The other day, while dusting off the cobwebs on some memories of life in the 1970's (the ZZ Top post), I got to thinking about my first time.
My first 'real' rock concert experience, that is.
Mine was back sometime in the winter of 1977. The place was the Augusta Civic Center, Augusta, Maine. The band was Blue Oyster Cult. Looking back on it, the experience was both funny and surreal.
Funny because I couldn't drive yet. So my parents had to drop me and my friend Cindy off in front of the place (I think they spent the next four hours hanging out at a Howard Johnsons).
Surreal because, for some insane reason, the Civic Center staff opened only one set of doors off to the left of the main entrance. The result was predictable: a huge crowd smoooshing up against the wall near those doors.
Surreal because me & Cindy got pinned between the crowd and that wall. I got a little freaked out. Cindy got a sprained arm.
Funny because I had never seen so many freaks assembled in one location. Gees, it was like a circus.
Funny and surreal because I'd never seen guys peeing in bathroom sinks before.
Surreal because this was the first time I'd experienced rock music at that volume. The first time you hear a kick drum through a big PA like that the resultant 'slam' is a little bit nauseating.
Funny because, when they announced the warmpup band (Be Bop Deluxe), I thought that Blue Oyster Cult wasn't able to make it and this was our substitute. Hey, nobody ever told me about this warmpup act stuff!
Surreal because this was the first time I'd ever smelled pot smoke...and let me tell you, back in the 70's they used to spark up a whole lotta the demon weed at concerts!
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
Cool Mark, thanks for the memories! I saw BOC in about '76 in a club in Peoria, Ill - it was noisy. I think my first concert was Wishbone Ash/Bruce Springsteen (can you picture an odder pair?) in 1972. I saw some other bands earlier at outdoor festivals and the like with my parents, but that was the first one my own. I also saw Deep Purple at some outdoor show around the same time, but I think it was after Wishbone Ash/Bruce.
2 - Mark Saleski
the funny thing is that i got to see them again just a few years ago...in a small club near boston...except for eric bloom they all look like accountants now. especially buck dharma.
3 - Johno
Mark, that's fantastic. I was a "good kid," and it fell to my kid sister to take off with a van full of freaks on Friday night and return Sunday morning worse for wear. My first big rock concert was Aerosmith at Blossom Music Center in Ohio, on the Pump tour (1991?). Blossom is a 600-acre park and natural ampitheatre, and I just sort of hung out on a blanket under the night sky smelling pot smoke (for the first time)while hundreds of yards away tiny figures in bright clothes played tiny intstruments. Aerosmith were awesome, but the sky was better.
4 - Craig Lyndall
My first rock concert was when I was in 8th grade in 1993 when a friend's dad drove us to see Soul Asylum, the Goo Goo Dolls and Vic Chestnutt at the Cleveland Agora. The Goo Goo Dolls were touring in support of Superstar Carwash well before they were really famous. Soul Asylum was on their first major tour for Grave Dancer's Union. Highlight of the night was the mosh pit breaking out before it was passe during Somebody to Shove.
5 - Eric Olsen
What is the earliest concert anyone out there went to? Any from the '50s? I know we have people who went to shows in the '60s - when was it and who did you see?
6 - Mark Saleski
yea...and no fibbing.
if it was Pat Boone, we wanna know!
7 - Tom Johnson
My first concert by choice (having been to many non-choice concerts with my parents - Barry Manilow, the Pointer Sisters, Billy Joel, among others I forget now) was August 1987 - Def Leppard with Europe (Europe . . . yikes) opening. I went with my best friend Josh and another guy who had gotten us the tickets. We don't even know why, he wasn't really a friend, just someone I knew at school. We screamed our heads off for several hours and didn't realize how much damage we'd done until the next day. T-shirts were bought and worn until they couldn't be worn anymore. Good times.
8 - Mark Saleski
hmmm, i didn't think about the choice part.
let's see...probably the first 'big' show i attended (this was at the age of 9) was the easy-listening combination of Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolph, and Chet Atkins.
dang, i saw Chet Atkins!
9 - Tim Hall
Hawkwind at the Top Rank suite in Reading in 1980. Strongly remember the loudness. My brother, four years younger than me, was quite scared.
And the awful support act, Vardis. Anyone remember them? Their entire set sounded like a thirty second long segment of Dave Edmund's "Sabre Dance" played in an endless loop.
They had Ginger Baker on drums, great drummer but completely wrong for Hawkwind.
I missed most of their encore too; I had to catch the last train home.
BTW, I though Buck Dharma has always looked like an accountant.
