First Concert?

The first one I count (as in, that I chose to go to and wasn't a weird raffle win), I'm pretty sure was this show

www.setlist.fm

Everclear Setlist at State Theatre, Portland

Get the Everclear Setlist of the concert at State Theatre, Portland, ME, USA on July 16, 2001 from the Honda Civic Tour 2001 Tour and other Everclear Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm

It's funny how much memory can skew everything. Young me remembers this being in a dingy basement with an obscured view of the stage, and thinking on other shows I've seen at State Theatre, it's anything but that. I think I know roughly where I saw them from in there (lower level all the way in the back) to give that feeling but this was the biggest band in the world to me at the time. Bless my mother for dealing with this when the first band that came out in full own clown makeup.

I'd be silly to say it was a good show but there's still a major soft spot for Everclear. I'm also happy I got to see them before Art's voice went to hades. Pretty decent setlist in retrospect as well. I think I'd say the first concert I have truly fond memories of was a Norah Jones show in Connecticut.
 
I'm pretty sure that this was my first real show, Ray Charles, 1988, Live at Paul Masson Vineyards -- though it might have been '86 -- things are a little fuzzy on it...

Live At Paul Masson Vineyards In Saratoga (1988)

The Ray Charles Video Museum is a research project, documenting live performances by The Genius.
raycharlesvideomuseum.blogspot.com raycharlesvideomuseum.blogspot.com
www.mountainwinery.com

The Mountain Winery

<p>The Mountain Winery, formerly the Paul Masson Mountain Winery, is a winery in Saratoga, California, United States, North America. It was founded by Paul Masson, a pioneer of the California wine industry.</p>
www.mountainwinery.com www.mountainwinery.com

I was ~ 10 or 12 and it was a pretty bizarre experience on a bunch of levels. I came from a fairly broken home with a lot of rich "life experience" and then ended up in California to live with my dad. Shortly after getting their my dad got tickets to this show through his work. I knew who Ray Charles was... but was also 10 or 12. I do remember his band playing for a long time before he came out -- and then him rolling through a set. It was open seating and since my dad was working I sat down early and we ended up in the 2nd or 3rd row about 20 feet from the piano. A stand out was how much my dad complained afterword (and for the rest of his entire life) how Ray Charles phoned it in.

My dad was big fan of jazz (loved), classic motown (played around people that didn't like jazz), and some amount of classic rock (the late 80's and early 90s were great for that and I was in high school). I was lucky enough to see a bunch of shows with him over the years, though by far my favorite was BB King at a small club that mostly played to jazz. He was on fire through set list that was basically "live at the Regal" -- I think I was just out of high school, i wasn't living with my dad -- and it was pretty crazy. I saw Chick Corea's Elektric Band there and John McLaughlin with Trilok Gurtu. I ended up talking to John Mclaughlin after his set for like 20 minutes in this small room above the bar.

F*ck I miss my dad -- and man do I miss seeing shows. Thanks for kicking off this thread @Russ I
 
HuddieLedbetter said:
I'm pretty sure that this was my first real show, Ray Charles, 1988, Live at Paul Masson Vineyards -- though it might have been '86 -- things are a little fuzzy on it...

Live At Paul Masson Vineyards In Saratoga (1988)

The Ray Charles Video Museum is a research project, documenting live performances by The Genius.
raycharlesvideomuseum.blogspot.com raycharlesvideomuseum.blogspot.com
www.mountainwinery.com

The Mountain Winery

<p>The Mountain Winery, formerly the Paul Masson Mountain Winery, is a winery in Saratoga, California, United States, North America. It was founded by Paul Masson, a pioneer of the California wine industry.</p>
www.mountainwinery.com www.mountainwinery.com

I was ~ 10 or 12 and it was a pretty bizarre experience on a bunch of levels. I came from a fairly broken home with a lot of rich "life experience" and then ended up in California to live with my dad. Shortly after getting their my dad got tickets to this show through his work. I knew who Ray Charles was... but was also 10 or 12. I do remember his band playing for a long time before he came out -- and then him rolling through a set. It was open seating and since my dad was working I sat down early and we ended up in the 2nd or 3rd row about 20 feet from the piano. A stand out was how much my dad complained afterword (and for the rest of his entire life) how Ray Charles phoned it in.

