Music History

If for little more than its value to me historically, and the challenge it will offer my fading powers of memory, I'm going to try and see how many concerts I can remember seeing in my life, all the way back to the very first - Rush, in, I think, 1978, at the age of 15. (Actually Rush was the first big act I saw. There were possibly earlier ones, small acts in bars. Yes, I went to bars before I was 15. Sue me. I know I saw April Wine, I think in a long gone bar called The Grapevine in Clarence, New York, and possibly in 1977. I'm just not sure.) And I'll try to find YouTube video of each act. Okay, we're off.

Rush: This site has the history of every Rush concert, along with their opening acts. Hilarious. It tells me that I may have actually seen them at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium on the "Farewell to Kings" tour in November 1977, when I was 14, as the opening acts listed, UFO and Blue Oyster Cult, I know I've seen. Either that it was January 1979 on the Hemispheres tour at War Memorial. The opening act, Starz, does not sound familiar at all. In any case I went with friends, we smoked a lot of weed, it's all very blurry.

Here's a 1978 video from a song I haven't thought about in decades. But I was very into it back then. Very deep, don't ya know. (And it's actually a very good video of a live practice before a show.)