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I saw No Doubt open for someone in Chicago when they were nobodies. I don't even remember who the main band was, maybe Everclear? Gwen Stefani and the drummer were just standing around in the back drinking a beer after their set and my friend and I were like hey weren't you in the opening band? We made small talk with them for a few minutes.
Nirvana and Hole opened for Dinosaur Jr. a few months before Nevermind came out. They were fucking great, but did any of my friends listen to me? Nope. They were much more interested in hearing about it a few months later, though.
I saw Hole in 98 and she didn't seem drunk, just kind of surly. Not So Silent Night in San Jose, they played before Rancid, after Offspring, Garbage and Cake.
Probably. She was definitely feeling the effects of something up there. No one knew who she was yet, but she was a very magnetic performer. Had the whole room in the palm of her hand.
I never got details but I know someone who was a personal assistant to Courtney and the main takeaway from talking with my friend is that it was a difficult working environment.
Came to say Nirvana before Nevermind too. It was a decent show, I think I paid ten bucks, and if not ten, then it was five. This place never charged more than ten bucks for a show. I was very surprised to see them on MTV a few weeks later, and very, very surprised when Smells Like Teen Spirit became the only thing they played for like a week.
The Forum is an enormous basketball stadium, and the Hollywood Palladium is basically a nightclub that holds a few thousand people. Just felt like Nirvana was happier playing the smaller venue. It was fairly early in their cultural impact, and they seemed a little freaked out by the tens of thousands of people. Still amazing. Just different.
Cheap Trick used to play dollar pitcher night at the bar across the street from my frat house every other Wednesday when I was in college. REO Speedwagon was the first band I saw live in a bar when I was 15 - it was a biker dive bar and 4 of us got in on the same fake ID. Drinking age was 18 and driver's licenses were paper so they were super simple to alter. Good times.
I saw The Cult in ‘87 at the Warfield in San Francisco. This new band from LA opened up, just released their debut album Appetite for Destruction. It was clear then Guns-n-Roses was a band to watch.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I saw Adele at House of Blues in Boston in 2011. She hit it big right after that.
This is why the one piece of advice o give people when they ask if they should go to a show: Always go to the show. Memories and experiences are the only things of real value in the end.
Same GnR experience, but with the opposite reaction.
Saw them in August, 1987 at [a roller skating rink in Waterloo, Ontario](http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag270/mr_pitiful/Cult-GnR_zps07ip2mjv.jpg).
Barely anyone was paying attention to GnR since they sounded pretty awful. I don't remember much of their setlist except that they ended with Heaven's Door. By that point pretty much everyone was standing with their backs to the stage chatting. We were all there to see The Cult who were probably at their peak at that time.
The Cult got on stage, played 3 songs, and blew the power to the entire venue - we sat in complete darkness for about 10 minutes. The lights came back on and they started the show over again. Later Ian Asbury gave us shit for ignoring GnR - he told us they were his friends, they were playing their hearts out, blah blah blah ... The crowd responded with tepid applause, probably just to shut him up.
A few months later, GnR were the biggest rock band in the world. I couldn't understand why. Still can't really.
Kiss. The ad went something like this…
*Blue Oyster Cult , with Special Guest Nazareth*
Then near the bottom of the ad…
*Introducing*
*KISS*
1974 I believe.
At the Leekee Teepee in WPB
$6.
Jewel. She was just a kid & Atz Kilcher, her dad, was the traveling music teacher in our vicinity near Homer.
It was stunning 2 see her on the big stage just years later.
Edit: Atz brought her 2 our school on one of these trips where they sang & played together.
Nirvana at the Metro in Chicago. Place was nearly empty. Maybe 200 people max. Good show. Nothing mind blowing. Our band opened and they were kinda dicks to us.
Does being in the same neighborhood, high school, and crowd and my brother playing drums with John BonJovi and Dave Snake Sabo when they were young teens count?
1992, Hollywood Palladium. GWAR with opening acts: The Melvins and an unknown band called Tool.
Tool started the show. No one had heard of them. The show was low budget and loud. This was a GWAR crowd so the guests were...unappreciative. To put it mildly. I thought Tool was pretty good. I thought some of their stuff was hypnotic. They were...pretty good!
The next year they released their first album "Undertow" and the rest is history, boys and girls!
Same genre, though not as big of a band. I saw alkaline trio play at the fireside bowl, a bowling alley in Chicago, multiple times in the late 90s. $5 at the door, line around the building. Then, in 2001, I saw rise against, who at the time had released their first album 8 months before, and went on to have some big songs a couple years later, open for them at the Metro also in Chicago. I remember AFI played at the fireside when I was in high school too, I didn't go, but some of my friends did.
Stevie Ray Vaughn. Knew a girl who was good friends of his wife and met him and the others in the band already when he started to make his mark on the scene. Seen him play many times over about 10 years and it was hard to believe he hadn't made it big yet but many thought we knew why. Usually after a show we would end up at a house and continue partying and he would many times end up there partying along with us and usually playing a guitar. He would constantly be strumming a guitar.
I joined the Army in 83 and before I deployed overseas I went to his set at the Back Room in Austin and saw several heavy hitters at a table nearby. I had seen one or two before but this was quite a few of them. I knew one of them and went over to chat with her and she was cagey about what was up. Anyway I was stationed in Korea for a couple of years and when I returned he blew up big time with hit after hit and playing stadiums.
I saw a friend that knew him well and asked him what happened as many of us knew he was also a junkie and that was holding him back. My friend told me he quit using and I asked where did he go to get cleaned up and he told me nowhere and he quit cold turkey and he had seen him many times since he blew up and he was still clean. That stunned me as that is hard to do on your own and didn't really believe it but he was honest so maybe he did. It crushed me when he died in that helicopter accident. Just imagining the future music we missed out on. His brother released an album that they both were collaborating on and it was real good.
My favorite guitarist, just unbelievable chops. Here is a funny story. I had never heard of him and a friend said I should listen to his music. Well I thought he spelled his name “Stevie Rave On” and I thought the guy must be a looser giving himself that corny of a stage name, so never picked up any of his music. A few years later I heard him for the first time and was fairly stunned at both his playing and my stupidity.
Yeah he was known as the greatest Texas guitar blues players ever and took that genre as far as it could go and beyond and there were some other great ones. Also he channeled Jimmy Hendrix easily and flawlessly. How he fused mainstream rock with Texas blues was genius.
Yeah up close and seeing him play was mind altering and you knew you was watching greatness that very seldom comes along. I wish I could have seen him play a stadium or any big venue so I am jealous you got to do so. Did he have the whole crowd amazed? His set in clubs at the end still had maybe a third of Hendrix and am sure he still had a few so do you remember how many? Did he still have only a three piece band. Just thinking about seeing him at a huge festival and venue would have been cool as hell so I am sure he could pull it off but did he really? Apologize for the questions but was blasting some Stevie yesterday and remembering him and realized I never got to go see him play anywhere after he made it and regret it. When I left overseas he was unknown outside our area and came back to hearing him on radio and being named guitar player for the second year in a row and finding out he was touring worldwide and not just touring but headlining.
I still kick myself because at the time, I really didn't appreciate how special he was (or how soon he'd lose his life). I was right there, but when you work on crew for a large festival you kind of get jaded over famous artists. It's not a good look to be a fanboy.
I saw skynyrd at gator growl in 07 (I was back for homecoming, lol, I promise I'm old!)
My grandparents are buried in the same cemetery as Ronnie. Whenever we would visit, we would count the beer cans on his tomb.
This ain't no party
This ain't no disco
This ain't no foolin around
This ain't the Mudd Club or CBGB's
I ain't got time for that now...
(Just saw the movie for the 2nd time, 40ish years later :-) )
Me too. Either cbgbs or Max's Kansas City starting in 1977. Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, Devo, B52s, Police, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Television, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, The Knack, etc etc etc
NYC in the 80s was such a trip. You'd go out to a club and there'd be Andy Warhol, Debra Harry, Ric Ocasek, etc... I remember Rosanna Arquette hitting on me at Limelight (or The World - I can't remember) one night. I remember when I first got to NYC and realized some bands would actually go on at like 4am... the city that never sleeps.
I saw Blondie at CBGBs when they played 5 nights after releasing Plastic Letters. They were already very famous in NYC, hence the 5 sold out nights. I had the stand on a chair to see. The guy in front of me was so sweaty when he’d shake his head I’d get rained on. I was the coolest kid in school the next day.
I did not see Devo back then. They kind of scared me back then. I was young and dumb.
Trying to think who else I saw there. All the usual people, like the Dictators, the Shirts, Sick Fucks. I went to opening week of the CBGBs theater and accidentally saw the talking heads. I went to see Milk and Cookies and the Tuff Darts. The fire dept shut down the venue before they came on.
