My first rock concert was Bob Dylan’s Buffalo Concert at the acoustically perfect Kleinhan’s Musical Hall November 20, 1965. Dylan was backed up by a group of musicians who would become The Band. Here’s the concert setlist:
- Solo Acoustic
- She Belongs to Me
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
- Desolation Row
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
- Mr. Tambourine Man
- Electric with the band
- Tombstone Blues
- Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Ballad of a Thin Man
- I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
Dylan had the local chapter of Hell’s Angels provide security and when some disgruntled fans rang a cow bell during the start of Dylan’s electric set, the Angels put an end to that disruption.
Marc Meyers discusses Bob Dylan’s impact on rock concerts in Chapter 8. He talks about the growing popularity of venues like Fillmore East and Fillmore West. And, of course, the ultimate concert of the Sixties: Woodstock.
The Seventies launched concerts in sporting venues and playing to much larger crowds. And, of course, costumes and lighting and special effects enhanced the viewing experience.
MTV changed the music industry in the Eighties. Music videos fueled concert tours. But, it also sowed the seeds of disruption to rock concerts in the future. Pink Floyd caused a sensation with THE WALL tour. Live Aid may have been the ultimate rock concert.
Marc Meyers includes his picks of the Fifty Best Live Albums, Concert Films, and Rock Documentaries. What was your first rock concert? What was your favorite concert? GRADE: A
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
Part 1 The 1950s
Chapter 1 Los Angeles Auditoriums 11
Chapter 2 Cleveland Theaters 22
Chapter 3 Chicago Clubs 31
Chapter 4 Memphis Fairs 37
Chapter 5 Northeast Fests 50
Part 2 The 1960s
Cnapter 6 Folk at the Mall 65
Chapter 7 Pop’s Endless Summer 76
Chapter 8 Dylan Invents Rock 97
Chapter 9 Ballrooms and Be-Ins 104
Chapter 10 Festival Mania 119
Part 3 The 1970s
Chapter 11 Image, Media, and Branding 161
Chapter 12 Arenas, Stadiums, and Tours 177
Chapter 13 Sight and Sound 201
Chapter 14 Concert Maximus 220
Chapter 15 Rise of Exurbia 240
Part 4 The 1980s
Chapter 16 Not Just Another Brick 251
Chapter 17 Killing the Radio Star 264
Chapter 18 Computerized Ticketing 274
Chapter 19 And in the End, Live Aid 285
Epilogue 295
Fifty Best Live Albums, Concert Films, and Rock Docs 299
Source List 305
Acknowledgments 311
My first concert was Bob Dylan at the Masonic Temple in Detroit fall of 65. Probably pretty much the same show you saw. My favorite concerts would be The Who at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in the mid 60’s. Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Masonic Temple in Detroit in the late 70’s. Talking Heads Stop Making Sense Tour at Pine Knob Clarkston Michigan in the early 80’s. The Clash at the Grand Circus Theater in Detroit on their Combat Rock tour in 82. And any number of Bruce Springsteen concerts. On a local level the best live band I saw were the MC5.
The most disappointing concert : Jimi Hendrix who only played 25 minutes.
Steve, I’m impressed by the number of concerts you and the Meyerson have attended! I regret I didn’t take more advantage of the concerts in Wisconsin while I was a college student.
My first concerts were in the late seventies, starting, like you, with Bob Dylan. I quickly grew disenchanted with the stadium tour thing and the eighties were much more enjoyable for me as I only went to concerts in smaller theaters and clubs. I managed a record store in the late eighties and saw a ridiculous number of shows at St. Andrews hall in Detroit , so many that the woman who operated the ticket booth would just wave me by, even if I didn’t have tickets (I was always really nice to her).
Favorite show? Probably a tie. The first was The Throwing Muses at St. Andrews. I remember being so blown away by the sounds coming out of little Kristin Hersh’s mouth that I actually sat down on the floor in stunned amazement. The second was at a small cultural center across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago. I wandered in to get out of the cold and stepped into a small concert space to sit down for a moment. There was a solo piano performance scheduled for that night and the pianist who was performing (I’ve long forgotten his name) happened to walk in and sat down to play a few pieces. I’m guessing he was checking out the piano and acoustics. I don’t even know what he played but the moment, while it lasted, was lovely.
I also caught Joe Henry in Chicago at a small neighborhood venue when he was touring for “Trampoline” and that was terrific. I cute brunette who was their with another guy kept looking at me which really made my night.
The book looks like a good read. Thanks for the tip, George.
Byron, you really took advantage of all the concert opportunities at St. Andrews hall! You would really enjoy ROCK CONCERT! I forgot to mention the book includes plenty of photos from concerts, too.
