What the Folk!

Share your concert experiences here!

Ideas for discussions:
+ What was your first concert?
+ Best concert(s)? Worst?
+ Perhaps you were thrilled to see a certain artist/band but they were disappointing live? Or the opposite-You were dragged to a concert and it ended up being a great show. Maybe you couldn't care less about the band because something extraordinary happened that night?
+ Anything else that relates to live music.

This is embarrassing but my first concert was The Distillers. I was 16 and going through this mall punk phase. Brody was my idol. Her husband's (at the time) band, The Transplants, was opening for them. I remember going to The Glasshouse in Pomona with my friend Valerie after school. Pomona isn't a nice area but The Glasshouse is the closest venue to Rancho and it was in the arts colony. It became our hang out spot. Technically, the first band I saw live was Aerosmith but it was at The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 1998 and I don't even remember it that well. So, it doesn't count.

The best concert I never went to was scheduled to take place last October. Ennio Morricone was performing at the Hollywood Bowl and I was sure that nothing would ever top that ever! It was his LA debut and I had to be there. But it got cancelled. I'm not sure why. I really hope he returns.

I feel really lucky that I've gotten to see so many of my all time favorite bands and musicians. Ones that come to mind are Os Mutantes, Jean Jacques Perrey, Terry Riley and Van Dyke Parks. But I have two that I enjoyed more than the rest. A few years ago, 88BoaDrum played at La Brea Tar Pits. It’s not really a band. 88BoaDrum is just an ensemble of drummers led by Yamantaka Eye. 88 to be exact. The year before that, it was 77 Boadrum and they played in Brooklyn. Anyways, the idea was that they would gather 88 drummers and drum in a circle for 88 minutes on 8/08/2008 at 8:08 PM. I went because I thought the concept was far out and I’m a big Boredoms fan. And it was free. Most of the drummers I recognized from LA punk bands. I call them, “smell bands,” if you’re familiar with The Smell. It actually went on a little longer than 88 minutes but it was amazing!

The other was seeing Weird War open for The Walkmen at The Glasshouse in 2004. I went with some friends from high school. It was my first time seeing Ian Svenonius (indie rock legend!) on stage ever. I didn’t really know who he was at the time…only that one of my high school crushes was a fan. I remember hanging out with him after the show backstage but I don’t remember what we talked about. He was also part of Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, The Scene Creamers, and most currently, Chain and the Gang. Whatever he happens to be doing at the time, he’ll put on a damn good show. He’s just so exciting to watch and listen to. I last saw his new band at The Smell in May and it was the only thing that stopped me from hightailing it up to Santa Barbara to see FOTC that night.

I'm sure I left some out too. I haven't gone through my ticket stubs yet.

Dude. I have tried to go both times, but have had health problems each time that prevented me from going. I've seen the Boredoms two times, and it's been spectacular. Their show during the Super AE tour was one of the best shows I ever saw. Just amazing.
Maybe they'll do something for 10/10/10 somewhere I can get to!

That is SO cool that you dig the Boredoms.

I'll have to do my list later, tater!

I think Prince was up there. As was Jeff Buckley. Both incredible in different ways.

I cant remember for sure, but I think my first concert was New Kids on the Block

I wanna saw the best concert Ive been to has been Dave Mathews and Tim Reynolds. It was their first acoustic tour (at least, after Dave and the band made it big) and the first time I saw Dave live. I think this was around 97. The band Cake is a close second. They are wonderful live. I saw them in Royal Oak MI and Chicago in about an 8 month time span

OH! I forgot about Stevie Wonder! He did a FREE concert in Hart Plaza (Downtown Detroit) which happened to be on my husband's birthday. That was a great show (even though I could barely see him for all the people there.) I Stevie Wonder.

My first concert was The Monkees. And no, I'm not kidding.

My first concert was Joan Jett. I think I was about 12-13, and she played at the summer festival/fair in my hometown. It wasn't a bad concert!

