Havent been to a good show in too long but thinking back on some memorable ones I was trying to figure out the first, best big show and best small show I have seen.

First Concert- Ozzy and Motley Crue Summer 1984

Best Big Concert-Rolling Stones and Guns N Roses LA Colliseum on a Sat Night with 100,000 of my closest friends. Close second was a U2 show at Sundevil Stadium. 5th row floor seats and they were all $5 tickets!

Best Small Concert-Ziggy Marley at the Pier in Seattle, dont know why as I have a few others that were awesome but this one just had a good vibe, came in by boat, smoke was kind, girls were fine and i drunk alot of wine...

1st. Rush Roll the bones back in 92.

Best. Rush Vapor trails 04. Took the whole family and my boy's got to see Neil Peart's kit from the 26th row.

My only wish before I kick the bucket is to see Iron Maiden Live.

Mf

First REAL concert: Led Zeppelin with a then-unknown Judas Priest as the opening act - Candlestick Park, San Francisco, Summer 1976.

Best concert: Too hard to pick... I've seen a LOT of concerts!

I don't remember my first real concert. My best small concert would either be Stevie Ray Vaughn or Santana.

First concert:

I wasn't allowed to go to concerts until I was 12 years old...and ten days after turning twelve I saw Judas Priest and Great White at the Tacoma Dome...the following weekend was Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister at the Coliseum. That was 1982.

I've seen an awful lot of concerts in my life...so the best one is hard to decide on...

Fleetwood Mac at the Gorge, 1989, Stevie Nicks' birthday...the sun was setting behind the stage, and Christie McVie was singing Songbird to her for her birthday, just her on the piano...Stevie sat right in front of the piano and cried while she played.

It was supposed to be their last show ever, but they re-grouped to play with President Clinton later...

That one's tough to beat.

Fish on...

Todd

1st: ZZTop After Burner '85

Best: Roskilde Festival, Roskilde Denmark (not too far from Kristiania )
Pearl Jam @ the Backroom Austin, TX in '91 (<75 people there)
Nirvana '91
Sublime (SXSW and China Cafe in Seattle)
BadBrains @ Trees in Dallas ('92?)

I missed Sublime ( ), but was just old enough to get into clubs and bars to see the "seattle scene" before it became the "world scene"...Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Mother Love Bone (another one of my favorite shows), Mudhoney...the whole shebang.

Fish on...

Todd

I ended up inside the Sublime rv that night...
My ONE rock-n-roll claim to fame!!
(other than that, the show sucked 'cause they were so high on H they didn't know the sound was screwed up... SXSW in Austin was good though)

I've been to a few, but my favorite performance I have ever seen was Radiohead at that Auburn Ampitheatre thing, I think supporting the "Hail to the Theif" album. It wasn't the venue that made it, but Thom Yorke was just incredible, from his voice to the weird instruments, to jumping up and down for like 3 minutes spinning his arms like a helicopter.

I never thought that a band could improve over their studio music that much, and the thing was their studio albums were awesome.

First was Rail, makes me laugh at how cool I thought those guys were. Best was Burning Spear with The Allman Bros (Trucks in place of Betts) in a pretty close second. TAB had the tightest sounding stage that I've ever heard live, their roadies knew what they were doing, the band was in perfect time, all the time and it's cool watching two drummers playing two different lines at the same time. I bet Radiohead is awesome live, reminds me, I need to go get that rainbows album.

1st, Rush either 86 or 87
Best, the 3 rush tours I saw or Ozzy, tough call there.
Biggest disappointment, AC/DC, saw them in the T-Dome a few years ago, wasn't impressed and there 1 of my favorites.

Best: Alice Cooper, Welcome To My Nightmare-Spokane
Worst: Aerosmith-Kingdome mid 70s
Couldn't even recognize what songs they were playing.

