Friday, August 31, 2007

Weekend Listomania (Like a Virgin Edition)

Well, it's Friday, and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental valet Hop-Sing and I are off to some airport in Minnesota, where we will be checking out the facilities at one of the popular public restrooms. It's some kind of trendy tourist spot, apparently -- can't imagine why. In any case, posting by moi will necessarily be sporadic until our return.

Meantime, here's a fun project for you all:

Your First Rock Show/Concert Ever!!!!!

Be it horribly uncool, be it sublime, be it whatever -- as long it's the first one you ever personally experienced.

Okay, mine would be -- and no "he's so old that" jokes, please --

The Beach Boys. Asbury Park Convention Center, June or July 1965.
(If there's a Beach Boys scholar out there, I'd love to know the exact date)

An amazing day. My friend Ritchie Brenner and I drove from Teaneck to Asbury Park with the top down on his MG convertible on a glorious summer afternoon with history's best ever Top 40 blasting from the AM radio. When we got to the Boardwalk, we made it over to the Convention Center to see where the show was going to be, and suddenly up on the roof there were the Beach Boys themselves, turning the letters over on their name on the marquee. The fan in me went absolutely mental, especially at seeing Carl Wilson, who was 17 like me, and thus my favorite guy in the band.

As for the show itself, it was pretty amazing. I didn't know it at the time, but the guy subbing for Brian Wilson was Glenn Campbell, and they played a great hour or so set pretty much like the one on the "Beach Boys Concert" album, but with more hits. They were really loud, but the vocals were crystal clear, and Carl and Dennis played brilliantly.The big surprise was a song we hadn't heard before -- the premier of "California Girls," which would be released to radio as a single a week later. Blew us away (I recall Carl switched to a Rickenbacker twelve-string for it, which was the first time I had ever heard one live).

Incidentally, the girls in the audience were already going bonkers an hour before the show even started. Total raving Beatlemania style hysterics when the band hit the stage, of course. It was the only Teen Scream concert I ever actually attended, and it was a weird marvel to behold.

On the ride back, I think I felt high for the first time in my life. Unforgettable.

Okay -- enough of my yakking. What's your story?

[h/t Gummo!]

33 comments:

NYMary said...

When I was a teen, I was involved in churchy sorts of things, including attending a sort of summer camp/mission/kibbutz affair in West Virginia. We'd go for a week and not bathe, except in a freezing creek, go out and help poor people during the day, and at night sit around in flannel shirts and jeans and sing folk songs with an acoustic guitar. Then it was into the outhouse for a refresher, and bed.

Thus was my into to folk, and it was during that time, with those people, that I sort of got into it. Back home, we all went to school together, though we were in different grades, and though we used indoor toilets and showers, we still hung out.

One day, I went to lunch and a friend of my brother's, two years older, was in mourning, because he'd bought tickets to see James Taylor and it turned out that it was the same night as a dance or something, so no one wanted to go with him. I volunteered, and thus James Taylor became my first concert, with a none-too-happy date.

It was in a gym at the local university, and we sat on the bleachers. Taylor played alone, though one song was accompanied by a tape player. It was a good show, and cute, but nothing spectacular. Of course, that could have been because my companion couldn't wait to get rid of me.

A weird night.

refinnej said...

It was The Police on the Synchronicity tour at Shea Stadium, with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and REM. Not only was it my first concert, but my friends and I camped out for tickets. The seats were crappy (upper decks in the outfield) but we didn't care. It. Was. Awesome :)

Still have the program and tshirt around here someplace :)

Anonymous said...

This is horribly embarrassing, but you all seem friendly. Mine was Sha Na Na at the Ohio State Fair in 1978, but in 1975 my family and I saw Lynn Anderson in the same grandstand. I'm sure there were others since we hit the fair every year, but those are the two that stick in my mind.

Actually I lied. It was Springsteen at the Winterland, 1978. Yeah.

Feral said...

1973 Milwaukee County Stadium, the Beach Boys opened for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Awesome to this 15yrold, not as much fun for his older sister whom our parents wouldn't let go unless she dragged her little bro along.

David Rasmussen said...

My first was April 27, 1978, Alice Cooper, Des Moines:
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/ENT/502270318

Now, it is off to The Summer of Love via a notorious Minneapolis airport. Seriously.

Anonymous said...

My first show was the same one I mentioned in last week's thread: The Beatles at Shea in August, 1965.

Those were the days when you had to send in a check a couple of months in advance and then wait for the tickets to come in the mail. It was very nervewracking ...

I went with two friends ... I think one of our mothers drove us from NJ and then waited in the parking lot. We were way up in the nosebleed section, and yes, it was non-stop screaming (for some reason, I wasn't a screamer). They were the size of ants. I'm not sure if any concert in NY had been held in such a big venue before.

