So I woke up this morning to find out on face book's news feed that Wayne Static of turn of the millennium nu-metal band Static- X had died. Static X was one of the openers for Powerman5000 at the very first concert I ever went to when I was 13. I had been to outdoor festivals that had plenty of well known acts with my parents before this but this was the first real concert I ever chose to go to. It was a few years before I got into what is considered good music and left my Hot Topic Teen angst music behind. I youtubed Static X, Powermann 5000, Orgy, and the rest of the stuff I used to listened to recently and was aghast at how horrible it was. I give them props to continuing to make music in what ever form their band took after they had peaked popularity wise, but good lord I don't know what I was thinking listening to that crap. Still, it is always nice to go down memory lane and this is the internet. Focus What was your first concert? Did your taste in music from your tweens stand the test of time?
Man when I heard this news this morning, I had some immediate nostalgia moments of listing to Static X in high school. I didnt realize that dude was 48, but time flies I guess. I think my first concert was Good Charlotte and New Found Glory in 7th grade. I think The Used was the opening act, but I remember having a great time, even if that kind of music makes me cringe now. My second after that was Static X and Disturbed (may have been Ozzfest?), which was awesome. It was my first experience entering the mosh pit and it wasnt my last. My musical tastes have tempered since then, but those concerts were a lot of fun. EDIT: Just kidding, my first concert was Sesame Street Live. Bump.
My first (big name) concert was Cyndi Lauper. She was the first artist I was really obsessed with when I was a kid, and I used to videotape myself dancing to her songs for my dad to send to her so I could be a backup dancer for her. I read the liner notes to 12 Deadly Cyns so much that they were completely falling apart. (I don't know how my dad managed to keep a straight face listening to me sing along to She Bop when I was 6.) I went with my dad and best friend. She was playing in a relatively small theater so we managed to sit only a few rows from the stage, and at one point when there was a crowd of people standing right by the stage I joined in and touched her hand, and it was THE BEST.
1997 Pantera/Anthrax. I wish I remembered Anthrax better, wasn't into them at the time and now I'm a huge John Bush fan (even though he doesn't sing for them anymore). But Pantera smoked everyone off the stage. Literally and figuratively. This Hispanic kid tried starting a mosh pit alone, between me and my friend. Huge grin on his face. He was probably high. Almost everyone was. Abbot's drums were thunderous, felt like they'd cave my chest in. My head pounded for a solid 24 hours. The opener was... shit, I don't remember. But they were bad. Real bad. 50 people bothered to line up in front of the stage and even over the sound system I heard someone scream "Go back to smoking crack!" Singer had the crack body real good. I still listen to Pantera. Metallica is my favorite band, been so since 1997 when I bought my first cd: And Justice For All. Still listen to them at least once a day. Black Sabbath too. Though I absolutely loathe most metal and the fuck-tits in the "metal" "community". My taste hasn't changed much. Always dug Hendrix, Skynyrd, acoustic stuff. All this wonderful stuff I ignored in my youth, ZZ Top, Stones, Van Halen, even starting to dig The Beatles now. Appreciating classical now, too, which is something I would not have had the patience for 10 years ago. Suppose it's a shame that Wayne Static died, but junkies are on a one way destination. Nobody is getting in their way. Except maybe an EMT. I wonder if he'll have to get an extra long coffin for his hair.
Mine was the Black Eyed Peas in the summer between grade 8 and 9. They were horrible. It makes me cringe thinking that I paid $80 or $90 for that in addition to buying a huge overpriced brown sweater that said "Elephunk" on it. Shortly after that, my older brother started letting me tag along to hardcore shows with him and I've been going to those ever since. My first big name show was Protest the Hero, when they were just starting out and I've seen them multiple times since.
Van Halen, 1984 tour, followed by Bruce Springsteen, Born In The USA, and Phil Collins all within the same month. Still listen to VH religiously to this day, the others, not so much. Still a huge fan of that classic guitar rock, and have morphed into Chickenfoot and the like.
My parents took me to a Billy Joel Concert when I was 9 in Miami. Had a good time because I knew all the songs. Which is weird, because I was 9. But thats what you get when you are a kid and your mom plays his vinyls on the home stereo when she's doing Sunday cleaning. I still really enjoy his music and the writing resonates a little more with me when I'm older. Once I became a teenager, I used to go to rock concerts like Aerosmith when I was 17 and the Buzz Bake Sale at Mars Music Amphitheater(fuck you, I don't care what its called now). I still enjoy a good deal of the music I listened to back then. At that particular festival, Static X played and I thought it was unlistenable garbage. The band, Tantric was also there. I really enjoyed them because they were a morphed version of Days of the New. Then something happened to the lead singer and it sounded like he was about to fall over and die when he was singing. I guess he's ok now.
I bought my first band shirt from my first concert. Static Xs tour shirt just looked cooler than Powerman's even though I'd not really listened to them and was there for Powerman 5000. I wore that motherfucker out and it wore in better than any shirt Ive ever had. I turned it into a gym cut off and still wear it as a lazy Sunday lounging shirt. I went to their show next year when they headlined and Chevelle was an opener. They were actually a good band but weren't hard enough for the crowd.
