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First Live Concert


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Sunburn Willy sent this to me on MySpace and I thought it'd be good for us Klipschters. Seems that more live music listening makes us more keenly aware of what music is supposed to sound like, that way we know how accurate our sound reproduction systems are in our homes.

So name your first ever live concert- no cheating in order to look cool. If your folks took you to see WIllie Nelson at the State Fair, so be it. (actually mine did that later in life- it was a blast)

So here's mine:

Progressive Brit rockers Yes 1974? Relayer Tour with Patrick

Moraz on keys (later of the Moody Blues). I don't think there was an opening act. At 16 years of age 4 friends

in my Olds 442 drove the 2 hours to Fort Wayne Coliseum- waited all

afternoon and were rewarded by sitting right against the barriers-

FRONT ROW BABY! Huge fibreglass rocks, massive prehistoric looking set and laser beams straifing the audience. I remember two large breasted girls who didn't mind us

giving them a bit of squeeze when the audience was dancing.

Clair Brothers Audio was doing the sound at that time- so it must have been something like their 4 way all-in-one cabinets. I remember looking up and seeing racks of amps suspended overhead right in back of the speaker stacks and thinking 'way cool'.

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The WHO with Keith Moon, 40,000 people packed in a place that 25,000 was maxium capacity. 1971-72 Who's Next was just released or about to be. Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.................Long Live ROCK....................it was down hill after that...........if I remember Marshal Tucker Band opened, kinda hazey on that........

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Rolling Stones at the Silverdome Pontiac Michigan, November 30 1981, I had been 16 (driving age) for all of 24 days. Did not get home till 2:00 AM, my parents freaked and made me go to school the next day.

Opening acts were Michigan's own Iggy Popp and Santana. 75,000 + fans and terrible sound. That is way too large of a place to put on a show.

Not long after that Eddy Money and The Clash opened for The Who in the same venue. Sound still sucked.

In between those two shows I caught Aerosmith at Cobo Hall (20,000 people) in Detroit on the floor about 6 rows back...now that was a concert.

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I think everyone is name dropping! [:D]

I think the first concert I went to (and didn't want to go) was Eddy Arnold. I was in grade school at the time. It was a good show, small venue (high school auditorium). Would have been late '50s or very early '60s. The PA was for vocal only probably.

A far cry from later concerts of Brewer & Shipley, Moody Blues, Albert King, Bela Fleck, etc.

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First stadium show for me was REM/Radiohead at the Woodlands Arena. Really great show - turned me into a Radiohead fan forever (and REM wasn't too shabby, either).

Since moving to Austin, I have seen too many great shows to count. A few standouts include Gillian Welch, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Galactic, The Roots, Stereolab, Ben Harper, etc., etc...

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My first concert(I was about 9 or so and the folks took me), well, more of a piano recital I suppose, was believe it or not, Werner Klemperer. Yes, Colonel Klink. I was a Hogan's Heroes nut so it was'nt to hard to get me to go. Obviously not my cup of tea at the time but I remeber actually enjoying it very much.

But, my first REAL concert was in June of 1973. End of my Sophomore year and I had just returned home earlier that afternoon from a two week performing tour of Europe with my high school marching/concert band. What a blast that was. [<:o)]. I was a Trombonist by the way. Anyway, went from the airport in Fresno, Ca. straight to the concert venue to see The Doobie Brothers "Toulouse Street Tour" with ButchWax and the Glass Packs and Malo. Remember Malo with Jorge Santana? What the heck is his brother's name? It escapes me at the moment. [;)]. Great show, great time, too much.....er, a , well.....

I was hooked on the concert thing for the next ten years. Alot of times going to shows every week and seeing some bands(ELP Colter)in different cities a few days apart. From Black Oak Arkansas to Yes and most in between. Great Days Indeed!

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Sunburn Willy sent this to me on MySpace...

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Michael, isn't "my space" the site designed for 12 year old girls to pretend they are 17 and 50-something guys pretend to be 18 then all he!! breaks loose when a guy from 20/20 is at a house waiting with a camera?[;)] Or is it the place where girls meet guys from 1/2 way across the world and travel there just so they can have 20 seconds of fame on The Today Show?[:P]

All the while the parents with their heads in the sand claim I had no idea what junior was doing on the thing with a keyboard, I don't understand, tucked away in the bedroom. But darned if I don't have to watch them or pay any attention to them so fine by me. [:$]

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This might sound far fetched but it's 100% true.

