I also saw them at Malibu Beach Club in Long Beach, a short distance where all the dead bodies are showing up. I sure hope Felix, Eddie, Gene and Dino have nothing to do with it.

Mine was this past year out at the Grand Oaks Resort in Wiersdale when I got to meet my cousin Wynonna Judd and her mamma Naomi!

Kathie, I grew up 4 blocks from the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and we couldn't get any tickets to that show, but everyone iun the neighborhood went up to the Stadium...it was pandemonium!

Saw Simon & Garfunkle there twice, as well as Blood Sweat and Tears, Sly and the Family Stone (OMG - that was great!) and many others. It was a great venue, but The Beatles??? Ahhh - only in my dreams!

Saw them out at The Barge also...singing "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore". It was the first time I ever heard them, and I was a fan for life!

In my college yrs...Fleetwood Mac, The Village People,
Electric Light Orchestra in Capitol Hill, Billy Joel ( when he was just beginning to be famous in Loyola College, Baltimore), America and then, in 2002 the Buena VistabSocial Club in Atlanta! Amazing show!
Great memories....

I can't believe that no one has said this yet...WOODSTOCK! Will always remember driving there in a VW bus with Dean, Gwynn, Forrest, John and Sally. Spent the entire 3 days there...wet, cold and deliriously happy.:coolsmiley:

Early 60s...at my high school outside of Detroit...Stevie Wonder..he was about the same age as I was...I think Fingertips was one of his first songs. I remember he performed on the gym floor and we really didn't know who he was...Since then one of the best concerts was Elton John and Billy Joel at MGM in Vegas..another great concert was Marc Antony and of course...Jimmy Buffett.

About that time I saw the Jackson 5 at a County Fair near Crete, Illinois - Michael was about 7.

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Favorite Concert Experience Not What You Think
 

I saw a few great concerts, but my Favorite Concert Experience in retrospect was the time my wonderful father took me (at 13) to see my beloved Herman’s Hermits and pretended to be an usher so he could get in to keep an eye on me. Sort of worked- he wound up seating people in that tiny boardwalk theatre in Asbury Park. Every time I looked, there he was. Hard to take at the time, but a cherished expression of love to my adult’s mind now. Still makes me smile to think about it.

The Doors in Honolulu in the late 60's. Also 3 Dog Night about the same time and place.

Easy. The Kingston Trio, fall of 1959 in the gym at Duke University. I don't think they even had a recording contract yet.

One of the few big folk groups I did not see. I have a couple of DVDs of theirs.

I saw the Beach Boys perform in the 1960s in my college auditorium when they were just starting out. (Foothill College, Palo Alto, California). Priceless!

My best concert experience was Frank Sinatra at Radio City in 1990. His voice might have not been what it once was, but the entire experience sent chills through me.

Now, my contribution to "Before they were Stars"... Billy Joel played my high school gym when he was in the Hassles. Also on the bill was The Smubbs.

Any of the Neil Diamond Concerts would qualify as my favorite. All his concerts were well done and so entertaining! Recently, I attended a tribute concert, Diamond Rocks, at the Savannah Center which was great!

Over the years I've been to a lot of great concerts, from my first, Steppenwolf in 1969 to what I'm hoping will be another great one coming up, Gregg Allman on Nov. 10th.

But by far the best & most likely to never be surpassed, Pink Floyd at Legion Field, B'ham, AL. May 1st, 1994. It was the most lavish laser light show matched with incredible sound quality that I've ever experienced. I think we paid $75 for our tickets then, and I would gladly pay ten times that to do it again. A concert I'll never forget.

1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival (AKA Woodstock South) Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Sweetwater, PG&E, Steppenwolf, King Crimson, Chambers Bros, Sly & the Family Stone, Spirit, GFRR, and a fantastic jam by Janis Joplin/Johnny Winters/Vanilla Fudge

Not in order of preference...

Early 70's, Montreal Forum, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust show. :pepper2:
Muddy Waters in a bar in Montreal
Savoy Brown, in a bar in Woodstock, NY
John Denver at SPAC in Saratoga Springs, NY
Santana, but I can't remember where.

Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with weird and gilly
and the spiders from mars.

