I attended concerts before they were called concerts.

I’m not sure what they were called back then.

I guess just somebody live “on stage” doin’ their thing, playin’ their music.

I don’t remember when the word concert came along.

Anybody know?

(Phillip Kennedy, I’ll bet you know.)

I’ve been to concerts when the band was on top and hot right at that time and I’ve been to concerts where I’ve realized that my favorites have grown old right along with me.  

To see the live performers, the magic makers of the songs that either made my feet dance or set my heart on fire has always been a thrill, even if its been years since their last big hit.

I’m sure everyone has seen the shirt that says something like, “I MAY BE OLD BUT I GOT TO SEE ALL THE GREAT BANDS!”

I smile when I see it ‘cause, it’s true and I did.

Music has been the one constant through my entire journey.

I know that’s a fact with so many of us, maybe most of us.

 

The first live on-stage music I ever saw was in 1959 or 60 and the latest was this past summer at Tahoe.

In all the years and all the concerts we attended, there was only one that was so horrible we left.

Try and guess who.

Whether sitting outside on a warm summer night on a grassy hillside catching a breeze of marijuana floating by or inside with seats sometimes great, sometimes not so great, our cup has flowed way over with concerts.

We always remember the music from each magical night but sometimes there’s  other memories attached to those nights. 

I’ll bet it’s the same with you.

In 1959 or ’60 our high school band marched at the Michigan State Fair.

My girlfriend and I were flagwavers.

After the performance, we were on our own for the rest of the day.

Duane Eddy, an extremely good looking, cool, twangy guitar player with a couple top hits, was big at the time. 

He was the live, on-stage act scheduled for that evening and………. my girlfriend loved him.

What the heck?

We decided to find him.

Remember, this was still a time when  we had a lot more freedom than is allowed today.

We had seen the Duane Eddy trailer when our school bus parked in the lot, so we knew he was back there somewhere.

We went back to the lot, found our bus and began from there.

We saw the big trailer with his name on it and we headed in that direction.

There was a fence…..we climbed it….. a large tank was in our way, we crawled under it…..on teeny, tiny, sharp pebbles. 

After passing through the barriers, we stood up and began to brush ourselves off.

We noticed my girlfriend’s leg was bleeding.

At that very moment, the door of the trailer right smack in front of us, opened  and there he was…..Duane Eddy, the Rebel Rouser!

I’m not making this up!

He obvioulsy wasn’t expecting to see anyone standing at his door when he opened it.

He said a surprised HELLO.

We didn’t respond, too dumbfounded!

We never for a moment thought we’d really see him and there he was.

He saw the blood trickling down my girlfriend’s leg and asked her if she was hurt.

She squeezed out a “no” in a teeny, tiny, shaky voice.

He suggested that we follow him and he’d get her a band-aid.

Follow him?

He opened his trailer door and told us to come in.

Come in? 

We were going inside Duane Eddy’s trailer?

Who was ever gonna believe this?

Within minutes, he had her leg cleaned, dried and bandaged and he was ushering us out the door.

I don’t remember either of us speaking the entire time we were inside. 

Seriously dumbfounded!

We forgot to ask for his autograph but the band-aid went into her scrapbook.

I only hear Duane Eddy’s music when I listen to oldies and then I don’t hear him very often but when I do…..I can’t help but smile and remember the two teeny-boppers who jumped a fence, crawled under a big tank and landed at his door.

 

Konocti Harbor was a lake-front resort in northern California, 2 or 3 hours from our home.  

It was a concert destination during the warm summer months, with the stage under the stars and small enough that no one needed binoculars.

They also had an even smaller indoor venue featurning dinner shows.

Kenny Rogers was at the height of his popularity when he performed a Konocti dinner show.

He was of course, amazing.

How could Kenny Rogers be anything BUT amazing? 

Every love song he sang put me on a cloud and floated me away.  

And “Lady, I’m your knight in shining armour”…..I’m gone!

But my memory of that particular night was when he stopped singing for a moment to thank the men for coming, stating he knew they were only there because they’d been dragged by a woman.

He then left the stage and went into the audience, pulled out a big wad of bills from his pocket and told the men every time he saw one signing along with his songs, they were gettin’ paid!

He walked around, sang and gave away money.

Two songs and the bills were gone!

 

Our first parasailing adventure also happened at Konocti on a Sawyer Brown week-end.

They were one of my favorite country groups at the time.

We told the guy who was gonna strap us in that we were going together…..one seat. 

He said he’d never done that before but shrugged his what-the-heck shoulders and strapped us both in……together.

