My First Bowl Concert:  What’s Yours?

What was your first Santa Barbara Bowl concert?

With 80 years of shows behind us (and counting), we expect to hear from all of you for our new series, My First Bowl Concert.

For talk show host Carson Daly, it was Ziggy Marley. Daly reminisced,

“Just when Ziggy came out, the lights went down, and we were so excited and the reggae music started. I remember looking up and seeing smoke everywhere. And I looked around, and I was like, ‘What is going on with all this smoke?”

Kerry Allen, Editor of the Bowl’s Blog, recounts,

“My first Bowl concert was Oingo Boingo on Saturday, October 19, 1991. We made the pilgrimage from San Luis Obispo just for the show. At the time, I would have faithfully followed lead singer Danny Elfman to the ends of the earth — so the Bowl was a reasonable alternative. It was, of course, a night to remember.

Oingo Boingo was still a pretty big deal in 1991 — and that night loyal fans had assembled en masse at the Bowl to dance the night away to favorites Only a Lad, Nothing to Fear, and Dead Man’s Party.

Charles Donelan, Editor, The Santa Barbara Independent remembers,

“On July 9, 2004, I saw the Gram Parsons tribute concert ‘Return to Sin City.’ I had just started working at The Independent, and I’m pretty sure this was the first Bowl show that I ever attended. The music was great, and, looking back, the list of musicians assembled reads like a who’s-who of both legends and about-to-be-big artists—Keith Richards, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, and John Doe, a young Jim James, Norah Jones, and Jay Farrar. Plus all those great Gram Parsons songs.”

 And for local musician, Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket,

“I’ll always remember going up to the Bowl for the first time when I was a kid in the ’70s. My family brought a picnic meal and a big red plaid flannel blanket so we could sit on the grass and watch the musical Oklahoma [Friday, July 9, 1976]! I was hooked on theater from then straight up until I started touring with my band.” 

What’s your first Bowl concert?

Browse Santa Barbara Bowl concert photos or check out the Bowl Timeline to help jog your concert memory, then share your first concert (and photos) with us at sbbowl@sbbowl.com.