My Life - Chapter 26 - Live In Concert

Billy Joel at Lambeau Field.
6/17/2017 dwm photo

I went to concerts as a kid, but since they were mostly playing classical it's hard to count them on any list of favorite bands or concerts.

My parents were members of the Concert Association in Janesville for years.  

We attended four or five programs each season.  Another time we saw Billy ThunderKloud & the Chieftones at Marshall Junior High School.  They were a country band out of Canada with four First Nations musicians and put on a good show.

When it comes to major performers and big-time bands my list isn't long but includes a number of my all-time favorites.

I wish I saw him earlier in his career, but Billy Joel was in fine form when we saw play Lambeau Field June 17, 2017.  It was a long-time coming, considering I was introduced to his music 40 years earlier.

The Music Man played hits to the delight of the large crowd and seemed to enjoy playing in one of the most famous stadiums in sports.

Fleetwood Mac at Fiserv Forum Milwaukee.
10/28/2018 dwm photo

   A year later my friend Andy joined me to watch Fleetwood Mac play Milwaukee.

   Each song took me back to hearing the album play on Andy's stereo as I tried to memorize the lyrics.  I'll love their music as long as I live.

    Cheap Trick was the first rock band I saw perform when they played Simpson College in March 1982.

   The band formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1974.  I was too young to see them in Janesville, but recognized them as an 'almost hometown band' worth following. 

The Stray Cats strutted into Des Moines' Civic Center and rocked that town with their distinctive, for the time, rockabilly music.  It was a lot of fun.

If Freddie Mercury was still lead singer of Queen when my son Matthew and I saw them in Milwaukee's Bradley Center March 27, 2006 it would be at the top of this list.  Mercury died in 1991, but the band kept playing and touring with a variety of lead singers.  We saw Paul Rogers belt out most of the hits, except for Bohemian Rhapsody when the band smartly coordinated Mercury's vocals on video with their live performance.  

While working at WHO, our FM station sponsored Barry Manilow's performance on the Iowa State campus.  I received two tickets which I used to take my fiancé.  Since I grew up listening to an adult contemporary radio station (WCLO, Janesville), I knew his music and his high-energy performance was fun and exciting. 

It seems odd to compare Barry Manilow to Queen, Fleetwood Mac, and Billy Joel but in his own way he delivered the goods on stage.

Rhonda and I were fortunate to see The Beach Boys in concert at Sec Taylor stadium in Des Moines after I won tickets by being the correct caller to KIOA.  I could listen to their music all day long.

I was working at KDMI when we sponsored Amy Grant's concert.  The opening act, Michael W. Smith, wasn't yet a solo artist, stole the show with his dynamic performance.  Amy is three years older than me and in her early 20s when I saw her perform.   I've liked her and her music since the first time I listened to it.

A press pass was the ticket see Willie Nelson.  We liked the opening act Nitty Gritty Dirt Band more than Willie who was good but after a while each song sounded the same.

Some shows were better than others but I enjoyed them in their own right with one exception.  I will say it's not entirely the artist's fault.

I bought two tickets to see a comedian perform freshman year of college and took my girlfriend Deb.  I was a fan of the acts I'd seen performed on TV and while I was aware he worked blue, I didn't know how much of his act was bleep-worthy.

There were moments we laughed, but at the end of the show we felt verbally assaulted by George Carlin.  My date didn't like it either, and a few days later she broke up with me.