I was 16 when I went to my first concert. At that time I would've been listening to rap - Tupac and 50 Cent. It wasn't until I was 17 that I started getting into rock 'n' roll and learnt to play an instrument.
It was 2006 and it had been 13 years since U2 had performed in New Zealand. I grew up with U2 - albums like Rattle and Hum and The Joshua Tree. I'm not a massive fan now but at the time, it was the music I grew up with. My brother first introduced them to my mother when they both went along to the Zooropa concert in 1993. Mum got into them in a big way, she would play the records around the house and I knew every single word of The Joshua Tree.
The show was at Mt Smart Stadium, and I remember it was raining, on and off. But nothing could dampen my spirits, I was too pumped to hear the roaring guitar work in Bullet The Blue Sky. I was excited to see some famous dudes rock out.
The coolest thing about this concert, for a 16-year-old who listened to rap, was that Kanye West was the opening act. Kanye had recently released Jesus Walks and Gold Digger, so it was right up my alley. All I ever thought rappers did was rap against backing tracks and strut the stage, but this wasn't the case.
