My most memorable ROCK moment

I have many concert memories, but two intimate experiences that were the result of dumb luck. The first was in Atlanta around 1980 when a friend and I went to the Moonshadow Saloon to have a few beers. We walked in to a bar with about 30 people in it and the band setting up was called BHLT (Dicky Betts, Jimmy Hall, Chuck Leavell, and Butch Trucks). They proceeded to play about two hours of Sea Level type fusion jazz. The second serendipity was in Nashville in 1984. I was with my sister,who was at Vanderbilt at the time, and we went to the Exit/In for a few beers (there seems to be a pattern here!). It was about 3:00 in the afternoon and we were the only people in the bar besides the staff. In walks Jeff Beck carrying a guitar case. He was in town recording with Rod Stewart. He asked the manager if he could plug in and play for awhile. He used a Heineken bottle as a slide and the sounds he created were incredibly melodic. In the hands of a master, a guitar and beer bottle made beautiful music, whereas most people would merely produce noise with the same accoutrements. Someone called a local radio station and by 5:00 there were 200 people there. Like Beck, Trower and the old Allman Bros. guys are iconic artists that frankly won't be able to tour too much longer. We should all support and enjoy them while we can.

The Dead at Melkweg would have been huge!

For me, I think it was the Jimi Hendrix Experience at Winterland in 1967 or 68. The actual moment was Jimi crouching down to hit the opening chords of Foxy Lady. Left an indelible impression in my young mind.

There were others.

Went to a Byrds concert at the Ohio Theatre in '71. The opening act was an unknown piano player by the name of Elton John. Needless to say.....

Which reminds me, I went to an Emmylou Harris concert at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, CA in around 1977. Opening act was someone I'd never heard of called Willie Nelson. Great show, both bands.

I'll go with three categories:

Per Rockadanny, memorable fistfights.

Two fights - one on stage (Ray Davies and Dave Davies of The Kinks swinging away at each other before an almost totally empty Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ) and one in the crowd. I was way back near the door at a Shirts concert at CBGB when a brawl started up front and began working its way back toward me. I squeezed out the door just before a guy came flying out to the street.

Small venues:

Genesis at the Bergen Community College gymnasium in November 1971 was my first full-on theatrical rock show. Flash pots concealing Peter Gabriel costume changes in a local gym were almost too much for a 14 year-old substance altered mind to handle. Won't forget that one any time soon.

Another unforgettable moment; my friend Randy Hill had Chuck Berry play in his backyard for a birthday celebration. CB more or less phoned it in for all of an hour, but it was still pretty startling to see him in that setting.

Musically:

There are a whole bunch of 'em, but Fleetwood Mac on the Tusk tour combined perfect pop, crunching punk, acoustic guitar workouts, and extended blues rock in a startling display of range. The crowd was so pissed when they didn't do an encore, that no one left for what seemed like a half hour. Just 20,000 people screaming "More!"