All Aboard...!!! The RHT tour bus is about to head out on the highway! Grab your seats folks, it'll be a long ride. Everybody move on to the back...except Hightower - you're the DD today, brutha, since you're not drinking & you're accustomed to driving large transportation all over the USA. We got snacks, we got drinks, we got cards...all kinds of entertainment (no, Vesey - you can't bring that on here to "read", I don't care if your subscription got doubled). By the way, guys...in case your wondering there is no significance to the Pink Bunny at your left, other than I thought it was kick-ass and if I had a costume like that I'd be wearing it right now. See, a convo starter! Dean...you're going to have to quiet down over there. I can't hear EZ...what's he saying? Oh, yeah...we'll get you back before the wedding...sure we will. Yessssirree...(insert maniacal laugh here)!! Alright, boys...we need to get on the road to go pick up Hanif, let's bolt. Everybody, around the bus...let's hear about your first time. Uh, wait...let me clarify for Vesey...your first CONCERT. Yeah, man. Start us off, Deano...!
Dean: Aerosmith. 07/20/1974... Columbus, OH - St. John's Arena. I was 15 years old and went with my two best friends, who happened to be brothers. Tony was also 15 and Tim was 17. The arena was smoke-filled and the sound was actually terrible. We were thrilled beyond words. Real live music with our favorite band, crowds of hippies (like we so desperately wanted to be), and yes, people really did pass joints to you just because you were setting beside them. It was practically free love and Woodstock all over for us southern Ohio boys. Jesus God we loved every second of it. I've thought about that night every time I've been to a concert since then. I wish everyone loved music like we do.
Hightower - I'm going to have to limit my response to my first ROCK concert. Better yet, it will be the first concert I went to once I figured out what good music was. You see, me and my bud Flea Fly (and my mom) took the Flurry sisters to see KC and the Sunshine band when we were in the 9th grade. Then my parents took us to see the Commodores (with Lionel Richie) that next summer. As sophomores, we talked my buddy’s parents into taking us all the way to Shreveport to see the J. Geils Band (I REALLY don’t want to talk about it).
But then spring of my junior year, we had to go to Monroe to take the ACT. We all talked our parents into letting us make a weekend of it (what were they thinking?). After the test, which nobody gave a rip about, we went to the movies and saw Porky’s and Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip, straight from there we hustled over to the Civic Center to see RUSH. This was the Exit Stage Left tour. Was this a great day, or what? BTW, most of us bombed the ACT.
I knew Tom Sawyer from the Texas Tornado Kerry von Erich’s intro on Mid-South wrestling, but that was about it for Rush. Needless to say, I was blown away and became a RUSH junkie. I even dig this treat. Neal Peart is, of course, the greatest drummer ever and I will only allow arguments for second place. First ever rock concert and I get to see da Vinci on the skins. It’s been all downhill from there for drummers. Oh, also, all us country boys got freaked out when someone offered us pot – it was the first time we ever saw or even smelled it. We just knew the cops were gonna bust everybody so we moved three times and got offered in each place! Folks, when I got my first CD player, Exit Stage Left was the first CD I ever bought. I still listen to it. That’s why I count this as my first ROCK concert.
EZ - First concert I ever remember was a the Ohio State Fair... my sister went to a Huey Lewis and The News concert but I was too young (probably like 6 years old!)... so my dad and I hung out by the fence and listened anyway... then we figured out that if we rode the ferris wheel, we'd be able to see into the show AND hear great... that's about all I remember from the show...I remember loving all the lights.
The first concert I really went to (if you can call it that) was The Beach Boys after a Reds game (probably in 1986 or so)...when I moved into my house a few years ago, I found a box of my old posters and there were a couple posters in there from that show (it was sponsored by Chevrolet)...as kid, who didn't really dig on The Beach Boys you know?! I went with a friend of mine and my parents and remember climbing up on the backs of the seats at Riverfront Stadium and surfing on them for a couple hours! On the ride home, my dad was pulled over for speeding and he made us act like we were sleeping so he might get out of the ticket. It worked so we conned him into stopping to get us candy as a reward!