We sailed high over Clear Lake in our one-for-two seat.  

That evening Sawyer Brown’s lead-in was…..Toby Keith, never heard of him. 

The music began.

A very tall, very good-looking cowboy stepped up to the mike, began to sing and I fell in love. 

Sawyer Brown was excellent.

The new guy, Toby Keith? 

Mind blowing!

 

There was only one restaurant-bar in Konocti and we knew after the Alan Jackson concert we were attending, it would be standing room only with people and we’d never get a table, actually we knew we’d be lucky to even get inside.

We were having a drink earlier in the day sitting at a small table overlooking the water when an idea hit.

There’s always paper and a few pens in my purse, I pulled them out.

In big letters I wrote RESERVED  10:30  JONES PARTY OF 2 and folded the paper so it stood up on the table.

That night after the concert, just as we suspected, wall to wall people.

But there it was, over by the window, one small EMPTY table with our hand written RESERVED paper on it.

It worked!

The part we thought was the funniest is the part that none of the employees questioned it.

Or…..maybe they did and didn’t know what to do with it so they just let it go.

 

BTO, Bachman, Turner Overdrive were goin’ strong when we attended one of their concerts.

Ten Years After, a British blues rock band was their lead in.

Seems the Ten Years After fans weren’t quite ready for them to finish and when BTO took over the stage, there was lots of noise happening.

The music began and BTO started to rock.

Happy people were out of their seats and dancin’ and then ……….

Things began flying in the air toward the stage.

The Ten Years After fans were bombarding the stage with whatever they had on hand….. including food and drinks.

A big old apple came flying overhead right on to the stage and hit one of them. 

I guess that was the last straw…..or apple.

Randy Bachman stopped the music, red faced and boiling over with anger he grabbed the microphone and yelled out to the crowd…..”alright you fuckers, you wanna fight?”

It got real quiet.

We had balcony seats, near the exit.

I grabbed my purse and was ready to run, thinking a rumble was about to happen.

Evidentally, the Ten Years After fans weren’t up for a fight, just some booing and food tossing.

They headed for the EXIT doors, and they were gone.  

And that’s how BTO TAKES CARE OF BUSINESS.

 

In 1992, John Mellencamp was on top.

We paid $22.50 for our tickets and our seats were great. 

Imagine…..$22.50!!!!!

We knew our daughters were going to the same concert and NO we were NOT sitting with them.

The moment adorable Mr Mellencamp, previously known as John Cougar began to rock, everyone was out of their seats, on their feet and dancing.

Suddenly, I heard the call that every mother knows…..”MOOOOOOM”.

Even with all the music and noise, my mother’s ears heard it….., “MOOOOOM.”

I looked around toward the call and there they were, our girls, waving wildly at us.

Weren’t they suppose to be … kinda like NOT real excited to see their parents at the same concert they were at?

Not them!

 

Def Leppard and Bryan Adams came to town.

Def Leppard was my husband Lobo’s favorite group at the time. 

Bryan Adams I liked.

Def Leppard…..no.

Our daughter Melissa and her girlfriend Monique were also fans and they were going.

They thought it would be fun to take Lobo and he was thrilled to go with them.

He loved every part of the evening…..said he felt like a big-shot music guy walking to his seat with two very young, very beautiful girls….. one on each arm.

 

Melissa and I both loved Melissa Etheridge so when she came to Sacramento, we bought tickets.

It was a sold-out crowd and if there were any males there, we didn’t see them.

After settling in our seats, we noticed that nearly all were either holding hands or had arms around one another. 

I took my sweet daughter’s hand in mine and held it throughout the evening.

We blended and it made us feel like we belonged…..a part of the whole.

Her guitarists was celebrating his birthday that evening and every few songs, she’d stop to sing a chourus of Happy Birthday.

When the evening was at its end, as she sang her last slow song she walked her band members one at a time, off the stage ’til she was the last one standing.

To share an evening with hundreds of females…..our tribe, where there was love in the air and Melissa Etheridge singing her heart out ended up being a thrill that neither of us will soon forget.

 

There was a huge pole right smack in front of our seats for a Barry Manilow concert. 

Right smack in front of us!

We managed to enjoy the show but how wrong to sell seats like that and I did bitch about it….. a little bit.

Half-way through the concert, my sweet man left his seat and walked down the few aisles to an usher.

He does that.

When a situation arises.

He thinks about it for a short time and then he takes action.

They spoke for a moment and then the usher followed him back to our pole-seats.

The usher motioned for me to follow him.

He took me to the very front of the stage where he told me to enjoy the next song.

And there he was..… LIVE….in front of me…..Barry Manilow, singer of some of my most favorite romantic songs.

I forgot everything for those few minutes and watched one of my favorite albums come to life.

Sing it…..

“Oh Mandy, you came and you gave without takin’………..”

A thrill I’ve never forgotten.

 

Stevie Nicks performed an amazing concert in 1998.

She fascinated me, and every second of her on stage was mesmerizing.

But what I remember most from that concert were the protesters outside  marching in front of the building, holding signs and yelling that Stevie Nicks was a witch.

There’s really people like that!

I never thought she was a witch.

Gypsy for sure but not a witch.

So, I wondered exactly what did they want done?

 

Thunder Valley is a Casino maybe 5 minutes from where we once lived.

The warm Sacramento summer nights were perfect for outdoor concerts.

The acts were mostly a mix of once-upon-a-timers but still rockin’ all the years later.

There was an entire culture of other-side-of-the-fence, concert people.

They were the party people. 

The parking lot was directly next to the chain link fencing that kept people out but didn’t stop anyone from seeing the stage or any of the large screens from every angle.

And the music? 

It was right there.

The party people stayed in the parking lot with their coolers and lawn chairs, some sat on the hood of their car and PARTIED!!!!! 

ZZ-Top, that Little Ol’ Band From Texas knew how to make a parking lot rock.

We did buy tickets now and then but I have to admit, it was way more fun in the parking lot.

 

One evening while we were deciding to either buy tickets for a Peter Cetera and Richard Marx concert or go back to the parking lot, a couple walked by and as they  passed me, he put two tickets in my hand.

(If you’re interested, I blogged this story in July of 2018 titled A BACKWARD TRIP.)

 

We went to a Carrie Underwood concert with Bobby, our grandson.

Can you imagine going to a concert with your grandparents?

I loved my Mimi with all my heart but go to a concert with her?

I think not.

Bobby didn’t have two thougths about it, like it was perfectly normal.

He’s such a neat kid.

It was a great concert, a great night and we all had fun.

I hope Bobby never forgets.

We won’t.

I must add at this point that Bobby is now looking at 16 and I’m bettin’ that the goin’-to-a-concert-with-your-grandparents thing is…..over!

 

We loved and enjoyed every concert we ever attended …..except one!

We had grass seats one summer when Paul Simon and Bob Dylan were both performing. 

Paul Simon was the warm up and he did just that, warmed us up. 

We’ve been Paul Simon fans forever.

“Slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan, Stan.”

But, ten minutes into Bob Dylan was all we could handle.

He was wasted beyond ever coming out of it that night.

To be honest, I’m probably one of the few in life who really never got Bob Dylan anyway. 

I thought seeing him perform would give me a chance to maybe understand what others saw in him…..it didn’t. 

We left.

That’s the ONLY concert in all the years that we left before it was over….. but for us, it was over….. like a rolling stone.

 

Beach Boys?

More like, Beach Men without Brian Wilson.

But still, it was a thrill.

 

In 1985 we were in Michigan for a wedding.

We kept one of the Limos and the next evening arrived in style for an Alabama concert.

Kinda fun pullin’ up to Pine Knobb in a Limo.

 

Mountain Winery,  is a small vineyard nestled in the rolling hills of Saratoga, California.

Chicago was performing and that meant Peter Cetera, was going to be there and that meant…..so were we!

The seats were all close to the stage and when I took a look through my binocs, there he was, right in front of me.

AND, believe me, don’t believe me…..I don’t care…..we made eye contact…..we did!

I’ll bet he remembers!

 

Alan Jackson did an outside concert in Murphy’s.

Murphy’s is another little Hamlet town tucked in the rolling hills and surrounded by vineyards. 

It’s also right next to Angel’s Camp.

Angels Camp is where Mark Twain wrote the story of the Jumping Frogs.

The concert was being held on the outskirts of town in a big open pasture.

Fold-up chairs were lined up in rows and trailers of concessions were along the side of the stage which was nothing more than that…..a stage with speakers.

When showtime grew close, an RV in a big cloud of dust came barreling through the pasture and toward the stage.

The door opened, Alan Jackson jumped out and on to the stage.

He sang his heart out for two hours.

We knew we’d had our last encore when the RV came around from the back, the door opened, Alan Jackson jumped in and off it went through the pasture in another cloud of dust.

 

We had tickets for a Paul Anka dinner show in Reno.

Our seats were kind of in the middle.

My fingers were crossed that before the night was over, he’d sing my forever favorite.

The lights went out, the music started and a huge spotlight was aimed at an area directly in front of our table.

The floor separated and opened and slowly rising up from somewhere below, there he was, standing on a pedastol…..Paul Anka, exactly right before my eyes singing PUPPY LOVE.

How did he know?

I uncrossed my fingers and I was 14 again.

 

Some of my favorites…..

Going to a Paul McCartney concert was a huge thrill but before he even came on stage, we felt like we’d seen an entire Cirque de Soleil show. 

Out from different locations in the audience they came, performers on high stilts.

They did a warm up for Sir Paul that would have satisfied us as a show all on it’s own. 

We’d never seen anything like that.

And then there he was…..an original Beatle, Paul McCartney in front of our eyes.

His performance?

Guess.

Out of this world fantastic.

 

On January 29th of one year, we returned from Mexico with Montezuma’s Revenge!

Not just a touch of it either, we were both suffering pretty bad.

But, we had a concert to go to in Reno on January 30th.

We dragged our half dead bodies to a clinic early morning and each received an injection to help stop the pain and pukes.

Reno was a 2-hour drive in snow, that white nonsense that we don’t like.

The concert took place in a huge tent and our seats were horrible.

They were so far off to the side that pretty much all we could see was back-stage.

I was bummed…..I didn’t feel good, hadn’t eaten food for 2 days and we had crummy concert seats.

We were so hungry but every time we tried to eat…..well, pain and puke!

I kept visualizing an open-faced turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy!

The concert began and like once before, my sweet man left our seats and told me not to take my eyes off of him. 

I watched him weave his way through the rows of people and then down to the main floor and to an usher standing near the stage. 

Within a few seconds, he looked up toward where I was sitting a waved at me to come where he was.

Then it was my turn to work my way through the tightly packed crowd of people, and finally reached where they were…..all the time Lionel was singing and I was missing the show!

It must be a thing that usher do to shut disgruntled fans up because similar to the Barry Manilow concert, the usher walked me right up to the front, right where he was standing and singing! 

His song ended and the crowd was making their approval known with loud cheering.

At that moment, Lionel looked down, pointed at me and said, “you behave now.”

That was it!

My life was complete!!

Lionel Richie spoke to me!!!

We were then ushered to better seats, up front.

That was worth the $$$ I later learned that Lobo slipped to him.

I also learned later that while I was staring up at him, eyes and mouth wide open in amazement, the camera-person had done a close up and caught that expression and placed it on the big screens for everyone watching to see.

Great!

(There’s much more to this story. See my Blog titled, MEXICO, MONTEZUMA AND LIONEL from May 2017.)

 

The best Lionel seats we ever had were at a Thunder Valley outside concert one summer night.

First row, middle seats!

So close I could smell his cologne.

THAT was a thrill!

 

The most recent concert was last summer (2019) at an outside theater in Lake Tahoe. 

We arrived earlier in the day to have lunch with friends who have a Tahoe summer home.

The pizzaria was just a few blocks down from their house and it was a beautiful day so we decided to walk.

There was construction going on with the road and the edges of the pavement had been scraped away creating a drop-off of at least six inches.

While walking…..I dropped off!

I caught myself on the ground with my hands but my foot had taken the worst part of the fall.

Humiliating!

I didn’t want a fuss so denied anything was hurt.

We finished our walk, had a great pizza lunch and then walked back.

I should have put ice on my foot but just didn’t want the attention so continued to deny there was a problem…..but there was.

It hurt.

We thought we left for the concert with plenty of time but we were wrong.

Everyone in Tahoe was going to that concert.

We were in line as soon as we got on the road.

We made it but with only minutes to spare.

There was a line to go through, the ticket and purse checking line.

By the time we got to the checker, we only had two minutes to get to our seats before show time.

I had a back-pack instead of a purse and the checker pointed to a NO BACK-PACKS ALLOWED sign.

Really?

I’m usually faster than my very mellow man but, my foot HURT so he took the back-pack and ran to the parking complex, up the stairs, threw it in the car and then back to me.  

I was in line, AGAIN because they couldn’t take our tickets until the back-pack was gone and they wouldn’t let us wait at the front of the line!!!

We thought we’d be OK  because well, concerts never really start on time and there’s USUALLY a warm-up act.

Not this time.

We got to our seats, the lights went out and there he was.

I forgot the painful foot, I forgot the back-pack business.