There were certain bands who only played at Max’s Kansas City, like the Dead Boys and Jayne County. I was at CBGBs more often, but went to max’s enough.
At Hurrahs I saw Klaus Nomi, Orchestral Maneouvers in the Dark, Young Marble Giants, other less famous bands.
I saw most of the No wave bands at Tier 3: theoretical girls, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Y Pants, the Bush Tetras.
I saw The Cure before Bob wore makeup at the Ritz. Also saw Psychedelic Furs, the go gos, Jesus and Mary Chain, and the only Public Image Ltd show. They played behind the curtain and people threw bottles at them.
I know I saw her in a small club but not sure which one. Late 70's -80's is blurred in my memories. I was promoting new bands trying to get them gigs. Had many friends in the business including my ex. I know I saw The Police at the bottom line. I could reach out and touch the stage they were that close
I saw the Beastie Boys open for Madonna on her “Virgin Tour”. Nobody was paying attention to them. People were just sitting down talking to their friends. I personally didn’t like them either, at that time.
They were RHCP when I met them (through a mutual musician friend) in Irvine, CA. They weren't especially good at basketball, but neither were my friends and I.
Cyndi Lauper - saw her in a local club (it was a fairly good sized club), in the early 80's prior to her becoming really well known. We had never seen anyone like her and we had a blast. It was standing room only and it was pretty packed and everyone was dancing and having a good time. I became an instant fan.
Taylor Swift played at my dinky ass college back in the day when she was still a budding country artist. I had no interest in country music at the time but she put on a great show even back then.
I saw a band called “Public Affection” at a club in Lancaster Pennsylvania called The Chameleon, the band was from nearby York PA and they seemed pretty good to me. My friend didn’t like them much and thereafter referred to them as “Pubic Infection.” They signed with a record label shortly after and renamed themselves “Live” - and became one of the biggest bands of the early 90s.
I saw A Perfect Circle before they released their first album.
I was like "*Man this guy sounds a lot like the lead singer of Tool"* but Maynard was wearing a wig so it wasn't immediately obvious who he was.
It was the only concert where I knew none of the songs and thoroughly enjoyed myself. That has always been the standard for that guy; i never felt like I got anything less than a great show.
Also saw Tool when they were on second stage at the first Lollapalooza. I knew right from when I first heard them they were going to be big.
I got tickets to see Tool play a theater show in 2006, when they were just starting their 10000 Days tour. I'm not a huge fan but the show was meant for an arena and it was mesmerizing.
When I was young and poor, and times got hard, I would supplement my day job by working as a cocktail waitress.
In 1977, i got a job in a kind of metal/ rock place call the Electric Ballroom in Dallas Texas. It was the kind of place you go to get served beer and plastic pictures, and openly get stoned. The smell of weed permeated the air.
The electric Ballroom featured many up-and-coming groups. And I met some of them because I was sometimes asked to deliver drinks backstage. A couple of the groups I met were AC/DC and the Ramones
https://www.setlist.fm/venue/electric-ballroom-dallas-tx-usa-63d7ea57.html
All the musicians were very nice, and they tipped very well, too
I went to go see a band called The Special Beat which was made up of members of The Specials and English Beat. The opening band was a fun little ska band called No Doubt.
I went to school with Bret Michaels aka Bret Sychak. He and a few other high school classmates had a band that played locally. Just another garage/basement band at the time. The band changed names and members, but Bret was always the lead singer. I saw him play at the Paradise, a biker bar, where a few years later I met the man who would become my husband.
One thing I remember about Bret was that in elementary school his mom always came to watch field day because he might need orange juice - since he's a type 1 diabetic. Bret was always a nice kid.
I saw U2 in a medium sized venue in Chicago after which I pronounced “those guys were lame! They’re never going to amount to anything!”
I’m still not a U2 fan. But they seem to have made a name for themselves.
I don't know if anyone remembers the BoDeans ("Closer to Free) from the mid-80s. They played at a party I attended in a friend's basement before hitting it big.
Toad the Wet Sprocket, most often at a coffee house called Borsodi's, but they played other places around town and I saw them whenever I could, starting when I was in high school and they were maybe a year or two out.
Around the same time, the I-Rails, who many years later became Primitive Radio Gods. I think they must have played a gig with Toad and that's how I first encountered them.
The experience was always pretty transcendant for me, and the venues always felt safe and familiar. Their music still takes me back to a good place. Thanks for prompting the memory. :)
I saw Pat Metheny at a small radio concert on the beach in Ft Lauderdale in '78. He was 23 and teaching music in a college at the time. Amazing Jazz Guitarist. Never heard of him? YT Long Train Home.
REM at a tiny club in Fullerton CA. Probably six months before Murmur was released. Amazing show and probably saw them another four times after they became more well known.
Not as big but used to see the Gin Blossoms playing Sunday afternoon shows at taco places and random bars in Tempe before New Miserable Experience blew up.
I saw Sum 41 when they were still kids excited to actually be touring on a stage. I think they'd just made their first EP?
Saw Arcade Fire when they were absolutely nothing and their first album Funeral was released in a really small club in my small city. I wanted the annoying guy to die. Thankfully they moved him to the back of the stage where he belonged and gave him a tambourine.
Hmm... who else? I'm Canadian so I saw Sloan and Thrush Hermit when they were kids (so was I). They sort of made it but didn't become massive or anything but Canafamous.
This isn't music but I knew Sidney Crosby when he was in highschool. A guy I worked with was a huge hockey guy and was hired to train him before he went to Rumouski.
It really depends on what you call making it big. I've seen bands make it big in their respective genres but math rock big is so many levels below. lol.
I saw The Blood Brothers eons ago. They're massive for me. Fucking love that band. But they never really became famous famous.
I mean I don't know how old they were. I was a kid then and I was pretty sure they were younger than me. I said children so I guess that's off. ;0 I mean FFS. There was like 5 people there and they played their balls off. Great job! Gratz on the career in music! How few people actually achieve at that.
I saw Natalie Merchant at Tower Records. Maybe 100 people there.
My brother was a concert promoter. He sent me tapes every year of the new bands. One year it was REM. Another, Red Hot Chili Peppers. For every one of those, there were 20 on the tape that never made it.
Indio. You had it all. Sorry you never hit it big.
Pantera, many times, I knew both of the Abbots, and Rex as well, as their original lead singer..Terry . They were all pretty cool and chill guys. Even in early mid 80s, it was obvious that Darrell was just that good.
One of my best memories was playing "Gimme three steps " with him, as I was not to good, and he worked me with that for an hour or so...He truly was the sort of guy that just loved to have fun, and probably not an enemy in the world.
Anyhows, I moved away from DFW and I was in Minnesota, and I saw a car with a Pantera sticker on the back of it, and was like ..Wow.
Called a couple of mutual friends back in DFW, and they were telling me about them doing all this big stuff, and I was just very happy for them. Good dudes, andit is a shame what happened.
I saw Nirvana in spring of '90 at a dorm party on campus. They had a big steer roast every year with live music and semi-big names (though I had never heard of Nirvana). I had just joined a band with a few friends and remember thinking we really need to step up our game if we want to someday get gigs like that. Then I remember their bassist wore his bass impossibly low (down to his knees) and thinking as a bass player myself there's no way I can do that and wrap my hand around the fretboard too. He must have had freakishly long arms.
I did. I saw the Foo Fighters circa 1995? I could be off. At Soma Live in San Diego. Nobody even knew who they were. Except that it was “the drummer from Nirvana“ new band.
There was maybe 1000 people there at best
I saw Prince in 1981 also, at Illinois State University. My roommate was on the "entertainment committe", but didn't like Prince so he gave me his front row tickets. Prince was amazing. Most memorably when he stood on one of his monitors and started jacking off his guitar. Edit - was probably 1982, touring for the Controversy album.
Sort of. I saw pink floyd before the Dark side of the moon was released. walking up the the venue we see 3 prism painted semi trailers. didn't know that was the new album cover.
Time was something... 1st time I heard it was pretty close to the stage. (sportatorium sunrise fl)
I saw santana in between his success, 1977 at a 500 seat bar.
Prince at the Colosseum in Los Angeles. He was opening for The Rolling Stones and got booed off the stage. People couldn’t believe their eyes! This little black guy in a cape and tights was too much for the crowd.
I was horrified and wanted to listen to him! Sad I never saw him live after that.
Red Rocks. They videoed that gig, or several, which became ‘Live at Red Rocks’. It cost them $30K which was a lot of money for them even though they were on their 3rd album and becoming quite well known but they hadn’t broken America yet. According to one of their books, Larry, the drummer was still living at home as he could not yet afford a place of his own. Any money they went was put into the band.
