When life was just the stuff that happened between concerts (2025)

Courtesy Timothy Wood & Connecticut Concert Archive (Rock, Pop Jazz, Big Band, other pop culture)

Bobby Sherman and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 6-13-70 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

My mom took me. I returned the favor in 1993 in Hollywood by taking her (with a backstage pass!) to a private Pantera concert co-sponsored by Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics. I was such a big fan of Bobby Sherman in the late 60s/early 70s that I even styled my hair and picked clothes to most resemble one of the original teen pop stars. I bought every single record he ever put out, including the ones on the back of cereal boxes. At this time, he was cruising on the success of two albums released in 1970, Here Comes Bobby and With Love Bobby.

There are people on my Facebook friends list who actually saw – and maybe even took part in – my fourth grade “band" The Sherman Singers, who were regularly sent into the lower grades to put on performances of Bobby Sherman songs that surely caused the teachers at Rock Hill Elementary to consider early retirement……

I’d bring the family Magnus Chord Organ to school, even tho I really only knew how to finger-pick the most basic melodies and then just hold down one of the “chord” buttons for approximately a quarter of the song (everything I knew about playing keyboards came from the Archies and Josie & the Pussycats).

I recruited various classmates to accompany on triangle, tambourine, and a funky stick drum I made out of a pasta drainer and two wooden Scrabble tile holders (they made a lovely ringing bang on the drainer). Nobody taught us any of the vocal “harmonies,” we just basically all sang the same thing, in the same register and key = Bobby Sherman songs.

And I mean a LOT of Bobby Sherman songs! I think the reason few bandmates lasted more than one or two classroom gigs is because I’d want them to do “deep cuts” that weren’t even on 45rpm, such as “Turtles and Trees” (I like turtles!) and one that Mr. Sherman wrote himself called “Time” that I actually learned to play well enough on the organ that I could probably still sing and play it from memory today on my Yamaha keyboard without anyone throwing rocks at me.

I suspect that I was a laughingstock, but too into the gig to realize it. I started dressing in bright poofy sleeve shirts, striped bellbottoms, and wearing love beads like my idol, and my haircut was a dead ringer for Bobby’s helmet head. By fifth grade, the Sherman Singers were no more (tho half the kids in that school still seem to think MY name was Sherman).

What broke up the band? My bandmates wanted to do Partridge Family songs. I sang “I Think I Love You” one time, for one classroom, and then I retired from the tribute band biz for the next 30 years or so (hell if I was gonna learn the words to "Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque"!). It wasn't until partway into the 21st century, when I briefly fronted a Journey tribute band.

I remained a fan of Bobby Sherman, tho, and saw him several times from 1969-1971 at the Oakdale Theater, back when it was still outdoors and in the round. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band opened one show! Years later, I interviewed Dirt band founder John McEuen for the Reader, and he talked about how his band would get the audience to all take a photo of them at the same time, and now he wonders how many rolls full of Bobby Sherman pictures had one lone shot of a mystery band that nobody can remember or identify any more.

I eventually got to interview Mr. Sherman for the paper as well, and was happy to tell him how much I admired not only his music but his work as an EMT and training emergency responders, as well as his awesome hand-built replica of Disneyland’s Main Street that he made in his back yard!

I told him how I once actually jumped over a kneeling security guard at the Oakdale and ran up to the stage, which he saw and came over to me – I remember how terrified I was when Bobby Sherman was standing a foot away from me, asking me “And what song would YOU like to hear next?” and then he leaned down and stuck the mic in my face.

I can still feel the flopsweat. All the lights on the planet seemed to be shining on my ten year-old face.

I yelled “Turtles and Trees!”

Bobby Sherman looked at me like I’d just described his mother's vagina. I distinctly remember hearing the band members, whose vocals were NOT mic’d, laughing. A lot.

“Uh, I don’t think my band knows that one,” Bobby Sherman told me of one of his most obscure (and kind of terrible) songs. “How about if I do ‘Mr Sun’ instead?” Which was fine with me! When he stuck the mic back down in my face, tho, all I could do was nod affirmative before he moved back toward center stage and started the tune.

I still have a lot of respect for Bobby Sherman. And I STILL wish I could have heard “Turtles and Trees” live.

Tom Jones 6-20-72 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

My first date! With a girl named Lily from my 7th grade class at Dag Hammarskjold Middle School (home of the only kids in America who know how to spell Dag’s name!). Jones had just released his album Tom Jones Close Up.

Setlist:

Higher and Higher, Got To Get You Into My Life, Till, The Witch Queen of New Orleans, Tired Of Being Alone, She's A Lady, The Young New Mexican Puppeteer, Something, Never Been to Spain, A Man and a Half, All I Ever Need Is You, My Way, Delilah, I (Who Have Nothing), Love Me Tonight, It’s Not Unusual

Frank Zappa 6-6-75 Providence Civic Center, RI

Only Zappa album I’d ever heard was Freak Out, so I was disappointed to not hear any tracks from it. Musically, I had no idea what was happening. And I was annoyed that the audience was 95 percent male.

Todd Rundgren 8-22-75 Palace Theater, Waterbury CT

Swapped a jean jacket for tix out front.

Jethro Tull 9-27-75 New Haven Coliseum (rescheduled from March 31?)

Wrote an essay about hitchhiking with Tommy Gray to this show for Mr. White’s journalism class at East Lyme High School – still have the handwritten essay (graded A+), will someday type it up verbatim. One guy who gave us a ride was tripping on LSD. But he dropped us off right at the entrance to the Coliseum! Tull had just released Minstrel In the Gallery at the beginning of September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ7Wd55aOXk

Setlist:

Thick As A Brick, Minstrel in the Gallery, Wond'ring Aloud, To Cry You A Song, A New Day Yesterday, Flute Solo, Bouree, Teacher, A New Day Yesterday, Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day, Ladies, Drum Solo, War Child, Instrumental, Cross-Eyed Mary, Bungle In The Jungle, Locomotive Breath, Aqualung

Loggins and Messina 10-6-75 New Haven Coliseum, CT

I was there but have no recollection.

Jefferson Starship and Fleetwood Mac 10-20-75, New Haven Coliseum, CT

Starship: Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, David Freiberg, Craig Chaquico, Peter Kaukonen, John Barbata, Papa John Creach

Fleetwood Mac: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks

Had no idea who Fleetwood Mac were, their set was partially broadcast (6 songs) on Westwood One the following year. They were touring in support of the self-titled album that marked the introduction of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to the lineup, released a few months before this gig, in July 1975. Starship were touring in support of Red Octopus, released that June.

Fleetwood Mac partial set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teDsldC7NdQ

Starship setlist:

Ride the Tiger, Somebody to Love, There Will Be Love, The Witcher, Fast Buck Freddie, Miracles, Wooden Ships, Across the Board, Play On Love, That's For Sure, You're Driving Me Crazy, Big City, Better Lying Down, Have You Seen the Saucers, The Other Side of This Life, White Rabbit, Sweeter Than Honey

Fleetwood Mac setlist:

Get Like You Used To Be (Not Broadcast), Station Man, Spare Me A Little, Rhiannon, Monday Morning (Not Broadcast), Why (Not Broadcast), Landslide, Crystal (Not Broadcast), Frozen Love (Not Broadcast), Over My Head (Not Broadcast), Say You Love Me (Not Broadcast), I'm So Afraid, Oh Well (Not Broadcast), World Turning, Blue Letter (Not Broadcast), Encore: Don't Let Me Down Again, Hypnotized

The Beatles: A Way With Words 11-28-75Hartford Civic Center, CT

Multimedia presentation documenting the entire history of the band with 4000 slides and thousands of feet of film footage, kind of a high tech (for the time) Beatlemania.

David Bowie 3-22-76, New Haven Coliseum, CT

David Bowie, Carlos Alomar, Stacy Heydon, George Murray, Dennis Davis, Tony Kaye

Thin White Duke tour – I saw David Bowie for the first time in New Haven CT, touring in support of Station to Station. The tour had kicked off in February and would end in May after 65 shows. This was his Thin White Duke period, with the cardboard-stiff high collar white shirt, dapper suit vest, and slicked back orange hair. Much to most of the audience’s chagrin, the concert opened with a screening of the 1928 Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí film Un Chien Andalou, which you may have heard of due to the infamous closeup of an eyeball getting sliced. People actually threw up. That would have been a very bad night to try the brown acid…

The New Haven concert came barely a day after Bowie and Iggy Pop had been arrested at their hotel in Rochester New York for possession of a half pound of pot, a class C felony with a maximum sentence of 15 years. Bowie had to appear there in court in May, but the charges were effectively dismissed after a grand jury declined to indict. He never performed in Rochester again. The night AFTER he played New Haven, his performance in Uniondale New York was recorded by RCA Records and later partially broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour (we had to drive to Rhode Island to find a hill high enough to get a good tape off the radio!) – that recording is now officially available in various configurations, most recently a 2017 version called Live Nassau Coliseum ’76. The recording sounds pretty much like what I remember from the previous night in CT (which sold out all 11,000 seats) – a powerful, if creepily mechanical at times, stage and sound setup, starkly lit and made even more immersive by the way the music bounced around that big cement cinderblock of an arena.

The band featured Bowie’s longtime rhythm guitarist and music director Carlos Alomar and lead guitarist Stacy Heydon, as well as occasional Yes/Circa/Yoso keyboardist Tony Kaye. Set list at right – I’m sure I still thought “Waiting For the Man” was a Bowie song back then, which I only knew from Bowie’s first album (if memory serves, it’s the only song Bowie played sax on all night).

in ‘76 I probably thought Velvet Underground was a new cake flavor at Friendly’s ----

Nassau Coliseum show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyYZUpDQA6U

Setlist:

Station To Station, Suffragette City, Fame, Word on a Wing, Stay, I’m Waiting for the Man (The Velvet Underground cover), Queen Bitch, Life on Mars?, Five Years, Panic in Detroit, Changes, TVC15, Diamond Dogs, Rebel Rebel (encore), The Jean Genie (encore)

America and Eric Carmen (of the Rasberries) 4-27-76New Haven Coliseum, CT

Pretty much on the day America released their sixth studio album Hideaway, produced by Beatles collaborator George Martin. Within a few weeks, the radio was stuffed with songs I heard for the first time that night, including “Amber Cascades,” “Today’s the Day,” and “Don’t Let It Get You Down,” but the track I most remember is “Jet Boy Blue,” which remains my favorite America song. I’d see them two more times, but this was easily the best of the three. The show was opened by Rasberries frontman Eric Carmen, whose big hit at the time was “All by Myself.” ‘Fraid that maudlin’ like weeper is all I remember, I didn’t realize I like him and his former band until a few years later ---

America setlist:

3 Roses, Don't Cross the River, Muskrat Love, Riverside, Ventura Highway, I Need You, Miniature, Tin Man, Baby It's Up To You, Moon Song, Lonely People, Amber Cascades, Today's the Day, Old Virginia, Old Man Took, Daisy Jane, Jet Boy Blue, She's a Liar, Woman Tonight, Don't Let It Get You Down, Company, A Horse With No Name, Sister Golden Hair (encore), Sandman (encore)

Eric Carmen setlist:

Sunrise, That's Rock 'n' Roll, Starting Over, Never Gonna Fall in Love Again, On Broadway, Everything, No Hard Feelings, Overnight Sensation, All by Myself, Go All the Way

SpringFest 5-2-76 with BB King, Papa John Creach, J. Geils Band, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, University of Rhode Island, Meade Field, Kingston RI

Me and Tommy Gray at an all-day outdoor blues fest, only act I knew was J. Geils.

J. Geils setlist:

Southside Shuffle, I Wanna Dance, Must of Got Lost, Detroit Breakdown, Little Red Rooster, Let's Have a Party, Where Did Our Love Go, Whammer Jammer, Lookin' for a Love, Give It to Me, Start All Over Again, First I Look at the Purse

Yes 6-19-76 Colt Park, Hartford CT

All I remember is how cool the lasers coming out the eyes of the big snake backdrop, and how great they looked bouncing off the clouds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Mw_gTyWzE&t=70s

Harry Chapin 7-1-76 Rose Arts Festival, Norwich CT

Harry Chapin band – Harry Chapin, Steve Chapin, Big John Wallace, Howard Fields, Clark Wallace, Jonathan Chapin, Arlen Hlusko

Harry Chapin played outdoors under the tent at the Rose Arts Festival, a gig taking place between the September 1975 release of his fifth studio album Portrait Gallery and his upcoming October ’76 release On the Road to Kingdom Come. It had been a couple of years since his last big hit in 1974, “Cat’s In the Cradle,” and the festival date was kind of a comedown venue-wise, though he and his stellar band delighted the crowd with a terrific set.

Setlist:

Dreams Go By, WOLD, Better Place to Be, Six String Orchestra, Tangled Up Puppet, 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas, Mr. Tanner, Let Time Go Lightly, Cat's In the Cradle, Taxi, Circle, Sniper

Elton John, John Miles, Dave Mason, Boz Scaggs? Rick Derringer? 7-4-76 Schaffer Stadium, Boston MA

Elton John Band: Elton, Davey Johnstone, Caleb Quaye, Kenny Passarelli, Roger Pope, Ray Cooper

On the 4th of July, 1976, our nation’s 200th birthday, I barely avoided getting hauled off by cops with a lit firecracker in my hand (like my buddy Tommy Gray standing next to me) while waiting to see Elton John! What’s more, I just discovered these photos from the show online, and I found a recording of the concert on Youtube!! I’ll share the tale here before setting the Youtube Wayback Machine to when I was 16 years old in 1976 –

Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts was about two hours north of our rural coastal Connecticut hometown, and Tommy and I had to hitchhike without ever having been to the place. It was just Tommy and me because my girlfriend Vicky had just moved about three hours EAST of us, to Kittery Maine on the New Hampshire border, which is also where our friend Debi Wilson (Vicky’s sister-in-law) was living too. So you can imagine how surprised Tommy and I were to be a few hours into our hitch, about halfway to Massachusetts, when Debi and Vicky suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and picked us up!! They had no idea we were going, we had no idea they were going, and we ran into each other over 100 miles from each of our respective homes. Crazy, huh? That ain’t nuthin….

It’s the 4th of July, right? So while the warmup bands are playing (John Miles playing his new Alan Parsons produced album, Dave Mason, etc), me and Tommy climb up to the empty seat sections behind the stage, pull out a bunch of firecrackers, and start lighting them off, just like several hundred other people here and there throughout the stadium. I was literally standing there with a lit firecracker in my hand when I saw Tommy, standing a few yards and a couple of rows away, get tackled by a cop! I don’t even remember if I tossed the lit firecracker or put it out, I was astonished to see my friend getting handcuffed and dragged off, while I seemed to be standing there invisible, not another cop in sight. To this day, I’ll never understand how and why the cop jumped on the 200 pound 6 foot tall biker looking dude instead of the hairy little fucker kneehigh to a grasshopper, but there it was and there he went, up the steps and onto the back of a little golf cart that the cop quickly drove away.

I should mention that this was around one hour after ingesting a prodigious array of intoxicants that I can’t even faithfully recall for you. I know we arrived with orange sunshine LSD, purchased some mescaline, were smoking weed, and I’m fairly sure there was a cold frosty beer in there somewhere. What I can tell you is what I was completely incapable of telling Debi and Vicki that day when I found them down on the grass near the stage. I was apparently talking like Donald Duck on meth or something because it took awhile and several tries to convey to them what had happened. I don’t think they were nearly as steeped in intoxicants, but nobody could think of anything much to do other than ask a cop what happens to people who get arrested with fireworks. Turns out they get kicked off the property, and that’s pretty much it, unless they kick up a fuss or have drugs or something.

Well, Tom was about as likely to kick up a fuss as a sloth. He did, however, qualify as a walking pharmaceutical.

With little else to do, I started walking around the stadium perimeter, to see if I could spot Tommy outside the fence. There’s only 40,000 or so people here, and how hard will it be to spot a guy in a beard and a tye-dye shirt? We’d already beat amazing odds to get picked up by Vicky and Debi on the way, right?

Sure enough, there was Tommy, standing outside the fence, looking something like a cross between Jerry Garcia and one of those sad-faced, big-eyed children painted by Keane. He had no shoes. After being unhandcuffed by the cop, he’d taken his shoes off and handed them to the cop, he had no idea or explanation why.

Despite being shoeless, he managed to scalp a ticket and was back inside before Elton took the stage to perform the below setlist.

Elton was as big as he ever got at the time, touring on the strength of 1975’s Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy and its follow-up Rock Of the Westies. Billie Jean King flew backstage in a helicopter, she’d just won some big match and sang “Philadelphia Freedom” with Elton doing pushups between her legs. The Youtube screenshot shows his Statue of Liberty costume that seems fondly recalled by many of the video commentators who, like me, saw the show. It was the only date on the entire tour where he played "Holiday Inn." I still have the John Miles frisbee I caught and refused to re-fly. We had fun.

We had a ride home. Nobody went to jail. Another Happy Independence Day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22cWka8OgE0

Elton setlist:

Grow Some Funk of Your Own Play, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Hercules, Bennie and the Jets, Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Love Song (Lesley Duncan cover), Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (The Beatles cover), Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Holiday Inn, Empty Sky, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Philadelphia Freedom, We All Fall in Love Sometimes, Curtains, Encore: Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting, Your Song, Pinball Wizard

Neil Young & Stephen Stills, Poco 7-11-76 Colt Park Hartford CT

Colt Park only had concerts that one summer - a Grateful Dead show with a bunch of police action was the final concert there. A lot of people were booing because the mostly acoustic set was so hard to hear from behind the giant barricades between the audience and stage. This was a shortlived tour that had an infamous ending, with only 18 dates staged before Young famously sent Stills a note that read: “Dear Stephen, funny how things that start spontaneously end that way,” and dropped off the tour.

Stills-Young 6-26-76 Boston Garden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk739aZnK6I

Stills-Young setlist:

Love the One You're With, The Loner, Helpless, For What It's Worth, Southern Man, Sugar Mountain, Old Man, Ocean Girl, After the Gold Rush, Change Partners, Everybody's Talkin, Four Days Gone, Ohio, Buyin' Time, Mr. Soul, Make Love To You, Cowgirl in the Sand, The Treasure, Suite Judy Blue Eyes

Poco setlist:

Sagebrush Serenade, Rocky Mountain Breakdown, Faith in the Families, Too Many Nights Too Long, Starin' at the Sky, Magnolia, Stealaway, Keep On Tryin', Rose of Cimmaron,Georgia Bide My Time, Sittin' On a Fence, A Good Feelin' To Know, Hoedown

Jethro Tull and J. Geils Band 7-12-76 Colt Park, rescheduled from Hartford Civic Center

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Glascock, David Palmer, Barriemore Barlow

The sixth Colt Park concert of the summer of ‘76 happened the day after the Young/Stills show! Dunno how I talked the folks into that. Tull was touring in support of Too Old to Rock ‘N’ Roll: Too Young To Die, which came out in April. I remember the giant Tull-O-Vision screen behind the band was pretty glitchy, with Ian Anderson apologizing several times for the lack of footage synching.

J. Geils Band setlist:

Southside Shuffle, I Wanna Dance, Must of Got Lost, Detroit Breakdown, Little Red Rooster, Let's Have a Party, Where Did Our Love Go, Whammer Jammer, Lookin' for a Love, Give It to Me, Start All Over Again, First I Look at the Purse

Jethro Tull setlist:

Quartet, Thick as a Brick, Wond'ring Aloud, Crazed Institution, Conundrum, To Cry You a Song, A New Day Yesterday, Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll Too Young to Die, Minstrel in the Gallery, Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125 - IV. Finale (Ode to Joy), My God, Cross-Eyed Mary, Aqualung, Guitar Solo, Wind-Up, Back-Door Angels, Wind-Up (reprise),
Locomotive Breath, The Dambusters March, Back-Door Angels (reprise)

Grateful Dead 8-2-76 Colt Park, Hartford CT

Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Micket Hart, Keith and Donna Godchaux

The final outdoor Colt Park concert, lots of police arresting people. The Dead had released their Steal Your Face album that June.

Setlist:

Promised Land, Mississippi Half Step, Mama Tried, Deal, Cassidy, Tennessee Jed, Big River, Brown Eyed Women, Minglewood Blues, They Love Each Other, Looks Like Rain, Loser, Lazy Lightning-> Supplication Might As Well, Samson & Delilah, Candyman, Playin' In The Band-> Wharf Rat-> Drums-> Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad-> Playin' In The Band-> Around & Around, Encore: U.S. Blues, E: Sugar Magnolia

Peter Frampton and Natural Gas 8-6-76, Springfield Civic Center, Springfield MA

My first show at the arena in Springfield MA, a general admission free-for-all – note “day of show” ticket, we just drove up there on a whim and bought tix. One of Frampton's opening acts was Natural Gas, featuring Joey Molland of Badfinger. Frampton was touring in support of Frampton Comes Alive, which had just come out in April. He played Colt Park in Hartford CT on July 1, a 45-minute drive from our house, but I missed that show and had to hitchhike all the way to MA to see this tour, around a 2 hour drive that took around 8 hours by thumb.

Frampton setlist:

Baby Something's Happening, Doobie Wah, Lines On My Face, Show Me The Way, It's a Plain Shame, Wind of Change, Just the Time Of Year, Penny For Your Thoughts, All I Wanna Be, Baby I Love Your Way, I Wanna Go To the Sun, Nowhere's Too Far, Money, Do You Feel Like We Do, Shine On, White Sugar, Jumpin' Jack Flash

Aerosmith and Rick Derringer 8-10-76, New Haven Coliseum

Aerosmith was arguably the biggest band on the road at the time, touring in support of Rocks, which was released in May. Although pre-show rumors had us worried about whether we’d be seeing a great set or a bunch of falling down waste-cases, this happened to be one of the better shows of the tour, with everyone in fine form, at least to the best of my recollection.

Aerosmith setlist:

Rats in the Cellar, Dream On, Lord of the Thighs, Last Child, Walk This Way, Sick As a Dog, Same Old Song and Dance, Train Kept a Rolling, Get The Lead Out, Jailhouse Rock, Peter Gunn Theme, Toys in the Attic

Seals & Crofts and Harry Chapin 11-15-76, Hartford Civic Center

Harry Chapin band – Harry Chapin, Steve Chapin, Big John Wallace, Howard Fields, Clark Wallace, Jonathan Chapin, Arlen Hlusko

Soft rock duo Seals & Crofts were having one of their biggest years ever, thanks to their Get Closer album and its title single making the top-10 on two different charts. It was all pretty much downhill for them after this.

Seals & Crofts setlist:

Get Closer, We May Never Pass This Way Again, Summer Breeze, East Of Ginger Tree, Diamond Girl, Jamie, Take Me There, Put You Love In My Hands,

Harry Chapin setlist:

Dreams Go By, WOLD, Cat's In the Cradle, 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas, Taxi, Mr. Tanner, On the Road To Kingsom Come, Let Time Go Lightly, Circle

Kiss and Uriah Heep 12-18-76, New Haven Coliseum, CT

Uriah Heep: Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Lee Kerslake, John Lawton, Trevor Bolder

Attended this sold out show with Eric Sortland, went out the next day to get some Uriah Heep records. Uriah Heep was weathering a lineup change while touring in support of their ninth studio album High and Mighty, released in May – singer David Byron had been fired in June and this was only the fifth show with new singer John Lawton and new bassist-singer Trevor Bolder (replacing John Wetton, who played on the High and Mighty album).

