There is nothing like your first time in anything.
Especially where music is involved. And even if you are part of the music. The first time you participate in something like a musical concert when you are a kid. When you are in the audience at your first concert of any kind.
But there is nothing like attending your first metal concert in a huge sports arena.
NOTHING LIKE IT!
In my high school days, the only time I ever went to the then Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California was to catch a Los Angeles Kings hockey game. Or an infrequent Los Angeles Lakers basketball game. So I did have a sort of the lay of the land, so to speak, as to what other events could be like in such a space.
By the time I started attending college is when I got into metal. I kind of sort of listened in secret and then out of the blue let everyone know that I moved away from my love of classical music (which has never left me) and really liked what I was beginning to really love. Heavy metal rock.
So I was buying cassette tapes of the bands I really was getting into and listening intensely on my Sony Walkman.
Eventually I had an opportunity to attend a concert in the fall of 1984.
That concert was a threefer. Meaning that three bands were going to perform on the same night.
And that concert was on Saturday, September 29, 1984 at the Fabulous Forum with the opening band a local one to Los Angeles, Armored Saint. Sandwiched in between was a band led by frontman David Coverdale, Whitesnake. And the main event was the exploding L. A. local band, Quiet Riot.
The above were the albums (for you youngsters, that is what we called those things that were on vinyl and we played on things called turntables which were part of what were called record players. They do also refer to cassettes and compact discs) that the bands were touring in support of.
If my memory serves me right, the concert began about 7:30 pm when Armored Saint took the stage. It was a short set. as they only had material from one album and one EP released in 1983. It was good and a lot of energy.
The came Whitesnake, led by former Deep Purple singer, David Coverdale. I knew more of the songs from that album, Slide It In. The first three songs on the album were getting heavy play on radio and some television channel called MTV. The songs were the title track, Slide It In, then Slow 'N Easy and Love Ain't No Stranger. There were other songs that I can't really remember. The difference between Whitesnake and Armored Saint is that Whitesnake was more of a kind of fusion of blues and metal. But to be clear, Whitesnake was not hard metal as much as hard rock.
The tension was building as eventually at this point, Quiet Riot finally hit the stage.
And needless to say, the crowd went wild.
And so did I!
Before Quiet Riot hit the stage, I was just taking it all in. I felt like the typical, dour Episcopalian during a church service. I was more or less just sitting in my seat, swaying to the music of the previous two bands. It was when Quiet Riot finally hit the stage that I jumped out of my seat and began to be taken in by the music.
It was when I finally let loose and pumped my fist in the air and . . .banged my head!
Quiet Riot started off with one of their popular hits, Sign Of The Times. It wasn't so much that I was singing along as much as I was taken in by the kerrang of the electric guitars and bass as well as the crashing of the drums and cymbals. It truly made me feel alive.
They continued with Slick Black Cadillac, Party All Night, Cum On Feel The Noise. There were others but near the end of the set and the concert, THE song I really liked was played.
Metal Health.
I was really banging my head and pumping my fist in the air as the lead singer, the late Kevin DuBrow, was working magic with the crowd.
One more song and it was all she wrote. The concert was over. I did not feel any let down whatsoever. I was still pumped as the three of us that went to the show were leaving and driving home. In fact I really did not sleep much that night.
The reality is that I was hooked. I really could not wait to get the newest cassette and really could not wait to go to my next show.
It was the first of many a metal show that I would attend in the 80s.
In many ways that first concert was the best in the sense that I really got to feel the music. It is music that I still love, even in my early 50s.
Once you have metal in your music repitorie, you can never let it go!
As a song lyric says, rock on!
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