First concert? Favorite Concert?

My lifetime list of artists I've seen live is pretty long, (I think it's 150 now, with 300 total shows/festivals) and deciding on a favorite show is pretty tough. Venue, setlist, did I meet the band? I have memorable moments from almost all. Some of the biggest names that I saw, do the exact same show every city, by necessity. I finally saw U2 in 2011. The set piece was the most impressive thing I've encountered, and justified calling them the biggest band in the world. Springsteen builds a house every show. Some bands I see multiple times because they make every snow unique, ie Phish, Govt Mule, Blues Traveler. Yonder Mountain String Band.

I would have to try and decide which time I was happiest to be alive, which is what live music is for me: a celebration of joy in being alive. (So, Morrissey is not on my list, nor is the Cure. Not for live experience anyway.)

I'll say the Phish festival of summer 2011, Watkins Glen, when I ran a 5k with a bunch of stoners, then helped create an amazing piece of art with some top professionals in a field I am an amateur, and watched it evolve over a couple days with my input, and then launched it into the crowd to watch it gloriously eviscerated on the final night. It was as close to a burning man experience as I have had.

Or B.B.King. Just because it was B.B. King.

First Real Concert (not counting small stuff) - Pink Floyd Olympic Stadium Montreal 1994

Favorite Concert - Same.

Honorable Mention - Page & Plant @ Boston Garden / Phish Clifford Ball @ Plattsburg Air Force Base due to the size of the audience

I believe my first concert was the Beach Boys at the Groton Naval Base.

First concert on my own was Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five in Boston.

Best concert -small venue (Tracy Chapman & 10,000 Maniacs) at that same gymnasium at Bucknell

Large Venue - Big Audio Dynamite, Public Enemy & U2 at Camp Randall, Wisconsin.

Peter, Paul, and Mary.  1965?  It was the cool thing to do...then.  Nobody I knew had ever gone to a concert at all.

TW

My first concert was Journey in the early 80's

Bob Seger was a favorite (I'm from Detroit)

Van Halen back in the David Lee Roth days

Arrow Smith was probably one of  the best 

Those were the day when eveyrone had lighters high in the air....

This is right up there with best thread ideas ever, btw!

First concert-- Prince, Purple Rain

Favorite Concert (this is ridiculously difficult)

4-way tie

Blues Traveler played at my highschool before they were a big deal.  Awesome.

Any AniDifranco show (and I've been to over 20), she did a particularly good show one year at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Greg Brown,  outside at the very beautiful Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa.

David Grisman Quintet opening for Widespread Panic, outside at Wolf Mountain, Park City, Utah. Saw Phish at the same venue, same year, also awesome.

JEALOUS!

+1 to the first bolded part, I've seen Phish and WSP many times. Can't say I've ever had a bad show.

To the second bolded part--completely awesome.  I love stuff like that.  A couple of times a year we'll do an Andy Goldsworthy inspired project at our farm with a group of kids.  It always exceeds my expectations.

I have never gone to Burning Man, and I probably won't until my kids are adults.  But maybe one day...

1st concert - KISS in 1976 and we went as a church youth group

Best - Boston for Third Stage, but they played off of all the albums, yes albums, not CD's.  Possibly a tie because of the great vocals with Stryper, who had White Lion open for them.  Most energy on stage was the bass player from White Lion, but Stryper really had a great night.

Opening for Rick Derringer many years ago, put that as a great event also, but that was because I got to really meet him and talk to him after his show and he signed my electric bass.

Most bizarre - Black Oak Arkansas and Jim Dandy was on a real trip from what we could tell.  He had the most possessed/scary/freaky looks of anyone I have seen on stage ever.  And he was definitely that way back stage also.  The guitar player in our band went to record with them about 15 years ago, and said he was still that way. 

Holy Cow Flip,  KISS in the 70's as a church group?  Sounds like my kind of church..

First concert for me Devo early 80's...

Best concert, Not sure,  Maybe Rush or the Rilling Stones... Prince Purple Rain tour was pretty awesome too..

i really don't remember my first concert...probably at a festival with my youth group back in the day?

favorite?  i don't know how i could pick!

george clinton continued playing after the venue killed his power with the whole crowd singing along - epic.

steel panther in vegas was a blast.

warped tour in 2003 was a mudpit with a lot of my favorite bands, wound up moshing and singing along with many of my fave artists.

can't pick... 

Devo as a first concert is AWESOME!

We just made our kids watch the "Whip It" video the other day.  We take their music education very seriously.

Damn, I was born in the wrong decade. Led Zep, Old Rush, Old Van Halen, and The Who--dude, you're kinda killing me. 

And this all begs the question, how could you have dated a girl who like Ratt?

First concert: Iron Maiden and Anthrax, 1991.  Front row seats.... talk about getting spoiled at my first show!

Favorite concert? That is tough.  I may have to split it with the Black Sabbath reunion tour in 1999 and the experience of travelling/touring with the Young Dubliners for 10 days in Ireland. 

And the kid who worked the hardest to get us to go, spent all of the Kiss concert in the first aid room listening as someone threw an M-80 into the air inside the auditorium and it blew up near his thigh and he got to hear the show.  They had a great show back then with great risers and pyro stuff.  Gene's fake blood thing was something that was a huge thing back then.  I think the band Detective opened for Kiss and they just about got boo'd off the stage.

I think we may have a winner here.  That would be a great time and thing to do.

Yeah, that beats down my story about having a beer with the Chieftains once. (Now I haer Joe Piscipo in Johhn Dangerously reiterating "once."

Jealous of DanielG for the early Who. I saw them once, a month after the Ox died. So I saw 1/2 of the who. Less really, as Daltrey's high register was gone. As was Robert Plant's, who was the opening act.

My most recent show: Sasquatch opening for Tenacious D. 

First: Bruce & the E Street Band in 1981.

Best: Tough to say -- there's been lots. DLR era van halen, some transcendent Springsteen shows, GnR w/ Metallica in '92, if only for the near anarchy feeling in a place with 60,000 people.

1st Concert - Foo Fighters / Red Hot Chili Peppers (I think I was in 8th grade)

Favorite Concert - Tool (Just awesome) or Flogging Molly (best "get the crowd into it")

Honorable Mention - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers... even though I'm not a big Tom Petty fan, he was awesome live.

First concert....Mottley Crue/ White Snake 

Favorite concert?  It's a toss up for me.  Sting at the columbia Gorge (Washington State) with branford Marsalis was amazing.  Incredible music in an incredible setting.  U2 Elevation tour in Tampa was a amazing too.  Great music, great energy.

My first concer was Rush's Grace Under Pressure tour.  I was front row.  It was hard to compare other concerts when your first was front row.

A couple of years ago I got to see Dead Weather open for Pearl Jam at ACL Fest.  That was an awesome concert experience.