No such thing as a best show to me. They are all different.
Tool at DV8 in SLC promoting the Opiate album
X on more tours than I can remember
Oingo Boingo for years
Circle Jerks
Bad Brains
Danzig and Sound Garden (Louder than Love)... very cool show with lots of crowd violence. Never saw the underbelly of SLC until this show.
Karate at the Black Cat club in D.C. Geoff Farina and crew did a suprise show for his younger sister's birthday. Beyond expectations, all 20 of us rocked!

Floater on any given date. Been going on 15 years now.

Roy Acuff and the Smokey Mountain Boys in Chehalis circa 1949. Never forget it! His "Wabash Cannonball" was boss!

1st : July,12th,1981 Paramount
Ozzy and Motorhead R.I.P. Randy Rhoads

Best : That's way to hard to decide

Small Venue : Warrant played some dance club in Seattle 1989 w/ like 200 people. 150 where chicks.

Friends band Sanctuary played the Paramount Alice in Chains opened for them. Backstage that was a fun night. 1988 or 1989?

4Salt to you remember Bill Grahman presents Day on the Greens?

fishpoleplease Rail thats funny 1,2,3

First concert was probably Soundgarden at Gorilla Gardens in 85, I think their second show. We were lucky we didn't get the [censored] kicked out of us roaming around Jackson and Pioneer Sq back then.

First large concert was George Thoroughgood in Coliseum at Bumbershoot in 86?

Dave Matthews and friends at Key Arena a few years back was a pretty good show.

Small venue/great shows, Nirvana at Community World Theater in 88, Nirvana, Melvins, Dwarves at Motor Sports Intl Garage in Seattle.

Recent: Alice in Chains at the Paramount last year was a good show.

Honorable mention: Tony Bennett at Wash Center for Performing Arts a few years ago.

Saw the BEATLES in 66 and screamed like a little girl

Hendrix and the cool part of that was otis redding opening for him

A little Neil Young in Dallas but I can't remember that one.

I haven't been to many concerts lately but a few good shows come to mind.
Jerry Garcia Band in Milwaukee in 90 or 91.
Cowboy Junkies in Bloomington,IN with about 50 people in 88.
Black Flag with Henry Rollins while in high school in Detroit. That show was amazing. Henry kicked some dude in the face who was in the front of the pit.
Clifton Chenier (spelling ?) at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 89.
Pearl Jam at Magnuson in 92.

First - Led Zep in the Arena - 1969. Can't decide on what's best.

Right on! To date, I've been to 8 Rush concerts. Started with the one with the big dancing rabbit. Presto, maybe? Going (again) to both the upcoming Snakes & Arrow Tour in the Gorge and in Vancouver WA. Rush weekend! Had to miss the Rush concert last summer as I was in AK at the time.

Their 30 year reunion tour concert was pretty dang good.

First concert was an Elton John concert when I was about 10 or so.

Best concert had to be a Queensryche concert on New Year's Eve in the Seattle Colliseum. Back in the late 80's or very early 90's. I forget which. Sat in the middle of Row 6. The band played all of Operation Mind Crime AND Empire. They flat out sounded awesome and ROCKED for about 4 hours straight. It kicked ass.

The first Lollapalooza was pretty good, too...Jane's Addiction was the headliner, Ice-T and Bodycount, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Violent Femmes, FishBone...and much more.

Poured rain, was freezing cold, muddy, and battered from eight hours of getting mashed by the mosh pit and the bands...killer day.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd I was at that show too, and a killer show it was. I was really into Janes & Siouxsie back then...The muddy mosh pit was crazy, actually the whole Evergreen Fairgrounds was a mud pit.

First one was ZZ TOP warming the crowd up for ...... Rare Earth

The best one most fun one I don`t remember who was playing the tunes...

First concert?? Jerry would like this one: Grateful Dead at Memorial Coliseum in October, 1980.

