My first concert - Heart

Heart
Spectrum Arena
Philadelphia, PA
Sunday, October 25, 1987
Section 68, Row 2, Seat 1
$15

The first time I remember being aware of a concert taking place was Bruce Springsteen on the Born in the USA tour. My mom and I were at the mall and saw people camping out - literally a huge line of people spread throughout the outdoor mall, with lawn chairs and portable grills. My mom asked someone what they were doing there and that's how we found out. I think I was 9 years old. A year later was the first time I wanted to attend a concert. Live Aid dominated the news and was being held in my town! I don't think I was familiar with a single band yet and I missed out on history.

I don't remember the details of how we decided we were going to see Heart. I saw them on MTV and liked the song Alone. They might have just been the first MTV rock band to come around after we started paying attention. I had their two popular 80s cassettes, Heart and Bad Animals. By the time of the concert, I had Little Queen too. Debbie, Susan, A, my dad, and I went. The concert was almost a month after my 13th birthday. I didn't know it at the time, but it was on Jon Day!

I got tagged with buying the tickets. It became the tradition, but I screwed up pretty bad with this one. I also don't remember how we found out information about the show - I wasn't reading the Weekend section of the paper yet. Someone told me "Tickets go on sale next Saturday", meaning the next day. I thought that meant we had a week. During that week we realized the error and we went to the ticket seller at Wanamaker's and bought the tickets. The Spectrum had floor seating and three levels of tiered seating. We ended up in the second row of the very top tier, severe side view. I guess we were just lucky that the show hadn't sold out yet.

The concert was on the night of my brother's birthday party. My dad and I left early and picked everyone up. I bought a tshirt (World Tour 1987! It seemed so modern at the time) and a program. Still have them. I don't know who the opening act was. Someone told us Richard Marx would be opening. I didn't really like him, but at least I knew a few songs. Wasn't him. Never did find out. Did I mention our seats sucked?! There were speakers hanging in the air that obstructed a lot of the view. I could only see Ann and Nancy when they came to the front of the stage.

As for the concert itself, I remember they did Alone as an encore, and everyone knew instinctively to sing the verse quietly and the chorus loud. Except me, I sang the whole thing loud. They did a lot of songs from those two poppier albums, which was good, because that's pretty much all I knew. Apparently, they did a cover of Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll, but I didn't know that song yet!

I didn't see Heart again for years and years, but I grew more familiar with their back catalog. In the last couple years, Roy and I have seen them a couple times when they played nearby. They put on a good show when I can actually see them. I'm always impressed with how much energy Nancy Wilson has.

Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and How(e)!

I was going to write about my very first concert next. But today is the 17^th anniversary of seeing my favorite band Yes in concert for the first time. Well, they weren’t really Yes, and they weren’t my favorite band yet, but I was just getting to know them. March 19, 1990 at the Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe was a band of former Yes members who got together in the late 1980s. These were the some of the guys who did Fragile and Close to the Edge, absolute masterpieces. I stumbled onto ABWH, and from there Yes, when I was 14. I missed them in concert. They played a show in August 1989, just as I was finding out about them, and it sold out quickly. But they came back.

I heard it on the radio that they were doing another concert, this time in March, 1990. I had a few of their cassettes by now: ABWH, Classic Yes, and maybe Fragile and 90125. I had also seen their pay-per-view concert, and practically had the setlist memorized. I was ready.

None of my friends liked Yes. My usual concert partner A refused to go along. I learned later on that A divided bands (and other things) into three categories: bands I was allowed to like; bands she didn’t like, so I wasn’t allowed to like; and bands she kept to herself so she would be cooler and more knowledgeable than me. Yes was a band I wasn’t allowed to like. Woops.

At the time, I was supposed to have a parent chaperone to go to a concert. (That’s what my parents thought, but A’s mom decided it was easier to drop us off and provide a cover to my parents.) Since I had to go to this one, we decided my dad and I would go by ourselves. My dad was 57 at the time, did not like rock music, and was the oldest person ever to go to a concert. This was his 4^th concert.

