18,000 happy Dead Heads could not be wrong. Deer Creek, my how you deliver.
We're closing the books on DAVE'S PICKS 2021 with not one but two - nearly - complete shows from Noblesville, IN 7/18/90 & 7/19/90. Yes, we've packed it all on four CDs, save for that second night encore which we promise you'll get to hear in the very near future. Sometimes there really is just too much good stuff.
For now, we'll invite you to cozy up with two exceptional back-to-back shows, shows with precision and clarity, shows with more than a lion's share of exploratory jams, and most importantly, shows that were simply a damn good time for all. Highlights from night one include the bookends of a spectacular "Help>Slip!>Franklin's" and an epically intricate "Morning Dew" followed by a classic cover of "The Weight." Night two, is the sleeper hit, with flawless playing from start to finish, the set list inviting you to find new favorites in top-notch renditions of "Foolish Heart" or "Victim Or The Crime," and if that's not one of the finest versions of "Desolation Row" Bobby ever did do! We would be remiss if we didn't mention that these shows were among Brent's last and they are some of his finest of the era at that.
Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL. 40: DEER CREEK MUSIC CENTER, NOBLESVILLE, IN 7/18 & 19/90 was recorded by Dan Healy and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman.
First shows....
....well, it wasn't the Beatles, but I'll try.
Iron Maiden. April 84. Powerslave Tour. 15 years old. I was hooked on live shows after that spectacle. Followed by Slayer and I want to say Poison? Both in small clubs before they made it big.
First Dead show was 4.13.86.
Simonrob for the dub.
White punks on dope
Yes, you can't top The Beatles for a first gig.
Talk of banned shows reminded me of my experience of the same. Starting with Status Quo, before they became a comedy act, in 1974. They played the all seated Belle Vue in Manchester, and most of the seats - and much else besides - got smashed to smithereens. All future gigs at Belle Vue by rock bands were cancelled post haste. Nowadays I dont like talking at gigs. That night I was just grateful I didnt get crowned by a flying chair.
In 1976, the punk rock circus kicked off with an old school package tour headed by The Sex Pistols. Just before they came to Manchester, they gave an interview on T.V. one of the rare occasions when working class youth was placed in the spotlight and given a microphone. John Lydon - Rotten as he was then - gave a memorable and comical poke in the eye to old farts everywhere, with the result that many of their remaining gigs were cancelled. But not the one in Manchester.
Off-topic, but Vguy
I just had the catalytic converter stolen off my Toyota Tacoma in broad daylight while parked in a lot on a busy street in south Denver. Two surgical cuts and they must have come and gone in two minutes or less.
Insurance agent told me that many folks cannot even get a replacement due to supply chain issues. In my case, I needed two, which were located in various parts of the US and shipped over the weekend. Four days without a vehicle reveals my dependency, though I ride a road bike and use two locks. Cost for parts and labor = $3500, covered but for $500 deductible.
I repeat this nonsense to any who will listen as it's now a global phenomenon driven, apparently, by organized crime. The CC is on the shotgun side of trucks, so park strategically!
Paz, HF
Late to the party, first shows
Doors and Airplane at the Roundhouse in London in 1968, just after Waiting for the sun was released, then a looooong delay till 1970 and Canned Heat, Renaissance and Deep Purple ( booo!) at the Royal Albert Hall.
(Purple were pretty much booed off stage when they announced Sweet Child in Time and proceded to play an intro which many in the audience recognised to be a rip off of Bombay Calling, known at the time by the Its a Beautiful Day version, of course this was an audience very attuned to West Coast music rather than theatrical c*ck rock. The guitarist, Blackmore threw several on stage tantrums that evening....of course in between there had been a few local club gigs, and but the floodgates pretty much opened after that evening at Alberts Hall.
First festival was Bath....
New Ad In My Local Small Town Paper
Says he buys catalytic converters so it's coming to a town near you. Isn't that 3 of us so far? PF (multiple), HF, and Vguy. I'm thinking of scratching in big letters "STOLEN" on my c.c.s. May not stop anything unless the wholesale scrap buyers of these are held to account. HF, your 2 c.c.s are worth more than any one of my cars.
"Don't let it get you down", Neil Young
Bath Festival 1970
My first festival and it remains the best. It was quickly followed by the Isle of Wight Festival, but that had nothing on the Bath Festival. A life changing event in many ways.
C Converters
Stealing CC's is a big business in Portland OR, too. Local news ran several surveillance cam footage of guys diving under cars in public parking lots and driving off with CC's. Oregon just passed a law which makes buying a stolen CC illegal, we'll see how that works out.