Our high school won some rackety contest around 1974 and we got a concert from Dr. Hook & the Medicine show. Even in my young & naive eyes, I could tell they were all drunk and awful (although playing for a bunch of high school kids who won a stupid contest might have contributed to that). I think the first concert I voluntarily attended was Foreigner—probably 1977–at the Jacksonville Auditorium (I lived in South Georgia, about an hour from Jacksonville). I went with my brother (who had purchased the tickets as an early Christmas present for me and my sister, so it must have been November/December). The three of us went. I was 20, my brother 17, my sister 13. I think it was the first “real” concert for all of us. My favorite concert was the last night of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA tour at the L.A. Coliseum in October 1985. I’ve seen lots of concerts, but that was by far the most electrifying and exciting.
Deb, plenty of my friends have seen Bruce Springsteen’s concerts and they all rave about them! Because of my allergies, I never took Patrick and Katie camping…but our survivalist neighbors invited them whenever they went into the wilderness. To reciprocate, I would take my kids and their kids to rock concerts–Back Street Boys, *NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, Matchbox 20, Destiny’s Child, etc.
I have been to very few concerts–maybe under ten. Although I have been to a lot of classical concerts and operas and Broadway musicals if that counts. My first rock concert was a double bill of The Supremes and Stevie Wonder. It was in Lambertville, NJ in 1966.
Patti, I would have loved to see The Supremes and Steve Wonder in concert! I did see Linda Ronstadt who was fabulous!
My first formal rock concerts, I believe, were the Busboys’ 1983 ballroom concert on the University of Hawaii campus, where I worked the door and did my first public dancing, and the Animals on their 1983 reunion tour, at UH at the outdoor amphitheater. I also wrote it up the latter for the campus paper, KA LEO O HAWAI’I, and thus it was my first paid writing. In an odd sort of coincidence, the band War (which had first recorded with the Animals’ Eric Burdon), also played the same venue later that year, and I was too sick to attend (and it was raining), but was able to hear the concert through my dorm window, since it was directly across the street.
My best would be hard to isolate, but probably the church basement show featuring my favorite DC punk band, Jawbox, with (if I remember correctly) Slant 6 opening for them, in which Jawbox played better live than I’ve heard them do before or since. But I saw a Lot of great punk performances in the ’80s and ’90s when I lived in the DC ‘burbs, usually attending along with my ex Donna, who eventually began working directly with Positive Force DC, who put on benefit concerts on an almost constant basis (along with some other activity). Also a lot of jazz concerts, a fair amount of folk and bluegrass concerts, a small slew of classical concerts (the only sort I’ve since taken in more of since moving to Philadelphia, aside from comedian’s sets).
I know I’ve read Myers’s work before, but I’ll have to Go Look to see where (I’d probably have as much trouble keeping his variant spelling of his surname consistent as others among us do)…
That Debbi Peterson kept smiling at me when I caught the Bangles at the 9:30 Club in DC in ’84 did help to make it memorable, my first concert after moving there (opening act: a pop-punk band, the Intentions), in large part I suspect because I was almost the only person on my side of the club watching them directly and dancing rather than standing and staring at the monitor of the club’s video of their performance…I was actually under the monitor…and if she could actually see me dancing (improbable), that has been frequently a source of amusement for spectators.
Todd, I almost alway wear earplugs to rock concerts. So many of my friends who hung out near those mammoth speakers at concerts now wear hearing aids.
Todd, Marc Meyers also wrote two more excellent books: Anatomy of a Song and Why Jazz Happened, both worth reading!
Not too many rock concert in my background. a few Sixties concerts with the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, and Jefferson Airplane. I find rock concerts too loud and too crowded. In the case of a Jimmy Buffett concert about 20 years ago, too many drunks. Until we moved to Florida, our concerts tended on the folk music side and we really enjoyed these: Odetta, Tommy Makem, Noel Stookey, Dave Mallett, Tom Paxton, Side by Side…and so many others. The Florida Panhandle seems to offer mainly modern rock from no-name bands and occassion big names that do not interest us. Again, too crowded, too loud, too many drunks, and a large assembly of MAGA hats. **sigh**
I can’t imagine MAGA hats at a rock concert unless it was Kid Rock or Ted Nugent. Country music concerts yes.
Steve, it’s Florida-town. And way too many rockers, fans and performers, are idiots.
Jerry, we’re going to see Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE this weekend!
George, keep your expectations low and you may enjoy it. We actually thought the second act was better than the first.
Jeff, I’ve been listening to Jimmy Buffett CDs today and will continue right up to the show on Sunday.