I waited in line for tickets at Strawberries on Cottman Avenue near the mall. This was my first time waiting there. Bill was in line, but we didn’t meet til later that year. I got the best tickets of my concert-going life! I was going to be on the floor! Section 104, row 14. Square in the middle of the Spectrum floor. I grew to hate floor seats, with everyone standing on their chairs and not able to see a thing, but everyone sat at this show. I had a great view, and good sound about 30 rows back.

The day of the show, I was sick. It was more like, the year of the show, I was sick. I was tired, had a low fever, no appetite, sore throat that lasted forever. The doctor kept testing me for mono, but that wasn’t it. He eventually gave me diagnoses of exercise-induced asthma and chronic fatigue syndrome, to give my school something to call it. When I felt up to it, I went to school and went out, no matter what my stats said. I went through something similar in grad school, and looking back, I think both times were caused by stress. I was not going to miss this concert. My parents relented, because my dad would be there and could drive me home if I got too tired.

I had watched the pay-per-view so many times; I knew what was going to happen at the concert. In that show, Jon Anderson opened by walking through the audience and singing. I was on the floor, right near the center aisle, but he didn’t do it this time. I have a bootleg recording of this show. My memories are pretty vivid, but confirmed by getting more listens to it. The show opened the same way – solos from all the band members and then the songs proper.

I hoped they were going to do my new favorite song, Heart of the Sunrise. They did. It was on the pay-per-view, but after the corny “Any requests?” where the audience was encouraged to shout out song requests and Jon always heard someone yelling for HOTS. There was a chance it didn’t have a regular part in the setlist. But even at age 15, I wasn’t naïve enough to think they’d pull off a song that intricate without rehearsing, just because a fan yelled for it.

There were some other musicians on stage too. I was not yet familiar with Tony Levin, but he’s become one of my favorites. I love 80s era King Crimson. I still remember how cool the bass/drums duo with Tony and Bill Bruford was. The backing guitarist, I didn’t like so much. Who needs a second guitarist when you have Steve Howe in the band?! He was too loud during And You And I.

What I really remember is how Starship Trooper was as an encore. It had so much energy. We cheered and cheered. I didn’t know how they could follow it up. They needed something just as high energy. They came back out for a second encore and did just the second half of I’ve Seen All Good People. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the first time in Yes history they played just the All Good People part of the song. According to Forgotten Yesterdays, they only did this twice ever. It was the perfect ending.

We didn’t have school the next day; I think it was an in-service day for teachers. My parents wouldn’t let me go out, because of the sick thing. Debbie came over, and I showed her my program. My dad surprised me, by knowing all the band members’ names and instruments. He said the show was better than he thought it would be, and he even liked Wakeman’s solo.

This was the first Yes concert of many, I be telling you.

Edited to add: I forgot the stats.
ABWH
Spectrum Arena
Philadelphia, PA
Monday, March 19, 1990
Section 104, Row 12, Seat 17
$17.50

In the Beginning

And you may ask yourself - well...how did I get here?

I knew some pop songs when I was younger, but I really got interested when I was 12. I listened to Eagle 106 as background music. But the real change happened when I got my MTV. It was April 1987. I forget the whole history lesson, but I grew up in Philadelphia and cable just wasn't available there until the late 80s. We got cable as soon as we could. The simple placement of artist and song title at the start and end of each video taught me so much, influenced me more than the visuals did. I could now group individual songs by group and album.

My mom bought me my first cassette, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. I could listen to it on my crappy old toy cassette player or the car stereo. I was in the end of 7th grade.

At the time, I was freakishly good at math, and bad to the same extent in gym. My favorite TV show was the Transformers, which I videotaped everyday. I had the same two best friends, sisters, since pre-school. Debbie was a year ahead of me, and Susan two years behind me in school. We've grown apart, but they are still a second family to me. Their mom made their home a haven for me from the craziness of my own home. In elementary school, I had a few good friends in my class as well. Shae and I went to the Transformers movie together, but she moved and went to a different school for 7th grade.

I was always aware I was different than my classmates, but it wasn't until junior high that I started to feel left out. I got along with most everyone, but missed those important bat mitzvah invitations that the other Jewish girls gave each other. I met another friend in class that year, A, who was so influential. She also liked Bon Jovi and had a disability which kept her out of gym.