I went to They Might Be Giants with some college friends. The opening act was AWFUL (I don't remember who it was - some hippie dude who looked like Jerry Garcia) and was literally booed off of stage. He started swearing at us. I was never a big TMBG fans, but the venue was much too small and I felt sick stuffed in there.

I went to Stone Temple Pilots a couple of years ago. Staind also played. I'd never been a big Staind fan, but they were great live! STP was great too, but I think Scott Wieland was a stripper in a former life. He started the concert all bundled up in a coat, scarf, hat, the works (an outdoor concert, in July) and ended pretty much naked.

I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers a couple of years ago. They weren't bad, but they had very little interaction with the audience, which sort of bummed me out. There was a bad winter storm that night, and apparently Anthony Kiedis had been sick, so I'm thinking I might have just gone on an off night. I'd love to see them again.

I waited for amost 20 years to see U2 live, and it was wonderful. Absolutely awe-inspiring. I don't know how those guys have kept up the energy and remained together all these years, but they've certainly become good at it. Mr. eejm and I are going again in June.

My first concert was Jenny Bird. She's mainly from Taos but was friends with my yoga teacher at the time. She played in a small church, but still my first concert.

Best ever concerts had to have been Tori this year. She's gone independent and no longer connected with any record company. You can tell she just felt so free and alive. She launched into this long string of profanities at the end of strong black vine and it was great! (I love cursing...I don't know why. It makes me so happy!). Also, seeing fotc in Atlanta was amazing. I didn't realize just how much better I would like them live.

Worst concert was seeing the lemonheads. This guy was obsessively big vogueing/interpretive dancing and shrieking idiotic stuff all night. The guy got super abusive during the ballads. Evan Dando got tired of it, put his hands up, put his guitar down and walked off stage. He came back out after a cool down. Played two more songs and that was it. Short show. I think there's a youtube of it somewhere out there. Lemonheads, cat's cradle. My brain is fried I can't seem to find it tonight.

Concerts I enjoyed but didn't expect to was... Josh Rouse (lots of good energy, you get caught up in it) and Jack Ingram. Jack Ingram I didn't expect to like at all. I am not a country girl. I don't listen to his music much even now. But, again another rowdy drunk crowd. He handled it by looking around figuring out who was there to see music and played right at our tables. His boy buisness was inches away from my bf's head the whole show (not that he liked it, the look on his face was really funny.) Jack was drinking that night too. Kept slamming his beer down on our table. The tables were made of steel and the drummer used the steel tables and chairs as instruments. It made for a really fun show. Just the in-your-faceness of it!

I'm jealous! I think they played a few shows in NY last fall at ATP and Boadrum 9. I'd love to see them again! I'll keep you posted if I hear anything about 2010 dates (and vice versa?).

Wow, I don't know half the people you folks are talking about. (I do know the other half though. )

I can't remember exactly what my first concert was - it may have been Duran Duran. I just remember seeing a friend's pics the next day at schoold and she had managed backstage passes. I was their BIGGEST FAN EVER at the time and I couldn't believe the unfairness of life that she should have been the one to stand there and pose next to MY John Taylor! Life was never the same after that.

One memorable one was seeing Simple Minds shortly after Jim Kerr married Chrissi Hindes. I just remember being in the pit and reaching up for his outstretched hand and grasping his wedding ring. He literally had to take his other hand to peel my fingers off it. I have no idea what I was trying to do.

Clearly back then my taste in music was largely informed by my hormones.

I haven't seen many shows anymore. I think the last one was Feist a couple of years ago, and it was only so-so. Oh, and I saw Dave Brubeck at the Jazz Fest last year. Gosh, I feel so old...

Hmmmm, I've seen so many concerts I don't even know where to start. I've seen some pretty amazing Black Crowes shows. Gomez. I've seen some REALLY awesome Gomez shows. Marc Ford and The Sinners. I'll have to think about this.

Nice thread.


U2 was my first concert. I saw them with my mom on the Unforgettable Fire tour. Ironically, I forget what year that was, lol. Maybe 1984? Somewhere around there. It was pretty awesome. We were in the 12th row. I was a HUGE U2 fan, plus I was a little bit in love with Larry Mullen.


