Life changing concerts anyone?

[copacetic]

For me:
Beatles Tokyo, @Budokan '66. What can ya say about that?
Jefferson Airplane @ Concertgeboew, Amsterdam '68 (day I met Jack Casady and saw a new direction in bass sound)
Miles Davis @Keystone Corner San Framcisco.  Electric beyond electric.
Wailers (w/Bob Marley pre big fame) @Matrix, San Francisco '73(wow)
The Meters @Boarding House, San Francisco @'75 (double wow)
Fela Kuti and Africa'70 @Shrine Lagos Nigeria '79(you had to be there)
Bill Laswell & Zakir Hussain @Fillmore '02 (out of this world)
Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland Tony Williams @Blue Note tokyo..'92 ish.

All the aforementioned had bass players of distinction. I'll say Casady took me by surprise and  changed my whole approach both with his playing and rig. He took the time to even show me what he was up to during sound check. By this time I had seen the Who (yeah a lot of bass thrashing, loud and good angst show but went home and slept).
These days not as excited going to concerts. Prefer clubs small settings.

[Hörnisse]

The Rolling Stones - Hemisphere Arena San Antonio June '75  (my first ever concert!)
Dave Brubeck Quartet - St. Andrews Presbyterian College - November '79
The Clash - City Coliseum Austin, TX (summer of '82)
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - City Coliseum Austin, TX (summer '82, they opened for........)
Elvis Costello - City Coliseum - Austin, TX  (Bruce Thomas and that P bass!)
Metallica - Special Events Center - Austin, TX 1997 (I had bought their first LP on Megaforce Cassette back in the day but had never seen them up until this point.  They were in the round and put on a great show)
Tool - Special Events Center - Austin, TX  June '02  (I took my then 18 year old daughter because she liked them but I was blown away.  I've never heard a band sound so good live in a large arena)

[gweimer]

Let's see if the brain cells are still firing...

The Tubes/SAHB - Riviera Theater, Chicago, 1980  (it was Halloween, and what a surreal night)
King Crimson - Auditorium Theater, Chicago, 1974
Mott The Hoople/Kansas - Auditorium Theater, Chicago, 1973(?) - Queen cancelled last minute, Kansas was great, Mott was awesome (but only an hour show)
Alice Cooper/The Babys - Chicago Amphitheater, Chicago, 1978(?) - Madhouse Rock Tour, entertainment at its finest
KISS/Rush - Fremd High School, Palatine, 1976 - first tour, no fire marshalls, military precision orchestration.  Rush sucked.  WOW!

Tons of great shows over the years - Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, Yes (always amazing), Grateful Dead (when they were good), Wishbone Ash, Peter Gabriel, Rory Gallagher, No Doubt, Toadies - but the ones I listed are probably the ones that hit me best.

[Highlander]

Can't beat the first line of the first post...

Slade/Home@Wembley '74  - first gig
Alice Cooper@Wembley '75 - Welcome to my nightmare, I think you're gonna like it... yep...
Lynyrd Skynyrd@Hammersmith '76 - 6 piece lineup in support of Bullets LP - I can still see this gig in my minds eye...
Who/SAHB/Little Feat/Outlaws/Streetwalkers@Charlton FC '76 - nothing to say about this; no need...
Deep Purple@Wembley '76 - Come Taste The Band tour... Bolin took some somewhat undeserved flack but seeing some of this LP played live will stick with me always...
Rainbow@the Rainbow+the Rainbow '77 - truly magical...
Bad Company @Earls Court '77 - Rodgers is still one of my favourite rock voices...
Spirit/Police@the Rainbow - Randy California... caught him quite a few times and always somewhat magical... my voice, somewhat stoned, can be heard on the live LP shouting "F*ck the curfew!" just before Stone Free...
Gillan@the Marquee - 3 different lineups in 18 months when he could truly still hit those notes...
early Whitesnake gigs - too many to think about - met some of them several times and even got a few of my pics in a tour programme (one of Tina - back-office crew and one of DC) - John Lord... what a gent, as was DC...
Rush@Hammersmith '77 to Wembley '07 - all of them magical...
A lot of the NWOBHM era was fun with Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Tygers, etc - spotty oiks... some of them made good...

There were lots of other special moments but probably none more than having the opportunity of chatting to Bruce Palmer after the third night at Wembley in '82 (NY Trans Band) and sitting down with SRV, Tommy Shannon and Whipper (whilst ignoring a phonie Black Sabbath) at Reading and talking about their stand-out gigs (Allmans with Duane - SRV really rated him, Hendrix and Winter - multiple votes for these guys, obviously) and embarrassing myself by forgetting who wrote Little Wing and being mockingly chastised for my incompetence - the personalised programmes are still treasured items for me...

At the Rainbow in '77 between watching Clover and standing at the bar waiting for Skynyrd I was talking to an American that had seen the Allmans gigs at the Filmore (awe-struck Kenny) and he told me of his lasting memory of Woodstock... "The smell!"

[ack1961]

only a few would I consider "life changing".
1. Springsteen closing the Meadowlands while doing the entire "Darkness" album cover-to-cover - had my mom and my 3 brothers in a luxury suite for that one.
2. X - it was a dream come true to see them.  Billy Zoom kissed every lady goodnight and shook every guy's hand as we funneled out of Cat's Cradle. Too cool.
3. William Elliott Whitmore (alone on a stage with a guitar, banjo and a kick drum) opens for The Low Anthem, who have changed the way I listen to music.  They are truly magnificent musicians, who will try just about anything. I had never heard of them before that night.
4. Warren Zevon at a tiny bar in Dallas, TX - I sat at the bar about 20 feet away from him. What a creative mind.
5. Clutch - I took my (then) 14 year old son to his first concert here in Raleigh. They opened with a raucous rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Gravel Road" and it was balls to the wall from there on out.

Unfortunately, I never got to see Pink Floyd.  I am going to see The Who in November - I know it's not really The Who anymore, but I'm not turning down the chance..plus Pino is cool.

[Denis]

Great topic! For me:
KISS: 12/27/76 Rock and Roll All Over Tour - Cumberland County Area, Fayetteville, NC - my dad took me. It was my first ever concert.
Yes: 09/16/83 - Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC. Alan White had his limo pulled over at the gate after the show and signed some tour books, including mine.
Heart: 11/7/84 - Minges Coliseum, Greenville, NC
ZZ Top: 04/03/86 - Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC
Pink Floyd: 10/25/87 - Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC
Pink Floyd: 05/88 (I think) - Carter Finley Stadium, Raleigh NC. It had rained all day and 5 minutes before the show started the setting sun came out, a few airliners flew overheard and then the lasers started shining into the sky. It was so perfectly Pink Floyd, it was surreal.
Lynyrd Skynrd: 06/87, Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC. First tour since the plane crash and it was fantastic but emotional and almost heartbreaking. Alan Collins had to do his drunk driving speech as part of his plea agreement, I guess.
AC/DC with Cinderalla opening: 10/18/88 - Reynolds Coliseum, NC State, Raleigh NC. I was deaf for 3 days.
The Who: 7/27/89: Carter Finley Stadium, Raleigh, NC. All night long a bat kept flying around Entwistle's head and he swatted at it the whole show.
Man or Astroman?: 01/17/99 Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC. Without a single doubt one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life.
Blue Öyster Cult: 11/16/01 Lincoln Theater, Raleigh NC. This show stood out among the times I saw them because they played a TON of stuff they hadn't played in years.
Flogging Molly with the Rolling Blackouts and the Scotch Greens: 02/22/06 930 Club, Washington DC.
Gogol Bordello: 07/31/09 The Norva, Norfolk VA. THE ENERGY!
Asia: 08/10/10 Raleigh Memorial Auditoreum, Raleigh NC
Man or Astroman?: 11/06/10 Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill NC (Yes, they are on my list twice)

Tour dates courtesy of my folder of ticket stubs...

[Lightyear]

I can't remember exact dates and my stubs are all gone now:  In no particular order

Kiss, the Houston Summit, Rock and Roll Over tour - first one for me too!  Mom dropped me and four of my friends off and picked us up at 10:15 - dad was pissed off that we got home at 11:00 on a school night!  Times have changed 

AC/DC - Highway to Hell tour in the Houston Music Hall - this was where the symphony played  - maybe 3,000 seats and perfect acoustics.  Bonn carried Angus up the steps on his shoulders - lots of steps - unforgettable.

Tom Petty - Refugee tour? - also in the Music Hall - spot on show.

The Jam @ the Agora Ball Room.  78 or 79?.  Small crowd, 200 maybe, of teenagers all using fake ID's to get in.  They ferocity of the show was amazing.  They were nice guys too - they looked like they were beat to Hell yet most everyone in club went back stage to meet them - they were painfully polite young men.

The Buzzcocks - also at the Agora, huge crowd and an amazing show.

Rockpile - once again at the Agora.  Was a lot of fun and those guys rocked - Nick Lowe was a hoot.

The Who - Face Dances Tour '80.  Had third row seats right in front of Pete who had cast on his right hand - smoked dope the whole time.  Kenny Jones on drums but the rest of the them were close to their prime.

I saw just about everything that came through town but these are the one that hung out as special in my mind

[Hörnisse]

Lost most all of my ticket stubs in the divorce.  Still have my Stones stub though!  I was 13 and in the cheap seats!

[Pilgrim]

Moody Blues.  No one else, but every one of the five times I've seen them has been wonderful.

[the mojo hobo]

)
King Crimson - Auditorium Theater, Chicago, 1974

I was there! Seated in the first row of the first balcony. It was awesome.

Pink Floyd at Soldier Field on the Animals tour was another. The flying pig in the hazy sky amid doric columns and quadrophonic sound. Amazing.

But the life changing one was at a psychedelic dungeon (an old Jewel store with the interior painted flat black and black lights added) on the east side of Aurora Illinois, a band called The Flock, the song "Can't You See" the bassist playing a Fireglo 4001 with all 8 fingers

[nofi]

lucky to have seen these guys before they passed:

roland kirk
muddy waters
jimmy reed
albert king
freddy king
SRV
willie dixon
frank zappa
rory gallagher
new york dolls (almost)

i'm sure there are more but my mind illudes me at the moment.

[uwe]

I could name the obvious stuff, Status Quo and Rainbow in 1977, DP with Morse on that first tour, Judas Priest 81 or on the Turbo tour, Whitesnake on their very first tour in Germany, Slade around that time,  but there is also Leonard Cohen and Neil Young a few years ago and, most notably, The J. Geils Band in 79 or 80 in a small club, they were arena and stadium schooled from the US, yet played for a couple of hundred people in Germany. Four Encores. The last one AFTER the house lights had gone up and music played from the PA, half the people already outside and lovely Peter Wolf jumps once more to the miKe and raps: "wamma jamma?!!!"

[godofthunder]

 Wishbone Ash '72, Kiss early '75, Kiss '77, Cheap Trick '79, The Ramones '81, The Who '82, Motorhead '86, McCartney '89, Ian Hunter 2001.

[Big_Stu]

Slade; Blackburn UK, 1973 and 1974. My first ever gigs, could hardly see a thing but I swear Dave Hill pointed at me to get up and stomp.

Nazareth 1975 UK tour, support by Snafu, featuring a young Micky Moody later of Whitesnake. Opened up my young eyes that there was more to music than Slade. Seen Nazareth around 8 times since too, Dan McCafferty has THE most rock voice ever!

Motorhead; Bold Street Working Men's Club, Accrington, UK. 1977/78. Recommended by a mate, loudest noise I'd heard in my life until then. The start of a lifetime fandom of Motorhead. After a chat with Lemmy in 2005 I wrote to Marshall demanding  they make a Lemmy Marshall tribute stack and years later when they did I was invited down to play it before he did 

Slade; Bradford Univ 1978, was asked by the roadies to give them a hand humping the 14 tons of gear into the gig. Sat with them when job was done and watched the band sound-checking. Then got sent to buy 13 lots of fish and chips for them all, while my mate was sent for three dozen of the cheapest toilet rolls he could find. It was the day that I saw at first hand just how much went into playing a gig.
Later recognised at many gigs after that by the band giving me the chance to play a couple of Jimmy Lea's basses & do a few design jobs for them or their fan club.

Rolling Stones, Edinburgh Murrayfield, 1999. Was the 2nd crowd member to arrive at the venue. Waited all day to get in. Stood at the front about 12 ft from Keith and Mick shook my hand in the 1st 10 minutes as he went along the front row.

Moody Blues; Edinburgh Usher Hall, 2002, spur of the moment decision. Gig was sold out & I was offered a pair of returned tickets with an hour's notice. So glad I did, awesome experience, it was Ray's last tour due to illness.

Steve Cropper, (with The Animals & Friends) several venues 2008. First real chance to see one of my few heroes up close. Went to so many gigs then & in his next tour in 2011 that he picked us out in the crowd, went to the end of tour bash, got drunk & swapped email addresses. Really really decent nice guy, full of so many stories brilliantly told of all of the stars he played with.

[clankenstein]

led zeppelin western springs auckland 1972,ravi shankar christchurch town hall 1973,farnk zappa auckland town hall 1976,midnight oil wellington show buildings 1982.more when the coffee kicks in.