First was Steve Miller sometime mid-70s at Red Rocks. I was a tiny kid and my folks took me with them - apparently a lack of a babsitter, I don't know.
The story goes that I figured out how to get into the sound booth mid-crowd level about halfway up the amphitheater (for those unaware of where it is) and then walked down the tunnel and spent a couple of hours backstage while my folks worried about where the hell I had gone.
I eventually came back up the tunnel and right back to their seats and mom was flipping out. I don't remember much of it other than walking through the access tunnel and the tunes filtering into backstage from everywhere.
I think it was 1977 when I saw Harry as well. Best story teller ever.
Never saw Harry but his storytelling music style is amazing. Cats in the Cradle is not my favorite song of his though. It's too overdone.
Taxi, A Better Place to Be, and Mr. Tanner are absolutely amazing lyric writing that tells a complete story, from start to end, in a few minutes.
Harry often complained that his music couldn't get radio air time because his songs were just too long for radio. Ironic that he would also write WOLD, considering... Another great song.
It's really too bad he got squished on a highway. Maybe a little ironic when 30,000 lbs of bananas is considered.
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So many concerts it's hard to remember them all. Pretty much anyone anytime at Red Rocks is a memorable time, and we finally did Blues Traveller at their annual 4th of July visit a few years ago, something we should have done sooner.
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We also have been following and seeing Sister Hazel and avowed Hazelnuts since their second album that took them to national notoriety, and we had been following them and their crazy promotions guy Andy who started Sixthman Productions and singlehandedly kicked off the music theme cruise market.
We finally joined the band and all of the others on the cruise ship two years ago for Rock Boat XIV, after being lurkers for 13 years and we loved it. The band and Andy announced that Sixthman had been purchased by NCL that year, obviously a huge success.
We plan on being on board now, most years, whenever we can work it into our schedule. There's nothing like it. Wake up in the morning, grab a shower and a bite to eat after staying up until all hours watching whatever band out of many on board you liked in various venues all over the boat, no place to be the next day, having a beer, talking to other music lovers everywhere you go, all "trapped" on a sailing multi-concert venue with sets starting around noon and going into the wee hours of the morning. If you're the sort interested, there's party games and stuff going on all over the ship, and plenty of stateroom parties with even more music going and music crazy people everywhere.
The bands often serenade folks in elevators, hallways, anywhere they happen to be going, you're basically hanging out with them, although they do have a primary area they house the bands and give them some privacy if they want or need it. Most band members are fans of the other bands anyway, and can be seen standing in the crowd singing along to THEIR favorite bands, taking to folks about the music and maybe quietly signing a few autographs without upstaging the band on stage.
It's just an experience like no other in music and concerts. Only the large multi-day on-shore festivals come close... But you're not really living with the bands at those or seeing them at breakfast or grabbing a midnight snack.
If you can keep up the pace and go to a concert every couple of hours, you'll see enough concerts in four or five days to easily put some serious fiscal harm on your bank account if you were buying all those tickets ashore.
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One huge regret is not having gone to see SRV live. What a talent. We had opportunities and didn't go.
