DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... First Concert

Loudest concert I was ever at was Aerosmith at Blossom in 85 or 86. I was inthe pavilion so I was kinda close.

But I was closer for a Kiss concert in SanDiego and they made my ears act funny fora few days afterwards but it still wasn't as loud as Aerosmith.

I was at this gig! My girlfriend and I were on the lawn though.

Loudest concert I have ever seen was a Scottish band called Mogwai at the Brixton Academy in south London. They were dubbed the "Five Guitar Army" almost entirely instrumental, textural layers of sound. They would often start their songs mellow and gradually build to a whirring, purring, full throttle white noise akin to being next to a derailing locomotive. On their final song I actually thought they were going to blow the roof off. I felt teleported as if I was being sucked up inside an aircraft but, at the same time it was dangerously and painfully loud. Freakin' great gig though but, I would never see them again without earplugs!

This band was named after a species of Gremlin? I'm looking them up!

Indeed they were! I saw them on Nov 10, 2001 (I have several of my ticket stubs framed). My ears are still ringing!

Jethro Tull March 31, 1977 New Haven Veterans Memorial 7.50

I gave a listen to a track on youtube, very interesting. Think I'll give them more of a listen on Pandora while I'm at work.

Tom Petty is also boring on the radio too. lol

My first concert was a charity thing with some alternative/metal type stuff at Peabody's. All local, The place was barely filled that night, Ivet was awesome though. I think I was 15 or 16.

My first show with actual known bands was the '98 Warped Tour, so I saw a ton of bands that day. Bad Religion, Deftones, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Rancid, No Use For a Name, Incubus, Kid Rock, NOFX, and a ton more. It was an awesome lineup.

I've seen a ton of great shows the last 6-7 months too, and a ton more are coming through the summer.

Van Halen. I don't remember the year, but it was the Mean Streets tour. The tickets were under $20, and the t-shirts were too. I don't remember the opener.

"Mean Streets" was a song on their fourth album, 'Fair Warning'. Came out in 1981 so, your gig must have been around then. I'm not a fan of VH but, I liked them a lot when I was a kid and still have the first four albums. 'Fair Warning' was their most overlooked and less appreciated but, in my humble opinion it is the best of the bunch. The opening track, "Mean Streets" is still a head exploder.

My Mom took me to see Jonhnny Cash at some fair in Montgomery,Ala. when visiting her parents one summer. My guess is 1959 or 60. Must have been 12 or so years old. She paid, so I don't know the cost to get in to the fair. Maybe $1 each. We had ticketed seats near the stage, so maybe another buck or two each?


It was good then, and got even better.

This song hits home to me, recorded when on his death bed.

Yes in the 70s in Pittsburgh at Civic Arena. Unforgettable.

MC Hammer at the Nutter Center in Dayton in '88 or '89. Great show, Icky Woods actually came on stage and did the shuffle.

Or seeing Eddy Rabbit at the Scioto County fair, not sure which one was first.

First Concert I went to was "Mitch Rider and the Detroit Wheels" 1967 He did "CC rider" and "Devil with the Blue Dress On". Saw Edwin Starr and Steppenwolf in 1969 in Athens Oh. Edwin Starr did "War".

The last concert I've been to was Gary Clark Jr. The next concert I'm going to is Bruno Mars in Oct.

I had the blessing of seeing The Highwaymen. While Waylon was my favorite of the bunch, Johnny Cash was a very close second. I feel so blessed in hind sight to have seen them before their passing.

For those who don't know, The Highwaymen were a group composed of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Chris Kristofferson.

Back in the early 80's Mitch Ryder used to play small venues and bars all around here. I think he just hired locals to be "The Detroit Wheels", because it seemed like they were all new band members every time I saw them. Cub Koda (Brownsville Station) did the same thing.

My son and I saw Gary Clark Jr....dude shredded the guitar. He was brilliant.

The Highwaymen



From left Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings.

This band was a who’s who of highwaymen.

The absolute best concert I've ever been to was Pink Floyd at Blossom Music Center June 24th 1973. Dark Side of the Moon tour..OH MY... what a show

Jealousy.
Deep jealousy.

Charley Daniels and Hank Williams Jr.in Savannah Georgia maybe 25 years ago.

Whoa. In my opinion a Pink Floyd concert is like the holy grail of concerts. Its like a legend or myth, something incredibly special. I think there was a Roger Waters tour a few years back in some part of Ohio for Another Brick in the Wall but the tickets were so expensive I didn't end up going. Maybe there were others, but the one ticket I saw was $450 bucks.

