Musing About Rock Concerts

My first concert was the Moody Blues back in 1988 at the Philadelphia Spectrum. As for recent stuff.. I am in the business. We have Cher and 3 Doors down with Collective Soul next week.

mtn said:

Suprf1y said:

I don't go to many shows anymore. Prices are just too damn high.

Bah humbug. Get off my lawn.

I don’t think that’s a bah humbug at all. Ticketmaster etc have ruined ticket prices.

It's not Ticketmaster, though they certainly haven't helped.

It's the fault of a concert promoter named Michael Cohl who convinced bands in the 80's that they didn't have to use concerts as loss leaders to promote albums, but as income generators on their own. With the advent of the internet and music downloading  it's only gotten worse.

Ticket prices are way up because music is so easily stolen. The band's have to make money somehow. 

Ticketbastard is simply exploiting this.

I picked up a cheap, single seat to Rahmsteinn a few years ago on Craigslist. Easily the most entertaining show I've ever seen. Everything was on fire the entire concert. I will never miss their show again.

Slayer may be on their final tour, but I guarantee they still SHRED.  It is the most intense concert I have ever been too.

we have Cher this weekend.. I think this is her eighth farewell tour?

mad_machine said:

we have Cher this weekend.. I think this is her eighth farewell tour?

Almost as bad as KISS. 

I went to the Eagles farewell tour in '03...

We’re lemmings.  Our memories are short.  

My kids first real concert was the Reverent Horton Heat. He got pulled up onto stage at age 13 and played the bass.

Then they got him up on stage *again* for the curtain call.

None of my own stories are that damn cool, and I'm not even mad.



 

I go to small shows fairly often, the tickets are usually well under $20 and rarely from Ticketmaster, I find it more more fun that way. Bigger ones with noisy crowds are too expensive and not even that much fun.

I can't even remember how many shows I've been to over the years! I do have some big-time standouts: 

-My first "real", non-local VFW hall concert was the WBCN River Rave, at the Great Woods Ampitheater in Mansfield, MA in 1996. It was a "festival"-style show with a main stage and side stage.  The lineup had a lot of the popular bands on Alternative Radio at the time: Cracker, Dishwalla, Everclear, Presidents of the United States of America, Gin Blossoms, Stabbing Westward, and Sonic Youth were all there. Sonic Youth in particular broke my teenage brain. Local Boston Hardcore legends Tree took over the side stage, which was literally in front of a bunch of skinny trees that people were climbing during their set. It was nuts! Out of all those bands, Tree made the biggest impact; saw them about a hundred times after that! They even did a reunion show a few years back, and they could still tear it up. 

-My first "Metal" show was Pantera and Slayer on the "Extreme Steel Tour" at the Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center) around 2001. It was the final tour Pantera did, and Slayer still had their original lineup. Static X and Morbid Angel were also there, but I missed Morbid Angel and almost fell asleep during Static X from boredom (sorry, not a fan). Slayer ripped my damn head off, and Pantera buried the body. It was a borderline religious experience! 

-I got to see the original lineup of Black Sabbath on the 2004 Ozzfest tour for FREE via a friend who had an extra ticket. The lineup for that tour was amazing, and also included (but not limited to) Unearth, Slipknot, Atreyu, Lamb of God, Hatebreed, Dimmu Borgir, Black Label Society, Slayer, and freaking JUDAS PRIEST. Yup, got to see original lineup Slayer again, along with The Metal God himself, and the four blokes from Birmingham that started it all, all without having to get up out of my seat! Legendary. 

-Iron Maiden. IRON BERKING MAIDEN. I've seen them twice, and both times, they were beyond amazing. If you haven't seen them, do it next time they are around. Got to see Alice Cooper with them one of the times, which was pretty cool, too. 

-I'm a huge fan of the MA Metalcore band Killswitch Engage, and have been since day one. When they really broke out big after their 2nd full length album came out, they played a one-off, word-of-mouth show at the Worcester Palladium in Worcester MA that sold out the place in about 30 minutes. I got a ticket along with all the guys in my band. They ended up playing every song they had at the time for about 3 hrs straight, and filmed it all for their Set This World Ablaze DVD. I'm on the left side of the floor. 

-A lot of you have mentioned seeing the Foo Fighters. I've seen them twice: once at the 1997 edition of the WBCN River Rave in support of The Colour and the Shape album (bought it right there at the show!) and in 2011 at the Boston Garden. Both times, they ruled, but the 2nd time was something special. We had company box suite tickets from the place my friend worked, and the view was incredible. They played forever, and you could tell they were having a ton of fun. Dave is one of my idols, so seeing that goofy SOB up there trying to do admittedly terrible guitar solos warmed my heart. 

I have plenty more stories, but I'll leave it at that for now. 

I have an older sister, who's first husband was a musician. He was From Rockford, Illinois and his older brothers were schoolmates and friends of Robin Zander and Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick. In the mid 70's, the BIL would take me to see these guys when they'd play around Rockford, before they hit it big. Usually a VFW hall or maybe at the fairgrounds.

When I was about 15, he snuck me in to see some band called Van Halen when they played in Peoria around 1977 or 78 at the Second Chance. That place is now a church.    http://www.meanwhilebackinpeoria.com/blog/2014/6/12/this-used-to-besecond-chance-nightclubnow-its-second-chance-church

The first "big" show I saw was J. Geils Band with The Motels as the opener.

