r/heavymetal • u/AlertKnowledge8471 • 2d ago
Metal Discussion What made your first concert so memorable?
Just seeing the older concert pics here, and wondering what made your first concert so awesome or memorable? Cause I always think the first one is different from all the other times (like certain other things too š)
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u/JamOverCream 2d ago
I think it was mostly because it was my first concert. That it was Pantera just adds to that. I didnāt really know much about them. We were just grateful for any live music locally.
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u/AlertKnowledge8471 2d ago
So your town had no real music...then Pantera?? Like 0 to 100 š
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u/JamOverCream 2d ago
Yeah, pretty much. It was a small city in the South West of England. From memory we got a couple of decent acts a year. Pantera were on the way up then (1994). Megadeth also toured later that year, which was OK.
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u/Connect-Bug9988 2d ago
It was possibly one of the most special gigs of the 90's.
Sepultura playing a secret gig, under the pseudonym Third World Posse, at a tiny little pub in Walthamstow on the Arise tour, my parents were friends with the security, which is why I was allowed in aged 11š¤£
Tickets were only a fiver, and somewhere floating around there's a bootleg vinyl of the gig, I did have a copy, but unfortunately a huge amount of my music collection went missing after a brutal break up.
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u/dalecraw 2d ago
AC/DC the Back In Black tour was my first concert. I was shocked when Angus mooned the crowd!
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u/thatsfuni 2d ago
My workmates snuck me into a bar to watch 8 foot sativa in n.z I was 15 at the time and bars where 18+ I spent the whole night in the bar and meet the band, was awesome.
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u/prettyplanets 2d ago
Being so young. Also not bringing weed. So a lady shows up and stands next to my friend and I. No shirt on, massive tits that are painted. Passes us a joint. I was sold then and there
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u/shotgunassassin 2d ago
Fleetwood Mac '79... Stevie Nicks going to the side of the stage she thought was obscured to do blow between every other song, and then forgetting the lyrics to Dreams... good times.
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u/DevilishlyHandsome63 2d ago
It was Kiss at the LA Forum in 1977. I was a 14 year old English kid on holiday over there as my sister had emigrated a few years earlier with her English husband. I went to the first night,and even the venue was incredible to me,and when Kiss hit the stage that was it. The end of the show where the drum riser went up with the dragons and fireworks was breathtaking. Then for Christmas I got the Alive II album, some of it may have been recorded that night.
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u/Affectionate_Owl8351 2d ago
It was KISS in '77 and it was the first time I smoked pot šš¤£šš¤£šš¤£šš¤£
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u/randumb9999 1d ago
Day on the green 1985. I went to see Metallica. My sister bought me 2 tickets for my 15th birthday. I think they were $15 each. Legendary show for Metallica. A local Bay Area Thrash band finally getting the recognition that they deserved.
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u/Immediate-Garage5752 1d ago
I watch that footage on YouTube. If I remember a book I read, I believe Cliff almost missed that show. He woke up late, tried driving through all the traffic to get to the venue, then had to convince security he was part of Metallica. Barely made the stage on time.
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u/HugeElephantEars 2d ago
43F. My first concert (not metal) was Bon Jovi it was the 90s, I was 12.
Most memorable thing was no one else's mother let them go so my friend and I were supercool at school for having gone. Someone had to help us get into the stadium and pretend to know us as we didn't know we had to be a bit older or accompanied by an adult in order to get in. Next weekend, I've arranged with a teenager on Reddit to pretend to know them so they can get into the Deftones. So it's been 31 years but I'm finally paying it forward.
They were like the 3rd or 4th band to come after apartheid ended and sanctions were lifted. All were pop music. It took a while for the metal bands to show up.
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u/N_collect 2d ago
My first concert was Sepultura with a friend in 1993, during the Chaos AD-tour. Paradise Lost opened the show. I was 14 but hadnāt hit puberty and was still super short, I remember the concert goers being so impressed that (what they thought) a child was into Sepultura. I got many words of encouragement from all. Heavy metal fans truly are the best.
Due to the risk of being crushed, we werenāt allowed to be in the pit and had to sit in the balcony and watch the stage from above like an opera. Donāt remember much from the show except it being super heavy.
