Loggins & Messina, Pershing Auditorium, Lincoln, Nebraska, back in the mid-70s.

We were all leaning with our arms on the stage. Kenny Loggins was leaping around like a crazy person while playing his red 335, and he stomped on my hand. Didn't hurt as he had moccasins on. He mouthed "Sorry!" to me though. It was pretty funny.

Great concert!

In David Crosby's healthy days My wife and I sat at a table in a small café while he did a concert. Just the two of us within ten feet. Just him and a guitar. He did it as a personal favor for the guy that ran a record company that he was contracted to.

Johnny Winter
Allman Brothers (Shook Dickie's hand)
Metallica
Smashing Pumpkins
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Kansas, Jackson Browne Nickle Creek, Gordon Lightfoot, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Dave Mason, America, Collective Soul, Joe Cocker, Robin Trower, Peter Frampton, I imagine there's others ... I won't go to an assigned seating show

Have you ever been in the front row for a concert?
 

Three occasions . The first was the Shadows and the second was Ralph McTell and the last was the Hellicasters with Jerry Donahue Brilliant shows

I was fortunate and was able to see/hear some of the best acts there are/were, many of them in the front row.

I refer to what's come to be known as "The Big Gig". It is formally called Summerfest. It began in the late 60s or early 70's. I don't recall exactly. It has become the biggest festival of it's kind.

It was very simple when it began, and steadily improved year after year. Seating was not assigned, so, if you got there plenty early, you could be in the front row.

Let's see... Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Sly and The Family Stone, Deep Purple, Kenny Loggins, Hall and Oates, The Atlanta Rhythm Section, Huey Lewis and The News, The Doobie Brothers, John Prine, BB King, Lonnie Brooks, Albert King.
The list goes on. I can't even remember how many great groups and single acts I saw there, many from the front row and if not the front, then very near the front.

Now, Summerfest spawned a variety of ethnic festivals including Milwaukee Irish Fest. The Summerfest grounds are used for these festivals. Irish Fest is the largest Irish music festival in the U.S. and I think, the world.
In that genre, I have seen many great entertainers, front row. Tommy Makem, Makem and Clancy, Lunasa, Solas, Altan, The Screaming Orphans, Tom Sweeney, Dervish, Different Drums of Ireland, Liz Carroll, Natalie McMaster, Alister Fraiser - this list just scratches the surface.i

Considering that Milwaukee is a relatively small market, otherwise, it has been a great place to get a front row seat!

Saw many big names way back but very front row?

Gordon Lightfoot
BTO
Kelley Joe Phelps
Don Ross
Many “lesser known” singer/songwriters.

Whenever possible, since I can first remember.

I had frn row seats at the Hammersmith Odeon for Bill Monroe, and for Emmylou Harris and the hot band - so wanted to be up there with them!

Used to sit at the feet of Stefan Grossman and many other acoustic heroes in small basement clubs in London like the Troubadour and Bunjies, Les Cousins etc.

Not quite "front row" but my best friend don had an aunt who worked in a ticket agents in London , and we saw Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Winter, and a couple of other big names of the time in the Royal Albert Hall, in the Royal box, which is front and centre facing the stage - a ways back but with a perfect view of the fabulous place and it has , I think eight or ten seats which are terraced so the Queen and he Prince sit at the front with their "comoany" around them but not breathing down their necks. They aren't thrones but very comfortable seats, and whether there is Royalty present or not the box always has a waitress seated out side ready to bring drinks (at standard bar prices).

I attended two "stadium gigs - one was Crosby Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell and a few other great acts, and another was Fleetwood Mac.

Crowd was in the region of 70,000. I didn't feel that i was really there, there were dots on a stage somewhere in another town. Hated them.

I prefer smaller gigs and always try to get into the front row a) to really see what the act is doing, and b) to sit as far forward as possible from the p.a. speakers so I hear more acoustically that electronically.

A friend booked tickets to see Stefan Grossman in an arts centre and didn't book front seats, so although the seats weer steeply banked and we had a good view, Stefan kept making jokes about the "finger starers" in the front row - so I was quite glad we weren't amongst them ...I am a finger starer!

In the pub where I hold my club, I have been within six feet of Pokey Lafarge, The Wiyos, Toby, and many other great acts. Sadly the promoter who used to book them doen't operate in my town any more.

My City boasts a fantastic and internationally known theatre and once I suddenly got an urge to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. My wife couldn't or didn't want to go, and I phoned to see if there were any late cancellations. There was aont row centre single seat! and I go it.

I was a bit closer then this:

I took my kids to see DC Talk and reggae band called Christafari in the 1990s at a local outdoor amphitheater. It was general admission and we arrived first, so we ended up front row center. Christafari was a gas and I ended up right in front of the bassist - eye to eye and six feet away. I was his "energy draw." DC Talk, on the other hand, was murder. The crowd shifted up and forcefully squashed us against the barrier. I was a afraid for my kids and spent the whole time trying to protect them from being crushed. But if I opened up any space, someone else tried to slide into it, in front of us. It was aggravating and uncomfortable.

I was asked to create the publicity package for a 1990s solo piano tour for Rick Wakeman that he was doing for charity. As a return favor, the organizer, who knew I love Wakeman and YES, gave me front row center tickets to the performance in my area, right in front of him, and asked me to entertain Rick for the evening as well. It was hilarious and magical.

Bob

Been in the Front or really close for a number of shows
YES, in the round
Pink Floyd, the wall
Jeff Beck/Stevie Ray
The Police
RUSH

It’t been years since I have been to a any of these Major venues (Madison Square Garden, the Palladium, giant stadium etc) but sometimes being back a few rows, like 9 or 10 had a better vantage point

These day I go to small 20-100 seat places and any seat is great.

Last spring for Mark O’Connor. What a show. Smaller venue in a fairly rural part of South Carolina. I dare say one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Allman Brothers
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Stanley Clarke
Yes
Bob Seger
Springsteen
Tony Bennett

I've gotten up within a row or two of the front at any number of festival seating shows back in the day (do they even do that anymore?). There's a famous video of Springsteen getting mauled by three girls from Tempe, AZ in 1978 during Rosalita - I was about five feet from where all of that was going on. Here, check out just before the 7.00 mark. I've never found myself in the video but I was right there and talking to them after they got tossed back into the crowd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYHGh6lmSbo

I had to avoid getting ALL the way to the front during a Stones show in Boulder in 1981 because there were a bunch of Angels up there and I didn't want to be another victim, but I was about a row behind them.

The only show (other than club shows, of which there have been too many to count) where I just went and bought tickets and managed to get front row center was the Kinks, in about 1979 or 1980, in Tucson. I bought ten tickets and four of my best friends and I all brought dates and had one of the great nights in memory. That's the only time I had reserved seating front and center, but I've been really really close a number of times...

-Ray

Only had tickets like that once: front row in the orchestra pit for Tom Waits at the Detroit Opera House in 2006.
My wife was very skeptical of this concert, as she was unfamiliar with his music. By the time she walked out, she asked me to get tickets for every Tom Waits show I possibly could.
We were able to attend two more of his shows during his last tour in 2008; in Knoxville we were also seated in the front.

Tommy Emmanuel, couple of months ago.

Many times, but not in huge arena-type places.

Todd Rundgren - numerous times (it helps to know the promoter).
Great Big Sea (Newfoundland band), and their lead singer/guitarist's shows, Alan Doyle - was in front row 2 weeks ago.
Carbon Leaf (Virginia roots/Americana band), many times.
Jon Anderson (Yes frontman) solo - magical!