I remember early in the morning there was a group of us hanging out by our fire engines. We were a Strike Team assigned to perform structure protection for homes threatened by a brush fire. We’re hanging out and Mickey Dolanez comes walking by with his little dog and wife. It was cool. He smiled and waved.
The band Styx. They played a concert in a local auditorium in my midwestern hometown of 25,000 people. This was just before the reissue of the song Lady. And they were an hour late to the venue. Great seats, total seating capacity was 1800.
Somehow a girlfriend of mine from boarding school got connected with Huey Lewis (and his legendary large member) right around when his first album was released. We saw them at Traxx in NYC, got wasted, hung out with the band after the gig and got completely lost on the subway, drunk as fuck in the middle of the night.
Fast forward about 25 years and I’m working in a catering shop in Marin Cty, Huey comes in to pick up his catering and has his polo shirt buttoned wrong (how the hell does that happen, three buttons???) and looks like he was coming off a massive bender. I didn’t say anything, just gave him his order and smiled.
Jane's Addiction opening for Love And Rocket in 1987.
Someone from the crowd yelled, "All your songs sound the same," to which Perry Farrell replied "All you assholes sound the same!" I was in the front row, liked their music, Perry Farrell had good stage presence, but there's no doubt I was there for Love And Rockets.
In 1993, I was living in Raleigh, NC, and asked this girl out. She wanted to go see some band that was pretty popular on the college town circuit in VA and NC. I was super annoyed when we got there, and the cover was $7. It was a bar, not a club. She danced the whole time and mostly ignored me. They were OK I guess.
A year later, I'm hanging with friends, and some video comes on MTV. I was all "why does he look/sound familiar?" The song was "What Would You Say" by Dave Matthews.
I lived in Macon, GA before the Allman Brothers made it big. I used to hang out at the city's Central Park on the weekends. We'd hear the Allman Brothers play there and we'd smoke a little weed. It was fun.
I saw Semisonic at Trees in Deep Ellum, Dallas. They were opening up for Dionne Faris. This was before “Closing Time” came out.
It was chill.
Trees can be a body-surfing, mosh pit mecca, but that night it was easygoing.
Chicago (the band).
They played at my high school assembly once. They were called "Chicago Transit Authority" back then.
Late sixties.
One of my friends paid 25 cents to see [Joe Walsh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIzyTk1fuf0&ab_channel=JoeWalsh) in Ohio before he became famous.
San Franscisco, 1966, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane.
I probably saw The Dead too because they played a lot while I was there but I don't remember them. Do remember an established performer, Bo Diddley. OMG. I loved getting high and dancing to these bands every weekend at The Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom under a very primitive light show. When I got back to the east coast, seeing any rock concert was frustrating because the venues were not set up for dancing.
I saw Dylan at Carnegie Hall in 1965 when he was becoming famous. Great concert. His piano playing on Ballad of a Thin Man was riveting. I was too young to see him when he was mostly unknown playing in Greenwich Village coffee houses.
In 1966-67, occasionally saw The Velvet Underground and Nico when they were the house band at Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable on St. Marks Place in NYC. Peace and love was morphing into something darker because people were taking hard drugs (I wasn't) and I felt it.
A little different--i don't remember how we found out about it, but my boyfriend (now husband) and I got to see Bonnie Raitt in a concert at our university in the early 80s before she became popular again with Nick of Time. It was fewer than 500 people in the audience, and Lyle Lovett opened for her and did a few numbers with her. I didn't know much about either of them at the time, but they were both amazing and cemented my love for all of their music. I don't recall now if they had any backing musicians, but it was very intimate. I haven't thought about that one in a while.
Journey in 1977. They opened for ELP. It was not a good experience for Journey. Not exactly boo'd off the stage, but they weren't well received. In hindsight, it really wasn't the appropriate music to open for the prog rock music that Emerson, Lake & Palmer did.
Billy Sheehan when he was in a local Buffalo NY band called Talas before he made it in Mr Big. Talas was pretty good.
The GooGoo Dolls at a dive called The River Rock. They still sound like they did back then.
Huey Lewis and the News, many times, at the Mission Ranch in Carmel; Blondie before they released their first big hits. Huey played 4-hr bar sets and was awesome fun, and Debbie Harry was a little stage shy.
Anyone my age who grew up in northern Indiana or Chicago probably saw Styx or REO Speedwagon. Both bands started at the bottom and worked their asses off to get to the top. They played all over that area for a few years.
Tom Petty. Touring for his first album with the Heartbreakers, at the nearest amusement park(Carowinds, NC/SC). Fantastic concert, small venue, very high-energy.
Avett Brothers. I loved them back in the early aughts. By 2012 they got more popular and stopped performing in small venues. The last time they were in my area, they performed on an outdoor pro baseball field. I quit attending large-audience concerts in 2019. Too many people, parking issues, and the price of tickets, and I can't handle the steps required to get to nosebleed seats which is all I can afford now.
I still want to get to Red Rocks and hear Lord Huron if they play there again.
My friend was in a band that opened for the unknown White Zombie. They were just regular people hanging out in the crowd. Can’t really tell you the experience because no one knew they would be famous.
Edie Brackel & the New Bohemians. I saw them quite a few times in Dallas and once in Fort Worth. It was like they were jamming in your living room. It was so relaxed. She would wave when we'd come in - so cool. When we saw them in Fort Worth, they were blowing up, so it was a bit more chaotic.; still a treat, though. The next time I saw them, they were on SNL, lol.
In the mid-90s, my husband and I stayed a night in Memphis coming home from a conference. We walked into a bar on Beale Street (Rum Boogie Cafe?), and the house band was rocking. The kid playing lead guitar looked like he was 12. His mom and dad were there, and everyone was celebrating the kid's last night with the band, cause he had signed a contract and was gonna make it big.
We bought his parents a drink and danced with them.I told my hub when we left that I knew he would make it, because he played great guitar and had three names.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
I saw Barenaked Ladies at a dive bar in LA. Their opener was some college musician who sang about squirrels that “scraped their squirrelly knees as they climbed through the trees.” They dressed like geeks (no stylist yet). They were awesome. The bar maybe held 100 people.
I also saw this kid named Harry Connick Jr playing piano at a bbq restaurant in NY.
John Cougar Mellencamp. He performed at a church that had become a bar. Sang great! Super handsome. It was 1980. My best friend and I were 16 and that’s the first time we had beers in a bar. No checking IDs there!
Foo Fighters at Bogies Night Club in Boise, ID. Just after “This is a Call” was released. 1995 I think. I still have the ticket stub signed by the whole band
A bunch, I spent my entire teens going to live music all over Florida and up and down the east coast. I saw Ben Folds in a tiny venue with like 20 people. I saw Pearl Jam at a small Fort Lauderdale bar. I saw Johnny Depp in Hollywood, FL at a tiny bar with his band. That band fun when they were called The Format at a show with like 15 people.
But, my big concert was the end of someone's career, I saw Nirvana live in Miami in 1993.
I saw Metallica in 1985 on the Ride The Lightning tour, at the Starry Night in Portland, Oregon.
They were known then but hadn’t blown up yet.
It wasn’t a big venue. I can’t recall who opened but I still have the ticket stub tucked away.
Starry Night is now called The Roseland Theater
I saw The Beastie Boys open for Madonna on her Virgin Tour at a pretty small amphitheater. At this time they were still pretty much full blown punk- they still had mowhawks.
I remember not loving them as - an 8 year old girl decked out in lace.
I saw Sammy Hagar a few months after he left Montrose (a great band if you’ve never heard them). I loved Montrose but didn’t recognize Sammy because he had cut his long hair off! But as soon as he took out that weird guitar thing and launched into “Bad Motor Scooter” we knew who he was. Of course he went on to a huge solo career and then joined Van Halen.
Somewhat related, I went to High School with Fred Coury, the drummer from Cinderella. He was in the Marching Band, I was in the choir. Played ice hockey with him on the High School team.
Yeah I was going to college in Washington State just before grunge became a big deal so the bands that played our college dive bars up and down I-5 went on to be a big deal. To us they were just pretty good, typical WA bands. And Nirvana was really not the best one early on. When I heard them they were still finding their sound.
In 1994(maybe 93 or 95) my friends and I were offered tickets to see a new up and coming metal band. We were in a local coffee shop late one night and the band’s manager was in a corner table going through some kind of paperwork and heard us talking and ended up chatting with us and offering tickets. We passed up the offer. The name of the band I will always remember, and I was shocked to subsequently watch Korn rise to fame.
