Best concert you've attended


Mine is The Doobie Brothers, at the Civic Center in Amarillo Texas, in 1976. I was 16 years old.

The weed smoked all around us was good  too.

 

tomcarr

Hard to say.  The very first concert I ever went to was Seiji Ozawa conducting the San Francisco Symphony in an all-Stravinsky program of:

"LʻHistoire du Soldat"
"The Rite of Spring"

Pretty good, wouldnʻt you say?

I used to spend a lot of time at Keystone Korner in San Francisco where I saw so many very great bands up close.  The place only held 200 or so seats.  I saw Art Blakey more than once - Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Harvie Swartz.  I was there for the live recording of the 4 handed piano date of Jackie Byard and Tommy Flannagan.  I was there when Art Blakey brought Wynton Marsalis on his first national tour.

You tell me what the best concert was.

EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, The BRAIN SALAD SURGERY TOUR at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond Virginia in the Summer of 1974, when I was 14 years old, I’ve been very fortunate to go to many great concerts since then, like in 1975 I saw CHICAGO with the original members, or THE ROLLING STONES in 1978 in Anaheim California, I went to see the last concert of XTC at the California Theater in San Diego California in 1982, AC DC BALLBREAKER TOUR 1996, ELTON JOHN THE ONE TOUR 1993, ZZ TOP RECYCLER TOUR 1991, U2 POP MART TOUR 1997, DAVID BOWIE EARTHLING TOUR 1997, OASIS BE HERE NOW TOUR 1998, ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2018, YES 4 times, just to name a few, but to me as a concert experience the ELP BRAIN SALAD SURGERY CONCERT was and still is my absolute favorite concert.

The Band with Muddy Waters, 1977 Lenox Music Inn, Lenox, MA

John Prine with full band, 1976 Dallas, TX

Toots and The Maytals, 1988 Stockbridge, MA

James Cotton Band, Bar concert, 1979, Oneonta, NY

 

 

Without a doubt, it would be Shakti 50th anniversary tour.  September 2023 in Irvine, California.  Third row center seats.  I got the seats that morning due to a cancellation. I think it was $500 for the pair of seats.  Well worth it!  Such inspiring and, beautiful music.  I first got turned on to McLaughlin many years ago in high school when he came out on Tony Williams Emergency! Have followed him and all his various iterations since.