Back in the day.....
skibum609
Massachusetts
Back in the day, before the internet, when you had to stand in line for concert tickets, mi cugino's neighbor was general manager of ticketron. At the time ticketron was it for concert tickets and we got ours before they went on sale and without sleeping on the sidewalk outside wherever they were selling tickets. As a result we saw a lot of great bands in the 70's and early 80's. These are the ones I recall: Pink Floyd; Grateful Dead; Alice Cooper; Black Sabbath; BTO; Yes; Rolling Stones; The Who; Jethro Tull; The Ramones; Bruce Springsteen; 3 Dog night; The Doobie Brothers; Eagles; Fleetwood Mac; Bob Dylan; The Cars (also saw them for free at college); Elvis Costello (also saw him at college); the Kinks (also saw them at collehge); thats all I recall due to weed. Best show by far was Pink Floyd. Footnote. Black Sabbath had an off night and got embarrassed by their backup act, who put on a show like we had never seen before: Kiss. What shows do oyu recall from back in the day?
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3 months after I graduated high school, but knew more about my era than I. I think I may have missed out on some fun when I was younger.
These are the ones I remember. I had an older sister that worked for the City Manager. It was fairly easy to get tickets back in the 70's through her.
At the old Boston Gahden, I saw Hendricks bring the house down.
I saw the Grateful Dead play with Santana at the UNLV football stadium. That was a fantastic concert. I saw The Ramones often, because that's closer to my tastes...back in the day.
The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, The Pogues, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, Social Distortion, Violent Femmes, Bad Religion (saw them again just a few, years ago, still good for old guys...), Siouxsie and the Banshees, Husker Du, Fear...
There's a lot more. Fun times. It's remarkable that I survived.
I guess it's notable that I saw Frank Zappa live more than 15 times, starting in 1967, so I guess that makes me a fan. He was, without a doubt, one of the best guitarists I ever saw. Also high on my list of musical memories was getting to see Jimi Hendrix in concert at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago in early 1968. He was with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, so it was the original Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their second album had just come out, and they were awesome. We had great seats and the tickets were a fairly-steep-at-the-time price of $6.00 each.
I also saw No Doubt right before their Tragic Kingdom album exploded onto the mainstream.
On the other hand, I can totally see flagooner in the audience at a Tom Jones concert screaming and throwing his underwear on stage. I suspect he wears the size XXXXL panties when he goes Tom Jonesing.
In case you are wondering, flagooner in Tom Jones fanboy mode is not a brilliant thing to see. Look away if you are ever dragged to a Tom Jones concert and he is there! ;)
If you want to talk about a non-brilliant childhood, I had to swim to school. And the lake was liquid nitrogen! Plus, the Captain & Tennille played my senior prom!
1976. fleetwood mac. (free)
And one of the things that I laugh at today are concerts overall. Around here there are so many what I call imposter bands playing the music and trying to look and act like the bands that wrote and originally played the music it's funny. Why would I spend 50 dollars to see the Dubbie Brothers imitate the Doobie Brothers for half that in 1978......and the list of this nonsense is endless.
Now the one small concert venue near me has local musicians playing entire albums from the past and charging 25 dollars to attend......and I have the original album I can play on a decent stereo or in some cases on a Reel to Reel that sounds better than anything that is being offered.
I had planned on seeing the Stones until Jagger took ill.....
I was lucky and never got hit, stampeded (sp?) or abused in any way at a concert.