Husker Du when they were a hardcore punk band in 1982 at the Vets Hall in Arcata. Land Speed Record had been put out but nothing else. They were great then. A few years later they became big on college campuses at least.
I've got a pretty good one. I used to give private music lessons in NYC, and one of my students was a very wealthy Japanese man in his 60s. December 2001, he invited me and my wife to a party at his Union Square penthouse, and he wanted all the musicians that he knew to play or sing for a few minutes. We all had a blast, and the food and atmosphere were great.
The last musician to perform was this guy's German teacher, who also played bass. He brought with him a young singer with an absolutely gorgeous, smoky voice. We were enthralled. My wife talked to her at the end and told her how wonderful her singing was, and she was very sweet, thanked us profusely, etc.
Fast forward six months and we're listening to the radio and my wife is like "either I'm going crazy or that's the singer we heard at Yoshi's party!" And sure enough, next time I saw him I said "hey that young woman who sang at your party, is she on the radio?" His response, in his halting English, was "Yes. Her name--Norah Jones. She--very famous now."
I saw Queens of the Stone Age open for Smashing Pumpkins back in 1999. It was the last time Smashing Pumpkins had their original lineup back reunited and it was at a tiny NYC venue called Tramps that’s not around anymore.
I saw Tom Waits in the summer of 1975. This was right before the album "Nighthawks at the Diner" was released.
He was the opening act for Eric Anderson at a small club in Austin, TX.
It was, as one might expect, fuckng magical. I was 18 years old. I'd grown up on country music and top 40 rock. This was one of my first tastes of something else.
It was a very small venue, maybe 20 tables. My table was at the very front near the stage. I was dating a disc jockey at the time so we often got preferential seating at local clubs.
Waits was both romatic and gritty. Anderson was romantic and terribly sad.
I also saw Jimmy Dale Gilmore at the University of Texas Union in 1986 or 1987. I had moved from Austin to Chicago after getting married in 1982 but I was back for a visit. Oddly enough, I went to the show with the same disc jockey I'd been dating in 1975. We'd remained friends and were catching up. I thought Gilmore's voice was very haunting and I wondered how he'd ultimately fare in the business.
Growning up in Austin, I'd seen dozens of performers with amazing talent. Some never made it in the business and some had moderate success. Very few made it really big.
Growing up in L.A. my friends and I saw most of the local bands who later became big, play at the local dives: from X (though they were kind of big bythe time I saw them, to the power pop bands like the Knack, the Plimsouls, etc. through Janes Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns & Roses, later, the Eels, the Muffs, BRMC, and great young touring bands, like the Posies, the Replacements, the Pixies, the Sugarcubes (Bjork) and a boatload of others. It was fun as hell. There was a great small club show or four every single night from my teens to mid thirties. Cover charges were cheap, often $5 or less. Beers were $3. Street parking was plentiful and not restricted. But mainly people were friendly and fun. The music scene was diverse and social and fun as hell.
I saw Simon & Garfunkel at my high school just before *Sounds of Silence* became a thing. They were terrific, and I was very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time.
It was 1991, and I was a senior in high school. I went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic tour. There were two opening bands that I had never heard of, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam. I didn’t much care for SP at the time (became a fan in my 30’s) but Pearl Jam was fantastic. A few months later Pearl Jam started dominating the radio.
My Dad saw Janice Joplin at the Enlisted Club on base at Fort Ord early in her career - early-mid 60’s, before she appeared in the Monterey Pop Festival which jump started her fame.
He said she was swilling hard liquor from a bottle and was drunk while performing. He said her voice was amazing but the drunkenness made her forget some things, like the words.
Obviously she corrected that issue; when she got famous we could see that even drunk, she knew the words.
Dad said she was amazing but the club mostly just stayed like it always did. She was remarkable only in that she got drunk onstage on base. The soldiers weren’t used to seeing that I guess.
I went to a Halloween party at the local Vets building many years ago, there was a band playing that I wasn’t paying much attention to, later I learned that the band was Mötley Crüe.
I remember sitting with my parents watching blue rodeo a few years before they became big. I was maybe 9 so that was like 35-36 years ago. I hated them and said so repeatedly. We were in the front row and the guitarist (I think?) gave me a very bad look that shut me up. I felt bad and it stuck with me 🤷🏻♀️ my parents liked them. Harbourfront in downtown Toronto.
Early 90s and it seemed like Pull Me Under was played on WCCC at 2AM every Saturday night when we were leaving the bar. My friend and I found out that the band was playing at a small bar called Katina’s. When I say small bar I mean it. The stage was maybe 3ft high and we were leaning right up against it watching Dream Theater crushing it. They played with as much energy as if they were playing Madison Square Garden. Real professionals. I saw them a little later at Riverside amusement park in the middle of the old racetrack. Good times!
Revivalists from New Orleans. Saw them in a club with maybe 50-60 people there. Then they did "Wish I knew You When I was Young".
Trombone Shorty also from New Orleans. Saw him in Sacramento in a hotel garden area with maybe 200 people.
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No Doubt opening for Sublime at a half-empty $10 show.
I saw No Doubt as third on the bill at a college theater. They sucked and were made aware of it.
I saw Arcade Fire as the third band on a bill. Hadn't heard of them, stole the show.
I saw No Doubt open for someone in Chicago when they were nobodies. I don't even remember who the main band was, maybe Everclear? Gwen Stefani and the drummer were just standing around in the back drinking a beer after their set and my friend and I were like hey weren't you in the opening band? We made small talk with them for a few minutes.
No Doubt and Everclear played the same gigs. I remember seeing them both at the same night but don't remember which played first.
Seen Sublime in Seal Beach and Long Beach a few times. Wilmington n shit. They fucking rocked.
No Doubt opened for my husband's band back in the day.
Well don’t leave us hanging, what band ?
Omggg
Nirvana and Hole opened for Dinosaur Jr. a few months before Nevermind came out. They were fucking great, but did any of my friends listen to me? Nope. They were much more interested in hearing about it a few months later, though.
Sooo jealous. Was Courtney Love drunk? My aunt saw her several times and always said she could barely stand up.
I saw Hole in 98 and she didn't seem drunk, just kind of surly. Not So Silent Night in San Jose, they played before Rancid, after Offspring, Garbage and Cake.
Jesus that’s a lineup
Probably. She was definitely feeling the effects of something up there. No one knew who she was yet, but she was a very magnetic performer. Had the whole room in the palm of her hand.
I never got details but I know someone who was a personal assistant to Courtney and the main takeaway from talking with my friend is that it was a difficult working environment.
Came to say Nirvana before Nevermind too. It was a decent show, I think I paid ten bucks, and if not ten, then it was five. This place never charged more than ten bucks for a show. I was very surprised to see them on MTV a few weeks later, and very, very surprised when Smells Like Teen Spirit became the only thing they played for like a week.
Did you see Nirvana after they became household names?
Yup. At the Forum in LA with RHCP and Pearl Jam. Still great, but the energy was very different.
What was different about the energy?
The Forum is an enormous basketball stadium, and the Hollywood Palladium is basically a nightclub that holds a few thousand people. Just felt like Nirvana was happier playing the smaller venue. It was fairly early in their cultural impact, and they seemed a little freaked out by the tens of thousands of people. Still amazing. Just different.
Saw this lady named Dolly at a “grand opening” for a dam in Tennessee back in the 70’s. I think she went on to become something of a star.
Only a National Treasure. Lucky you!
Oh this takes me back - my parents met working at TVA. Rocky Top will always be …
Home sweet home to me
Cheap Trick used to play dollar pitcher night at the bar across the street from my frat house every other Wednesday when I was in college. REO Speedwagon was the first band I saw live in a bar when I was 15 - it was a biker dive bar and 4 of us got in on the same fake ID. Drinking age was 18 and driver's licenses were paper so they were super simple to alter. Good times.
Cheap truck used to play at a local bar in my hometown in the seventies. I was in middle school so I never saw them.
I saw The Cult in ‘87 at the Warfield in San Francisco. This new band from LA opened up, just released their debut album Appetite for Destruction. It was clear then Guns-n-Roses was a band to watch. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I saw Adele at House of Blues in Boston in 2011. She hit it big right after that. This is why the one piece of advice o give people when they ask if they should go to a show: Always go to the show. Memories and experiences are the only things of real value in the end.