My best by far was Roy Orbison at the Bayside Amphitheater opening. Free concert and we got there early enough to get seats in second row center. 10,000 others showed up for an incredible show. He died about a year later.
High on my list would be Del Shannon (from about 8 feet away), Brenda Lee, The Searchers, ELO and Peter Noone (first seen in Ft. Lauderdale 20+ years ago).
Dozens more (Judy Collins, Gene Pitney... even Burl Ives), but these were standouts.

Dave Clark Five because it was the first concert I ever went to....

Janis Joplin 1969 in Syracuse....she was everything they said about her

believe it or not, John Denver in 1970 in a college gym...just before he became big...put on a great show

My favorite concert experience was many years ago. The San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park in Escondido held concerts under the stars in the summer. We went to a Don McLean concert which was very enjoyable. There were hundreds of people sitting on blankets on the hillside overlooking the stage. There was the constant murmur of talking interspersed with laughter and glasses clinking. As a finale, he started singing Starry, Starry Night (Vincent). The place went completely quiet, not a sound but his voice. It still sends chills up my spine when I think about it even now. It was so eerie. Whe he was done the place exploded with applause. Whew!

YourFavorite Concert Experience
 

Cat Stevens in Madison Square Garden stands out.

Vanilla Fudge, as others have said, it was my first concert, 1968 St. Petersburg, Florida. Also because I had just seen them on Ed Sullivan.

A year later, the Allman Brothers at a bar in St. Petersburg called the 'Electric Zoo'. Me and a couple of friends had gone to the Bayfront Center to see George Carlin, but he was sold out. So we headed to the EZ and paid the $3 cover and as soon as we walked in I knew this was different. They had two drummers, the keyboardist was the singer and a guy with long blonde hair with a read guitar stood in the center of the stage and had everyone amazed. When they finished, Greg said our debut album is coming out next month, we hope you buy it.

Some other favorites were 1988 Atlanta - 'Pink Floyd', 1986 Jacksonvville - 'U2, 1993 Landover, MD - 'Peter Gabriel', 1985 Savannah - 'REM', 1981 Gulfport, MS - 'Journey', 1984 Savannah 'Def Leppard', 1995 Columbia, MD - 'Boston', 1998 Columbia, MD 'Grand Funk Railroad' (last time Mark, Don & Mel toured together) 1972 Savannah - 'Jethro Tull' aside from Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues, JT was the most theatrical show I had seen. The album jacket was an 8 page newspaper about stories such as rabbits in the garden, during the show people dressed as rabbits would hop across the stage and large telephones would ring and he would stop the show to answer. Very unique show for 1972.

The PBS taping of DooWop50 at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh in 1998.This was a two night taping.Subsequent tapings were DooWop51,Rock,Rhythm,and Doowop,and Red,White,and Rock.All were great events.

The Boss. 67 Salem State College
The Stones. 68? Montreal
Woodstock. 69 Another planet
Strawberry Fields. 70 Canada

Bucket List...Garth Brooks

I bought that 1998 Show on DVD at Best Buy in 2003 and we have watched it many many times, I have about 250 concerts on DVD. The Flamingos are my favorite doo whop band and they keep advertising this Saturday the Florida Lottery will be at the Paddock Square live broadcast and the Flamingos will be playing at 7pm. If it's them, we will definitely be there.

I've checked the Flamingos website and they don't list any tour. It appears there are two original members left and one tours in the US and the other one lives in the UK and tours in Europe. They don't provide any information with the advertisment and the Florida Lottery Logo is a Flamingo Bird, so it's somewhat confusing what they are really talking about. You would think they would be promoting a show like that in a better way.

My favorite concert
 

...early 70's...Boston Garden...Bob Dylan and The Band...solid music for 3+ hours straight...no breaks just music...seats overlooking piano at stage left where Dylan played "Ballad for a thin man"...awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reminds me that I saw Don McLean in 1969 in a college gym with the afternoon session. Just Don and his guitar and banjo. That evening we saw Jay and the Americans (the REAL Jay, Jay Black).
Also, my first concert was the Blues Project.

I also saw Roy Orbison in a very small theater, he was amazing!