Somehow the noise became such a constant that I actually was able to hear every song (unlike the first time I saw "Hard Day's Night" ... there I couldn't hear a fucking thing, since the girls started screaming as soon as the United Artists logo came up on the screen) and I wrote down a playlist, which I still have somewhere, along with an unused ticket to the show (one of my friends backed out at the last minute ... yeah, stupid ... I'm tempted to find out if I can get the seat when they demolish the stadium next year).

I feel privileged to have experienced that entire era, and this show was certainly a great way to kick it off.

Anonymous said...

You want horribly uncool? In a former life, I was married to a Mormon guy attending law school at BYU. It was sometime in '76 or early '77 - The Carpenters played the Marriott Center, BYU. The opening act was a young Steve Martin, during his bunny ears, arrow through the head period. I remember that most people were there to see the Carpenters - and they absolutely Did Not Get Steve Martin, snapping his Instamatic camera at the audience and doing the Happy Feet dance. I got over BYU AND the first husband.... still love Steve Martin. The Carpenters? Meh.

Good times, good times.

Anonymous said...

My first real concert was Pure Prairie League at a local college, when I was a very young teen, and I went with... my Mom. Yeah, yeah, I know - very not cool. I don't actually recall wanting to go or even knowing about the show beforehand. I guess Mom decided the kids are crazy about the country rock, or something.

My next show that I actually decided to go to, with my best friend, was Atlanta Rhythm Section, at the same college.

I forgot to mention, in last week's list, a memorable show that I saw with my folks:

Slim Whitman and BJ Thomas, at some summer festival. Oh, it was a hootenanny, all right...

Slig said...

Romantics, Red Rider, and Orion the Hunter (a hair metal band that happened to be getting some short-lived airplay at the time), at Silver Stadium in Rochester, NY ca. July 4, 1984. Still have the Red Rider shirt I bought there. It was the first time I saw a headless bass (Red Rider's bassist Jeff Jones's bass was probably a Steinberger; the one I bought a few years ago is a cheap Hohner imitation but still quite fun to play and keeps its tuning like a juggernaut). Red Rider quickly became one of my favorite bands after that. It started raining after their set, but the entirely leather-clad Romantics were good to go, and we didn't mind because it was a hot day.

Unknown said...

The Byrds -1971

Anonymous said...

James Brown. Steele Pier, Atlantic City. 1964.

Unknown said...

Technically, June 5, 1977: Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, Foreigner, Kenny Loggins (in reverse order) at Tad Gormley Stadium, City Park, New Orleans. My sister and her boyfriend had an extra ticket. I remember Lou Gramm tossing his hair a lot and Stevie twirling in black lace.

Second, but first by my reckoning (bought the ticket, went by myself), June 23, 1978: Patti Smith at The Warehouse, New Orleans. Opening was godawful Louisiana LeRoux, the one and only band I ever shouted at to get off the stage. (One LP, two hours of guitar solos.)

Anonymous said...

My dad took my brother and me to see Johnny Cash at Jamboree USA, a live radio show, somewhere around 1972-73. I was a huge Johnny Cash fan as a kid and it was a genuine thrill to get to see the Man in Black in person.

It was revealed to us many years later that my brother's future wife was at the same show.

The first one I attended without parental accompaniment was Gary Wright and Starcastle in 1977.

Jim

Anonymous said...

WHOT Day, Friday, August 9, '74 at the Idora Park Ballpark in Youngstown, OH.

Headliners were the DeFranco Family, with special guests the Raspberries and local legends Left End.

dave™© said...

If you don't count the Banana Splits (summer of '69), my first rock show was Blood, Sweat and Tears at the Stockton Civic Auditorium where, barely a year later, John Huston would film the climatic fight scene for "Fat City."

BS&T debuted a couple of new songs from the then-unreleased "BS&T 4," and, of course, did an extended version of Steverino's all-time fave, "Lucretia MacEvil."

But the real highlight was the opening act. A young unknown kid accompanying himself on a guitar had everyone leaving the show that night singing to his final song of the evening.

That kid was Don McLean, and that song was "American Pie."

CyFlorist said...

I'm pretty sure I can top the uncool entries.

My first concert? Nelson (the twins)at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa, February 1990. In my defense, I was 15 and dumb as a box of rocks.

steve simels said...

Kid Charlemagne said...

WHOT Day, Friday, August 9, '74 at the Idora Park Ballpark in Youngstown, OH.

Headliners were the DeFranco Family, with special guests the Raspberries and local legends Left End.

8/31/2007 10:16 PM


The DeFranco Family?