10 - duane
My first real concert was Yes in Long Beach CA, 1975, part of their Relayer tour. The band Ace, of "How Long Has This Been Goin' On?" fame, opened -- talk about your unlikely pairings. Ace did about four songs. Everybody ignored them. Beach balls were bouncing around the arena, and that seemed more fun than Ace. Then the lights went off except for the exit lights, and a low synthesized hum put everyone into a trance. This went on for 45 minutes (no shit! -- Yes had a big stage show going on then). Then the hum faded into Firebird Suite, although the arena, including the stage, was still in almost total darkness. The first sign of light occurred after Firebird. Alan White's drums lit up when they were struck in the opening sequence of Sound Chaser. When the vocal part came in, the stage was flooded with light (it almost hurt my eyes after being in the dark for so long) and that was the first time you could see the band and the stage props. Very effective opening.
11 - Eric Olsen
This is swell, but isn't there anyone who saw a concert of his/her own free will prior to 1972?
12 - Joe
Sorry, prior to '72 I was 3 years old, gramps. But I did see the Clash and English Beat for my first concert in ... oh my god ... '82.
13 - Jim Carruthers
I saw BOC at the Luxor in Las Vegas, if you're going to seen BOC it should be in a pyramid with a Xenon light beam shooting out of the top.
As for first big concert, I guess that would be either ELO at the Montreal Forum (but it was cancelled, and it was the tour with the UFO) so it was really (and here I have to cringe, but understand, I was a dumb 17 year old who didn't know anything about music and it was a date, and I would go see anything for a date) Al "Year of the Cat" Stewart.
Can I repeat she was voluptuous _and_ had a car? And it was the 70s, and I was stupid and had no taste. I made up for it a couple of months later by seeing The Clash, honest.
14 - Eric Olsen
I liked Al Stewart - no shame there, young man.
15 - Jim Carruthers
Also, Montreal, and I don't know how many cities had this situation in the 70s and 80s had a liscencing situation for live music, where it was cheaper for clubs to play records than have bands. So there wasn't a thriving live music scene (exhibit A: Men Without Hats -- sorry I actually knew Ivan, and he really supported live bands including my own The Mighty Hojos and previous The Only True Sons of Lesbian Love). But really, there was nothing until the mid-80s.
So you had cover bands or shows at the arena. Neither of which could be considered top shelf.
16 - David
My 1st rock show was the Adolescents and the Dickies Perkin's Palace in Pasadena, although I recall prior to that my parents taking me, on my request, to see Hubert Laws and Jean Pierre Rampal at the Hollywood Bowl and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Lew Tabackin big band at the Ford. Did I mention that I was a wierd kid? My first and last proper "rock concert" was the Who and the Clash and, I think, T-Bone Burnett at the L.A. Coliseum.
17 - BRICKLAYER
Van Halen, Diver Down Tour, 1982. Oh, yes my friends, it was righteous.
Brick Jr's 1st show: Sonic Youth, 2003.
18 - Lisa
First comment from a long-time reader.
Sigh...I almost can't believe it myself, but my first concert on my own was in 1965, to see the Rolling Stones. Two years later I saw Jim Morrison get arrested onstage at the New Haven Arena.
I'm happy to say that deep into middle age (and after a hiatus of several years), I'm still going to concerts, my interest having been re-kindled by my teenaged son. This past year I managed to see the Flaming Lips, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Bruce Springsteen (twice, and from the pit both times!) and Steely Dan.
19 - Eric Olsen
Lisa, you totally rock and that's one hell of a track record almost 40 years apart! I'm sure you were very young at the Stones. Thanks for reading and sharing - that's what I'm talking about, baby.
20 - Lisa
Why, thank you, Eric! As a matter of fact, I was a mere 13 at that Stones concert. Looking back, I can hardly believe my parents let me go. There were lots of shows in between then and now -- my husband and I made the usual rounds as we were going through our college/early adult years, and then, inexplicably, we stopped for a while. I'm glad to be back in the loop, live music is ever so good!
21 - Eric Olsen
Having young children again, I've slowed way down myself, but I will return to the fold as well!
22 - Mark Saleski
Bruce Springsteen (twice, and from the pit both times!)
dang, i'm jealous!
23 - Mac Diva
And, we're lucky there wasn't a concert riot that night or Mark wouldn't be here!
This entry got me to thinking about other music experience firsts. I think the first time I understood just how creative songwriting could be was when I listened to a Carole King album, Tapestries, all the way through and really paying attention. I don't have time to blog that first, but if some other bloggers want to do theirs, I think it would make interesting reading.
24 - Mark Saleski
i actually had a chance to see Springsteen in the front row on the River tour. it was the second night after i saw him at the Richfield Col. in cleveland (the show where Southside Johnny came out to do "I Don't Want To Go Home"...man, i get goosebumps just thinking of it)...
anyway...somebody had two front row tickets for $400 bucks.
i really,really,really,really,really wanted to go...but couldn't convince myself to blow all of my college spending money for the next semester.
MD, your idea about "really paying attention" is interesting...i've gotta think about that one.
25 - Eric Olsen
Has anyone seen Springsteen earlier than late-'72?