OK fine I'll play...
First official concert (I don't count wandering around Austin Aquafest and listening to different bands) was the Oak Ridge Boys at the FEC. To the Journey reference, I've actually seen them three times - with three different lead singers. (Which is actually pretty sad. The third time was when the second lead singer got sick and they had to call in a sub from a Journey tribute band - he actually wasn't bad, but still!) BTW Journey still holds up as probably a top 5 concert experience. (Also saw Neil Shon in a smaller casino venue a couple of years ago, and he put on a good solo show.)
Some highlights (or more accurately, a variety sample):
- Springsteen at Met Life in the Meadowlands (saw him twice, one of the sets he spent the first hour playing pre-Born to Run stuff, which was actually kind of cool. Basically "old home week." We were there for over four hours.
- Styx at a company event, stood next to the stage the entire time and blew my ears out, but it was fun, got a James Young guitar pick and a pretty good Tommy Shaw pic. (I don't remember who the Dennis DeYoung sub was but he was kind of annoying...)
- Toad the Wet Sprocket - very fun, laid back show. Great musicians, and they had a good crowd rapport.
- Night Ranger at BB King's in NYC. Yeah yeah, arena rock, bubble gum, etc... They rocked, and it was great except that the venue accoustics were awful. I sat across the table from a guy from UK and his (much younger and more attractive) wife, who were just in town and looking for someone to see, so they just picked this show knowing nothing about the band. His assessment: the guitar player's really good (Brad Gillis got a lot of credit with him when he heard that Brad toured with Ozzie Ozborne(sp?)) but "they're no Led Zeppelin. My response was "Well... yeah, but who is?"
- Kenny Rogers (pre-facelift.) Laugh if you want, but the guy's a great entertainer. (See Barry Manilow, who I also saw live. Yes, my musical tastes have wandered all over the place.) Eddie Rabbitt opened, who I still say was underrated. Really sad that he died relatively young a few years ago.
- Ian Moore at Waterloo Records. It was his Seattle-influenced mellow stuff and he just played with two other guys, and doubled on bas drum. So no screaming blues rifs, but still good and a different experience, which was fun. Got him to sign "Live in Austin" and he was shocked that I had it.
- Bryan Adams, another company event. The guy played a good set, and probably stayed around for at least 30 minutes signing autographs with his manager telling him "Hey we gotta go" the whole time.
- Tammy Wynette and Eddie Raven, at Aquafest. The only reason I include this - I was really young at the time, but I remember someone in the crowd yelling to Tammy "Where's George???" And she yelled back "I don't know, and he don't know, either!" Also Eddie Raven was my first musician autograph, so that was cool.