Thanks for posting that. I remember posting that on a site for you maybe 12 years ago.....you probably don't......maybe you do At any rate, that is a hard song to sing. You have to learn the words first let alone play rock-a-billy rhythm licks on a guitar to boot.


Johnny was a one and only. That is why he is in the Country HOF, the Rock HOf, Gospel, Songwriters....maybe 1-2 others.

I never saw the Highway Men. I have seen all but Kris. He was a good songwriter, but never liked him much a solo performer. Saw Johnny 4 times in various places. I placed the first. Willie twice, here in town, and Waylon once in Nashville, maybe near 25 years ago now.


Merle Haggard turned down being in the Highway Men. He was good friends with all, but mostly Johnny and Willie.


I bring up Merle because he is a music hero to me. The best concert I ever attended was a Hag concert here in Chattanooa. Maybe 3 years ago now. Second row seats.

I saw greatness on stage, and knew it wasn't for long, but he and the Strangers kicked out the footlights!

PF came through Columbus in May 1988 and played at the Shoe. We couldn't score tickets but, my friends and I went there and parked ourselves as close to the stadium as we could get and hung out outside. You could still hear it, albeit somewhat muffled, and you could see some of the lasers peaking out over the stadium. Our imaginations connected the rest of the dots for us. We still had a fun night.

quote above by 'peen:

"I remember posting that on a site for you maybe 12 years ago"

That's amazing 'peen.

I distinctly remember the first time I heard that song. It was in a hunting cabin in 2005. I immediately loved it. But I didn't know the name of the song. Only that it was a rapid fire list of places. And in 2005, I would have been still actively posting on one of the boards. (Digital Dawgs maybe?) (wasn't that Babe's site?)

And I would have definitely mentioned how much I loved a "rapid-fire Johnny Cash song" on the PC when I got home.

I found a picture of the cabin in the obituary of my friend who built the cabin (Bob Waldron who died in a car accident during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans - I was drinking and playing cards with him that night in 2005)



And my buddy Bob (from his online obituary a year later)



Quite a walk down memory lane.

Probably about right. It was used in a Hotel Ad....not sure which chain.....you asked who sang that?


I answered.

Wow! That's awesome!

I used to attend a ton of concerts. I mean.....an insane amount of concerts. And there is no doubt that no one.....and I mean no one came close to putting on a concert like Pink Floyd.

I have seen them in Cleveland three times, in California twice, and in Pittsburgh once.

My all-time favorite concert was in Pittsburgh in 1975. 40 of us rented a bus and left around 11:00 at night. W/in 20 minutes, we were out of beer. We had the bus driver stop at a Convenience store and we loaded up. The driver drank the entire time and he was weaving all over he place going down old Rt 172 through eastern Ohio, which is a very curvy rural road.

Anyway....to the concert.

It was at old Three Rivers Stadium, just off the Parkway in Pittsburgh.

We waited in line all night, got our stuff to take a trip [if you know what I mean] and were right up front when they the Pinkertons opened the gates. We ran through the concourse, jumped off of the dugouts, and sat down 25 yards from the stage.

There was this huge...and I mean HUGE white balloon thing right in front of the stage. My friend says I wonder what that is for. I say.......probably something to freak us out. LOL

Floyd started off w/playing stuff from their new album....Wish You Were Here. We hadn't heard any of it and were into it, but were seriously missing on Dark Side of the Moon. One cool thing is that they had a 3-dimensional screen playing videos behind them. Yeah, in 1975. Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason were in jeans and t-shirts and weren't all that visible. The show was about the music and the videos.

So then they played Dark Side of the Moon from beginning to end..of course, in perfect order. The 3-D screen is awesome. And you know that part at the beginning....I think it's called "On the Run" right after Speak to Me and Breathe, but where the music is going in and out.........well, they started off in a hospital [looks to be a mental hospital] and he is on a cart being pushed down the corridors, and then it switched to you being in the cockpit of a plane that is moving up and down over cliffs and plateaus in a desert area, narrowly missing the peaks of these gigantic rocks. The plane is keeping perfect time w/the video. And then..........the music descends, so does the plane, and it crashes into the cliff.......and at the same time......a small aircraft comes flying down on a wire from above the Parkway in Pittsburgh and crashes into the that big balloon that I mentioned earlier about freaking us out.

I mean..........are you kidding me?

