Cool concert experiences

[Swift]

I think we've touched on these in various music threads, but Thumper's post (below) started me thinking about this....

One of the nicest I've read so far involved Eric Clapton coming to town on his first tour since his son's tragic death. Beau convinced the BIC lighter company to donate 20,00 lighters. They were screen printed with the radio's logo. Staffers swarmed the venue and handed out all the lighters. They told everyone to wait for the first notes of "Tears in Heaven," light them up but remain totally silent. Clapton started the song acoustically as always sitting on a stool, with his eyes shut. After a few bars, he knew something was different because of the "pin drop" silence. He opened his eyes and saw 20,000 people with lighter's raised in silent tribute. He was so moved he just stopped and looked around for 15 or 20 seconds. Then he settled back into the heart wrenching song. That would have been something to see.

What are the coolest experiences/moments you've had in concerts you've been to?

[Swift]

Two I can think of....

I saw Paul Simon at the Coliseum at Richfield (between Cleveland and Akron, now torn down) some time after Graceland came out. Of course he played "You Can Call Me Al" and the whole arena was up and dancing around to it. At the end he got a thunderous standing ovation, and when that was done he said that was so much fun we should do it again, and he played the entire song over.



The Weavers are an extremely famous folk group from the 1950s, of which Pete Seegar and Lee Hayes were founding members. The group disbanded in the early 60s.

There was a partial reunion of the Weavers with Pete, Lee, and Ronnie Gilbert performing together at the Great Hudson River Revival folk festival in 1981. I volunteered at that festival for many years in the late 70s and early 80s and was at that performance. It was kind of a wet, icky day, but at almost the moment they went on stage, the sun came out and the rain stopped.

That was Lee Hayes' last public performance; he died a couple of months later.

[Swift]

One other Great Hudson River Revival story...

One year the Paul Winter Consort was performing at the Festival. They play sort of New Age Jazz and they employ at lot of sounds of nature in their performances. I was working "Peacekeeping" (security) at the main gate the day before the Festival began, mostly checking in performers, staff, and volunteers. A station wagon pulls up and in the back of the wagon is a huge dog cage with a timber wolf in it.

I say to the driver "I bet you're with Paul Winter". He goes, "How did you guess?", and I point to his friend in the back of the wagon.

[Thumper]

I'm not sure I can compete with any of those. I did get to see Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul, and Mary several times in the 60's and early 70's courtesy of my parents. I got to see PPM again in the 90's when somehow they played at Mrs. T's conference. As staff we got a meet and greet with them. I remember all I wanted to do was get a poster signed for my parents. Paul was like, "We'll get to that, put that down. I'm Paul, what's your name." And he stuck his hand out. I was embarrassed and humbled. I've tried never to make that mistake again and take things like that for granted.

[Parrothead]

At one of the TSO concerts that I went to, ended up with front row seats, Chris Caffery saw me wearing a tee from the previous year's show, pulled me to my feet, to help get the crowd to all stand, as he took off into the crowd.

Meat Loaf's "VH1 Storytellers" tour, was sitting fourth row, at one point he asked me a couple of questions about my date and then asked her some questions.

[Swift]

At one of the TSO concerts that I went to, ended up with front row seats, Chris Caffery saw me wearing a tee from the previous year's show, pulled me to my feet, to help get the crowd to all stand, as he took off into the crowd.

Cool. Always good to dress "appropriately".

Not a concert experience, but I had a similar t-shirt experience Sunday. My wife, sister, and I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I was wearing my Kliban cat painting shirt (similar to the image below). I had to stop at the members' desk to get my parking validated and the young lady there got a big chuckle about my shirt.

[Swift]

This past Wednesday night my wife and I went to see John Fogerty, doing his "1969" tour. It was awesome. His voice isn't quite what it once was (maybe 80%), but his playing is as good as ever and the rest of his band was terrific. He did over 2 hours; not bad for a 70 year old.

