Panic!
This last Sunday, the Mister and i drove 5 teenage girls to see Panic! at the Disco.
If you don't know who or what this is, it's because you have no teenager to help you develop your musical tastes. It's a band, complete with lead male singer of ambiguous sexuality wearing more eye liner than Dr. Frankenfurter.
The girls were a riot. The whole way up they were chattering happily. The whole way back, they screamed and squealed at each other. Not a one of them listened, they just talked, all 5 at once.
"He's so cute!"
"I know, right!"
"I almost caught the drumstick!"
"I know, right!"
"I could hardly breathe!"
"I know, right!"
This was the first time that i let Em go to a concert without me. (We saw Green Day (another band complete with lead male singer of ambiguous sexuality wearing more eye liner than Dr. Frankenfurter) last year at the same venue. It was great.) I was nervous about letting her go, but it was time. The girls spent some time on the floor trying to get close to the front and now Em knows what i was worried about. Groping, fighting, moshing, screaming, elbowing, crowd surfing. They got out of there and went to sit on the sides.
I remember my first concert, i was 13 and it was Creedence Clearwater Revival. My mother probably thought that a going to a concert meant like going to see the Nutcracker ballet. Ha!
I was a very naive 13 year old and i was shocked at what i saw. Dope smoking was done openly. (I had never seen that before.) People were flailing around doing what i had to assume was supposed to be dancing. In short, it was a typical rock concert from that era.
Your first concert experience?
35 comments:
Oh, heavens! The first concert I went to was when I was 15 or so and it sounds the same as your CCR. I'm sure I went quite a few years before you and, oh yes, we smoked dope and drank Boone's Farm Apple Wine. We saw the Grateful Dead. I had to sneak in the back of the house so my mother wouldn't catch me. I was ripped!
Reading these blogs takes me back in time. LOL
Peace,
~Chani
The Jackson 5. On my 5th birthday. With my favorite (much older) cousin.
I wanted to marry Michael Jackson back then. Now, I can only be thankful for dreams unfulfilled. *snort* :-)
First concert: Chicago, 1983. Best foreplay concert: Edwin McCain, 2000, Best Concert Lenny Kravitz opening for Aerosmith, 2006.
Luckily, no unpleasant experiences to report. The most exciting thing that happened was watching middle aged white women stuff their bras with tissues before Steven Tyler appeared onstage.
Good for you, letting her go!
First concert: Blondie in 1982. I was 11. My dad took my best friend and me. We nicknamed one of our fellow concert-goers "The All-American Punk" because of his red, white and blue mohawk.
After the warm-up act (all of ambiguous sexuality wearing more eye liner than Dr. Frankenfurter, fancy that) my friend remarked, "We'll never hear from THEM again!"
About a week later, their newest video debuted on MTV. A little song called 'Hungry Like the Wolf'. Maybe you've heard it? ;-) Wish I'd bought THEIR t-shirt too!
How exciting for Em and cool that you let her go with her friends (not like you needed my validation...)
First concert for me was 1989. My friend and I went to see UB40 at the Paramount. Major dope smoking, a little boob flashing, and did you know there are reggae groupies??
Jees. I'm mortified to admit that if you don't count the philharmonic in the park and such, it was...gulp....Lisa Minelli, with my parents, in Hawaii. So I must have been in eighth or ninth grade?
Willie Nelson, with my mom. I was 11 and bored. Since then I've seen him 3 times and been not bored, but something else. My first concert on my own was Sir Mix-A-Lot. You know - Baby Got Back. There were no black people in the entire audience in Longview, Washington.
I've only been to one concert. I won tickets to some country/rock band. I fell asleep and then left long before it was done. I don't like teeming throngs.
And I really don't like teeming thonged throngs.
ahhh. Oingo Boingo in 1985. I remember Danny Elfman screaming "I want to make violent love to every one of you" (Dead Man's Party album lyric) and I was shocked, embarrassed...enthralled...amazed.
The Cars, late 70s, with high school boyfriend. He got me drunk on orange juice and vodka. NOT my fault I couldn't remember most of the concert. I think I had a good time, tho....
first concert: at 15 I saw Renaissance (I haven't heard of them since, either, but I had fun). 2nd concert - Styx - general admission and I almost got in a fight with a guy trying to save 6 seats for friends. I couldn't hear for the next day and a half.
The last concert I saw was 2 years ago - Bruce Springsteen. Got drunker n' a cooter.
I would really like to see Green Day - even if they've "sold out" with the American Idiot album.
I didn't know people still mosh. Maybe that's a Seattle thing? My first concert wasn't until college and it was U2. A girl asked me to go and I couldn't have been more smitten. No pot was smoked, or perhaps I was too naive to notice. I like the CCR pick of yours.
They did not say "like" enough times? :) Just kidding.