A and I kept in touch over the summer between 7th and 8th grades and went to Willow Grove Mall together. It was my first time going to the mall on my own, without an adult. I tripled my cassette collection - bought Madonna's True Blue and Genesis' Invisible Touch with babysitting money. She told me I needed a boombox to play my music, and to dub a copy of everything for her, and I got one for my 13th birthday that September. She shared her music with me too.

A was cooler than I was. But was she? She told me she was, and I believed her. She knew more about music than I did, and already cared about boys. I was friends with some boys, because we had similar interests of computers, chess, and Transformers, but they were just buddies. I don't think she had crossed over to the dark side yet, but she got rebellious and manipulative after her parents split up in 8th grade. She really lost it by 12th grade, and really hurt some people. I stayed friends with her out of loyalty, but had had it by sophomore year of college. Haven't talked to her since. More about that in context later on.

What was even better than finding out new bands? Seeing them in concert! A month after I turned 13, I got to go to my first one...

Belew in Urbana

You can add another concert to the list. Roy and I drove out to Urbana, IL to see one of our favorite performers, Adrian Belew. I say "performer" because he's a singer, guitarist, songwriter, etc., but he's so entertaining to watch in concert. He was the opening act for Umphrey's McGee and also joined them for a few songs.

I worked a half-day on Wednesday, and then we had a calm, uneventful journey to the concert. No bad weather, no traffic problems. We checked into the hotel, got dinner at a chain, and got in line by 6. It was a general admission concert, so the first people in line grab the front row. I love this concept - with a little patience you can grab the best seats in the house. Much more fair than big concerts and Ticketmaster. Roy doesn't like waiting in lines or standing for ages waiting for the show to start, but the payoff is worth it.

We met some fun people waiting in line, all Umphrey's fans. All younger than me, that's a feeling I don't get at most Adrian shows. The guy in front, also named Roy, said he'd let us right in front for the opening act, in case we couldn't get there on our own. Hell getting in though. We bought our tickets through the Umphrey's website, and we were supposed to pick them up at will-call. The club would not let us pick up the tickets until the doors opened. There was one line of people waiting, and of course, they were going to let people walk through while we had to wait to pick up our tickets. Arrgghh! I complained loudly, but politely, about how long I waited in line, good thing I read all those etiquette forums, and they held the other ticket line until Roy and I walked through.

We grabbed a spot in the front row, a little to the right of center. Adrian came out and played for about a half hour, and then joined Umphrey's for a couple songs. Opening set included: Dinosaur, Three of a Perfect Pair, Young Lions, Lone Rhino, and some instrumentals. With Umphrey's, he played I Am the Walrus, Red, and Thela Hun Ginjeet. Adrian definitely saw us and recognized us. Lots of eye contact. Umphrey's was alright, but I was tired and not really enjoying it except for when Adrian was on stage.

It was a long day. I worked that morning, and the show wasn't over til 1am. I'd already been up over 20 hours, but we decided to hang out and try to talk to Adrian. Roy found out where the stage door was. We saw a couple of the Umphrey's guys come out. The other fans left and we were the only two people hanging out by the stage door. This is so cool - the camera guy who we met earlier actually went into the club to tell Adrian there were fans waiting for him.

Adrian came out minutes later. He apologized to us, that if he knew we were waiting for him, he would have come out sooner. Then he said he was glad to see us in the audience(!), because he thought the crowd would be all Umphrey's McGee fans. I told him that I thought that was the first time I've seen him play Lone Rhino live. He said that he had to figure out what songs would work with him playing them solo on electric guitar. Also, the Bears are going back on tour. "When?!When?!When?!" I asked. In April and May. And they're coming to St. Louis, playing three blocks from us. This was probably the longest conversation I've had with him, because there weren't any other fans around.

When we got home on Thursday, I saw that tickets were already on sale. We got ours! Wednesday, May 2nd, I plan to be in the front row again.

Concert history

Hello there,

I had to start a blog account to post a comment on another blog. I'm also learning HTML, so this might be a good place to test it out.

I plan on writing up memories of some of the concerts I've attended over the years. I've been to over 300 concerts. I have concert ticket stubs and written documentation for 281 of them, plus I've attended so many clubs shows and ticketless guest list events, I'm bumping it up to the next round number. I've been going to concerts since October 25th, 1987, so this will mark 20 years of this crazy life. Damn. In one year, I could double that number of concerts.