KISS had just released Rock and Roll Over in November and they reportedly received a $20,000 guarantee for this performance. A show at Boston Gardens was originally scheduled on this day, but promoter Don Law wanted a stronger opening act because KISS hadn't sold out the Cape Cod Coliseum earlier in the year. KISS' booking agents suggested the cancellation was a result of Law failing to get permission for the use of the venue due to a spate of violence at concerts in Boston.

Uriah Heep setlist:

Do You Know, Stealin, Look At Yourself, Lady In Black, The Wizard, July Morning, The Hanging Tree, Firefly, Sympathy, Who Needs Me, Easy Livin', Gypsy, Sweet Lorraine

Kiss setlist:

Detroit Rock City, Take Me, Let Me Go Rock & Roll, Ladies Room, Fire House, Makin' Love, I Want You, Cold Gin (Ace Frehley Solo), Do You Love Me, Nothin' To Lose, (Gene Simmons Solo), The God Of Thunder (Peter Criss Solo), Rock & Roll All Nite, Shout It Out Loud, Beth, Black Diamond

Johnny Winter 12-28-76 ???

Kiss and Sammy Hagar 2-16-77 Hartford Civic Center, CT

KISS was still touring behind Rock and Roll Over, with ads already appearing in Circus magazine for their upcoming Love Gun album, due that summer. I went with Eric Sortland in full makeup, me as Gene and him as Ace (we were in a band called Exit where he played guitar and I manned the bass). We didn't know anything about makeup and used white and black shoe polish - pretty sure my bad complexion ever since started that night, it took three jars of Stridex to get that stuff off our faces. Former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar had just released his sophomore solo full-length in February, the self-titled album everyone calls The Red Album. KISS fans didn’t like him much – some of us thought it was a parody act.

And then my car broke down after the show. We had to leave it in the Civic Center parking lot while we hoofed it in the freezing cold to a nearby open diner, a really rough place where we used a payphone to call our folks to come pick us up (can’t remember whose parents came to get us). Everyone in the diner treated us like alien invaders, I’m pretty sure we narrowly avoided getting beat up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=_zgyef40-Y0

Sammy Hagar setlist:

Rock N Roll Weekend, It's Gonna Be All Right, Cruisin' and Boozin', Turn Up the Music, Urban Guerilla, Little Star, Red, Mad Motor Scooter (Montrose)

Kiss setlist (incomplete):

Detroit Rock City, Take Me, Let Me Go Rock n Roll, Ladies Room, Cold Gin – guitar solo, I Want You, God Of Thunder – drum solo, Makin’ Love, Rock and Roll All Nite, Black Diamond

Jethro Tull 3-31-77 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Glascock, John Evans, Dee Palmer, Barriemore Barlow

By this point, I was a full-blown Tull-O-Holic and would catch every single Tull tour into the late 1990s. Songs From the Wood had just dropped in February and I was already wearing out the vinyl grooves.I saw two different dates on the Songs From the Wood tour, catching them again on November 18, 1977, in Springfield MA (where they’d play an almost identical set).

Setlist:

Wond’ring Aloud, Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day, Jack-in-the-Green, Thick as a Brick, Songs From The Wood, Conundrum, To Cry You a Song, A New Day Yesterday, Velvet Green, Hunting Girl, Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll Too Young to Die, Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 (Ode to Joy) (Ludwig van Beethoven cover), Minstrel in the Gallery, Cross-Eyed Mary, Aqualung, Guitar Solo (encore), Wind-Up (encore). Back-Door Angels (encore), Wind-Up (reprise / encore), Locomotive Breath (encore), Pomp and Circumstance (Land of Hope and Glory) (Edward Elgar cover), Back-Door Angels (reprise / encore)

Electric Light Orchestra and Starcastle 4-1-77, Hartford Civic Center, CT

Starcastle was a very Yes-like band that I liked a lot at the time, so that’s who I wanted to see. Electric Light Orchestra were touring on the strength of the album they’d released six months earlier, A New World Record, their biggest selling record to date and their second-biggest ever, just behind the one they’d release six months later in October ‘77, Out Of the Blue. That would make this arguably the very peak of their rock and roll career. They sure did have an amazing laser light show!

Starcastle setlist:

Fountains, True To the Light, Lady of the Lake, Silver Winds

ELO setlist:

Fire On High, Poker, Nightrider, Eldorado Overture, Can't Get It Out Of My Head, Cello Solo, Showdown, Tightrope, Telephone Line, Living Thing, Rockestra/violin solo, Strange Magic, Evil Woman, Do Ya, MaMaMa Belle, Roll Over Beethoven

America and Burton Cummings 4-21-77, Hartford Civic Center, CT

With their 1972-1976 heyday behind them, America were touring in support of their George Martin-produced Harboralbum, released in March and their final record to feature Dan Peek before they slimmed down to a duo. None of its singles charted, and this was pretty much their final headline arena tour. Former Guess Who singer Burton Cummings had released a solo album in ’76 that yielded a big U.S. hit with “Stand Tall,” which was the main thing I knew him for at the time. I remember being surprised that most of the songs were Guess Who tracks. Now that I see the setlist, it appears he previewed the title track of the sophomore solo album he was about to release, My Own Way To Rock – although he only did two of his own rock songs all night, all the rest were by his former band.

America setlist:

Riverside, Don't Cross the River, Muskrat Love, Three Roses, Ventura Highway, I Need You, Miniature, Tin Man, Amber Cascades, Lonely People, Today's the Day, Sarah, Don't Cry Baby, Political Poachers, Old Man Took, God of the Sun, Daisy Jane, Company, Hurricane, Don't Let It Get You Down, Woman Tonight, Sister Golden Hair, Sandman, A Horse With No Name

Burton Cummings setlist:

American Woman (The Guess Who), Laughing (The Guess Who), These Eyes (The Guess Who),
No Time (The Guess Who), My Own Way to Rock, Undun (The Guess Who), Stand Tall

Boston and Prism 5-6-77, New Haven Coliseum CT

Boston was playing the second evening of a two-night stand in New Haven, as well as having played May 3 in Hartford, May 4 in Boston, and they’d perform at the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island on May 7 – Boston was pretty huge at the time! Their self-titled album had come out in August 1976, and it would be over a year before their sophomore release Don’t Look Back in August 1978, so this was basically a concert version of their debut full-length. Opening act Prism was a new band out of Vancouver, Canada, whose self-titled debut was released pretty much on the day of this concert. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, etc), about the only song from the album we ever heard on New England radio was “Spaceship Superstar,” which I’m pretty sure they opened with - it’s the only thing I recall about their set. If I hadn’t written their name on my ticket stub, I would never have recalled them at all (I can’t find any online confirmation that they opened this show other than my hand-notated stub, which I’m sure is accurate).

Boston setlist (incomplete):

Foreplay/Long Time, Peace of Mind, More Than a Feeling, Smokin', Rock & Roll Band

Led Zeppelin, 6-13-77 Madison Square Garden, New York City

In June 1977, when I was 17, I hitchhiked with my buddy Tommy Gray from rural coastal CT to Madison Square Garden in NYC (about 2 hours by car, but 8-24 by thumb) to see the mighty Led Zeppelin on one of their final U.S. dates, touring in support of the Song Remains the Same live album. I've told people for years what a crappy show it was, and now I have the proof, having found it bootlegged on Youtube! It was a trip hearing it again so many years later, and there are actually a few good bits like “Kashmir” and “Over the Hills and Far Away,” mostly the parts where Jimmy Page was passed out on a chair behind the amp and letting everyone else play.

Yes, Page slept thru part of the show (the fifth of six nights). A stagehand had to wake him up to do the "solo" between "Heartbeaker" and "Achilles Last Stand," but if you listen to the noise he was making, I have doubts that he ever actually woke up until well into the latter number. I can't even pinpoint the spot where he dropped the guitar onto the stage, because most of the "solo" sounds like someone was running it thru a washing machine. Bonzo comes in too early on the drums during “Stairway to Heaven,” forcing Robert Plant to ad-lib after “There's still time to change the road you're on” to address the drummer, joking out loud “I hope so, Bonzo!” According to online databases, this was the first of only two time “Black Dog” was performed on this tour (they closed the show with it as the final encore).

That said, the hitchhiking was a great adventure! We got garbage thrown on our heads walking thru Harlem, but still got to the show just before the lights went down. And the only way my folks let me go on a school night on one of the last school days of the year was because I promised I'd still go to school the next day, and sure enough the last ride I thumbed got me right to the school doors just long enough before the bell rang.

That gave me time to earn my rank as the coolest kid in the entire school that day, because I was wearing the shirt and carrying the program I got at a Zep concert the night before! Never mind that the band played like crap --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRRSUQfqYtY

Setlist:

The Song Remains The Same, Sick Again, Nobody's Fault But Mine, Over the Hills and Far Away, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, Ten Years Gone, The Battle of Evermore, Going to California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, White Summer ~ Black Mountainside, Kashmir, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker - Guitar solo, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway to Heaven, Encore: Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog

Emerson Lake and Palmer 7-10-77 Hartford Civic Center, CT

Hitchhiked with Tommy Gray to this one and walked in just as the lights went down and Greg Lake started singing “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends…” ELP was touring in support of Works Volume 1, released that March, and previewing Works Volume 2, due in November. Luckily, we were still over a year away from Love Beach (shudder).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqYAoJgxL5A

Setlist:

Introductory Fanfare, Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression Part 2, Hoedown (Aaron Copland cover), Tarkus, Take a Pebble, Piano Concerto No. 1 First Movement, Still… You Turn Me On, Knife-Edge, Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky cover), C'est la vie, Lucky Man, Tank, Nutrocker (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky cover), Watching Over You, Pirates, Fanfare for the Common Man (Aaron Copland cover), Show Me the Way To Go Home (Irving Berlin cover)

Alice Cooper and Atlanta Rhythm Section 7-24-77 Providence Civic Center

Alice Cooper band: Steve Hunter, Jozef Chirowski, Pentti “Whitey” Glan, Prakash John

Another Day of Show last minute adventure. General admission, I was smashed so tight up against the stage barrier that I passed out (on my feet) a few times. Cooper’s album Lace & Whiskey had just been released in May. The King Of the Silver Screen stage show included a 30X40 foot TV set (which occasionally screened old musical clips and parody commercials), giant spiders, several dancers and a set of dancing teeth, and a stage presentation (which reportedly cost over $100,000 to build) that played out like a horror TV show host’s wet dream. The giant TV included a slitted screen, so that the figures onscreen could appear to come to life as Alice and others came out through the slit, seeming to emerge from within the screen itself. Atlanta Rhythm Section had recently released A Rock and Roll Alternative in December ’76.

The June 19 Cooper performance in Anaheim was filmed a month previous and released later as Alice Cooper & Friends, though only part of Cooper’s set is included (the rest of the show features opening bands). https://archive.org/details/alice-cooper-and-friends-1977

Atlanta Rhythm Section setlist:

Doraville, Dog Days, Back Up Against the Wall, Georgia Rhythm, Another Man's Woman, So Into You

Alice Cooper setlist:

Under My Wheels, Billion Dollar Babies, I'm Eighteen, Sick Things, Is It My Body, Devil's Food, The Black Widow, You and Me, Only Women Bleed, Unfinished Sweet, Escape, I Love the Dead, Go to Hell, Wish You Were Here (Instrumental Only), I Never Cry, It's Hot Tonight, Lace and Whiskey, King of the Silver Screen, Encore: School's Out

Yes and Donovan, 8-10-77 Springfield Civic Center MA

Yes: Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, Rick Wakeman

Donovan (electric band): Donovan, Miller Anderson (guitar)

Opening act Donovan was touring with a full electric band, but he literally got booed off the stage, one of the only times I've ever seen that happen. Yes was on their Going For the One tour, with this stop selling out the arena. Howe played three different guitars during “Close To The Edge.”

Three different bootleg albums capture the show, all available via http://forgotten-yesterdays.com/dates.asp?qcategoryid=4&qbandid=1&qyear=1977&qdateid=1268

Donovan setlist:

Cosmic Wheels, Sunshine Superman, Brave New World, Mellow Yellow, Atlantis

Yes setlist:

The Firebird Suite (Igor Stravinsky song), Parallels, I've Seen All Good People, Close to the Edge, Wonderous Stories, Beautiful Land (Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley cover), Turn of the Century, And You and I, Flight Jam (Jon Anderson song), Awaken, Encore: Starship Trooper, Encore 2: Roundabout

Frank Zappa 10-17-77, Hartford Civic Center CT

Frank Zappa, Adrian Belew, Terry Bozzio, Ed Mann, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf, Patrick O Hearn

Zappa’s band included future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew and Missing Persons co-founder Terry Bozzio. His most recent album Zoot Allures had been released the previous October – he didn’t have anything new in stores in 1977, but he was previewing upcoming tracks at live gigs, like “Flakes,” “Jones Crusher,” “City Of Tiny Lights,” and “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes” songs which wouldn’t appear on record until 1979’s Sheik Yerbouti album. According to online databases, this is the first concert where Zappa performed “Bobby Brown,” also destined for Sheik Yerbouti.

Listening to a bootleg of the show, I notice Zappa mentions “Our new album Lather,” a four-album set which was due to be released any day by Warner Brothers. The concert program also calls this the Lather tour, something that baffled me for years since no album named Lather was released by Frank Zappa until 1996. How did I see a Lather tour in 1977?? Now that I research online, it turns out the record label decided not to release Lather, and instead demanded four separate albums to fulfill his recording contract. In retaliation, in December 1977, Zappa played the entire Latheralbum on a Pasadena radio station, inviting listeners to tape it – bootlegs of that broadcast were the only versions of Lather available until Rykodisc finally released it in 1996.

The entire Hartford concert ran over two hours and bootlegs are on Youtube from multiple accounts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6MQQcrKXH4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJvDcvJx2BU

Setlist:

Revenge Of The Knick Knack People (Over PA), Flakes Intro, Peaches En Regalia, The Torture Never Stops, Tryin' To Grow A Chin, City Of Tiny Lights, A Pound For A Brown, Conehead, Flakes, Big Leg Emma, Envelopes, Disco Boy, I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth, Wild Love, Titties 'n Beer, The Black Page, Jones Crusher, Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, Punky's Whips, Dinah-Moe Humm, Camarillo Brillo, Muffin Man, Bobby Brown (world premiere performance), Black Napkins

Queen 11-16-77, New Haven Coliseum CT

The News Of the World tour spanned from November 11 to May 13, 1978 over three tour legs: North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom. No opening act, which was a first for us at the Coliseum, not even a warmup comedian. News Of The World had just come out at the end of October and this was one of the first dates of the tour, and man, did they ever blow us away! The elaborate “Crown” ringing the stage was the world's first mobile lighting rig. I know News Of the World is considered by some to mark a decline for the band but, having seen so much it performed live just weeks after its release, I still rank it as my favorite Queen album! I’d see Queen again 11-7-78 at the same Coliseum.

Setlist:

Now I’m Here, Brighton Rock, Somebody To Love, It’s Late, Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…), Killer Queen, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, I’m in Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, The Millionaire Waltz, You’re My Best Friend, Ogre Battle, Spread Your Wings, Liar, Love of My Life, ’39, My Melancholy Blues, White Man, The Prophet’s Song - Guitar Solo, The Prophet’s Song (reprise), Keep Yourself Alive, Stone Cold Crazy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Encore: We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Sheer Heart Attack, Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley cover), God Save The Queen (traditional cover)

Lynyrd Skynyrd and Edgar Winter 11-17-77 New Haven Coliseum

THIS SHOW NEVER HAPPENED! Eric Sortland and I actually camped out for these tix, only to find out the next day about the plane crash. The tix were returnable, but I kept mine –

Jethro Tull 11-18-77 Springfield Civic Center, MA

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Glascock, John Evans, Dee Palmer, Barriemore Barlow

Another two hour drive to Springfield MA, but it was always worth it for a Tull show! This was my second time catching the band on their Songs From the Wood tour, having seen them play an almost identical set3-31-77 in New Haven Coliseum, CT. I was especially jazzed to again see my fave Tull bassist John Glascock, from the gypsy-flamenco prog rock band Carmen. I ended up right in front of the stage rocking out at Glascock’s furry-booted feet for the encore, and was probably never happier in my life up until that very moment.

Setlist:

Wond'ring Aloud, Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day, Jack-in-the-Green, Thick as a Brick, Songs From the Wood, Conundrum, To Cry You a Song, A New Day Yesterday, Velvet Green, Hunting Girl, Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll Too Young to Die, Minstrel in the Gallery, Cross-Eyed Mary, Aqualung - Guitar Solo, Wind-Up, Back-Door Angels, Wind-Up (reprise), Locomotive Breath, The Dambusters March, Back-Door Angels (reprise)

Blue Oyster Cult and Rush 1-14-78, New Haven Coliseum CT

I remember the TON of equipment on the stage for BOC, with just this little space cleared out near the front. When the three hairy guys came out, we STILL thought it was Mahogany Rush. Oddly enough, of the four Rush shows I caught between 1978 and 1981 (the last time I saw them), I recall this show best. I found out later they had recently released an album called A Farewell To Kings.

It was immediately obvious during the first two songs “Bastille Day” and “Lakeside Park” that this was NOT Frank Marino’s ensemble! I distinctly remember “By-Tor” because by then our mouths were all hanging open, and everyone one around us was asking “Who the fuck ARE these guys?!” I made a note to myself to remember the phrase “Snow Dog” and to seek whatever Rush album HAD that song, I was so impressed – that was exactly the kinda music that was my meat around then.

The place was going half mad by the time they rolled thru all of “2112” (minus “Oracle,” according to the setlist I pulled from online). At that point, we (me, Eric Sortland, Dave Plaistead, probably Doug Lane) didn’t give a shit if BOC was gonna play or not – THIS was a freakin’ CONCERT! Everyone was losing their minds! I’ve never seen the entire crowd pledge allegiance to a new all-but-unknown act quite like that. If that place seated 12,000 people, I bet 10,000 of them bought at least one Rush album over the next few days. (The only thing I ever saw akin was that Rolling Stones show in Buffalo NY where Journey opened, one of their first shows with Steve Perry – Journey blew everyone away by playing all of the Infinity album, but it was STILL a Stones crowd, to be sure).

And then the hairy fuckers came BACK, and played “Cinderella Man”! Our brains melted out our ears. I could’ve gone home right then and still have called it the best show I’d ever seen (of around 20 concerts I saw from 1972 thru early 78). BOC was pretty good. I had every one of their albums and was a big fan, we played several BOC songs in my first band Exit (with Eric and Dave), and I’d never see a laser show like that before or after (it became illegal to drench crowds in lasers shortly after that night), but our minds were still blown by Rush. It felt like having seen Led Zep at the beginning.

I skipped school the next Monday and went to either Sounds and Silence or Tumbleweed Connection in Niantic and bought 2112 and All the World’s a Stage. Devoured them like a starving man off a desert island. By that summer, I was in a new band with Tony Lee and Mike Mars, and we did all of “2112” out at Ray Machinski’s farmhouse, with people’s car headlights to light us up for the second half of the song, after the sun went down. Mike made a reel to reel tape of that gig that he claims to have wiped – pity.

Rush setlist:

Bastille Day, Lakeside Park, By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated), Xanadu, A Farewell to Kings, Something For Nothing, Cygnus X-1, Anthem, 2112 (minus Oracle), Working Man, Fly By Night, In the Mood, Encore: Cinderella Man

Blue Oyster Cult setlist:

R.U. Ready 2 Rock, E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), Harvester of Eyes, We Gotta Get Out of This Place (Barry Mann cover), Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll, Astronomy, Godzilla, This Ain't the Summer of Love, 5 Guitars, Born to Be Wild, Encore: (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Styx and Be-Bop Deluxe 3-16-78 New Haven Coliseum CT

Styx was huge during their Grand Illusion tour, and they’d release Pieces of Eight later that year, in September. I’m pretty sure I saw Styx again in November in Springfield MA with local heroes Nantucket, but I’m missing that ticket stub. We’d heard a bit of British rockers Be-Bop Deluxe, with local radio favoring several tracks from their newest release, a concert album called Live! In the Air Age, which was a top-ten hit in the UK that only got occasional regional attention in the US.

Be-Bop Deluxe setlist:

New Precision, Possession, Superenigmatix, Shine, Ships In The Night, Speed Of the Wind, Dangerous Strangers, Panic In The World, Forbidden Lovers, Love In Flames

Styx setlist:

The Grand Illusion, Lorelei, Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man), Suite Madame Blue, Crystal Ball, Lady, Man in the Wilderness, Come Sail Away, Midnight Ride, Encore: Miss America, Born for Adventure, The Grand Finale

Eric Clapton and John Martyn 4-5-78 Springfield Civic Center, MA

Eric Clapton, George Terry (G), Dick Sims (K), Carl Radle (B), Jamie Oldaker (D), Marcy Levy (V, harmonica)

Those fifth row center seats were my first time up in the front rows without it being a "General Admission" show or by crashing the stage. We just drove up there on a whim and scored the primo seats from a scalper out front for face price, just as the show was started (guess the scalper didn’t wanna get stuck with unsold tix). Opening act John Martyn, a British singer-songwriter who died in 2009, was touring on the strength of his first album to make a mark on the UK charts, One World (released November 1977), but few in the US knew his music, including us. I had no recollection that he was on the bill until researching this show online. It’s possible we didn’t get inside until Clapton was starting his set. A soundboard audio recording of the complete Clapton set is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_woVB9j0d9A

Clapton setlist:

The Core, Worried Life Blues, Peaches And Diesel, Wonderful Tonight, Lay Down Sally, Rodeo Man, Fool's Paradise (feat. Marcy Levy), Cocaine, Double Trouble, Badge, Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (feat. Marcy Levy), Let It Rain, Key To The Highway, Layla

David Bowie 5-5-78 Providence Civic Center, RI

David Bowie, Carlos Alomar, Adrian Belew, George Murray, Dennis Davis, Simon House, Roger Powell, Sean Mayes

My second Bowie concert was apparently part of the Heroes tour, promoting the October 1977 Heroes album, though my ticket stub says “David Bowie ON STAGE” and most sources call this the Isolar II tour, which kicked off at the end of March. The band included keyboardist Roger Powell from Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew playing alongside Carlos Alomar, who’d been with Bowie the first time I saw him 3-22-76 in New Haven, CT.

Setlist:

Warszawa, Heroes, What in the World, Be My Wife, The Jean Genie, Blackout, Sense of Doubt, Speed of Life, Breaking Glass, Beauty and the Beast, Fame, Five Years, Soul Love, Star, Hang on to Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Art Decade, Alabama Song (Whisky Bar), Station to Station, Encore:Stay, TVC15

Grateful Dead 5-11-78 Springfield Civic Center, MA

Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Keith Godchaux, Donna Jean Godchaux

AKA “The Mescaline Show,” online sources confirm that this Dead show (a future Dick’s Pick) was marinated in mescaline, which was on sale everywhere – even the band was reportedly fully dosed, other than maybe Donna Godchaux (who, with Keith, would soon leave the band). Bob Weir wore a werewolf mask during “Werewolves Of London.” The entire concert is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ov28knCslwI

Setlist:

Cold Rain and Snow, Beat It on Down the Line, Friend of the Devil, Looks Like Rain, Loser, Mexicali Blues, Mama Tried, Tennessee Jed, New Minglewood Blues, Peggy-O, Lazy Lightnin, Supplication, Scarlet Begonias, Fire on the Mountain, Dancin in the Streets – drum solo, Not Fade Away, Stella Blue, Around and Around, Werewolves Of London, Johnny B. Goode

Kansas and Les Dudek 6-27-78 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Kansas: Kerry Livgren, Steve Walsh, Robby Steinhardt, Phil Ehart, Dave Hope (?)

