You're a few years old that I am ....unbelivably I've
never seen the Stones. The first time I had the opporunity to do so was in 1978 at the L.A. Coliseum, and I refused to see them in a huge outdoor arena with "festival" seating (where every seat is a bad one) just on principle. I figured I'd wait for them to play a smaller venue ....but it just never happened.
Saw Dave Mason at the Universal Amp, and it was terrific.
Damn, you're lucky to have seen Cream. ...I'm envious.
The Zep show I saw in '77 was had its good and bad points. The bad: just too damn loud, and some of the songs were way too long (30 min+). The good: the songs, and the musicianship.
A lot of what I saw was at the Anderson Theater in the East Village. Later on it was the Fillmore East. Also two shows at Hunter College in Manhattan. I used to go to the Cafe Au Go Go a lot in Greenwich (West not East) Village. Blues Project was sort of the house band.
My most memorable Cafe Au Go Go jam was Eric Clapton and others including Al Kooper. Was on a Saturday or Sunday, daytime. I was using the men's room urinal when Al Kooper jammed in and splashed a lot of water on his face to cool down. I said something to him and he said even less to me. Clapton had a huge mop of Afro hair in that phase