What we're gonna do is go back. Way back. Well, a month back, to a night I'll never forget. June 21, 2009. While many were finishing up their Father's Day festivities (oops!), I was at Madison Square Garden with my idol — the only woman who could ever tempt me to go straight — Beyoncé Knowles. Through the sometimes turbulent Destiny's Child years, occasionally questionable acting gigs (better believe I sat through The Fighting Temptations), and into her solo stardom, the voluptuous diva has been my ultimate icon. Can't say I wasn't a tad skeptical when we were introduced to Sasha Fierce. Well no, I take that back. The I Am side of her latest "concept" album bored me to tears while the Fierce side kept my faith alive and strong. Needless to say, I bow down to this woman. I watch the "Crazy In Love" video on repeat and crump with this woman. If she ever needed an unpaid servant to clean the house (call me!) I'd be there in a heartbeat.
It was the end of the show. After a brief interlude of "Single Ladies"-inspired YouTube impersonators, Mrs. Jay-Z returned to the stage to show 'em how a true diva does it. And then… the moment of truth. It was "Halo" time. I was standing five rows back on the center aisle. She jumped off the stage and I immediately ran to the barricade. I stuck out my hand and she accepted, embracing for a solid 15 seconds of heaven. Her initial expression of uncertainty was replaced by a look of "Okay, you're harmless," probably after noting my mesh T-shirt. Regardless, my life will never been the same. I've been touched by a diva. So there you have it, PopWatchers, my favorite concert memory. Your turn. What's your best concert memory? Go!
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She’s really matured and is a real stage star. Love the outfit.
Waiting outside of the 9:30 club to meet Rufus Wainwright in 2002. He was signing autographs with one hand and holding a glass of wine with the other. I overcame my shyness after he signed my cd and asked if I could have a hug. He said, “Of course!” And then everyone else wanted a hug from him too. To this date, he’s still the best-smelling man I’ve ever encountered.
well since you asked….on June 5, 2009-I drove 4 hours to see Coldplay in Noblesville, IN–I only had lawn tickets, but I expected to have a great time–when I got there, the place was mostly full and I ended up sitting towards the back of the lawn. About half way through the show, the boys began to walk off stage followed by a spotlight. I knew from an internet review that, during a show at an ampitheatre, the band plays on a lawn stage. I quickly think “I have to get closer. Here they come!” I am NOT a runner. I don’t think I ever ran so fast in my life, in flip-flops no less. I pushed past all the high and/or drunk people until I was about one row of people away from “C stage”. Somewhere between “Green Eyes” and “I’m a Believer” I yelled “I LOVE YOU GUY!” I didn’t think he heard me, but after about 20 seconds our eyes locked for a short time. I smiled, and he looked at the groumd, smiled, then raised his eyebrows twice. I doubt he would remember, nevertheless-Best. Concert. Ever.
I feel exactly the same way about Beyonce. Exactly. the same. way. And on June 24, 2009, at the Verizon Center in Washington DC, Beyonce saw me. It was when she was on the center stage, and looking out into the audience pointing out people in the audience. “I see you with your mesh tshirt…I see you with your I love B poster…” I had a Texas flag in my bag from an event, and she pointed at me and said, “I see you with your flag, you know I’m from Texas too.” BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still gets me giddy!!!
I saw OK Go about a year and a half ago, and not only did I touch Damian’s hand during the show, my friends and I waited by their bus afterwards, and took pictures with the band. They gave us all autographs, and we got Dan’s drumsticks that he used during the show.
OMGG I TOTALLY AGREE I SEEN HERR IN MANCHESTER 27TH MAY 2009 AND I WAS SAT IN NORMAL SEATS THEN A MAN COME UP TO MY FRIENDS MUM AND TOOK ME AND SOME GIRLS BEHIND US TO THEE FRONT IN THE VIP DIVA ZONE!! IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE AND BEYONCE TOUCHED MY HAND WHILE SINGING BROKEN HEARTED GIRL I LOVEE HERR SHE WAS BETTER THAN I THOUGHT LIVE IM GOIN TO SEE HER AGAIN IN NOVEMBER CANT WAIT!!!:)
I feel like we are truly watching a legend creating an amazing career. I can’t wait to watch what she does next.
I have three favorite concert moments (and they are three of my four concerts so far in my early life)
1. Arcade Fire – My first concert and the general build up and first notes of Black Mirror playing and me realizing how much I loved this band. It was a truly amazing night and still my favorite concert.