My dad was big fan of jazz (loved), classic motown (played around people that didn't like jazz), and some amount of classic rock (the late 80's and early 90s were great for that and I was in high school). I was lucky enough to see a bunch of shows with him over the years, though by far my favorite was BB King at a small club that mostly played to jazz. He was on fire through set list that was basically "live at the Regal" -- I think I was just out of high school, i wasn't living with my dad -- and it was pretty crazy. I saw Chick Corea's Elektric Band there and John McLaughlin with Trilok Gurtu. I ended up talking to John Mclaughlin after his set for like 20 minutes in this small room above the bar.

F*ck I miss my dad -- and man do I miss seeing shows. Thanks for kicking off this thread @Russ I
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You're welcome! Thank you for sharing these experiences--intense on a bunch of levels. Easy to see how music is significant in your life, and very cool that you shared so much of it with your dad.
 
GStephenH said:
My Dad is a guitarist who has played in bands his whole life. In 1988 he took me to see Joe Satriani at the Newport in Columbus, Oh. It was an awesome experience. His bassist was Stu Hamm who did the whole Peanuts solo which blew my mind. Who knew you could do stuff like that on a bass! Really had a great time that night.
Click to expand...
I saw that tour as well, and I definitely remember Stu playing Peanuts!
 
My first concert was Stevie Ray Vaughan at The Hill Auditorium in 1985, with James Cotton as the opening act. Or was it The Firm at Joe Louis Arena? I'll go with the SRV story:

I was 15 and just dropped acid and was hanging out with a friend in front of a party store. Two older friends pulled up and said 'hey, we're going to a concert, wanna join us?' I didn't know who SRV was yet but it sounded like something to do, better than tripping in a parking lot. We bought tix at the box office and my friend and I ended up with 8th row center. One of my main memories is that at one point everyone stood up, clapping and cheering so I did too. As I zoned out into some amazing guitar solos, apparently everyone else had sat back down. I got pelted in the back with something and turned to see what looked like 3000 angry people, sitting down, and staring at me. Maybe it was only a couple hundred upset patrons, or maybe just a few, but when you're on LSD, everything is SO damn heady, and it looked like the whole crowd. I slinked back down into my seat and likely didn't stand for the rest of the show. I wish I would have seen him again but never got a chance to.

Yeah, acid is a helluva drug...it's been on my 'never do again' list for decades.
 
Similar to some others here, I grew up in a small town and did not have a lot of concert opportunities when I was younger. Definitely saw live music in smaller community events and such, but that was about it until I went to university.

My first proper concert was the Tragically Hip in November of 2000 at the Skyreach Centre in Edmonton:

www.setlist.fm

The Tragically Hip Setlist at Skyreach Centre, Edmonton

Get the The Tragically Hip Setlist of the concert at Skyreach Centre, Edmonton, AB, Canada on November 21, 2000 from the Music @ Work Tour and other The Tragically Hip Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm

They had long been one of my favourite bands, so I was absolutely pumped to see them. And wow, they did not disappoint. I mean, I have seen them five times in total, and they never disappointed, but this was a spectacular first show to see. 32 songs played in total, spanning the better part of three hours. It was their Music @ Work Tour, which is not my favourite album of theirs, but they played a huge amount of tunes from Fully Completely, Day For Night, and Phantom Power which was wonderful. I had known that Gord Downie was an enigmatic stage performer, and I had an entire new appreciation for that fact. Like a manic beat poet.
 
ranbalam said:
Yeah, acid is a helluva drug...it's been on my 'never do again' list for decades
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Funny... it's been on my "man, it's been such a long time since I... I wonder???" list for about a decade :)

Of course, it's also on the "where the hell would even get that" list as well, so there you have it

(also, Dad, quarantine, what fresh hell would that be list???)
 
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