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Best Concert Moment


Bluemoon

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They whole discussion of Ian Gillan and Rainbow got me thinking...What is your best concert moment?

 

Mine was at a Frank Zappa concert in Brussels. I was in the front row with some other Americans. One of the guys in my group had an American flag that he was waving. So between songs, Frank leaned over the stage, grabbed the flag, and held it in the air. The crowd started booing--remember it was in Belgium. Frank went over to the microphone and while giving the crowd the finger said, "If you don't like this flag, then get the fu#k out of here." I don't think he ever gave the flag back.

 

He was great in concert. He was a such a musical genius.

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I've seen a lot of great shows and performances, but I can't think of one "moment" that stands out.

 

I do remember seing B.O.C. at a small colliseum that only held a couple thousand people. Some punk band called Blotto opened for them and only got about 2 songs out before being pelted and cursed off the stage. I felt bad for them but most of those B.O.C. hippies were ruthless. :-({|=

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i was 14 and my mom wouldn't let me go see RUSH (permanent waves tour) at cobo hall in detroit without my older brother as a chaperone. i agreed. on the night of the show, we found our seats and out of his jean jacket came the butterknife, the lighter and a small square of something wrapped in tin foil. all i could think was 'gee, mom. you were right about the chaperone. i'm soooo much safer!'

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I saw the Eagles at the Summit in Houston in '78 or '79 and some guys started a fight behind us, one of them fell over my date and sort of hurt her. After the security guys got me off of the guy, I explained what happened, the rest of the crowd backed me up and the haters got removed...the security guys were concerned that my date might need medical attention, so they took us backstage to get her attention. While we were sitting there behind the stage, the Eagles came up to where we were waiting to prepare to get onstage and they were yelling at each other quite angrily, I got up, reached out my hand and shook hands with Glenn Frey and Don Felder.

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I have a few great moments, but the one that sticks out is seeing SRV in Nashville a couple of months before the helicopter crash. we had seats in the back, but I wanted to see him closer so I slowly went past the security and made my way to the 5th row for most of the 2nd half of the show and then for the encore I moved to the front row and he was right in front of me - playing vodoo chile throwing his strat around on the ground and shaking it with the whammy bar... Awesome!

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I've lucked out over the past several hundred years in being privileged because of happenstance and an odd career rather than cash to see some pretty good concerts and guitar players from Gary Davis to Carlos Montoya - both at roughly 20 feet or less.

 

And heck, I've come to the conclusion there's an increasing level of skill and technique among guitarists whether I "like" their style or not. There are many I've seen whom I envy their talents and skills.

 

But the concert that impressed me the most? It ain't a matter of guitar technique but of professionalism. Harry James was booked by some friends who knew he'd set records at this venue and they put up a batch of their kids' college money to get that "between other road dates" gig.

 

I don't think they sold 100 tickets. There was gloom, doom and a dark cloud under the high ceiling above the stage.

 

But there was Harry James and crew playing as if there were 10,000. Yeah, it ain't improvisation, perhaps, but the whole concert was not just letter perfect, which it was. It had ... swing. It was real for what they did.

 

That memory impresses me every time I think of it, and more than even the courtesies and good nature of some really good guitar pickers and other great musicians whom I've seen at close range and often from backstage.

 

Come to think of it, I guess in ways that's still kinda my measuring stick for professionalism.

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My wife asked me to take her to Duran Duran. So I told her to get the tickets, but make sure I had a Isle seat so I could buy beer without steping on toes. She got us the Isle seat at the back of the Portsmouth Venue. MAN. I was surprised at all the single ladies of all ages there. From backsides that had to have help from a shoehorn to get into their pants. To the ones I wish I had been their pants. The show was alright but the thing that made my nite was when the ladies were so into the music that the Isles were full of them danceing. I was on my third beer. Just set it down When this little Latino girl about 18, (Got to keep this Legal) fell into my lap. The arms on the seat had caught her mini skirt and all I had in my hand was a nice butt with G string undies. She looked at me with those dark brown eyes (Oh ya she was intoxicated) and told me thank you for catching her. She gave me a big KISS. I told her no problem, I'd do it anytime. Then reality set in when I heard my wife clear her throat. I helped her up ( My hand was still on her butt). She told my wife what a nice man I was for helping her. Then she left. She had one of those shake and bake kinda walks. All I could think was I was so glad that she didn't get hurt. And I helped. :) =P~ =P~

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I went to see Robert Plant open for Lenny Kravitz. Rob came out and rocked out for about an hour. They were great. The set was much heavier than I expected. After the intermission Lenny hits the stage and the crowd is BOOING!!! The whole crowd starts chanting "ROBERT PLANT, ROBERT PLANT!" I was laughing my *** off. Lenny wasn't bad( I had seen him before) but the crowd was letting him have it. Lenny finished his set and brought Rob out for "Celebration Day" with Lenny on drums as an encore. That was about they only applause he got that night.