First Shows
When I was about 13 or 14, on 1/13/67 our family went to the BCT to see the Mama's and the Papa's, a favorite band. The opener, Jose Feliciano, had a delayed flight, so the MC announced he would not make it in time and said, " please welcome a local band, The Grateful Dead"! We were in the balcony, and this loud band started playing, and I don't remember the band at all, because my parents influenced my experience, and they were not pleased.
Went to the '67 Monterey Pop Festival with Dad and Sister. We were there Sunday, the last day, to see the Mama's and the Papa's. Saw Jimi Hendrix there, pretty crazy when he lit his guitar on fire. The Dead played that day, but I don't remember seeing them. So that makes two times I accidentally saw the Dead, and don't remember it at all.
Dad took me, Sis and my friend Dan to the 1968 Northern California Folk Rock Festival in Santa Clara, and we saw the Youngbloods and the Doors.
Saw the original Santana band at Fillmore West right after their first album came out, around 1969. I was on a double date with my friend Doug, and my Dad drove us to SF to see the show and waited outside. With the light show and loose crowd, (probably smoked my first doobie) I knew I wanted more.
Saw Ten Year's After 11/20/70 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds indoors, someone passed a doobie to me there, too. This was beginning to be a regular thing!
Went to NYE 1971 Winterland with my friend and his older brother. My first Dead show that I remember. I had fun, we were close to the stage, and pigpen offered a bottle of champagne to the crowd at the front of the stage. My hand along with many others reached to get it, and Pig slammed it into my hand. Others in the crowd tried to rip it away from me, as we tousled on the floor, I told them all I would give them each a sip. I still have the bottle, it is displayed proudly in my office. I didn't get on the bus yet, I skipped a March Dead show, because I had just seen them.
Over the summer I listened several times to the Harpur College 5/2/70 radio recording, and really got into them. Went to two BCT 1972 shows, and on 8/24, properly lysergic, Dark Star Morning Dew did me in. I was on the bus big time, and also realized they were doing different shows each night, so I started going several nights in a row.
First show
Chicago (soon after Terry Kath's 'departure')
With
Orleans (dance with me, i want to be your partner, cant you see)
And
John Stewart (theres people out there turning music into gold)
Summerfest
Milwaukee
1979
My First Shows,
all at the Jahrhunderthalle (GD 1972) or at the Festhalle (GD 1990) Frankfurt:
Jeff Beck - April 8, 1972
John Mayall - May 2, 1972
Emerson Lake & Palmer - June 10, 1972
The Who - Aug. 11, 1972
Steppenwolf - Sept 24, 1972
Ginger Baker - Oct. 16, 1972
Alice Cooper - Nov. 25, 1972
Followed by:
Deep Purple, Ten Years After, Rory Gallagher, Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry…..in 1973
Cheers G.
My catalytic converter hasn't been stolen....
....but I work in the car repair industry, so I've had to replace a few. They are not cheap, due to precious metals.
And yeah. A lot of parts are on backorder. My clients get very frustrated, as do I. Sigh.
On a side note, I've noticed that if your weed smells like fruity pebbles, you got some good weed.
A bit jealous with some of the first shows I've been seeing here. (Live) Music is the best. Unless it's at Astroworld. Fuck man. Some of those cell phone videos of the event are horrifying. As a huge concert goer, that news pissed me off, regardless of the genre. No excuses. I've been in crowd surges before, and they are scary. I appreciate assigned seating these dayz.
Take A Step Back. It's not rocket science.
Gratefulgerd posted at 4:20 btw.
Twilight is the time we see best…..
50 years ago today…..
November 15, 1971
Austin Municipal Auditorium, Austin, Texas
Set 1: Truckin'-Bertha-Playing In The Band-Deal-Jack Straw-Loser-Beat It On Down The Line-Dark Star>El Paso>Dark Star>Casey Jones-One More Saturday Night
Set 2: Me And My Uncle-Ramble On Rose-Mexicali Blues-Brokedown Palace-Me And Bobby McGee-Cumberland Blues-Sugar Magnolia-You Win Again-Not Fade Away>China Cat Sunflower Jam>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away
Encore: Johnny B. Goode
Deadicated to cedarview, GR8FL22, rhodymike, Mr. Jack Straw, Nanno-1974, lebowski99, glynnt54, stoltzfus, dancin dean, and Zomby D Wulf, as memory may be a paradise from which we cannot be driven, it may also be a hell from which we cannot escape……
Back in the day this was one of the first Fall 71 tapes I ever had, and it was an instant favorite. While yes San Antonio and Fort Worth are very fine, Austin may be the penultimate 1971 Texas Dead show. It oozes quirky gooey goodness, from the blazing opening Truckin’, through a first set Star AND a spontaneous jam, to a great NFA suite with even more jamming. And if you’re a fan of Cumberland Blues (like I am!), this is one smokin’ version! Extremely solid, great show, get it!
