I've met Megadeth at a backstage event twice, and I did meet Trent Reznor very briefly at an autograph signing in Times Square for the release of "And All That Could Have Been"
 
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
I’ve seen Motorhead a few times. One time indoors. It was definitely loud as hell. LOL :)
 
Dean Kurtz

Dean Kurtz

Full Audioholic
So cool you saw that show. I had the record which included the Isle of Wight.0 My first big one was CAL JAM 1 at Ontario speedway in California 1974. Rare Earth, Earth Wind and Fire, Seals and Croft, Eagles, Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Emerson Lake and Palmer. I am a huge Deep Purple fan and they were my fav that day. I actually enjoyed them all.
I just remembered I saw a free concert on Venice Beach in I think 1972. Blue Cheer was top Bill and mostly local bands. First guy was solo on congas singing I got some reds, I got some whites. A few covering Allman Bros. Whipping Post.
 
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