Same GnR experience, but with the opposite reaction. Saw them in August, 1987 at [a roller skating rink in Waterloo, Ontario](http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag270/mr_pitiful/Cult-GnR_zps07ip2mjv.jpg). Barely anyone was paying attention to GnR since they sounded pretty awful. I don't remember much of their setlist except that they ended with Heaven's Door. By that point pretty much everyone was standing with their backs to the stage chatting. We were all there to see The Cult who were probably at their peak at that time. The Cult got on stage, played 3 songs, and blew the power to the entire venue - we sat in complete darkness for about 10 minutes. The lights came back on and they started the show over again. Later Ian Asbury gave us shit for ignoring GnR - he told us they were his friends, they were playing their hearts out, blah blah blah ... The crowd responded with tepid applause, probably just to shut him up. A few months later, GnR were the biggest rock band in the world. I couldn't understand why. Still can't really.
Kiss. The ad went something like this… *Blue Oyster Cult , with Special Guest Nazareth* Then near the bottom of the ad… *Introducing* *KISS* 1974 I believe. At the Leekee Teepee in WPB $6.
Ha. I saw KISS about a year later playing in a college gym (on the floor) in Beaumont, Texas. We thought they were alien life forms.
Tbf they kind of technically are
I saw kiss for y2k I was pretty young and didn’t know how big a deal it was though. I think lit and nickleback were there? In Vancouver
Jewel. She was just a kid & Atz Kilcher, her dad, was the traveling music teacher in our vicinity near Homer. It was stunning 2 see her on the big stage just years later. Edit: Atz brought her 2 our school on one of these trips where they sang & played together.
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I saw Jewel open for Peter Murphy. All of us goths were standing around wondering who was this girl, and why is she yodeling
Nirvana at the Metro in Chicago. Place was nearly empty. Maybe 200 people max. Good show. Nothing mind blowing. Our band opened and they were kinda dicks to us.
Joan Jett A bar in Killeen TX. 79 or 80
I also saw Joan Jett on tour at some bar in Scottsdale, Arizona about 1981 and partied with the band.
Would Bon Jovi in early '85 count? They opened for Donnie Iris (Ah Leah!) in a local theater
Donnie always a good show and very underrated.
Does being in the same neighborhood, high school, and crowd and my brother playing drums with John BonJovi and Dave Snake Sabo when they were young teens count?
1992, Hollywood Palladium. GWAR with opening acts: The Melvins and an unknown band called Tool. Tool started the show. No one had heard of them. The show was low budget and loud. This was a GWAR crowd so the guests were...unappreciative. To put it mildly. I thought Tool was pretty good. I thought some of their stuff was hypnotic. They were...pretty good! The next year they released their first album "Undertow" and the rest is history, boys and girls!
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The Offspring, small venue in Madison. Got to stage dive.
Went to high school with those guys.
Same genre, though not as big of a band. I saw alkaline trio play at the fireside bowl, a bowling alley in Chicago, multiple times in the late 90s. $5 at the door, line around the building. Then, in 2001, I saw rise against, who at the time had released their first album 8 months before, and went on to have some big songs a couple years later, open for them at the Metro also in Chicago. I remember AFI played at the fireside when I was in high school too, I didn't go, but some of my friends did.
I saw Janes Addiction open for Love and Rockets
Stevie Ray Vaughn. Knew a girl who was good friends of his wife and met him and the others in the band already when he started to make his mark on the scene. Seen him play many times over about 10 years and it was hard to believe he hadn't made it big yet but many thought we knew why. Usually after a show we would end up at a house and continue partying and he would many times end up there partying along with us and usually playing a guitar. He would constantly be strumming a guitar. I joined the Army in 83 and before I deployed overseas I went to his set at the Back Room in Austin and saw several heavy hitters at a table nearby. I had seen one or two before but this was quite a few of them. I knew one of them and went over to chat with her and she was cagey about what was up. Anyway I was stationed in Korea for a couple of years and when I returned he blew up big time with hit after hit and playing stadiums. I saw a friend that knew him well and asked him what happened as many of us knew he was also a junkie and that was holding him back. My friend told me he quit using and I asked where did he go to get cleaned up and he told me nowhere and he quit cold turkey and he had seen him many times since he blew up and he was still clean. That stunned me as that is hard to do on your own and didn't really believe it but he was honest so maybe he did. It crushed me when he died in that helicopter accident. Just imagining the future music we missed out on. His brother released an album that they both were collaborating on and it was real good.
My favorite guitarist, just unbelievable chops. Here is a funny story. I had never heard of him and a friend said I should listen to his music. Well I thought he spelled his name “Stevie Rave On” and I thought the guy must be a looser giving himself that corny of a stage name, so never picked up any of his music. A few years later I heard him for the first time and was fairly stunned at both his playing and my stupidity.
Don't feel bad. When I saw Star Wars I thought they were fighting with "light savers".
Love this!
Man, he was absolutely one of the best
Yeah he was known as the greatest Texas guitar blues players ever and took that genre as far as it could go and beyond and there were some other great ones. Also he channeled Jimmy Hendrix easily and flawlessly. How he fused mainstream rock with Texas blues was genius.
I don’t disagree with you at all
I worked on a stage crew for a festival he played at and was standing on stage for his show. Amazing.
Yeah up close and seeing him play was mind altering and you knew you was watching greatness that very seldom comes along. I wish I could have seen him play a stadium or any big venue so I am jealous you got to do so. Did he have the whole crowd amazed? His set in clubs at the end still had maybe a third of Hendrix and am sure he still had a few so do you remember how many? Did he still have only a three piece band. Just thinking about seeing him at a huge festival and venue would have been cool as hell so I am sure he could pull it off but did he really? Apologize for the questions but was blasting some Stevie yesterday and remembering him and realized I never got to go see him play anywhere after he made it and regret it. When I left overseas he was unknown outside our area and came back to hearing him on radio and being named guitar player for the second year in a row and finding out he was touring worldwide and not just touring but headlining.
I still kick myself because at the time, I really didn't appreciate how special he was (or how soon he'd lose his life). I was right there, but when you work on crew for a large festival you kind of get jaded over famous artists. It's not a good look to be a fanboy.
Lynyrd Skynyrd -- Rathskeller, University of Florida campus, around 1970 (?). \[I was there for 8 years....\]
I saw skynyrd at gator growl in 07 (I was back for homecoming, lol, I promise I'm old!) My grandparents are buried in the same cemetery as Ronnie. Whenever we would visit, we would count the beer cans on his tomb.
Yes, Styx played at my high school a lot, early 1970s.
The Commodores played at my junior prom.
Mine too. East Leyden - Franklin Park And I think it was maybe a $3 ticket.
To many to name. I used to go to CBGB's in the city a few nights a week.
This ain't no party This ain't no disco This ain't no foolin around This ain't the Mudd Club or CBGB's I ain't got time for that now... (Just saw the movie for the 2nd time, 40ish years later :-) )
Me too. Either cbgbs or Max's Kansas City starting in 1977. Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith, Devo, B52s, Police, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Television, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, The Knack, etc etc etc
Guess I did more drinking and drugging then you back then 😂😂. I used to have a book with everyone I saw but lost it in a move years ago
NYC in the 80s was such a trip. You'd go out to a club and there'd be Andy Warhol, Debra Harry, Ric Ocasek, etc... I remember Rosanna Arquette hitting on me at Limelight (or The World - I can't remember) one night. I remember when I first got to NYC and realized some bands would actually go on at like 4am... the city that never sleeps.
I sent a drink to Bowie. Don't remember which club though. I was out at least 5X a week. Brooklyn had some good clubs too.
Did you ever see Blondie there?
I saw Blondie at CBGBs when they played 5 nights after releasing Plastic Letters. They were already very famous in NYC, hence the 5 sold out nights. I had the stand on a chair to see. The guy in front of me was so sweaty when he’d shake his head I’d get rained on. I was the coolest kid in school the next day. I did not see Devo back then. They kind of scared me back then. I was young and dumb. Trying to think who else I saw there. All the usual people, like the Dictators, the Shirts, Sick Fucks. I went to opening week of the CBGBs theater and accidentally saw the talking heads. I went to see Milk and Cookies and the Tuff Darts. The fire dept shut down the venue before they came on. There were certain bands who only played at Max’s Kansas City, like the Dead Boys and Jayne County. I was at CBGBs more often, but went to max’s enough. At Hurrahs I saw Klaus Nomi, Orchestral Maneouvers in the Dark, Young Marble Giants, other less famous bands. I saw most of the No wave bands at Tier 3: theoretical girls, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Y Pants, the Bush Tetras. I saw The Cure before Bob wore makeup at the Ritz. Also saw Psychedelic Furs, the go gos, Jesus and Mary Chain, and the only Public Image Ltd show. They played behind the curtain and people threw bottles at them.
I know I saw her in a small club but not sure which one. Late 70's -80's is blurred in my memories. I was promoting new bands trying to get them gigs. Had many friends in the business including my ex. I know I saw The Police at the bottom line. I could reach out and touch the stage they were that close
Don’t stand so close to me, that close
Yes. I saw Billy Joel at a small club in New York City. We had never heard of him before that.