Rock on!!!
Doc
The darkness of death is like the evening twilight; it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying.
First concerts
3rd June 1971 Royal Albert Hall - The Band - bonus cd on latest version of Stage Fright.
20th July 1974 Knebworth Festival - Allman Brothers, Van Morrison, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Tim Buckley
10th Sep 1974 Alexandra Palace - Grateful Dead
14th Sep 1974 Wembley Stadium - CSNY, Joni Mitchell
10th Feb 1975 Cambridge - John Martyn
what a lucky lad i was......
The first and the last
Frighteningly, one of the first bands I ever saw - Hawkwind in February 1973, was also one of the last bands I ever saw, in November 2019. As if that wasn't bad enough, I saw them in most of the intervening years too -sometimes more than once. Doesn't say much for me in terms of personal development ! More dates confirmed too, although I'm still not ready for going to London to see gigs yet. We both have plenty of time left.
First and Last
The first few were all over the place.. being a teenager and not yet able to drive, we either walked (Merriweather was close) tagged along with a sibling or had my buddies dad drive us. A lot of metal, t-shirts tended to be 3/4 length black sleeves with a white shirt and godawful graphics and a lame ass picture in the middle. Sabbath was my first.. the first half dozen in general were not always that good. Judas Priest was another, looking back it was not my bag.. I saw an early Rush that was a highlight and unfortunately was the only time I saw them. Just before I could drive I caught the Dead at the Baltimore Civic Center and the set the Jell-O for what a live show could be.. Other early shows were CSN, Jethro Tull, The Allman Brothers and a few lesser shows close by.
The Dead was it for me though and although I saw as much live music as I could both afford and find time for, the good ole GD were the priority.
It took years to finally get to Hot Tuna and NRPS, but they rank up there in the fun and enjoyment category. ..and isn't that what's all about, having a good time and catching a good experience. I like to think that is what we all carry to these threads.. our spirit of adventure and our our ability to enjoy. Thanks Jerry & Company.
Oh, my last was David Byrnes American Utopia on Broadway and a week before that D&C at Blossom Music Center.
Can we change "last" to "latest"?
Something about "my last concert" gives me the creeps........
Great freakin' stories! It's hard to be jealous about stuff that occurred so long ago, but still.
My latest concert was Hot Tuna electric, 28 Feb 2020, Boulder Theater. I had tics to see Los Lobos two weeks later at the same venue, March 14, but five days before it I decided to play it safe and eat the tickets. The band made their decision not to play a day later. (Great minds?)
Now I have a ticket to see Los Lobos at the Boulder Theater in March 2022 -- two entire years of concerts missed. Not hugely painful in that I've long forsaken the "big" shows (i.e., either huge crowds or expensive tics), but I miss the theater shows and the blues dives and the mingling and what I euphemistically call "dancing" -- doing my best to move my feet to the music with a young sweetie in my arms. Okay, that's ALL I miss!
Let's give JimInMD honorable mention for the phrase of the day, when he wrote that the GD "set the jello." Man, I wish I could use language like that. That's a phrase I'm going to tuck away for the perfect conversational moment!
First show - loudest show
My first show was 1975 Outlaws, Roger McGuinn, Eagles.
Most recent was Buddy Guy
@nitecat - I saw the Mamas and Papas in the late 80's. They consisted of John Phillips, his daughter (the tv star), Scott McKenzie and some woman whose name escapes me who did the Mama Cass parts. They played in a restaurant in a ritzy wealthy area. There were people in dresses and furs in the crowd. As soon as they started, a group of people went to the restaurant management complaining that they were too loud and asked to have the sound turned down. Of course the band refused so the complainers left. Better for us, as we ended up right in front of the stage. It was a good show.
Speaking of loud, what was the loudest show you ever attended? (maybe this has already been discussed here). For me it was a tie between Foghat and Neil Young. For Foghat I was in the second row but off to the side, in front of a bank of speakers. they were the opener. I went to the bathroom after their set and put some tissue paper in my ears for the next band.
Neil Young opened with a nice little acoustic set then came back with Crazy Horse and blew the doors of the place. My ears were ringing for 2 days.
My first...
