When I'm feeling nostalgic, one of my favorite things to talk about with people is who was their first ... concert. I've even toyed with starting a podcast all about first concerts because we love to talk about the experience that much. There are some serious bragging rights wrapped up in who you saw and where/when you saw them. One of the best responses I ever got was over at the Ricochet website where one lady had seen The Beatles in '64 at the Washington Coliseum. If remember correctly, she even had the ticket stub to prove it.
Now, that's pretty cool.
My own first concert experience comes nowhere near that level of cool – it is, in fact, equal parts Gen X goodness and cringe; I am both proud and mortified. There's no way to big this up – it was Shaun Cassidy. It would've been around 1977 and, at the time, he was half of The Hardy Boys, as seen on ABC TV. And he was glorious. Those satin pants and that shiny, bouncy hair – what wasn't there to love about Shaun?
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Somehow, my sisters and I conspired to convince my parents to buy us tickets, and they agreed. This was a major accomplishment because it was on a school night. A school night! (My parents drew a line in the sand on one thing: we were definitely not missing school the next day.) We roped one of my older sisters, who was 17 at the time, into driving us to the concert at the now-demolished Capital Center in Landover, Maryland.
He was everything I'd dreamed he'd be ... I think. He was was very hard to see from the cheap seats. My sisters and I thought we were very clever sneaking in a Kodak camera with a massive flash cube stick; the resulting photos were of a bright white orb on stage in tight white satin pants and a white scarf.
You couldn't really hear him, either, as my sisters and I weren't the only pre-teen girls in the DC area who had made the trek to see their favorite Tiger Beat heartthrob. There was much screaming and histrionics. But, it was all worth it because I had been breathing the same air as Shaun Cassidy!
In case you forgot what a dreamboat he was, here's Shaun in all his glory.
Now, I really upped my cool factor with my second concert, which I attended about five years later. A guy from school invited me, and, rather scandalously, my parents again agreed to let me go to a school night concert! I knew a little about Van Halen and generally liked the band, but I was not prepared for David Lee Roth circa 1982. A some point during the show, he appeared on stage in fringy leather chaps with his bare arse cheeks hanging out. This Catholic school girl was truly scandalized.
Someone actually got the entire show on video (the scandalous chaps show up around the 1:28:15 mark).
I went on in the 80s to see a whos-who of exactly who you'd think a Gen X girl would see:
- Duran Duran
- The Cars (with Wang Chung as the opening act!)
- Psychedelic Furs
- Julian Lennon
- ZZ Top
- The Outfield
- The Hooters
- A-ha
- Billy Idol
One thing I really regret is not saving all those concert t-shirts; my Gen Z kids would've loved to give them a second life.
RedState First Concerts
My colleagues here at RedState shared their firsts, and I, for one, am mightily impressed.
- Susie Moore: Foreigner (1981)
- Becky Noble: KISS (1979)
- Bob Hoge: David Bowie – Heroes
- Ward Clark: Led Zeppelin (1977)
- Jerry Wilson: Robin Trower, Wishbone Ash, and Eddie Money at Winterland in San Francisco (1977)
- Sister Toldjah: Paul Young/Nik Kershaw at the Palladium at Carowinds
- Becca Lower: Julian Lennon (with her Girl Scout troop!)
Gen-X Meme of the Week
My Gen-X meme of the week. Still don't know who/what this was. pic.twitter.com/SsXMoLdyzN
— Teri Christoph (@TeriChristoph) February 10, 2026
Your Turn
I know our RedState readers saw all the good singers and bands back in the day. Hit us up in the comments and claim your bragging rights!
