FWIW from this older person: First was either late 1971 or early 1972: Leo Kottke in Fairfax, VA (he of the 12 string guitar). Not a huge concert, really, but a performance to a decent sized crowd in a college building venue.
Last: probably the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, in Vienna, VA, ca. 1980s-90s; lots of fun! I also saw the Beach Boys there at one time.
Loudest was definitely the Electric Light Orchestra at their appearance in the Roanoke Civic Center in VA, 1978 (setlist), and I have some tinnitus as a souvenir from that one.
I really can’t recall right now attending any concerts in the times since, but attending concerts simply hasn’t been high on my list after the 1980s.
Feel free to skip this part, but some In between:
Paul McCartney & Wings, with his wife Linda, seen from a nosebleed seat at the old Capital Center in Landover Maryland, May 1976 (setlist, in which they did perform “LIve and Let Die,” memorably to strobe lights). One day I will find my photos of the Mac concert, taken with a borrowed long lens.
The Grateful Dead in 1978 in Blacksburg, VA, just because I was there, as I’m in no way a Deadhead.
I saw the restored (with original color tinting) 1927 silent film "Napoleon," in a large concert hall at the Kennedy Center projected on three large screens, with accompanying concert by the National Symphony Orchestra, ca. 1982, which was an impressive experience.
And then also apparently in 1982, Marshall Crenshaw at the 9:30 club in its original location in DC, and Blondie at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD.
Hampton Coliseum is one of my very favorite venues. The original Boathouse in Norfolk was great, as well - too bad it’s not there anymore. I saw the Ramones, Peter Murphy, Tori Amos, the Indigo Girls and others there.
There used to be a place on Colley Ave called Lewis’s - I think it could hold 100 - 150 people. My boyfriend at the time was doing photography for the ODU student paper, and there was some band playing that he was going to get pics of. I went along, and was right at the front of the stage, because the band had a violinist. His playing was so incredibly expressive and hypnotizing - I just stared at him the entire time. The band was really tight, and I thought “what are y’all doin’ in a hole-in-the-wall place like this?”
It was 1993, and I was watching the Dave Matthews Band.
Same same same - she did an in-store signing event before the show and I got to meet her. In addition to being brilliant, her face is like a Renaissance painting (not that looks matter, but I was still in art school at the time).
Well my brain didn’t work as it should have and my first concert would have actually been AC/DC the “If you want blood “ tour with Bon on vocals 1978 !
How the hell did I forget that?!
The two loudest ever were Robin Trower at an open air concert in Birmingham. Even outside the sound was deafening. Inside would have to be Slayer at the 5 Points Music Hall probably in 1994. The place held maybe 350 people max and they were geared up as if playing a football stadium. The sound was ear piercingly loud and my ears buzzed for weeks. Araya’s bass cabs were right in front of me and it felt like a fan blowing into the audience but it was the wind from the air being moved. I lost a lot of hearing at that show.
It’s kinda funny, when Tori came out I despised her.
I was a (and still am a) huuuuuuuuuge Kate Bush fan, and for some reason I decided Tori was trying desperately trying to rip her off (even though they are really not that alike). But anyway, I went around hating her for that for a while. Then I really started listening to her, and all that dopiness of mine went away. FWIW, I couldn’t stand Kate at first either. Sometimes, brilliance takes a while to seep in to my noggin.
I have a grosser version of that sentence in my mind, but yes, whoever thought that was the right direction for her wasn’t really thinking about her musical abilities.
I actually totally forgot about that.
Almost as fast as her record company…
“The band released one album, also called Y Kant Tori Read, which was largely unsuccessful. Atlantic Records abandoned promoting the album completely after two months of release.”