The first "concert" I ever went to was probably 1966 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion...my Pop took me with him to see the Flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata (Little Hands Of Silver)...we also went there to see the Ballet Folklorico De Amalia Henandez, the national dance company of Mexico...my first R 'n R show was a freebie park gig at Elysian Park in LA with Jefferson Airplane & the Grateful Dead...it was mid Seprtember '67 the weekend before my senior year in high school started...my latest shows were actuallly the past weekend of Nov 5 - 8 in Las Vegas, celebrating my 71st Birthday with the Stones on the 6th & Santana on the 7th...my first time out in a large group since the lockdown began...the loudest is kinda hard to pinpoint...I laffed at the earlier mention of Foghat, I saw them with the Jeff Beck Group at the Hollywood Palladium and man they were loud!!!
Setting the Jell-O
My third show, Pink Floyd trio ‘87, set the Jell-O.
The previous 2 shows I saw before PF seemed bland once a witnessed the Floyd (my favorite band at the time).
Fast forward about a year and a half and GD was a Jell-O shot.
GD was what I was looking for all along.
Why did I buy all those Pink Floyd cassette tapes in the mid-80’s and never buy Live Dead, Skull Fuck, Europe 72?
When I looked at cassettes in the record store I looked for long songs. I was searching for long jammy psychedelic songs.
Had I only picked up live GD recordings…..
I knew who GD were but only knew FM radio songs which were short, and I didn’t know anyone else who listened to them who could have shown me the light (most people were listening to big-hair metal at the time, which I despised). So, I didn’t know that GD played long jammy psychedelic songs.
When Touch Of Grey arrived on MTV I didn’t even know that GD was still a band.
1988 came around and I started hearing that GD was in fact still a touring band. Then I talked to someone who had been to their first show in ‘88 and it seemed like something I needed to check out.
1989 came around and I was driving in my car listening to the radio and the DJ stated that GD tix had gone on sale that day. I had just cashed my paycheck and went straight to Ticketbastard and bought 6 tix. Got seats upper level side looking down at Jerry and Brent. Perfect seats for me and my 5 friends who just sat there and absorbed it all in.
I was sold in the first set, but Set 2 with Drums/Space set the electric Jell-O shot….
so loudest...
On thinking about it, a top contender would be the pre Foghat original line up of Savoy Brown at the Whiskey in West Hollywood when Chris Youlden was still singing...the smaller room lent itself to loud...I had a freind who saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the Whiskey and he couldn't hear for a couple of days...also the "I Sing The Body Electric" version of Weather Report shook the walls of the Whiskey...after that show (two sets) we went out to my buddy's car and he had two flat tires...we had to take the bus back to the Eastside of town...real interesting ride due to the dosage we took for the evening...
Loudest concert?....
....AC/DC. Easy. My ears rang for three days. Worth it.
Latest concert? Caught three Phish shows over Halloween weekend. And future shows? The Black Crowes. This Thursday. Got invited by my only contact from my high school days literally an hour ago. Didnt even know they were coming. We went to our first concert in 1984. Iron Maiden. I posted that a few pages back.
Marco and I caught the fever in 84 and never looked back.
Loudest
Hmmm
The Heats in a little room at a university.
Ouch on the ears. No earplugs. 1983
GBH mid 80s. I wore earplugs. G l a d.
Motorhead 2000 outdoors. So loud I had to leave. No earplugs. Dumb on my part.
I get that rock is supposed to be loud. But not to the point of pain and days of "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
Nappyrags comin' up the inside.....
Doooooood, GD and Airplane in Sept '67?? Savoy Brown with Kim Simmonds AND Chris Youlden??
And now Stones and Carlos back-to-back?? (?????)
Upon reflection, we all entered the concert scene pretty young (me at 14) and though I "missed" so much -- did not see Hendrix, did not see Pigpen -- it could not have been any other way. I've been using psychedelics fairly regularly for nearly 50 years now, with a couple epic stretches with opiates (now in the rear view), and I'm getting a wee bit crisp, if you will. Starting any earlier, I'd probably look (and act) like Yosemite Sam. Can't have that!
As for loudness, it's a toss-up. Way too close to Roy Buchanan's Twin Reverb for many, many shows, and one night in front of Dicky Betts and I couldn't hear, literally, for an entire day. Just little scratching noises when my co-workers moved their lips......
Re: Yosemite Sam
Ha.. now I have a visual of HF in real life.
Regardless of how you may look.. to me, and perhaps others reading this.. we now have a perceived visual. In the end, perception is reality.. right?
first and etc...
One of my earliest memories as a human being is my parents taking us kids to see Chuck Berry at Milwaukee's Summerfest. I was maybe 4-5 years old (so, c. 1974-75) and my parents sold us on the show by talking about Berry doing the Duck Walk. Man, did we go crazy when he did it! Summerfest was an annual event for most Milwaukee area residents in the 1970s and 1980s, so lots of bands seen there, but I don't recall them anymore other than the Violent Femmes a couple times.