There is a bit of silence in the music after that.........and I swear after the entire stadium went Woah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there was silence there too, because we were all so freaked out.

Then, Time starts in and on the screen there are all these time pieces ............damn Dawg.

I could go on and on and on............There was never nothing like that.......before or since.

I used to have a video from London that was the same show, but it got deleted because of copyright crap. I just found another one. It's close, but not quite as good. At least it can give people an idea of the genius of Pink Floyd. And again.....remember this is 1975. Hell, the Dark Side of the Moon stuff was done in 1973.

I better make a correction. I don't think it was a 3-D screen because we were not wearing those 3-D glasses. All I know is that it was freaking huge and the images were so clear. And that part that I described about the plane you were in narrowly missing the cliffs and then nose-diving into one of them.......was so freaking real. I talked to a bunch of the people who were 40 strong from our group, and they all felt their stomachs roll.

I used to work 2nd shift for a temp agency at a factory somewhere near North Ridgeville after I got out of high school.

I'd get home about midnight, get a beer and watch The Wall every night.

After a while I gave it up but, it was cool to see.

That was the first and only midnight movie I think I ever went to see.

This is my newest favorite from Mr. Cash.
It's a cover of Trent (Nine Inch Nails) Reznor's 'Hurt.'
(Yeah... got a little 'Cleveland connection' there...)

The guitar chords that Johnny uses are simplified from Trent's, so there is less tension in the guitar work. HOWEVER... all the tension, angst and personal history contained in Johnny's voice more than compensates. Recorded less than a year before he died, you can hear all the regrets, pain, and yes, wisdom in that old, tired voice.

In this song, I can hear every mile he's ever traveled, every person he's met, and everything he lived through. That kind of gravitas only comes from a long life lived to the fullest- for good or bad.

Hope you enjoy, 'Peen.

I wonder if some of those substances you were on didn't help you get deeper into the experience.

Knew a guy who told me about another guy that went to see The Wall on acid. He said he got so into it he was able to explain everything and what it meant.

All I had was popcorn and pop and I couldn't do that.

I like that song from Cash.

If you like that song, I bet you'll like these two. I know I do:

The goal is to see the world on acid even when you are straight.

Sound advice! Never had a hit though...

Hurt is probably in my top 5-8 of Cash's songs.

People say that acid heightens awareness. Ever hear of "trails?" Let's say you take your hand and move it horizontally across your line of vision. You not only see the hand, but the trails that it made. Ever look at a wooden wall and see the grain? On acid, it is said that you can see the wood breathing.

Acid is said to intensify the senses. You see things more acutely.

Some people can handle acid. Many can not. If one is mentally weak, it would not be a good idea to take acid. I've seen many people "freak out" on acid. They needed consoling and guidance until their trip [nightmare] was over. Others, who are more intellectual and emotionally sound, see acid as a mind expansion drug that allows the user to see things from a much more detailed perspective.

There were many types of acid back in the day. LSD [ever hear the Beatles' song.........Lucy in the Sky w/Diamonds?]Magic Mushrooms. Blotter. Mescaline. Windowpane--and 4-Way Windowpane. Peyote.

Many were cut w/speed and that is BS. 4-Way Windowpane was very clean. There was no jitters that are associated w/some of the other acids that are polluted by speed.

Many people think that such a clean acid helps one w/sensory perceptions, deeper understanding of thought processes, and to heighten spiritual experiences.

If you look at music, there are a multitude of songs dedicated to the drug. Many musicians experimented w/the drug to not only enjoy it's recreational function, but also to experience the possible mind-expansion properties of this misunderstood narcotic.

If you're talking about the movie "The Wall," then I can tell you: it didn't take LSD to slam that movie's message home to me.

I was stone-cold sober in that movie theater... and walked out feeling like I'd actually taken acid. That was one intense personal experience. I was experiencing Pink's life in real time: his fall from grace, his personal disintegration... I was actually experiencing nausea when his manager was trying to get him back up and awake for the gig....

Exhausting.

I left that movie theater with a headache that lasted into the next day.

Stone-cold sober.
What a trip.

_______________

This is why I'm so insanely jealous of ANYONE who got to experience a Floyd concert first-hand. The 70's triumvirate of 'Dark Side of the Moon,' 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Animals' set the benchmark for concept albums.

