The Concerts I Still Talk About

Live music has been part of my life for fifty years. It started when I was young, singing and listening to music at Christmas, at church, or in the park. By my teens, I knew the bands and started going to concerts myself.

My first concert was Strafe at Six Flags Atlantis in 1988. I was in seventh grade and went with a friend. The crowd was lit, the music was pumping, and I thought it was awesome. I didn't know then how many concerts I would end up going to over the years or how many of those experiences I would still remember decades later.

When I think about the concerts that had the biggest impact on me, though, I always go back to the 1990s.

A Concert That Could Never Be Replicated

Lollapalooza in 1992 featured so many great bands at the height of grunge and alternative music. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam were there, with Rage Against the Machine, Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Stone Temple Pilots, Porno for Pyros, Ice-T, Luscious Jackson, and others playing the side stage.

This concert brought so many of my favorite bands together in one place. I was able to crowd-surf and swim my way to the front, which was awesome for a big guy like me. The mosh pit during Ministry was one of the best, and I still remember a yak's head being raised on a stick to get the crowd riled up. By the time the Red Hot Chili Peppers played, there were so many people pushing forward that we were getting pushed into the fence.

I would go on to see many of those bands again, but they would never all be in one place again or bring the same energy and excitement as that concert. If I could go back and experience one show exactly as it happened, I would choose Lollapalooza. The bands, my friends, the venue, the experiences, and not one picture or negative memory from the entire thing. 

A few years later, I got to experience concerts from another side when I worked security at the Alachua County Harvest Festival from 1995 to 1997. I still had to work, but I was able to go behind the scenes, enjoy the after-parties, and see bands and artists like James Brown, George Clinton, The Roots, Sister Hazel, They Might Be Giants and Widespread Panic. The atmosphere was much more chill, with funk and jive music mixed with rock and R&B. Getting to see what happened behind the scenes made me feel even more involved in the music instead of just listening to it.

The Shows You Don't Expect

Some of my favorite concerts weren't the biggest ones. In August 2011, my wife and I had tickets to see Kings of Leon and Band of Horses. Kings of Leon canceled, but Band of Horses found another venue to play because they didn't want to disappoint their fans. They ended up at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, a venue I had grown up going to that had changed names many times over the years.

We were actually more excited to see Band of Horses. Without the usual opening act, they played for almost three hours and covered music from all their albums. That night, I heard "The Funeral" for the first time. I had somehow never heard it before. This was before algorithms and technology gave you everything a band ever wrote, so unless you owned the music or heard it somewhere, there were still songs left to discover.

Band of Horses is still one of our favorite bands, and my wife and I will listen to them when we're going to bed. We've seen them about three times now, but that first concert was the best. I feel lucky that we got to experience it the way we did. 

The Same Music, 31 Years Later

In 1994, my brother-in-law got my brother and me tickets to Metallica in Miami. I had been listening to Metallica for years because my brother-in-law would burn CDs for me with Metallica and other heavy metal bands. Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies, and Candlebox opened that night, but Metallica stole the show.

They played almost all of their good songs and rocked so hard that my ears were ringing. The mosh pits, the dirt, the sweat, the music, I loved all of it.

Thirty-one years later, I got to see Metallica again in Tampa, this time with my wife and kids. Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies were there too, so even one of the bands I saw back in 1994 was part of it again. Metallica still rocked, but my experience was obviously a little different. We had good seats, I was with my family, and there was no mosh pit for me this time.

Being able to experience some of the same music I loved when I was younger with my family all those years later made that concert special in a completely different way. 

Concerts Have Changed, and So Have I

Concerts used to feel more spontaneous. We bought tickets at the box office or sometimes showed up at the venue asking for a miracle. There weren't phones everywhere recording the show, and I think it was easier to be present with your friends and family. To be fair, if we had carried phones into some of those old mosh pits, they probably would have been lost or broken anyway.

Today, tickets are more expensive, seats are assigned more often, and getting in and out of a large venue can be an experience in itself. A few years ago, I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers again with a friend at the Miami Dolphins stadium, with The Strokes and Thundercat opening. We had floor tickets, and it was a great concert, but after standing for so long, waiting in lines for drinks, and then spending hours trying to find an Uber or Lyft home, I realized I enjoy concerts differently now.

I am still young at heart, and I still enjoy both large and small venues for what they are. Small shows can be more intimate, the music can be clearer, and you can actually see the band without worrying about getting run over in a mosh pit. As we get older, we change, and the performers and venues change along with us.

There are also shows I missed. Nirvana was gone too soon. I missed Snow Patrol after a day at the beach left us too drained to go, and I recently missed Tame Impala because of a scheduling conflict. It sucks missing a great band, but some things are just not meant to be. Luckily, there are plenty of shows I did get to experience, including one of The Grateful Dead's final performances in Tampa.

When I remember a great concert, it isn't only the music that comes back. It's the songs, the friends or family I was with, the crowd, the stage, where I was in my life, and even the smell of the place. Concerts appeal to all of the senses and can take you somewhere else for a few hours. I think that's part of why we keep going back and trying to recreate those great live experiences. 

I put together a new playlist inspired by some of the bands, songs, and live music that have stayed with me over the years. Some take me right back to these concerts, while others simply remind me why I have always loved live music. Give it a listen and enjoy a little bit of the soundtrack behind these memories: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4jEHoSYUVLdm9mHoVxG17K?si=172aa506f0d14b5f

I've been lucky to have so many concerts and bands become part of my life. From singing as a kid to jumping into mosh pits, working behind the scenes, discovering songs live, and eventually going to concerts with my own family, music has been there through all of it.

That's why music will always have a place in my life. And that's why it has a place here at Only One Life.