Suzy, I feel your pain. I was also their biggest fan ever, lol. I had a Duran Duran friend at school and she used to cut out every article and picture she could find and put them in this folder she had. Oh how I coveted that folder. She used to let me borrow it sometimes. It's so funny to think about it because this of course was back in the days before you kids with your new fangled "internet". We had to, like, actually buy magazines and go to the library and stuff. I remember there used to be this place in Boston where you could buy actual photographs of rock stars in concert and I used to get so excited about going there, lol. Anyway I digress. What were we talking about again? Oh yeah - I never got to see Duran Duran or my beloved Simon in person.

One of my favorite shows was seeing The Pixies at the Paradise in Boston, around 1989-90. What an awesome show that was. I saw Jane's Addiction on the first Lollapalooza tour so I guess that was also around 1989-90. They were one of my favorite bands at the time and I was happy to finally see them because our car broke down on the way to see them the time before that, about a year earlier when they played this tiny little club in Providence RI (The Living Room - I don't think it's there anymore but we used to go there all the time back then.) Let's see - I saw Spinal Tap, that was pretty great, and Mojo Nixon opened. That was fun. Also I will never pass up a chance to see Leo Kottke live, he's incredible. Bowie was great but it was in a huge arena and I just hate those places, plus we had crappy seats. Then I got on this huge Grateful Dead/Phish kick and I saw them many, many times, lol.

Probably the worst show I ever saw was Pink Floyd, unfortunately. They had a lot of technical difficulties and the band just didn't seem into it.

One more thing, sorry I'm rambling on - but I recently saw Erin Mckeown in a tiny bar here and it was so cool because she passed around an empty pitcher at the beginning and told everyone to write down a song they wanted to hear and put it in there, then she just drew songs at random and played them, lol. She was great.

Thanks Mock. Yes, I remember the magazines. My sister was in a long-distance relationship with a guy who lived in England and he used to send me all the coolest magazines. Ah yes, I was quite the popular kid with a select group back then.

Also, you reminded me of the Pixies. Yes, I saw them a few years ago too and yes, that was a great show!! This is sligthly OT too but I enjoy recounting this story. We had gone with some work friends of hubby, including a university student. As we were heading for our seats she ran into a friend of hers and I heard him say, "Are those your parents". As mortified as I was at the age of 36, by the sound of her answer I think she was even more mortified. (But mighty cool parents we would have been!)

Forgot to mention it earlier but worst concert by a band I like was probably New Order. I've never seen such a boring band.

And biggest disappointment was Sting. Not the concert, but the tickets. We lined up at 5 a.m. and were pretty far up the line. Then around 8 I went to get a coffee and it seems all these people who'd been sprawled out decided to pick up their stuff and move up. Eventually the gap got reduced to the point that people were running up and all these people behind us got ahead of us. We ended up with balcony seats.

It's funny in trying to remember these concerts almost all my memories are of the stuff around the concert (line ups, waiting to meet the band, catching a drumstick), rarely the shows themselves.

I know what you mean. It's too bad we're on the internet talking right now instead of real life because they are fun things to talk about but not necessarily worth writing down, lol. I find that writing down setlists helps me remember the actual show a lot better so I do that now even though I feel like such a tool doing it. I don't even have a Blackberry or something to type it into, lol. I'm old school with a pen and my ticket stub. Then I get out my lighter and yell "FREEBIRD!!!"

I'm so lame when it comes to concerts. My 1st, if you could call it a concert, was The Bay City Rollers at the MI State Fair when I was about 7, lol. I loved them something fierce, though...I had the plaid floodpants and ate french fry sandwiches like they did.

Then, no concerts until I took my Mom to see Itzhak Perlman. We saw him 3 times. Then, The Conchords.

I don't like things super-loud nor do I like big crowds. So....like I said, I'm a concert lame-o. But I'll put up with anything to see FOTC.