I was such a prog geek, and this was Kansas’ best lineup, at the peak of their proggy goodness! Point Of Know Return had been released the previous October, and they were just a few months away from releasing a live album in October, Two For the Show. The tour program from this show includes an essay about the band by future Fast Times At Ridgemont High scribe Cameron Crowe. The night after this concert, they played a sold-out date at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. Opener Les Dudek (who’d played on the Allmans’ “Ramblin’ Man” as well as with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs) was touring in support of his third studio album Ghost Town Parade.

A July 7, 1978 Kansas concert on Long Island is archived online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RieWpUAxhno

Les Dudek setlist:

City Magic, We Just Disagree, Gonna Move, Falling Out, Sweet Hearted Woman, Central Park

Kansas setlist (incomplete?):

Dust In the Wind, Incomudro – Hymn to the Atman, Carry On Wayward Son, Point of Know Return, Magnum Opus, Paradox, Lonely Wind

Rolling Stones, Journey, Atlanta Rhythm Section, April Wine 7-4-78 Rich Stadium, Orchard Park NY

Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Ian McLagan

We drove something like 8 hours with no tix for this outdoor show on the Stones’ Some Girls tour in upstate New York near Buffalo, but we got lucky and scored tix in the parking lot, joining the largest crowd in the venue’s history, around 75,000 to 80,000 fans. Steve Perry had just joined Journey and they did a bunch of their new album Infinity, released in January. April Wine was a Canadian band who got their big break opening for the Stones in early March 1977 at Toronto’s El Mocambo Club, a set released later in ‘77 as a live album. They had just put out their First Glance album in March ‘78 and were riding high on the strength of its hit single “Roller,” pretty much their biggest (and only) US hit.

I still have two tuxedo-style Stones jackets they were selling which were identical to the one Mick Jagger wore onstage for part of the set (I looked em up online, holy cats, are they valuable now!). Running almost seven hours, the concert ended on a sour note when the Stones refused to return to the stage for an encore. According to one newspaper report, “About 300 people stormed the 20 foot high stage, tearing down a chain-link fence and throwing bottles, containers, and debris at stage hands and security officers. Several fans were struck by stage hands and security officers…stage hands swung two-by-fours to fend off Rolling Stones fans.” According to the same report, “Outside the stadium, 20 people were arrested, 19 on drug selling charges and one on a charge of larceny…more than 200 people were treated by medical officers during the concert, mostly for minor complaints. Two were taken to the hospital.”

Journey setlist:

La Do Da, Feeling That Way, Anytime, Wheel in the Sky, Lights

Atlanta Rhythm Section setlist:

Champagne Jam, Imaginary Lover, So Into You, Rocky Raccoon (Beatles cover)

Rolling Stones setlist:

Let It Rock, All Down the Line, Honky Tonk Women, Star Star, When the Whip Comes Down, Miss You, Lies, Beast of Burden, Shattered, Just My Imagination, Respectable, Far Away Eyes, Love In Vain, Tumbling Dice, Happy, Sweet Little Sixteen, Brown Sugar, Jumpin Jack Flash

Amazing Rhythm Aces and Asleep at the Wheel 7-26-78 Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin TX

I spent the first summer after graduating High School in Austin, Texas. In fact, the only reason I ended up in San Diego was because my Navy friend/D&D Dungeonmaster Jack McCowan got transferred to a ship out there, and he invited me and Tommy Gray to help him drive out to CA in summer 1978 - I liked SD so much I decided to stay. On the way, we spent a week in his hometown of Austin TX doing things like buying Freak Brothers comics directly from Gilbert Shelton at an Oat Willie's signing (onward, thru the fog!), and catching Rocky Horrorfor the first time at one of its early midnight strongholds. We also saw two jaw-dropping concerts at the famed Armadillo World Headquarters. Including a double-bill with the Kinks and Blondie and this show with Amazing Rhythm Aces headlining and Asleep at the Wheel opening.

At least I’m pretty sure Asleep at the Wheel played, that’s what I wrote on my ticket stub. I see online there’s a flyer for this concert listing John Vandiver and the Shake Russell Band as opening acts for this Wednesday evening show, with no mention of Asleep at the Wheel. I wasn’t very familiar with the Amazing Rhythm Aces and only remember them doing their 1975 hit “Third rate Romance” and I think “I Pity the Mother and Father” and “Who Will the Next Fool Be.” They were touring in support of their fourth album Burning the Ballroom Down, which reached #28 on the US Country chart.

The Kinks and Blondie 7-28-78 Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin TX

Kinks: Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Andy Pyle (B). Mick Avory (D), Gordon Edwards (P)

The Kinks were riding high on one of their biggest US albums ever, Misfits, released that May and featuring new bassist Andy Pyle replacing longtime member John Dalton and new keyboardist Gordon Edwards replacing departing player John Gosling, who quit just as they finished recording Misfits (Edwards would make his recorded debut with the Kinks’ 1979 album Low Budget). Misfits didn’t even chart in their native England, but it reached #40 in America, with the single “A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy” hitting #39.

I knew about Blondie, who’d released Plastic Letters the previous September, via an article in High Times magazine, but I didn’t know any of their music. Their breakthrough third studio album album Parallel Lines wouldn’t come out until around five weeks after this concert, on September 8, 1978. According to both Jack McCowan and Tommy Gray, I was so unfamiliar with the band that I tried to hit on Debbie Harry when I saw her in the bar that afternoon, as we were picking up our tickets. I do remember flirting with a short, pretty blonde, but I’m pretty sure both Tommy and Jack are mistaken about it being Harry – they were even more unfamiliar with the group and its singer than I was. I didn’t see Blondie hit the stage that night and think to myself “Hey, that’s the girl I was talking to today.” Tho I suppose it’s possibl3e. An interesting note - The Kinks teased "You Really Got Me" at the opening of their set before doing the full song near the end. The very next concert I saw - Sabbath and Van Halen - included Van Halen covering "You Really Got Me"! So I heard the song played live three times at two consecutive concerts.

Blondie setlist:

In the Sun, X Offender, Detroit 442, A Shark in Jets Clothing, Fan Mail, Look Good in Blue, Man Overboard, Rip Her to Shreds, Fade Away and Radiate, (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear Denis, I'm on E, Little Girl Lies, Kidnapper

Kinks setlist:

You Really Got Me (partial), Sleepwalker, Life on the Road, Permanent Waves, Lola, Misfits, A Well Respected Man, Sunny Afternoon, Hay Fever, Trust Your Heart, You Really Got Me, Slum Kids, Alcohol, A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy, All Day and All of the Night, Live Life, Twist and Shout

Black Sabbath and Van Halen 9-10-78 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath were promoting their Never Say Die album, which would be released September 28. Iommi was plagued with guitar sound issues all night, prompting many to come out of the Coliseum convinced that opening act Van Halen (whose debut album dropped on February 10) had blown the headliners off the stage (nearly true). All we really knew by Van Halen were the singles that had already been released, including “You Really Got Me” in February and “Runnin With the Devil” and “Jamie’s Cryin’” in May. Altho I have the ticket stub for this show, only the year is visible – newspapers advertised the show as taking place September 10, but some online sources indicate the show was delayed until September 11.

Van Halen setlist:

On Fire, I’m the One, Runnin’ With the Devil, Atomic Punk, Jamie’s Cryin’, Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love, Ice Cream Man, Eruption, You Really Got Me

Black Sabbath setlist:

Supertzar, Symptom of the Universe, Snowblind, War Pigs, Never Say Die, Black Sabbath, Dirty Women, Rock ‘N’ Roll Doctor, Electric Funeral, Iron Man, Fairies Wear Boots, Paranoid, She’s Gone

Electric Light Orchestra, Kingfish, The Cats 9-12-78 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Back in Connecticut, I started saving up to move to San Diego CA. But first, there were some concerts to catch, including my second (and final) ELO show. Dutch rock band The Cats remain one of the worst opening acts I ever sat thru, they make The Rockets, Jackyl, and Nick Gilder look like Led Zep by comparison (they split in 1980, but not before I had to sit thru them again at a Van Halen show). Kingfish were better, with Dead collaborators Matthew Kelly (who guested on Wake Of the Flood, Shakedown Street, and later played with Bobby & the Midnites) and Dave Torbert (New Riders of the Purple Sage) heading up the group, which included Wings and Sea Level drummer Joe English (Bob Weir was only a member for their first two albums, departing in 1976). Kingfish were touring in support of their Trident album.

ELO had released Out of the Blue around a year earlier, their best-selling US album ever (#4 on the Billboard album chart). They apparently flew in for this show from Hershey, PA where they performed earlier that day. A promoter from one of their August 1978 concerts publicly accused the band of sweetening their sets with pre-recorded backing tracks, but we all thought it was an exceptional performance with another brain-melting light show.

ELO setlist:

Standin' in the Rain, Night in the City, Turn to Stone, Can't Get It Out of My Head - Cello Solo, Tightrope, Telephone Line, Rockaria! - Violin Solo, Strange Magic, Showdown, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Evil Woman, Mr. Blue Sky, Do Ya (The Move cover), Livin' Thing, Ma-Ma-Ma Belle, Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry cover)

Bob Dylan 9-26-78 Springfield Civic Center, MA

This was the tour that baffled everybody so much, with slick Vegas-style reworkings of his classic songs, as heard on the Bob Dylan at Budokan live album recorded earlier that year (February and March) at Budokan Hall in Japan and released in August, a few weeks before this show. I seem to be one of the few who duggit and still diggit. I think I even got to tell this to Dylan himself, years later, during a mysterious phone call, after we stopped publishing Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, which included a three-issue Dylan set.

“Is this the number where ahh kin reach Mr. Jay Allen Sanford?” asked the man on the phone with the twangy voice.

Setlist:

My Back Pages, I’m Ready, Is Your Love In Vain?, Shelter From the Storm, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Tangled Up in Blue, Ballad of a Thin Man, Maggie’s Farm, I Don’t Believe You, Like a Rolling Stone, I Shall Be Released, Going Going Gone, True Love Tends to Forget, It Ain’t Me Babe, Am I Your Stepchild?, One More Cup Of Coffee, Blowin in the Wind, I Want You, Senor (Tales of Yankee Power), Masters of War, Just Like a Woman, Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right, All Along the Watchtower, All I Really Want to Do, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), Forever Young, Changing of the Guards

Rocky Horror Picture Show Convention 10-8-78 Calderone Concert Hall, Hempstead Long Island, NY

I discovered Rocky Horror at a midnight screening during my summer ’78 visit to Austin TX. Returning home to CT, my girl Lisa Bardwell and I quickly became the king and queen of the cosplay “shadowcasters” attending screenings in Groton CT dressed as Frank-N-Furter and Janet. We even landed in the local paper, with a photo of me in full Tim Curry gear that caused countless hometown parents to forbid their daughters to ever date me. Years later, I’d get to share the Rocky Horrorexperience with Heather and our goddaughter Christie, and even my Mom went to see it with me in the late 70s, so the flick holds a real warm spot in my heart. The newspaper ad I have for this event, the second annual Rocky Horror con (the first had been held in February at the same venue), lists “Magenta and Dr. Scott” as planned guest, and I do remember Patricia “Magenta” Quinn was there, judging the costume contest that Lisa and I entered, with Nell “Columbia” Campbell also among the judges. If Jonathan “Dr. Scott” Andrews was there too, I don’t recall him, Wikipedia says Susan Sarandon was a guest, not mentioning Nell Campbell, which I’m pretty sure is an error.

What I DO remember is a raucous screening of Meat Loaf’s brand new concert film Bat Out of Hell, filmed in Germany earlier that year at the Stadthalle Offenbach for the German TV series Rockpalast. There were rumors all night that Tim Curry himself would make at least a brief appearance, since he’d be performing at the nearby Bottom Line club on October 9, 10, and 11.

Curry did indeed grace the stage for a few minutes after the costume contest, to deafening and lengthy applause, although only long enough to thank everyone for attending and to encourage us all to buy tickets to his Bottom Line shows. I love his solo albums and still regret not catching him in concert that week. Convention producer John Mandracchia went on to launch one of the first Rocky Horror fanzines in 1979, True Life Horror Stories.

Queen 11-7-78 New Haven Coliseum, CT

I’d already seen Queen in New Haven the previous year, 11-16-77, but this time they were touring in support of their seventh studio albumJazz (released three days after this concert, on November 10) and I had floor seats in section 1, row 40. This was the seventh date of the tour, with around 10,500 fans in attendance. Freddie opened the show wearing shiny black pants and a matching black jacket that he soon removed to reveal red suspenders over his shirtless bare chest.

Of course we soon abandoned our floor seats to crash the stage, right through the encore that kicked off with Freddie emerging from backstage wearing his red sequin jumpsuit for “Jailhouse Rock.” Part of the European leg of this tour from earlier that year was recorded for their first concert album, Live Killers, released in June 1979.

Setlist:

We Will Rock You (fast version), If You Can't Beat Them, Somebody to Love, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, I'm in Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, You're My Best Friend, Now I'm Here, Spread Your Wings, Dreamer's Ball, Love of My Life, '39, It's Late, Brighton Rock, Fat Bottomed Girls, Sheer Heart Attack, Keep Yourself Alive, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Encore: Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley), We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, God Save the Queen

The Moody Blues and Jimmie Spheeris 11-21-78, New Haven Coliseum, CT

Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, Graeme Edge, Patrick Moraz

We had 17th row seats on the floor for this date on the Moody Blues’ Octave tour, my final New England concert before relocating to San Diego, California, where I’d visited that summer just after graduating high school. Opening act Jimmie Spheeris had recorded a couple of albums for Columbia Records (1972 and 1973) and a couple more for Epic (1975 and 1976). This appears to be the first Moody Blues show he opened, and he played a very lengthy set with just a stool and his acoustic guitar, due to a snowstorm that had the Moodies running late from their Boston gig. When the audience began to get restless, he told the crowd “At least it’s not disco!” Spheeris returned to do a few more Moody Blues dates in December. After this tour, he pretty much vanished from the music scene until he died in a 1984 motorcycle accident, at the age of 34.

The Moody Blues were touring in support of their comeback “reunion” album Octave, which had been released June 9. Former Yes and Refugee keyboardist Patrick Moraz was their newest member, replacing Michael Pinder, who was described in the tour program as “on leave of absence.” The single “Driftwood,” which dropped October 9, was all over local radio, and they’d just made a TV appearance on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert the previous month, on October 29.

Moody Blues setlist:

Steppin in the Slide Zone, Tuesday Afternoon, Twilight Time, The Day We Meet Again, The Story in Your Eyes, I’m Your Man, Top Rank Suite, Isn’t Life Strange, Driftwood, I’ll Be Level With You, Gypsy, Survival, The Balance, I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band), Nights In White Satin, Legend Of a Mind, Question, Encore: Ride My See-Saw

MOVE TO SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Santana 2-9-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

No recollection, only a ticket stub and ad.

Camel 2-13-79 Roxy Theater, San Diego CA

Andy Latimer, Andy Ward, Mel Collins, Dave Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Jan Schelhaas

I had tix for the early show but instead saw the late show, due to arriving late by bus and talking the ticket clerk into letting me in with a promise to stand out of the way somewhere and not be noticed. By the time I got out of this Pacific Beach venue, the busses were no longer running and hitchhiking that late was useless, so I ended up walking the entire distance back to our Ocean Beach pad, a good three hours of hoofing it. Good thing my legs were still built up from all that hometown bicycling!

Setlist:

Earthrise First Light, Unevensong, Song Within a Song, Sleeper, Supertwister, White Rider, Tell Me, Rhayader/Goes To Town, La Princess Purdue, Rainbow’s End, Echoes, Never Let Go, One Of These Days I’ll Get An Early Night, Lunar Sea

Keith Richards and the New Barbarians and Bob Welch 5-22-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Stanley Clarke, Ian McLagan, Ziggy Modeliste, Bobby Keyes

This was the final U.S. (and second-to-final ever) public concert by Keith Richards's short-lived "community service" band, formed to work off a drug bust. Former Fleetwood Mac member Bob Welch opened, he was still cruising on the fumes of his big hit album from late 1977, French Kiss, and had just released his sophomore solo album Three Hearts in February, with a single called “Precious Love” that charted at number 19 (his last top-20 song).

The stellar New Barbarians lineup included Richards, Ron Wood, jazz bassist Stanley Clarke, and Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, along with Stones horn player Bobby Keyes. Three weeks earlier, Richards had skipped out on a Milwaukee show, causing patrons to stage a riot, but all were present and accounted for at the Sports Arena. The high-ticket garage band slammed through Wood solo songs, as well as tunes by Dylan, Chuck Berry, Johnny Paycheck, and of course several Stones standards (though "Honky Tonk Woman" went MIA, despite being played on most of the other 19 Barbarian dates). Wood sang lead for Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," evoking his old Faces version of the tune (the Stones also covered it), while Richards tickled the ivories for Tammy Wynette's "Apartment Number 9" (?!). Famed album photographer Henry Diltz (Morrison Hotel, etc.) shot pictures in San Diego, and the band taped the gig (as did at least two bootleggers), but the New Barbarians didn't appear on official record until last year, when Wood released a double CD archiving a 1979 Maryland show.

Bob Welch setlist:

Precious Love, Sentimental Lady, Hot Love Cold World, Ebony Eyes

New Barbarians setlist:

Buried Alive, Love In Vain Blues (Robert Johnson cover), Apartment Number 9, Am I Grooving You (Freddie Scott cover), Seven Days (Dylan cover), Before They Make Me Run, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Breakin’ My Heart

Yes 5-27-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Alan White

The internet informs that the concert was attended by around 14,400 fans. For this stop on Yes’ Tormato tour, Yes played on a round, rotating stage, not unlike the old Oakdale Theater in Wallingford CT where I saw my very first concerts in the early 70s.

Yes setlist:

Siberian Khatru, Heart of the Sunrise, Future Times/Rejoice, Circus of Heaven, Time and a Word/Long Distance Runaround/Survival/The Fish/Perpetual Change/Soon, Clap, And You and I, Starship Trooper, Wakeman solo, Awaken – tour song, I’ve Seen All Good People, Roundabout

Mahogany Rush, AC/DC, St. Paradise 7-19-79, San Diego Sports Arena, CA

AC/DC: Bon Scott, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, Phil Rudd

We lucked out and scored section 3, third row seats for this show advertised as “Intimate Amphitheatre Style,” with part of the Arena blocked off and only a portion of the venue utilized to accommodate around 5,400 fans (a layout used used for concerts by Elvis Costello and others). I bumped into a friend from Niantic CT at this show, Bruce Rinehart! I didn’t even know he was living in nearby Bonita CA. We went to the same high school in a tiny coastal New England town, so at first I thought this guy just looked like him. In fact, he looked so much like Bruce that I just had to say something to him - and it turned out to be him! Hard to believe we bumped into each other thousands of miles from home, on the other side of the country, in a crowd of over 5,000 (most of them there for Mahogany Rush, nit AC/DC). We’re still friends to this day, he’s gone on to be a celebrity chef.

Formed the previous year in 1978, opening act St. Paradise was fronted by one of Ted Nugent’s singers, Derek St. Holmes, and included Nugent bassist-singer Rob Grange. The self-titled Warner Brothers debut album featured ex-Montrose drummer Denny Carmassi. Even though theSan Diego Reader ad for this concert says “Introducing St. Paradise,” it was a short introduction, as this was apparently one of their final U.S. concerts. According to AllMusic, “Following a European tour supporting Van Halen, which failed to win new fans for St. Paradise, the band disintegrated. Carmassi joined Gamma and St. Holmes worked with Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford for a short time, before rejoining Nugent once more.” Canadian guitar god Frank Marino and his band Mahogany Rush were touring in support of their 1979 album Tales of the Unexpected.

AC/DC was still fronted by Bon Scott and were touring in support of If You Want Blood. I’m pretty sure they played last, even tho Mahogany Rush was the headliner, introduced as an Australian hard rock band playing their first San Diego date. A lot of people had already left after the Mahogany Rush set. The few thousand of us who stayed still talk about this set, especially Scott jumping up on Angus’ shoulders as the guitarist leapt from the stage and ran through the crowd. I practically got whipped in the face by Scott swinging the shirt he’d just removed, and I’m pretty sure the same shirt sprayed liquid rock and roll sweat all over us. Unforgettable! AC/DC would return to the San Diego Sports Arena a few months later, September 9 1979, this time as headliners with Canadian rockers Prism opening, another amphitheatre-style show.

AC/DC setlist:

Live Wire, Problem Child, Sin City, Bad Boy Boogie, The Jack, Rocker, Dog Eat Dog

Mahogany Rush setlist:

A New Rock and Roll, Manic Depression/Down Down Down, Sister Change, The Man at the Back Door, All Along the Watchtower, Takes of the Unexpected, Who Do You Love, Electric Reflections of War, The World Anthem

Blue Oyster Cult, Pat Travers, Cheap Trick, UFO, Shakin Street, Blitz Brothers 8-5-79 San Diego Stadium, CA

An all day outdoor concert with general admission seating, so I hitchhiked to Mission Valley to camp out in the parking lot the night before. They weren’t letting anyone into the actual lot until after sunup, so I slept in a bulldozer sitting in an adjacent parking lot still under construction at the time. To launch the all-day show attended by around 50,000 people, promoter Marc Berman battled the fire department over attendees being restricted to the stands. The regulation had been circumvented for a 1976 ZZ Top concert by constructing stairs from the field to the plaza level. However, this caused the Sports Arena to sue San Diego on the grounds that the City had promised “no competition” upon the arena’s construction.

For the August ’79 event, the City installed temporary ramps up to the stadium’s plaza level, reasoning the Sports Arena couldn’t sue unless the stadium built permanent equipment for competing events. The concert stage was built in sections on movable rollers, again to avoid “permanent fixture” accusations, at a cost of around $25,000.

Locals the Blitz Brothers opened the show around 4pm, followed by a female-fronted French rock group called Shakin Street who’d have a minor radio hit with “I Want To Box You.” UFO had just lost Michael Schenker, but they did a decent set that included “Doctor Doctor” and “Too Hot to Handle.” Cheap Trick’s Dream Policealbum was about to be released, and they debuted “Need Your Love” and “I Know What I Want” from that record. They kind of stole the show from headliners BÖC, touring is support of their Mirror album released that June. BOC’s laser show had recently been legislated down to a shadow of its former glory for purportedly being dangerous to shine directly on their audience. They still had the Godzilla head and the lighting FX bathing the drums during the solo, and they played well, but it wasn’t the best BOC set I’d seen, and I’d see better a few years later, too (a “secret” Bachanal show where the band was billed as Soft White Underbelly).

Nearly 100 people were arrested (many in the parking lot, for trespassing, scalping, drugs, and being drunk in public) and around 300 cars towed away during the concert, according to local newspaper reports. There were also complaints from nearby residents about the fireworks at 11:30 p.m., measured at around 100 decibels. (Local law forbade anything above 40 decibels after 10:30 p.m.). “Considering the size of the rock concert, however,” said a noise-abatement official at the time, “we did not find the noise levels universally unacceptable.”