Ok here is a confession...
Never been to a live music concert (western music that is). I have been to some classical Indian music concerts eons ago, but they are the types you sit and enjoy and cannot dance to.
My exposure to Western music so to say started pretty late in life. Partly due to the fact that then FM radio was barely around in India, and we did not have a cassete player for the longest time. I grew up where for the longest time we lived paycheck to paycheck, it was not bad but it was not luxurious either. There was hardly time or $ for things like music. I felt out of sorts with my other friends who seem to know the latest hit music coming out of the west.
I am trying to make up for all those lost years now. :)
Sorry about the long comment.
The first concert my parents took me to was Captain and Tennille.
The first concert I went to without my parents, I think I was 16 or so and saw Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (yes, it was about 1982).
I do have to say, I kind of like a guy with eyeliner. It must be a holdover something-or-other from the 80's, but when Green Day started showing up with eyeliner I kind of perked up.
Ok first concert with parents: Beach Boys - Puyallup Fair. Have you been? It's a bit hick but rather fun.
First concert on my own. If I had had my choice, I would have seen Sting but my mother put the kabosh on that. He was too sexy for me to go see apparently. So a friend of mine and I ended up going to see, *I cringe at this confession*, New Kids on the Block. There I said it. I'm now going to go back to my blog and hide.
I saw The Police live at the Montreal Spectrum in 1985 or was it 1984? I was about 15. I would have given my soul to Stewart Copeland back then. It was amazing. All my friends were getting stoned out of their skulls but I wanted to be straight for this one. My hamstrings were sore for two weeks. Man how I danced!
Taylor Dayne.
I know, right?
Hmm, I went to Glastonbury when I was 13. No parents.
Does that make me cool?
Didn't think so...I saw Rage Against the Machine though, at the height of their powers.
Also, Panic are noteworthy for taking their name from the Smiths song. That is all.
chani, The Grateful Dead? You are so cool. Did you wear tie dye?
jennifer, That must have been when he was still black. My favorite song at that time was Ben.
patches, what were the tissues for? To appear more buxom? I saw Steven Tyler while on vacation in Hawai'i a few years ago. Man is he ugly.
nancy, Blondie, i would have liked to have seen that! Duran Duran! *squeals*
qt, i guess i never thought about reggae groupies. I suppose anywhere there are fans, there are groupies. I liked UB40. You from this area?
amusing, Which gay man was she married to then? I'm not sure if going to a concert with your parents counts. But she does know how to put on a show.
mignon, i saw Willie at the Cow Palace once. I love Willie! Guess they don't get the big name acts in Longview. Are you from there?
holly, i don't like crowds either. I used to pretend i did, but now there's not much i'd endure a huge crowd to see. I can't really think of anything.
jen, you are a young thing! I just like to say "Oingo Boingo" I had forgotten that Danny Elfman used to be in that group before he did movie music.
mona, that Ric is another pretty....interesting looking...guy. For a while The Cars were everywhere.
bob, i've never heard of Renaissance, or if i have i've forgotten. I really like Green Day too. And Billy Jo is SO CUTE *squeal*
egan, the first time i had ever seen moshing was at Green Day. We were sitting up in the old folks section so i had a clear view. It was amazing how violent it was. I'll bet U2 was great! I still like CCR.
D-man, Another U2 goer. I've never seen them in person, too many people, but i like them. I also like Green Day, i have not paid as much attention to Panic! Maybe i should.
sanjay, well, i think it's time you went to a rock concert young man! I don't think there's dope smoking anymore.
sari, The Captain and Tennille, that's so cute. I'll bet Tom Petty does a good show, i've never seen him. The eyeliner is kind of sexy on Billy Jo.
maggie, i've certainly done the Puyllup, but i've never been to a concert there. I would have loved to see Sting, he was, and still is, a sexy man. I'll just ignore the last confession. :)
caro, oooh, jealous! My soul was saved for Sting at that time. So we could have still been friends.
josephine, i haven't heard her name in many years. Like, i mean, you know, really!
lazy, You are cool. Although i am unsure if it's because of Glastonbury.
First of all, let me give you ample props for seeing CCR. I didn't "get" them back then, but now, man, I wish I'd seen them.
My first was Earth, Wind, and Fire. Roughly 27 guys all running around in spacesuits and dodging lasers. It had me wondering if we were being invaded by real funky aliens with hit songs. To this day, still the most dynamic show I've ever seen.
Very first concert, Harry Chapin (and his brother Tom) way back in 1982. My cool Aunt, who is only a few years older than me, took me. It was incredible. Harry was raising money for Greenpeace and he actually sat a table in the hall and signed shirts and stuff if people donated $$. I paid a dollar and got a kiss on the cheek. Never forget it...especially because he died not too much later.