The first time my parents let me see a band alone with a friend at Summerfest was Huey Lewis and the News at the main stage in 1984. Lewis et al. were at the height of their popularity with Sports in the charts. Huge crowd that spurred the construction of the larger current amphitheater. I remember they ran out of songs after multiple encores and the band came out and played a blues shuffle with Lewis playing harp.
Next was a couple Rush concerts and a few others, but the one that sticks in my mind from high school is The Kinks at the Riverside Theater 1987, second row center tix. After that, this sport-loving guy was sold on concerts and what they do for my soul. David Bowie Glass Spider Tour 1987, Pink Floyd 1988 (20th row Camp Randall), Grateful Dead Alpine 1988, Clapton Alpine 1988.
Loudest-- ZZ Top Bradley Center 1994. That one was also the drunkest I have ever been for a show.
Last-- Dead and Company Wrigley 2019. Not sure what my next will be.
Loudest?
Too many to remember but I do remember physical pain to the point where I was using my taller friend as a shield and even squatting down a couple of times when it got intense. Couldn't even find a tissue or something to plug my ears. Good thing it was an open air show!
You guessed it GD 7-08-78. You can hear one of those moments during Ship of Fools. Jerry scorched me! But that can happen when you play with fire. No regrets and no permanent damage and only now losing some hearing on one side.
My first tape of this show taken from the Italian bootleg CD has a better take on this than the box set CD. You can really hear the amps buzzing loudly before the start of the second set. That CD came out in '95-'96 on Red Robin (?) so was that some of the Betty's from ABCD leaking out? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks
Cheers all!
First, Latest, Loudest
The aforementioned Culture Club in 1983 was my first. I lived a few hours from the Twin Cities, so I missed a lot of shows I would have loved to have seen. I was 13 at that show, and my friend's older sister drove us to the show. I can't believe my parents allowed it; they were pretty strict.
Latest--I have seen some great string quartets lately, and went to Adam Meckler Orchestra (groovy big band) recently. Those shows were all outdoors or required proof of vaccination and masks. Things are going badly here in MN right now, as far as Covid goes, so I've skipped a few shows recently. And I just can't bring myself to pay more than about $30/ticket anymore, when so much amazing classical and jazz is inexpensive or free, and at those shows one can sit in a beautiful 300-person (or less) theater with no lines for anything. Other than Dark Star, I think my live rock-n-roll days are behind me, and I'm only 51!
Loudest--everything at First Ave. is TOOOO loud, so I've walked out of shows there. I left a Living Colour concert there once when I couldn't discern any notes or lyrics . . . just a painful smoosh of noise. I think I left a Blues Traveler show there once . . . And my wife and I walked out of Yonder Mt. String Band at First Ave.; somehow they couldn't even leave the volume down for acoustic music. :( My friend used to practically LIVE at First Ave. back in the day, and now he's been battling tinnitus for years.
Yes, I'm quirky, loud and crazy........
Yo!! Rockers!!!
Loudest ever? The Who, old Boston Garden, April 1 1976, twenty rows back dead center. Overpowering and oh so awesome!! Pink Floyd March 14, 1973,old Boston Music Hall, close second...........
What do I look like? LOL picture a cross between Clark Kent and Timothy Leary..................
Rock on!!
Doc
Musicians want to be the loud voice for so many quiet hearts.....
If perception is reality, we're all in a lot of trouble!
But please, populate your nightmares with an image of HF as Yosemite Sam..... har har har!
GarciaLive 17 just landed and it looks tasty. I caught that band at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ, on 17 Sept '76 and man, everyone in the hall was blasted on blow that night. Or at least it seemed that way to the white-wallers I went with. The floor was open and absolutely everyone was twirling (or swirling, in our case). The band seemed to be tooting as well and the "songs" were 10-15 minute excursions apiece. All just minutes from my childhood home... And we'd seen 3-4 GD shows that June in Boston and the Capitol in lovely Passaic, NJ.
Yours truly, YS
Nappy, last, and loudest
First, happy, happy, joy, joy to good ole Nappy! Many more good sir!
Hellava start: Airplane/Dead in 67, boo-yah!
LAST: Gary Clark jr. Fall 2019, Nat Rateliff and the Nightsweats fall 2019, D&C Boulder summer 2019.
Had tix for D&C 2920, and Phil fall 2021 but didn’t feel comfortable yet so got refund.