I went to a fair number of concerts when I was a kid, but the first general admission concert I went to, when I got to stand up by the stage and squish in with a ton of other people, was Jimmy Eat World when I was 12. It was at a relatively small theater in Detroit, and my mom took me and my best friend. We even stuck around afterwards to get our shirts signed, and they gave us hugs. It was SO COOL.
My first concert was Matchbox 20, in August of 1998, the summer between 6th and 7th grades. Soul Asylum was the opening act. I am definitely not a Matchbox 20 fan now, but it is still a good memory. And I can at least take solace in the fact that I never went to a Limp Bizkit concert (I used to like them).
REO Speedwagon - when I was 12 and they had come out with their Wheels Are Turnin album. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person at that concert by a couple of decades. Also, yes:
First concert was Kiss, not long after the first big reunion in makeup, in Oct. '96. There were some shows that I definitely should have gone to well before that; I was 21 at that point. Woe to me for missing Queensryche on the Building Empires tour, but I did finally get to see them play all of Operation: Mindcrime ten years ago this coming January. And yes, my taste in music from my tweens has definitely stood the test of time. Almost any song I liked in the late 80s I still like today; the only exception is Pour Some Sugar On Me. When the video for it first hit MTV in spring '88, I was fucking nuts for it. Now, I really don't know what I was thinking. But literally any other song I liked in the Reagan/Bush Sr eras, whether hair metal, mainstream pop, or stuff my dad was listening to (80s Kinks, The Call, later Talking Heads) I still enjoy today.
The first concert I ever went to was Liberace when I was like six or seven years old. Say what you will, but that man was a fucking showman. The first concert I went to sans parents was Motley Crue on their Girls, Girls, Girls tour (1987 I think?)at the Worcester Centrum. Whitesnake was their opener, and both bands absolutely knocked it out of the park. I can't really say I'm still a Crue fan because I basically gave up on them after Feelgood, but I did just go to their show a couple of weeks ago over in Lauderdale if for nothing else but nostalgia.
My first concert was a bunch of Chinese skinhead bands and one German at a camping ground an hour outside of Beijing when I was 16. I don't remember most of the bands' names. As part of the the ticket you got 12 half liter beers. I ended up in a drinking contest with some Korean dude so I went through my 6 liters in about an hour and jumped in the mosh pit. The bands were fun, it wasn't really what you would call high quality music, but I was 16 and loved the intensity of it. It was a smallish event with less than a thousand people so we got to meet and have a few drinks with some of the band members after it was over. The singers kept storming into mosh pit during the songs, so they would get tackled and then the crowd would throw them back up on stage. It was more like a rave out in the woods than most of the concerts I've been to since.
Focus: My first concert was when I was in 1997, I was a junior in high school. I saw Foo Fighters, Talk Show, and Treble Charger.
My first concert was the Police on their "final tour" for Synchronicity in 1983. I was nine, my parents were pretty cool and decided that we would all go. I don't remember much about it except that it was really loud and I'm pretty sure the keyboard parts were recorded. In fact the coolest part about the concert is that I can say I saw the Police back in the day. The Police are definitely still listenable but are far from my favorite band. The first concert I can really remember getting psyched for was the Replacements on their "final tour" when I was a senior in high school. I knew all the songs and I'm pretty sure you can hear me yelling song requests on the bootleg. A group of us drove up to Ann Arbor in the middle of the winter and we ended up getting a hotel room because the snow was so bad. We tried to find someone to buy us some booze and we finally ended up getting a bum to do it for us. I think it's pretty cool that Paul and Tommy have gotten back together and seem to be having a really good time playing music together again. I hope to see them again.
Rick Springfield! It was a birthday present from my friend Krissy. Thanks! And then I saw Joan Jett, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello and some others at the Pocono Jam. It Rick was my first true love. For a singer. Actor different story.
The first band I ever saw live was Savage Garden. You probably wouldn't know who they were unless you were Australian. My parents had a significant say in who/what I listened to growing up. Anything with swearing (read: cool - Blink, Offspring etc) were not allowed. Although it's probably due to them that I discovered Queen, The Beatles, Rolling Stones etc and I love classic 70s/80s/90s music, so I shouldn't complain too much. If I wanted to cite the first band I ever saw live that weren't influenced by my parents - it unfortunately gets much much worse. Good Charlotte. Fortunately (or perhaps its a sad indictment of us), I also happen to share this with most of my friends, so we suffer the indignity together.
My first summer out of high school I saw the Eagles and Doobie Brothers in an all day concert. Elton John happened to come out and play piano on both bands encores. This was not any reunion tours or some such bullshit. This was back in the day when both bands were recording actually selling albums. I have made sure the twins did not have to wait that long to see their favorite bands. Their first concert was seeing The Offspring during a "Vans Warp Tour". They were 10 at the time. Gotta get them going to live shows young if you are going to hook them.
My first concert of note was either PJ Harvey or The Datsuns both around the end of 2005. Both absolutely amazing shows. As for the music I listened to back in the day I still love most of it, my favourite bands are still from that era.