Pat Travers setlist:

Life In London, Stevie, Out Go the Lights, Hooked on Music, Out Go the Lights reprise

UFO setlist:

Hot ‘N’ Ready, Doctor Doctor, Out in the Street, Too Hot to Handle, Love to Love

Cheap Trick setlist:

Hello There, Come On Come On, Stiff Competition, On Top of the World, Ain’t That a Shame, Clock Strikes Ten, Need Your Love, I Know What I Want, I Want You to Want Me, Surrender, Goodnight

Blue Oyster Cult setlist:

Dominance and Submission, Dr. Music, Mirrors, Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll, You’re Not the One, ME 262, The Great Sun Jester, The Vigil, ETI, Hot Rails to Hell, Godzilla, Born to be Wild, Don’t Fear the Reaper

James Taylor 8-16-79, San Diego Sports Arena, CA

No recollection, only a ticket stub.

Peter Frampton 8-28-79, San Diego Sports Arena, CA

No recollection, only a ticket stub, but found a setlist online.

Setlist:

Baby Something’s Happening, Doobie Wah, Lines on My Face, Show Me the Way, Got My Feet Back on the Ground, Where I Should Be (Monkey’s Song), Baby I Love Your Way, I Can’t Stand It No More, She Don’t Reply, Everything I Need, Signed Sealed Delivered, Do You Feel Like We Do, Jumpin’ Jack Flash

The Kinks and Herman Brood 9-3-79 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheatre, San Diego CA

The Kinks played to a reported crowd of around 4,000 people, touring in support of Low Budget. Opener Herman Brood was a rock star in Holland that nobody in SD seemed to know. The Kinks teased several times with the opening chords to “Lola” and then stopping, with Ray Davies chiding the crowd “You’re not ready for that” before launching into something else altogether. They played multiple encores.

I actually watched this show from atop the college building across from the outdoor amphitheater entrance, a building that was later the Adams Humanities building. My friend Bruce Rinehart and I used my bus card to jimmy open the ground floor lock and make our way up to the rooftop, which afforded a terrific view of the show with fine sound. Within a half hour, a few dozen others had seen us up there and discovered the open door, joining us on the roof to watch the show. Which of course attracted the attention of campus police, who suddenly burst onto the rooftop and started chasing everyone. I’m quoted in the book Let It Rock: Live From San Diego State, saying “I was there too, but jumped off the building and got away! Though it hurt like hell from the landing, and I still have knee problems that I suspect date back to that leap.” I later found Bruce near the venue, and he told me that the cops weren’t arresting people, they just made everyone get off the roof and escorted them off the campus. I jumped for nothing.

Kinks setlist:

Wish I Could Fly Like Superman, Celluloid Heroes, Sleepwalker, Lola, Misfits, Tired Of Waiting For You, All Day and All of the Night, Give the People What They Want, Twist and Shout, Pressure, Low Budget, You Really Got Me

The Cars and Nick Gilder 9-8-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Maybe it’s ‘cause it was a few days after the Kinks, but I was in no mood for Nick “Hot Child in the City” Gilder, former frontman for Canadian glam rockers Sweeney Todd. They had a number one hit in Canada, "Roxy Roller," which topped the chart for three weeks in 1975. I walked out on the Cars, as did hundreds – perhaps thousands – of others. Terrible, terrible show. If anyone ever asks about the worst concert I ever saw, this is the one I'd cite.

Cars setlist:

Got a Lot On My Head, Good Time Roll, Let’s Go, Night Spots, Since I Held You, Double Life, Moving In Stereo, Candy-O, Don’t Cha Stop, Bye Bye Love, All Mixed Up, Take What You Want, You’re All I’ve Got Tonight, Just What I Needed, Dangerous Type

Stanley Clarke and the Brecker Brothers 9-14-79SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, CA

Bass star Stanley Clarke returned to San Diego after having appeared earlier that year, 5-22-79, at the Sports Arena with Keith Richards and the New Barbarians. For this performance at San Diego State’s outdoor theater, he was promoting his 1979 album I Wanna Play For You, which hit number 5 on the US jazz chart. Daily Aztec jazz reviewer Marty Wisckol said “Clarke brought his new barbarian image to the Open Air Theater Friday night,” for a set described as a “heavy metal brand of jazz…the call of the day was power, a call fulfilled to the max.” The Brecker Brothers opened.

Stanley Clarke setlist:

Hymn To the Seventh Galaxy (Return to Forever), Rock ‘N’ Roll Johnny, Silly Putty, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Charlie Mingus), School Days, I Wanna Play For You, Confirmation, Lopsy Lu, Life Is Just a Game, Hoy Fun

Kenny Loggins and Louise Goffin 9-15-79 or 9-16-79 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheatre

Taking place the day after the Stanley Carke show in the same SDSU outdoor venue, this was a two-night stand, and I’m unsure which night I attended because it’s one of the few I don’t have a stub for. That’s because I again broke into the building across from the venue to watch the show from the rooftop. But this time, I locked the door behind me, and stayed far enough from the edge of the rooftop to be spotted by anyone on the ground. I did NOT want to jump off the building again. I do remember being very impressed with the opener, 19 year-old Louise Goffin (Carole King’s daughter), who had a hit at the time with “Kid Blue,” the title track of her debut album. According to Let It Rock: Live From San Diego State, she played a nine-song set. Not sure who was in her band, but on her album she was backed by Lee Sklar, Waddy Wachtel, Danny Kortchmar, and David Kemper. One local paper reported 5,000 paid attendees inside the venue and around 2,500 more listening for free outside the amphitheater. This was becoming more and more of a problem, one which would come to a head at a riotous Judas Priest concert that almost got this venue shut down for good.

Louise Goffin setlist:

Kid Blue, Shooting Me Down, Long Distance, School Days, Remember (Walking In the Sand) (Shangri-Las), Trapeze, Jimmy & the Tough Kids, Red Lite Fever, Problems

Kenny Loggins setlist:

Love Has Come Of Age (new), Daddy’s Back, What a Fool Believes, Wait a Little While, Now and Then, House at Pooh Corner, Danny’s Song, Angelique, Feelin’ Love, Lady Luck, Encores: Easy Driver, Whenever I Call You Friend, Celebrate Me Home

Todd Rundgren and Bram Tchaikovski 9-23-79 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, CA

Utopia: Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell, John “Willie” Wilcox

Bram Tchaikovski Band: Bram Tchaikovski, Dennis Forbes (G), Mickey Broadbent (B), Keith Lyon (D)

This outdoor show at SDSU was opened by Bram Tchaikovski, from the UK band The Motors, who had a local radio hit at the time with “Strange Man Changed Man.” Todd Rundgren was backed by Utopia, although the tickets and newspaper ads only say “Todd Rundgren.” They were touring in support of their fourth studio album Adventures In Utopia, which would be released in December.

Bram Tchaikovski setlist:

Strange Man Changed Man, Whiskey and Whine, Girl Of My Dreams, Lonely Dancer, Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Larry Williams cover)

Todd Rundgren setlist:

Trapped, Back On the Street, Abandon City, Love Of the Common Man, The Verb To Love, Last Of the New Wave Riders, Shot In the Dark, The Ikon/Seven Rays, Love Alone, Gangrene, Black Maria, The Death of Rock and Roll, Love In Action, Freedom Fighters, Couldn’t I Just Tell You?, Rock Love, Love Is the Answer

Rainbow and Johnny Cougar 11-10-79 Fox Theater, San Diego CA

Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore, Cozy Powell, Graham Bonnet, Don Airey, Roger Glover

That Johnny Cougar guy had a hit with "I Need a Lover Who Won't Drive Me Crazy" - he later turned into John Mellencamp. The show was at downtown’s Fox Theater, an aging hall later repurposed for the local symphony. Rainbow was touring in support of their fourth studio album Down To Earth, their first post-Dio album with new singer Graham Bonnet.

Rainbow setlist:

Eyes Of the World, Love’s No Friend, Since You’ve Been Gone, All Night Long, Lost In Hollywood, A Light in the Black, Difficult to Cure, Man on the Silver Mountain, Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll

Jethro Tull and UK 11-17-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg, Dee Palmer

UK: Eddie Jobson, John Wetton, Terry Bozzio

I was in awe of the three-piece UK! They were basically touring in support of their Danger Money album, but they’d also just released a live album in September, Night After Night, recorded earlier that year in Japan. Tull was touring in support of theirStormwatchalbum, and this particular night happened to be Martin Barre’s birthday. UK would split after this tour, and Eddie Jobson would end up joining Jethro Tull for a short while.

UK setlist:

Danger Money, Nothing To Lose, Rendezvous 6:02, Caesar’s Palace Blues, Night After Night

Jethro Tull setlist:

Intro/Dark Ages, Home, Orion, Wond’ring Aloud, Dun Ringill, Elegy, Something’s On the Move, Aqualung, King Henry’s Madrigal/Heavy Horses, One Brown Mouse, Songs From the Wood, Jams O’Donnell’s Jigs, Thick As a Brick, Cross Eyed Mary, Minstrel In the Gallery/Locomotive Breath

Kiss and The Rockets 11-29-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Opening act The Rockets was a Detroit band founded by former Detroit Wheels members Jim McCarty and Johnny “Bee” Badanjek. They had local radio hits with “Can’t Sleep” and “Turn Up the Radio” and they probably played their popular cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” Advertised as “The Greatest Show On Earth,” this was Kiss’ tour in support of Dynasty, released in May. In around six months, they’d release Unmasked. With the hall only around half full, the show simply wasn’t in the same league as back in the 70s, when life was little more than the stuff that happened between Kiss concerts. Reportedly, the crowd barely topped 7,000 people, in a venue that sat 13,300. With Kiss charging a guarantee of $40,000, promoters Marc Berman and Avalon Attractions probably lost a bunch on this show.

Kiss setlist:

King Of the Night Time World, Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll, Move On, Calling Dr. Love, Firehouse, New York Groove, I Was Made For Lovin You, Christine Sixteen, 2000 Man, Love Gun, God Of Thunder, Shout It Out Loud, Black Diamond, Detroit Rock City, Beth, Rock and Roll All Nite

Fleetwood Mac and Danny Douma & Night Eyes 12-9-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Although I wrote Danny Kirwan on my "obstructed view" ticket, it appears former Big Wha Koo singer-guitarist Danny Douma opened this show with his band Night Eyes, he’d just released an album featuring members of the Mac as well as Eric Clapton. Fleetwood Mac was touring in support of their Rumoursfollowup Tusk, released in October.

Setlist:

Say You Love Me, The Chain, Don't Stop, Dreams, Oh Well, Rhiannon, Oh Daddy, What Makes You Think You're the One, Sara, Not That Funny, Save Me a Place, Landslide, Tusk, Angel, You Make Loving Fun, World Turning, Go Your Own Way, Blue Letter (The Curtis Bros. cover), Sisters of the Moon, Second Hand News, Songbird

The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Chicago, JD Souther 12-21-79 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Linda Ronstadt Band: Waddy Wachtel, Don Grolnick, Kenny Edwards, Dan Dugmore, Russ Kunkel

The Eagles: Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Don Felder, Timothy B. Schmit

A fairly notorious benefit concert for Governor Moonbeam Jerry Brown, where he tried to make a speech and was booed, even tho his girlfriend Linda Ronstadt was one of the headliners. It happened just as the Eagles hit the stage again to perform their last song of the night, “Best Of My Love,” when they invited Brown to the mic saying “Say Hi to Jerry” and the place erupted in boos. The embarrassing moment is even on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17H3Euo06lY

Linda Ronstadt had just released her Living In the USA album, topping the album chart, and she was joined on her final song by opener JD Souther, who also wrote several Eagles hits and may have guested with them as well. Chicago had released Chicago 13 in August and were on their final tour with guitarist Donnie Dacus, who’d replaced the late Terry Kath. The Eagles were on their tour for The Long Run album.

Linda Ronstadt setlist:

Back In the USA, You’re No Good, My Boyfriend’s Back, White Rhythm & Blues (with co-writer JD Souther guesting)

Chicago setlist:

Alive Again, Street Player, Must Have Been Crazy, 25 or 6 to 4, I’m a Man

Eagles setlist:

Hotel California, Already Gone, In the City (Joe Walsh), Lyin Eyes, I Can’t Tell You Why, Desperado, Heartache Tonight, One Of These Nights, Turn to Stone (Joe Walsh), The Long Run, Life’s Been Good (Joe Walsh), Life In the Fast Lane, Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks, Take It Easy, Best Of My Love

Styx and the Babys 1-10-80 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Opening act The Babys was a UK group fronted by John Waite, who had a big hit in ’77 with “Isn’t It Time.” Ads for this concert called it Styx’s Grand Decathlon Tour. “When a band as seamlessly mediocre as Styx can draw one of the larger crowds assembled at the Sports Arena in recent months,” wrote Readerconcert critic Steve Esmedina, “it is an indication that any looming notions about the advanced sophistication of today’s rock audience are pure whimsy.… Styx displayed no appreciable chops, a diffident stage persona, and no imagination. The band members played their stupid songs exactly as they sound on record.”

The Babys setlist:

Back On My Feet Again, Every Time I Think Of You, Midnight Rendezvous, Head First, Rock and Roll Is Alive and Well

Styx setlist:

Borrowed Time, Great White Hope, The Grand Illusion, Fooling Yourself, Lady, Crystal Ball, Suite Madame Blue, Lights, Why Me, Eddie, Babe, Rrenegade, Come Sail Away, Blue Collar Man

Pink Floyd 2-7-80 Los Angeles Sports Arena, CA – the very first performance of the Wall!

Although I dropped a lot of acid in the late 70s, I completely stopped on February 7, 1980, after seeing Pink Floyd perform the very first The Wall concert in LA while on massive doses of LSD (a binge that began the day before at Disneyland). I scored the tix via a mail order lottery in the Reader, and rode with Tommy Gray up to LA a day ahead of time so we could warm up with a psychedelic drug-fueled trip to Disneyland. The next day, my friend Bruce Rinehart met me at the Arena while Tommy went visiting, and the two of us managed to sneak down by the back doors behind the stage right before security roped off the area to keep people like us out.

We had our ears pressed against the Arena doors as the band rehearsed the entire Wall album, which at that point I’d only heard once, on the radio (I couldn’t afford the album yet, I spent all my fun money on the tix and drugs). It was reportedly the first time all four members ever played the entire album all at once.

By the time we were in our seats and the lights went down, I was well marinated in a stew of psychedelic drugs that had been brewing since the previous day at Mickey’s Kingdom. The Wall started going up, a plane soared over the audience and crashed into the stage, giant puppets started erupting out of hideaways all around the arena, and even the smoke from the plane crash smelled like the real thing, like something was on fire.

As it turns out, something WAS on fire!

Partway into “Goodbye Blue Sky,” it became clear that the sight and smell of all that smoke was neither a welcome part of the show nor an unwelcome hallucination. The gauze curtains on one side of the stage were on fire! The lights came up, the song stopped, and suddenly an announcer was telling everyone to quietly exit the arena while they deal with the flames that had apparently been smoldering ever since the explosive curtain of fireworks onstage at the end of the opening number.

Luckily, I think nearly everybody in the Arena was just as, um, “medicated” as I was. It was an incredibly orderly evacuation, people were even laughing and seemed to enjoy the “value-added” aspect of the evening. It was a little chilly outside as we all stood around wondering if the show would start from the beginning again, but before anyone could start fretting about a cancellation, the doors swung open again and a bunch of very nervous looking security guards let us all back inside.

That night was the closest I ever came to a bad trip. On the way back in, I made a quick trip to the restroom and made the rookie mistake of looking into a full-length mirror.

I think there were multiple mirrors, on multiple walls, but I can’t say for sure what was real from that moment forward until I stumbled my way back into the Arena. I was suddenly trapped in a universe made entirely of mirrors, with dozens of reflections of myself in all directions and no discernable route of escape. I think I was running into mirrors repeatedly, I remember bumping into myself a bunch of times and getting more and more panicked.

I frankly have no idea how I found my way out of the Mirror Universe (made all the more terrifying by several of the Jays wearing evil-Spock beards), it seemed like I spent an entire lifetime trapped in there. The next lucid thing I remember is crawling over a bunch of strangers in their seats, my ticket clenched tightly in my mouth, as I made my way toward what I recognized as the people I arrived with. Just as I reached my seats, the lights went down and Pink Floyd started playing, and all was right with the world and in my head once again.

It didn’t seem to take more than 45 minutes before the band went right back into “Goodbye Blue Sky” and then finished the rest of the show. There’s a centerfold photo in Circus Magazine taken a minute after the show ended where you can see us standing up front amidst the rubble of fallen “bricks,” looking around all dazed and confused as if, well, as if a giant wall had just fallen on our heads.

I’ve since obtained a bootleg CD of the concert that seems to pretty much confirm my memory of this as one of the best shows I’ve seen. I went to see Roger Waters stage the Wall again a few years ago in Atlanta. That was a much more high tech and “professional” presentation of the material, but nothing will ever beat seeing the original foursome – along with Snowy White and their usual “surrogate Floyds” (who secretly opened the show wearing “Pink” masks while the real band cooled their heels backstage until the second song!) – run through the entire double album in front of an audience for the very first time.

No other audience ever got to see the flaming curtain of fireworks that opened the debut Wall show, the LA fire marshal made the band scuttle their infernal machine for good.

Oh, and I never did LSD again after that show. It was great, but I figured nothing was ever gonna top THAT trip!

Jefferson Starship 2-13-80 San Diego Civic Theater, CA

Starship: Mickey Thomas, Paul Kantner, Craig Chaquico, Pete Sears, Aynsley Dunbar

Taking place a few days before my 20th birthday, this was one of the early Grace-less Starship shows with new lead singer Mickey Thomas, from the Elvis Bishop Band. Drummer Aynsley Dunbar had left Journey in 1978. They did nearly the entire Freedom at Point Zero album, released in November 1979, at downtown’s Civic Theater, which I’d come to know a lot better during the 1980s San Diego Comic Cons held at the adjacent Convention Center.

Setlist:

Ride the Tiger, Girl With the Hungry Eyes, Rock Music, Fast Buck Freddie, Jane, Light the Sky On Fire, Freedom at Point Zero, Just the Same, Somebody to Love

Rush 3-6-80 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Halfway thru the Permanent Waves tour - http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/tours/Tours.htm claims 38 Special opened, tho I wrote UK on my ticket – no backup is mentioned in the Reader ad. I think I had Permanent Waves, and was even less enthused than I’d been with Hemispheres.

Setlist:
2112 (minus Discovery and Oracle), Freewill, By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated), Xanadu, The Spirit of Radio, Natural Science, A Passage to Bangkok, The Trees, Cygnus X-1 (abbreviated), Hemispheres (abbreviated), Closer To The Heart, Beneath, Between and Behind (abbreviated), Jacob's Ladder, Working Man (reggae intro), Finding My Way, Anthem, Bastille Day, In The Mood, Drum Solo, Encore: La Villa Strangiato (electric guitar intro)

Steppenwolf 3-30-80 Mariners Point in Mission Bay, San Diego CA

John Kay, Michael Palmer (G), Steve Palmer (D), Chad Perry (B), Brett Tuggle (K)

An all day outdoor event (11Am-5PM) advertised as a Concert Rally Drawing for the California Marijuana Initiative, with four bands including headliner Steppenwolf, for only a $2 donation. I have the flyer but failed to write down the other bands, and I can’t find a Reader ad for this event. I seem to recall someone at the beach handed us this flyer, and that’s the only way we found out Steppenwolf was playing. No Steppenwold concert databases confirm this concert, but it falls on a date when they were touring nearby and I recall it well. The setlist for their May 11 show in nearby Huntington Beach looks pretty much like what we saw, tho I don’t recall the Hoyt Axton cover and trimmed from the list.

Probable setlist:

Rock Me, Five Finger Discount, Hay Lawdy Mama, You, Snowblind Friend, Underworld Figure, Sookie Sookie, Ain’t Nothin’ Like It Used to Be, Magic Carpet Ride, Business is Busines, Born to Be Wild, The Pusher

Frank Zappa 4-4-80 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

FZ, Ike Willis, Ray White, Arthur Barrow, David Logeman, Tommy Mars

My best memory of this show actually comes from camping out for the tix on December 13, 1979: Tickets for Frank Zappa’s first eighties appearance in his one-time hometown weren’t even on sale yet when several people were arrested for larceny, drugs, vandalism and indecent behavior. On the night before seats were due be released at 10am, about a hundred people were camped out on the pavement in sprawling lines, all leading to the Sports Arena ticket windows, Zappa fans (and a few scalpers) wholly intent on getting the best seats for this highly anticipated performance.

I was among the throng with apparently little to do besides napping in lawn chairs, playing Zappa bootlegs on car stereos and passing around joints with other likeminded layabouts all night long. Some friends and I talked others into holding our spots in line while we snuck into the nearby Midway Drive-In to see the new Star Trek movie. Returning to the Arena parking lot, we were amazed to see silver beer kegs lined up on each of the ticket window shelves, all tapped and flowing!

Everyone was standing around, filling plastic cups, passing them out – partytime, excellent! More kegs were being wheeled out of the wide-open Sports Arena doors and down the steps on handcarts, while other people were coming out of the building with gigantic bags of pre-cooked popcorn and garbage cans full of other snack bar goodies.

I never was clear on who first used a coathanger to pull the leverage bar inward from the other side of a set of glass Arena doors, opening the place up to be invaded by anyone brave enough to enter (which included most of us – er, them).

This was only the beginning of the bacchanalia. Everyone lined up at the pay phones to call friends and invite them down to what was quickly becoming a drunken overnight orgy and eventually about three hundred people were there – amazingly, no cops showed up. At least not yet.

The ticket clerks who threw open the windows of their booths at 10AM were greeted by the sight of precariously balanced (and completely emptied) beer kegs on the window shelves, a mountain of plastic cups and snack bar trash littering the parking lot and a subdued crowd of hungover young adults barely ambulatory enough to stumble up to the windows and pull out our wallets to mumble “gimme yer best seats.”

The windows promptly closed and, instead of being sold tickets, we were quickly surrounded by what seemed like every police officer in southern California.

Various suspicious types and presumably frequent offenders were pulled from the crowd and questioned but I never heard about anyone being arrested for actually breaking into the Arena. One guy was busted for attempted larceny, for trying to pry open a ticket window gate, and a hippie looking guy who made a chair of one of the empty kegs was cited for possession of stolen property.

(Section B, Row 1, seat 5 - eat your heart out, scalpers!)
Several others were handcuffed and hauled away for being intoxicated or in possession of drugs (one guy had weed out in the open, another was passed out with a cocaine-covered mirror next to him when police approached).

A willowy redheaded girl, still inebriated, got into trouble by refusing to put anything on over her see-through panties and bra and the cops took her away. She’d been very popular all night, performing oral sex on several guys who shared cocaine with her, usually in full view of everyone in line and sometimes earning cheers from nearby voyeurs for her efforts, though she blew a couple of guys under blankets.

We, of course, cheered her every erotic endeavor, and the morning near-nudity was a welcome respite from all the blue uniforms milling about. I heard the cops tried to charge her with public indecency but most of us found her pretty decent and I can find no account of her actually being charged in any newspapers.

Everyone I know looked for her at the concert itself (we were eventually allowed to buy our tickets) but subsequent sightings of the cokehead-redhead-who-loves-head are unconfirmed and remain the stuff of local urban legend.

I ended up scoring front row/section B seats = helluva show! He was touring in support of Joe’s Garage.

