A companion piece to the Best Concert thread. Mine won’t be meaningful to anybody outside of Canada: Spoons, with Strange Advance opening, in some hockey arena in Niagara Falls. I don’t remember much about it except that we spent most of the Spoons show pining for the (female) bass player.
mmm, it was either REM (feeling gravity’s pull tour) or DOA (lets wreck the party tour) I think.
REM played on an all dark stage and were great, DOA played a sweaty Grange and were DOA.
Metallica. 1991. At the (then) Great Western Forum.
Bad Religion in Toronto at the RPM Warehouse (now the Kewl Howse or something stupid like that). I think The Dance Hall Crasher opened for them, it sucked. The audience didn’t even want an encore, everybody just collectively sighed and walked out (at least that’s what my memory would like to believe). I saw them a few years later and they were about 3X better by my measurements.
NOFX at the Trocadero in Philly, in 1994. Which also had the distinction of being the concert where I saw the best and worst opening acts I’ve ever seen. Snuff and The Lunachicks, respectively.
I think it was either Dio or Tull around 1984 and never stopped going to shows. I’m going to see Rush and Springsteen next week in the same weekend.
1986 was really the first year I was allowed to go to shows. That year was annus mirabilis for me as far as music was concerned, as I saw Echo, Smiths, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, Jesus & Mary Chain & New Order all in one year. Not quite sure who was first…but who cares. Great year.
In 1976 my mother dragged me along with her to see The Captain and Tennille, which was technically my first concert (I even remember it being kind of fun). The first concert I ever went to that I wanted to see was Judas Priest in 1978 on the British Steel tour.
Nirvana and Butthole Surfers a few months before Cobain offed himself. My dad took me for my 11th Birthday.
My first rock show was Dream Theater and Fates Warning at the Moore in Seattle.
KISS, around … 1982, with my entire family (both parents and 2 siblings!).
My father worse earplugs. :)
Gabriel, 1983 at Forrest Hills.
Still the greatest concert I’ve ever seen as well…
The US Festival in 83, with The Clash as the headliner. They were my favorite band then and are still at the top of my favorites now. That ended up being their final show with Mick Jones, so essentially the last Clash show ever. I was only 12 but my parents bribed my step-brother to take me. Also notable were pre-fame (US at least) Inxs and Divinyls, playing way early in the day.
Roy Orbison, 1976(?), Memorial Arena, Victoria, BC.
Slayer - 1992 or '93 at the Cleveland Agora
The Cure, at the Olympia Grand Hall, London,1992.
My sister and I had never seen goths before, and thought maybe they had a second Halloween in England.
Beastie Boys in the mid 80’s. Beer drinking, topless women, and a giant erection rising out of the stage. Great show.
Genesis, 1982 or 83. I left with a great deal of respect for Chester Thompson and Daryl Steurmer
Opeth in Winnipeg two years ago. Only other i’ve gone to so far is Sam Roberts here back in September.
Dokken, Y&T and Twisted Sister, 1984, I think.