Still waiting to for that cup to be filled…
LOUDEST: LOL. Some of the bands I played in were pretty loud, not good, but loud!
Gray Matter we basically had late 70s Dead stage gear only in little hole in the wall dives. We played a battle of the bands once and first song was Deal. Just as were peaking out on it we blow the power. Now this is at a R&R club that hosted many acts including the popular well known but now lesser drawing kind of acts. So the infrastructure was much more than a typical bar. But with all those MC2300s and a big PA when we hit that big crescendo on the outro, complete with bass bomb, we’ll boom boom out went the lights. Sound guy was flummoxed “do you really need all those amps” LOL.
Working for some pretty loud hard rock bands too. Eventually we realized that we should ware protection so got some Norton Sonic 2s: sonic filters that protect but still let you actually hear the music. They were a little bass heavy though so we modified them by sticking a booger sized piece of duct tape in the opening. Much more even frequency response which is crucial if your mixing, especially monitors where you need to hear harmonics and other tells BEFORE things start to feedback. Great product, wish I still had them though I’m not in loud situations much anymore.
90-95 dB peaks on the home system is plenty loud for this old timer. BITD that would of been more like 100 dB plus lol. But hey, it was good clean Mac power!
The Who 12/4/79 was way too loud. They were I believe using a Meyers PA even before the Dead did full time, but they weren’t using it properly: way too shrill!
Over the years many situations that made it loud, but my all time most notable was the Dead on 5/17/81, smoking show! I ride a bus myself, scored a ticket at the last minute, walked in, never looked at my ticket, just saw an opening in the third row, boom.
Well they were still using Clair Brothers PA with the big square boxes, but they were stacked on the ground, not hung. So my seat was way left near the end of the row, which was just mere feet away from the PA. Also, JG was trying out the new McIntosh MC 2500 that was replacing the 2300s. (Probably since Binghamton was very near)
He didn’t use them very long so I’m wondering if they were too much for his needs? He stuck with the 2300s decades after they stopped making them.
Man was he screaming loud that night, you can really tell on a good Aud tape. So combine that with my proximity to the PA and, well, I’m lucky I didn’t do permanent damage as my ears rang for several days afterward. The worst part was I had my first collage final the next day and couldn’t hear the Proff give the directions at all, just ringing!
I think it’s a testament to clean loud versus dirty loud. Your ears can tolerate clean loud easier than all that distortion cranked to 11. But they’ll also get damaged without you necessarily knowing it right away due to lack of pain from the distortion. A quieter distorted sound while damage your ears way quicker than a louder clean one!
Not sure about loudest but worst was the Stones at a stadium show late 70s, perhaps early 80s?
As was often the case with the big stadium shows back then, after the first 3 to five acts, and after the headliner had started you could just walk in. But it was so loud and terrible sounding we left even though it was free! You could hardly tell what song they were playing. Always left a bad vibe for me about the Stones: just another way they (to me) were sell outs. High ticket prices but shitty sound, very opposite the Dead!
I Wish that I Knew What I Know Now
The Faces in October 1973. I still think they were one of the all-time great bands, and it still kind pisses me off that Rod Stewart decided he’d rather go make disco records with a bunch of studio hacks rather than rock with Ronnies Wood and Lane, not to mention Kenny Jones and Ian Maclagan. What a band. The coulda shoulda woulda given the Stones a run for their money.
Loudest was probably Meat Puppets circa 1994. This was in a small-ish club, and I think at that time they were touring as an opening act for Stone Temple Pilots, so their equipment was probably waaaay too loud for the room. It’s the only show I can ever remember where it was so painfully loud that I had to go outside and a take break mid-show. Couldn’t hear shit for days.
I think the last thing I saw before everything shut down was Titus Andronicus. Seems like a million years ago.
Poor young grandson, there’s nothing I can say, you’ll have to learn just like me, and that’s the hardest way.
My wife has been missing for over a week....
....the police said to be prepared for the worst. So I had to go to Goodwill to get all her clothes back.
Vguy, our resident evil genius!
I always have to think before I get your jokes. I "think" that's a good thing.
Unless getting your jokes means that I've slipped in a permanent way.
I fear it's the latter.
First, Last, Loudest
First live show: The Sound of Music at the Lunt-Fontaine in NYC, probably 1963, with my parents.
First rock show: Allman Bros. at Roosevelt Stadium in Joisy City, 6-6-74. Dad took us.
First unsupervised trip to NYC for a show: Frank Zappa at the Felt Forum, Halloween (early show), 11-31-75.
Little did the folks know that they were releasing the beast. Oh, yeah.
Loudest: A tossup between Aerosmith, 12-16-76 at MSG (and I saw pretty much every big-name act at the Garden between late '75 and Aug. '77), and The Who, 10-6-16, at the Santa Barbara Bowl (5th row left, in front of the PA).
Last show before Covid: Ricky Skaggs, 3-9-20
First show after "back to normal": Pat Metheny, 9-29-21
Most recent should-have-been: Dave Grisman (cancelled), 11-11-21
Most recent: the Immediate Family, 11-6-21
Next up: Bela Fleck, 12-15-21.
Who do I look like? I have been told that am Roy Buchanan's doppelganger, but to me I just look like sad, old Chevy Chase.
First live show, loudest
Bigbrownie you remind me my family went to musicals in SF and at the Theater in the Round in San Carlos, way before I saw my first rock show. Oliver, The Pajama Game, Brigadoon, etc.
Loudest show is a toss up between Los Lobos in the relatively small SF Fillmore, and Neil Young at the Cow Palace in 1976. The Lobos are such a loud band, three guitars, and the sound just bounces around the small hall, such cacophony! I swore I would only see the Lobos outdoors after that. The Lobos are great outdoors, I saw them at Hardly Strictly, High Sierra Music Festival, Marin County Fair, and Stearn Grove.
Neil was with Crazy Horse. We were ushering, so we could sit in the huge Cow Palace and hear them sound check. At one point, as the band were playing, Neil's guitar dropped out of the mix, and boy you could tell he was laying out huge loud crunch, the rest of the band sounded like a wind up toy!
Saw X at the Geary Street church when it was doing shows occasionally. They were pretty loud too.
Loudest, Last
The Who were by far the loudest Band I've ever experienced. Extremely loud!!! Show at the Festhalle, Frankfurt on Aug. 11, 1972.
Last Show: Warren Haynes, Batschkapp, Frankfurt, June 6, 2019.
BTW, saw Warren Haynes in 1983 with DAC in northern Germany and same year in Tulsa, OK (Cain's Ballroom).
G.
Play It Loud
The initial gigs I saw, between 1972 and 1975, when I still lived with my parents, were all deafening. It was part of the buzz - music that was felt rather than heard, and that denied rational explanation or understanding. Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep were particularly punishing, but the prize for over the top volume has to go to Deep Purple in 1974. I can remember them taking the stage in semi darkness - shadowy figures with hair down to their knees. A drum roll...a screetch from an amp...then the lights came on and I was accosted by the most violent explosion I had ever heard in my life. This was them playing something off one of their albums. It was too loud to tell exactly what, but after a while my ears adjusted and I could make some sense of it. This pattern was repeated throughout the night. "Did you have a nice time, dear?" "What?"
Loudest
Motorhead sometime in the 90s left me deaf for 2 days.
On honeymoon in 2014 went to pay homage at Fillmore. Saw The War On Drugs- too loud for my wife's delicate ears. To me it was loud but not deafening. We left early. No lasting effects. We're still married......
Who Wasn’t Loudest…
Saw The Who (@Forest Hills) and Jefferson Airplane (@Capital Theatre, Port Chester) both in 1971.
The Who was loud (5th row), but JA was painfully loud (way in the back).
I remember putting my fingers in my ears it felt so bad.
Let the games continue
My first concert was canceled as we pulled onto the parking lot. Freedom Jam ‘75, was to feature Eric Clapton, Santana, Pure Prairie League, and at least 2 other bands I can’t remember. As we were about to make a left turn into the parking lot, we saw the line of people waiting to gain entrance(at least 6 people wide) do an about face and start walking away. This concert was at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium(home of the Colts & Orioles). Apparently, a HUGH wind gust blew in and proceeded to blow the entire stage and equipment down to the ground. What a disappointment!! A few months later, I saw The Outlaws, Jay Ferguson Band, and Seatrain. It wasn’t quite the same level of excitement, but 1,500 shows later, it was a start.
The loudest is easy. 2nd runner-up goes to The Allman Brothers(I was unfortunately close to stage monitors). Runner up is Black Sabbath at the Baltimore Civic Center in 1978(Van Halen opened!!). My ears were fuzzy for 2 days, I had second row seats. But in a nod to DAVEROCK(thanks for backing up the description I’ve been giving for years), Deep Purple was SO LOUD, it took me 3-4 minutes to discern what song they were playing(Highway Star, which I knew VERY well). And this was on their Mk.3 reunion tour in ‘85(‘86??). I was at least 15-20 rows back. Holy shit, how could anyone play THAT LOUD!!
Live, love, music!!