The first real concert I went to in an actual concert environment was a Jimmy Buffett show at Riverbend...not sure when it was but i know it was the summer after he recorded the live disc "Feeding Frenzy" in Cincinnati. I think i was 13 or 14 and had a blast looking at all the old farts dressed up in the parrot-head gear...that was actually the last time I've seen Jimmy live...if it works out, I think my fiance' and I will head down to Riverbend this year to scalp some tix.. good times..!
SuperVesey - Unfortunately for me, and I had no idea at the time, my first concert would be one that I will undoubtedly spend the rest of my life trying to top. I had the opportunity to see Nirvana at Dayton's HARA Arena during the Nevermind tour in October of 1993. Sure, I saw some live shows before this one, but this was a real concert. This one sticks out. Even today my pimply-faced jr. high students get goose bumps when I tell them I once saw Kurt Cobain live.
Mike Taylor, the late Barney Long, me and some other guy whose name I can't recall (always a good sign for a legendary concert story) piled into Mr. & Mrs. Long's Pontiac van! and hit the road for what would become a game-changer in the young life of yours truly. Upon arriving at the show I quickly realized this wasn't going to be like the Louise Mandrell show at the county fair. As we were herded onto the floor of the Arena, I noticed the absence of chairs, we were just corralled into a pin of sorts with the stage squaring off the end. Most of the people inside the pin with me and the guys appeared to also be exponentially more strange than anyone in Highland County. I'll never forget this one dude who came staggering across the floor (obviously high out of his mind) aiming directly for us. We stepped out of his way (quickly and in unison) and he proceeded to go throw up by a metal barrier on the side of the floor. This is what you call setting the tone.
The show was opened by an Asian band called The Boredoms and then followed by a band we hadn't really heard of at the time, The Meat Puppets. (Later Cobain and Co. would cover some of their songs in the Unplugged MTV set, pretty good band in their own right). When the Meat Puppets finished, the atmosphere changed. The lights suddenly went out and you could feel and hear the rush of people in the pit towards the stage. It was like trying to stand in the middle of the street in Madrid when they run with the bulls. Only in the dark.
Nirvana played with raw power and man, it was loud. The pit quickly turned into a moshing frenzy and we bounced around the floor of the Arena, often separated from each other only to find ourselves moshing in the same pit minutes later. I'll never forget, right about the time "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was played a guy walked into the center of the pit I was standing around wearing a light blue sailor suit. Looked like a real life Popeye the Sailor (and no, we weren't on acid). He starts prancing around the circle, calling people out. Much to my buddies surprise and probably horror, I shot across the pit and blasted him out of the ring and back out into the crowd. Pretty sure I heard cheers from the crowd. It was craziness unlike any I'd ever seen. Crowd surfing, drinking, violence, sex, you name it, it was there all set to the beat of Dave Grohl's drum.
Shoe - Judging from that first paragraph I'm not on the bus. Sigh. How soon they forget the founding father of RHT. Anyway, here's the scene. It's the Spring of '74, and King's Island has decided to have their first-ever "Senior Night." They made a slight miscalculation in their plans, though, and invited every high school in Ohio. In later years they'd split the thing up into 4-5 nights, but not that first year. Needless to say it was chaos from the get-go, buses lined up on Rt. 35 as far as they eye could see. What happened on that highway with all those buses stopped is another blog unto itself. Just trust me when I say that some girl from Bucyrus named Eliza is probably still dreaming of me to this day. But on to the show . . .
Two bands played that night. The opening act was a group called Redbone. They ended up being a bit of a one hit wonder with a tune called "Come and Get Your Love." I can hear you humming it now. They entered the stage in full Native American regalia, which was OK because they were all full blooded Cherokees. This being my first live concert and all (I know, I got a late start. I made up for it quickly though) I was blown away. Little did I know that I hadn't seen anything yet. That's because Brownsville Station hit the stage like a fucking H-Bomb. That's because their drummer, Henry "H-Bomb" Weck, beat those mothers like he was cornered by a rat in a Louisiana whorehouse. When Cub Koda started the intro to "Smokin' in the Boys Room" it was over:
How you doin' out there?
