The first concert I ever saw live

The Police at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland Oregon.  Ghost in the Machine Tour.

On a dark Saturday night when I was 14 years old, my brother Tim got out of the car with just a sleeping bag and a light jacket and he walked over to a small line forming outside the Memorial Coliseum for the Police concert in 1982.  At the time I didn’t understand why he was sleeping outside for seats at a concert.  I was going to the same show but I showed up 24 hours later and  I got in that same line but much further back. This was still in the days of general admission with no such thing as assigned seats.  When the doors were opened it took about an hour to get into the venue and I finally found some seats in the way back of the floor.  It turned out that Tim saved me and my buddy two very prime seats in the 5th row, dead center.  In short order, we were less than 15 feet from the stage for my first concert. The Police were in their prime and they sounded incredible.  Every song was tight, it was an amazing concert and still the best I have ever seen.  I had no idea until how fortunate I was to see such a show until years later after I had seen many more concerts. When the Police got back together and toured again I consciously skipped it because I knew that nothing could come close to when I saw them in their prime.