First One - Last One- Loudest One
First One:
Jimi Hendrix - Love&Peace Festival, Isle of Fehmarn - September 6, 1970
My only memories are about the audience, was too young
Last One:
High South - Downtown Blues-Club, Hamburg, March 08, 2020
Loudest One:
Probably Rory Gallagher - Macht der Nacht Musikzelt, Hamburg, November 15,1987
Rory was so drunken, he starts playing La Bamba 20--30 times during his set
And maybe 10 or more Marshall stacks behind him. Saw him 10-15 times but this show was
the loudest and disappointing one.
Without music, life is a journey through a desert…..
50 years ago today…….
November 17, 1971
Albuquerque Civic Auditorium, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Set 1: Truckin'-Sugaree-Beat It On Down The Line-Tennessee Jed-El Paso-Big Railroad Blues-Jack Straw-Deal-Playing In The Band-Cumberland Blues-Me And Bobby McGee-You Win Again-Mexicali Blues-Casey Jones-One More Saturday Night
Set 2: Ramble On Rose-Sugar Magnolia-Cryptical Envelopment>drums>The Other One>Me And My Uncle>The Other One>Wharf Rat-Not Fade Away>Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad>Not Fade Away
Deadicated to Strider Brown, because memory is a net full of holes, the most beautiful prizes slip through it…..
And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand…….
A very fine show and another personal favorite. I’ve advocated for this show for decades, and always hoped a good FM or SBD copy would someday magically appear. Yes, until that day came, at least once a year I would break out my old, not-entirely-but-almost-unlistenable copy and revisit it. Strong playing, good songs, nice jams. Highly recommended, especially now that it’s available in impeccable sound quality!!!
You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst……
Rock on!!
Doc
The rules of survival never change, whether you're in a desert or in an arena…..
What...no Grand Funk?
Mr Ones - you didn't see Grand Funk Railroad, then? From what I have read about them, they could pop a few eardrums back in the day. Even Phil Lesh, in an early bid for old fartdom, has a pop at them on one of the 1971 shows in the new box. They were much hated by the British music press, too, A weird kind of recommendation to the likes of me.
Maybe it was hype though. I can remember when Ted Nugent toured Britain around 1976-77, there was a promotional poster of him - Tarzan with a Gibson f-hole - and the legend "If it's too loud, your'e too old!" printed underneath. But I wasn't impressed. No more deafening than anyone else I had ever heard.
Incidentally, I notice the Blue Oyster Cults box set of albums on Columbia has been re-released recently. That includes one of my all time favourite American hard rock albums - "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees". I've jus ordered a copy to catch up on their latter labums from those years.
11/17
I didn't realize11/17/71 was so high on your list Doc. I'm sure I must have known it back when DaP 26 came out, but my memory is as bad as my hearing. What? Who are you?!
For my part I hadn't heard this Albuquerque show until it was officially released. I was just hoping it was close in quality to the Road Trips show from 11/15. I wasn't disappointed. It's a doozy and pretty much cements Fall 1971 as my personal favorite year for The Other One without Crypticals. Jerry has that bluesy section in part 1 that's worth the price if admission. And the tapes sound great. The outro jams on Truckin' were second to none in those days. Also includes one of my favorite onstage Jerry quips after the false start on Sugaree: "these things take time....We're New Here". God bless him, he always sounded like he was having fun up there. I'm going to declare El Paso as a "deep cut" in this set list; Garcia is relentless with his fills. He could have sat back and played complimentary rhythm chords, but he just enjoyed playing too f@#%in much.
I'm going to attempt to get in 11/17/72 and 11/17/73 as well today. Man I love that Wizard of Oz album cover.
The loudest band in the world... Allegedly.
Grand Funk Railroad headlined a free concert in Hyde Park in July 1971. They were advertised as being the loudest band in the world. It would have made no sense to try and promote them on the basis of their musical prowess. Almost nobody in England had any idea who they were. Heads, Hands and Feet were the opening act who I remember nothing about, unfortunately. Maybe I arrived too late and missed them. Second up was Humble Pie with one Peter Frampton on guitar. A great performance, they ensured that GFR would never be able to top that and indeed they didn't. An endless selection of standard riffs seemed to be all they were capable of. The world's loudest? Hard to say because it was outdoors in a park.
I think I only saw Deep Purple once and mercifully that was also outdoors so my ears were spared. I remember little about it due to being chemically compromised at the time. It was either 1970 or 1971.
The loudest band I ever heard (indoors, naturally) was Black Sabbath in May 1970. People living miles away complained about the noise which gives an idea of the volume levels involved.
There were other gigs that resulted in hearing problems the following day but I can't remember them all.