Setlist:

Watermelon In Easter Hay, Teen-Age Wind, Harder Than Your Husband, Bamboozled By Love, Pick Me I’m Clean, Society Pages, I’m a Beautiful Guy, Beauty Knows No Pain, Conehead, Easy Meat/Thirteen, Mudd Club, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, Heavenly Bank Account, Suicide Chump, Jumbo Go Away

BACK TO CONNECTICUT

Robin Trower 4-22-80 Palace Theater, Waterbury CT

RT, James Dewar, Bill Lordan

I went back to Connecticut for summer 1980, and this was my first return to the lovely Palace since a 1975 Todd Rundgren show. Trower was touring in support of his album Victims of the Fury, which hit number 34 in the US (he never again cracked the top 99).

Setlist:

Lady Love, The Ring, Day of the Eagle, Bridge of Sighs, Jack and Jill, Too Rolling Stoned, The Shout/Hannah, Daydream, Victims of the Fury, Madhouse, Little Bit of Sympathy, Rock Me Baby

Nantucket and Delacey Blvd early 1980, the Shaboo, Mansfield CT

No date on ticket but I figure this must be early in 1980, since North Carolina band Nantucket were touring in support of their sophomore album, 1979’s Your Face Or Mine, a name I remember them mentioning as their new album, so their third album from 1980 probably wasn’t out yet. The Shaboo was a great concert club, with a crazy low ceiling and a big water silo atop the building. It later burned down in August 1982, having closed up a few months earlier in May.

Wishbone Ash April 1980 the Shaboo, Mansfield CT

Martin Turner, Ted Turner, Andy Powell

This must be April 1980 because they were on a rare US tour and are documented to have played New Jersey on April 19. Another unforgettable Shaboo show, attended with my old band guitarist Tony Lee, plus probably Scott Gibson and I think Heather too. Those twin guitar solos blew our minds!

Probable setlist:

The King Will Come, Blowin Free, Time Was, Helpless, Living Proof, FUBB, Warrior, Phoenix, Bad Weather Blues

The Eagles, Heart, Little River Band, 6-14-80 Yale Bowl Coliseum, New Haven CT –

Heart: Ann and Nancy Wilson, Howard Leese (K, G, V, B), Steve Fossen (B), Michael Derosier (D)

68,000 people attended this outdoor show where it was so hot, the plastic seat molding was starting to melt. Little River Band has released their fifth studio album First Under the Wire the previous year, as well as a live album called Backstage Pass. Heart had released their Bebe Le Strange album in February, and they had a big local radio hit with “Even It Up.” The Eagles were touring in support of The Long Run. Joe Walsh stole the whole show and hasn’t given it back since.

Little River Band setlist:

Help Is On Its Way, Happy Anniversary, It’s a Long Way There, Lonesome Loser

Heart setlist:

Bebe Le Strange, Crazy On You, Straight On, Even It Up, Raised On You, Strange Night, Dreamboat Annie, Just the Wine, Dog & Butterfly, Down On Me, Mistral Wind, Silver Wheels, Break, Magic Man, Barracuda, Rockin’ Heaven Down, Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin cover)

Eagles setlist:

Hotel California, Already Gone, In the City (Joe Walsh), King Of Hollywood, The Sad Café, Lyin Eyes, I Can’t Tell You Why, Desperado, Those Shoes, Heartache Tonight, One Of These Nights, Turn to Stone (Joe Walsh), Life’s Been Good (Joe Walsh), Life in the Fast Lane, Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), Take It Easy, All Night Long (Joe Walsh)

The Dixie Dregs 7-19-80 the Shaboo, Mansfield CT

Steve Morse, Andy West, Allen Sloan, T Lavitz, Rod Morgenstein

No ticket but guessing it was 7-19-80 since they played confirmed gigs that month nearby at Hartford and the Shaboo date appears on at least one database, the only Dregs Shaboo show I can find documented. Their third album Night of the Living Dregs had been released in April 1979, but they were touring with the Dregs of the Earth lineup featuring T Lavitz on keys in place of the departing Roger Parrish, as heard on the newest and fourth album released that May, their final album before shortening their name to The Dregs.

Likely setlist:

Punk Sandwich, Ice Cakes, Road Expense, Night Meets Light, The Bash, Country House Shuffle, Travel Tunes, Night of the Living Dregs

Van Halen and the Cats 7-24-80, Hartford Civic Center, CT

Joe Selden drove us to this date on mighty Van Halen’s first headline trek, dubbed the World Invasion Tour, in support of their third studio album Women and Children First. Tho I had to sit thru that damn Dutch rock band The Cats again.

Van Halen setlist:

Romeo Delight, Bottoms Up, Runnin With the Devil, Loss Of Control, Take Your Whiskey Home, Dance the Night Away, Women In Love, Jamie’s Cryin’, Bright Lights Big City (Jimmy Reed cover), Everybody Wants Some, And the Cradle Will Rock, Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love, Ice Cream Man, You Really Got Me (Kinks cover)

Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Shakin Street 8-10-80, Hartford Civic Center, CT

BOC: Eric Bloom, Bucj Dharma, Allen Lanier, Joe Bouchard

Albert Bouchard

Black Sabbath: Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward

The Black and Blue Tour: French female-fronted opening act Shakin’ Street was still crusing on the fumes of their only US hit “I Want to Box You.” Black Sabbath were on their Heaven and Hell tour, their first with new frontman Ronnie James Dio. BOC were touring behind their seventh studio album Cultosaurus Erectus, released in June. The double bill reportedly happened because both bands were managed by Sandy Pearlman. This was one of the last shows drummer Bill Ward ever played with the Dio version of Sabbath, his final show with them was August 19 (he’d return in 1985, along with Ozzy). The Sabbath set was later released as an official live album.

(Audio of part of BOC’s set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCwH4IGLGYY)

(Audio of Sabbath’s set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H6nJgSajT0)

Black Sabbath setlist:

Supertzar, War Pigs, Neon Nights, NIB, Children of the Sea, Sweet Leaf, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Iron Man, Orchid, Die Young, Paranoid, Children of the Grave

Blue Oyster Cult setlist:

Dr. Music, ETI, Lips in the Hills, Unknown Tongue, The Marshall Plan, Divine Wind, ME 262, Hot Rails To Hell, Godzilla, Born to be Wild, Don’t Fear the Reaper, Roadhouse Blues

Robin Williams September 1980 Comedy Store La Jolla, CA

My return to CA, snuck in with Scott Gibson from CT, who was sharing a downtown pad with me. Scott I first used most all our cash to get cross country on a Green Tortoise hippie tour bus (that included a group nude hot springs swim) and rent a downtown room at the residential Palms Hotel room while we looked for jobs. But right when we arrived, I think maybe on our very first night, we heard a rumor that Robin Williams was gonna show up at the Comedy Store in La Jolla to do an improv set. So, even tho we had no cash, no wheels, and had barely unpacked our toothbrushes, we somehow made our way to the back door of the legendary comedy venue.

Sure enough, there was Robin Williams outside, getting ready to walk into the venue and onto the stage. Our eyes all met just at the very moment that Scott and I were trying to casually mingle our way in thru the back door, past security guards who'd so far paid us no attention, when Williams nearly ratted us out by grinning at us and saying, a little too loudly, "Aha! Bootleg show, eh?"

People were laughing so damn hard that night, they practically had to cart 'em out on ambulance stretchers -

Johnny Winter and Bratz 9-27-80 California Theater, San Diego CA

Scott Gibson and I went to this one at a now-abandoned downtown gem, with a local band called Bratz, featuring singer-guitarist Paul Shaffer (Private Domain) and guitarist Jack Butler (Private Doman, Glory). Winter was touring in support of his album Raisin’ Cain, released in March.

Johnny Winter setlist:

Hide Away, EZ Rider, Messing With the Kid, Not Fade Away, Last Night, Johnny B. Goode, Highway 61 Revisited, Roll and Tumble Blues, I Can’t Be Satisfied

Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl 9-28-80, Hollywood CA

The day after Johnny Winter, we drove up to Hollywood to see Monty Python. I can be seen in the movie version of Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl, which I snuck into with Scott Gibson! Those box seats up front have four seats per box, but ours had six people because me and my friend Scott snuck in to join our four ticket holding friends, including Tommy Gray and Jack McCowan.

Suddenly, John Cleese was standing right behind us with a giant stuffed bird on a platter, and he was shouting like a vendor "Albatross! Get your fresh albatross!" Right in the middle of a sketch onstage! All the cameras and lights turned to Cleese, and me and Scott had NO idea what was happening, so we were ducking down trying to not be seen squeezed into the booth! It was a great show, with musical interludes courtesy of future Rutles mastermind Neil Innes.

Yes 10-2-80 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

I had tix for this show but didn’t get to see it – me and Scott Gibson were walking up to the ticket taker when cops jumped on us and arrested us. Undercover cops had heard us talking in the parking lot about having peyote on us. No charges were ever filed, but I had to spend a couple of days in jail before Tommy Gray bailed me out, and Scott had to remain a few more days, until the cut him loose with no charges. Turned out the peyote had been kept in the plastic bags we used, and had turned into mush that couldn’t be accurately confirmed as peyote (the cops had in fact written “mushrooms” on the original evidence tag, further confusing the lab results).

Ambrosia and DNA 10-10-80 California Theater, San Diego CA

DNA: Arto Lindsay, Ikue Mori. Tim Wright

Scott Gibson and I snuck into this show by entering the office section of the California Theater during business hours and making our way to the closed off projection booth, from when the theater used to screen movies. We waited there for a couple of hours until they began letting people into the theater, and then crawled thru the projection wall holes to drop into the back row seats of the theater.

NYC no wave band DNA opened, they were championed by Brian Eno, who included them on his 1978 compilation No New York. Ambrosia had released their album One Eighty in April, scoring a number three hit with “Biggest Part of Me” and hitting number thirteen with “You’re the Only Woman.” They’d only release one more studio album, two years later, before splitting.

DNA setlist:

Newest Fastest, Lionel, Brand New, Marshall, Not Moving

Ambrosia setlist:

Outside, Holdin’ On To Yesterday, You’re the Only Woman, Biggest Part of Me, Feels So Good to Win, Life Beyond LA, If Heaven Could Find Me, No Big Deal, Rock ‘N’ a Hard Place, How Much I Feel

KPRI Halloween Ball 10-31-80 – 707 and Jerry Raney & the Shames, (Gary Myrick & the Figures?) Sea World San Diego, CA

Scott Gibson and I sneaked into this show with Jerry Raney and the Shames, which formed during the late 1970s, rising from the ashes of local heroes Glory. Jack Pinney, Gregg Willis, and Jerry Raney would become regulars at local clubs like the Bacchanal, My Rich Uncle’s, and the Spirit (later to become Brick by Brick). Raney had come from the bands Thee Dark Ages and Blues Messenger, while Gregg Willis and Jack Pinney had played with the Palace Pages, later known as Iron Butterfly. Raney had previously played with Pinney in the Roosters. Raney later played with the Beat Farmers (and its latterday incarnation as the Farmers), among many other groups. Gregg Willis joined Carlos Blues Experience. The San Diego Music Awards named Raney their Lifetime Achievement Award honoree in 2021.

Detroit power trio 707 headlined, their keyboard player had recently split but the band was getting a lot of local airplay from their single "I Could Be Good for You." A couple of years later, they'd have one more hit with "Mega Force" before vanishing from the music biz. The costume contest attracted some world class entries – there was some dissent over the winner tho, a Volkswagen someone had converted into a volcano that many thought was more machine than costume and thus ineligible for the big prize.

Gary Numan 11-2-80 Fox Theater, San Diego CA

Electronic rock at another much missed downtown San Diego landmark. Numan’s show was creepy cool and VERY high tech for its era, with the little cars and multilevel stage covered in lighting FX.

(1980 tour audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZXG4nyBNkk, Feb 1980 footage and intvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VND3CjtpXw)

Setlist:

This Wreckage, Remind Me to Smile, Complex, Telekon, Me! I Disconnect From You, Cars, Conversation, Airlane, M.E., Everyday I Die (Tubeway Army), Remember I Was Vapour, Are Friends Electric?, The Joy Circuit, I Die You Die, I Dream Of Wires, Down In the Park, Tracks, We Are Glass, Films

The Police, XTC, Oingo Boingo 11-3-80 San Diego Civic Theater, San Diego

Opening act XTC was riding on the popularity of their Black Sea album. They had played in San Diego earlier in 1980, a one-off date at the North Park Lions club that has achieved somewhat mythic local status. Two years after the show with the Police and Oingo Boingo, XTC would play only one date of an American tour, in San Diego, before canceling the rest of the tour due to Andy Partridge's stage fright, essentially retiring from concert appearances forever.

Oingo Boingo (with Danny Elfman) had only recently altered format, from a theatrical troupe called the Mystic Nights of the Oingo Boingo to a rock combo. They'd just signed with IRS Records (distributed by mainstream powerhouse A&M) and had only released one self-titled four-song EP under the shortened name at the time.

IRS was then a new label co-founded by Miles Copeland III, whose brother Stewart was, of course, a member of the Police, hence Boingo's inclusion on this tour. Performing with a three-man horn section, Oingo Boingo's half hour set included covers of "You Really Got Me" and "California Girls." The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta (and its first single "Don't Stand So Close to Me") was in the U.S. top ten. The concert was sold out, with ticket sales reported at 14,585. I had a pretty good seat, and the statute of limitations now allows me to admit that I broke that seat while dancing on it to "Walking on the Moon."

The Police were reportedly so exhausted by this show that they canceled their next two gigs to recuperate. A Las Vegas show was cancelled altogether, while the November 5 date at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium went ahead with only XTC and a local opening band on the bill.

After the San Diego concert, gate-crashers were found to have gained entry via an ingenious route. On the roof of the theater, a vent duct had been disassembled, and an unknown number of ticketless patrons apparently climbed into the hole to enter an elevator shaft, open a trap door, and drop in. The elevator faced an administrative area leading directly to the concert hall itself. The breach was discovered later, as the gate-crashers neglected to re-close the elevator ceiling's trap door or return to the roof to reattach the vent grate. Another confession – that was me and my friend Scott who snuck in via the elevator shaft!

We only lived a few blocks away and had already successfully gatecrashed our way into a concert at the nearby California Theater (entered thru the office building in the afternoon, hid in the projection booth until the seats started filling), so we were feeling good about our odds of finding a way into the sold out show (not that we could have afforded a ticket).

I guess I should mention that sneaking into concerts was pretty much a hobby of mine. In fact, the very first article I ever sold to the San Diego Reader back in 1996 was in response to a contest offering 500 bucks for music stories, for which I penned a tutorial detailing exactly how I sneaked into around a dozen local venues, many of them still in operation at the time. At least two of them still hold a grudge and rarely grant me stories to this day....

So anyway, me and Scott found this perfectly round building a challenge with few potential points of entry and far too many real police patrolling the grounds. I think the main reason we decided to hoist ourselves up the fire escape ladder to the roof was to get the lay of the land from an aerial POV.

That's when Scott spotted the elevator shaft.

Now I'm no stranger to maybe unscrewing a window jam or a vent cover to get into a concert, usually just to reach in and open a door and then put things back together again, with no damage and no evidence.

This elevator shaft rose a few feet off the roof and had a huge vent cover, over a hole that looked just about big enough to crawl through. Which was what Scott proposed. You'd have to ask him what I at first offered as a counter-proposal, but it was probably something that would have been anatomically impossible.

But then he was using a pocket knife to unscrew the cover, and we were looking down onto the roof of a perfectly stationary elevator, with a perfectly inviting little trap door on the top, the likes of which I've seen countless times, but only looking up at it, never down onto it.

The Civic Center isn't a very tall building. We figured the elevator is probably sitting on the second floor. If we can just drop into it, we can hit the button and get down to the concert level, just walk out like we belong and blend into the crowd. Did I mention that we really wanted to see this show?

This is where you can cue in your head the theme to Mission Impossible.....

Next thing I knew, we were climbing into the shaft and atop the elevator, and praise whatever deity watches over fools like us, nobody chose right then to take the elevator. We opened the trap door, peered down inside...and the elevator door was open!

What now? We couldn't see what or who might be in front of those open doors. We didn't even know what or where they opened to. But, again, we really wanted in....

Luckily, nobody spotted the two guys magically appearing in the middle of the open elevator. And luckily we didn't drop on top of Sting!

I don't remember if we went thru with the plan to take the elevator further down, or if we got the hell outta that thing and made a beeline down some stairs or something. The next thing I remember is finding ourselves walking into the first few rows of seats and dancing and singing our asses off for the next 90 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, after the show, there were so many cops around outside that we weren't able to get back up to the roof and screw the vent back over the elevator shaft. We figured somebody was sure to spot it quick and, sure enough, the next time I climbed up there, a whole new cement encasement had been installed, limiting access to the entire shaft.

Not that I would have ever tried that same trick twice. I still can't believe we tried it once! But we REALLY wanted to see that show.

XTC setlist:

Battery Brides (intro), Outside World, Life Begins at the Hop, Helicopter, Love at First Sight, Respectable Street, No Language in Our Lungs, Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!), Statue of Liberty

The Police setlist:

Be My Girl, Bring On the Night, Can't Stand Losing You, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, Deathwish, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Driven to Tears, Fall Out, Man in the Suitcase, Message in a Bottle, Next to You, Reggatta de Blanc, Roxanne, Shadows in the Rain, So Lonely, The Bed's Too Big Without You, Truth Hits Everybody, Voices Inside My Head, Walking on the Moon, When the World Is Running Down You Make the Best of What's Still Around

The Outlaws and .38 Special 1-26-81 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Openers 38 Special, fronted by Ronnie Van Zant’s younger brother Donnie, had just released their album Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, with its hit single “Hold On Loosely.” Florida southern rockers The Outlaws had released their sixth studio album in November 1980, Ghost Riders, and local radio was playing its Stan Jones cover “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky.” This was apparently their final tour before songwriter/guitarist Billy Jones left the group. During the Outlaws set, you can’t imagine how many times I heard people saying “I wish they’d just play Green Grass and High Tides”….

38 Special setlist:

First Time Around, Stone Cold Believer, Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, Hold On Loosely, Back Alley Sally, Rockin Into the Night, Fortunate Son

Outlaws setlist:

Stick Around For Rock and Roll, Holiday, There Goes Another Love Song, Devil’s Road, Hurry Sundown, Freeborn Man, Angels Hide, You Are the Show, (Ghost) Riders in the Sky, Waterhole, Green Grass & High Tides

BACK TO CONNECTICUT

Niantic CT Outdoor Concert 7-26-81 – Run 21, Asa, Street Legal, Franklin Lymestone, JC Hatfield

So I went back to Connecticut to woo the lovely Heather Dawn into moving to CA with me, and this outdoor show down the street from her house was at the old golf driving range in Flanders with the famous “Eat” restaurant (later The Shack). All the bands were local. Rock trio Run 21 had recently changed their name from Jimmy Carter Show. Street Legal was fronted by Steven Mugavero, who passed away in 2020. Southern rockers Franklin Lymestone featured guitarist Dan Ravenelle and guitarist/vocalist Jay Dempsey. As of early 2025, they’re apparently still performing.

Pat Benatar and Billy Squier 8-13-81 Springfield Civic Center, MA

My brother David went to this general admission show with Heather and I and we all got right up front. He still swears that Billy Squier (“Lonely is the Night,” “Stroke Me” etc) played so loud that it gave him permanent tinnitus. The former Piper frontman‘s second solo album Don’t Say No came out that April and sold over three million copies thanks to hits like “In the Dark”, “My Kinda Lover”, “Lonely Is the Night” and the biggie "The Stroke.” Within a few weeks of this date, he was headlining his own arena shows.

Pat Benatar had released her breakthrough album Crimes of Passion in August 1980, earning her first Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Female, but it was her third studio album Precious Time, released just over a month before this concert, that would give Benatar her first (and last) number one chart topping hit album.

Billy Squier setlist:

In the Dark, My Kinda Lover, Whadda You Want From Me, Lonely Is the Night, I Need You, The Stroke, Too Daze Gone, The Big Beat

Pat Benatar setlist:

You Better Run, Treat Me Right, Fire and Ice, Out-A-Touch, I Need a Lover, Promises in the Dark, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Hell Is For Children, Heartbreaker, Precious Time, In The Heat of The Night, We Live For Love, Helter Skelter, Just Like Me, I’m Gonna Follow You, It’s a Tuff Life

Three Dog Night 8-26-81 Agora, New Haven CT

Cory Wells (G, V), Chuck Negron (V), Danny Hutton (V), Jimmy Greenspoon (K), Michael Allsup (G), Mike Seifrit (B), Floyd Sneed (D)

Cool little rock club, apparently long gone, closed since 1983. Three Dog Night hadn’t released an album since 1976, having split after playing a final show that July. For this reunion tour, they had a stellar selection of vintage hits that everyone seemed to really enjoy. The reunion featured all of the original members except Joe Schermie, who was replaced by future Rick Springfield bassist bassist Mike Seifrit. I remember Heather and I saw the band down the street just after the show along with several crew members, all making their way into a crowded pizza place. We tried to blend in with the concert crew to get in with them, but were denied at the last second by security stiff-arming us out of the line.

Setlist:

One Man Band, The Family Of Man, Liar, Shambala, One, Black and White, Mama Told Me Not To Come, Easy To Be Hard, An Old Fashioned Love Song, Never Been To Spain, Pieces Of April, Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues), Try A Little Tenderness, Joy To the World, Eli’s Coming, Celebrate

Meat Loaf 10-14-81 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Meat Loaf (V), Pamela Moore (V), Paul Jacobs (P), Bob Kulick (G), Steve Buslowe (B), George Meyer (K)

The legendary Toad’s, where everyone from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones have played! Meat did a lot of songs off the sequel to Bat Out of Hell he was working on with Jim Steinman, but most of the songs instead ended up on Jim’s Bad For Good album, after he and Meat split (a few also resurfaced on the much later Bat II album they finally did together). A few days previous, on October 10, Mr. Loaf had just played the first date of a world tour in support of his third studio album Dead Ringer, released September 4 and the second of his four albums written entirely by Steinman. The followup to their Bat Out of Hell album was just topping the charts when a surprise club gig was announced for Toad's Place in New Haven CT, which Heather and I won tickets for on the radio. It was the second date of his first tour to include new pianist Paul Jacobs, who he’d collaborate with for many years.

I've only been anything like "drunk" two or three times in my life, and one of those times, Meat Loaf got me drunk! I had already had my standard limit of two beers over a whole night when all of a sudden Meat Loaf announced from the stage that he was buying beer for everyone in the house! The waitresses started handing out filled pitchers, and by the time we walked out the door, I was concerned about the 45 mile drive back to our hometown. I'd never driven buzzed on beer before.

I frankly don't remember how we ended up there, but we found a neighborhood nearby where we simply parked and passed out in the car. I think I may have puked out the car door the next morning. The next thing I remember for sure was a cop car pulling up behind us. Apparently a neighbor was concerned about the unfamiliar jacked up Chevy Malibu parked (probably crookedly) on the curb, with two possibly dead people inside (at least that's how we were feeling by sunup).

We somehow convinced the cop that we had just gotten sleepy while driving and pulled over to rest, and he seemed to go for that, telling us to follow his car and he'd lead us back toward the highway. However, the route he took was basically a gravel access road, I'm not even sure legal for anyone but cops and maintenance vehicles to use, and for years Heather told people she thought for sure the cop was taking us out to some secluded hideaway to pull a reverse Onion Field on us and leave us for dead!

