Cru Jones Society

 

Concerts are a staple here at the Cru Jones Society. We have spent many a night, and a few days, at concerts listen to music, drinking and growing friendships. And we’re willing to guess you have seen a band or two in your day. But like pizza delivery, televised sports, or two for one drink night, all good things have to start somewhere. With that we had one question for you: What was your first concert?

The responses this week run the musical genre gambit, from Alternative, country, and even some decade defining 80′s awesomness. We’ll start with the usual opening acts of Hart and Dagger and then what you have all come for, your responses. The stage is set so let’s get the house lights down and turn this mother out.

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Hart: My mom was and is way into country music; fortunately I am able to say that my first show was not Randy Travis or Clint Black or any one along those lines. By the same token my dad was a huge Beach Boys fan and I wish I could say I was dragged along to see them play their fun surf rock music. But my first concert didn’t come until I was much older and able to make my own decisions.

It was the summer between freshman and sophomore year of high school. There was still a very young music festival trying to establish itself, and it involved two things I was really into at the time: punk rock and skateboarding. I am speaking of the Vans Warped Tour.

I was still young in punk life, so there were not a lot of bands I recognized playing it, but there was one for sure I wanted to see, Rancid. Nofx, No Use For a Name, and MxPx were all bands I liked at the time and wanted to see, but there were also bands playing I wanted to avoid, namely Less Than Jake.

I found 5 other friends who wanted to go and somehow coaxed my mom to drive us all up to Boulder for the show. None of us had any idea what we were doing. We wandered around trying to figure out who was playing when and just trying to take it all in. Every band had their own little merch tent and at one point Matt Freeman, bassist for Rancid, was hanging out at their tent. I was a bit star struck not knowing that this is common for punk musicians to do. I shook his hand and he signed my hat. I was stoked.

Then I caught them play and it was better than I would have ever imagined. Then I sat through what felt like chaos as Less Than Jake played (there was a dancing clown, some kind of homosexual cowboy and a confetti cannon, pure chaos but classic LTJ) while I waited for MxPx. This was followed by becoming really hot. We left the music area for awhile at which point we stumbled upon a gallon of water. Against our better judgement we decided to drink it. Not one of our brightest thoughts, but we all survived so I guess it was ok. During this point Unwritten Law was playing. I was not into them at the time, but they did have a song on a comp I really liked and they played that song and I sat there trying to figure out who they were and how I knew the song. The song was “Crazy Powy Kids,” and has since become one of my favorites.

I continued to attend the Warped tour for the next 10 years so I guess that concert had a fairly profound affect on me.

E Dagger: Since my parents weren’t really into music, I didn’t get dragged to a bunch of those weird Kool concerts that Kool 105 put on to see REO Speedwagon or KC & The Sunshine Band or any weirdo stuff like that. My parents’ favorite music seemed to be entirely comprised of people who died in Clear Lake, Iowa and other artists of that ilk. So, no concerts for the young Dagger with ex-hippie parents. In fact, my parents hated hippies.

Anyway, improbably I got into music in junior high without any older siblings and a set of parents who thought all current music sucked. Junior high coincided with the era of grunge, and since I was late to the party on both Nirvana and Pearl Jam, I decided to hitch my wagon to the next new band that grabbed me. So, hello, Bush! They were slated to headline KBPI’s Birthday Bash during the spring of my 8th grade year, and everyone talked about getting tickets. So, being the naive little dude I was, I actually took my money to the CD store, and bought two tickets. Little did I know that when normal 8th graders claim they’re going to do something, they’re just flapping their gums and almost no one has any intention of following through on any of it. But I did go up a notch or two in the social strata because I actually went to the thing.

Unfortunately I went like a complete square. Armed with only the second hand knowledge I had of GWAR concerts and their resultant calamitous mess, I prepped for this concert like I was prepping to cross the goddamned Andes Mountains. I packed two water bottles, a towel, a change of shirt, two granola bars, my camera, my parents’ giant Zack Morris cell phone, and none of my dignity. I didn’t need any of that baggage besides my camera, but when you don’t know any better and have no parents to guide in how to be cool at a concert, you do your best.

The concert itself was pretty awesome, although louder than I expected. I bought a t-shirt that I still have, I saw a trashy woman flash one of her boobs (yes, just one) to the crowd, witnessed someone smoking pot for the first time in the flesh, and spent most of my time feeling self-conscious. The Goo Goo Dolls and No Doubt opened. My friend Shelley ditched me to hang out in the pit all night. And Bush kicked ass.

