50 Bands I've Seen In My Lifetime

50 Concerts

OK, here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw (you can remember that, can’t you)?

These aren't in order although the first two ARE the first two I ever attended (same night).

1. Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods (1974, Walt Disney World, and they opened for #2)
2. K.C. & the Sunshine Band
3. Jimmy Cliff (very special show at Summerfest in 1987!)
4. John Mellencamp (about 28 times now, at least)
5. Maroon 5
6. Tom Jones
7. Winger (3 times)
8. Faster Pussycat
9. Cinderella
10. Poison (3 times)
11. The Rolling Stones (at least 4 times)
12. U2 (did see them back in the Aragon Ballroom days & also at Allstate Arena)
13. AC/DC (first time was JUST this past December 2008)
14. KISS (always with make-up ON, and about 5 times)
15. Sly & Robbie (hardcore Reggae guys)
16. Van Halen (Monsters of Rock Tour, 1988 @ Alpine Valley, first Sammy Hagar tour)
17. BoDeans (have seen about 25 times, but saw them as a $300 band playing at Marquette)
18. Violent Femmes (same as BoDeans, and actually worked Security for them once)
19. Tracey Chapman
20. 10,000 Maniacs
21. Spyro Gyra
22. Pat Metheny Group
23. Joan Jett
24. Smokey Robinson
25. Billy Squier
26. Ratt
27. The Kinks
28. Ted Nugent
29. Skid Row (but without Sebastian Bach)
30. Greg Kihn Band (Jeopardy song)
31. Eddie Money
32. Tommy Shaw (solo, after he left Styx in the 80's)
33. Pink Floyd (their last ever show on US Soil in 1994 at the Meadowlands, NJ)
34. Steve Winwood
35. Level 42
36. Andy Williams (Christmas special show in 1987)
37. John Hiatt (he actually OPENED for BoDeans at Summerfest)
38. Buddy Guy (Susan Tedeschi opened)
39. Bruce Hornsby & the Range
40. Savoy Brown
41. Koko Taylor (probably 10 times)
42. Head East
43. Scorpions
44. Dokken (2 times)
45. Metallica (3 times)
46. Sister Hazel
47. Buckwheat Zydeco
48. Blue Oyster Cult (spent 4 days on the road with them when I was working in the Entertainment biz. My job was to give them their check before they went on each night, kinda cool)
49. Foghat
50. Thin Lizzy
51. Blues Traveler
52. Those X-Cleavers (had one national hit but mostly played the Delta Chi parties & basement)

I can keep going actually because from 1985-1999 I'd live at least 5-9 days a summer at Milwaukee's Summerfest, but most of my brain cells are likely deadened from those days. If only I had saved all of the ticket stubs from these shows.