Did You Go To Concerts In The 60s/70s?

Started going to shows in the mid '70s, so don't have the long term experience lots of folks have. Of course the zeitgeist has changed enormously. Music venues used to be smoke filled places; the '70s was a really 'anything-goes' kind of era, where, you know, at baseball games, if a team won a playoff game, fans ran onto the field and tore up the sod. It was just....different. Drugs and sex and bad behavior were way more open and rampant.

Big rock shows are different principally in that the sound is enormously better know than it was then; the shows are put on with greater professionalism (they start on time, not hours late), but with greater rigidity -- you keep the costs down with no union overtime, get in and get off stage; play maybe to a click track so that the computer controlled light and special effects cues are timed. It's a much more canned sort of experience with little spontaneity for the most part. With the giant good resolution video screens too, even though it feels like you're watching a show on TV in a sports arena (which you are).

Classical concerts at the same venues that have been operating for 100, 200, 300 years, are pretty much the same as they ever were. Jazz shows in small clubs too -- minus the smoke. You can go down to the Village Vanguard today and the room is pretty much identical to the way it was 50 years ago. It holds a max crowd of 125 people. And some of the best improvising jazz artists are up on stage, and the price is still reasonable. (They only do two sets a night now. When I started going there were three sets on weekends IIRC.)

 

I don't leave concerts today with small burn holes in the back of my shirt like I did in the '70s.

 

Guess you haven't been to Red Rocks.

 

I wasn’t alive in the ‘60s or ‘70s, but when Kiss did their first big makeup reunion in the ‘90s, they played my small town minor league hockey arena. My folks let me go, and I went with a kid who lived up from the street from me.

I’ve written about it here before. But between my recollections of the show and the one or two recaps of it that I could find online - since we didn’t get big shows of that caliber very often in that town, pretty much every rock fan in the area turned up and made it into a mid-‘70s-style arena rock show. *Lots* of weed. So much weed. Basically an open drug party. One woman in the seats up from stage left took her top off and got everyone’s - not least of all, Gene’s - attention. It was loud as all get out.

After the show, my friend and I could hardly hear, but we were starving and begged my folks to stop at McDonalds.

 

WOW! Your friend is not Wisconsin nice, and a complete douche. So did you pony up?

 

Or to a recent Radiohead show. In 2016 at MSG it felt like a late '70s/early '80s gig, except with much better lights and sound.

Same old smell though.

 

To clarify, the Frisbee playing happened before the show while people were filing in, so it wasn't a distraction from the performance. I never experienced the beach ball phenom.

 

My kids asked me about this, not too long ago. When I started seeing shows, we either stood or sat on the floor. It was still "peace and love'
not "push and shove." The smell of weed was everywhere, regardless if it were Iron Butterfly or Seals & Crofts.
The culture bonds were stronger then. You can still see it and feel it at Springsteen and McCartney shows.
No cell phones. We weren't asked "Are you ready to rock?" eight times a show.

 

I went to lots of shows in those days but 1975 was the beginning of the end for me as far as concert going went.

George Harrison backed by Ravi Shankar was $10.

That's' double digits!!!

The most I ever spent on a concert ticket up to that point. It became cost prohibitive very quickly after that.

Saw some awesome, legendary bands for. $5/$6/$7 but when tickets started closing in on a day's wages, I put the brakes on.

That and one was scrutinized more closely going into the building. No more jackets stuffed with bottled beer, no wineskins, no mickey's down your pants. And you could forget smuggling in a water pipe unles it was taken apart. Plus smoking (anything) inside was discouraged.

Started to not make sense to me - spending more and more money for less and less fun.

 

....when the cost of parking at the event is 3x more than the cost of weed you will consume at event.

 

Earlier concerts, the musicians played what they wanted to play how they felt like playing it that night. It was not uncommon to have a band go into a 20-minute jam in the middle of a 5-minute song.

Today songs sound just like the do on the album. Boring.

If I am going to hear music exactly the way it is on the album, I would rather re-create my own rock concert at home.

In the earlier days, the light shows consisted of an overhead projector with a concave clock face and the dropped in colored oils.

You went to different concerts than I did. See below.

Never was at a rowdy rock concert. People just sat, got high and listened to the music.

I was never at any rock concert where people would put their hands in the air and wave them back and forth sideways, with or without holding a light of some kind.

Saw Led Zeppelin there. Saw a lot of concerts at Pirate's World also.

 

LOL....you didn't see Steely Dan a little before Becker died. My friend and his wife were upstairs at the UNO Lakefront Arena and she got a "contact high".

 

I went to a Stones show a while back where a very attractive woman flashed Mick. I was behind her so I'm not sure if she was truly topless or if she had a bra - assume the former, but I didn't get a look.

She must've been impressive because after Mick got a peek, I saw him say "WOW!"