My first concert was in 1976/77 (?) and was Aerosmith. Saw them in Cincinnati before the Who had their unfortunate situation. As such, there was no assigned seating on the floor which of course, is where we were.

We worked out way up to probably 20 or so people "deep" from the stage. That would probably equate to near 3rd row if there were seats involved.

I was really overwhelmed with the atmosphere, the anticipation of my first concert. There was some REALLY good looking girl in front of us (and this is where I swear it's all true). She had very VERY curly hair and I remember thinking she looked like a Greek Goddess. She really was attractive. Beautiful cheekbone structure.

Well, little did I know what was to ... dang I can NOT use that word.

Well, little did I know what was to follow next... During the show we were wowed with all the music/sound/lights/action... the crowd from WAY back began pushing forward and as such, pushed US forward into the people in front of us. We all soon became one mass of bodies all pressing together as one giant ameba of writhing flesh (clothed of course)

It just so happened that this girl (hot babe) was the one in front of me. She was VERY much enjoying the music as she was dancing up a storm just jumping up & down & up & down & up & down... the crowd from MY back was pressing me into HER back and I'll just let you wonder about the sense of awe that I had at my first live concert ever.

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It wasen't a real concert in a way it was at my high school, kind of was one of those " don't do drugs tours ". It was Bill Withers, 'sp', recall the song " Lean on me ,when your not strong ".

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Rolling Stones at the Silverdome Pontiac Michigan, November 30 1981, I had been 16 (driving age) for all of 24 days. Did not get home till 2:00 AM, my parents freaked and made me go to school the next day.

Opening acts were Michigan's own Iggy Popp and Santana. 75,000 + fans and terrible sound. That is way too large of a place to put on a show.

Not long after that Eddy Money and The Clash opened for The Who in the same venue. Sound still sucked.

In between those two shows I caught Aerosmith at Cobo Hall (20,000 people) in Detroit on the floor about 6 rows back...now that was a concert.

Rich- I WAS AT THAT ONE! Remember that during the first band change over the PA dude got on and read a list of all the junk thrown at Iggy? ..3 joints, one left sandal, two panties, large, etc....

It was a sucky show and the audience was out of control.

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Rich- I WAS AT THAT ONE! Remember that during the first band change over the PA dude got on and read a list of all the junk thrown at Iggy? ..3 joints, one left sandal, two panties, large, etc....

It was a sucky show and the audience was out of control.

Are you kidding!!!??? Really you were there? Did you drive up from Indy?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Yea, I do remember that. Iggy was singing mid song and just dropped the mic and walked off stage everyone was looking around like "Is that it". The list of thrown objects was one of the few parts of the night I could actually discern.

I remember reading a review of the night and the headline was "Stones CLOSE for Santana"

Still it was my first and I have fond memories of the whole process and event. I had no reference for live music. Terrible echoes. The place was one of the largest indoor football stadiums hardly ideal acoustics.

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Grateful Dead in Sept. 1976 in the Syracuse War Memorial Auditorium. I was 16 and had never been to a concert. I was a pretty naive young man back then. When I got inside and saw all "that"...I mean the whole enchilada, the beads, the dancing girls in "those dresses", people dancing in silence with no music playing just the sound of the beads chattering, the smell of body odor and dope, and all the drugs.....I was pretty surprised I can remember that. I woke up that night. I didn't go to any concerts after that for a few months. I didn't realize that Dead shows were one-of-a-kind like that.

The cool thing is that I saw the Dead in the same place in 2000 as "The Other Ones" after Jerry died, 24 years later. Same building, same type of crowd, same great tunes. Better understanding.

In between I've probably been to well over 100 Dead shows. Obviously I got hooked on the Dead, but also live music in general and hence Klipsch. I've been to many many concerts and still go when I can.

I would rather play live music on my system than anything else.

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In 1972 I saw a slew of concerts as The Capital Center opened that spring and I was old enough (12) to hitchhike to Merriweather Post Pavillion. I'm pretty sure the first show I saw was in April at Cap Center and it was Cat Stevens. That summer I must have seen 20 concerts at both Merriweather and Cap Center. Some of those included:

CSNY

Little Feat

The Souther Hillman Furry Band

Three Dog Night

Beach Boys

Edgar Winter

Jim Croce

Al Green

Seals & Crofts

Loggins & Messina

Johnny Winter

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. I still have most of the ticket stubs at home. Someday I'll have to make a collage.

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