KC, my respect for you is growing by leaps and bounds.
:-)

Anonymous said...

I would count the Banana Splits!

Anonymous said...

I thought you might enjoy that Steve!

Regardless, a Heartbeat, IS a Lovebeat!

dave™© said...

I would count the Banana Splits!

I wish I'd bought a souvenir at that show...

TMink said...

1976 Bayou Boggie Festival. Some guy from Detriot with a gravely voice opened up. Bod Seeger. The headliner was Black Oak Arkansas, Montrose warmed up for them. But the most fun was some guy with curly hair that could talk through his guitar. "Do you feed like I feed" or something.

It was fun, but I was a little overwhelmed by the scene as I was a sheltered lad going to his first concert at a pot smoking, bikini wearing festival. Not that I smoked pot or wore a bikini.

Trey

Cleveland Bob said...

Sorry, a little late to the party but it's a good one.

Valentine's Day of 1976. Cleveland Public Hall . Mr Big opened for the US Leg of Queen's A Night At the Opera tour..

We were 30 rows back right in the center. I was never the same after that show.

I still had the stub until a couple of years ago when I love a box of stuff in a move to new house.

A spectacular show indeed.

Cleveland Bob said...

Err.

Should be lost not love.

Anonymous said...

To add to the uncool list:

My first was Buzzy Linhart (author of Bette Midler's "Friends" but more of spaced-out folk rocker on his own) at my own high school auditorium. It was a fundraiser for our very hippie-ish annual People-to-People Day (yeah, that was the dippy name) when classes were replaced by speakers and crafts demonstrations and all sorts of weird stuff. We used to get local DJ legends like Pete Fornatale and Bob Fass to come and talk, among others.

First one outside of my cozy home environs was The James Gang and Edgar Winter's White Trash at the Capital Theater, Portchester, NJ. Going across the water to see a concert was a very heady thing to do! It was the 'original' White Trash with Rick Derringer & they were great. They did a version of "Tobacco Road" that went on forever.

Anonymous said...

1978...sold-out show at the Lubbock Coliseum (known by annoyed sound engineers as "The Bubble")...on their Alive II tour..."the hottest band in the land"...KISS!

This was their zenith, the most elaborate costumes and the platforms that rose to the ceiling.

My favorite memory is the grandmother sitting down a couple of rows with her grandson (probably age 12 or 13). They kept cotton in their ears and their coats over their noses to filter out the thick pot smoke.

Yes...those were the days, when the lights would go back up after the crappy opening band to reveal that thick sweet fog.

There was also a guy in the crowd blowing fire. He got into the newspaper a few days later by doing that little trick into the wind. Oops!

As for me, my adolescent crush on KISS ended after that show. I had been to the mountaintop, shouted "I wanna rock 'n' roll all night and party eh-ve-ry-day," and there was nowhere else to go after that.

shrimplate said...

Leon Russell at Saratoga in 1971. Fanny, an "all-girl" band, was the opener.

ms. rosa said...

do you want to hold me? bow wow wow in 1983 at astroworld (it would later become six flags before it was razed last year) in houston, texas. i had a strange love for that band.

NYMary said...

Not that I smoked pot or wore a bikini.


Oh sure, Trey. You *say* that.

And this is a powerpop blog: Bow Wow Wow is a perfectly respectable first concert. Better than Jmes Taylor, anyway.

steve simels said...

shrimplate said...

Leon Russell at Saratoga in 1971. Fanny, an "all-girl" band, was the opener.


You saw Fanny?

I'm not worthy......

I had such a huge crush on Alice DeBuhr (sp?) -- their drummer.

Reviewed their second album in CREEM, if I recall.....

Anonymous said...

Hmm, there may have been some minor shows before it, but I usually consider the first real show for me was the Moody Blues at Blossom Music Center outside Cleveland in summer of 1981, on the Long Distance Voyager tour. Went with a group of friends, sat on the lawn, fun was had. The T-shirt was my favorite for a long time till my girlfriend in college appropriated it and cut off the sleeves. Sigh.

I think the next one I got to later that year was the Kinks at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh (waving to Kid Charlemagne). Similar to his Squeeze story, an unknown Bryan Adams opened and was more or less driven from the stage.

Anonymous said...

Boston - Thompson Arena, Dartmouth College - circa 1975. (I was in 8th grade). Sammy Hagar opened, and even THEN my untutored ear knew that he sucked. Thank the gods that punk rock came along to save my life! :)
- Bill Buckner

TMink said...

Mary. Trust me! No bikini!

Today is my daughter Mary's birthday. She is 13. She can vouch for me.

Trey

P.S. Thank God for punk rock saving us all.

Trey

Unknown said...

Rare earth '71, struthers field house.David Frye opened