There is nothing like your first major rock concert when your a kid.  I was 14 years old and my friend Dobie Gillis and I got tickets to see Ten Years After.  We were excited and decided to prepare for the event.  Dobie had a Realistic CTR-2 cassette deck that we were going to record the show with.  Nothing fancy but it did have an external mic. Since I never went to a concert I didn't know that you could bring in a tape recorder (in those days).  I went out and bought a second hand (what I called an Ian Anderson Jethro Tull) coat.  You know one of those long winter coats?  It was way too big for me but I didn't care.  The night of the show Dobie's mother dropped us off at the RI Auditorium and I was so excited to be part of the scene.  We got to the door and the guy taking the tickets asked me to open my coat.  He said what's that?  I got all nervous and told him it was a tape deck.  He just looked a me and said OK and let us in.  I was amazed.  I really thought they were going to take the deck away but I guess they didn't care.  Well it was interesting being inside the RI Auditorium and we decided to go to our seats.  Well as it turned out our seats were all the way in the back of the area under the heating duck but we didn't care...it was the first rock concert for me.

 

A local band called Eggs Over Easy came on first and I have no memory of their show.  Intermission came and we just hung out in our seats taking in the people in the building and all the smoke filling up the arena (yea, back then you could smoke in the venues.)  Well the lights went down and The Edgar Winter Group came on and started their set with "Keep Playing That Rock n Roll". They were great.  Frankenstein (the single) was not on the radio yet but it was out there.  All I could see was Edgar Winters white hair and keyboard that he played with a strap over his neck.  That was my first band to tape which helps the memory a lot.

 

After an intermission, Ten Years After came on and we just sat there taking in Woodstock, Blues and British Rock n Roll. The wonderful thing about taping shows is the memory and the feeling of the evening as you sit in the arena. Man the sound was awful! The RI Auditorium sounded like a tunnel of muddy rumblings with the duct work on the ceiling making all this noise.  Dobie and I had the worst seats but we had the best time.  Alvin Lee and Ten Years After were a cool band and I couldn't be happier to have been there which started a long list of concerts and taping for me.