First Concert?

Cpech56

Active Member
Aug 12, 2012
1,301
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This topic got started on another forum I use and I found it pretty interesting to hear whose all seen what and where.

I'll start...

Tool-Cedar Rapids,IA
Freshman year of high school and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. They had people in full body paint swinging upside down from the ceiling. Extremely trippy but to this day it ranks right up there for me.

Top three concerts I have been to:

OAR-Red Rocks
Matisyahu- Simon Estes, Des Moines
George Strait-Cowboys Dancehall San Antonio,TX
 
Weezer - Hilton - 2002

We got to Ames super early that day, parked somewhere in the Hilton lot, smoked the small amount of pot we had, and spent the rest of the day wandering around the ISU campus. I was a junior in high school, and it was early May. The campus was absolutely gorgeous that day and it helped cement my decision to go to ISU.

Top 5 concerts I've been to:
Rage Against the Machine - Alpine Valley '07
Drive-By Truckers - Englert Theatre (IC) '07
The Hold Steady - First Ave '10
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals - Hilton '03
Dave Matthews Band/Ben Harper/My Morning Jacket - Hilton '04, featuring a surprise guest spot by the one and only Neil Young
 
Brad Paisley and Eric Church at the State Fair in like 06.

Top 3 concerts
Garth Brooks - Kansas City 07
Jason Boland - Leon 13
Dwight Yoakam - The Surf 13

I have been to quiet a few of the past 5 years. I am pretty much over arena concerts, unless it is Garth Brooks I probably won't go. Give me small venue, cold beer, and good music and I am pretty much in heaven.
 
Weezer - Hilton - 2002

We got to Ames super early that day, parked somewhere in the Hilton lot, smoked the small amount of pot we had, and spent the rest of the day wandering around the ISU campus. I was a junior in high school, and it was early May. The campus was absolutely gorgeous that day and it helped cement my decision to go to ISU.

Top 5 concerts I've been to:
Rage Against the Machine - Alpine Valley '07
Drive-By Truckers - Englert Theatre (IC) '07
The Hold Steady - First Ave '10
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals - Hilton '03
Dave Matthews Band/Ben Harper/My Morning Jacket - Hilton '04, featuring a surprise guest spot by the one and only Neil Young

I was also at that Weezer concert. If I remember right that was right when Say it aint so had just came out. Good times!
 
A group that many of you young'uns have probably never heard of:
Three Dog Night.
At the Arena in downtown Seattle.
Early 70s.

I think I am in ImJustKCClone's era......

August 1976 - 14 years old at Iowa State Fairgrounds. - Bachman Turner Overdrive was the headliner, Heart and Trooper were the warm up bands. It was one of the first concerts for Heart in the US and they had just released their album "Dreamboat Annie". My buddy and I caught whiffs and sights we hadn't seen before........

Really got me into live music and have seen 100's of live shows since then ranging the spectrum of America, Eagles, Springsteen, Clapton, Genesis, James Taylor, Police, McCartney, U2, Chicago, The Kinks and these days Coldplay (with my kids) and Keith Urban (wife's favorite.)
 
Not sure on the year but it was Alabama at the Jones county fair.

Other great one's I have been to have been Brooks & Dunn, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley (all at the Jones County Fair), Styx (Ragbrai) and The Eagles (iWireless Center or whatever it is called these days). Going to see Lady A again here in a couple weeks, would LOVE to see Garth or Zac Brown Band.
 
First: The Jets at McElroy Auditorium in Waterloo(about 88?) free tickets from a gas station

Top 5:
Weezer (2002 Hilton)
John Mayer/Maroon 5 (KC 2004)
Blink 182/Bad Religion (St Paul 2001)
Ben Harper/Jack Johnson (Hilton 05?)
Crickets (Republican straw poll...for them, not te politics) :-)
 
I was late in my concert going stage of life. First: Everclear. They sucked.
Top 3:
1. My Morning Jacket, '06 at Bonnaroo.
2. My Morning Jacket, '08, Riverside Milwaukee.
3. ....hmmm...I'll go with Tool, 2009.
 
Don McClean @ C.Y. Stephens 1973 (I think) I was still in high school and my brother was at ISU. First time drinking wine too! Puked later that night.
 
Mancow's Laser Luau @ Ankeny airfield in 1998. Megadeth headlined, Slipknot, Fear Factory, Static-X, Orgy, and some others.
 
Weezer - Hilton - 2002

We got to Ames super early that day, parked somewhere in the Hilton lot, smoked the small amount of pot we had, and spent the rest of the day wandering around the ISU campus. I was a junior in high school, and it was early May. The campus was absolutely gorgeous that day and it helped cement my decision to go to ISU.

Top 5 concerts I've been to:
Rage Against the Machine - Alpine Valley '07
Drive-By Truckers - Englert Theatre (IC) '07
The Hold Steady - First Ave '10
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals - Hilton '03
Dave Matthews Band/Ben Harper/My Morning Jacket - Hilton '04, featuring a surprise guest spot by the one and only Neil Young
The '07 Alpine Valley Rage show would be top 5 for me too.

First big-name concert was '95 Green Day in Moline.
 
Styx - Kilroy Was Here tour back in the early 80's. In the dome up in Cedar Falls. Also the first contact buzz of many. Think the entire audience was holding that night.

Side note: the drum kit from that show is in the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. Yes. I was a little too excited to see it. Right next to the Doors and Van Halen drum sets
 
Technically it was Alabama at the Iowa State Fair in the early-80s. First 'real' concert was The Police and UB40 in the early/mid-80s.
 

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