First Rock & Roll concert you ever saw?

[BigRedChief]

Share whatever you want of the milestone

Oct. 2nd 1974. The New York Dolls and Lynyrd Skynyrd in Springfield, Missouri in what Was a bowling alley but I think it’s a Church now on Glenstone. Not too far from chestnut expressway. They both blew my mind. Opened up possibilities.

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Peter Frampton 1979 Bicentennial Center Salina Kansas was the first

saw Van Halen Outlaws, Molly Hatchet REO Speedwagon Journey Duke Ellington "band" and Kansas in 1980. Point Blank in 81. Doobies, Kansas and Nugent in 82

Summer Jamb at Arrowhead in 82 was great. Triumph and 38 Special stole the show

Best show of the era- Kansas PERIOD.

[Easy 6]

The Beach Boys at the Illinois state fair, roughly age 13

Didn’t even really wanna be there but mom nagged until I relented

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Originally Posted by EPodolak

Rossington-Collins Band around 1980. They were some of the surviving Lynyrd Skynyrd members. In Norman OK.

I have a friend who has a skynard Street Surviors album with the flames.
It has not been opened. His parents owned a store that sold records in small town kansas in the 70's and 80's.

[Coochie liquor]

Probably around 87-88 I saw The Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds at The Skate Palace (I think that’s what it was called). Man what a crazy show, my first time seeing and participating in a mosh pit. Next show I saw was Slayer at that same venue, that show was ****ing nuts!!

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Best local bar small venue concert / shows in Kansas in the mid 80's(KSU and KC bars) was definitely Shooting Star for me.

They recorded their Wishes album in 82 at Caribou Ranch (recording studio) outside (north) of Boulder CO.

My much later in life story-
One of my customers worked for the owner of Caribou and developed that property into very large residential lots. I believe the property was 3500 acres. He sold 2000 acres to Boulder County, set up a conservation easement and sold building lots on the rest of it. The original studio burned down in the mid 80's.

The reason I mention Caribou-
Shooting Star recording there meant they had something special. If you research the history of Caribou and who recorded there- It is unreal. To know those kids from Shawnee Mission South HS had "the goods" and I got to see them live in bars and small venues makes a kid from NC Kansas smile.

[Frazod]

Foreigner and Joe Walsh, 1985, the Scope in Norfolk.

[Cheater5]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

My first concert was Van Halen at Kemper Arena in 1984, which was a great year for concerts for me, as I saw them twice, Rush & Gary Moore, Ratt at Starlight, Dio and so many others that year.

Heh, you and I were almost certainly at some of the same concerts. I saw VH at Kemper in the summer of ‘84, and a LOT concerts at Starlight as well as Sandstone (Judas Priest, maybe Ozzy).

Ratt if memory serves was pretty kickass.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Cheater5

Ratt if memory serves was pretty kickass.

Ratt was really great at Starlight but the sound was freaking awful. I've just never had a good experience there in terms of sound, other than musicals.

I saw Ratt at Sandstone but they just were not on that night, at all. Robin Crosby was clearly whacked on heroin, so DeMartini had to cover all the rhythm parts and the lead parts, making the band sound really empty.

I saw Metallica open for Ozzy at Kemper, which just happened to be the night his MTV special was filmed but good grief, Metallica was the loudest band I'd ever heard in my life, before or since.

Once I stepped away into the concourse, the band sounded amazing but it was too much for my ears to handle and I had ringing for at least four days after.

[Rain Man]

Sometime in the late 80s I took a really bad date to an REM concert at her request. I kind of like REM's music now, but back then it was boring other than the End of the World song. And some people near us started smoking marijuana, which I thought was really rude. Overall, I did not consider it to be a good time.

[DJJasonp]

Heh....Styx - Mr Roboto Tour at Kemper Arena.

My mom won tickets on the radio, and we had first row seats. Was quite the experience for a guy in 8th or 9th grade.

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Ratt was really great at Starlight but the sound was freaking awful. I've just never had a good experience there in terms of sound, other than musicals.

I saw Ratt at Sandstone but they just were not on that night, at all. Robin Crosby was clearly whacked on heroin, so DeMartini had to cover all the rhythm parts and the lead parts, making the band sound really empty.

Funny Stephen Pearcy story.... he used to come into the liquor store I worked at in the early 90s in Encinitas (CA).

Me and some buddies were on a bachelor party in the late 90s, and bumped into him at a strip club in San Diego (body shop?).

He was hammered beyond belief, but my buddy bought him a shot.

Short while later, he was getting a bit too handsy, and got kicked out!

Needless to say, Stephen has some HARD miles on that body!

[penchief]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Emerson Lake and Palmer at Municipal Auditorium in 1975. It was general admission.

ELP was my first, too. I was a junior in high school and saw them at Cornell University in January 1978.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Emerson Lake and Palmer at Municipal Auditorium in 1975. It was general admission.

I think most concerts were until people got killed in the stampede.

Also there was no big money in touring at that time. Bands made their money with record sales up until Napster. Now we have to pay $100-$150 to see anyone of consequence nowadays.

[eDave]

Gary Moore must have been glorious.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Ratt was really great at Starlight but the sound was freaking awful. I've just never had a good experience there in terms of sound, other than musicals.

I saw Ratt at Sandstone but they just were not on that night, at all. Robin Crosby was clearly whacked on heroin, so DeMartini had to cover all the rhythm parts and the lead parts, making the band sound really empty.

I saw Metallica open for Ozzy at Kemper, which just happened to be the night

Ratt. They came through Phoenix after reforming or whatever. Not the same lead singer. They were doing their thing and I said to my friend that I was going to get one of DiMartini's pics. The woman next to me heard me.

So the show ends and he's flinging picks and one lands right at my feet. I quickly stepped on it, my friend just looked at me funny. The girl next to me said "Holy shit!".

That pick lasted about 3 weeks before it broke apart.