Hi, everyone! So happy to see you all at the crack o’ noon today. I’m in a musical mood so I thought I’d ask: What was your first concert?
Mine? Picture it: New Jersey, 1996. The Smashing Pumpkins were at the height of their popularity, and a young high-school-aged Hattie got to go see them with her older brother and his cool friends. The best part about it was that I had their entire two-disc album memorized, and it was the first time I’d ever heard an artist change something about the song when they performed it live.
I can’t remember what it was, exactly, but Billy Corgan changed something about “Tonight, Tonight” and it was so amazing it nearly made my little heart explode. I believed in him, all right.
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25 replies on “LTP: 6/28”
U2 Vertigo Tour in 2005, Denver CO.
Nosebleed seats, but it was amazing- everyone was absolutely rocking it out. I’ve been to two U2 concerts since and they’ve only gotten better for me since I was old enough to go on my own and get floor tickets. I later went to concerts for Sarah McLachlan, the Dixie Chicks, Coldplay, and the Dave Matthews Band and they were rather boring in comparison.
The Who. It was their Quadraphenia tour in 1996. So I was 12 or 13. My dad explained what pot smoke was and some guy a few rows ahead of us spent the whole time puking. And Billy Idol made a surprise appearance as one of the characters.
It was awesome.
My first concert was Depeche Mode’s Violator Tour, May 1990. To this day, I have no idea why my parents let me go. My friend’s boyfriend drove us in his beat up chevy nova, all the way to what was then the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park, IL (south suburb of Chicago, we were 60 miles east). It was AMAZING.
Lilith Fair, 1998. Merryweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD.
Headliners were Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and the Dixie Chicks.
Went with my best friend; we were 15. We got rained on, and afterward, my mom asked if we were lesbians, so that was fun.
Merriwether PP–that’s my childhood backyard! I saw Andy Gibb there (concert #2).
I think I went to Lilith that year too. My mom came along, so I don’t think she could really ask any weird questions after.
Though I think the friend that also came along actually is a lesbian now.
My first was right after junior year of high school (I didn’t get out much). It was myself, my mom, my best friend and my mom’s friend. We drove up to Seattle (from Portland), stayed at a hotel downtown and went to the Grand Opening of the EMP museum. I was responsible for picking out the tickets and I, using my crafty mind, chose the cheapest seats that would be the closest to the stage, so basically top of the risers, stage left with a great view dropping straight down onto the bands. The seats really could have sucked but thankfully the arena was pretty well structured. It was five bands all playing one right after the other. Now, let’s see if I can remember who played.
1. Matchbox Twenty (omg, my little teen heart)
2. Eurythmics (Mom’s fav)
3. No Doubt (grrl power for the best friend)
4. Alanis Morissette
5. Beck (proof that the internet is forever – I had to look up the last one because I forgot it and low and behold, http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/3992856.html I found it!)
So, that’s a seriously awesome lineup – assuming you are residing in the year 2000.
Except for Beck, I remember everything. (kinda funny since I saw Beck again about 8 years later and his show sucked – looks like I forgot it for a reason…)
I know I wasn’t terribly “young” for my first but I made up for it quickly. After turning 21, I went to every show that I could find that sounded interesting. I found a concert buddy with similar taste in music and we hit everything. (Rufus Wainwright is AMAZING, and so are his clogs).
Paul McCartney when I was 9. It was awesome, and I am forever grateful to my dad for taking me, because my first concert so easily could have been the Backstreet Boys or something.
2003- Avril Lavigne the year after ‘Complicated’ dominated my 8th grade Discman. I knew I was lame and so told a minimal amount of people about it, but at 14 I was not the lamest person there- no, that would be the mid-20s guy with the topknot who MOSHED.
I wanna claim the Oldster Prize. And tackiest/cheesiest concert submission:
March 1977, Baltimore Civic Center, aged 12………SHAUN CASSIDY! My mother had to accompany me. He wore super tight red satin pants and a matching jacket. The faux rock group Virgin was the opening act.
Love it! You win the internet!
Oooh, I envy your Shaun Cassidy concert! My first was Poison. I had embarrassingly high heavy metal hair and got in a fight with my parents about wearing slashed up jeans out of the house.
I’m pretty sure my first concert was something like Alabama and The Oak Ridge Boys at the Minot State Fair.
But the first concert I chose to go to was to see Homeymoon Suite when I was 15.
I was actually going to see the opening band, Glass Tiger, though! Because of this.
I got their autographs and a peck on the lips from Alan Frew, the lead singer. I highly amused my parents by trying to drink some water without the glass touching my mouth afterwards.
OH YEAH!
My 1st concert was Boyz II Men in 1994! I was in 4th grade and my parents took me and some of my friends. That was definitely the coolest thing I did in elementary school!
The Moffars in either 2000 or 2001. If you’re not Canadian you probably haven’t heard of the Moffats. In fact, if you are Canadian you probably haven’t heard of them, or at the very least have forgotten about them.
My boyfriend’s extended family are neighbours/buddies with them! Ahhh good old Canrock-lite. I hear that they’re Nice Boys, high praise from my BF’s grandma.
Once I walked by while they were playing at an amusement park in Buffalo. Were they like a Canadian version of Hanson or something? That was the impression I got from the 15 seconds it took me to get from one roller coaster to another.
Greenday baby!!!
I believe I was 14. It was excellent.
Too funny. I just ended up telling this story on a date last night.
When I was 16, I wanted to go to Warped Tour with my best friend. My mom insisted that I take an 18-year old along with me. So I chose my cousin’s girlfriend, the most immature 18 year-old I knew. It was a fun time, except that she blared Bon Jovi as we were leaving… after we had to wait 50 minutes for her dad to get there after she locked her keys in the car.
My mom took me to see the Beach Boys when I was 7 or 8. It was awesome!
But my first “real” concert with friends was Dave Matthews Band at the end of my freshman year of college. I had to step outside for some air because all the pot smoke was giving me a headache.
HANSON. 1998. I was so awesome you can’t even imagine.
I made my parents drive me to Toronto to see Hanson because they didn’t play in Buffalo.
NO SHAME.
Valentine’s Day 1989 – New Kids on the Block. I was 13 and thought it was so cool that I got to go with a friend, and not with a parent (they had a lounge in the bowels of the coliseum where they hung out waiting for us). I remember barely being able to hear them over all of us screaming girls, thinking Joey was even cuter in person, and someone getting busted for selling unsanctioned merchandise. Somewhere, I still have a shoe box with my ticket stub, the bracelet from waiting in line to buy tickets, and a very worn out cassette of Step by Step.
Shania Twain, with my mom, her sister and my two cousins. Back in the heyday of Shania Twain when I listened to that stuff on repeat and had every word memorized. It was glorious. Since then I’ve seen much more, shall we say tasteful, live music, but that concert still stands as a one of my favourites.
I loooove Shania Twain. I hated her when I was a kid, mostly because my cousin loved her and I liked to be contrary, but I would shell out the big bucks to see her now. She’s fantastic. (And also a really good person.)