2. Cobra Starship – When Gabe and I shared extended eye contact during ‘Guilty Pleasure’
3. Spice Girls – Basically the whole thing. I really hope they come back again.
My daughter who was 7 at the time loved Evanescence. So like the cool mom I got tickets and we went. The opening band was Chevelle who I had heard of but didn’t have any cd’s. We both fell in love with Chevelle and at the end Sam the drummer pointed to my daughter with his drumstick and threw it at us. Since we were in the seats adjacent to the stage it was a pretty far fetch that we would even catch it but it came right to us and she felt like the little queen the rest of the night! We have it framed in the house with the tickets to remind us. Pretty awesome. We are die hard Chevelle fans ever since…oh and Evanescence could never compare since.
This is going way back, but INXS opened for Adam Ant. They were promoting their first album. At the time, I knew they would be big…they excited the crowd a lot more than the main act. The next day I went out and bought their album.
By far the most memoriable experience for me, and I’ve been to over 25 shows, was the U2 vertigo tour in Toronto at the ACC. This was the first of 3 shows of theirs and we were on the floor and towards the middle of the concert bono came out to the tip of the heart and started reaching out to people. I was supremely lucky to be able to shake his hand, it was amazing. Second best, last year The Cure in Toronto and they played “Push,” it was such an amazing experience.
I saw Beyonce in Dallas July 4th weekend and she killed! It’s by far one of my favorite concerts ever. I mean, she totally owned ‘Halo.’ I loved every minute.
I just saw her in Minneapolis on Thursday. While I wasn’t anywhere near the stage, let’s just say that if I was Beyonce obsessed before, I am completely and utterly rabid now. What a show…instant legend.
1) Seeing MUCC (a japanese rock band) back in December at Irving Plaza in NYC. My mom and I made a doll for the bass player Yukke and gave it to him with a bag of sundried mango (his not so secret addiction). He was impressed. So much so that they did an interview before their LA show and he mentioned my doll.
2) Seeing Dir en grey at Terminal 5 in NYC. Was right on the barricade for the entire show. Got lucky, because Die threw a pick right into the crowd near me and the girls nearby fought so hard for it, it fell over the barricade. The security guard I had been chatting with all night picked it up and gave it to me. Then getting to meet the entire band after the show and having the singer smile was so great that everyone left crying in happiness. 3) Seeing Julien-K at The Crazy Donkey on Long Island. In the middle of their set the guitarist Amir tossed a pick towards the street team members that he reconized. I got that one and my friend got another later on.
This past March I saw my favorite band, Sam Roberts Band, in Chicago in this tiny bar. I got there early, staked my claim to the front “row” and didn’t move for 3 hours. I took tons of video and pictures, and at the end of the night, Sam, the lead, gave me his shot glass and shook my hand. I can’t wait to see them at Lolla again in a few weeks. Love them. My second was seeing the Beastie Boys close out Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1999-getting 50,000 drunk, mud-caked people to go freaking nuts over Intergalactic was insane. My third was see Red Hot Chili Peppers-Californication had just come out and I didn’t know any of the new songs but I didn’t care-they played a great show.
Tie. Last fall, my friend and I were at our fifth Hanson show in a week. We thought it was our last. The opening notes of “Thinking of You” start, and my friend, a diehard since 1997 who had never heard it live, nearly died of excitement. I’ve never seen anyone that excited about anything.
Other one, last year I was seeing Springsteen for the third time and I hadn’t heard “No Surrender,” one of my favorites. He’s playing “Radio Nowhere” and as the song’s ending, I’m thinking “I REALLY want to hear ‘No Surrender.’” The next second, the opening drumbeats start and I nearly fell over the balcony. Amazing.
Really, there are a million . . . but those are two that really stick with me.
Bjork at the Apollo May 7th 2007, incredible, emotional, stunning performance in a relatively small venue for her. Anyone who gets the chance to see her live needs to, there is no matching the power of her live show.
In 2007 the band Travis came through Lawrence, KS. They played and awesome show even though the venue was very undersold. It was Frontman Fran Healy’s 34 birthday Afterwards while we were waiting for the band to come out, the bassist Dougie Payne, and Fran came out and invited us downstairs for some drinks and birthday cake. I asked told Dougie that I was a huge fan of his wife (actress Kelly McDonald) he said that she just got done filming a Coen Brothers movie. Little did I know that the movie would turn out to be No Country for Old Men. Producer extraordinaire NIGEL GODRICH was at the party as well. He came along for a couple of dates. My and my friend Kassy met him as well. Seriously, one of the best nights of my life.
My first concert experience was seeing Bush during their Sixteen Stone tour. The band was hugely popular at the time and their opening act was the Goo Goo Dolls. The pre-opener warm-up band was this band that no one had ever heard of called No Doubt. They were amazing. Gwen Stefani KILLED it that night and there was a great moment where she jumped from the stage onto a huge speaker that was right in front of me and finished the song Excuse Me, Mr. from there. Amazing experience.