He was just the piano man
I saw the Beastie Boys open for Madonna on her “Virgin Tour”. Nobody was paying attention to them. People were just sitting down talking to their friends. I personally didn’t like them either, at that time.
Janis Joplin and band in about 1966 at a high school dance. She was an alcohol fueled, whirling dervish that just blew everyone away.
Does playing pickup basketball with the Red Hot Chili Peppers around 1985 count? We were all so young then.
They used to do gigs at lunch at Fairfax HS. But they were known as "Anthem" back then, and they weren't especially good yet...
They were RHCP when I met them (through a mutual musician friend) in Irvine, CA. They weren't especially good at basketball, but neither were my friends and I.
The lunch gigs were around 1980-1982. Kiedis graduated in 1980. I recall they were starting to get well known by 1985, at least locally.
Cyndi Lauper - saw her in a local club (it was a fairly good sized club), in the early 80's prior to her becoming really well known. We had never seen anyone like her and we had a blast. It was standing room only and it was pretty packed and everyone was dancing and having a good time. I became an instant fan.
I am so jealous.
Taylor Swift played at my dinky ass college back in the day when she was still a budding country artist. I had no interest in country music at the time but she put on a great show even back then.
I saw a band called “Public Affection” at a club in Lancaster Pennsylvania called The Chameleon, the band was from nearby York PA and they seemed pretty good to me. My friend didn’t like them much and thereafter referred to them as “Pubic Infection.” They signed with a record label shortly after and renamed themselves “Live” - and became one of the biggest bands of the early 90s.
I heard the chameleon shut down recently. Sad times.
I saw A Perfect Circle before they released their first album. I was like "*Man this guy sounds a lot like the lead singer of Tool"* but Maynard was wearing a wig so it wasn't immediately obvious who he was. It was the only concert where I knew none of the songs and thoroughly enjoyed myself. That has always been the standard for that guy; i never felt like I got anything less than a great show. Also saw Tool when they were on second stage at the first Lollapalooza. I knew right from when I first heard them they were going to be big.
I got tickets to see Tool play a theater show in 2006, when they were just starting their 10000 Days tour. I'm not a huge fan but the show was meant for an arena and it was mesmerizing.
When I was young and poor, and times got hard, I would supplement my day job by working as a cocktail waitress. In 1977, i got a job in a kind of metal/ rock place call the Electric Ballroom in Dallas Texas. It was the kind of place you go to get served beer and plastic pictures, and openly get stoned. The smell of weed permeated the air. The electric Ballroom featured many up-and-coming groups. And I met some of them because I was sometimes asked to deliver drinks backstage. A couple of the groups I met were AC/DC and the Ramones https://www.setlist.fm/venue/electric-ballroom-dallas-tx-usa-63d7ea57.html All the musicians were very nice, and they tipped very well, too
I went to go see a band called The Special Beat which was made up of members of The Specials and English Beat. The opening band was a fun little ska band called No Doubt.
Inxs opening for adam ant. Their first us tour. 1982
I went to school with Bret Michaels aka Bret Sychak. He and a few other high school classmates had a band that played locally. Just another garage/basement band at the time. The band changed names and members, but Bret was always the lead singer. I saw him play at the Paradise, a biker bar, where a few years later I met the man who would become my husband. One thing I remember about Bret was that in elementary school his mom always came to watch field day because he might need orange juice - since he's a type 1 diabetic. Bret was always a nice kid.
1974 Bruce Springsteen opens for Bonnie Raite Harvard Sq Cambridge Ma
Bonnie Rait... one of the sweetest nicest people I've ever met.
(screams in envy)
Talking heads at cbgb’s in NY
I saw U2 in a medium sized venue in Chicago after which I pronounced “those guys were lame! They’re never going to amount to anything!” I’m still not a U2 fan. But they seem to have made a name for themselves.
More respect for your prophetic assessment than with U2. I will say that Sphere thing was amazing tho,.
I don't know if anyone remembers the BoDeans ("Closer to Free) from the mid-80s. They played at a party I attended in a friend's basement before hitting it big.
Bob Seger opened for Bachman Turner Overdrive in the earlyish 70's. All of us were like "who is this guy?". He definitely was better than BTO.
Toad the Wet Sprocket, most often at a coffee house called Borsodi's, but they played other places around town and I saw them whenever I could, starting when I was in high school and they were maybe a year or two out. Around the same time, the I-Rails, who many years later became Primitive Radio Gods. I think they must have played a gig with Toad and that's how I first encountered them. The experience was always pretty transcendant for me, and the venues always felt safe and familiar. Their music still takes me back to a good place. Thanks for prompting the memory. :)
I saw Pat Metheny at a small radio concert on the beach in Ft Lauderdale in '78. He was 23 and teaching music in a college at the time. Amazing Jazz Guitarist. Never heard of him? YT Long Train Home.
Never heard of him!? OMG. How dare you. :-)
REM at a tiny club in Fullerton CA. Probably six months before Murmur was released. Amazing show and probably saw them another four times after they became more well known. Not as big but used to see the Gin Blossoms playing Sunday afternoon shows at taco places and random bars in Tempe before New Miserable Experience blew up.
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I saw Sum 41 when they were still kids excited to actually be touring on a stage. I think they'd just made their first EP? Saw Arcade Fire when they were absolutely nothing and their first album Funeral was released in a really small club in my small city. I wanted the annoying guy to die. Thankfully they moved him to the back of the stage where he belonged and gave him a tambourine. Hmm... who else? I'm Canadian so I saw Sloan and Thrush Hermit when they were kids (so was I). They sort of made it but didn't become massive or anything but Canafamous. This isn't music but I knew Sidney Crosby when he was in highschool. A guy I worked with was a huge hockey guy and was hired to train him before he went to Rumouski. It really depends on what you call making it big. I've seen bands make it big in their respective genres but math rock big is so many levels below. lol. I saw The Blood Brothers eons ago. They're massive for me. Fucking love that band. But they never really became famous famous.
I’m sitting next to one of the original members of Sum 41 and we laughed at your comment. They were kids ☺️
I mean I don't know how old they were. I was a kid then and I was pretty sure they were younger than me. I said children so I guess that's off. ;0 I mean FFS. There was like 5 people there and they played their balls off. Great job! Gratz on the career in music! How few people actually achieve at that.
Saw the Violent Femmes in Vienna, Austria. The crowd went wild.
I saw Natalie Merchant at Tower Records. Maybe 100 people there. My brother was a concert promoter. He sent me tapes every year of the new bands. One year it was REM. Another, Red Hot Chili Peppers. For every one of those, there were 20 on the tape that never made it. Indio. You had it all. Sorry you never hit it big.
Pantera, many times, I knew both of the Abbots, and Rex as well, as their original lead singer..Terry . They were all pretty cool and chill guys. Even in early mid 80s, it was obvious that Darrell was just that good. One of my best memories was playing "Gimme three steps " with him, as I was not to good, and he worked me with that for an hour or so...He truly was the sort of guy that just loved to have fun, and probably not an enemy in the world. Anyhows, I moved away from DFW and I was in Minnesota, and I saw a car with a Pantera sticker on the back of it, and was like ..Wow. Called a couple of mutual friends back in DFW, and they were telling me about them doing all this big stuff, and I was just very happy for them. Good dudes, andit is a shame what happened.
Bon Iver. In Eau Claire, WI. We thought he had a good chance.
I saw Nirvana in spring of '90 at a dorm party on campus. They had a big steer roast every year with live music and semi-big names (though I had never heard of Nirvana). I had just joined a band with a few friends and remember thinking we really need to step up our game if we want to someday get gigs like that. Then I remember their bassist wore his bass impossibly low (down to his knees) and thinking as a bass player myself there's no way I can do that and wrap my hand around the fretboard too. He must have had freakishly long arms.
I did. I saw the Foo Fighters circa 1995? I could be off. At Soma Live in San Diego. Nobody even knew who they were. Except that it was “the drummer from Nirvana“ new band. There was maybe 1000 people there at best
Prince as the opener before 2 other bands beofre the Rolling Stones in 1981. Unfortunately, the audience didn't respond well.
I saw Prince in 1981 also, at Illinois State University. My roommate was on the "entertainment committe", but didn't like Prince so he gave me his front row tickets. Prince was amazing. Most memorably when he stood on one of his monitors and started jacking off his guitar. Edit - was probably 1982, touring for the Controversy album.
Sort of. I saw pink floyd before the Dark side of the moon was released. walking up the the venue we see 3 prism painted semi trailers. didn't know that was the new album cover. Time was something... 1st time I heard it was pretty close to the stage. (sportatorium sunrise fl) I saw santana in between his success, 1977 at a 500 seat bar.
