Do You Remember Your First Concert?

Do you remember your first concert?

I put this question to several of my friends this week because I took my son to his very first concert. My friends’ answers ran the gamut of musical tastes. Some were cool: Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, U2 and Jethro Tull. Others were less cool: Andy Gibb, Back Street Boys and New Kids on the Block. Bands like Bob Seger, Charlie Daniels Band and Kool and the Gang fell somewhere in the middle.

My first rock concert was not really rock but pop. It was Shaun Cassidy, brother of teen heartthrob David Cassidy of “The Partridge Family”. I has Shaun’s album (back in the wonderful days of vinyl) and listened to hits like “That’s Rock and Roll” and “Hey Deena” for hours. When his tour came to the tri-state area, someone (my parents?) bought tickets. I have a vague memory of the concert, sitting in nosebleed seats while a tiny white dot the size of an ant belted out “Da Doo Run Run”. I screamed and sang with all the other teenage girls and went home satisfied with my first real concert. I assumed I was 11 or 12 at the time, until my older sister recently burst my bubble. “I took you to that concert, remember?” she reminded me, “I had just gotten my license and we drove all the way out to the Nassau Colliseum”. Doing the math I realized I must have been 15 when I saw that concert. An 11 year old seeing Shaun Cassidy is sweet. A 15-year old seeing Shaun Cassidy is lame.

As I grew older I walked that fine line between cool and lame with subsequent concerts: The Kinks were definitely cool, but Styx (who I still love) falls on the lame side of the fence. Queen was cool, and Cheap Trick was cool and The Ramones were definitely cool (even though they played at Six Flags). U2 and Bruce Springsteen were cool as well. Def Leppard was interesting (saw them in London). Peter Gabriel was quirky. Lyle Lovett, James Taylor and his brother Livingston were all laid back. A recent AC/DC concert was super cool and super loud. Looking back at the handful of concerts I’ve attended, I would definitely say they were more cool than lame. However, I can’t help but think that you are somehow defined by the first concert you go to.

This is why I took such great pleasure in bringing my older son to see My Chemical Romance this past week at The House of Blues. For those of you not familiar with the band, My Chemical Romance’s music, according to Wikipedia, is described as “…a blend of gothic rock, punk, heavy metal, glam rock, metal and progressive rock…” I became enamored with their music when they released their 2006 album, “The Black Parade”, and dragged my husband to the DCU Arena to see their concert. With his tastes trending more towards blues and The Grateful Dead, my husband indulged what he assumed to be a mid-life crisis moment and sat dutifully in his seat as I cheered and yelled and sang my way through the concert.

Fast forward a few years to MCR’s next album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys”. As I perused their website I noticed an upcoming tour date at The House of Blues. I knew either my husband or a friend would indulge me again, so I purchased two tickets. Much to my surprise, in the months between purchasing the tickets and the concert itself, my older son became a fan of the Danger Days album. Back in 2006 he would hold his hands over his ears anytime I’d try to play “The Black Parade” and beg me to put on something else. I guess I couldn’t expect a 9-year-old to appreciate the nuances of their music, but with age comes wisdom and I suddenly found myself living with a full fledged MCR fan. When he asked if he could join me at the concert, I agreed.

After loading all of the band’s music on my son’s iPod, showing him their videos on YouTube and letting him read a few interviews in music magazines, he was frothing at the mouth to go. The bands’ single “Sing” was featured in promos for American Idol and used in an episode of “Glee” (much to Glenn Beck’s dismay). Suddenly MCR was everywhere.

We drove into Boston on the designated evening with my son wearing my Black Parade tour t-shirt (it looks better on him). Arriving at the House of Blues we walked to the end of a line which stretched all the way down Lansdowne Street, through the alley and behind the House of Blues. As we took our place at the back of the line, I noticed many teens and twenty-somethings in the crowd, but also several kids younger than my son and quite a few adults older than myself. As we entered the House of Blues, my son experienced his first security pat-down. We took our place in the floor section, about 50 feet from the stage and waited…and waited…and waited. My son’s concert initiation included not one but two opening acts. He deemed the first “pretty good” and the second “slightly more demonic”. Nearly three hours after we had entered the House of Blues, My Chemical Romance took the stage.
My son and I spent the next 90 minutes jumping, dancing, cheering loudly and singing along with each song. As the band blasted their hits, I snuck a peak at his jubilant face and knew that bringing him had been the right decision. When the music ended, we bought a souvenir t-shirt and walked out of the House of Blues, slightly more deaf than when we walked in. We returned home at midnight, tired but happy.

Years from now someone will ask him about his first concert. Hopefully he will smile and remember the night when he and his mom bonded over a “cool” rock and roll band.