I saw that same Dylan concert in Atlanta in 1965 and really loved it. My first was around 10 years earlier when my mother took my sister and me to an Elvis concert in Augusta, Georgia. I was around 9-10 and my sister was two years younger, and it was in an auditorium I’m fairly sure no longer exists. Needless to say, I don’t remember much about it. Two that really stand out were fairly close together in the 70s. Patti Smith, shortly after the release of HORSES, in an Atlanta club that I think was called The Electric Ballroom and is long gone. A few months later came the Rolling Stones SOME GIRLS tour. They had decided to do a few smaller venues to get ready for their stadium tour, and one of the first was the Fox Theater (around 4000 seats) in Atlanta. The whole thing was shrouded in secrecy and even the name on the tickets was The Cockroaches. I won tickets from a radio station. The opening act was Patti Smith. This may well be my favorite. Finally I’ll include two great ones from the Nineties–Neil Young’s RAGGED GLORY tour, the loudest concert I can remember, and what turned out to be the final Nirvana tour. One more–Pavement, around the time of SLANTED AND ENCHANTED in Atlanta’s Masquerade Club.
Michael, that’s an impressive array of concerts! I saw Patti Smith in a literary event a few years ago when she spoke about her career and read from her newest book that had just been published. She then pulled out a guitar and sang some of her songs. Back in 1968, my college friends took me down the street to The Scene–a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin–where a band I never heard of, CREAM, was playing. The bar was jammed with about 300 fans and Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker delivered an incendiary performance!
My brother was a huge Cream fan and saw them several times.
First concert? Well, that’s a tough one. I remember for my bar mitzvah, I got my mother to take me to see Joey Dee & the Starlighters at Ben Maksik’s Town & Country Club on Flatbush Avenue. But that was a nightclub. My first concert was undoubtedly an Easter or Christmas show hosted by Murray the K at the Brooklyn Fox downtown (a couple of blocks down Flatbush Avenue from Junior’s restaurant). It could have been the Labor Day show in 1963:
September 4, 1963
Murray The K’s Holiday Revue | Brooklyn Fox
Ben E. King, Little Stevie Wonder, Drifters, Miracles, Tymes, Chiffons, Randy & Rainbows, Angels, Jan & Dean, Ronettes, Jay & Americans, Gene Pitney, Dovells, Dionne Warwick, Dick & Dee Dee
There was also:
September 9, 1964
Murray The K’s Big Holiday Show | Brooklyn Fox
Motown: Marvin Gaye, Miracles, Martha & Vandellas, Supremes, Contours, Temptations — Also: Searchers, Dusty Springfield, Millie Small, Jay & Americans, Dovells, Little Anthony & Imperials, Shangri-Las, Ronettes
There were a few others too. The acts I remember most were Little Anthony & the Imperials and The Temptations, both for their dazzling dance steps, and Little Stevie Wonder. But there were many others, as most performers got to do their one or two biggest hits.
But in between these two was the most memorable concert:
February 12, 1964 The Beatles at Carnegie Hall. My friends Roy and Jan and I got tickets ($3 each) for the earlier of two 45 minute shows at Carnegie Hall. There really was so much screaming from the girls in the audience that it was hard to hear anything.
Some other memorable concerts:
July 2, 1988 Jimmy Buffett at Jones Beach. Anyone who knows how hard it became to get tickets to a Buffett concert in later years will be surprised, perhaps, to know that in 1988 I was able to get tickets easily not long in advance. We had no idea that Parrotheads existed and we had such a great time that we got tickets for his concert four days later at The Pier on the West Side. Interestingly, unlike most acts these days, it was a very different setlist for the two shows,
November 16, 2001 Jimmy Buffett at Madison Square Garden. Benefit for the Victims of 9/11. Our first trip to the city since 9/11, a very memorable and emotional night. Ed Bradley (of 60 Minutes) hosted the show, all firemen got in free (and there were a lot), lots of tributes, film clips, etc. Bradley sang “60 Minute Man” and annpunced that Jimmy had bought 1000 tickets for NYC workers and donated $1 of the gate to victims.
September 20, 2005 – From the Big Apple to the Big Easy. Benefit for Hurricane Katrina Victims. We were at the Madison Square Garden concert, held the same night as the Radio City Music Hall concert. (MSG holds close to 20,000 seats. Radio City has nearly 6,000 seats.) Many, many artists spoke and sang, including New Orleans artists displaced and some already living in New York. Jimmy Buffett, Elton John, Bette Midler, Allen Toussaint, The Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Frankie Ford , John Fogerty, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Bartholomew, Buckwheat Zydeco, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Cyndi Lauper, Simon & Garfunkel. There is a DVD available at Amazon for $19.99 but I got a used copy for $3.33 plus shipping. Very memorable night.