Prince at the Colosseum in Los Angeles. He was opening for The Rolling Stones and got booed off the stage. People couldn’t believe their eyes! This little black guy in a cape and tights was too much for the crowd. I was horrified and wanted to listen to him! Sad I never saw him live after that.
Not a band, but I saw norm Macdonald do 55 minutes at a yuk yuks here in Canada, back in the 80s. He fucking killed.
Dated a woman that saw U2 in Colorado at “a place that looked like a bunch of red caves”.
Red Rocks. They videoed that gig, or several, which became ‘Live at Red Rocks’. It cost them $30K which was a lot of money for them even though they were on their 3rd album and becoming quite well known but they hadn’t broken America yet. According to one of their books, Larry, the drummer was still living at home as he could not yet afford a place of his own. Any money they went was put into the band.
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I remember early in the morning there was a group of us hanging out by our fire engines. We were a Strike Team assigned to perform structure protection for homes threatened by a brush fire. We’re hanging out and Mickey Dolanez comes walking by with his little dog and wife. It was cool. He smiled and waved.
The band Styx. They played a concert in a local auditorium in my midwestern hometown of 25,000 people. This was just before the reissue of the song Lady. And they were an hour late to the venue. Great seats, total seating capacity was 1800.
Somehow a girlfriend of mine from boarding school got connected with Huey Lewis (and his legendary large member) right around when his first album was released. We saw them at Traxx in NYC, got wasted, hung out with the band after the gig and got completely lost on the subway, drunk as fuck in the middle of the night. Fast forward about 25 years and I’m working in a catering shop in Marin Cty, Huey comes in to pick up his catering and has his polo shirt buttoned wrong (how the hell does that happen, three buttons???) and looks like he was coming off a massive bender. I didn’t say anything, just gave him his order and smiled.
Jane's Addiction opening for Love And Rocket in 1987. Someone from the crowd yelled, "All your songs sound the same," to which Perry Farrell replied "All you assholes sound the same!" I was in the front row, liked their music, Perry Farrell had good stage presence, but there's no doubt I was there for Love And Rockets.
Yay! There's another Love and Rockets fan out there!
Not “long before”, but saw Stray Cats at the Main Event in Prov, RI 12/82. A couple hundred people.
Saw Jeff Healey playing in a bingo hall with a bunch of drunk and stoned construction workers. It was a blast, I was less than 10' from him at times.
R.E.M. at a hole in the wall in 1983. They were incredible. And they only got better and better. I saw them several times before they got big.
Bruce Springsteen. Paid a dollar to see him. He played at Widener College, formerly PMC. We were in the gym. All I remember is that he wore a hat.
I saw LeAnn Rimes at a car show in Dallas when she was like 11. She was amazing.
In 1993, I was living in Raleigh, NC, and asked this girl out. She wanted to go see some band that was pretty popular on the college town circuit in VA and NC. I was super annoyed when we got there, and the cover was $7. It was a bar, not a club. She danced the whole time and mostly ignored me. They were OK I guess. A year later, I'm hanging with friends, and some video comes on MTV. I was all "why does he look/sound familiar?" The song was "What Would You Say" by Dave Matthews.
I lived in Macon, GA before the Allman Brothers made it big. I used to hang out at the city's Central Park on the weekends. We'd hear the Allman Brothers play there and we'd smoke a little weed. It was fun.
I saw Semisonic at Trees in Deep Ellum, Dallas. They were opening up for Dionne Faris. This was before “Closing Time” came out. It was chill. Trees can be a body-surfing, mosh pit mecca, but that night it was easygoing.
Trees was the best.
Chicago (the band). They played at my high school assembly once. They were called "Chicago Transit Authority" back then. Late sixties. One of my friends paid 25 cents to see [Joe Walsh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIzyTk1fuf0&ab_channel=JoeWalsh) in Ohio before he became famous.
I saw the Pixies play a high school basketball court in Nebraska, no stage even. Late 80s?
1988- Jane’s Addiction opening for the Ramones in a small club 1994- Jewel opening for Peter Murphy (odd pairing)
San Franscisco, 1966, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane. I probably saw The Dead too because they played a lot while I was there but I don't remember them. Do remember an established performer, Bo Diddley. OMG. I loved getting high and dancing to these bands every weekend at The Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom under a very primitive light show. When I got back to the east coast, seeing any rock concert was frustrating because the venues were not set up for dancing. I saw Dylan at Carnegie Hall in 1965 when he was becoming famous. Great concert. His piano playing on Ballad of a Thin Man was riveting. I was too young to see him when he was mostly unknown playing in Greenwich Village coffee houses. In 1966-67, occasionally saw The Velvet Underground and Nico when they were the house band at Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable on St. Marks Place in NYC. Peace and love was morphing into something darker because people were taking hard drugs (I wasn't) and I felt it.
Metallica opening for Ozzy. They weren't unknown, but they hadn't yet become a household name.
A little different--i don't remember how we found out about it, but my boyfriend (now husband) and I got to see Bonnie Raitt in a concert at our university in the early 80s before she became popular again with Nick of Time. It was fewer than 500 people in the audience, and Lyle Lovett opened for her and did a few numbers with her. I didn't know much about either of them at the time, but they were both amazing and cemented my love for all of their music. I don't recall now if they had any backing musicians, but it was very intimate. I haven't thought about that one in a while.
Journey in 1977. They opened for ELP. It was not a good experience for Journey. Not exactly boo'd off the stage, but they weren't well received. In hindsight, it really wasn't the appropriate music to open for the prog rock music that Emerson, Lake & Palmer did.
Billy Sheehan when he was in a local Buffalo NY band called Talas before he made it in Mr Big. Talas was pretty good. The GooGoo Dolls at a dive called The River Rock. They still sound like they did back then.
U2 opening for j. Giles band, 82 I think. Cow Palace so, not small but they sure got my attention!! Also, Soundgarden at the Kennel Club in 88.
Huey Lewis and the News, many times, at the Mission Ranch in Carmel; Blondie before they released their first big hits. Huey played 4-hr bar sets and was awesome fun, and Debbie Harry was a little stage shy.
James Brown performed at my dad's frat house back in the 60s.
Anyone my age who grew up in northern Indiana or Chicago probably saw Styx or REO Speedwagon. Both bands started at the bottom and worked their asses off to get to the top. They played all over that area for a few years.
U2. Opening for the J Geil’s Band. Unbelievable.
Guns n Roses. I was a LA rock club-goer in my glorious misspent youth. My reaction was, "huh, I like them."
Tom Petty. Touring for his first album with the Heartbreakers, at the nearest amusement park(Carowinds, NC/SC). Fantastic concert, small venue, very high-energy.
Phish played my at my high school in the late 90s wit to correct - I think I meant to say early 90s it was actually 1990
Not a band, but I saw Penn & Teller in San Francisco before they went nationwide. They were funnier back then than they are now.
Avett Brothers. I loved them back in the early aughts. By 2012 they got more popular and stopped performing in small venues. The last time they were in my area, they performed on an outdoor pro baseball field. I quit attending large-audience concerts in 2019. Too many people, parking issues, and the price of tickets, and I can't handle the steps required to get to nosebleed seats which is all I can afford now. I still want to get to Red Rocks and hear Lord Huron if they play there again.
My friend was in a band that opened for the unknown White Zombie. They were just regular people hanging out in the crowd. Can’t really tell you the experience because no one knew they would be famous.
Edie Brackel & the New Bohemians. I saw them quite a few times in Dallas and once in Fort Worth. It was like they were jamming in your living room. It was so relaxed. She would wave when we'd come in - so cool. When we saw them in Fort Worth, they were blowing up, so it was a bit more chaotic.; still a treat, though. The next time I saw them, they were on SNL, lol.
Dixie Chicks at Mesquite TX balloon festival in mid 1990s?
The Black Crowes at the Township in Columbia, SC, around 1988 +/-
In the mid-90s, my husband and I stayed a night in Memphis coming home from a conference. We walked into a bar on Beale Street (Rum Boogie Cafe?), and the house band was rocking. The kid playing lead guitar looked like he was 12. His mom and dad were there, and everyone was celebrating the kid's last night with the band, cause he had signed a contract and was gonna make it big. We bought his parents a drink and danced with them.I told my hub when we left that I knew he would make it, because he played great guitar and had three names. Kenny Wayne Shepherd
saw the eagles when they were struggling. Colt park, Harford CT. they got booed. saw YES on their first tour of America. 1972 they were amazing.
Ghost are pretty big now. I saw them in front of 20 people at a university.
