Most amazing place you’ve played

[Tnfiddler]

What’s the most amazing setting you’ve ever played in? Today I had the privilege of playing at The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. If you’ve never been there, you’ve got to go.

[KenL]

It really is an amazing place.

I was first there as a kid, 50-some years ago when it was well outside the city limits and not crowded at all.

These days it is entirely surrounded by rooftops, and you drive in a parade of a couple hundred other cars.

Oh, well, that's the way it goes these days, what can you do? It really is a beautiful spot.

Glad you got to play there, enjoyed your photos. If you are still around, you should drive up to Red Rocks. Maybe, if nothing is going on, they would let you take the stage and play there for a short while. Now that would be awesome!

[eyesore]

WOW!! just wow!great pic!

[Skarsaune]

Georgia Theater, Athens GA, before it burned and got rebuilt.

Had our name on the marquee and everything. School was out, so it was “off season”, but it was a big deal to us.

[rmp]

what a great place to play.. Memorable!

for me, it was Indian Ranch in Webster Mass. (Outdoor concert venue) Labor day 1999.

I was in a country rock band, we opened for Billy Ray Cirrus, (who as it turns out was just not a very nice guy)

But the opening set was cool, something I'll never forget, even though country aint my favorite kind of music to play we had a blast.

[Mr. Jelly]

Nothing real special but we did play on top of a river boat casino once. Casinos pay well by the way.

[raysachs]

Red Rocks. Well, the Red Rocks PARKING LOT, but still, a fairly beautiful place...

-Ray

[Jamolay]

If you don’t mind a short walk with your guitar, you can probably find many really cool places to play guitar around the Red Rock amphitheater or Garden of the Gods.

Of course, with my playing I would just attract the rattle snakes…

[Bob Womack]

It must be on the stage of the auditorium at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. We we there the same weekend as ZZ Top. My band could practically feel the vibes they left in the floor. We had a captive audience.

Bob

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

It must be on the stage of the auditorium at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. We we there the same weekend as ZZ Top. My band could practically feel the vibes they left in the floor. We had a captive audience.

Bob

You're a riot, Alice....

I played Carnegie Hall a few times, but the most visually impressive (and acoustically dismal) place I ever played was The Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, Australia!

It had, literally, about a .75 second bounce-back delay from the back wall! It was very disconcerting.... to coin a bad pun.

Despite this I've heard the board recording from the show, and frankly it's one of the best sounding early live recordings of Billy Joel.

HE

[fenderball]

as far as setting, probably this beach festival in Deerfield Beach Florida a few years back...not the best pics, but you get the idea

[Cypress Knee]

Back in the mid-70's I strapped a trusty Guild D-35 to my backpack and climbed down the Black Canyon to the Gunnison River and played my guitar on a rock in the middle of the river.

I have been back a couple of times in recent years. I have no idea how I managed to get down there, and no idea of how I got back out.

These days it is a national park and you need to pay park fees and get backcountry permits and so forth to enter. Back then it was just a big hole in the ground at the end of a long dusty road.

[Steve DeRosa]

Actually, four:

• Carnegie Recital Hall, May 1963: first public performance at age 10, with my music school's guitar ensemble - initially relegated to Part VI (simple one-to-the-bar bass notes in 3/4 time ) until the director found out I could play the three harmonized lead lines, either individually or two at a time;
• Whitman Auditorium @ Brooklyn College, June 1970: solo to a full house of 2500+ (as part of a CBS/NYCHA co-sponsored talent show), just a Gretsch Double Anniversary and a (miked) Ampeg top-panel Rocket amp, on the same spot where Carlos Santana brought down the house a couple weeks before (check the pic on the inside of the Abraxas album) - and a setting with which I would become very familiar during my undergraduate years in the BC Music Department;
• Leif Erickson Park, Bay Ridge (Brooklyn, NY), July 1986: a sunset show during the Statue of Liberty Centennial Month, performing Neil Diamond's "America" solo with full chorus/orchestra and a millenium of local history as the setting - Fort Hamilton (1825) to my right, the Narrows (entry point for Messrs. Erickson, Verrazano, and Hudson - ca. 1000, 1524, and 1609 respectively) and Fort Wadsworth (1825) to the rear, the Statue of Liberty to my left, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (1964, whose construction I watched as a kid) overhead...and a (thankfully-deactivated) Civil-War-era Dahlgren harbor-defense gun pointed directly and ominously at the stage ;
• Guyon Tavern @ Historic Richmondtown, April 1996: a restored authentic Civil War-era small-town tavern, with all that implies (rough-hewn wooden tables/benches, no indoor plumbing, potbelly stove for heat, candles in tin reflector holders for light, libations served in handmade tin and pottery mugs, the pervasive scent of wood smoke and moist earth in the air) - and for an acoustic musician who thrives on the dynamic of audience interaction and involvement, I've yet to find a better place for both performing and listening...

[CASD57]

Nothing that special:

Several times..."Eagle Fun Days"(Nut feed) Twice country and once Old Rock

"Pepsi on the Park"

MISTI...Cancer Fund Raiser

[cedartop52]

The most amazing place I've played had everything to do with the circumstances. It was upstairs at the American Legion in Smalltown, Iowa in 1969. Our garage band was comprised of friends who all attended the local high school. On Saturday night we would play our covers (Hendrix, Cream, etc.) for a couple hundred our high school peers. It was such a magical moment ("far out") to play our favorite music for our classmates who filled the dance floor. I will never forget that dark, woody, funky, sweaty place that cemented making music as a 'must have' experience in my life.