But we finally got to the highway on-ramp and the cop waved us past, allowing us to live to tell this tale. Thanks a lot, Meat!!

Setlist:

Come in the Night/Let the Revels Begin, I’m Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us, You Took the Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Wasted Youth, All Revved Up With No Place To Go, Everything Is Permitted, Paradise By the Dashboard Light, Never Never Land, Stark Raving Love, Lost Boys and Golden Girls, Bat Out Of Hell, Read Em and Weep, Peel Out, Dead Ringer For Love, Promised Land, Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad, Baby Love

Pat Metheny 10-21-81 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

The Pat Metheny Group had released American Garage in late 1979, and Metheny’s solo double album 80/81 came out in 1980. Can’t find a setlist but here’s one from around the same time that sounds about right.

Setlist:

80/81, The Bat, Turnaround (Ornette Coleman cover), Open, Pretty Scared, Every Day (I Thank You), Goin’ Ahead, Broadway Blues (Ornette Coleman), Offramp

Fountainhead November 1981 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Album release party for a local band who played a lot of area venues, including my own high school dances, Fountainhead, and their concert album Live At Toad’s Place, recorded over two nights in 1980.

The album that apparently still holds the record for most sales of a local band in Connecticut, it charted on all the rock radio stations in the region. They used to open for a lot of the touring acts, including The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Jefferson Starship, and others.

Frank Zappa 11-5-81 Hartford Civic Center, CT

FZ, Steve Vai, Ray White, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman, Ed Mann, Tommy Mars, Bobby Martin

My ticket says this show happened on Thursday 11-5, but online databases usually say November 6. Snow delay perhaps? A 115 minute bootleg of the show exists, also said to be from November 6 at the Harford Civic Center. Zappa had released You Are What You Is in September, and he previewed “Drowning Witch” from his upcoming May 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.

Setlist:

Zoot Allures, Montana, Easy Meat, Cosmik Debris, A Pound For A Brown, Society Pages, I'm A Beautiful Guy, Beauty Knows No Pain, Charlie's Enormous Mouth, Fine Girl, Teenage Wind, Harder Than Your Husband, Bamboozled By Love, Sinister Footwear, Stevie's Spanking, Cocaine, Decisions, Nig Biz, Drowning Witch, What's New In Baltimore?, Moggio, Strictly Genteel, Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, Whipping Post

The Rolling Stones and Garland Jeffreys 11-10-81 Hartford Civic Center, CT

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Ernie Watts, Ian McLagan

Heather and I won these tix on the radio! Garland Jeffreys was touring in support of two 1981 albums, a studio record called Escape Artist and a live album, Rock ‘N’ Roll Adult. The Stones’ Tattoo You tour was one of the biggest tours of the year, grossing over 50 million dollars. They played multiple nights in Hartford. We weren’t that enthused, but figured this might be the last tour ever (hah!). A bootleg recoding of the entire 11-10 show is on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=uJBW7GoKh4I&t=810s

Stones setlist:

Under My Thumb, When the Whip Comes Down, Let’s Spend the Night Together, Shattered, Neighbors, Black Limousine, Just My Imagination, Down the Road Apiece, Going To a Go-Go, Let Me Go, Time Is On My Side, Beast of Burden, Waiting On a Friend, Let It Bleed, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Little T&A, Tumbling Dice, She’s So Cold, All Down the Line, Hang Fire, Miss You, Start Me Up, Honky Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar, Jumpin Jack Flash, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Genesis 12-2-1981 Hartford Civic Center, CT

Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Daryl Steurmer, Chester Thompson

The Abacab Tour with ol’ Magic Phil at the helm. Quite awesome! Phil even played trumpet a few times. Even tho Collins had just released a hugely successful solo album, they stuck with Genesis tracks all night. The entire December 8 show from Buffalo NY is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qRJNlM7af8

Setlist:

Behind The Lines, Duchess, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Dodo/Lurker, Abacab, Carpet Crawlers, Like It or Not, No reply At All, Misunderstanding, Firth of Fifth, Man on the Corner, Who Dunnit, In the Cage, The Cinema Show, The Colony of Slippermen, Afterglow, Turn It On Again, Dance On a Volcano – drum duet, Los Endos

Rush 12-20-81 Hartford Civic Center, CT

The Ramones 1-3-82 the Agora, New Haven CT

Joe Selden drove me and Jim Ensinger to this New Haven show, Jim had free tix somehow. The Agora was a great concert hall, with a solid sound system. The Ramones had released their sixth studio album Pleasant Dreams the previous summer.

Setlist:

Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio, Do You Wanna Dance, Blitzkrieg Bop, This Business Is Killing Me, All’s Quiet on the Eastern Front, Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment, Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, I Wanna Be Sedated, Beat on the Brat, The KKK Took My Baby Away, Go Mental, You Sound Like You’re Sick, Suzy is a Headbanger, Let’s Dance, Here Today Gone Tomorrow, I’m Affected, Chinese Rocks, Rockaway Beach, Teenage Lobotomy, Surfin Bird, Cretin Hop, California Sun, Today Your Love Tomorrow the World, Pinhead, Come On Now, I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You, Sheena Is a Punk Rocker, We Want the Airwaves, I Just Want To have Something To Do, We’re a Happy Family

Bobby and the Midnites 1-31-82 Woolsey Hall, Yale University, New Haven CT

Bob Weir (G, V), Alphonso Johnson (B), Dave Garland (K, Sax), Bobby Cochran (G, V), Billy Cobham (D)

Bob Weir’s jazz fusion band with Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson and Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham, in a venue at Yale that I only attended a few times (the best being an early Asia show). It had a great sound system and acoustics, at least for this type of music.

Setlist:

Young Blood (Coasters), Big Iron (Marty Robbins), (I Want To) Fly Away, Far Away, Little red Rooster (Willie Dixon), Easy To Slip (Little Feat), Bahama Mama (Alphonso Johnson), Me Without You, Supplication (Kingfish), Man Smart Woman Smarter (King Radio), Bombs Away, Haze, Minglewood Blues (Cannon’s Jug Stompers), This Time Forever, Shade of Grey, Heaven Help the Fool – drum solo, Josephine, Around and Around (Chuck Berry), Book Of Rules (Heptones), Too Many Losers

The Grateful Dead 3-14-81 Hartford Civic Center, CT

Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, Bob Weir

I know very little about the Dead, so here’s a review from Daily Dose of Dead: “If you look at the second set, it’s basically a first set group of songs, like Alabama Getaway and Greatest Story Ever Told, tucked around Lost Sailor>St. of Circumstance (the “jammy” part of the night, even though they aren’t jammy) plus a five-minute The Other Onewhich is definitely not a launchpad for improv tonight (but you do get to hear Jerry play Bach at the end for about 20 seconds). In fact, the two longest songs in the second set, other than Drums/Space, are the two ballads – Ship of Fools and Stella Blue. Stella Blue, by the way,is of a very high quality indeed. The first set is larded with goodness, including an amazing version of Althea, a nice, long Sugaree and a triumphant China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider.”

“Jerry shines throughout the night, his guitar tone clear and happy. The drummers are on fire and Bob is throwing down, even though we can’t hear Phil very well (but then again, you almost never can in the early 80’s). Almost everything clicks for the Dead here in Hartford. The only moment of confusion (and it’s not that surprising if you know the Dead) comes during I Need a Miracle, which is ripping along quite nicely until Jerry decides that he doesn’t want to keep playing it and forces everyone to play Bertha instead. The version of Bertha that follows is incredibly fast. I kept waiting for the band to fall off a cliff or to rein in the speed, but they do neither and it all works out in the end.”

Audio of the entire concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSEI2o3MeX0

Setlist:

Set 1: Feel Like A Stranger, Sugaree, Me And My Uncle, Big River, Peggy-O, C.C. Rider, Althea, Passenger, China Cat Sunflower, I Know You Rider, Set 2: Alabama Getaway, Greatest Story Ever Told, Ship Of Fools, Lost Sailor, Saint Of Circumstance - Drums, The Other One, Stella Blue, I Need A Miracle, Bertha, Good Lovin', Encore: One More Saturday Night

Santana 7-8-81 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Carlos Santana, Alex Ligerwood, Richard Baker, David Margen, Graham Lear, Armando Peraza, Raul Rekow, Orestes Vilato

Santana was about halfway through their Zebop Tour, supporting the same-named 18th album. The July 4 show from a few days before this date at Cape Cod Coliseum was broadcast on the radio and is available as a bootleg.

Zebop tour comp video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kbc543wWkE

Setlist:

All I Ever Wanted, Primera Invasion, Searchin, Tales of Kilimanjaro, Black Magic Woman, Gypsy Queen, Well All Right, E Papa Re, Europa, Savor, Jim-go-lo-ba, Incident at Neshabur, Body Surfing, Soul Sacrifice, Runnin, Open Invitation, She’s Not There, The Sensitive Kind, American Gypsy, Shake Your Moneymaker

Spyro Gyra 2-4-82 Connecticut College Palmer Auditorium, New London CT

Fusion jazz show attended with Heather and my old drummer friend Joe Delia, who I’d play with the following year in a band called Darkseid. Spyro Gyra was touring behind their fifth album Freetime, which hit number one on the Billboard jazz charts. They’d release Incognito in September.

Probable partial setlist:

Incognito, Last Exit, Morning Dance, Shaker Song, Heliopolis

Hall and Oates, Joan Jett, Aldo Nova 2-24-82 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Better than you’d think! Especially Aldo Nova, whose only US hit was around then, “Fantasy.” Joan Jett had just released her biggest album ever in November 1981, I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll, her sophomore full-length. Hall and Oates had released their tenth studio album Private Eyes the previous September, earning two number-one hits with the title track and “I Can’t Go For That,” and hits like “Did It In a Minute.”

Aldo Nova setlist:

Can’t Stop Lovin’ You, Fantasy, Hot Love, Under the Gun, Foolin Yourself

Joan Jett setlist:

Bad Reputation, (I’m Gonna) Run Away, You Don’t Know What You’ve Got, Victim of Circumstance, Black Leather, I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll, Crimson and Clover, Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)

Hall & Oates setlist:

Did It In A Minute, Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear Voices), Mano a Mano, She’s Gone, Sara Smile, Wait For Me, Kiss On My List, You’ve Lost That Lovin Feelin, I Can’t Go For That, Private Eyes, You Make My Dreams, Head Above Water

King Crimson 3-4-82 Toad’s Place New Haven, CT

Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford

The band was touring in support of their Discipline album, released in October 1981. I remember being stunned by Bruford’s all-electronic drum kit and the sounds he was capable of getting out of it.

Setlist:

Discipline, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Red, Matte Kudasai, The Sheltering Sku, Frame By Frame, Neurotica, Neal and Jack and Me – drum solo, Elephant Talk, Indiscipline, Absent Lovers, Larks’ Tongue in Aspic Part Two

Chick Corea 4-8-82 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Corea (piano, keys), Steve Kujala (saxophones, flute), Al Vizutti (trumpet), Carlos Benevent (electric bass), Don Alias (percussion), Tom Brechtlein (drums)

I was getting into a lot of jazz, thanks to Niantic guitarist Tony Lee broadening my musical education. Corea was touring in support of his Touchstone album, which hit number nine on the Billboard jazz chart.

(4-13-82 Philadelphia concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6uIe8V58iU)

Setlist:

Compadres, Round Midnight, You’re Everything, Waltze, Little Ditty Without a Name, Duende, Childrens Songs, So In Love, Dear Alice, Spain

John McLaughlin 4-21-82 Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford CT

JM (G), Katia Labeque (P, K), Francois Couturier (K), Jean Paul Celea (B), Tommy Campbell (D)

This show featured McLaughlin’s project The Translators, a band that made two albums with him, Belo Horizonte and Music Spoken Here. Mclaughlin, who was focusing on nylon stringed acoustic guitar, was dating classical pianist Katia Labeque at the time, and she was playing an amazing new digital keyboard, the Synclavier, a device Frank Zappa would embrace as well. The entire show is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcrdt3jE6dg

Setlist:

Belo Horizonte, David, La Baleine, Stardust On Your Sleeve, Blues For LW, Aspan, One Melody, Loro (Egberto Gismonti)

URI Spring Fling - NRBQ, Squeeze, Flock of Seagulls 4-24-82, Keaney Gym, University of Rhode Island, Kingston RI

One of the first U.S. shows for Flock of Seagulls - we didn't know who they were but thought it was weird that they had a song about "Iran." Heather and I would see them again early the following year in California at the US Festival. This appears to have been their second U.S. date, after appearing with Squeeze the night before, April 22, in CT at Fairfield University.

Squeeze had kicked off their nationwide tour opening for Elvis Costello (who produced their 1981 album East Side Story) in nearby Providence in February, and they played Fairfield CT April 23 with Flock Of Seagulls, and then this show. Six days after this concert, they released their fifth studio full-length Sweets From a Stranger, their final album as Squeeze before splitting up for several years. I remember the venue stopped the concert at least twice, turning the house lights up and warning everybody that if they kept up all the crazy dancing in the aisles, the fire marshal would shut down the show. Headliners NRBQ encored with “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” And then came back and launched into the same song. And then came back a third time – kicking right into another verse of the same song. The joke eventually wore thin and the hall started to empty out, as they continued playing and playing and playing….

Flock Of Seagulls setlist:

Modern Love is Automatic, Messages, Standing In the Doorway, Committed, Electrics, Space Age Love Song, DNA, You Can Run, (It’s Not Me) Talking, Telecommunication, I Ran

Squeeze setlist:

Another Nail In My Heart, Take Me I’m Yours, If I Didn’t Love You, Mumbo Jumbo, Messed Around, In Quintessence, Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), Coffee In Bed, Tempted, Goodbye Girl

NRBQ setlist:

Ridin In My Car, That’s Neat That’s Nice, Me and the Boys, Java, Don’t She Look Good, Precious Memories, You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover, It Was a Accident, Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Encore: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Asia 4-27-82 Woolsey Hall, New Haven CT

John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Carl Palmer

This was the founding lineup of Asia featuring members of Yes, King Crimson, UK, the Buggles, and ELP. One of Asia’s first shows (and the fourth concert Heather and I saw that April!) took place at a Yale University venue that sat around 2,500 people, Woolsey Hall, constructed in 1901 in celebration of the university’s bicentennial. Their self-titled debut album had just been released on March 8 and this was the fifth date of their inaugural tour, which kicked off a few days previous to Woolsey Hall, on April 22 at a university in Potsdam, New York. “Heat Of the Moment” was about to spend six weeks atop the rock chart, “Only Time Will Tell” was all over local radio, they’d earn a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and both Billboard and Cashbox magazine would name their self-titled debut Asia as the number one album of the year.

They wouldn’t play many more college campuses - within a few weeks, they were headlining arenas, coliseums, and even stadiums. When they returned to CT the following year (8-17-83), they sold out all 11,500 seats of the New Haven Coliseum.

An almost identical concert from two nights later, April 29 in Boston, is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxFZEZOC7C8

Setlist:

Time Again, Without You, One Step Closer – guitar solo, Midnight Sun, Only Time Will Tell, The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, Cutting It Fine, Wildest Dreams, Here Comes the Feeling – drum solo, Sole Survivor, Heat Of the Moment

John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers 6-14-82 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

John Mayall, Mick Taylor, John McVie, Colin Allen

Blues legend John Mayall played two sets with former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie, and we caught the second show at 10:30 PM. A concert from three nights later (8-17-82) in Washington DC was recorded and released as the live album The 1982 Reunion Concert.

Both Toad’s Place sets are online - https://iorr.org/talk/read.php?2,530972

Setlist (partial):

I Should Know Better, Rocket in the Pocket, Room to Move, All Night All Day, Riding Out on the Santa Fe

Jaco Pastorius & the Word Of Mouth Band 7-1-82 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Jaco Pastorius (bass/keyboards), Don Alias (percussion), Randy Brecker (trumpet), Peter Erskine (drums), Bob Mintzer (saxophone/bass clarinet), Othello Molineaux (steel drums)

Best. Bassist. Ever. This was the Word Of Mouth Band of all-stars, including Don Alias and Peter Erskine of Weather Report, Bob Mintzer (Yellowjackets), and Randy Brecker (Brecker Bros), so there were many extended solos. His second solo studio album Word of Mouth was just being released that month, while he was still officially a member of Weather Report.

The entire concert is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzzTIV7x_Ck

Setlist:

Invitation, Bass solo/Soul intro/The Chicken, Bass clarinet solo/Donna Lee, Three Views of a Secret – percussion solo, Reza/Giant Steps, Mr. Phone Bone, Sophisticated Lady, Bass solo/drum solo/Twins, Fannie Mae

Jean Luc Ponty 7-7-82 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Ponty (violin), Jamie Glaser (G), Allan Zavod (K), Keith Jones (B, Synth), Rayford Griffin (D)

The French violinist was touring in support of Mystical Adventures, which topped the Billboardjazz chart. His band featured Australian keyboardist Allan Zavod.

The entire concert is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqHRoJlYtpc

Setlist:

Demagomania, Mirage, Rhythms of Hope/Stay With Me, As/Final Truth Part 1, Final Truth part 2/drum solo/Jig, Once a Blue Planet/No Strings Attached, Mystical Adventures, Egocentric Molecules/New Country/The Trans-Love Express

Smothers Brothers and Elaine Stratos 7-13-82 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

My return to the Oakdale, where I saw my first concert (Bobby Sherman) and had my first date (Tom Jones) in the early ‘70s. We got to meet the Brothers after the show, and I asked Tommy if Pete Townshend knew Tommy was going to smash his guitar in the famous scene from the Smos Bros Comedy Hour. He said yes, but that he DIDN’T know Keith Moon had packed extra explosives into the drum kit.

Arlo Guthrie and David Bromberg 7-14-82 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

My brother David and his girlfriend Jan Ayer went to this one with Heather and I, the day after the Smothers Brothers. Guthrie had released his Power Of Love album the previous year. Bromberg’s most recent album at the time was 1980’s You Should See the Rest of the Band. Setlists are compiled from existing setlists of showdates around the same time.

David Bromberg likely setlist:

Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, Last Date, Sally Goodin, Battle of Bull Run, Sharon, Will Not Be Your Fool

Arlo Guthrie likely setlist:

Let the World, Along a Country Road, Percy’s Song (Dylan), Blowin in the Wind (Dylan), The Range of the Buffalo, 1913 Massacre (Woody Guthrie), Darkest Hour, Oh Mom, President Carter Rabbit Song (Tom Paxton), I’m Changing My Name to Chrysler, City of New Orleans, Blow These Winds, Dog Song, Alice’s Restaurant, Coming Into Los Angeles, Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Peter Tork solo summer 1982, New London Pier, CT

Part of the annual SailFest, Heather and I got to chat with Pete a bit after the show (he grew up in nearby Storrs CT). I still have a library card he signed for me.

The Mamas and the Papas 8-23-82 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Mackenzie Phillips, Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane

This was the weird hybrid version of the quartet with Spanky from Spanky and Our Gang and Michelle and John’s daughter Mackenzie Phillips, of One Day at a Time fame.

Likely setlist:

Straight Shooter, Twelve Thirty, Dedicated to the One I Love, Mississippi, Mr. Chow, I Call Your Name, Not Too Cool, Lazy Day/Spanky & Our Gang medley, One Day at a Time, I Wish, Creeque Alley, Monday Monday, California Dreamin’, Go Where You Wanna Go

Jethro Tull 9-28-82 New Haven Coliseum, CT

Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg, Peter-John Vettese, Gerry Conway

For over 20 years, I never missed a Tull tour. This one included two members recruited from Fairport Convention, bassist/mandolinist David Pegg and drummer Gerry Conway. They were touring in support of Broadsword and the Beast, released earlier that year in April.

Setlist:

Something’s On the Move, Hunting Girl, Fallen on Hard Times, Broadsword, Heavy Horses, A Song For Jeffrey – keyboard solo – drum solo, Fat Man, Jack in the Green, Clasp, Watching Me Watching You, Instrumenta, Beastie, The Swirling Pit, A New Day Yesterday, Thick As a Brick, Sweet Dream, Too Old to Rock ‘N’ Roll Too Young to Die, Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Black Sunday, Cheerio

Jeff Lorber 10-14-82 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Lorber was so fond of Toad’s Place that his 1979 album Water Sign includes a song called “Toad’s Place.” He was touring in support of his fifth album, his last release as a bandleader for quite a few years, Galaxian.

Setlist (partial):
Rain Dance

(Galaxian songs?)

Jefferson Starship and .38 Special 11-5-82, Worcester Centrum MA

Grace Slick, Mickey Thomas, Paul Kantner, Craig Chaquico (G), David Freiberg (B, V, K), Pete Sears (B, K), Donny Baldwin (D)

I believe this show with Grace back at the Starship helm with co-singer Mickey Thomas was the first concert at this newly built venue in Worcester MA. I think it’s already been torn down. Starship had released their Winds Of Change album in October, scoring a couple of top 40 hits with “Be My Lady” and the title track. 38 Special were touring in support of Special Forces, released in May.

38 Special setlist:

Take 'Em Out, Back on the Track, Rough-Housin', Stone Cold Believer, You Keep Runnin' Away, Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, Chain Lightning, Back Door Stranger, Fantasy Girl, Caught Up in You, Hold On Loosely, Rockin' Into the Night, Fortunate Son

Jefferson Starship setlist:

Winds of Change, Ride the Tiger, Stranger, Black Widow, Find Your Way Back, Save Your Love, Somebody to Love, Be My Lady, Girl With the Hungry Eyes - Bass Solo, Can't Find Love - Drum Solo, Out of Control, Jane, Rock Music, Stairway to Cleveland, White Rabbit

George Thorogood and the Destroyers 11-24-82 Bushnell Hall, Hartford CT

Thorogood was touring in support of one of his biggest albums, Bad To the Bone, released that August. We got right up front for the final few songs, leaning right on the stage. In fact, I had a printed flyer in my pocket for a party we were throwing that weekend at the little one room schoolhouse where we lived, and I slipped it into Thorogood’s loafers while he played – I figured what the hell, he’ll still be in the area, he had a bunch of other gigs nearby. Sadly, he didn’t attend our party --

Setlist:

The House of Blue Lights, Kids From Philly, I’m Wanted, One Way Ticket, One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer, As the Years Go Passing By, It Wasn’t Me, Boogie Chillen, Miss Luann, Can’t Stop Lovin, Move It On Over, Wild Weekend, Nobody But Me

The Stray Cats 12-19-82 Hubbell Gym at the University of Bridgeport CT

This was when the Cats were first hitting the airwaves with two albums released in 1981, their self-titled debut and Gonna Ball. Everybody was dancing like crazy. When Brian Setzer threw his scarf into the crowd, Heather almost got strangled by being between two ladies fighting over it.

Setlist:

Your Baby Blue Eyes, Double Talkin' Baby, Rumble in Brighton, Drink That Bottle Down, Built for Speed, Rev It Up & Go, C'mon Everybody, Stray Cat Strut, Lonely Summer Nights, Fishnet Stockings, Rock This Town, Runaway Boys, Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie, You Can't Hurry Love, Somethin' Else

David Lindley 2-18-83 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

My 23rd birthday: Linley and El Rayo-X were touring behind Win This Record, his final album for Asylum Records before they dropped him (it failed to chart).

