Today's Apocalypse Sign: Life's Reflection Or Is It A Flashback?

My life, as chronicled by concerts I've seen.

I have always been into music. Since, The Stones, Bob Seger, and Zeppelin were young lads. My friends were into Snoopy And The Red Baron, I was jamming with the Doors and Jimi Hendrix. I have also never been one of those who got "stuck" in an era. You know those people who think anything other than the classic rock station just isn't real music? We all know them.

My first concert ever was 1977 with  Rush featuring their 2112 album. Opening act was Edgar Winter (he of the albino persuasion and Frankenstein instrumental) and Rick Derringer (he of the "Rock 'n Roll Hoochee Koo" fame). I do not remember the venue but it was in Cleveland Ohio and I have loved this album ever since.

My best intimate-setting concert was shortly after I moved to Houston, TX I saw Ian Hunter at a small club called Kardi's off of Westheimer in downtown Houston. There couldn't have been more than 150 people there and it was fantastic! Got to shake Ian's hand afterward. We were so close you could smell the band. They played for almost 2 hours and the cover was only $10! The album You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic is solid gold, here's a taste, Bastard. For those who like lyrics (like me).

Favorite concert, and a tough choice, had to be Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band in Houston back in the early 80's. Do not have any idea who the opening band was, not even sure there was one. Great seats, good friends, hot babe, rockin' time. The show never seemed to end. It gets top billing since these were the best seats I ever had at a concert. Not front row or on the floor (never thought those were all that great) but about 20 or 25 rows up on the left hand side (as you're facing the stage) and 2 sections out from the stage. They were perfect seats. You could see everything clearly and it felt like you were right in the show. The libations might also have had something to do with that. Live Bullet brings back this show every time I listen to it. And Metallica does a great cover of Turn The Page.

Most impressive concert performance, hands down, The Michael Stanley Band. They are an Ohio band that played before a total of 74,404 fans at the Blossom Music Center on 4 consecutive nights in 1982. They broke Zeppelin's record at the Cleveland Coliseum and the Doobie Brothers record at Blossom with a stunning 42,000 for a one night show. This band owned Ohio back in the late 70's. MSB never got the national recognition they should have. Get The Show On The Road rivals Turn The Page as a timeless classic. Hear the album version (featuring Clarence Cleamons on sax) and the live Stagepass version. Some of their other great songs are Rosewood Bitters, Midwest Midnight, Voodoo, Lover, He Can't Love You. Find them online and add them to your play list. Stagepass is my favorite MSB album, it's double and live.

The worst concert experience I've had was on par with some of the stupider things I have done in life, and lived to tell about. A friend of mine, who at the time seemed creative but failed to consider all obvious outcomes, convinced me we should silk-screen some simple Led Zeppelin-like logos on cheap T-shirts and go to the sold out show in Cleveland and sell them. Genius right? Make a few bucks and have some money to blow on what ever. Not quite.

I don't remember all the details (it was the 70's) but we ended up in the bowels of the arena where Zeppelin was playing (the previously mentioned Coliseum) trying to get into the show by filing a police report that we had been mugged and our precious concert tickets stolen. My friend was good but not good enough to get us into the show with THAT story.

While we were under the arena, we were taken to an area very close to the entrance up to the stage and there must have been ten or fifteen 8-foot tables lined up end to end with all sorts of paraphernalia, weapons, drugs, coolers, alcohol, contraband of all sorts, that had been confiscated. Dozens of people in handcuffs were sitting against the wall...and we were there long enough to hear the muffled strains of Dazed and Confused before we were told to go home there was nothing that could be done for us. Whenever I hear that song I can only think of that night. We at least got to hear the whole song. We never did sell any shirts and I never saw Zeppelin. Next time I had Zeppelin tickets for real...John Bonham died a month or two before the tour was to start. Like a dumbass I sent them back for a refund.

First all-day concert I ever attended was back in 1980 in the old Cleveland Indian's stadium. It was called the World Series of Rock. Check out the line ups in the link. I can't remember if I went to one or two of these shows. I am thinking two. Nothing says "good time" like a plastic gallon milk jug full of warm margarita. That was the alcoholic equivalent of an all-day sucker. It was general admission and was like a mini-Woodstock kind of thing. Sheets of plywood all over the field. All in all the day was pretty good. No wonder Ian Hunter did a song called Cleveland Rocks and the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland! Very cool place. If you have not gone, take a trip.

In December of 1980 I moved to Houston, TX (Baytown, TX to be precise). My friend and I just packed some clothes and took off to make our fortune on the oil rigs...yeah right. Living in a motel room that had a little strip club at the end of it...we weren't going anywhere. That is a story for another time I'm afraid.

Anyway, back to my concert flashbacks...

I am a little all over the place here so bear with me...I mentioned the Bob Seger show already, so the next highlight has to be, yup, The Texxas Jam!

This all-day event had usually been held in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl but the year I moved to Houston it was set for the Astrodome. The line up was awesome! And believe me it was a long, hot day in the dome, but good times, good times.

The best part (or craziest part) was that my friend and I also had tickets for the same show (swapping BOC for Ted Nugent) the next night...in New Orleans! At the Superdome! Considering I take credit for discovering BOC a few years earlier in Ohio, I had to see them live. Yes, I really did discover them.

This is my weak-ass claim to fame, two. dome. all-day concerts. 350 miles apart in two days! Meh, seemed very adventurous at the time. Knowing now what I know about the Big Easy I might say it was insane. We naively thought that after the concert we would crash in a pre-arranged hotel room and drive home later in the day, ah ha...no.

We had left Houston before dawn and thought we would get to NO and find a room and be all set...sorry, no rooms anywhere that we could afford. We were resigned to partying all day at the concert and then either crashing in the car or driving home after midnight. We chose to leave. However, not more than a hour or so out of town we were done. I pulled into a rest stop and we crashed for about 3 hours. Not the best idea but the hubris of youth kept us alive. We could have been milk carton fodder for sure.

We were very proud of our accomplishment the next day.

Worst concert I actually saw, believe it or not, was Eric Clapton at Reunion Arena in Dallas. I was so amped to see this show back in the early 90's and I should have realized that a show touted as A Night Of The Blues was not going to rock. And it didn't. I know I slept through good parts of the show. No Layla, no Crossroads, no Cocaine, utterly forgettable show...for everyone who attended. It was twenty thousand people who never moved for 2 hours. Really bad.

The last couple concerts I have seen are the last ones I have seen. Mid-90's I saw the Page-Plant show that resembled nothing of Led Zeppelin. I am not sure they played any Zeppelin songs and were more into mystical eastern style music. It was alright but not what I really wanted to see. Rusted Root opened for them.

The last concert I have seen, oddly I can't place the date. It might have been right before 2000. It was the Roger Waters Pink Floyd show at the old Texas Stadium (since imploded). The seats were one section from being perfect (almost directly off of stage right) and the music was good not great. Not great in the aspect of what I wanted to see in a Floyd show. Waters was great of course, but the show was your garden variety light and flash pot performance with a large video screen showing the album graphics related to the song that was being played. I guess "not memorable" is the best words to describe it.

**When "The Wall" toured they only played two cities (New York and Los Angeles) due to the complicated stage set up and production of the show. Animals had the flying pig from the album cover, above the stage. I can't even imagine what the Dark Side of The Moon show would have been like. That was the kind of PF show I wanted to see.

There you have it, the shows that stuck in my mind and became bits of me. Outside of Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, the one band I regret never seeing in their heyday was Kiss. All my friends who have seen them say the show was awesome.

Anybody have any concert experiences they want to share?