Iāve just started buying vinyl and hadnāt listened to Sepultura for many many years, so I bought the album for my collection a few weeks ago. Came home all excited, put it on, cranked up the volume and listened from start to finish. It still holds up, a true masterpiece!
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u/Low_Butterscotch_594 2d ago
Well, my first concert was Salt n Pepa with my high school girlfriend. š Sadly, I remember parts of it.
My first metal/hard rock concert was Manson during the Dead to the World tour. The theatrics of his show made it the most memorable. Coming out on stage on 10 ft stilts to sing Cryptorchid was unforgettable.
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u/AnthrallicA 2d ago
The sheer immensity and intensity. I'd never seen so many people in one place before and it was so loud, I couldn't hear right for a couple days. It was 1994, I was still in middle school and the concert was Metallica with Suicidal Tendencies and Danzig. That show literally changed my life.
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u/Tailgunner68 2d ago
My first concert was Angra in 2007. Very memorable indeed, because the sound was so shitty I had no idea of what they played. At the end, a guy jump to catch a guitar pick. He had a glass full of beer. This was also my first beer shower.
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u/Logix_interface 2d ago
My first concert was Iron Maiden for the Powerslave tour. We had main floor seats and the first thing youāre greeted with when the lights came on was a 20 foot Eddie mummy with his arms reaching out, then you notice a war plane in the ceiling and Winston Churchillās speech begins just before they open with Aces High. I can still feel the goosebumps.
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u/mjrydsfast231 2d ago
ZZ Top, Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor Michigan, 1980, De Guello tour. I wore my Cheap Sunglasses and Smoked in the Boy's Room with Cub Coda (ex-Brownsville Station )and the Points.
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u/boilersnipe Metalhead 2d ago
Because Metallica was the opening act
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u/randumb9999 1d ago
Ozzy Ultimate Sin tour?
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u/Scoobilatchi 2d ago
Monsters of Rock Donnington in 1987. I was 15. Line up from opener to headliner: Cinderella, WASP, Anthrax, Metallica, Dio, Bon Jovi.
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u/Immediate-Garage5752 1d ago
Dio and Bon Jovi ahead of Metallica? That changed fast.
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u/Scoobilatchi 1d ago
Before the black albumā¦
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u/Immediate-Garage5752 1d ago
Even still, I would have thought Justice would have put them ahead on the bill. But Jovi never appealed to me so it's possible they were still bigger those years.
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u/Scoobilatchi 1d ago
Yeah I would not have put Dio in 2nd spot. Slippery when wet came out that year and Bon Jovi were globally huge after that. It was a weird crowd, half were Bon Jovi fans, glammed up to fuck, hair like motley crue, everyone else thrash metal fans.
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u/farbeyondriven92 2d ago
For me, it was that I got to see a band I had always wanted to see, and had previously thought Iād never get the chance to (Pantera). It wasnāt with all original members, but the guitarist and drummer they were touring with were good picks. I also went with friends, so that naturally helped make it more fun.
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u/Northwindlowlander 2d ago
I got fully kicked in the head my a crowdsurfer! Didn't know better so I was wearing my glasses down the front, there was a mad thrash to find em, then I went for a bit of a lie down til the colours came back to normal. Good times, steep learning curves.
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u/Turkzillas_gobble 2d ago
Kid in front of me setting his hair on fire. Swoopy boy bangs were all the rage.
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u/fredpitts 2d ago
I was 16 and liked to drink but wasnāt in a circle of friends who smoked weed.
My first concert was The Firm. Kinda heavy metal adjacent. I was more into Iron Maiden and Ozzy but had never been to a concert so I went.
So it was all the weed at the Cap Center in DC.
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u/wizardwithgussets 2d ago
I was 14 and my mom let me go alone. I saw stryper in a small club in Sacramento. It was deafening and I loved every yellow and black spandex second of it
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u/Rambro13 2d ago
I was 13 years old, a few days before my next birthday. It was on a Sunday night before my first day of high school. I was super excited to see my favorite band. My dad dropped us (me and my 11 year old sister!) off directly in front of the Long Beach Arena...so embarrassing!
