What Band Blew Your Mind?

[LeFinPepere]

Hendrix.
Definitely.
He changed my ears.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Cowboy Junkies
Velvet Underground
The Who
Jane’s Addiction
Leo Kottke
Boston’s Boston album
REM’s Murmur
Mazzy Star

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

The Doors!

 

[Bill Ashton]

Not enough Tennessee Honey in me to really make a rational decision...

But probably The Paul Butterfield Band, first on their first LP, then with the horns, at Lennies-On-The-Turnpike, live...

Though Cactus, live in a college field house cannot be underated...not sure my eyebrows have grown back 51 years later...

Original Allman Brothers Band live on Boston Common, 1971? Could not believe they sounded just like Live At Fillmore.

But maturing, probably both Pete Huttlinger and Clive Carroll...Clive gets special points for picking me out of a lined up crowd
in Nashville, a year after I had taken a week course with him...really impressed my buddy and my wife...although Pete Huttlinger
also had that kind of memory...going up to see him after a couple-hour clinic, asked me how my wife was...by name!

And cannot fail to mention Toby Walker, fingerstyle guitarist extrodinaire...

Can I name a fiddle player? DO NOT MISS April Verge if she ever comes round...

 

[geoguy]

I've seen some great shows over the years (Allman Bros, the Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, Richard Thompson, and more), but none more surprising than The Waybacks.

Essentially virtuosic bluegrass on steroids.

Here's one example that shows off their fiddle player's classical training (at Julliard).

 

[Bill Ashton]

I am not sure if that was Klezmer or Hot Club Of Paris, but most excellent none the less! Must be a killer band to see live

 

[Brucebubs]

Track 1 side 1 .... and right to the end of track 3 on side 2.

 

[fronobulax]

The Doors!

Yep. Same here.

 

[mellowgerman]

No band ever made as big of an impression on me as Jefferson Airplane. "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" were of course the first two I heard from them, but those were just the gateway drug... because of those two I bought a compilation that was the cheapest option with both songs on it, BUT it also happened to have "Young Girl Sunday Blues" and "House at Pooneil Corners" on it. That's the stuff that really blew my mind and I was forever hooked.

 

[7GuildsandanSG]

Guided By Voices

 

[Iceman]

Jimmy Hendricks
Blew my mind on March 24,1968 at the local IMA Auditorium in Flint Michigan.
Ironically, today is his 80th birthday!

 

[mushroom]

A song in particular.

Mockingbirds by Grant Lee Buffalo.

That led to the album which is one great record.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Track 1 side 1 .... and right to the end of track 3 on side 2.

After getting deep into Zep, I discovered Yes, and took that ^ album on cassette w/ me and my Sony Walkman in the back seat of my parent's car on a family vacation from Md, to Niagra Falls, through Canada coming back into the US is Wisconsin to Chicago, then back home. I must have played it 30-40 times in the course of several weeks.
Since then, Yes has always been my "second fav band"
That being said, their live version of the Simon/Garfunkel tune America....I'd consider one of the best covers of any tune...of anyone...by anyone...ever!! Especially those from the Bruford era.

 

[lungimsam]

As far as Rock music goes, I can’t think of a “mind blown” by a band per se experience. But I have had “mind blown” song experiences. Caveat: I am not really a fan of either group following, but:

1. At 13 years old, sitting in my darkened room, taking a break from my guitar practice. Put in a cassette and I heard the Ted Nugent Stranglehold solo for the first time. I was shocked at how beautiful and intoxicating it was. I think I’d be hard pressed to find another rock solo I think is so beautiful.

2. Standing in REI when Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes came on over the REI speaker system. After it entered the break down at the 3:00 point with those luscious harmonies (“If I had an orchard”) I thought, “That is the most beautiful music to come out since pre-1985.”. Did CSNY get back together or something?!?!

 

[hansmoust]

It's a long time ago, but I remember it as if it was yesterday.

Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Alla Rakha on resp. sitar, sarod and tabla.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[dreadnut]

No, wait: Iron Butterfly. Inna Gadda Da Vida, Baby! With headphones!

 

[lungimsam]

One of the best keyboard intros in rock music^^^^^^

 

[jp]

For me, this is unanswerable. The list would be way too long.

 

[fronobulax]

For me, this is unanswerable. The list would be way too long.

Reading the OP and the word "first" turned the unanswerable into the answerable for me.

 

[bobouz]

These guys!