silvershadow

In the last thread I started, I mentioned several concerts I had attended, and some I wish I had attended. Well, as one thing leads to another, I started thinking about things that I remember from concerts that I have attended

I mentioned the Steve Goodman concert moment in another thread.

One of my most vivid memories is from a Virgil Fox concert, For those of you that don't know, Virgil Fox was a classical organist who began touring as a rock act in the late 60's and early 70's. The moment I remember from that concert was him playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and the pedal notes were so low that you felt them in your stomach. I swear the building was shaking when he played the pedal notes.

Another moment, in the mid-70's Willie Nelson left Nashville and moved to Austin. My college roommate and I went to see him in one of his first concerts in Austin. It was at a small club. and we sat at a table next to the low stage. The table was so close I had feet sticking under the pedal steel player's guitar. We went up after the show and shook his hand and told him what a great performer we thought he was.

Same club, Bonnie Raitt just played. My girlfriend and I went up to thank her for the great show and my girlfriend and Bonnie had a 5 minute discussion about the top Bonnie was wearing.

I know there is nothing special about these moments (except to me) but I want to hear some of your special concert moments.

Triple-H

Okay, here's one...

Wintertime in Rochester, bad snowstorm was in play. I had my tickets and my girl and we were standing outside of the arena in a nasty storm. Jethro Tull was late because the tour busses were slowed by the weather, and the organizers were afraid for whatever reason to let people into the arena before the group got there. So, there is where we stood, in the very nasty windy cold. I remember my winter coat at the time was this huge floor length black wool Russian Navy coat, I remember my girl was inside the coat with me.

We stood outside for sooooo long it was crazy, I remember watching as peope turned into these white snow cover statues. Eventually someone at the front of the line broke through the glass door and I remember getting inside the arena by walking through the lower portion of a glass door that was without glass. And of course once finally inside the place started to fill with the most wonderful smoke.

Part of what makes this concert such a vivid memory is the fact that when Jethro Tull finally started to play he knew just how we had been treated out in the cold. He pumped so much into that concert as a way of giving back I was completely blown away. I'll never forget the solo he did during Aqualung, his solo portion alone must have gone on for 15 minutes. I had never, and have yet to see a single performer put so much out there; this was a very special concert. Oh, and the other part of the vivid memory, was that part about my girl being under my coat.

oakfloor

It was november '73 we went to the cow palace in SF ca. And watched Deep purple. and inbetween songs, David coverdale looks around and says "wheres Ritchie?, and says "ritchies pissed off" so a moment later here he comes with a half empty bottle of scotch, plays slide with it, and then pours it on the crowd and proceeds to play a most awsome improvised guitar solo. What a show, for $6 a ticket we got our moneys worth that night!

Zippy

I sort of remember Genesis playing the Lamb show with all the crazy props (Peter Gabriel's last tour with the band).
I know that I saw John Prine, Bonnie Raitt, and Jim Croce at Glassboro State (now Rowan U.)
ELP doing the Brain Salad Surgery tour in quadrphonic sound.
Uriah Heep and Robin Trower going crazy
Rick Wakeman with a full orchestra
Melissa Manchester and Randy Newman acoustic

Bruce Springsteen at Burlington County College, when he was still nobody.

Many, many, many more. I'd like to say too many to remember, but I fear that isn't the reason for my lack off memory.

TheToon

Hmmm. Brings back some memories . . .

I saw The Rolling Stones in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. They did a two day gig, and our entire office had tix. But only 1/2 of us could go to each show. The first group went and got poured on the entire time. Next day, our group went in glorious, warm, sunny weather. Lots of in the air!

Saw Fleetwood Mac in the old Boston Garden on Halloween Night, with almost the entire audience in costume. More everywhere. A real highlight was the stage lights dimming way down, the band exiting the stage, leaving only a conga drummer playing. Spotlight comes up on Mick Fleetwood's drums, drum solo starts, but no one is at the drum set. Bunch of guys carry a coffin on stage. The coffin opens, Mick sits up and is slapping himself all over his body. His clothing was covered with electric drum pads, and he had bass drum pads wired to the heels of his boots!! He got out of the coffin and "danced" a drum solo all over the stage for about 10 minutes, driving the crowd wild. Hard to describe, maybe you had to be there.

Couple of other memories . . . The Kinks in Dallas, Van Morrison outdoors on the waterfront in Boston, 3rd row seats for John Mellencamp, Bette Midler in Chicago during her "mermaid in a wheelchair" phase.

Kyras

The best time I had at a concert was to see Supertramp doing their "Breakfast in America" tour, at the Los Angeles Forum in the center, second row. I don't remember my date's name, but we ed through out most of the concert. It was divine. Great seats and great kissing.

PanteraKitty

Greatest show had to be Pink Floyd at the Omni in Atlanta. Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. No opening band. ( Who could open for Pink Floyd?) They did the whole show themselves. The sound filled the Omni without distortion. You could feel the music vibrating through the concrete. The enclosed stadium did inhibit their pyrotechnics show, but the sound was great.

Worst show. Ozzie at the Omni. Opening band was Anthrax. They tried to fill the Omni with sound like Pink Floyd did, but only had about 1/4 the equipment. Man on the mixer board must have been stoned. Sound was distorted into just noise.

Chuck Mangione at Chastain was good, too. Love that Flugel Horn. Chastain is a little different atmosphere. Bring a TV tray, your cheese board, some crackers, a bottle of wine, and maybe even a bud vase and a couple of flowers. The rows are very wide so you can set up your little picnic snack without bothering anyone.

Another great concert was Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder tour at Bobby Dodd Stadium. This was an open stadium so we hot all of the fireworks. Great show, but I think I liked the sound in the Omni better.

MsPerky

I've seen lots of good concerts, but one that stands out was about three years ago in a VA suburb at a small venue. Eric Burdon (of Animal fame) was performing with The New Animals. Anyway, my friend and I got right up in front of the stage and had a blast singing along with and flirting with the band members. Eric Burdon is now in his 60s, but the man put on an incredible show!

PokS2k

I grew up in Brooklyn and when I was dating my wife we would go to Central Park to see the concerts. The summer concerts were held in the skating rink and you only paid $5.

I usually drove my Javelin into Manhattan but on the evening we went to see Richie Havens I didn't feel like it and we took the train. The concert was fantastic. Richie Havens was so exhausted at the end they literally had to help him off the stage.

As we exited Central Park to walk around in the city, the buildings on one side of the Park went Dark and then the lights came back. Then they went dark again. We turned around and then the other buildings went dark to. This was the start of the blackout of 1977. Since trains in NY run on electric they stopped. It was also announced that no vehicles were being allowed into Manhattan so nobody could come to get us.

We went to the Hilton (running water, beer and bathrooms) near Radio City and hung out in the lobby with the guests. Their rooms were useless since the windows don't open. We slept in the lobby and the next morning walked to downtown and then over the Brooklyn Bridge.

A night I'll never forget.

boltonblue

my wife was a freshman at UVM in '77.
around 4:45pm she called and said she had tickets to the springstien concert that night at 8:00 pm. did I want to come up for the show?
I'd always wanted to see the Boss.
the only problem was, I was in massachusetts and she and the concert were in burlington VT, 232 miles away. of course this was in the days of 55 mph.
some how I managed to make the show,.... on time

although for some reason my fuel economy wasn't all that good.

but of course the show was spectacular.