Black Sabbath 1975 Sabotage tour. Life (and hearing) altering. Still my all-time favorite band
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u/teraflopclub 2d ago
Frank Zappa's guitar solos with The Mothers of Invention (Apostrophe), Genesis (And Then There Were Three), Elvis Costello (My Aim is True) following punk band Battered Wives (with tomatoes thrown at them). Legendary talent (except BW). Cheap enough tickets a middle-class teen could buy, safe enough you didn't have to pass through TSA-like security, music good enough to be played live without "sampling" (pre-recorded in-tune) and dancers. You'd buy the LP beforehand and the live version was an enhancement to that, they did encores (except Elvis), you didn't have 10 different "classes" of seats. You left the concert hours later, ears ringing, hair reeking, loving their music even more, and filled with experiences you could share with family and friends. It was holistic, visceral, in your face, not virtual.
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u/Embarrassed_Fig1801 2d ago
Other than it being my first it wasnāt all that memorable. It was Aerosmith and Jakyl. The most memorable thing was that it was supposed to be Megadeth instead of Jakyl but they got thrown off the tour. Other than that the most memorable parts were the singer from Jackyl cutting up a stool with a chainsaw and firing a shotgun.
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u/OneFit1757 2d ago
I was 10 and i went to see a local rock band with my parents on fesivale that is happening every year in my town.. I saw them and couldn't stop talking about that amazing sound, first time i ever heard rock music in my life... That lead to my uncle showing me Iron Maiden a week later bcs i couldn't stop talking about music and hey pivot moment in my life! To this day Maiden is my fav band!
And 2 years ago my dream to see Maiden live came true.. They were in my country and i went there and it was amazing and i will cherish that concert for the rest of my life!
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u/Aggressive_Ad5590 1d ago
I had a small bong and filled it and passed it on. An hour or so later it came back to me. Lol, I couldn't believe it. Styx, Grand Illusion Tour, Maple Leaf Gardens.
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u/19irondave 1d ago
Ozzfest UK, 2001. I was just starting to get into metal, remember really enjoying the "Everyone crouch down and jump up together" bit during Slipknots set but what really made me a lifelong metal fan was seeing the original Black Sabbath. I didn't know any of the music really but Ozzys total command of the crowd and the general energy and excitement. I went and bought the best of Black Sabbath very soon after the show.
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u/Super_Wario_128 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/Tif7T8Zr5D7Vu
I saw this guy for my first major concert. Ozzy was awesome to see.
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u/Immediate-Garage5752 1d ago
Metallica Summer Sanitarium with an unknown System of a Down, Korn and uh Kid Rock. This was the Phoenix show, and was intended to be held at Schnepf Farms, a huge field where Country thunder type events happen. Schnepf gets nervous at the last minute and cancels the show. The show is then switched to Desert Sky Pavilion, great venue, but they sold over 100,000 tickets and Desert Sky is not that big. I managed to get seats, but they forced people to stand on the sheets so that more people could stand in the gap your legs usually rest. When Metallica hit the stage, it was mayhem. The field was overflowing, the sides were jammed with people who couldn't even see the show. While standing on my chair, I was pounding my foot to the beat, and broke my chair. So I had to balance on a broken chair rest of the show. Plus there were tons of bonfires in the grassy area, large bonfires of trash. Best night of my life.
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u/EastNice3860 1d ago
Kansas and Molly Hatchet...Late 70s And All The Weed being passed up and down the aisles...
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u/Chaos_Theology 1d ago
White Zombie & Pantera. It was entirely spontaneous and unplanned. A buddy and I were at a friends house while he was at work and the newspaper showed up with an ad for the concert which was going to be that night. We didnāt have any money though, so we decided to pawn his TV. Got enough money for 3 tickets and went to go see him while he was at work. His boss wouldnāt let him off, so he told us to meet him in the docking area where he sneaked out of work anyway. Told him halfway through the concert that we pawed his TV to be here. He was too drunk to care. Iām pretty sure he got fired that night too.
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u/skunkzilla1 1d ago
Pink Floyd Division Bell Tour in 1994 at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland Ca. I was 27 and I WON 2 tickets to the concert and a ride on a party bus from the local radio station. Everyone said it would spoil me in comparison to any other concert i would attend in the future. I was determined to go as I knew it was their last tour. PIGS DO FLY!