 

i hated those "light shows". they were inventing that stuff when i was kid. ciro's on sunset and clubs like the "cheetah" in venice, even the shrine auditorium, .. light shows were de riguer.

they made me ill ha

 

The Stones played here in 1972 and it was "get in line the night before" to get a ticket. I took a pass but some friends went for it. I told them I'd find them in line and give them a ride home after they got their tickets. It was a very long line and while I was walking it back to front, a guy was headed towards me with tickets in hand. Don't know why, but he stopped and explained that if I wanted tickets, all I needed to do was go to front of the line, hop a railing and I'd be right at the front. Tickets were sold from a booth and it was just that, a typical booth. Outdoors and easy to circle on foot. So I did that and had 4 tickets within 20 minutes of parking my car and a heck of a lot sooner than those friends who lined up all night.

We had girlfriends along, so sat in real seats half way up the bleachers. Stevie Wonder was the opener. I was not a fan so didn't care. When The Stones came on, there was a bare foot on my shoulder and when I looked up to ask WTF, saw it was a guy bare ass and buck naked making his way down to the floor by stepping on peoples shoulders. When on the floor, he disappeared into the crowd and the girls he walked by kind of gave him a wide birth.

After the show, we walk up the aisle and under a seat are some clothes, neatly folded and next to them a pair of boots.

When out of the building, we learned that unknown to the attendees inside, there had been a full blown riot outside. Too many people, pushing to get in so the doors were locked. Unbelievable amount of debris on the ground, tickets, jackets, purses and a bunch of police hovering in the back ground.

Some time before that, in the same building, there was a Rock & Roll Revival Show, Chuck Berry was the headliner. Again we had girlfriends so were in the bleachers. And a good thing that was too, It got pretty rowdy.

When the first acts were playing, some people got underneath the stage and started removing the bolts that held it together. At sometime, I guess whoever was on, noticed things were getting rickety so stopped playing. Cops came on stage and demanded the crowd get back away from the stage or Chuck Berry would not be on.

That prompted an absolute hail of booze bottles, wine, beer, liquor some empty, some not. The audience didn't retreat so the cop said Chuck Berry was gone and the show was over. That began and even bigger barrage of glass than the first time. Mainly aimed at the cops on stage and the poor guy, whoever he was, that was trying to protect his white grand piano.

Then the stage got swarmed. Instruments and drums went flying and the PA stacks were attacked and pushed off the stage, onto the floor.

The lights came on but we did not leave right away - waited for the crowd to thin. When we did leave, the floor of the arena (concert capacity 15,000 plus) was carpeted ankle high with broken glass. Needed to step gingerly. Didn't want a shard puncturing my rubber soled runners

Ah, the old days. Don't think the likes of those concerts will be seen again. They were memorable.

 

i saw that tour at the forum in la. i didnt stand in line but i bet they carried me out. the dope that got passed around was dangerous ha

 

I passed out and then threw up when the intro band, Earthquake, was opening an Alice Cooper show. Probably didn't impress too many of those I flung vomit on.

Came to when Alice Cooper started and thought they were great but no idea what tour it was.

 

i can't "like" that. but i empathize with that recollection from your youth. or is that "yute"

was a dangerous time to be young.

 

Has it changed since the legalization?

I assume it will not change things in indoor venues too much as while pot may be legal, there are still smoking restrictions. (I'm assuming because I don't know and am in NY where it has not been legalized.)

 

The security hasn't changed too much (since the late 70's). I remember having to sneak those flat fifths bottles in tucked down the front of my pants. On the other hand I went to see the B-52s in the mid 80s and know we could bring in our own drinks (I know because I have no memory of the B-52s and kind of remember what we were drinking then that did the job). Now no one is letting anything in.

 

About ten years ago I was at a Gov't Mule/Phil + Friends show at the Fillmore in Denver. During intermission I couldn't believe all the people that had either taken their shoes off or sat down on the floor. The floor was DISGUSTING! Littered with trash and puddles of beer. Yuck!!!

 

Less pot smoke, no more general admission at larger shows,no more firecrackers/M80’s, better sound and lighting today, more security now and more of a controlled environment. Also ticketing is so much different. I remeber back in the 70’s one of the main ticket outlets in town was a fancy jewelry store, which felt awkward for me as a young stoner going in there with the fancy sales women all decked out looking like they were dressed for a night out at a fancy club or restaurant. Also the major arena in town had individual lines for each act coming to town, so you might be in the Kiss line next to the ELP line. And this was was usually weeks before the show so obviously the tickets were pre-printed but the individual lines did feel special like you were representing.

 

Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick show in 1972 was my first; I saw a LOT of shows throughout the remainder of the decade. One major difference is the billowing smoke from pot and cigarettes. There was no beer/alcohol sales and it was more of a listening experience.

 

As a lifelong South Floridian whose first concert was in '07, I'd love to hear some of those Pirates World and Sportatorium stories (or even the Jai Alai Fronton/West Palm Auditorium if you saw shows there too). How was the sound and lighting at Pirates World? I know it was basically just an outdoor stage with a canvas roof set up in front of a concrete lot with a few bleachers in the back. Was there any sort of pre-show parking lot scene once the teens and twenty-somethings showed up for the concerts/finished up with the rides? Pretty crazy that this was basically South Florida's Fillmore at the time, hah, seems like it would've been a free-for-all once the sun went down.

Also, did you ever make it to the late '60s clubs like Thee Image, The World or Code One?

 

I hope the people who claim 1970s concerts were always so calm and focused only on the music read this post!