First rock concert...Jefferson Starship, mid-eighties during the We Built This City era. ::shudder::
Richard Marx. I'm so embarrassed.
Also, I was offered tickets to that VERY concert you attended by my husband's company. So weird we'd be in the same venue and not even know it if we were face to face. :-)
Nope, Meno - Kelso. The better side of the freeway.
Maggie, we used to go to the Puyallup fair all the time. The only thing I remember is the strawberry shortcake though.
meno - I spent 12 years in Yakima, and then another 7-8 in Seattle/Tacoma. I also did 2 hard years in Longview, WA - what a playground, huh, mignon?
Maggie made me laugh so hard I spit:
"There I said it. I'm now going to go back to my blog and hide."
That and the image of the 27 members of Earth, Wind and Fire running around the stage invading our planet provided by Jeremiah have made my night. Thanks!
jeremiah, I have had Bad Moon Rising stuck in my head ever since. I saw EW&F once in the (then called) Colosseum many years ago. There sure were a lot of them.
greent, Hey, I got married in '82 missy! Harry Chapin kissed your cheek? That's hot stuff. Jefferson Starship. Wow.
ddm, ha ha ha. I remember him! You mean the Panic! show or Green Day. I didn't go to Panic! but i did go to Green Day.
mignon, well excuse me! I know Kelso has much higher prestige. I stayed in a Motel 6 there once during the STP bike ride. There was no shampoo in the shower, only soap. Klassy.
qt, the Mister is from Tacoma, at least after his dad retired. He is my guide to all that down south stuff.
sari, Our maggie is pretty funny all right. As i jeremiah. These people make me laugh all the time.
My first "real" concert was U2. (Mom made me take my younger sister to see New Kids, but I had long since outgrown them and therefore that one doesn't count.)
When you purchased the concert tickets in OKC for the show in Dallas, they came with a round-trip chartered bus ticket. My college roommate and I were about the last two people to arrive and wound up on separate busses. The only empty seat was with the scariest biker dude I had ever seen in my 20 years. No sooner had the bus started than everyone whipped out their alcohol stash and/or other stashes. I was shocked. Biker dude pulled out a bottle of blue liquid (no label) and offered me a swig. I declined. When the busses stopped to refuel in Gainsville, my roommate's seat mate (clad in leather pants and a matching bustier) traded spots with me. By the time they arrived in Dallas, she and Biker dude were the best of friends. It must have been all the blue liquid.
Those bus rides both going and returning were wild. Ah! Memories.
My first concert was The Beatles when I was 10, and then The Monkeys when I was 13! I thought I was so cool! I still love concerts...Bonnie Raitt is the best!
Michael Jackson Victory Tour, 1988. It was a "Thriller."
melessa, I wonder what the blue stuff was. Busses are always a hotbed of sin. I went to college in Bellingham, near the Canadian border. From the dorms we used to pile into a bus and head up to where the drinking age was 19. Actually i only did it once. The bus was too creepy for me. Two couples had sex right in their seats.
MOI, the Beatles! I am jealous. And the Monkeys? Too cool. I like smaller concerts now.
mamap, I'll bet Michael put on a good show for you too. Poor kid.
my first concert was jackson browne, with my brother's best friend's mother, at 15. mama said I had to have her accompany to my first concert (I guess to break me in gently), and that's the one she (the mother)chose. it was actually pretty good. from there on out it was kiss, cheap trick, kinks, and other bands more fun that jackson browne. jessica has done much better for herself, going to bonaru for 4 days of nothing but rock music and b.o.
My first concert was Depeche Mode around 85. First I couldn't believe my parents actually let me go to a concert at Wembley Arena. Second I couldn't believe that we had front row seats. All in all an excellent first concert experience.
Later I went to "The Longest Day" and saw REM, The Ramones, Billy Bragg, The Faith Brothers, Spear of Destiny and the headliners U2. My next door neighbor's dad owned a record label so we had backstage passes to that and met so many rock stars I thought my 15 year old self died and went to heaven. Of course I was dumbstruck and couldn't manage to utter more than gibberish. But it was one of the coolest concerts ever.
Meno~The Panic! concert is the one I was offered tickets to. And OMG. Can I giggle about the Canada drinking excursions?! Did that too. And stayed with my friends who went to school in Bellingham. We always had a designated driver, so never had to experience the joy of the bus. And now I look back and CANNOT BELIEVE we went 2 hours North of here just to drink beer.
Wow, I guess I am ancient. I think my first was Peter, Paul & Mary at college in 1962 or 63. There were a lot of coffee houses back then with local talent, too but I guess they don't count. Then while going to school in Santa Barbara in 1964-65 it was fun to go to some of the clubs on Sunset Strip in Hollywood. That was a fun time. I am going to see Elvis on Dec. 21st.
Rafi, and I was five. Oh, and I bootlegged it.
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