Friday, August 22, 2008

RE: The Music In Me (And My Kids)

My post, The Music In Me (and My Kids) has spawned this idea for a post:

What (and where) was your very first, favorite, and worst concert?

To start things off, my very first concert was KISS, at the Spectrum, in 1978, which was the tour to promote their solo albums (which sucked, except for Ace Frehley's, which had several really good songs on it). For the record, Kiss Rocks Live! Judas Priest opened for them, and were quite good for a relatively unknown band.



The very best concert I ever attended has to be Metallica, 1992, when they toured to promote the "boxed set" tribute to Cliff Burton. The Spectrum was set up with a mosh pit in the center of the stage, and I was so close to the band I was able to 'high-five" Jason Newstead and Lars Ulrich when the took their bows at the end of the concert. My "pit pass" adorns my guitar case to this day.

As for the worst...

Hands down, it's the Cars "Candy-O" tour in 1979...Local Baltimore rockers, The Greg Kihn, band opened and was hands down better than the headliner (he performed "the Break-up Song" before it was released nationally in 1981). The Cars sucked live and their light show sucked even harder. (What do you want for a conceert that only cost $9.95?).

Send me your First, Fav, and Worst concert experiences and I'll compile them into a post at a later date. I'll respect your anonymity, if desired.

Have a great Friday¡

1 comment:

Lisa Mossie said...

Great idea for a post, Bill.

My first concert was the Styx "Paradise Theater" concert at the spectrum.

Best concert, hands down, was the Clash, also at the Spectrum, which I believe was to promote Combat Rock. There were no floor seats, simply an open floor, which was kind of like seeing them in a really large bar. The stage was stacked with televisions broadcasting different images but there was nothing in the way of lights or pyro-technics. The Clash totally rocked--it was by far the most intense musical experience of my long and storied concert career. They just came out and PLAYED. We danced through the whole concert. A close second would be U2's Unforgettable Fire tour.

The worst concert I saw was the reconstituted Yes (sans Jon Anderson) at the Hershey Arena. Boring circa 1985-86. The only redeeming factor was the party afterward with fifteen of us in one room at the exclusive Hershey Hotel. We gave ourselves away with our room service breakfast order the next day ("We'll take three of the whole menu.")

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