Best and Worst Rock Concert Moments

Worst: Rolling Stones "Some Girls" tour, JFK Stadium, Philly, ~1978. 100,000 general admission seats. Gates open and almost get trampled in the rush. Police move in to control the crowd. Crowd starts throwing bottles at police cars. Police come in on horses and start beating back the crowd with clubs.

Later inside, the sound in that big open stadium is absolutely the worse ever....mostly echoes.

The concert was still pretty good I suppose even after all that.

I swore off large outdoor concerts after that.

Best:

Dick Dale at the Recher Theater near Baltimore MD. Small venue, right up front...Dick is smokin on guitar a few feet in front of me. After the concert, I get an autograph and get to chat with Dick who stays onstage afterwards to chat with a few of us who stuck around...wonderful!

Another great one was Julian Loureaux Groove Gang (French Jazz/funk ensemble) at Stone Harbour Jazz club in New Orleans the night before the NO Music Heritage Festival opens. THIS GROUP SMOKED LIKE NO OTHER I HAVE EVER HEARD!

Nice memories...even the Stones concert I suppose.

Saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Swing in SanBernadino back in the early 70's. Nearly deafened and a real stiff of a 'date'.
California Jam 1 was a MONSTER. Went there with about 20 friends in a rented moving truck! It took about an hour to get to the PortaPotties. You ain't heard nuttin until you've been up 20 hours and BlackSabbath comes on, at 110db.

Having Slash's girlfriend o.d. and pass out on me during a Peter Townshend solo show at the House of Blue in LA. She lived, but I had to help Slash carry he out the door of the Green Room to awaiting medics.

Two worst concert moments:

I agree with Mapman, JFK did stink for concerts.

1). Went to see The Who, Clash, Santana at JFK in the 80's except my friend who was treating me hated Santana and refused to see them, so I missed a great band. When we got to our seats at JFK in the middle of the afternoon, the sound was horrible but that wasn't the worst part.

Worst part - we were in the nosebleed section and this obviously very drunk kid was directly behind me drinking what looked to be pepto bismal mixed with alcohol in a large container. His hand was covering his mouth most of the concert as if he were going to blow lunch at any time. Behind him were these huge Temple Univ. football players, one instigating and nudging the kid to throw up, the other ones saying, if you throw up on me, I'll f'in kill you. I turned around and told the kid if he threw up, I'd f'in kill him too...the kid got reminded about 100 times that if he threw up, he was dead...not a fun way to watch a concert thinking someone might throw up on your back.

2). Went to see Parliament/Funkedelic at the Phila. Spectrum in 79 in the height of their popularity. Double dated with my buddy Sr yr in high school. Bootsy's Rubber Band and the Brides of Funkenstein were the first 2 performers. We had 10th row seats. 10 whites in the whole place and we were all in the same row. After about an hour or so, it got very crowded. If we stood up, people came in behind us to stand on our chairs. If we chased them away and stood on our chairs, people shuffled in in front of us.

Worst ever: Hot Tuna at the St. Joseph's College field house in 1976 or 77. I love all rock, but they blew....

Best: Bonnie Raitt at the Main Point near Villanova, PA around late 1976. Everyone that played there sounded crazy good.

2nd place: David Bowie, Tower Theatre 7 day gig in mid 1970's.

Sorry, my memory for exact dates is as bad as I am old!!!