Concerts

I’ve seen a lot of concerts during the past 20 years. I’ve seen some legends, overrated stars and unknowns that never graduated past the clubs. Some have been quite forgettable while others have been quite memorable. Some of best shows of all time happened before I was able to attend. Here is my top-15 that I would love to go back in time to see (in no particular order of significance).

Elvis Presley - 7/31/69 at The International Hotel, Las Vegas
Elvis Presley - 8/12/70 (midnight show) at The Hilton, Las Vegas
Led Zeppelin - 3/7/70 at Royal Albert Hall, London
Led Zeppelin - 9/4/70 at The Forum, Los Angeles
Led Zeppelin - 6/25/72 at The Forum, Los Angeles
Jimi Hendrix - 6/18/67 at Monterey Pop Festival, Monterey
Jimi Hendrix - 1/1/70 (1st show) at The Fillmore East, New York
Jeff Beck - 5/3/75 at Music Hall, Boston
The Rolling Stones - 11/9/69 (2nd show) at Oakland Coliseum, Oakland
The Who - 2/14/70 at Leeds University, Leeds
The Who - 12/13/71 at Civic Auditorium, San Francisco
Bruce Springsteen - 8/15/75 at Bottom Line, New York
The Allman Brothers Band - 3/12/71 (2nd show) at The Fillmore East, New York
Eric Clapton - 6/24/74 at Long Beach Arena, Long Beach
The Doors - 9/6/68 (late show) at The Roundhouse, London

There are of course more that I could add (a lot of my favorite artists are not referenced here), but I tried to make it as exclusive of a list as I could. There were too many essential concerts to squeeze into 10 slots, so I had to make it a top-15 list (Some of these were difficult like the New Years Hendrix shows from the Fillmore. I would have loved to have seen all 4 shows, but with only 15 slots, I had to choose one.). Why so much Zeppelin? Well, I consider them to be the greatest "live" Rock band ever. There are a few others that come close, but when Zeppelin was "on" during their non-stop run between 1969-1972, it was out of this world.

This is strictly a list of Rock shows. Most of these shows have been represented on album in some form or on underground releases. The one that remains unavailable is Elvis’ 7/31/69 gig in Las Vegas (The show that was his comeback to live performing. There is a good chance a private collector has this soundboard…). There is no relevance to this list, but I had a few minutes to kill on Labor Day, so….