[Thumper]

I keep looking at this thread and I want to post some great experiences. Some of the memories have faded and all I remember was that it was a fabulous experience. Sometimes there's really nothing "special" about it, except that I was moved by something and it became very memorable. But it would be hard to explain or describe exactly what that "something" was. Often something just comes over me while I'm enjoying the music. It's a combination euphoric feeling as well as some sadness or missing. I seem to realize how lucky I am to be there, how much music means to me, and the feelings and memories it brings up.

That being said, one concert that will probably always be in my top 5 is Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA tour, Indianapolis Hoosierdome, 1985. At the time I wasn't particularly a fan. A floormate of mine at college offered me a pair of tickets to the show. Both Mrs. T (who at the time was still Miss D), and I privately balked but didn't want to disappoint my friend and thought we might be missing out on something somehow historic. It was historic for me. I'm more of a fan of intimate venues but realize there are times when you want to see a band, you have to do it in a stadium or arena. Well, Mrs. T and 60,000 of our closest friends were in the palm of The Boss's hands for over 3 hours. He wrung us out and I went through all the emotions. There was a man and his band hellbent on entertaining us, no matter how many of us, and giving us the best show possible. What a memorable evening.

[Swift]

I wish I had seen Bruce in his hayday (not that he's bad now).

One of the ways I'm weird is that I often don't discover a musician until after the fact; either they are dead or have stopped performing. Maybe I'm always just one step behind the curve of what's popular at the moment.

[Thumper]

One of the ways I'm weird is that I often don't discover a musician until after the fact; either they are dead or have stopped performing. Maybe I'm always just one step behind the curve of what's popular at the moment.

I often feel this way. I know Doyle Bramhall II still performs. I discovered Arc Angels at a half priced book store a couple years ago. I think the CD was from 1998 or something. And I keep wondering "Who the he|| is this guy and why haven't I been listening to him?!"

[Parrothead]

Well not really a cool experience, I keep seeing The Who amongst the upcoming concerts. Recently Pete Townshend hinted this would be the band's final tour, I couldn't help but notice when they hit Toronto this time around, it's just past the 33rd anniversary of me seeing The Who, on what was their first "final tour". I'll keep my memories from that concert from '82. I still feel sorry for Joe Jackson having a pile of garbage at his feet, being the opening act, as The Clash couldn't make it as "the surprise opening act".

[Thumper]

I remember "The Who Farewell Concert of 1982." I think it was simulcast on MTV. Nobody had surround sound systems back then. But I was over at my long lost buddy's house. His Dad had split the cable and run it into the coax antenna input to his receiver. We were able to listen to the concert blasting in stereo through his audio system speakers. Pretty much a first for me. Back then TV's were shaped like cubes and had a one inch tinny speaker.

Whenever I hear songs from that show, I think of Randy and his Dad.

[Thumper]

I've been a Sammy Hagar fan for as long as I can remember. I think it's documented around here somewhere. Turns out I've been a fan even longer. My first concert was Boston in the fall of 1978. I remember it was OSU's homecoming and the show was at St. John's Arena on the campus. So it was quite the experience for a then middle schooler (back then I was in Jr. High, there were no middle schools )
Anyway, I didn't know that there would be another band playing, having never been to a big rock show before. Some band played, I didn't know who they were, then Boston came on. Great show.
Fast forward to a couple years ago. I'm reading Sammy's biography and he talks about how he was touring with Boston back in the late '70's on their Don't Look Back tour. I said "Hmmm" a couple times but didn't do anything about it. I mentioned it again to Mrs. T. She's been on this site that has basically every set list from every rock band ever. She searches through and finds the Boston concert on Oct. 21, 1978 at St. John's in Columbus. She reads off the set list and I said, "Yeah, I remember them playing most of those." (They only had 2 albums out at the time)
Then she looked up Sammy Hagar around the same dates. You guessed it: Sammy played St. John's in Columbus, Ohio on October 21, 1978. So the first rock band I ever saw* was the Red Rocker himself with Gary Pihl on guitar, David Lauser on drums, and Bill "Electric" Church on bass.
Seems kind of fitting. Although I had no idea at the time.