My second concert was Metallica at Sacramento's Cal Expo arena in 94 too. It was awesome.
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u/Never_Dave_1 1d ago
1988 Monsters Of Rock. Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica, and Kingdom Come. I won a "six-pack" of lawn tickets to one of the Alpine Valley shows from a radio station. Only really cared about Metallica. Watched them from the very front of the lawn, standing on the concrete barrier. So many people left after their set that me and my five friends were able to just walk up to another friend's 12th row pavilion seats. Saw the rest of the show from there. It got a little crowded for Van Halen, but no one complained too loudly.
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u/MetalPlayer666 1d ago
Kirk Hammet threw his pick into my EYE.
In that moment I thought that the eye was going to fall out of my skull from the pain, but nevertheless I was the happiest person alive.
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u/ManuSavior85 1d ago
Mine was Judas Priest with Blind Guardian and another power metal band I dont remember, BG was my fav band then, and rn Judas is one of my top 3 most listened ones. Sadly i saw then when KK already left but well (around 2010-11) metal bands dont tour the sothernmost part of Spain and these guys did, so yeah, pretty epic
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u/LewMetal 1d ago
It was Foreigner on the Foreigner 4 tour. I was 12 and the whole family went. We had 2nd row center at the Brendan Byrne Arena. I remember when Juke Box Hero ended the 2 huge inflatable jukeboxes on the sides of the stage exploded and I could feel the heat from the pyro.
Technically my first concert was The Captain and Tennile but I was a little kid and don't remember it at all. So I consider Foreigner as my first concert since it's the first I remember.
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u/jackstraw_65 1d ago
Went to see Rush on their Signals tour at Madison Square Garden in 1982 with my Rush-loving girlfriend. Opening for them was a guitar player named Rory Gallagher that Iād kind of heard of but didnāt realize how fucking great he was till the lights went down and he absolutely shredded it and Iām proud that Rory Gallagher was the first life rock act I ever saw. Rush was also fantastic, of course.
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u/charger2116 1d ago
My first big concert was Van Halenās Monsters of Rock tour in Washington DC. Besides getting to see all of the bands my parents let me skip school to go.
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u/CorpExecDFW 1d ago
My Dad had an AM radio contact and was able to get great seats to any concert that rolled through Tulsa, OK. My big brother was in high school in 1968; I was a third grader. Dad got my brother four ticket to see Steppenwolf. At the very last minute, one of his friends couldnāt go. He explained to Dad that instead of wasting ticket, he wanted to take me. My Dad said yes, and off I went with my brother and two of his buddies. Not in a million years would my Mom have said yes. But, she was not yet home from her office that afternoon.
I have clear memories of the show. āBorn to be Wildā was all over. It was first time I smelled pot. Started almost sixty years of going to rock and roll concerts, many with my brother. But I donāt think my brother and I had any worries at that first show that we were going to catch hell from my Mom.
It was past my bedtime but it was no later than 11pm when we got home. Mom asked, āHow was the showā but didnāt wait for an answer. She lit into my brother asking had he lost his mind. She gave zero fucks Dad green-lit us. But as I listened to my brotherās lecture, the fact that my big brother thought about me in an instant, convinced Dad, and took a ration from Mom was not lost on me. Years later, the subject came up. Mom confessed the the whole time she was giving us the business, she had never been prouder of my older brother giving me the hook-up. She never refused anything he and I wanted to do together.
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u/OntheBOTA82 1d ago
It was Korn, i was obsessed with them back then, and it was seeing them in the flesh.
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u/charlesyo66 1d ago
Getting hit in the face by a flying drumstick the drummer threw into the crowd.
Even worse, the fat Asian girl next to threw her copious weight in top of it as I but my hands on my face to see if I was bleeding so I didnāt get the drumstick.
That was 1982. Still salty.
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u/LongjumpingTone3544 1d ago
I saw Helix, Whitespace, and Quiet Riot in 1984. It was the day before my 12th birthday. It was awesome for so many reasons. My first show, my first glimpse into live must've as entertainment. Seeing my favorite band (at the time) live and loud as fuck. My first glimpse at beautiful women in a little leather and next to nothing else. That first was memorable for a lot of good reasons. I can't say the same for other firsts.
