My Concert History Part One: The Early, Occasionally Embarrassing Years Unlike the theater history, there are

quite a few shows I cant place on this one and probably quite a few Ive forgotten, particularly things at pay-at-the-door type clubs with no ticket stubs. I know there should probably be additional shows by Chicago and Billy Joel on this part of the list. Heres what I can place. Exact dates have been determined either by ticket stubs or online research. There is a LOT of concert information on the internet. 1974 Chicago The Forum, Inglewood My first concert, and yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. I remember, that not knowing any better, we went to a Ticketron outlet either the day of the show or the day before, and the woman pretty much laughed when we asked about tickets and was surprised when pretty good seats came up on the computer. With my brother Lance, and I think a couple of other people, though I dont recall who. The first time I had someone offer me a joint. I declined, as I have since. 1975 June 13: Bachman-Turner Overdrive The Forum Bob Seger was one of two opening acts. I cant recall the other, but they were British and loud. Id never heard of Seger at that point this was just before he went from being a regional act to a national breakthrough but he made a big impression. In retrospect, clearly better than the opening act. With Lance. Oct. 25: Elton John Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles The famous show with Elton at the height of his popularity, at the time of the release of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Costumes included a sequined Dodger uniform. Opening acts were Joe Walsh and Emmylou Harris; Walsh did fine but Emmylou clearly a bad match for this show was booed off the stage. Looking back, the setlist is pretty great, but I was not enamored of the stadium-concert experience (especially since this was an all-general-admission show and I ended up a long way from the stage.) I see from ticket stubs reproduced on line that tickets were $10. I remember they were sold via a mail-in lottery. I dont remember who I went with. I

do remember that I asked Brenda Feeney, a cheerleader a year behind me in school, and she said she couldnt because she had to work. On Monday, she showed up at school wearing a T-shirt shed gotten at the concert ... and the die was cast for my dating life. The setlist, according to eltonjohnitaly.com: 1. Your Song 16. Captain Fantastic and the 2. I Need You To Turn To Brown Dirt Cowboy 3. Border Song 17. Bitter Fingers 4. Take Me To The Pilot 18. Someone Saved My Life Tonight 5. Dan Dare 19. The Bitch is Back 6. Country Comfort 20. Dont Let the Sun Go 7. Levon Down On Me 8. Rocket Man 21. Gotta Get A Meal Ticket 9. Hercules 22. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds 10. Empty Sky 23. I Saw Her Standing There 11. Funeral For A Friend/ 24. Island Girl Love Lies Bleeding 25. Philadelphia Freedom 12. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 26. We All Fall in Love Sometimes 13. Bennie And The Jets 27. Tell Me When The Whistle Blows 14. Harmony 28. Saturday Nights All Right For 15. Dixie Lilly Fighting 29. Pinball Wizard 1976 August: Fleetwood Mac Universal Amphitheatre With high school friends Mike Dann, Kathleen Marostica and Kim Barden. What I remember: When I first talked about going, someone (Kathleen? Kim?) asked, Whos Fleetwood Mac? So they werent exactly huge at this point, although theyd had the successful Fleetwood Mac (aka White) album, and were big enough to play four nights at Universal, which at that point was still an outdoor venue. Opening act was an absolutely horrible guy named Peter Ivers. What I dont remember, but learned online while trying to figure out the date of the show: They used these shows to try out material for the Rumours album, so we probably heard a bunch of stuff that was going to be huge about six months later. Oct. 20: The Eagles The Forum With Lance. Maybe someone else, too. The date is not 100 percent certain. It was a three-night stand; Im relatively certain we didnt get tickets for the first night, and believe it was this date, which was the middle show.