BACK TO CALIFORNIA

The Us Festival, May 28-30 1983, San Bernardino CA

When the US Festival happened in San Bernardino CA at the end of May 1983, Heather and I had just relocated to San Diego - all our stuff was still in a moving van, we hadn't even found an apartment yet, but we decided to leave it parked in front of a friend's North Park apartment while we went up north for a three day music festival. With no tickets!

We missed most of the daytime bands on day one due to our perpetually tardy driver Tommy Gray, but we did manage to sneak both me and Heather in with only one parking-lot purchased ticket, just by marching confidently passed the guards with my girl holding up her wallet or something instead of a ticket. And it worked! Altho we missed INXS, we did get to see that final Clash performance, which seemed more embarrassing than historic at the time.

I have several photos we took with Heather’s 110 Instamatic. Note that giant beer can has headlights, it was mobile, just like the rocket car in the top picture (shot on our handy 110 Instamatic). Stage pics show Berlin, U2, and Quarterflash (remember them?), among others. We were up front pretty close for most all the bands, and right up against the rail for headliners like Bowie and Van Halen.

Triumph was the highlight of Day Two: Heavy Metal Day, tho Judas Priest was pretty awesome in the hundred degree heat. They had to hose us down from the stage several times, prompting a David Copperfield-worthy magic trick every time as all the leather jackets in the place suddenly vanished, hidden everywhere possible until the water deluge ended.

The Bowie set was legendary, and remains almost impossible to find online other than audio recordings. We were right up front for Van Halen's drunken set, which was both the best and worst concert set I ever saw them play (I've been catching them since they were opening for Black Sabbath, just before the first album hit). I recently watched a video of the whole set for the first time since seeing it live, and they really were on fire for a lot of the night. Roth is a mess - he even yells out in one song "I forgot the f-ing words!" - but he covers up the sloppiness with enough sloppiness that it becomes a fun game to watch him, like listening to two songs at the same time that magically sync up and sound improbably great.

Luckily, nobody robbed our moving van in North Park, and we found a place the next week at 37th and El Cajon where we began setting up for our new life, back in California (I'd lived there twice in the 70s/early 60s, and Heather was born in CA). Of course, we immediately began planning which concerts to attend next. "Life," after all, was merely the stuff that happened between concerts -

Highlights for me were Triumph, David Bowie, Ozzy, and a daytime set from U2 – also there were the Clash, Stray Cats, Men at Work, English Beat, Oingo Boingo, INXS, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Motlet Crue, Stevie Nicks, the Pretenders, Quarterflash, Missing Persons, Berlin, and an infamously drunk Van Halen set.

VH1 documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihhtVA9rrIc

Van Halen set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E9n8RXAQbI

Ozzy set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPizQ2xlTlE

Motley Crue set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFNY0m3xx8w

Missing Persons set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiNqvdz6vj8

Judas Priest set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIko-mZ2tUU

Triumph set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHVGKivnFZg

U2 set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olb6Fgup1uI

Pretenders - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T665giSyrbE

Quiet Riot set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXOB6BmmhFM

Scorpions set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eep2TB93kE

Stevie Nicks partial set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DYJ5azwVTk

Robben Ford June 1983, Blue Parrot jazz club, La Jolla CA

Tiny long-gone jazz club with Robben Ford, who released his fourth album that summer, Standing On the Outside (a year after guesting on several tracks on KISS’ Creatures Of the Night album). Ford was seated so close to us the candle on our table nearly lit his sheet music on fire.

Spirit June 1983 Kobey’s Swap Meet at San Diego Sports Arena parking lot

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Liberty

Well, consider the actual locale of Spirit's only 1983 concert now confirmed for posterity as the Sports Arena parking lot, rather than the Stadium! For years, I couldn't find this show mentioned ANYwhere, tho I knew I hadn't hallucinated it (I even wrote down details at the time) -- of the few dozen or so people who watched Spirit play out in front of the ticket entrance that day, I suspect very few even knew who the band was...

Setlist:

Prelude/Nothing to Hide, Dark Eyed Woman, Sister Tell Me ?, 1984, Hey Joe, I Got a Line on You, Nature’s Way, Animal Zoo

B-52’s and the Red Rockers 6-18-83 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

Heather and I sneaked into this show, hence the ticket covered in footprints – I grabbed it off the ground! New Orleans punk band The Red Rockers opened, they had a hit song at the time with “China.” This was the first B-52’s show at SDSU, they were touring in support of Whammy.

B-52’s setlist:

Song For a Future Generation, Strobe Light, Give Me Baqck My Man, Planet Claire, Butterbean, Queen Of Las Vegas, Whammy Kiss, Legal Tender, Mesopotamia, Big Bird, Dance This Mess Around, Rock Lobster, Party Out Of Bounds, There’s a Moon in the Sky/Moon 83

Zebra 6-21-83 Music Mart, San Diego

I still love this Zep-like band (“Tell Me What You Want,” “Who’s Behind the Door”), and this was an equipment demo gig at a music shop! Heather has great pics she took with her 110 Instamatic, we were right up front.

Setlist:

Who’s Behind the Door, The La La Song, Bears, Tell Me What You Want, I Don’t Care, I Don’t Like It, As I Said Before, Slow Down (Larry Williams cover)

Lee Ritenour 7-12-83 Humphreys by the Bay, San Diego CA

The jazz guitarist was touring on the strength of his previous two hit albums, Rit and Rit/2.

The Divinyls 8-2-83 the Rodeo, La Jolla CA

I remembered the Australian rock band from seeing them a few months previous in May, at the US Festival. Jack McCowan, who brought me and Tommy Gray to San Diego in 1978, was a big fan and talked us into going to this local club date in La Jolla. Their debut album Desperate had been released in January - it would be around eight more years before the band had a big US hit with “Touch Myself.” This was our first time at the Rodeo, a shortlived club with TV cameras broadcasting performance to sets located throughout the club.

Setlist:

Only You, I’ll Make You Happy, Only Lonely, Elsie, Science Fiction, Boys In Town, Siren, Don’t You Go Walking

Al Stewart 8-9-83 Humphrey’s, San Diego CA

Stewart’s last album had been 1980’s 24 Carrots, but his setlist was heavy with tracks from Year Of the Cat, Time Passages, and a few deep cut from his early discography.

Peter Gabriel and the Call 8-15-83 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego

PG, Larry Fast, Tony Levin

The most transcendental moment I ever had at a concert was when Peter Gabriel played SDSU's outdoor amphitheater in August 1984. Originally scheduled for August 14, this date on Gabriel’s Shock the Monkey tour, the only appearance he ever made at SDSU, was delayed by a day due to rain. Openers The Call, a Santa Cruz rock band who’d just released their sophomore album Modern Romans, were reportedly hand-selected by Gabriel to open the tour (he once called them the “future of American music”).

Gabriel’s fifth album had been released in June, the concert double-album Plays Live, which we were already wearing out on the turntable. Though battling marital problems and dealing with financial trouble due to his failed Womad festival, Gabriel pulled off a show that was totally "state of the art" - the SDSU date was one of his final concerts with Nektar keyboardist Larry Fast, whose advanced computerized setup (for that era) included a Fairlight CMI digital synthesizer and Memorymoog programmed presets. Backstage, the band used their Radio Shack TRS-80 model 100 portable computer to correspond electronically on what was then the beginning of the internet, an online network known as IMC Dialcom64.

The band also included Stick player Tony Levin. During one song, Gabriel approached the front of the stage, turned his back to the crowd, and fell backward into the audience, not even looking to see if he’d be caught (he was). Then he was passed around by the uplifted arms of audience members, just over our heads at one point, traveling the entire width and length of the amphitheater infield before being returned to the front of the stage.

The most memorable moment came just as Gabriel was singing "Here Comes the Flood." When he got to the line "And as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain was warm and soaked the crowd," it suddenly - in the middle of a Southern California night - started to rain!! It was warm. And it soaked the crowd. Only for a moment, but what a transcendental moment ---- I still get goosebumps whenever I hear that track!

Heather posted on Facebook “That was the most well timed rain I’ve ever experienced! The drops were huge and warm. It stopped as suddenly as it started. The last drops ended with the song like it was part of the show. Just as surprising was how fast it dried up again. By the end of the next song you never would have know it had rained. Truly magical show.”

Setlist:

Across the River, I Have the Touch, Not One Of Us, The Family and the Fishing Net, Shock the Monkey, Family Snapshot, Intruder, Humdrum, Games Without Frontiers, Lay Your Hands On Me, Solsbury Hill, I Don’t Remember, San Jacinto, On the Air, Biko, Here Comes the Flood

Gallagher 8-27-83 East County Performing Arts Center, CA (The Maddest TV special)

The first TV taping I remember attending is when Gallagher filmed The Maddest in Escondido, the now famous 1983 HBO special with the giant couch prop, and I ended up with a "line" in the show - you can see us in upper right, that was my favorite western shirt with a cactus scene across the chest. We were with Tommy Gray, and he'd been practicing the loudest laugh he could muster all day, hoping he'd be picked up by one of the audience mics. He'd guffaw while exhaling as hard and as loudly as he could, making a bellowing noise that sounded for all the world like one of those Disney cartoons with Goofy falling off a cliff, that kind of woo-hoo-wahh!

Sure enough, a mic was hanging right over us, and for some reason - just as Gallagher was talking about how politicians are failing America, I suddenly shouted out, much louder and more forcefully than I'd intended, right in the middle of a brief silent second between jokes and laughter, "Gallagher for President!"

As soon as it rolled out my mouth, I regretted it, and figured bouncers would soon be dragging me out by the hair (not unknown to happen to me back then) - instead, the audience started applauding, Gallagher took a small bow and, without missing a beat, he launched into a short improv about what he would do if elected President!!

I was pretty jazzed when Gallagher: The Maddest debuted on HBO later that year, and my unscripted "line," as well as several minutes of his ad-libbed response, was immortalized as part of the show! I found this YouTube clip, I hadn't seen this since it first screened on Showtime around a year later! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_h671my_lc

Simon and Garfunkel 8-28-83 Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego CA

Heather and Tommy and Jack McCowan all had tickets for this reunion concert at the big stadium, but I was broke and had to sneak in – through the security compound, of all places. I just walked up to a guy with a yellow jacket and clipboard who was having people sign their names, wrote down a made-up name, and walked right past the rack of yellow security jackets and into the ground level seats.

Setlist:

Cecilia, Mrs Robinson, America, My Little Town, Me and Julio, Scarborough Fair, Cars Are Cars, I Only Have Eyes For You, Homeward Bound, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Late In the Evening, The Late Great Johnny Ace, El Condor Pasa, Think Too Much, Still Crazy After All These Year, Kodachrome, Maybellene, Bridge Over Trouble Water, The Boxer, Slip Slidin Away, 59^th Bridge Street Song, Old Friends/Bookends, Wake Up Little Susie, One Summer Night, Late in the Evening, The Sound of Silence

Richard Pryor 8-31-83 Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles CA

We had tickets and the late Tommy Gray was driving. And by late, I don't just mean that he's no longer with us. Anybody who's ever been driven anywhere by Tommy knows that it was usually faster to hitchhike than depend on Tommy who, gawd bless my late best friend, never met schedule he could keep.

We didn't get two hours north to the Sunset Strip until the show was already started. The ushers took our tickets and began walking us to our seats - not being that familiar with the venue, I had no idea where we'd end up, so imagine our shock as the usher kept bringing us closer and closer to the stage. We got right up to within a few rows of the stage, the usher said "enjoy the show," and there we were, looking right up at Pryor! Wow!! I took off my jacket, hung it on the back of my primo seat, settled into the chair - and Richard Pryor announced "Thank you, good night!" Well, at least we were there!

Elvis Costello & the Attractions and Aztec Camera 9-15-83 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

EC, Steve Nieve (K), Bruce Thomas (B), Pete Thomas (D), the TKO Horns Quartet & Afrodiziak (vocal duo)

This was an experimental "amphitheater seating" show at the Sports Arena with two thirds of the venue blocked off. The bands (Aztec Camera opened) were set up in the rear of the venue and played to what would normally be the worst seats in the house. About a third of the 3500 seats were filled, despite the success of Costello's most commercial effort up to that time (Punch the Clock). Security guards let in people without tickets, but the exodus of patrons outnumbered those coming in, and the Attractions finished their (mostly inaudible) set for fewer than a thousand fans. "Amphitheater seating" at the Sports Arena died soon after.

Aztec Camera setlist:

Lost Outside the Tunnel, Walk Out to Winter, Orchid Girl, Back On Board, The Bugle Sounds Again, The Boy Wonders, Oblivious, Release, We Could Send Letters, Queen’s Tattoos, Down the Dip

Elvis Costello setlist:

The Great Unknown (EC solo), Possession, Secondary, Modern, New Lace Sleeves, Man Out of Time, Everyday I Write the Book (with Afrodiziak), Shipbuilding

Supertramp 9-21-83 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Note those front row seats for Supertramp that Heather and I camped out for! They only played one more US show before Roger Hodgson quit the group. Heather took a great photo of him holding a bouquet of flowers someone in the audience handed to him.

Setlist:

Crazy, Ain’t Nobody But Me, Breakfast In America, Bloody Well Right, It’s Raining Again, Put On Your Old Brown Shoe, Hide In Your Shell, From Now On, Give a Little Bit, Waiting So Long, The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger, Dreamer, Rudy, Don’t Leave Me Now, Fool’s Overture, School, Crime of the Century

Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco De Lucia and Steve Morse 10-29-83 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, CA

Three star guitarists, with an opening set from Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse, back before his Deep Purple tenure.

Setlist:

Aspan (John McLaughlin), Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho (Al Di Meola), Scenario, Frevo Resgado (Egberto Gismonti), Chiquito, Sichia, Guardian Angels (The One Truth Band), Orient Blue Suite, Passion Grace and Fire, Fantasia Suite, Splendido Sundance, David (John McLaughlin)

Blame It On the Night filming 10-15-83 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Ted Neely, Billy Preston, etc

One of the weirdest gigs ever was the filming for a rock and roll movie called Blame It On The Night that took place in October 1983 - at 9am! Billy Preston was the main attraction for me and my girl, but one of the surprise guests turned out to be Ted Neely from Jesus Christ Superstar, so it was a helluva band! However, if you've ever been to a film shoot, you know how they do multiple takes, and everyone has to keep doing the same thing over and over.

They gave us fake little concert programs for the fictional rock star of the movie (which was produced by Mick Jagger, who - if he was at the filming - I never saw him) that we had to wave around excitedly in the air. I still have that program, the inside was just old newspaper pages. There were maybe 500 of us in the big Sports Arena, so they were doing a lot of creative camera angles to make us look like a big crowd. I have the movie on VHS but only watched it once, when it first hit the video stores. Not much of a movie. But I was there!

Larry Coryell 11-15-83 SDSU Back Door, San Diego CA

Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell was touring in support of a couple of albums he released in 1983, the most recent being Le Sacre Du Printemps. I wasn’t very familiar with his music but enjoyed the performance. My main memory of the evening is walking into the university theater and being greeted enthusiastically by Coryell himself, who was grinning and reaching out to shake my hand. “Oh man, I’m so glad you could make it! I thought you weren’t going to come!” I think he and I both realized at the exact same second that he’d mistaken me for someone else. “Oh, sorry, I thought you were my friend,” and then he made his way backstage with his small entourage. Well, Larry, maybe I WOULD have been your friend, if you’d only stopped for a moment to chat with us…..

Ronnie Lane Benefit 12-5-83 Los Angeles Forum, CA

Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Kenny Jones (the Who), Paul Rodgers (Bad Company), Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Andy Fairweather Low, Ian Stewart, James Hooker, Ray Cooper

This was an all-star MS benefit for Faces star Ronnie Lane. The ARMS Charity Concerts were a series of charitable rock concerts in support of Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis in 1983. The entire concert is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSkM6swjKB4

(News report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JjwLEeC9Go)

Eric Clapton setlist:

Everybody Oughta Make a Change (Sleepy John Estes song), Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight, Rita Mae, Sad Sad Day (Muddy Waters song), Have You Ever Loved a Woman (Freddi King), Ramblin On My Mind (Robert Johnson song), Cocaine

Jeff Beck setlist:

Star Cycle, The Pump, Definitely Maybe, Blue Wind, People Get Ready, Going Down

Joe Cocker setlist:

Don’t Talk To Me (with Eric Clapton), Watching the River Flow (with Clapton), Worried Life Blues (with Clapton), You Are So Beautiful (with Clapton), Seven Days (with Clapton), Feelin Alright (with Clapton)

Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers setlist:

Prelude - Who’s To Blame, City Sirens, Boogie Mama (Paul Rodger song, with Paul Rodgers), Bird On a Wing (with Paul Rodgers, later became a Firm song called “Midnight Moonlight”), Stairway to Heaven (with Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton)

All-Star finale:

Layla (with Clapton, Page and Beck), With a Little Help From My Friends (with Clapton, Page, Beck, Joe Cocker), April Fool (with Ronnie Lane), Goodnight Irene (with Page, Beck, Ronnie Lane)

John Lee Hooker, Smokey Wilson & the 5 Careless Lovers, Blonde Bruce Band 2-19-84 Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach San Diego CA

Attended with my old neighbor from the Palms Hotel, Jerry Taylor, who ended up moving in with Tommy Gray at the 37th Street apartment where Jack McCowan also lived. Locals The Blonde Bruce band opened. Hooker was around 77 at the time but still in fine form.

Setlist:

I Didn’t Know, Worried Life Blues, Boom Boom, One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer, My First Wife Left Me, I Didn’t Know, The Boogie, ?

Carole King 3-11-84 Fox Theater, San Diego CA

Heather and I had second row seats and “Golden Circle” backstage VIP passes for this benefit for Presidential candidate Gary Hart at downtown’s Fox Theater, before its makeover as Symphony Hall. It cost us $50 each, which was a lot to underemployed underachievers like us. King wasn’t talking much backstage, as she was said to be having throat problems and saving her voice for the show. We did get to tell her how much we liked her daughter Louise Goffin, which seemed to make her beam with pride. On stage, her voice was scratchy at first, but she eventually worked up a head of steam and put on a rare performance.

Yes 3-27-84 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, Chris Squire, Alan White

Yes was on their 90125 tour.

Setlist:

Cinema, Leave It, Yours Is No Disgrace, Hold On, Hearts, I’ve Seen All Good People – keyboard solo, Solly’s Beard – Trevor Rabin guitar solo, Changes, And You And I, Soon, Make It Easy, Owner Of a Lonely Heart, It Can Happen, Long Distance Runaround, Whitefish/Amazing Grace, City Of Love, Starship Trooper, Roundabout

The Grateful Dead 4-7-84 Irvine Meadows, CA

The entire set is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqeqzKXXqZY

Setlist:

Feel Like A Stranger, West L.A. Fadeaway, Me And My Uncle, Mexicali Blues, Althea, C.C. Rider, Big Railroad Blues, My Brother Esau, Touch Of Grey -- Set 2 -- Iko Iko, Playing In The Band, Uncle John's Band, Drums, Space, Spanish Jam, The Other One, Wharf Rat, Throwing Stones, Not Fade Away -- Encore -- One More Saturday Night

The Moody Blues 5-29-84 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Graham Edge, Ray Thomas, Patrick Moraz

The Moody Blues were touring in support of their 1983 studio album The Present.

Setlist:

Sitting at the Wheel, Gemini Dream, Tuesday Afternoon, Going Nowhere, Hole in the World, Under My Feet, Painted Smile, Veteran Cosmic Rocker, Driftwood, Running Water, Gypsy, Blue World, I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band), Nights In White Satin, Legend of a Mind

David Gilmour and Icicle Works 6-20-84 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

DG, Gregg Dechart, Mickey Feat, Jody Linscott, Mick Ralphs, Raff Ravenscroft, Chris Slade

The Pink Floyd guitarist’s first U.S. solo tour in support of his album About Face. Opening act The Icicle Works were an English band named after the 1960 short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by science fiction author Frederik Pohl, touring behind their sole U.S. top 40 hit, the 1984 single "Birds Fly." The entire Gilmour concert is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx5dYacZUUM

David Gilmour setlist:

Until We Sleep, All Lovers Are Deranged, Love On The Air, Mihalis, Cruise, Short And Sweet, Money, Out Of The Blue, Let's Get Metaphysical, You Know I'm Right, Run Like Hell, Blue Light (band introductions), Murder, Comfortably Numb

David Gilmour 6-22-84 Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles CA

DG, Gregg Dechart, Mickey Feat, Jody Linscott, Mick Ralphs, Raff Ravenscroft, Chris Slade

Even tho this was almost an identical show as two nights before in San Diego, we weren’t going to miss the chance to see Gilmour again, so we drove two hours north.

Setlist:

Until We Sleep, All Lovers Are Deranged, Love On The Air, Mihalis, Cruise, Short And Sweet, Money, Out Of The Blue, Let's Get Metaphysical, You Know I'm Right, Run Like Hell, Blue Light, Murder, Encore: Near the End, Comfortably Numb

Spirit 8-6-84 Rodeo, La Jolla CA

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, John Locke, Mark Andes, Jay Ferguson

Setlist:

Black Satin Nights, Mr. Skin, 1984, Fresh Garbage, Rasta Girl in a Ferrari, Prelude - Nothing to Hide, Nature's Way, All Over the World, Dark Eyed Woman, Mechanical World, I Got a Line on You, Uncle Jack, Pick it Up, Miss This Train, I Got a Line on You (reprise)

Larry Carlton 8-17-84 Humphreys By the Bay, San Diego CA

Heather had to work this night so I drove our rickety scooter to Shelter Island and sneaked into the outdoor waterfront venue by jumping a fence near the adjacent hotel, I found a spot up with an empty seat and all was great until I had to use the bathroom. At that time, the bathroom was indoors, and you needed your ticket to go use it. So I peed in a bush. And got caught coming out of it. When the annoyed guard realized I had no ticket, he escorted me out the gate. Only then did I spot a discarded ticket stub near the parking lot curb. I took it to the ticket clerk and asked if I could use it to get back in, but she said no. She did, however, offer to refund the ticket price! So I got to see most of a Larry Carlton show for free, and got paid to do it! First concert I ever came out of with a profit -

Cyndi Lauper and the Busboys 9-22-84 Irvine Meadows, CA

Openers The Busboys were mainly known from the Eddie Murphy film 48 Hours. Lauper was backed by members of The Hooters for The Fun Tour, in support of She’s So Unusual.

Lauper setlist:

When You Were Mine (Prince cover), I’ll Kiss You, The Goonies R Good Enough, She Bop, I Had a Love (Blue Angel song), Maybe He’ll Know (Blue Angel), All Through the Night, Yeah Yeah, Witness, Time After Time, Money Changes Everything, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Chester Thompson drum clinic 11-10-84 Music Mart, San Diego CA

I have a cassette tape of this drum clinic where the Genesis drummer took questions and performed demos, finishing with several songs backed by local players. Same place we saw Zebra perform the previous year.

Les Dudek 12-8-84 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

The occasional Allman Bros guitarist’s last album had been Gypsy Ride in 1981. I don’t remember this show but do have the ticket and a tape of seeing him a couple years later.

Blue Oyster Cult 12-9-84 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

"Soft White Underbelly" was a then-secret Blue Oyster Cult show at the tiny Bacchanal - Heather snapped some great shots she has in one of her FBook albums.

TK Arnold wrote about the show for the Reader: When it was first announced that Soft White Underbelly had been booked into the Bacchanal nightclub Sunday night, most local rock fans probably scratched their heads and wondered why they hadn't heard of that band before.

