Favorite Concert

What was your favorite classic rock concert?


I know it's hard to pick just one, so just list one that you really enjoyed.


I loved the Emerson, Lake & Palmer concert I went to in 1973.

What about you?

 

Bob Dylan's 1978 world tour.

 

My favorite concert was my first Dead show. Which happened to be Brent's last .....................



~namaste~

 

The Greatful Dead & the Jefferson Airplane playing for free together at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park in ...'71? ithink it was....

 

saw curtis mayfield in 73, that was rockin, but i gotta say out of all the rock concerts i've ever been to in my hippie life, it would have to be spearhead in 2004 and The Who in 2003.
hippiewise

 

I know this isn't considered rock, but Willie Nelson in 1985 or 6 at The Spectrum in Philly. I had won free tickets and I took my wife. He played three hours straight barely pausing between songs. The place was on their feet the whole time, burning out lighters. People were passed out everywhere, some even before the concert began. He's a lot older now and probably doesn't play that long, but don't miss him if you have a chance. Willie transcends rock or country--he's an American original.

 

My favorite concert was Woodstock 69'. The Ultimate Concert of the century or any century for that matter. It was the End and the Begining of Movement. The Originals began to burnout and a new breed was settling in.

I was a youngster age of 16 when I hit Haight St. The music was the culture and the message that was sent inspired more and more to join in the turnning event. It called out for unity and equailty. It beconed to be reconized and addressed. They came by the thousands. Each looking for their place, each having life altering experiences being led by the music to a different level, a new rythem that made our hearts beat in a fashion that stirred the soul.

Where ever there was music, a crowd would gather. It was contagious. The vibrational tones that opened new doorways to a more spiritual quest was drawing more and more attention. With words that stung the conscience of america we sang our songs of peace, love and brotherhood and the injustice of war and ignorance.

We gather at the concerts and we supported the cause by walking the walk. The music was our lifestyle it reflected who we were and what our message was.

Woodstock was the Ultimate Message and our show of strenght and support. 250,000
strong and that was just a part of tribes, there were numbers of us who didnt attend.

Ahh bittersweet memories. The sublime chaos, for that, which follows chaos is peace.

Blessed Be

 

Led Zep 1968 three hundred people showed up for the show, a couple months later zep one is released and every show is sold out.

 

Pink Floyd at Music Hall in Cincinnati, 1971.

 

My all time favorite would have to be CSN&Y ...each and every time I saw them, I was amazed and entranced by their beautiful harmonies and their meaningful lyrics.
However, the very first concert I ever attended was Elton John, I think in 1970. He premeired Rocket Man that night...it was superb!

 

The Allman Brothers jamming in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Ga. in the fall of 1970. There was nothing announced ahead of time, just word of mouth and maybe a local radio station at the last minute. They played for hours, to a growing crowd of freaks from Peachtree St. I was lucky, I was about 20 feet from the little concrete stage they were on. I still consider Duane to be one of the best guitarist ever.

 

So many shows....but one came to me like a flash above the others...well, two actually.

Both in 1969. First, The Moody Blues/Pink Floyd at Temple Stadium.

Then there was Janis Joplin's show at Woodstock. What a performer she was!!!

I've been blessed to see hundreds and hundreds of shows in my day, but those two still blow me away!

Zen

 

I'd have to say my fav concert would be my first Grateful Dead show at Veterans stadium (Dylan was w/them) in Philly '87. The next shows I caught was at MSG and my mind was blown during Space. It was like everything went from gray to Technicolor from then on.
Our camp treatment director gave me his ticket to Philly when he couldn’t go. Jon if you see this I love ya man! I had been listening to his old bootlegs and wasn’t real impressed until I saw and heard the Dead live. I could write 500 pages on how my life changed in so many ways after experiencing touring and shows and living the life. Saw around 30 more shows after that. Last one was Chicago and then Jerry passed....the day the music died for me...life went back to black and white.

 

The Beatles at Candlestick Park in 1966. I have been to much better concerts from a sound quality standpoint, but that's the one that stands out in my mind.