Famous as the hometown debut of the Hotel California album, which proved to be the bands artistic high point. With a large string section that played on several songs. I remember that even though no one had yet heard the album it wasnt released until December everyone was blown away by the new material and greeted it as enthusiastically as the familiar hits. Still has a place on my list of best concerts ever. Nov. 6: Boston Arlington Theater, Santa Barbara Four of us from high school went: Greg Ramirez, his date (I think she was a domestic exchange student, but I cant recall her name) and a forth person I cant recall. Might have been Kim Barden again. I took her out a few times and never got anywhere. I remember a couple of things: One, I had never before seen a collection of effects pedals for a guitarist like Tom Scholz had that night, and may not have seen a setup that complex in all the years since, either. Two, the audience stayed way after the last song after the lights had come up and the roadies had started breaking things down trying to coax an (additional?) encore out of the band, without success. This was the bands debut tour, and their set was pretty short, just because they didnt have a lot of material to draw from. Online information indicates this was the bands first concert date in California. Dec. 7: Peter Frampton The Forum With Lance, I think. This was when Frampton was having his brief moment at the top. From here, the only way to go was the long downhill slide to dates at every Indian casino in America. Off the top of my head, I can only thing of two acts that had live albums as their breakthrough Frampton and Cheap Trick. Neither one never again matched the live-album success, and Im thinking this show offered one reason why: Having already heard live versions of these songs in fact, only knowing live versions the material seemed awfully familiar. The first time I remember walking out of a show disappointed. 1978 Summer: Steve Martin Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colo. The comedian as rock star. Martin, at the peak of his soon-to-end touring career, filled the 9,450-seat natural theater with a wild, enthusiastic crowd; side two of the Wild and Crazy Guy LP was drawn from this performance.

1979 Tom Petty, Denver University Arena With Andy Hill and two other DU hockey players (Rob Anderson and Gary Nedelak, maybe?) Opening act, the Fabulous Poodles, who I will never forget, no matter how I try. The promoter wanted to use the hockey locker room as the dressing room for the Poodles I dont know what they did for Petty and coach Marshall Johnston turned over the decision to me, saying the room was my domain. I let them use it in exchange for four tickets and the band trashed it. Bastards. I sold out way too cheaply. As for Petty . Not that good. Rambling, druggy performance (at one point, one of the band members told him he was talking too much, and his response was Cant help it too much cocaine.) Acoustics in the arena werent very good, either, which is probably why this is the only concert I can remember being held there in my four years at DU. (Probably just as well, because I was NEVER going to let a band use the room again.) 1982 or 1983 Kenny Loggins Paul Page Theatre, Fresno Fair Free with a fair admission. Yeah, I had a couple of his albums that I listened to a lot. At the time, he was still pretty big; this would have been in support of the High Adventure album, which was the last one before his sales went off the cliff. (That album reached No. 13; the next one peaked at 41, and after that, triple-digits beckoned. I remember that the crowd was not that receptive in the early stages, but a middle solo acoustic section won it over, and then the second half, with the band back, was packed with the hits. In trying to find a date for this show on the internet, I discovered Loggins is playing the Fresno Fair again this fall (2012). The more things change 1983 Oct. 20: Quarterflash Paul Page Theatre, Fresno Fair Id heard the song that was their big hit, Harden My Heart, when it hit regionally in the Pacific Northwest and the band was still known as Seafood Mama. (They were from Portland, where Lance was living.) It took more than a year, a lineup change and a new name before a rerecorded version song was released nationally (and went to No. 3 on the charts). The Quarterflash album was probably one of my first CDs, so, yeah, I did make an effort to see them. I

recall lead singer Rindy Ross was pretty likeable on stage and she played a pretty good sax, too. I see in the Wikipedia entry for the song that theres a version of it in Rock of Ages. Not sure thats a recommendation. 1984 April: Billy Joel The Forum The Innocent Man tour. Either April 29 or 30. No recollection of going with anyone, so maybe I went solo. Never a critical favorite but always a good entertainer, and with a really good band. I always liked his shows I probably saw him four or five times, though I can only account for three. The one specific thing I remember from this show was that he talked about how it wasnt until after the album came out that he realized that it was going to be awfully difficult to hit the really high part in the title track night after night. His solution was that one of the backing singers took over the lead for that brief segment of the song. Dec. 28: Huey Lewis & The News The Forum When the Sports album ruled the world. I remember that a.) my seat was at the far end of the arena, and that b.) the sound was not all that good. Im sure the two were not unrelated. Sound was particularly bad for the opening act (Bonnie Hayes), which frustrated me, because I thought that what I could hear of some of her songs actually sounded pretty good. 1986 Nov. 23: Billy Joel The Forum This was the tour for The Bridge, and when the lights came up at the start of the show, he was standing center stage, playing electric guitar on A Matter of Trust. Pretty unexpected.

1987 April 13: Billy Joel Long Beach Arena A return engagment on the Bridge Tour. Pretty easy to track this one down online, because it was the first time and probably only time he played there. I

know he commented on it being the first time, and I seem to recall he said he liked it better than the Forum. (It would have been a slightly more intimate venue; the Forum held about 18,000 for concerts; Long Beachs is 13,500, according to its website.)