*The first concerts I ever saw were Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Pete Seeger with my parents.

[pumpkinpi]

*The first concerts I ever saw were Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Pete Seeger with my parents.

Ditto. I was about 3 or 4 so I don't know if I remember the actual concert or just my parents telling me about it!

What is the website your wife was on? I'd love to look up the date of PPM.

[Swift]

*The first concerts I ever saw were Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Pete Seeger with my parents.

Ditto. I was about 3 or 4 so I don't know if I remember the actual concert or just my parents telling me about it!

What is the website your wife was on? I'd love to look up the date of PPM.

Probably same for me as far as Pete Seeger.

[Thumper]

http://www.setlist.fm/

I think this is what she was on. It's a bit cumbersome. For some bands, there are literally 100 pages of setlists. Obvioulsy it's not complete, only what people have sent in I guess. It starts with the most recent show and goes back in time. If you've searched on a band name, and you're looking for a particular show, head back toward the date you think the show was. I think Boston had like 88 pages of setlists. I'm sure Rush has a few pages. Of course there are fan sites for particular bands that would have dates, setlists, even equipment specific to that band.

[Parrothead]

At the end of The Who show I saw in '82, it was either Daltry or Townshend who said, "Good night Toronto, see you soon!" A couple of days later, they announced the "final shows" at Maple Leaf Gardens. IIRC, it was the first of the two shows, that was simulcast. Up here, it was carried live by city-tv and simulcast on chum-fm. We watched it in a friend's basement. I'm pretty sure I still have some newspaper clippings and a music magazine from that weekend in Dec. '82.

I haven't kept up with things much, but Thumper, I trust you bought a copy of Rolling Stone that featured Rush on the cover? They played here a couple of weeks ago (may be longer, time seems to fly fast these days).

[Thumper]

Yeah, after 40 years, Rush finally made the cover of Rolling Stone. It was a decent article too.

[geonuc]

Yeah, after 40 years, Rush finally made the cover of Rolling Stone. It was a decent article too.

Seriously? They've never made the cover before?

[hap]

Yeah, after 40 years, Rush finally made the cover of Rolling Stone. It was a decent article too.

Seriously? They've never made the cover before?

Cover of the Rolling Stone?

[Thumper]

Yeah, after 40 years, Rush finally made the cover of Rolling Stone. It was a decent article too.

Seriously? They've never made the cover before?

Naw, the guy behind Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner, always hated Rush. He was behind why they were never on the ballot of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then they finally let fan voting put groups or people on the ballot and they overwhelmingly got on. Maybe since this is reportedly their last tour before retiring, he figures he's rid of them so he put them on the cover for once.

[Swift]

Yeah, after 40 years, Rush finally made the cover of Rolling Stone. It was a decent article too.

Talk about a "rush" to judgment.

[Thumper]

Last night we had a very nice concert experience. Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire played together. They both came out, 22 strong for the show opening, each band played a separate set, then they were all together for the encores. I got that feeling again during the first part of the show. For whatever reason, I've never seen either band live, though their music is indeed part of the soundtrack of my life.

I was standing there with the memories of my youth streaming back at me and I looked over at the family. Mrs. T was dancing away to a funky EWF beat, and The Kid was really enjoying watching the horn section (6 strong when both bands were on stage).

I had hoped it would be good. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed. it.

[Swift]

Of course now I'm going to be re-running "25 or 6 to 4" in my brain for the rest of the afternoon.

[Swift]

We're going to the concert LaureLive in June

http://www.laurelive.com/lineup/

We got tickets for Sunday. I'm most excited about Elle King, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and Grace Potter.