In Classical circles, it's been said that "Without Bach, there would be no Mozart." It's not because Mozart piggy-backed off Bach's music... not at all. It's because Bach said everything that could be said in the Baroque style. He elevated the style to the absolute heights that could be achieved... and it took the next genius of his stature to re-calibrate music for a fresh new era.

Mozart stripped away the super-ornate, hyper-intellectual perfection that exemplified Bach's output, and expanded the musical and expressive palette by 'slimming down' the form.

We saw the same thing happen in the 80's with popular music. The industry's tastes (and listener's appetites) took us directly from Prog to (the reactionary) Punk... which gave way to New Wave (a blending of Punk's chordal simplicity with the electronics/studio techniques of Prog).

Pink Floyd, Yes, and Emerson Lake & Palmer not only exemplified the artistic and commercial heights that 'Conceptual Prog' could achieve... they also hastened Prog's recession from the world stage by being so good at what they did. When you've already done it as well as it can be done, what's left to do? Move on to something else, I guess.

"Can't top this... but I still want to "get my money for nothing- and my chicks for free."

Interesting factoid about Pink Floyd: they were the only 70's Prog holdouts who could still sell out arenas/football/soccer stadiums 30 years after their album sales heydays.

Amazing accomplishment- and a testimony to the enduring nature of their timeless appeal.

'Concert visuals' can only take a band so far. It's the music that brings in new fans- a half century after your debut album.

It's always been about THE MUSIC, Dawg.
It's why Bach (1685-1750) and Mozart (1756-1791) are still relevant in 2017.


.02,
Clem

#musicismylife

David Gilmore's guitar solo on Comfortably Numb is one of the best in rock history. Top 5, for me.

Nice.

I wanna add a couple of random thoughts about the greatest band of my generation:

--I listened to an interview one time from either Gilmour or Waters, and he said how they used silence to make the music more dramatic. That is.......they would be jamming out.....and then silence..........and then, a dramatic note would follow, which would give that note a lot more significance. That made a lot of sense to me.

--Great Gig in the Sky: Floyd chose Clair Toney.........a white girl w/a unimpressive musical background to "sing." They told her........no words. The song was written by the underrated keyboardist Wright.....and it was about death, but I remember hearing Gilmour say that Clair's rendition was the greatest orgasm ever recorded. I'll provide a link to the song later.

--I truly believe that Floyd can not be classified. Clem mentioned Yes and ELP. I didn't care for Yes and loved ELP, but Pink Floyd was way beyond both groups. I do think that the Moody Blues had some aspects that were similar, but they are dissed by many so-called expert critics. Floyd's sound was unique. They were very progressive on almost every level of what they did.

They could trigger every emotion in the book w/their music. Who would not be moved by the utter pain of the individual in songs like "Hey You" and "Mother?" Who would not understand the trials of mental illness w/songs like "Shine on You Crazy Diamond? Who would not be moved by the unfairness of political powers by songs such as "Us and Them?" Who would not be moved by the trials and tribulations of performers in songs such as "Comfortably Numb?" [btw....that is the song Clem was referring to earlier when he mentioned the manager trying to get Pink back into the show.

One of the cooler things Floyd did was on the Wall.........where Pink was in the USA and he tried to call back to England to speak to his wife. Waters told the story where they actually recorded a real conversation w/a live operator [yeah, this is back in the day] and she rang the number, and this happened in the song entitled "Young Lust:"



They staged it and the live operator says........"it's a man answering" and then she disconnects because she finally gets it. Dawgs..........seriously?

Man, I got a ton of more stuff about Floyd. Hope some of you younger guys will investigate. My kids are young. And they both love Pink Floyd. Give it a try.

"There were many types of acid back in the day. LSD [ever hear the Beatles' song.........Lucy in the Sky w/Diamonds?]Magic Mushrooms. Blotter. Mescaline. Windowpane--and 4-Way Windowpane. Peyote. "

Not to start a big hoopla, but for clarification, LSD is LSD. Yes there are different batches, quality, but ultimately it's the same compound. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.
Mushrooms, mescaline, and peyote are very different things than LSD. They act similar in that they are hallucinogenic but their chemical make up and general effects are each unique.

"misunderstood narcotic."
Lastly. LSD is not a narcotic. It's illegal. But it is not a narcotic. Narcotics are typically analgesics. Typically derived from poppy plants (coke excluded) or synthesized versions thereof.

As an old Deadhead I can tell tale of more than a few evenings of the Grateful Dead and LSD. It' was recreational chemistry and music blended at its finest. I would have loved a chance to see Floyd back in the day...