Madonna in Vancouver, BC, October 30, 2008. Traffic was at a standstill getting into the city for it. Every restaurant and commercial space within a five-block radius blared all her hits out of the speakers. The pub across the street turned its parking lot into a dance party with a video screen. Women and drag queens dressed up like vintage Madonna and current Madonna. I have been waiting for this show since I was a kid and first saw “Like a Virgin” on MTV. The entire crowd went bonkers and we didn’t care that she showed up at 9:30 but the tickets said 7:30. I went with 12 very good friends and we ran into more and more people we knew. Another two dozen people I knew were there too, and we all talked about the show for weeks after. It was a share communal experience with so many of my great friends who truly love her. And the party spilled into the streets and the clubs after. No one got any sleep and showed up to work bleary-eyed and none of us cared. One of the best nights of my life
debbie harry spat on me!!! was at a gig in edinburgh in 1990. she was doing her solo tour. place was over crowded and i was at the front-it was so hot as was harry!!! she took a drink out of a bottle of water and i think intended to spray the front of the audience, however, i got the brunt and as a result shared her spit .
I got given Beyonce’s towel after I correctly answered three questions, on the Birmingham leg of her 2007 tour!
I saw Beyonce in may, she was fantastic…but I have to say the best ever concert ive been to was Chris Brown..back in january, he is sooo talented, cannot wait 4 another tour
Belle and Sebastian in Dallas, the band does an encore to a sold out crowd, they start to walk off the stage, I scream “Sarah, a set list PLEASE!”. She looks at me, grabs her set list, fights off a bunch of fans, and hands it to me. Best day of my life.
Also, Madonna in Atlanta, sitting in the worst seats in the arena, screaming along with the entire arena, “I’m crazy for YOU”.
I think my all time favorite memory is the summer of 1986 in England. I went to see this bill outside of London: Doctor and the Medics (it was 1986), Big Audio Dynamite (their first live show ever), Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, the Waterboys, and Simple Minds, right when the song from The Breakfast Club was a huge hit. By the end of the show, I’d lost my friends, but was in the third row of the gigantic arena, being hosed down and handed bottles of water, just like you see on tv. And when Simple Minds closed the whole thing out with Don’t You Forget About Me, someone I didn’t know and would never see again hugged me like I was his best friend while we were screaming along at the top of our lungs. Sure enough, 23 years later, I’ve never forgotten about him.
We were on the floor for a limited seat engagement by Prince. He was two hours late for the show. (Unbeknownst to us, the air traffic controller’s computers had gone out and his plane couldn’t land.) I was standing directly in front of him, looking mad as hell, when he stopped and asked “What’s wrong with you?” So I told him, “I’m not feeling you.” Next thing I know, his mountain like body guards walked up on me. I thought, “I’m about to be put out this place.” They handed me some of Prince’s gold engraved guitar picks and said “Are you feeling him now?” His road manager came out a few minutes later and gave me passes to his after show. Suffice it to say, I feel Prince now.
Going way back. Montreal, July 19, 1985. Seeing Tina Turner for the first time during her comeback Private Dancer tour. I remember feeling this heat and electricity as she took the stage. Later on, I moved up to the front and got a chance to hold her hand. Again, that feeling of heat.
I read afterwards that the show was very cutting edge (and influential) for its video and sound techniques.
I’ve seen her numerous times since and have never been disappointed.
i went to see Beyonce at the end of may in Birmingham,uk. She was amazing . Just being able to see her live made me feel so amazed. she is my idol and i cant wait to see her again in a few months when she comes back to the UK.
Best would be going and seeing Garth Brooks with a friend and discovering we had the worst seats possible (end of the arena and behind a pillar). Our other friend who had a seat near the stage was laughing at us as he went all the way down to sit in his nice seat. Long story short: we were soon given new tix by members of his crew and wound up front row centre, leaning on the stage and shaking Garth’s hand at the end of the show. Not bad considering that I love Garth but am not a country fan.
1985, I was about 12 years old. Our folks were off on holiday somewhere. My brother had gone to LiveAid the day before with a van load of friends in the Old Van while the rest of us youngins watched on TV. (Bono’s boots, verrrry cool.) The Old Van suffered a broken window en route, somehow. Brother spends all day finding a replacement in a local junkyard and fixing it. Folks still don’t know to this day.
I went to the opening night of Prima Donna and shook Rufus Wainwrights` hand! I asked him for a kiss,he put his hand on my shoulder and said No,tonight i am Verdi! Ishall never wash again!!!! Touching the hand of a genius….