Most memorable: dad loading me and three buddies on a northbound Amtrak train in 1981 to see Rolling Stones, Greg Kihn Band, and J Geils Band at the KingDome. He even waited at GI Joe's for me to get us seats ... pretty cool pops

First time I got to see "messed up" people in my lifetime

Best show? Hard to say, did a lot of them ... saw the Who twice, U2 three times, Rush, the Dead, ZZ Top, Bryan Adams, Journey, The Police, Madonna, 'Til Tuesday (Hard to beat freebie tix ... I have bad memories of boxed wine at this one), Rick Springfield (yes, I'll admit to it ... great girls!), Cathy Dennis, Debbie of course a couple of times ('front" row at KUBE New Year's Party), Sundays, Def Leppard, mentioned Stones show, Belinda Carlisle (front row), Goo-Goo Dolls, Collective Soul (front row) Celine (of course, at Vegas prices), Boston, Bobby Brown ... I know there were others ... gawd, probably some more that I was too drunk to remember too

My 1st real concert? Where I wasn't a stagehand for some dickhead country singers or some dumbass Babyboomer free music fest my parents dragged me to?

The Ramones/Debbie Harry at the Paramount, 1989

Tried to sneak down to the main floor because my 3rd Mezzanine ticket sucked, and the bouncers kept collaring me whenever i'd try, so on my final attempt, I ducked through an open door, and the dark hallway put me out on a catwalk right over the stage looking right down on Joey & Johnny. I got kinda scared and freaked so I went down another catwalk and through a door and there I was on a fire escape overlooking the tour busses where Debbie Harry was signing autographs 50 feet below. Then I really panicked because there were cops everywhere down there so I found my way back to my seat and sat like a good little 15 year old for the remainder of the show.

First concert - America
Best concert - That's a tough one. I got to work security will in college so I saw more free shows then I can remember. I remeber my buddy getting hit in the head with a bong at the monsters of rock show.
A couple I liked, The Scorpians and Robert Cray. Another was a few years ago. Pearl Jam and some other artists played a unplugged concert at Benaroya Hall. Pretty cool to see with only 2,500 people there.

Two I wish I had seem - Jimi and Alice & Chains with Lane Staley

First - Michael Jackson Victory Tour, July 6, 1984

Best - Lolla #1 was pretty sweet (shook hands w/ T,) Dead in KC '91, Dead in Chicago '95 (last show,) Iron Maiden/Anthrax '92(ish,) Jimmy Buffet (really hot day w/ many beautiful women wearing white t-shirts... then it started raining) GNR/Metallica, 5th row Allman Bros @ Gorge, Mark Knopfler!

Remembered another one ... very good seats for the Kinks, still have Dave Davies guitar pick that he tossed out on the bulletin board in my office

1st was 1976 Frampton/Jgeils/foghat
Best was UFO/Red Rider arena
worst was zztop Tacoma dome legs tour..played about 1-1/2 hours with not a single oncore lame!!!

Sol Duc, the Frampton/Jgeils/foghat was my first concert, too. Also my first trip to the Kingdome. Bought that 6 foot poster of Frampton and had it in my dorm room at Central for a couple of years. Chicks liked it.

78 Foreigner was my first concert over at the Coliseum. The best one was Molly Hatchet in 81 as I went with my friends sister Kelly (RIP), her boyfriend, and with Sol's sister Jill.

Ted Nugent as the headliner then frank marino and mohogany rush as the opener

Best hands down was AC/DC last time they were in town

Talk about dating ourselves..yikes

Paul McCartney in the Dome in 1988 (89?) was pretty good, too...but the acoustics were half-ass...

Bob Dylan at the Gorge, 1988...first concert ever there, so it didn't "sell out"...they just kept selling tickets, something like 22,000 tickets. People were sitting all up on the cliff above the stage it was so overbooked. The chick I was there with had just had knee surgery and was on crutches, so they let me drive up to the gate, park there, and carted us down to the stage area...very nice treatment, that.

Fish on...

Todd

Jethro Tull "Aqualung" That's what I'm talking about!!

Now Todd....
I've seen Bob 6 times. I love Bob but the dude does NOT do a good concert.
Bob enters stage left, walks to the mic and stands there and plays till he's done.
Good music to be sure but I think he had the right idea when he did the traveling Wilburys thing. Maybe he needs a suspending cage with strippers in it ala Beastie Boys.