Y'ever seem to have one of those days where it just seems like everybody's gettin' on your case, from your teacher all the way down to your best girlfriend?
Well, y'know, I used to have 'em just about all the time. But I founda way to get out of 'em.
Let me tell you about it!
(Place explodes into bedlam).
The band followed that with "Barefootin'" and it was on. Great great night. And oh, by the way, if anybody tries to tell me that Motley Crue's version of "Smokin'" was better, I will beat you down.
Later fellas.
DJ - Sorry Shoe...didn't see ya sleepin' back there, man! My bad! Anywho...my first concert technically was a Midnight Star/Dazz Band show at the Ohio State Fair with my good friend Richie Buskirk & his older sister Kim when I was in like the 6th grade...but we had terrible seats though & left Kim to go hit the rides before Midnight Star even came on. This was regrettable, because I really liked Midnight Star at the time & break dancing was all the rage. Could have picked up a few moves. But I digress...
My first "real" concert was Alabama & Restless Heart in what must have been the summer of 1987 at The Ohio Center. I know...Midnight Star to Alabama - quite the transition. BUT, I must tell you I was in loooove with this girl & accepted the invitation to go with her, her dad & stepmom. Country music wasn't quite my bag, but Tommy's Pizza was involved as well. Actually, I came to respect Alabama a great deal after that show - they were (are) tremendous musicians. Also found out my girlfriend-at-the-time's dad played in a band, which immediately made this the coolest girl I'd ever dated. "What happened to the girl," you might ask? Well, I ended up marrying her, and our boys seem like they might follow in Opa's footsteps...!
Real quick though...I did eventually make it to a full-fledged rock & roll show by the fall of 1989, and it was an infamous one. Motley Crue with Warrant, Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, OH. Yep, this was the one where Tommy Lee was arrested after mooning the crowd after his spectacular drum solo in his revolving cage, which traveled out over the crowd. Also, something I found more hilarious than that, and maybe a bit foretelling, was that during Warrant's set their douchebag singer Jani Lane takes a big swig out of his water bottle and tosses it to the crowd (like whomever caught it would keep it as a souvenir). Much to Jani's surprise, some dude freakin' fires that bottle back at Lane & hits him in the chest. I damn near cried laughing so hard though, because Warrant really did suck that bad. You just knew the whole hair band gig was about up by then, ya know?
Hanif - Well, this is interesting. Because I grew up in the era of the D.A.R.E. concert, in which a bunch of police officers who were hardly able to play their instruments would get together, and have concerts full of songs about staying off of drugs, with a light show, over the top guitar solos, and the occasional synth. I sat through one of these in like 5th grade, and it was an all out party. Dancing in the aisles, kids with glo-sticks, flashing lights....it was like some kind of rave. Except there were no drugs. Because we were like 9 and 10 year olds. And it was a concert to promote anti-drug use.
I went again as a high school senior, as a D.A.R.E. advocate (which oddly made me incredibly cool amongst my peers on the soccer/basketball team. It was like the thing where you're so ironically lame that you become cool by default. Like Michael Cera.), and it was the worst experience ever. I nearly had a seizure because the lights were so bright, and the kids no longer danced in the aisles. Being drug free isn't as cool as it was in 1992.
That said, my first REAL concert was Montell Jordan at one of the old OSU block parties (that have long since ceased to exist, sadly), and it's telling, I think, of my era. I was too young to catch a cool late 80's-early 90's epic band. And by the time the late 90's alternative movement started back up, I was too old to have a "first concert" experience. So, I was stuck in the mid 90's, sitting crammed on a lawn, with a girl I kind of thought I liked, but I just mostly liked kissing every now and then, listening to a 3rd encore of "This Is How We Do It"
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