10 Greatest Shows In Rock History

For all intents and purposes, rock and roll is still very much a new genre to the live stage. Whereas the classical halls and jazz clubs have been around for ages, taking the rock venue out of your standard bar or dance hall was a bit of a stretch in the mid '60s. Once we got ahold of the British Invasion though, rock and roll grew up to the stadium circuit.

Being the first of its kind to take place in a baseball stadium, The Beatles first shows at Shea Stadium became the largest shows that any rock and roll band had played up until this point. While the Fab Four were already both film and music stars at this point, this was also some of the toughest shows that they had to play, struggling to even be heard over the throngs of fans screaming for them nonstop.

Even though these shows raked in millions of dollars for the band, this is ultimately what made them quit the touring life altogether. Since no proper amplification had been made for these shows, they were just left to entertain themselves onstage, after which they became a studio exclusive band on records like Revolver. It's not that they necessarily hated playing live...the world was just too small a place to occupy them now.