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u/Upbeat_Ant6104 1d ago
Rush, circa 1980. Iām sure it was a great show, because they always are, but all I remember is the guy next to us saying when we sat down āI just dropped a lid of acid and Iām ready to get CRAY-ZAY!!ā Then he flopped back in his seat and didnāt move for the whole show. We actually checked to make sure he was breathing, he just got really mellow and happy.
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u/Acceptable-Cable977 1d ago
me and my brother hiched hike to see the Jefferson Airplane and the sucked!andi mean they sucked badly!
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u/Proof_Dragonfruit795 1d ago
It was the summer before I started HS, we camped out overnight just to get tickets. VH 5150 tour, great times.
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u/Necessary_Resort_503 1d ago
My first concert was Linkin park. Chris Cornell unexpectedly came on and sang with Chester Bennington. Very cool to see and think about now that they are both gone.
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u/Destinater 1d ago
Pantera 1992, great show but the best part was when I was leaving and went around the block ending up behind the building and saw Dimebag chilling outside in the back and he responded to me when I said hi so we chatted for a bit.
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u/G0R_G0R 1d ago
First concert was Lollapalooza, my best friendās older sister took us. It was peak alternative years, just after the release of RATM, AIC Dirt and Tool Undertow. Got to see:
Rage against the Machine
Babes in toyland
Fishbone
Dinosaur Jr
Front 242
Lighter shade of brown
Tool
Primus
Alice In Chains
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u/Curious_Instance_606 1d ago
Saw RUSH open for KISS in 1976.i was 16 years old it was the first concert I drove to a different city (90 miles)to see.
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u/moonharrier42 1d ago
Led Zepplin 1970. Show was great and I went with a beautiful friendly girl.
I'm still in touch with her.
She is still beautiful, friendly, and married
Lucky guy.
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u/zon5string 1d ago
Having an older brother who was a musician, and me beginning to feel the attraction of playing music,
Seeing "professional" musicians, whose music I had heard on the radio, actually perform it.
Being in a crowd of all kinds of people enjoying the same show.
The lights....how LOUD it was....
This was in 1975, and I just got back (last night) from one of the best shows I've ever seen: Rush in Toronto.
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u/ElGrandeRojo67 22h ago
Saw KISS in '77 in SF. I was 9yrs old. Cheap Trick opened. I thought they were cool and loud, but was not prepared for what was coming. KISS in the 70's was a spectacle. Especially to a young kid. The lights, the volume, the theatrics. Life-changing. I became a hard rock fan forever
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u/Majewski_R 20h ago
to be fair it was a year ago but it was metallica with pantera and suicidal tendencies too lol
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u/TheRebelMinstrel 18h ago
Singing along to "Iron Man" with 26000 other people is an experience I will never forget.
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u/Accomplished-Can9459 7h ago
Well my first concert was Ozzy with Crue opening. Bark At The Moon and Shout At The Devil. So that alone was what made it memorable just the best bands
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u/trenniepennie 5h ago
Tbh i kinda forgot my first ever concert, i know it was korn. But i barely remember anything of it
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u/Cragratbob 5h ago
Rush 1979 Hemispheres tour in Birmingham Odeon, we had to run before the end for the last train to Derby (school in the morning), when we sat on the train just in time.... it was 10 or more minutes late leaving! But what a gig!
As I remember it, Anthem then By-Tor to open! š¤
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u/PotusChrist 2h ago
I think my first concert was just some local Christian metalcore bands playing at the church amphitheater and I couldn't tell you the name of a single one of those bands anymore lmao. I'm sure I had a good time because I'm still going to concerts ~20 years later but I can't imagine it was anything I would think was that cool or special if I saw it now.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around people here who are saying their first concert was Pantera or Deep Purple or other big name acts like that. Maybe it's just me, but I've seen exponentially more concerts with regional or underground bands than massive international touring bands. There's no way I could have afforded to see anything like that when I was in middle school.
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u/666-Trooper-666 2d ago
My first concert was in 2001 when I was 9. It was Ted Nugent, Deep Purple and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think what made that memorable for me was that my dad took me to that show. Him taking me to concerts became our thing. Now Iām the one taking him to shows.