How old were you...
 

when you attended your first show/concert? (a gig you wanted to see, not some christian pop group your youth minister and parents wrangled you into witnessing)

I was very unfortunate on this front and didn't see a band I wanted to until much, much later in life.

How young is too young? If a show is "all ages", what do you think the appropriate age is?

My 10 year old daughter has been to a show with me and she was, by far, the youngest there. I know this all depends on the venue. The show she accompanied me to, did have a bar, but it was outside the music hall and there was no drunkenness on display.

She loves Vampire Weekend and I am taking her to see them as well (on a school night). Same type of venue.

The announcements of these plans to family and others is sometimes met with a mild disdain. I see nothing wrong with it. I'm sure many of the 'disdainers' are imagining some type of rock arena concert and the fear of her being trampled.

What do you think?

First concert with the parents was Three Dog Night at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego I was 8. Was a pot-filled, drug induced, drunken stupor. Well for my parents anyway.

My first show was at age 12/1982 my parents bought me tickets to see Duran Duran cause I was such a prissy fanboy. I was pleasantly surprised how good they are live.

The same year i got to see the initial US FESTIVAL and was blown away. We camped out on Friday and Saturday in an RV. I got to see The English Beat and Talking Heads Friday night. Was the beginning of my deep profound love for anything David Byrne. Saturday night I got to see another band that would blow me away The Cars, The Kinks also performed and Tom Petty, not a bad festival really.

I was 16 and i went to Cali Christmas. everyone there sucked except Kendrick he did a real good job. i did see trinidad james an di enjoyed his song as ignant as it is lol

I was 11 and I saw REM when they performed a free concert in downtown Toronto, outside the Hard Rock Cafe. I was with my dad and there was no drunkenness or anything like that on display as it was out on the public street and the cops were around. That was in 2001.

Here's "Losing My Religion" from the same show (no, you cannot see me or my dad in the audience, although we were fairly close to the front)

The first concert I attended was Citizen Fish, I was 2. Other than that, I think it was th bluegrass fest when I was 9.

Fred, your experiences sound fun and interesting.

BD, you've inspired me to post the show we attended. My daughter is sitting in front of the bass player, but you can't really see her.

It was 1970, I was 12, and I'm embarrassed to admit it was Iron Butterfly.

When I was about nine my dad took me to see his favorite musician, Roy Orbison. The Crickets opened (without Buddy Holly obviously). I feel kind of lucky that that was my first show since it was only a couple years before Roy Orbison died.

August 6, 1967. I was 5 and with my parents in Montreal, Canada, attending Expo '67. We saw a free, outdoor, afternoon show featuring Jefferson Airplane (I was familiar with them, as they were getting a lot of radio airplay with "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love") and an opening act I hadn't heard of called "The Grateful Dead."

The first show I saw without adult supervision, was David Bowie at Boston Garden in Boston, MA on May 6, 1978.
As soon as I sat in my seat, the person sitting to my right handed me a lit joint and told me to take a toke and pass it on down the line. My buddy and me had people handing us lit joints left and right all through the show. There were so many people smoking weed, there was a marijuana haze throughout the arena. To this day (and many hundreds of shows later) it's the most pot smoking I've ever seen occur at a concert.
Some of the songs from the show, wound up being included on Bowie's "Stage" album, released later that year.
Recently, I found and downloaded a good quality audience recording of the entire show.

I've searched for a recording of the Grateful Dead/Jefferson Airplane show, but it appears there was no recording made of that performance, either by Owsley (the LSD chemist and soundman for The Grateful Dead, who recorded most of their performances while he was with the band) or any member of the audience.
I'm hoping a recording of that concert will surface someday.

First gig I ever saw was Marillion in 1988.
The last band to play here before them was Meat Loaf 6 years earlier so I made a point of going just to experience a proper live gig rather than out of any great love of Marillion. And because my mother worked at the venue & got me in cheap.

I only knew one of their songs as did most of the audience who spent most of the gig chanting for it, I spent most of it bored out of my skull. Other memories of the gig was that my friends Dad was doing the PA and my friend was telling us how much a c*nt the drummer was, also the support act was a local band called Unique which featured two big haired synth players and a big fat bald guy on vocals dressed up in what looked like Leigh Bowrey's cast offs complete with make up.
A bit like this in fact only without the belt & lightbulbs....
http://www.bankholidaycomes.com/wp-c...bowery_01.jpeg

It was also one of Fish's last ever gigs with Marillion, maybe even his last This gig was a one off after their main tour had finished and he left a couple of months later.