First show: KISS, '78, Cow Palace in San Francisco. I was 12 years old, lived in the sticks, and there were 3 times as many people at that show as lived in my small town. Talk about mind blowing.

My favorite shows have been groups that existed before MTV. Aerosmith, B.O.C., Black Sabbath/Ozzy/Dio, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Pink Floyd, etc. They all knew how to rock before videos and it really came through in their stage presence/showmanship.

Best show was winning tickets to Metallica's Snakepit in '91 or '92 (Cow Palace) - We were in the center of the stage with the band playing all around us!

seastrike,

I can agree with that...I've seen Bob twice, and the first time he hardly said one word between songs...quite a bit more banter the second time, but still not much.

The 'best stuff' was the crowd, since I think they sell out the Gorge now at something less than 14,000 tickets, and getting a cart ride to stage left due to the crutches...

Fish on...

Todd

I have seen Chris Ledoux three times and I would have to say he put on the best concerts I have ever been to.

I'm thinking first and best was Ted Nugent, AC/DC, and Cheaptrick one night in Seattle back in, hmmmm, 77 or 78. Not for sure. If I remember correctly I had a bad cold or some other temporary condition

Any of you go to the Oregon jam 1979 or 80 ish? black sabbath blue oyster cult molly hatchet and riot? saw rush 2112 tour. ozzy with randy rhodes. cheap trick , van halen, tommy twotone{8675390}lol heart pat travers actually def leppard opened for him when they were about 16ish on through the night was that there first album. foghat, ufo ,iron maiden scorpians and girl scholl at one show. Boy if i think about this for awhile I am sure to come up with plenty more. No wonder I am so slow now a days.

Nah, but we did get CalJam since we were in port over at North Island. Lotta squids got hammered by UA's after that event.

Graduating from high school in the San Francisco Bay area in 1969 was the perfect time to see concerts at Filmore West and Winterland.I saw alot more bands than I can remember.

cheap trick back in 85... yakima fairgrounds.
first Rush show, the presto tour (rabbit in the tophat) portland colliseum.
my favorite show was the Rush counter parts tour at the gorge. they played 2112 in its entirety. something they hadn't done in many years. they brought working man out of retirement. read in neil peart blog somewheres that, at the time that gorge show was thier largest crowd they had ever played for.

hey parker i too have plans on being at both Rush shows too!

Santana at the Santa Cruz Civic 1989, Ten Years After at Santa Clara Fairgrounds in 1982( Alvin Lee walked off stage after some idiot threw a beer bottle at him!) Eagles at the Cow Palace( Long Run)1993 Fleetwood Mac at Shoreline Amphitheater1997 ,Tom Petty at Concord Pavilion1998, Joe Walsh solo at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds(so drunk he had to be carried off stage)1998. Hootie and Blowfish Shoreline Amphitheatre. Bad Company Catalyst 1993 Dave Mason 1995 Catalyst, Aerosmith at Clark co, Amphitheater2005 , Eagles at the Rose Garden 2003 Van Halen at the Rose Garden 2007 Billy Idol at Cow Palace 1997 He had to be deported from Thailand !! List goes on!!Crosby Stills and Nash Shoreline 1996

Pantera @ the coliseum numerous times is up there, same venue Pearl jam, allof the soundgarden shows were awesome, Tool @ kitsap county fairgrounds was awesome along with the 5- 10 other times , queensryche shows w- operation mind crime are up there, Nirvana @ the coliseum, Deftones anywhere, slayer, rage against the machine, tom petty, neil young, alice in chains (face lift tour) ac/dc two times @ t-dome, primus @ paramount, janes addiction, korn, faith no more, ministry, page plant, black sabbath, ozzy, candle box, sweetwater, tad, incubus (early days) blind melon, Van Halen and Van hagar, fugazi, metallica, god smack, Isis, strungout, offspring, 311, screaming trees, type o negative, lenny kravitz, all rocked and had many good times I can recal and some lost in time traveling/blackout mode.