An assignment came up that asked Associated Content writers to describe the first concert we ever attended. I claimed this assignment because the first concert I’d ever attended is still very fresh in my mind although it took place over a decade ago. I’ll take some time to describe the very first concert I attended, a concert by the band “Three Dog Night”, in Tucson, AZ.
As long as I can remember I’ve always been a fan of oldies music. I’ve always enjoyed listening to bands like the Beatles, the Yardbirds, The Buckinghams, basically anything from the 1980’s and earlier I’ve liked because the songs are cleaner and I can understand the lyrics. Three Dog Night has always been one of my favorite bands. Anytime a Three Dog Night song came on the radio I’d lose myself in the wonderful way they present their music and the stories/messages written into the lyrics. So when we heard that they were going to throw a concert in Tucson at a local restaurant/bar, my father, brother, and I quickly jumped on buying tickets for the event.
There was one problem; my brother and I were both minors. I was 12 years old at the time and my brother about 10 years old. How were we going to get into this liquor-serving establishment when we were well under the age of 21? It quickly worked out. After a few calls to the establishment, the manager was able to obtain written permission from the Arizona department that grants liquor licenses to allow us and another small group of minors into the establishment for the concert, provided we stayed away from the liquor, which we had no problem doing.
So the night of the concert we made our way to Tucson from Sierra Vista and arrived at the establishment. It was more or less a large darkened room with neon alcohol advertisements and somewhat of a country-bar atmosphere while keeping a modern touch about the place. The building was well occupied by people there to enjoy the concert. It’s nice looking back on the concert because we weren’t very far away from the stage like we would have been at a stadium-style concert. We managed to get a table very close to the stage. We ate our dinner there before the concert began. When the time for the concert came the stage became aglow with red, green, blue, and just an all-around vibrant hue of stage lighting surrounded the band members as they performed some of their favorite songs such as “Shambala,” “One,” “Eli’s Coming,” “One Man Band,” “Black and White,” “Out in the Country,” and their all-time hit, “Joy to the World.” The concert lasted for about two or three hours before wrapping up. I remember it was interesting to see that the applauding response from the audience brought the band out again to play more songs when they took a short break during the concert.
After the concert was the most interesting part of the evening for me because the band members came out for a meet-and-greet with the audience, which took my young mind totally by surprise. We all had the opportunity to get autographs, speak to the band members a little bit and shake their hands. It was the first time I’d ever met any celebrities (and certainly not the last, but those are different stories.) Last I heard Three Dog Night has some new songs available online and they are still playing concerts. If you have the opportunity to go and see them I would highly recommend doing so, they really are a superb band with excellent music.