 

I saw The Cult open for Metallica. The Cult got pelted with beer cups and anything people could find to throw at them. I love The Cult but still had to laugh at how bad they were treated.

 

My brother saw King's X open for AC/DC and they got pelted as well. He said the singer got hit with a wet toilet brush!!! Ouch!

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Queen + Paul Roger at the Hollywood Bowl, The concerts been going for about 2 hours and I'm already blown away by how good Bad Company songs are when Queens playing them. Just when I come to the realization that Brian May is one of the Best Live Guitar Players I've ever heard, they Bring out a Special Guest for "Can't Get Enough", Slash!

 

So there I am at the Historic Hollywood Bowl, watching Brian May and Slash palying the twin leads after Paul belts out one of the most popular rock songs ever written, with Roger Tayler poundin out the beat on his Huge drum kit. only four words can describe what I saw........

 

Rock and Roll History!

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I was a teenager or early 20's and Yes was going to do a concert in Boston Garden... I was working with a local band as sound engineer and keyboard tech. The day of the concert I figured Yes would be at the Garden to do a sound check so I went in town to see if I could get in to have a free listen. After sneaking in I found myself walking down a long corridor and I was trying to figure out how to get inside of the concert area. As I'm walking along a door opens and Rick Wakeman comes walking out ahead of me. I nearly sh*t myself! Some how I managed to get the words out "Hey Rick", he turns and looks at me and stops walking. I went up to him and told him I was a sound engineer and Keyboard Tech for a local band... So he says Oh cool come with me I'm going on stage now... I'll show you my set up. I was in heaven... We walked over to his keyboard set up and he had his B3 and some other synths and a whole bunch of little keyboards all around his area on the stage and in several other locations all around the stage.... He explained to me it was a system he developed that loaded sounds into the keyboard via a big blue plastic disk type thing.... Must have been one of the first samples ever... Any way he was the coolest guy and took the time to show and explain his whole set up to me. I'll never forget it!!!

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The only one ive ever been to: Eric Clapton. Just a couple years ago actually.

 

it was awesome!! Everyone (including me!) was falling asleep cause he decided to play his acoustic for an hour straight. All of a sudden, i just decided to open my eyes to peek... And there is some dude, coming up on stage. He hands Clapton the strat(angry-smiley-1367.gif). EVERYONE jumps up! I wasn't even awake yet or conscious enough to realize what was going on! But everyone else jumped up, so i did. And there was Clapton standin' there with the electric, and all of a sudden,

 

"DANANANANANANA!!!!" LAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYLAAAAAA!!".

 

And everybody started going crazy! We were all dancin' around, and yellin'! Singing along!

 

It was AMAZING! BEST SHOW EVER!

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1968. I had never been to a REAL concert before just local stuff.I was 14 years old and my favorite band Cream was coming to town on there fairwell tour.Olympic Stadium in Detroit .Boy it was a while before I realized that all shows just were"nt going to be as good as my first.Before the show the roadies came out and nailed Gingers drums to the floor.I was impressed.

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It's hard to pin down best concert experience...had quite a few from 1975 to 1977. Was going to college in Abliene Texas and got to see quite a few big names in a smaller concert hall (seated about 9000...but never got that many in there). Best concert there was a triple header...Head East opened followed by UFO...holy crap was Schenker a maniac on that V. Then the headliner was Rush...those dudes rock for a three piece.

 

Also got to see Deep Purple (with Tommy Bolin on lead), Nazareth, Foghat, Yes, Doobie Brothers and a few others. If I had to say most memorable experience it was the Ted Nugent concert there. They were recording for a new album for him and one of the cuts from that concert I was at got on the album "Double Live Gonzo"...as I recall I think it was the song "Great White Buffalo", recorded at Taylor County Convention Center. Terrible Ted rocks.

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