Then there were 20 or 30 others, some were better than others. Some I remember better than others.

The last three shows I've seen were Zac Brown, Fantastic show! Alice Cooper, Fantastic show! and Zac Brown again, Fantastic show again!

I'm getting a bit old for these, so not sure if I'll see any more. But, you never know.

Thinkkker said:

Slayer may be on their final tour, but I guarantee they still SHRED.  It is the most intense concert I have ever been too.

 

 

Slayer always kills it. We saw the final tour, too. I'm bummed that we missed part of Testament, though. The parking situation at the venue just sucked. We still go to a ton of concerts. Last week it was In the Whale. They're the loudest two guys I have ever seen. This Wednesday it's The Sword. Also on the schedule: Metallica, Judas Priest/Deep Purple, A Perfect Circle, Maid of Ace and a few local bands. That reminds me, gotta get tickets for Clutch. 

We saw Smashing Pumpkins last month here in OKC, nearly 3.5 hours! Corgan and co. put on a damn great show!

Saw Mastodon and Primus back in May, and saw Mastodon in October here in OKC as well, and Mastodon in Dallas in May of last year (I'm a huge Mastodon fanboi).

I think just since May of 2015 I've taken my dad and girlfriend (or my dad has taken me) to:

Rush, Deftones, Gojira, Mastodon, Dream Theater, Black Sabbath, Primus, Def Leppard, Tesla, The Melvins. I even enjoyed my girlfriend taking us to see Miranda Lambert earlier this year and I'm not a country fan, but she put on a hell of a show.

And that ignores all the other stuff my dad took me to growing up, Metallica for the black album (and the girlfriend and I are going to see them again in January), Foreigner, Pantera, Tool, Alice in Chains (with Layne Staley still singing), Ozzy, Sepultura, ZZ Top, Biohazard, Cannibal Corpse, Danzig, motherfreaking Ronnie James DIO opening for Motorhead!, John Entwistle of The Who, Lamb of God, Rob Zombie, Job for a Cowboy, GWAR, etc. 

I love live music. 

One more that's now on our schedule: Against Me!, Iron Reagan and War On Women. (Super bonus: free show!)

Im not really into metal bands, The only concert I paid for was Chicago/Beastie Boys back in 83 at Pine Knob in Michigan.

I see a lot of bands play but I am usually getting paid to work so that is a plus.

I will be with Marilyn Manson/ Rob Zombie in a couple weeks for a few shows. 

^Hell, I forgot I saw Manson back in 2015, he also put on a great show. 

Suprf1y said:

I don't go to many shows anymore. Prices are just too damn high.

Bah humbug. Get off my lawn.

That is the direct and inevitable result of the “I’ll just download it instead of buying it” culture.  Those birds have come home to roost. 

I saw Marilyn Manson open for Nine Inch Nails in 1994.

I don't remember a lot from that show, except I almost passed out from the heat (general admission, open floor) and some nice soul gave me some water.

But I remember what Manson said when he came on stage... I won't repeat it, but today it would spark a me-too moment in a Kevin Spacey sort of way.

A local radio show does a free concert about every 2 months featuring smaller bands or bands that havent made it big yet.

Greta Van Fleet was at one show, i didnt get to see them but Blacktop Mojo and Joyous Wolf were great, if you get to see Joyous Wolf live, go see them. Great band. The Sword and Red Fang came thru recently too but i couldnt see either one

Duke said:

Suprf1y said:

I don't go to many shows anymore. Prices are just too damn high.

Bah humbug. Get off my lawn.

That is the direct and inevitable result of the “I’ll just download it instead of buying it” culture.  Those birds have come home to roost. 

That's the excuse but it started before the internet. See my post at the top of the page.

We went to two concerts in the past year. Foo Fighters, and Halestorm.

Foo Fighters were a blast and just like to have fun. Definitely not taking themselves too seriously.

Lizzy Hale, the lead singer from Halestorm... how E36 M3 can that woman belt it out! Quite impressive if that's your cup of tea. And we were impressed.

mad_machine said:

My first concert was the Moody Blues back in 1988 at the Philadelphia Spectrum. As for recent stuff.. I am in the business. We have Cher and 3 Doors down with Collective Soul next week.

My first concert (without my parents, anyway) was the Moody Blues in 1981 at the Philadelphia Spectrum!  Playing behind the Voyager album.  Saw Bowie there in 1982? 83? on the Serious Moonlight tour.   Unfortunately SRV played on the Let's Dance album, but wasn't in the touring band.

I don't understand all the anti-Ticketmaster vitriol.  I grew up in the late '70s and early '80s.  I've spent 8 hours standing in line for paper tickets.  I will gladly pay $5 an hour to avoid that.

BoxheadTim said:

The only way an artist can really make money these days is by touring, as album sales etc don't really bring in that much money anymore. That's a big change over the last 20 years when tours were originally to promote an album and not substitute for the income from an album.

I'm not sure if that was true 20 years ago either - I recall hearing a talk about the business of music in the late '90s by a performer who had put a lot of work into crunching numbers, and found he could make more money as a one man act on the local bar / club / private booking circuit than he could get by recording a decent-selling album. There was probably more of a perception that tours promoted the album than the other way around back then, however.