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Visiting Chinese national percussion orchestra. I heard this in 1973 at the University of British Columbia (Robert Silverman's home ground). I was outside of the Music building on a beautiful sunny afternoon when this gong gong crash boom crash became audible. As I approached the building my appreciation of the noise grew. When I finally got into the building to see them perform, I had to leave and stand outside again. It was something like a cigar, it smells nice in very small doses wafting on the air. This percussion music also sounded wonderfull to me when taken in small amounts against the background of a campus.

Jimi Hendrix, 1968. I was 14 and it was my first rock concert. I haven't been the same since. The police didn't know what to do when he played "The Star-Spangled Banner." And when he used the word "funky" he had to spell it carefully to stop the men in blue from charging the stage.

Deep Purple "Made in Japan"

John McLaughlin & Shakti with mandolin virtuoso U. Srinivas and tabla master Zakir Hussain at the Yale Rep, New Haven, CT, July 1999—featured as part of the city's International Festival of Arts & Ideas. I've seen a lot of concerts, but nothing as powerful and awe-inspiring as this! I urge anyone interested in this type of music to listen to their latest double live CD, featuring Hari Chaurasia on bansuri in place of mandolin . . . a nice live recording.

Bob Dylan and his band at the Garde Arts Center in New London, CT in 1998. My $25 standing-room-only ticket turned out to be standing in the orchestra pit inches from the bard! He rocked the house that night . . .

New Year's Eve, 1981, Bruce Springsteen at the Nassau Coliseum. 5 hours of incredible music by the best live act ever!!

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Roanoke Auditorium with minimum amplification and maximum juice.

1987 Peter Gabriel concert. It redefined what a feeling a "true" performer puts behind his music.

A live performance of the world class St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. No microphones, no speakers, no electronics - just musicians and air. Of course, high end audio is the next best thing.

I saw Prodigy in Chicago last summer. I can't even describe how cool it was.

You know that phenomenal Mahler 9 from the Cincinnati Symphony and Jesus Lopez-Cobos on Telarc that you guys and about a thousand other critics praised as one of the greatest ever in a field packed with great recordings? I was there, a few days prior to the recording at the performance of the work on Saturday evening. Section F, Row 2, Seat 6. (Section F is directly in the center of the first balcony at Music Hall in Cincinnati.) I was right in the middle of what I think is the best place to hear a concert in this great, great hall, and the music of Mahler, the playing of the CSO, the leadership of Maestro Lopez-Cobos, and the expectant atmosphere of a new recording of what we were about to hear combined to make an unforgettable experience. That Metallica concert in Cleveland this past January was pretty good, too, but it was weighed down by the adjoining acts (Kid Rock and Ted Nugent).

The most memorable live music performance I've ever seen was The Grateful Dead on September 17th, 1991. The most memorable live music performance I've ever heard was and is "At Fillmore East" by The Allman Brothers Band.

It was H. Behrens as Strauss's Elektra in 1998 in Paris on a cloudy Sunday. Never heard such an enthusiastic performance. It was really moving.

You know that phenomenal Mahler 9 from the Cincinnati Symphony and Jesus Lopez-Cobos on Telarc that you guys and about a thousand other critics praised as one of the greatest ever in a field packed with great recordings? I was there, a few days prior to the recording, at the performance of the work on Saturday evening: Section F, Row 2, Seat 6. (Section F is directly in the center of the first balcony at Music Hall in Cincinnati.) I was right in the middle of what I think is the best place to hear a concert in this great, great hall, and the music of Mahler, the playing of the CSO, the leadership of Maestro Lopez-Cobos, and the expectant atmosphere of a new recording of what we were about to hear combined to make an unforgettable experience. That Metallica concert in Cleveland this past January was pretty good, too, but it was weighed down by the adjoining acts (Kid Rock and Ted Nugent).

INXS live in Paris 1993. Great concert, fantastic performance, huge crowd, and free to public. Unforgettable!

The Ann Arbor Blues Festival,1972

Too many to mention. I think every time I see a concert it affects my life in many ways. All I can say is thank goodness there is music to help me survive, long live live music.