I saw Tony Bennett only a couple of hours after landing in Las Vegas for his 7 PM show at Ceasar's Palace back in 68, He's still around today and still amazing. It was impossible to do that in NY.

I saw Paul Anka at Theater In The Round in Nanuet NY. He went all out to sing extra songs and put on a great show.

Paul Anka's joke as he is the father of four girls:

I know when I have been on too long of a road trip when I come home and the toilet seat is up. LOL

Neil Sedaka at The Big E in Mass. I really enjoyed his show as he sang all of his hits and all the songs he wrote for others. Dynamite performance. Favorite is the slow version of, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do".

BTW - Paul Anka wrote a lot of songs for others too. My favorite is "My Way" by Frank Sinatra.

In the mid-70's I was backpacking through Europe and agreed to meet my grandfather in London (he was returning from Israel). Normally, I stayed in cheapo-cheapo lodging in Europe; but that wouldn't fly with Papa in tow (plus a good bathtub would give me a place to wash out the socks) so we went to some big money American hotel....and I think at the Hilton there was this English guy busking on the street. He was really fine and I forced Papa to listen to a few songs. The hotel had no rooms due to a CBS record convention and it turned out the busker was Elvis Costello. A good free show on the streets of London plus clean socks by the next morning.

Many happy memories
 

I've enjoyed reading this thread and my mind reels with the memories of having seen many of the performers mentioned, some early, some late in their careers. Most were great concerts.

I started with an immediate idea of the best one and no matter Who I compared them to, there was no one Who was better.

The Who, 1969, in the acoustically perfect Kleinhans concert symphony hall in Buffalo. The original group sang all their hits in the most energetic presentation I'd ever seen, without a break. The sound (not oppressively loud) was so beautiful, the crowd was simply stunned. We thought the show was over, but then Pete Townshend shouted "Stay, we want to do something new in this great place."
They came back and did the entire opera 'Tommy', without a single pause. Again, the crowd was completely enthralled. There were no wild distracting displays during the opera, but I can't recall a more enthusiastic, longer standing ovation at any other concert.

Joe Cocker, Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour with Rita Coolidge at Music Hall in Cleveland. Joe threw up on stage in the middle of a song, stepped back, and started singing again.

Elvis presley 4-9-1972 hampton coliseum, hampton, va.

Seen The Who in Miami at Marine Stadium in 68. All instruments were smashed and thrown into Biscayne Bay!

The Beatles at Cleveland Public Hall in September 1964 is the best one. Others that stand out are:
Billy Joel and Elton John at the Ohio State University Stadium
Simon and Garfunkel in Columbus
Paul McCartney in Columbus
Michael Crawford in Cleveland
Il Divo in Cleveland

Not a concert, but great thrill to see Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz and then meeting him at the stage door

The Beatles, 1964 in Atlantic City, Paul McCartney, front and center many times, Phish in a small concert hall before they got huge, but the best of the best was Bob Marley, in a small outdoor arena in 1977.

Townshend did smash his guitar in Buffalo, but because the venue was a symphony hall and the concert was so perfect, the bays actually seemed a little awed by their performance. I believe it was the first time they had done Tommy straight through. They were definitely more mellow than their trademark 60's angry show endings.

Some Standouts
 

Back in the late 50's there was a small bar in Times Square called the Metropole. All the great players at the time came there to just play together after they were done at their regular jobs. Gene Krupa, Hampton, Basis, etc..the list is long would play on a small stage until early in the morning. The other standout, believe it or not was the Dutchess County Fair in New York. The owner of the oldest continuing working hotel in the country, (e.g. Beekman Arms) had contacts with some of the greatest older players. Each year he gave them free room and board and they would come together for one night of jazz at the fair. They also had a lady singer from Harlem who had to be 80 but one of the best I have ever heard. It was interesting as one of them had a farm in Pa, etc. Carvella (of the ice cream fame) use to drive his Limo on the gounds next to the tent and just listen to the great music. I have been to concerts in the round with Tony Bennett, Ray Charles,et al and they were all terrific but these two continue to stand out in my memory. What wonderful memories of true music. Unfortunately today's is more shouting and whinning. What a loss to the generation of today. :clap2: