Life changing concerts anyone?

[uwe]

"more uninhibited than the accounts might indicate"

Even more?! 

[drbassman]

I wish I could remember a life-changing concert from my youth!  I lived in Dayton, OH as a teen during the 60's and it wasn't exactly a hot destination for the top groups of the time.  I cut my teeth on surf music, which my first band was deep into when the British invasion occurred and turned our heads and minds.  At the same time, folk music was exploding on the mainstream radio stations and everything seemed to change overnight.

I did attend a really good concert by none other than Simon and Garfunkel.  When I went off to college, things improved:

Philadelphia:  Leslie West and Mountain; The Turtles (ha, ha remember them?); Spencer Davis Group; The Rascals; Nazz

Kent State University:  Emerson, Lake and Palmer (the best concert I recall attending); lots of folk types like James Taylor, John Hartford, Joan Biased, etc.

For the life of me, I know I went to many others, but can't recall them!  They all impacted me and my playing, but none of them changed my life significantly.  If you can remember the 60's, you really weren't there!

[gweimer]

I wish I could remember a life-changing concert from my youth!  I lived in Dayton, OH as a teen during the 60's and it wasn't exactly a hot destination for the top groups of the time. 

For the life of me, I know I went to many others, but can't recall them!  They all impacted me and my playing, but none of them changed my life significantly.  If you can remember the 60's, you really weren't there!

Dayton became the hot spot for funk in the '70s (Ohio Players, EWF, Heatwave).  Guess you just missed out.

I guess I should include one concert that really did have an impact on me.  We went and caught West, Bruce and Laing about 8 months before their first record.  We got there 4 hours early for a general admission show at McGaw Hall in Evanston, IL.  I was about 25 feet from Jack Bruce.  I went home and wanted to throw rocks at my bass!  Watching him play, doing figure 8's with one finger was just amazing!  Spencer Davis opened.  I still have a bootleg of that show, courtesy of one of my friends, who snuck in a $10 Panasonic cassette deck.  You hear him swearing as much as the band.

[westen44]

"more uninhibited than the accounts might indicate"

Even more?! 

I honestly think so.  Cameras weren't everywhere.  There was a lot going on.  I'd say large numbers of people were letting go of their inhibitions in ways that might be hard to imagine for people who weren't there.  I especially think the free love aspect of Woodstock was beyond what I had thought it was.  It's doubtful that free love has ever been in operation on such a scale and most likely such a thing will never be repeated.  Needless to say, society has moved too far away in another direction for that. 

[Highlander]

And it's all worth $$ to collectors....

Settled some bills and secured more junk...

[eb2]

I have seen lots of good and bad gigs.  Most life changing was The Classic Ruins, Dogmatics and Uncalled For at Cantones in Boston.  Early 80s  - I can't remember, but I was in high school and underage.  It was fun and loud and didn't look that hard to pull off. 

[Dave W]

I have seen lots of good and bad gigs.  Most life changing was The Classic Ruins, Dogmatics and Uncalled For at Cantones in Boston.  Early 80s  - I can't remember, but I was in high school and underage.  It was fun and loud and didn't look that hard to pull off. 

You saw the Dogmatics? I'm impressed!

[eb2]

I was too.  I saw them several times.

[slinkp]

Only a couple concerts come to mind as really mind-blowing.

Peter Gabriel at Madison Square Garden, 1986, on the So tour.  Tony Levin on bass, of course.

Sleater-Kinney on their final tour. (Heresy - no bass!)   I had seen them a couple times before and always enjoyed them, but I had thought their records were kind of downhill after Dig me Out.  So I was really unprepared for the onslaught of ferociously sexy and intensely moving rock that hit me at this show.

Mike Watt at the Knitting Factory on one of the Contemplating the Engine Room tours - Nels Cline was on guitar. I hadn't bought the album yet so this was the first time I heard the "opera".  Watt was great fun to watch beating the shit out of his strings as usual. Nels Cline was the revelation though.  I hadn't heard him before and he has been one of my favorite guitarists ever since.

I've seen the Who a few times between 1982 and 2006, and have tickets to the Quadrophenia thing, but none of them have been life-changing really. I'm not really expecting much from this tour either.

All the other life-changing concerts I saw were bands nobody has ever heard of in tiny clubs.  Mostly my friends' bands from college. They had a huge impact on me.  And probably none of that would ever translate to anybody who wasn't there. Stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR8e-KR3LwY&list=UUbfb_o--kPgG-dYjsYhsvgw&index=15&feature=plcp
or this http://www.myspace.com/challengeofthefuture
or this http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/beekeepermusic2

[Highlander]

Friday October 21st 1977 - the news broke that morning over here that there had been a plane crash in Mississippi that took the heart out of a Southern (by the Grace of God) band - over the years most of the others have followed their friends...

That night, Bob Seger was scheduled to play the Hammersmith Odeon; the audience was somewhat subdued, understandably...
An anouncement went over the PA system and they asked for a minutes silence, and they got it - you could have heard a pin drop... at the end of 60 seconds the sounds of the opening of Freebird came over the PA system and the place just went bananas...

As the fade out occurred the curtains went up and out came Bob Seger and he said, "Lets hear it for Lynyrd Skynyrd...!"

Once it started to settle, Drew Abbot started to crank out Nutbush City Limits and a stunning set ensued... Turn The Page was a magical rendition dedicated to those the road has taken...