 

Jerry @ the park.

 

Isaac Hayes at the Hara Arena in 1976.

 

Ranger
That show I believe that show was put by "the poeple's ballroom" and the Good Earth in 1973 and was @ Lindley Meadows.

 

I Would Have Agree with Nailcakes that would be the biggest & best Woodstock

 

Where do I start? Saw Hendrix first time he played Winterland. Big Brother with Janis at the Avalon I don't know how many times, Big Sur Folk Festival at Esalen in '69 with CSN&Y, Joanie & Joni, John Sebastian. Country Joe & The Fish and the Doors at the Magic Mountain Music Festival way up in Mountain Theater up on Tamalpais in '67. Really some of my favorites were the concerts in the Panhandle and out in Speedway or Marx Meadows (Big Brother, Sons of Champlin...). More intimate and tribal at the same time. My favorite was always Quicksilver....Cipollina definitely had the fingers of Mercury! Saw Hendrix in the Panhandle as well as Blue Cheer, the Dead, Airplane. "The music never stopped..." ;-)

But looking back, one of the best concerts, in terms of fun factor, had to be when the Dead did Monterey Civic Auditorium in the summer of '69. They were ON that night! The original group, Pigpen at his bluesiest, and Garcia, in his trademark red football jersey, melted the paint right off the walls with his old trusty SG. Yeah, that's one that sticks in the memory. I'd say that one and just about whenever the Youngbloods played...anywhere. Banana was a friggin' musical genius, far as my friends and I were concerned, and Jesse Colin Young simply had the perfect voice. One of the last times I saw them was at the Family Dog out on the Great Highway, right about the time Elephant Mountain came out. Tasty, just the best.

Jeesh, I can't believe I forgot the Stones! And it was twice in one month, both iconic concerts. It was the end of '69, and the Stones were on their now legendary tour with BB King, Ike & Tina, and Terry Reid. This was shortly after Brian Jones died, and Mick Taylor, another blessed with the fingers of Mercury, had joined the Stones. They played Oakland Auditorium, and it was simply astonishing. Ike and Tina just blew the room away! That lady could PUMP!! And we weren't the only ones who thought so. We were in the seventh row, all the way stage right. I looked over to my left halfway through Ike & Tina's set, and 20 feet away in the near side of the backstage area was Jagger, watching Tina's every move and dancing his ass off! Yeah, that's where Jagger learned to dance and prance, that tour, for sure! Then the Stones hit the stage, when we first heard that opening intro, "Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest rock n' roll band in the world, THE ROLLING STONES!" It seemed over the top when we heard it that first time (the Beatles were still an active band), but then they began to play. Instantly, everyone in that hall knew it was true. Maybe it was the intensity of events over the prior 18 months, Brian's death, etc., etc. But they were taking giant leaps, from Beggar's Banquet to Let It Bleed, and in spite of losing Brian, the chemistry between Richards and Taylor was forged by the gods somewhere in between the buttons. They were peaking, though Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street were yet to come. But as far as live performance? They were peaking like no band I've ever seen before or since. Absolute control over material, execution, and sheer power over an audience. Mesmerizing, electric, archetypically astounding, an exponential expansion in magnitude of just what a rock n' roll band could lay down, all this doesn't even come close to describing that night. It was the top of the mountain, for them as well as their audience, I have no doubt.

And it was the top, because a month later, myself and one of my buddies made the early morning trek to Altamont. We were in the middle of the crowd when it all went down, and witnessed, in all it's roiling, satanic implosion, the official end of the '60s. The anti-Woodstock, the maw of Hades swallowing the hubris of all our wild imaginations. Altamont's been well documented, in film and otherwise, so I won't go into it here. But, yeah, the Stones in '69? They wielded Thor's Hammer....the Oakland concert was definitely the best I ever saw.

 

Zenbo-is the Avalon the venue with the open porch facing the street below? For sheer adrenalin,Ministry's farewell tour. And every time I saw Janis & Big Brother was some other favorites.