I was watching Lionel Richie sing the songs I’d listened to at home, hundreds, no thousands of times.

My foot continued to hurt so after we got home, I was seen by my doc and he ordered an xray.

I had a broken bone in my foot and had to wear a splint up to my knee for a month.

But, the pizza was delicious and the concert was excellent.

 

I saw Elvis twice.

The first time was in 1974. 

The Elvis ticket-lottery was the only way anyone could get tickets.

The Detroit newspaper had a form that had to be filled out and mailed. 

On the form was a spot for requested number of tickets.

I requested 4. 

I mean, shoot for the moon, right?

In my wildest dream, I didn’t figure I had a chance for tickets.

I was competing with how many thousands of people?

Three tickets came in the mail!

My girlfriend Lynne, her sister and I adored him so we three were the lucky ticket holders.

He was appearing downtown Detroit at the Olympia Stadium, a place that is no more.

Had our seats been any higher, we would have been on the ceiling.

We hung over a teeny, tiny balcony and there he was, waaaaay down so far that he looked like he was one inch high.

But the three of us were blown away.  

We were in the same building with ELVIS.

Ah, just to breathe his air!

It was also a very funny evening as each of us tried to top the other in  how far we’d go to profess our love to him. 

Oh the things we said we’d do…..forever to be a secret between the three of us.

 

The same three Elvis fans jumped at a chance to see Ricky Nelson, which ended up being the funniest “concert” I ever attended.

I liked Ricky Nelson.

I think everyone did.

I liked his music and I watched Ozzie and Harriet so thought he’d be fun to see, 

even though it was many years down the road.

It was hunting season and our guys were going to be gone at the same time that Ricky Nelson was actually coming to our town.

And town was the right word, that’s what we were, just a little township, not even a city but…..he was comin’. 

He was appearing at for lack of a better word, a kind of a dump.

It was a large, one story cinder-blocked restaurant/bar situated on a big gravel parking lot.

Get the picture?

We got our tickets and the night of the concert we were looking forward to a fun evening.

I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be telling each other what we’d do to profess our love but just as sure that we were gonna have a great time.

It was a two-drink minimum deal and two Long Island Iced Teas later we were loose and ready for anything…..we thought.

As soon as he appeared on stage, we realized that time had not been so kind to this once teen-age icon. 

He was wearing a pair of jeans that looked like he grew out of 3 sizes ago and a shirt that he must have slept in and the way the buttons were pulling away from the button holes was not a pretty site.

He was there to sing a few songs and then get out of Dodge.

Not there to smile, not there to even say hello just sing-and-go and that’s what he did.

There were a few men sitting at the bar, probably regulars.

They weren’t attractive, not quite Deliverance but close.

We noticed one of them eyeing in our direction.

We began teasing that he was gonna come over and ask one of us to dance.

The jukebox began, the guy headed our way.

He came up behind my girlfriend’s sister and touched her shoulder.

Without looking, she put her fingers near his and flicked as if she were flicking a bug off.

Maybe it was one of those things where you had to be there or maybe it was the Long Island Iced Teas, but all these years later, I can’t tell that story without falling into laughter.

 

The next time I saw Elvis was in 1977 on stage, again in Detroit.

This time a girlfriend who was working for a ticket company was able to get her hands on 4 tickets. 

(I’m forever grateful to Diana.)

Our seats were on the main floor and excellent.

Of course he was amazing…..it was ELVIS!

He could have just come on to the stage and stood for 2 hours and it would have been beyond wonderful……but,

something didn’t feel quite right.

He was pretty heavy-duty overweight, drank a huge amount of water and didn’t seem to be able to hit the high notes.

One of his sidekicks took over at the end of the songs and finished them for him. 

Later I wondered, with so many people weaved so closely into his private and public life, why didn’t anyone try to do something?

Maybe they did.

 

There were plans in the works for an Elvis show in Las Vegas. 

We made a deal with friends from Chicago that we’d meet them there to see him.

Before that time ever rolled around, Elvis “left the building.” 

He was forever gone.

 

A few honorable mentions to those who gave great shows and we didn’t have to take out a loan to pay for the tickets……….

James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum, Trace Adkins, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles and Jimmy Buffett.

 

Over the years, we pretty much saw everyone who sang the songs that we danced to, made love to and often times I cried to.

 

But by far, the biggest thrill we’ve ever experienced at a concert was Celine Dion in Las Vegas.

Her perfomance was perfection and her costume changes were eye dazzling. 

But it was her very last song that blew us away. 

And…..

that’s another story.