Sir Georg Solti conducting the CSO and soloists and chorus in Mahler's Symphony 8. But then his Mahler 5 and 6 were also great, as was his Mahler 2, etc. And I can't forget my first CSO concert, when Fritz Reiner conducted the Verdi Requiem. He used the largest bass drum I ever saw; seems like it was 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Pick one.

My first concert was Kiss 1979, and wow, what an eye- and ear-opener. I love metal, but the sound sucked. My albums sounded better and there were mistakes. Hey, these guys are just human after all. But the visuals were incredible. I saw them 7 more times.

My first concert—Serge Koussevitsky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, Tchaikovsky's Fourth. That made me a classical music lover for life. (I think I was 7 at the time.) Other concert: Klaus Tennstedt conducting the NY Philharmonic in Mahler's Ninth. The audience was in tears.

Wagner's "Ring" in the Cherau production at Bayreuth in 1978. A life-changing experience. Runners-up? The Beatles (okay, more screams than music, but indelibly recorded in the mind), k.d. lang, Bryan Ferry's latest tour, Fairport Convention 1967, Dylan 1999 (why did I wait so long?), Roxy Music 1971 (or 1972), Bowie Ziggy Stardust, the Bonzo Dog Band (late '60s), the Gabrielli String Quartet playing a late Beethoven quartet (how could a string quartet sound so loud and powerful?).

Jerry Lee Lewis at Billy-Bob's in Ft. Worth back in the mid-'80s. Jerry Lee came on for a few songs and then walked off. After a quiet interval, he came back, seemingly with a few drinks under his belt, and proceeded to break up the joint for 2+ hours! The Killer! Oh, also Bernstein's final Mahler 2 at the NYP. I think LB and the audience knew this was to be the last, and it was awesome: The slowest and most ecstatic ever.

The Cleveland Orchesta directed by Pierre Boulez playing Debussy's "La Mer" and Pink Floyd on their "Division Bell" tour in Mexico City.

The Who, summer of 1970, Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, TX. Sixteenth row, right center. All people standing on top of chairs in total silence listening for confirmation that Tommy, in its entirety, was about to happen.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Boulez playing "The Firebird" in Orchestra Hall with its improved acoustics. In a word, unbelievable.

Way back on the Talking Heads' "Speaking in Tongues" tour I caught them in Portland, Maine. It was held in your typical "Civic Center" medium-sized arena. The fans filled up perhaps 20-25% of the place. How lucky we all were. It was without a doubt the best-sounding show I've ever seen, as well as the best performance. They R-O-C-K-E-D!!! By the time the entire band was on stage (they came on one by one, a song at a time), there was not one person sitting down, and everybody—I mean EVERYBODY—stayed up for the rest of the show, dancing and rocking through all 3 encores. I've seen just about everybody, but that one night was really magic. Great sound could be had in an arena. Guess all you need are the right ingredients.

Two tremendous remembrences of live musical performances, both solo piano. I attended an Oscar Peterson concert in 1982 at the Van Wayzel (sic) auditorium in Sarasota, Florida. The performance featured a great number of Peterson's compositions, along with medleys of "old favorites." I was astonished at the range of tonal color Peterson produced from the lone Mason & Hamlin grand. The effect he produced was orchestral in both the astonishing complexity of the music and the chromaticism that shimmered over and through the sounds. The other concert that left me flabbergasted was Alfred Brendel's performance in an all-Beethovan sonata recital at Symphony Hall in Boston. His playing was masterfull (Brendel obviously loved performing these works, and he was definitely in the driver's seat) and his sound filled the hall. After the concert, I walked back to my apartment, a distance of five miles, and the walk seemed much too short.

Austin, Texas, Stevie Ray Vaughan. He could put you in a trance at will. You knew you were hearing something very special. I bring him back to life with my LP playback system every weekend after work. It is not like the real thing, but as close as I am going to get to that feeling again in this life.

McCoy Tyner Trio at this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Buddy Guy at the State Theatre in Sydney, Australia. Think it was 1991.