My first concert was Marshall Tucker, The Doobie Brothers, and Savoy Brown at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. Marshall Tucker was the opening band for many of the first concerts I attended.
The first time I ever saw a synthesizer played live was Edgar Winter on the Frankenstein tour in Spartanburg. Back then I was a major Yes fan. I got to meet them after their concert in Columbia in 1976.
Chris Stack, Marketing Director, Sigal Music Museum
March 1970, at age 15, a buddy’s dad drove us an hour and a half down to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We saw Steppenwolf at their full-on peak, with Austin blues-rock psychedelic band The Bubble Puppy opening up. OMG. An eye- and ear-opening and ecstatic experience! Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” was already, and was for a long time, my motto. It was the opening volley of a long and amazing concert-going trajectory.
Gene Berger, owner, Horizon Records
My first concert was a field trip concert my school took me to with the Bozeman (Montana) Symphony. I must have been about 8 or 9 years old. It was a concert themed around spy movies, and I will never forget when the conductor came on stage in a trench coat and hat. He had a tape player like in the old Mission Impossible TV show, which gave him the assignment—something about performing music for us kids—and then said it would self-destruct in five seconds. He threw it into a trash can onstage, which then emitted some sparks and a puff of smoke! Then they played the Mission Impossible theme song, which instantly became one of my favorite pieces of music. I would listen to it all the time in my room for years after that concert!
Lee Mills, Music Director of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra
My first concert was REO Speedwagon at the Fowlerville Family Fair in the late ’90s. It was the perfect duo of “Ridin’ the Storm Out” and ridin’ the rides.
Heather Chamberlain, Vice President of Marketing, Peace Center
I saw Barry Manilow when I was 14. He’s borderline musical theater (and just had a musical on Broadway last year), so I guess I’m a Fanilow!
Kimilee Bryant, performer who starred in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
My first concert experience that I truly remember was at the House of Blues in Chicago seeing Edwin McCain. I felt very adult in that moment because the concert was only for people 18 years or older. I drove to downtown Chicago from the suburbs with my friend and we went to our first concert unsupervised. Full-circle moment upon moving to Greenville was discovering that Edwin McCain is actually from this area! I have always been a huge fan of his music and remain one to this day.
Max Quinlan, Producing Artistic Director, Greenville Theatre
My first notable concert that I wanted to attend was Bush, Goo Goo Dolls, and No Doubt, probably in 1994. I think I got grounded and couldn’t make it. I also wanted to see Green Day around the same time but was still/also grounded. I think the first real concert I actually made it to was Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage my freshman year of high school.
Wes Gilliam, owner, Radio Room
My first concert was Sha-Na-Na. I was in diapers, and I only remember Bowser.
David Sims, Executive Director, Sigal Music Museum
First concert I can remember—fifth-grade band elementary school concert. I was a terrified clarinetist, just trying to not squeak. We got through, as student ensembles tend to do. Little did I know that it would be the first of a few decades of concerts . . . with hopefully more decades to come!
Vee Popat, Director, The Fine Arts Center