Of course, we’ve been to many memorable concerts over the years – we went to Jazzfest in New Orleans every year from 2006-2012, for instance. Unlike my brother, however, we were not at Woodstock or the Concert for Bangladesh at MSG. We did see several memorable shows at the Fillmore East – our first introduction to B> B. King; Blood, Sweat & Tears with Jethro Tull and Albert King; Jefferson Airplane with Hot Tuna and Jr. Wells & Buddy Guy (late November 1970, with a very pregnant Grace Slick).
That was $1 MILLION he donated.
Jeff, I think you win the Best Concert Attendee! I’m always impressed at the number of concerts you and Jackie were a part of! There’s some great entertainment on that list.
Ah, I was waiting for Jeff’s list. Simply amazing.
My first concert was The Beach Boys, a small one they held on the beach near Huntington Beach pier. I saw them again a week later at Anaheim Ballroom. That must have been 1962. I have never been a big concert-goer, but I did see some good ones. At the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. I saw Chicago (then calling themselves The Chicago Transit Authority, CTA), and Love opened for them. Amazing. Best ever? I saw at Fillmore West Big Brother and the Holding Company, with lead singer Janis Joplin, and a new group, The Doors, who sang pretty much their first album. It was a stoned light-show soaked, loud, unbelievable night!
I saw The Moody Blues in Long Beach at the sorts arena, and they were good but the sound was only so-so. In Tucson, I saw the Stone Poneys, with Linda Ronstadt . Though that band was formed in L.A., she was from Tucson. I also went to a lot of jazz concerts, especially the Playboy Jazz Festival, at the Hollywood Bowl every year for five or six years, always hosted by Bill Cosby. Those long days and nights of jazz were unbelievablely fine.
Rick, you attended some great concerts! Now, with Covid-19, there’s a hesitancy in attending any event where a lot of people might be involved.
so you saw the real, original Beach Boys, on the beach in California. Very cool. We’ve seen some incarnations and we saw Brian in his comeback tour in the late ’90s, I believe. I think he’s been touring with Al Jardine lately.
Love the Janis/Doors concert. Very, very cool. Janet Rudolph has a story about being backstage with Janis Joplin.
My brother was a huge Deadhead, must have seen them 200 times. He has some backstage stories too. He saw them at the Fillmore East and hung out with John Belushi (another Deadhead) before he hit it big.
Jeff, the colleague who shared an office with me at my former College was a deadhead, too. I’m sure he saw The Grateful Dead at least 200 times. Plus, he had plenty of Dead gear, too.
I have never understood the popularity of Jimmy Buffett. There is just something I must be missing but I find his records pretty mediocre.
Steve, the Parroheads are fiercely loyal fans! I’m sure we’ll see some at ESCAPE TO Margaritaville!
I find his music easy to take in, but have never sought to own his recordings.
Todd, if you ever want some Jimmy Buffett CDs, let me know. I have duplicates of many of his albums. I forget what I have and I end up buying stuff I already own.
Thanks! I know that experience.
Of potential relevant interest:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/11/guster-ryan-miller-concert-pandemic/620691/
Also, long-term sf/fantasy fanzine fan Lenny Kaye gets his say in THE OBSERVER:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/14/lenny-kaye-interview-lightning-striking-patti-smith-nuggets
I’ve been to some excellent rock concerts, but most of the best concerts I’ve been to have been jazz concerts. Such as the First Thelonious Monk Memorial Concert, where I met Gerry Mulligan, David Amram, Urszula Dudziak, Wynton Marsalis and T. S. Monk (his grandson, and a musician) in the afterparty, and saw and heard Dizzy Gillespie and a slew of others onstage beforehand. The International Association of Jazz Educators convention in 1991, where I met Max Roach, Joe Morello, members of Mingus Dynasty and was overwhelmed by how much performance was all around me, spontaneously breaking out in the hallways, particularly around pianos, as well as pre-scheduled. The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Kronos Quartet. (Sadly, I’ve been to too many concerts that were toward the end of careers, way too close in fact, such as one by Albert King and his band, with Koko Taylor and hers opening for them, and one of Doc Watson’s last at the Birchmere, and that MJQ…had also seen the MJQ earlier at Wolf Trap, opening for an unappreciative audience there for Miles Davis’s uninspired funk band, one of Davis’s last performances as well).
I envy you!
There weren’t many concerts that I could afford to go to as a student, had to be happy with copies on cassettes from friends’ records.
And later the bands I was interested in just didn’t perform in Germany – so it’s just a small list:
Johnny Winter in the famous Roundhouse in London
Tina Turner on her European tour in the 80s – with guest David Bowie
Steve Winwood in London, Orlando and Texas
Joe Bonamassa
Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood open air in Munich
Johnny Winter again a few weeks before he died in 2014
Wolf, you’ve seen some great performers!