All in all: Cool music (for the time), lots of illicit activity I wasn’t involved in, getting ditched by a hot girl, and overwhelming self-consciousness. Just like most nights in junior high.

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The rock was brought hard to the first concerts of CJS. Now let’s find out if your concerts made you nod your heads like, “Yes! Yes! This rocks!” Or if it was more of a head shake and a, “No! Don’t stop-a-rockin’!”

Keithage: My first show I went to was ZZ Top who had the Groove Hawgs opening. This was the last show at McNichols Arena.  It was weird because I drove to the show with my friend Paul and his parents.  His parents had different seats which I found out later was because they wanted to reminisce about their youth.  (See: smoke weed).  This was also the one of the first times I smelled weed smoke.  We were the youngest people there by a long shot.  The people smoking were in their 50s and had been listening to ZZ Top since the early 70s.  Needless to say they put on a good rock show.  I would recommend seeing them.

Gutter: I am sure I had been to a few concerts before the one I am picking, but the first big concert that I went to was to go see The Beastie Boys, at Mcnichols Arena in Denver. I was a sophomore in high school and went with my oldest brother. The Beastie Boys were one of my favorite bands back then and I owe that to my brother who grew up listening to them and got me into them too. It was their tour after their release of Hello Nasty and was so excited to see them. It was a fun concert even though we were in the nose bleed section. It was a lot of fun to share that experience with my brother because he was in college at that time and is 7 years older than me. I think he got a little worried half way through the concert when some people behind us lit up and started to smoke pot, even though I was in high school and I am sure he knew that I had been around it before. I always found that funny, but I guess maybe it is an older brother thing. Although it probably wasn’t technically my first concert, it was the first concert that I really wanted to go to. 

Corriander: My first concert was, big surprise, a country concert.  When I was in sixth grade, my dad took me and a friend to a Reba McIntyre and Brooks & Dunn concert.  It was super cool as a sixth grader to go to a concert an hour and a half away, on a week night.  The only specific part of the concert I remember was the number of elaborate costume changes Reba made, it was ridiculous.

Our last responses are from two girls who attended their first concert together. So here they are sharing their shared experience, Lady E and CassieB.

Lady E: I am not sure how much CassieB is going to reveal about our first concert, so sorry if I bore you with the same details…

It took a little clarification on our part to really nail down who our first concert was, but after a little debate we came to the understanding that it was Tiffany headlining for Debbie Gibbson. And here is something I just remembered as I am writing this. There was this band called The Bros who opened before Tiffany!

God bless our mom for taking us to whatever small venue it was at (no one can remember) and dealing with the screaming girls. The thing I remember most was not understanding that there would be an encore so when Debbie left the stage I was eager to head home. My mom had to explain to me that Debbie would come back out and sing a few more songs…
The funny thing is, my next concert wasn’t for another 8 years and it was Spot, Goo Goo Dolls, No Doubt and Bush, Daggers First concert.

CassieB: There was some debate between Lady E and I about our first concert…  She remembered it as Debbie Gibson…I remembered it as Tiffany combined with New Kids On The Block.  So after much discussion, we came to an agreement.  The concert had Debbie Gibson headlining and Tiffany as opener.  We think I made the whole NKOTB thing up…  Many thanks to our mom who braved an auditorium of screaming young girls to take us to this show.

On a separate note, my second concert was equally fantastic.  It was (in this order) En Vogue, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.  You bet I wore my hammer pants.  My best friend at the time and I saw this show at McNichols Arena and were in the 10th row.  I remember saving up all of my babysitting money for this hugely expensive ticket (still have it…$40).  One would think that MC Hammer would be the highlight, but what I remember the most is one of the singers from En Vogue pissing her neon green stretch pants and it being clear to the audience.  It took several songs for them to notice; she left the stage, and never came back out.  Ahhhhh….God love the 90′s

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You can stop your “Freebird” chant, we don’t have an encore for you.  Well, that’s not completely true. Next we are giving you an encore of Food, Sex, or Cars. If you remember we played last year around this time and from what we can tell we all had fun. So with that on the way, we are taking a little break from the Confessional, but we will return after the Black Friday apocalypse. In the spirit of that consumerism, this question is a 2-parter: What is the most watched DVD in your collection and what is the most played CD in your CD player? This isn’t necessarily the best CD or DVD, nor even your favorite… which one just gets played the most?

We want to know more about all our readers. So don’t hold back. If you haven’t confessed, or it’s been awhile, or even if you did it last week, we want to hear from you. Don’t be shy and send us your response, along with your posting name to staff@crujonessociety.com and we’ll put them up next week.

Hart and Dagger