14
face to face @ the opera house in toronto
left after the first band because nobody told us about "opening acts"

8 years old, billy joel, copps coliseum, hamilton, ontario - there's a storm front coming and the pressure is low

They had a recording studio at that high school in ATL and the teacher/sponsor for the whole thing was the guy who had produced and managed The Fat Boys back in the 80's...I said something like "man, it was sad to lose The Human Beat Box so young" and the guy actually got misty.

I have NO IDEA whatever happened to the recordings we did there--I can only assume they were beyond terrible. All I really remember is that we were way too old to be hanging out at a high school, even if it was after hours because we were drinking and smoking and the like.

My dad surprised me (and my brother) by one day producing tickets for Alice Cooper whom neither of us had ever heard of. In the car, my father took great delight in describing in visceral detail that the band would be dismembering babies and hanging people and told us we would be lucky to get out alive. I believed him and quietly expected to die. 12 year old kids were less worldly and much more naive in those days.

He then dropped us off and said he would pick us up again in four hours if we survived the ordeal. Abandoned and scared I would have stayed outside in the car park for the duration but it was very cold so my brother and I had no choice but to join the stream of hairy, denim jacketed hoards as they streamed towards the venue. In those less child welfare orientated times, a 12 year old in charge of a 10 year old with no adult supervision at a large arena hosting a heavy metal concert, in a major city in the middle of the night raised no eyebrows with ticket or security staff. We milled around, weaving between hulks with plastic cups of beer and made it to the auditorium.

The first of two support bands were playing. On stage were a band called Britney Foxx. Probably the definitive musical experience of my life was coming up the stairs out into the hall and being punched in the chest by the loudest bass drum I've ever heard. It was like someone pounding on my sternum. Any apprehension was now replaced with wide eyed awe and no little excitement. Of course it would be much cooler if that band had been, say, The Velvet Underground rather than a crap American glam metal band but one must report the historical facts honestly and without revisionist manipulation.

The second support group was the ill fated Great White. I didn't like them so much as the musical titans that was Britney Foxx. By the time Alice Cooper came on I was tiring a little, it was way past the usual bedtime after all, but I remember being struck by 'The Ballad of Dwight Fry'. It has to be said I've had my differences with my father down the years but abandoning me at a rock concert at an early age was one of the things I should thank him for, just surpassing forcing me to learn chess.

i don't remember if i went to any shows with my parents, etc when i was younger so the first show i saw was W.A.S.P., Saxon & Raven when i was 19.

last show i saw with my parents: springsteen at giants stadium, 10/2/09.

i don't remember it, but the folks took me to an outdoor willie nelson show in the late 70s - my first show. i suspect it was a fair gig.

the first show i attended on my own volition was the suburbs in '86 i think. kansas city.

edit - sorry, google says it was '88 and i was 12.

Beastie Boys, I was 15

I really enjoyed reading this. Even made my girlfriend read it.

Show with my parents: Elvis, when I was about 3-4
First show on my own: Duran Duran, age 13, like that's a surprise

saw has-been 60s bands like the Turtles at the Wild Animal Park in the late 80s around the age of 10, give or take a few years I guess, and also the Beach Boys sans B Wilson (I think this was the Mike Love/Stamos era) after a Padres game. first "real" show was Pavement on the Crooked Rain tour when I was 16

not sure which was first, Huey Lewis and the News or The Monkees, and I'd guess I was around 9 or 10

first club show with friends was Live at the Trocadero.

I can never remember whenever this question comes up. Certainly no blockbuster act- maybe the Swinging Medallions. Or Billy Joe Royal. Eric Burdon & The Animals were early, but not the first.

I went to a Goo Goo Dolls concert and got hit in the eye by a hurled banana. I was 15 in the middle of Nowhere, WI.

Hmmmmm.....

Way early memory:

TG Sheppard, Calhoun, GA, early 80's, possibly late 70's. Parents.

First concert I wanted to go to but had to have an adult drive:

REM, Document Tour, 1988, Chattanooga, TN, 14 years old.

First concert I went to by myself with friends on our own:

Drivin N Cryin w/ Slick Lily (never heard of em before or since), 16, Chattanooga, TN

Fly Me Courageous tour. Man that's a great memory.

12.

1989.

Janet Jackson.

Montreal Forum.

Still have the ticket for some reason.

I'm surprised you didn't come down to Six Flags to see them at the SOUTHERN STAR AMPHITHEATER...

12, the Grateful Dead at the Spectrum.

A family friend took me. He spent the entire time making sure there were no LSD-laced stickers on me and trying to keep his friends from getting me high.

Hoooooo leee fucking shit that's right.

i think i was 10.

i was lucky to grow up in a small college town with a good music scene. by 12, i was a semi-regular at basement punk shows in and around town.

19, Boston, matchbox twenty club tour.

when I was 7, my mom was out of town and we were at the mall and we got free Chicago/Beach Boys tickets that night...that was fun...even though it was the Mike Love Experience version of the beach boys.

12 years old. nelson. enuff z'nuff. long island. yup.

KISS
I was 13.

It was awesome

It was either Blue Oyster Cult (w/ Savoy Brown, and Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids) or Rory Gallagher (w/ Trooper). Can't remember the exact chronology, but I was 13 for both.