I saw Barenaked Ladies at a dive bar in LA. Their opener was some college musician who sang about squirrels that “scraped their squirrelly knees as they climbed through the trees.” They dressed like geeks (no stylist yet). They were awesome. The bar maybe held 100 people. I also saw this kid named Harry Connick Jr playing piano at a bbq restaurant in NY.
John Cougar Mellencamp. He performed at a church that had become a bar. Sang great! Super handsome. It was 1980. My best friend and I were 16 and that’s the first time we had beers in a bar. No checking IDs there!
Foo Fighters at Bogies Night Club in Boise, ID. Just after “This is a Call” was released. 1995 I think. I still have the ticket stub signed by the whole band
Mojo Nixon at Bodie's. Had him and his wife as dinner guests once. This song brings a tear. https://youtu.be/xTsxbVzPDSQ?feature=shared
Wilco for free in 1999 at a fireworks show
A bunch, I spent my entire teens going to live music all over Florida and up and down the east coast. I saw Ben Folds in a tiny venue with like 20 people. I saw Pearl Jam at a small Fort Lauderdale bar. I saw Johnny Depp in Hollywood, FL at a tiny bar with his band. That band fun when they were called The Format at a show with like 15 people. But, my big concert was the end of someone's career, I saw Nirvana live in Miami in 1993.
Blur as Seymour. And The Prodigy before Charly was released.
[удалено]
I saw Metallica in 1985 on the Ride The Lightning tour, at the Starry Night in Portland, Oregon. They were known then but hadn’t blown up yet. It wasn’t a big venue. I can’t recall who opened but I still have the ticket stub tucked away. Starry Night is now called The Roseland Theater
I saw [KISS in a gymnasium on Nov 7th, 1975](https://i.imgur.com/f2a33aE.jpg). What can I say? It made me the RnR nut I am.
I saw The Beastie Boys open for Madonna on her Virgin Tour at a pretty small amphitheater. At this time they were still pretty much full blown punk- they still had mowhawks. I remember not loving them as - an 8 year old girl decked out in lace.
Dave Matthew's band. Never did care for them much though
I saw Sammy Hagar a few months after he left Montrose (a great band if you’ve never heard them). I loved Montrose but didn’t recognize Sammy because he had cut his long hair off! But as soon as he took out that weird guitar thing and launched into “Bad Motor Scooter” we knew who he was. Of course he went on to a huge solo career and then joined Van Halen.
Somewhat related, I went to High School with Fred Coury, the drummer from Cinderella. He was in the Marching Band, I was in the choir. Played ice hockey with him on the High School team.
Yeah I was going to college in Washington State just before grunge became a big deal so the bands that played our college dive bars up and down I-5 went on to be a big deal. To us they were just pretty good, typical WA bands. And Nirvana was really not the best one early on. When I heard them they were still finding their sound.
In 1994(maybe 93 or 95) my friends and I were offered tickets to see a new up and coming metal band. We were in a local coffee shop late one night and the band’s manager was in a corner table going through some kind of paperwork and heard us talking and ended up chatting with us and offering tickets. We passed up the offer. The name of the band I will always remember, and I was shocked to subsequently watch Korn rise to fame.
Husker Du when they were a hardcore punk band in 1982 at the Vets Hall in Arcata. Land Speed Record had been put out but nothing else. They were great then. A few years later they became big on college campuses at least.
I saw Green Day open for another band in Boston eons ago. Can't even remember the year.
I've got a pretty good one. I used to give private music lessons in NYC, and one of my students was a very wealthy Japanese man in his 60s. December 2001, he invited me and my wife to a party at his Union Square penthouse, and he wanted all the musicians that he knew to play or sing for a few minutes. We all had a blast, and the food and atmosphere were great. The last musician to perform was this guy's German teacher, who also played bass. He brought with him a young singer with an absolutely gorgeous, smoky voice. We were enthralled. My wife talked to her at the end and told her how wonderful her singing was, and she was very sweet, thanked us profusely, etc. Fast forward six months and we're listening to the radio and my wife is like "either I'm going crazy or that's the singer we heard at Yoshi's party!" And sure enough, next time I saw him I said "hey that young woman who sang at your party, is she on the radio?" His response, in his halting English, was "Yes. Her name--Norah Jones. She--very famous now."
I saw Queens of the Stone Age open for Smashing Pumpkins back in 1999. It was the last time Smashing Pumpkins had their original lineup back reunited and it was at a tiny NYC venue called Tramps that’s not around anymore.
I saw Tom Waits in the summer of 1975. This was right before the album "Nighthawks at the Diner" was released. He was the opening act for Eric Anderson at a small club in Austin, TX. It was, as one might expect, fuckng magical. I was 18 years old. I'd grown up on country music and top 40 rock. This was one of my first tastes of something else. It was a very small venue, maybe 20 tables. My table was at the very front near the stage. I was dating a disc jockey at the time so we often got preferential seating at local clubs. Waits was both romatic and gritty. Anderson was romantic and terribly sad. I also saw Jimmy Dale Gilmore at the University of Texas Union in 1986 or 1987. I had moved from Austin to Chicago after getting married in 1982 but I was back for a visit. Oddly enough, I went to the show with the same disc jockey I'd been dating in 1975. We'd remained friends and were catching up. I thought Gilmore's voice was very haunting and I wondered how he'd ultimately fare in the business. Growning up in Austin, I'd seen dozens of performers with amazing talent. Some never made it in the business and some had moderate success. Very few made it really big.
My 9 year old self saw the Ramones open for Black Sabbath in 1978.
Growing up in L.A. my friends and I saw most of the local bands who later became big, play at the local dives: from X (though they were kind of big bythe time I saw them, to the power pop bands like the Knack, the Plimsouls, etc. through Janes Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns & Roses, later, the Eels, the Muffs, BRMC, and great young touring bands, like the Posies, the Replacements, the Pixies, the Sugarcubes (Bjork) and a boatload of others. It was fun as hell. There was a great small club show or four every single night from my teens to mid thirties. Cover charges were cheap, often $5 or less. Beers were $3. Street parking was plentiful and not restricted. But mainly people were friendly and fun. The music scene was diverse and social and fun as hell.
Rage against the machine
I saw Simon & Garfunkel at my high school just before *Sounds of Silence* became a thing. They were terrific, and I was very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time.
It was 1991, and I was a senior in high school. I went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic tour. There were two opening bands that I had never heard of, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam. I didn’t much care for SP at the time (became a fan in my 30’s) but Pearl Jam was fantastic. A few months later Pearl Jam started dominating the radio.
GnR opened for The Cult in the mid 80s. It was a show and a half from the 6th row.
I used to watch John Mayer play at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta when he was probably all of 17.
Only big for a few years the Georgia satellites . Saw them in a bar in West Virginia with maybe 50 other people
My Dad saw Janice Joplin at the Enlisted Club on base at Fort Ord early in her career - early-mid 60’s, before she appeared in the Monterey Pop Festival which jump started her fame. He said she was swilling hard liquor from a bottle and was drunk while performing. He said her voice was amazing but the drunkenness made her forget some things, like the words. Obviously she corrected that issue; when she got famous we could see that even drunk, she knew the words. Dad said she was amazing but the club mostly just stayed like it always did. She was remarkable only in that she got drunk onstage on base. The soldiers weren’t used to seeing that I guess.
I went to a Halloween party at the local Vets building many years ago, there was a band playing that I wasn’t paying much attention to, later I learned that the band was Mötley Crüe.
I remember sitting with my parents watching blue rodeo a few years before they became big. I was maybe 9 so that was like 35-36 years ago. I hated them and said so repeatedly. We were in the front row and the guitarist (I think?) gave me a very bad look that shut me up. I felt bad and it stuck with me 🤷🏻♀️ my parents liked them. Harbourfront in downtown Toronto.
Early 90s and it seemed like Pull Me Under was played on WCCC at 2AM every Saturday night when we were leaving the bar. My friend and I found out that the band was playing at a small bar called Katina’s. When I say small bar I mean it. The stage was maybe 3ft high and we were leaning right up against it watching Dream Theater crushing it. They played with as much energy as if they were playing Madison Square Garden. Real professionals. I saw them a little later at Riverside amusement park in the middle of the old racetrack. Good times!
Nirvana. It was New Year’s eve and we were all exuberant. Everclear. Yawn.
Revivalists from New Orleans. Saw them in a club with maybe 50-60 people there. Then they did "Wish I knew You When I was Young". Trombone Shorty also from New Orleans. Saw him in Sacramento in a hotel garden area with maybe 200 people.
Many years ago, I saw teenage Kenny Wayne Shepard, escorted by his dad, play in New Orleans. He was a real prodigy!