Maybe not the best, but certainly memorable was my first concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was 1972 if I remember correctly and I went with a friend who was a big Zappa and his associates fan. The headliner was the J. Geils Band, but my friend went mostly to see Captain Beefheart who was the opening act. I wasn't that familiar with either of these bands music at that time but as a 16 year old was eager to go see a live show.
The first performer who came on wasn't listed on the bill but got a nice round of applause when he came out. He only played a handful of songs before Captain Beefheart came on stage. It was about a year later when I heard one of the songs on the radio that the un-named performer played. It was "Piano Man". Billy Joel was the unnamed performer! Apparently he did some local shows with established acts at the time.
As far as the most memorable show though, it was seeing the Who playing Madison Square Garden. They were touring in support of Quadrophenia. We had great seats and the band had all the energy we had heard they had. It's still one of my favorite albums of theirs. Instruments were "smashed" at the end but they came out and did some encores with new equipment. Great show!
Second would be the Dead at Englishtown in 1977. I saw the Dead many times over the years in smaller venues like the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ, but the sheer scope of the Englishtown Raceway and the large crowds made it memorable. I went to school for photography, and missed the first two acts because I was documenting the people attending the concert and have a roll of Kodachrome slides of the people at the show. Their are thousands of photos of the band, but I wanted to also show the people attending. The other set of slides are of the band. Amazingly, maybe because I had a camera and lenses around my neck; people actually moved out of the way. I was able to get pretty close to the stage and recently looked at the slides again and there's one where Jerry is staring right at me as I took his photo. Only my friends have seen these and I probably should to put them online somewhere. If you were at that concert maybe you'll see yourself!
A few others to mention. Lou Reed, several times in Passaic. Once he was led off stage, looked terrible but came back to finish the show. I think this was the one where Hall and Oates opened for him, although I could be mixing it up with another of his shows. Also saw his concert later released on the "Rock and Roll Animal" album in New York. Tickets were so easy to get then, my friend and I heard about the concert on the radio. Probably WNEW FM in NY, and hopped on a bus to the city and bought tickets for that night.
Patty Smith in Princeton at McCarter Theater. She was so good we stayed for her second show.
Bob Dylan a few times, but when he toured again with The Band it was very good. If I remember correctly the Band opened, then Dylan and then both of them. Rolling Thunder tour was very good as well at the Garden.
Saw the Rolling Stones at the Garden as well. I think it was 1975 but I'd have to look up the dates. I was somewhat disappointed. I thought they didn't play that long and Jagger's voice seemed like he was holding back. Maybe I was expecting too much!
An interesting one was Johnny Winter who played the Felt Forum, the smaller venue at Madison Square Garden. We never drove into the City but took a bus from NJ at that time. We got there a little late and they must have given cards about the size of baseball cards out, to people as they came in. We didn't get any and I don't know what was on them, but people were flinging them down on the stage, like you'd throw a baseball card; if you ever did that as a kid to try and win your friends cards. Anyway, these were flying trough the air since a lot of people were above the stage in this venue and looking down at the band. One card finally sailed right down, and hit Johnny on the top of his head. He immediately stopped playing and waved his arms at the rest of the band and told them to stop as well. The next thing that came out of his mouth was "If you see your buddy getting ready to throw, you better knock him on his *ss, because if one more of these come up here, this show is over!" That was the end of the cards sailing towards the stage and the show went on!
