Crowded House the Civic Theatre, Invercargill, New Zealand. It was a great show.

February 11th 1991.

London ULU.

Carter USM, EMF, Bleach, Th' faith healers, The Family Cat.

Brilliant night. Remembered for being very drunk and seeing neil tennant.

Bauhaus, Glasgow Tiffany's, circa 1982.

B.B. King and Bobby "Blue" Bland at the Daytona Beach Civic Center, 1979. I think it was the Civic Center. Some white guy opened.

The first show I ever went to was the Pointer Sisters at the Mud Island Amplitheater. This was in 1984 or 1985, so I was 5 or 6 years old. I think it was '84. My folks took me along with them, but I remember having a good time. I liked the Pointer Sisters.

The first show I asked to go to and was actually taken to was Kiss at the Mid-South Colisseum in 1989 or 90 (I think). It was the Hot in the Shade tour, and my dad took me after some (but not much) pleading. It was fun, even though I didn't really know or like any of the non-makeup stuff they were playing. There was a giant sphinx on stage, and some hilarious Paul Stanley stage patter. This was a fun show for a kid to go to. Some other cock band opened that show; I think it was Danger Danger or something. Terrible.

The first "punk rock" show I saw was the Dead Milkmen at the Antenna when I was 13 or 14. In retrospect, it was very cool of my dad to just drop me off at this punk rock club and pick me up when I was that age. It was a fun show. They played there the next year and I saw them again. I guess that was my first "real" show.

iain wrote:First Show I travelled to was New Order with A Certain Ratio, International Centre, Toronto, after standing in line all day, went around back and heard New Order Soundcheck with Love Will Tear Us Apart, then Sumner, Hook et al. came out and introduced themselves.

Josef K wrote:Bauhaus, Glasgow Tiffany's, circa 1982.

Damn, I am jealous of you guys.

Michael Jackson, HIStory tour, Sep 1996. Warsaw, Poland.

My first rock show was Quarterflash at the Yuma Civic and Convention Center. Fuck if I remember the year. I was somewhere in the 5th-6th grade axis.

I also saw Roy Clark and Mel Tillis (different shows) at the Yuma Civic and Convention Center. Roy Clark kicked all kinds of ass.

Apparently Morrissey did a show at the Yuma Civic and Convention Center in 2003 or thereabouts. I did not attend this show.

Hosoi wrote:I had this friend when I was in grade school. For awhile she was my best buddy, although my favourite part about going to her house after school was the snacks her mom laid out.

You know the TV family the Flanders? I will call them the Flanders.

Thank you for that story; it was fantastic!

I can really track my musical development with bands and concerts--i'm sure we all can. My first concert was Motley Crue (who i still really like) and Warrant and the Bradley Center in Milwaukee in late 1989. It was the Dr. Feelgood tour and they were clean and sober, lean and mean, or so the story goes. Tommy Lee had the electronic kit that went out over the crowd, plus he was just wearing a studded thong. When he got back to the stage after his solo, he mooned the crowd, and made a huge production out of the fact that he had just shown the crowd his ass.

Sadly, this night is what forever and to this day made me want to play drums in a rock band.

Saw a lot of hair metal shows after that--the KISS Hot in the Shade tour, with Faster Pussycat (who i also still really like) and Slaughter (ugh). A Poison concert or two, with Warrant opening. The first time i ever made out with a girl was during Trixter's opening set on the Scorpions tour where "Winds of Change" was big. We made out during Trixter's power ballad, and i thought i was the fuckin' mack daddy for making out at a big concert like that.

Senior year of high school was when people started exposing me to non-"Epic" Faith No More, They Might be Giants, and of course, after the "grunge" explosion, Nirvana. Then one day, Skid Row came to the area with Soundgarden in tow. At this point, i was still a Skid Row fan, and was begrudgingly attempting to get into Soundgarden, because if Skid Row took them on tour, they must have been worth something, although i couldn't stand that "Outshined" song they were playing on the channel with the videos. However, Soundgarden proceeded to make Skid Row look like sillyass pretenders by solidly kicking my ass with a bunch of songs off Louder Than Love. Thus began my drifting away from hair metal as a viable musical influence.

Flash forward to 1994. Been going to local punk shows, starting to understand what this whole "punk rock" and "indie rock" thing was all about...a friend of my roommate turned me on to Sebadoh and i was all over it. Then we went to Green Bay's venerable Elk's Lodge and i saw Jawbox, Brainiac, and Alligator Gun. Brainiac peeled the skin off my face and knocked my jaw off my head, and i haven't been the same since.

First show: Genesis, Invisible Touch tour, '86 at Rosemont Horizon.
Got to stare at Phil's bald spot all night as we were behind the stage.

First real show: Naked Raygun at the Riv, '89. I believe it was Bill Stephens' first gig with the guys, or at least his first Chicago gig. Was bummed not to see Haggerty. Bonus points for first backstage experience too, as Pezzati is related to one of the friends I went with. (He's got Jeff's wedding program too, signed by the whole band and Jeff's wife Karen, probably one of the more obscure bits of rock memorabilia I can think of...)

for me that would have been Blue Oyster Cult in Alexandria LA. circa 1980. It was also my first (and next to last) exposure to marijuana. I think I went to see Cheap Trick shortly after this in the same shithole auditorium. It was a far better show as I remember.