But die-hard followers of Blue Oyster Cult instantly recognized the name as one their heroes had used before the release of their first record, in 1972. Once or twice a year for the last decade, America's pioneer heavy-metal band has taken a break from the arenas and stadiums it regularly plays and, on a lark, returned to the nightclub stage - never before, though, in San Diego.

"This town has always been good to us as Blue Oyster Cult," lead singer Eric Bloom said Thursday from San Francisco, "and since this is the first time we've ever done an extended tour - 20 dates - as the Underbelly, we decided to do the whole West Coast." Blue Oyster Cult is in the midst of working on its 13th album for Columbia Records, Bloom added, and will use the Underbelly dates - 12 on the West Coast, eight on the East - to try out new songs as well as dig up some older material "just for fun."

"We don't generally get the chance to play a lot of our older material because every time we tour, we're out promoting a new album," Bloom said. "And I think our hard-core fans like the chance to be able to see us play in a club instead of in an arena or stadium."

Setlist:

RU Ready 2 Rock, Stairway to the Stars, Buck’s Boogie, ME 262, Then Came the Last Days of May, Take Me Away, Golden Age of Leather, Make Rock Not War, Astronomy, Joan Crawford Has Risen From the Grave, Burnin For You, Godzilla, Don’t Fear the Reader, Let It Go, Hot Rails to Hell, Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll

Hall and Oates and Corey Hart 12-16-84 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Remember Corey’s “Sunglasses at Night”? Hall and Oates had released their 12th studio album Big Bam Boom that October.

Hall and Oates setlist:

Dance On Your Knees, Out Of Touch, Family Man, Rich Girl, Kiss On My List, Say It Isn’t So, Possession Obsession, I Can’t Go For That, You Make My Dreams, Private Eyes, Adult Education

Deep Purple and Giuffria 2-5-85 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover

Opening band Giuffria featured Gregg Giuffria from Angel, they’d had a couple of radio hits the previous year with “Call to the Heart” and “Lonely In Love.” Deep Purple’s Mark II lineup were on their Perfect Strangers tour. The entire Deep Purple set is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sr2ESJRbxw

Setlist:

Highway Star, Nobody's Home, Strange Kind of Woman, A Gypsy's Kiss, Perfect Strangers, Under the Gun, Lazy, Child in Time, Knocking at Your Back Door, Difficult to Cure, Space Truckin', Woman From Tokyo, Speed King, Smoke on the Water

The Firm 3-16-85 Pacific Amphitheatre, Orange County Fairgrounds, Costa Mesa CA

Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, Chris Slade, Tony Franklin

The Jimmy Page-Paul Rodgers teamup we saw the previous year at the ARMS Benefit turned into a band and an album. The entire concert is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koFkgkmb65I

Setlist:

1.Intro 2. Closer 3. City Sirens 4. Make or Break 5. The Morning After 6. Together 7. Cadillac 8. Prelude 9. Money Can't Buy 10. Radioactive 11. Live in Peace 12. Midnight Moonlight 13. You've Lost That Lovin Feeling 14. Bass Solo 15. The Chase 16. Guitar Solo 17. Drum Solo 18. Just Want to Make Love To You 19. Wheel of Fortune 20. Someone to Love 21. Cut Loose 22. Boogie Mama 23. Somebody to Love

Roger Waters 4-4-85 The Forum, Inglewood CA

RW, Andy Fairweather Low, Michael Kamen, Jay Stapley, Andy Newmark, Mel Collins, Katie Kissoon, Doreen Chanter

Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking tour, after Eric Clapton dropped out and was replaced by Andy Fairweather Low.

Setlist:

Welcome to the Machine, Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun, Money, If, Wish You Were Here, Pigs On the Wing Part 1, Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert, Southampton Dock, The Gunner’s Dream, In the Flesh, Nobody Home, Have a Cigar, Another Brick In the Wall part 1, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Pros and Cons (entire album), Encore: Brain Damage, Eclipse

The Turtles, Grass Roots, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Buckinghams 6-13-85 Sheraton Harbor Island East, San Diego CA

For the Happy Together 1985 Tour, Flo and Eddie and friends put on one of the greatest concerts I ever saw!

Gary Lewis setlist:

This Diamond Ring, She’s Just My Style, Count Me In, Save Your Heart For Me, Everybody Loves a Clown

The Buckinghams setlist:

Kind Of a Drag, Hey Baby They’re Playing Our Song, Don’t You Dare, Susan, Mercy Mercy Mercy

Grass Roots setlist:

Midnight Confessions, Temptation Eyes, Sooner Or Later, I’d Wait a Million Years, Two Devastated By Love

The Turtles with Flo & Eddie setlist:

She’s Rather Be With Me, Elenore, It Ain’t Me Babe, You Showed Me, Medley – Hungry Heart, etc, Happy Together

Donovan and Dave Mason 6-16-85 Humphreys by the Bay, San Diego CA

Former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason hadn’t released an album since 1980, Old Crest on a New Wave. Donovan’s most recent studio at the time was 1984’s Lady of the Stars, his final release for around a decade.

Dave Mason setlist:

Feelin Alright, We Just Disagree, Only You Know and I Know, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Let It Go Let If Flow, Gimme Some Lovin

Donovan setlist:

Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness), Josie, Catch the Wind, Colours, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Local Boy Chops Wood, Sunshine Superman, Donna Donna, Happiness Runs, Lalena, The Universal Soldier, Jennifer Juniper, There Is a Mountain, Mellow Yellow, Season of the Witch, Atlantis

BB King, Albert King, Bobby “Blue” Bland 6-23-85 Kona Kai Club Shelter Island, San Diego CA

Originally announced for the La Jolla Village Inn but moved to the new Kona Kai concert venue due to ticket demand. The venue made its debut that weekend, first with Spyro Gyra and then this concert.

The Tubes and Todd Rundgren & Utopia 7-10-85 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheatre, San Diego CA

The Tubes were touring behind their seventh studio album and final major label release Love Bomb, which had been produced by Todd Rundgren, who opened the show with Utopia. Rundgren’s band had released what would turn out to be the final Utopia album in January that year,POV.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience Band of Gypsies 7-11-85 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

Randy Hansen, Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell

This show fronted by Hendrix clone Randy Hansen was advertised as “Featuring Randy Hanson and the members of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience,” so of course everyone expected Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. However when they hit the stage, history had repeated itself and Billy Cox had once again replaced the departing Noel Redding, just as he had while Hendrix was still alive. This caused some ire (Cox was not an “original” Experience member, but he WAS in Band of Gypsies) but not for long, it was a solid set. At least we got to see Cox – some dates on this tour reportedly got Tony Saunders on bass. The whole tour was originally supposed to feature Buddy Miles, who dreamed the whole thing up, but Miles ended up in jail.

Sting 8-13-85 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

I think this was his first official solo show in the US, after a private gig in NYC. His debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles had just been released in June.

Setlist:

Shadows in the Rain, Driven to Tears, Consider Me Gone, Children’s Crusade, One World, Love is the Seventh Wave, We Work the Black Seam, Bring on the Night, When the World is Running Down, Another Day, Moon Over Bourbon Street, Fortress Around Your Heart, Low Life, I Burn For You, If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Roxanne, I’ve Been Down So Long, Every Breath You Take, Need Your Love So Bad, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Demolition Man, Message In a Bottle

Stanley Jordan 9-6-85 Humphreys By the Bay, San Diego CA

Jordan was having his biggest year ever, spending over 50 weeks at the top of the US jazz chart with his Magic Touch album.

The Hooters 9-24-85 SDSU Montezuma Hall, San Diego CA

Another act having its biggest year ever, thanks to all the hits on their Nervous Night album, released that April. That would land them on an MTV New Year’s Eve show, and they’d even played Live Aid on July 13th. Sadly, it was all downhill from there.

Setlist:

Hanging On a Heartbeat, Time After Time, Day By Day, She Comes in Colors, Where Do the Children Go, Trouble In Paradise, Who’s That Girl, So You Want To Be a Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, Glad All Over, All You Zombies, And We Danced

30th Anniversary Rock ‘n’ Roll All Star Jam - Chuck Berry/Bo Diddley Tribute TV special 10-25-85 Irvine Meadows, CA

Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, John Lodge (Moody Blues), Kenney Jones,Carmine Appice, John Mayall, John Hammond, Chuck Negron (3 Dog Night), Rudy Sarzo, Bobby Keys, Carl Wilson, Ronnie Lane, Ron Wood, Mitch Mitchell, John Fogerty, Bill Champlin, Mitch Mitchell, and Mick Fleetwood.

I was jazzed to score tix to this Chuck Berry/Do Diddley tribute concert being filmed for a TV special at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on October 25, 1985. Berry was 59 at the time, and Diddley was 56. The band would feature tribute organizer Keith Richards with Ron Wood and Stones sax player Bobby Keyes, along with John Lodge from the Moody Blues, Kenny Jones from the Who, Carmine Appice, John Mayall, John Hammond, Chuck Negron, Rudy Sarzo, Carl Wilson, Ronnie Lane, Mitch Mitchell, and Mick Fleetwood. Quite a backing band!

They were of course crackerjack players, and various players came and went through over an hour of Chuck Berry tunes, sans Chuck Berry. Even when most everyone came out on stage at once and began playing, no sign of the guest of honor. They played “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Maybelline” with vocals by John Hammond and John Mayall, Three Dog Night’s Chuck Negron, and Chicago’s Bill Champlin. The audience had just about had its fill and wanted to see some actual Chuck Berry, but instead the band launched into “Johnny B. Goode” for the second time that night, and still no Chuck.

After a few minutes of everyone kind of looking around and shrugging their shoulders, a spotlight hit the side of the stage, and there was Chuck Berry stepping up to a centerstage mic, all smiles – but no guitar. The people cheered, the all-star band kept playing “Johnny B. Goode,” Chuck kept smiling, took a bow – and walked off stage the same way he’d come. And then he was gone. He’d only done two songs, and only one with a guitar, during Bo Diddley’s set – “My Ding-a-ling”!

The band guys all just kind of looked at each other, as most of them pretty much stopped playing. Keith Richards had already left the stage, and the camera people it seemed had already turned off the equipment and were starting to lock down their cameras.

Then all of a sudden, Keith Richards appeared back onstage, with Chuck standing next to him. Everyone cheered like soccer hooligans, the band started its third round of "Johnny B. Good," the camera guys scrambled to get filming again, and someone with an electric guitar approached Chuck and tried to hand it to him.

Chuck just shook his head “no,” and I think he mimed “no no no” with his hands a bit, smiling the whole time but refusing to even touch the guitar. It looked like he was playing a gag. Nobody thought it was funny. Least of all Ron Wood.

Wood actually took the guitar from the stagehand, stepped right up to Chuck, and physically tried to place it around Chuck's neck.

Chuck ducked down like a little kid trying to avoid his dad's reach, and all of us in the crowd were thinking that we might just get to see Ron Wood punch Chuck Berry in the face, it was obvious he was getting that pissed off.

Chuck just seemed to laugh, and then he essentially jogged off stage, almost as if running away from Ron Wood, who had given up and was handing Chuck’s would-be guitar back to the stage hand. The music again petered out, the lights began to go up, the camera guys were wrapping up their equipment, and I think somebody on the stage at least said “Thank you and goodnight” but there never was a specific moment where that you could say the concert had ended. It was eventually released on DVD.

A few years later, Richards successfully got Berry to participate in a completely different televised tribute concert that one hopes went smoother than the one that night at Irvine ---

Bo Diddley, Mick Fleetwood, Carl Wilson setlist:

I’m A Man (with John Fogerty), Bo Diddley Put the Rock in Rock ‘N’ Roll, My Ding-a-ling (with Chuck Berry), Destination, Who Do You Love, Gunslinger, Hey Bo Diddley, Rock and Roll Music

John Fogerty setlist:

May Don’t You Weep, My Pretty Baby, Let’s Go, Mercy Mercy Baby, No Loving You, Rock and Roll Girls (first ever concert performance), My Toot Toot

New Shooz 4-6-86 Humphreys, San Diego CA

My old Darkseid bandmate Joe Delia was in town visiting and we went to several jazz shows, including this one in Shelter Island.

Fattburger April 1986 Atlantis Lounge, San Diego VA

Attended with Heather and Joe Delia, had no idea how legendary Fattburger would become in SD. Fattburger was founded in 1984 by Hollis Gentry and Carl Evans, Jr., along with bassist Mark Hunter, guitarist Steve Laury, and drummer Kevin Koch. Gentry was replaced later in 1986 by Tommy Aros (the Luis Miguel band), but this was one of his final shows with Fattburger before debuting his own band Neon later that year.

Marillion 4-27-86 California Theater, San Diego CA

Fish, Steve Rothery, Mark Kelly, Pete Trewavas, Ian Mosley

Jack McCowan turned me on to this band by telling me they were a lot like Genesis, which was a good way to get my attention. However, the band had little following in the U.S. They barely filled downtown’s California Theater, at around the same time they were selling out arenas ans stadiums everywhere else in the world. I really love this version of the band fronted by Fish, although Heather was less impressed – she thought he looked like a giant tipsy gnome. She much preferred the Steve Hogarth-led version of Marillion we saw later (at an even SMALLER venue, the Bacchanal).

I have photos I took that are a big hit with online fan groups. Video of part of a 3-16-86 date at the Roxy in LA is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XUo_7QsZpI

Setlist:

Emerald Lies intro/Script For a Jester’s Tear, Chelsea Monday, Jigsaw, The Web, Pseudo Silk Kimono, Kayleigh, Lavender, Bitter Suite, Heart of Lothian, Waterhole (Expresso Bongo), Lords of the Backstage, Blind Curve, Childhood’s End, White Feather, Encore: Fugazi, Garden Party, Market Square Heroes

San Diego Symphony 5-8-86 – The Music of David Atherton, Symphony Hall (formerly the Fox Theater), San Diego CA

My old boss from the Jolar peep show nudie club Lee Bickel and his partner Rob Hyre got us these tix, Rob was working as an usher I think at the time. The duo were good friends of ours, we later took them to see Spirit at the Bacchanal. This was an evening of experimental music that Rob pitched to us as “like Frank Zappa would compose.” I remember being very impressed with the renovations to the old Fox theater, and the sound quality was astounding. The music was by English conductor David Atherton, founder of the London Sinfonietta, performed by the SD Symphony conducted by Bernard Rands. Atherton was the youngest conductor in the history of the BBC Promenade Concerts and subsequently appeared in thirty contiguous seasons. It was all way over my head, but I still appreciated the experience.

Spirit and Born Cross-Eyed 6-5-86 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan (Dave Waterbury or Walter Egan on bass)

We got in early for the soundcheck, which I taped, along with taping the show. I uploaded to Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQjHQOI-azk

Rehearsal/soundcheck: Island of Roses, Sweet Child, Mr. Skin, jam
Setlist: Veruska, Mr. Skin, Nature’s Way, Island of Roses, Rasta Girl in a Ferarri, Sweet Child, 1984, Animal Zoo, Dark Eyed Woman, Like a Rolling Stone, Miss This Train, All the Same, drum solo, I Got a Line on You, Romance in Time, Body for Sale, Fresh Garbage

Bob Dylan and Tom Petty 6-9-86 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Their first show together on the opening date of the True Confessions Tour. I taped this one and uploaded to Youtube in two parts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C6NeG_HTFQ&t=19s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQz7sGG4fHg

Bob Dylan setlist:

So Long Good Luck and Goodbye (Dylan’s first ever live performance of this song), Positively 4th Street, Clean Cut Kid, I’ll Remember You, Shot Of Love, That Lucky Old Sun, Masters Of War, To Ramona, One Too Many Mornings, It Ain’t Me Babe, I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know, Just Like a Woman, Unchain My Heart (Dylan’s first ever live performance of this song), When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky, Lonesome Town, Ballad of a Thin Man, Rainy Day Women 12 & 35, Seeing the Real You At Last, Across the Borderline, I and I, Like a Rolling Stone, In the Garden, Blowin in the Wind, Got My Mind Made Up (only known performance with both Dylan and Petty), Uranium Rock, Knockin On Heaven’s Door

Les Dudek 7-1-86 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Dudek hadn’t released an album since 1981’s Gypsy Ride, and he wouldn’t release another until 1994, but he was still a dependable concert draw in San Diego circa 1986. He performed a new song he’d just written with Stevie Nicks, "Freestyle," a track never unreleased until 17 years later in 2003, and the show included the first ever live performance of “Bound To Change.” I recorded and uploaded to Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb14erNRvSA&t=229s

Setlist:

Zorro Rides Again, No Time To Lose, City Magic, Old Judge Jones, Take the Time, Blues Jam, Cruisin’ Groove, Friend of Mine, Freestyle (newly written with Stevie Nicks, unreleased until 2003), Bound To Change (first ever live performance), Gonna Move, Going Home, Red House, Each Morning

Spirit and France 7-20, 7-21, 7-22 1986 Mony Mony’s 1862 Palm Ave Imperial Beach, San Diego CA

I somehow never heard about this three night stint in Imperial Beach, I thought I saw every Spirit show in San Diego the whole time I lived there. So in 2024, when I saw an ad for this in an old Reader, I decided to document it here. Even tho I missed the shows. Dammit!

The Monkees, Grass Roots, Herman’s Hermits, Gary Pucket and the Union Gap 8-23-86 Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego CA

The reunited Monkees threesome’s 20th Anniversary North American Tour played after a Padres ballgame on a centerfield stage (against the Philadelphia Phillies, which the Padres actually won), along with some of the bands from the Happy Together tours. Herman’s Hermits did not include Peter Noone (I think only the drummer was an actual original member, tho some online sources say both guitarist Derek "Lek" Leckenby and drummer Barry Whitwam were on this tour). At least Rob Grill was fronting the Grass Roots, and longtime San Diegan Gary Puckett had a few actual original local Union Gap members with him.

Gary Puckett & the Union Gap setlist:

Young Girl, Lady Willpower, Over You, Woman Woman

The Grass Roots setlist:

I’d Wait a Million Years, Sooner Or Later, Let’s Live For Today, Temptation Eyes, Midnight Confessions

Herman’s Hermits setlist:

A Must to Avoid, Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat, I’m Into Something Good, Silhouettes, Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter, The End of the World, I’m Henry the VIII, Listen People, There’s A Kind Of Hush

Monkees setlist:

Last Train to Clarksville, A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You, I’m Not Your Stepping Stone, Cuddly Toy, No Time, Daydream Believer, Shades Of Gray, Goin Down, Your Auntie Grizelda, She, I Wanna Be Free, That Was Then This Is Now, Valleri, I’m A Believer, Encore: Listen to the Band, Pleasant Valley Sunday

The Monkees, Herman’s Hermits, Grass Roots, Gary Puckett 9-5-86 Greek Theater, Los Angeles CA

We liked the Monkees so much, we drove to Los Angeles to see them again a week and a half later.

Monkees setlist:

Last Train to Clarksville, A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You, I’m Not Your Stepping Stone, Cuddly Toy, No Time, Daydream Believer, Shades Of Gray, Goin Down, Your Auntie Grizelda, She, I Wanna Be Free, That Was Then This Is Now, Valleri, I’m A Believer, Encore: Listen to the Band, Pleasant Valley Sunday

Badfinger 10-5-86 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Joey Molland, Mike Gibbins, Jeff Alan Ross (Elliot Joffrey), Mark Healy, Randy Anderson

Badfinger featured latterday guitarist Joey Molland fronting the group with original drummer Mike Gibbins. OG bassist Tom Evans was billed as a member and appeared in the newspaper ad photo, but he had apparently left the tour and been replaced by Mark Healy by the time of this club date. I taped and uploaded to Youtube (tho I had a defective second tape and only caught part of the show) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbcAT7JvTIQ&t=26s

Setlist (partial):

Come and Get It, I Got You, Believe Me, No More, What Happened, Baby Blue, Sweet Tuesday Morning, Perfection

Fred Benedetti 1-4-87 Words and Music, San Diego CA

We went to this with a customer of mine at Comics Etc, Mike Havens. Fred Benedetti began playing the guitar at age nine. In 1986, he was one of twelve guitarists chosen worldwide to perform in the Master Class of Andrés Segovia at USC, where Guitarra Magazine wrote, "Fred Benedetti amazed the audience with his performance of the Bach Chaconne." He has performed locally with the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera, the Starlight Opera, the American Ballet Company, the Old Globe Theatre, and with Luciano Pavarotti.

Phil Keaggy 3-87 College Baptist Church, San Diego CA

Mike Havens talked us into taking him to see this Christian guitarist who I became a fan of immediately. I went out and got his old Glass harp albums and all the solo stuff I could find, and I still sometimes run the old beta tape I recorded off the TV of Keaggy performing at San Diego’s Horizon Church. At the time, he had released his Way Back Home album the previous year, and he was debuting tracks from his just-released instrumental album The Wind and the Wheat, which would win a GMA Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year.

Iron Butterfly, Savoy Brown, New Frontier 3-10-87 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Savoy Brown was still fronted by Kim Simmonds at the time, they were releasing albums on Relix Records like Slow Train (An Album of Acoustic Music) from the previous year. Since Iron Butterfly was founded in San Diego, several OG members were present including keyboardist Mike Pinera and drummer Ron Bushy, backed by Ace Baker (keyboards), Kelly Reubens (bass), and drummer Donny Vosburgh, who'd been in Thee Image with Pinera. They did Pinera’s big hit with Blues Image, “Ride Captain Ride.”

I think they closed with guests from one of the OG Butterfly lineups, including guitarist Rhino, who did a couple of Butterfly tunes as well as a track from Captain Beyond. I could have sworn OG Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman was there too, he was also in Captain Beyond and I’m nearly certain I remember an introduction stating that two members of Captain Beyond were present, but most online resources indicate Dorman was captaining a sea vessel and did not appear on this spring tour. I think he probably did make this one appearance (perhaps his boat was right there in San Diego, so this is the only date of the tour to feature him?). I’m trying to remember stage banter from nearly 40 years ago, so I could be mistaken – I just remember how excited I was to hear a Captain Beyond song being played live, I loved that band and didn’t realize any members were present until the stage announcement.

Setlist:

Easy Rider (Let the Wind Pay the Way), Soul Experience, Pay My Dues, Don’t Hurt the One You Love, Ride Captain Ride, Leaving My Troubles Behind, School’s Out, Iron Butterfly Theme, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Dancing Madly Backwards

Leon Russell and Edgar Winter 5-11-87 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Classic blues rock at the Bacchanal, which by this time was becoming a regular hangout for us. The show sold out and the duo came back to the Bach on May 17th for an encore performance.

Setlist:

Jumpin’ Jack Flash, A Song For You, Tight Rope, Mystery Train, This Masquerade, Lady Blue, Back to the Island, Dixie Lullaby, Tobacco Road, Roll Over Beethoven, Long Tall Sally,
Delta Lady, Dying To Live, Keep Playin’ That Rock ‘N’ Roll, Frankenstein, Free Ride

Head East 5-20-87 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Always loved this band back when I lived in New England, so it was a treat to join so many fans to see them in San Diego. It had been a while since their late 70s heyday and their most recent album had been 1982’s Onward and Upward. Not sure why I didn’t tape it – wish I had.

Night Ranger 6-19-87 Del Mar Fairgrounds, San Diego CA

I was never a big fan of this group. Never had one of their records and can’t recall ever saying to myself “Y’know, I’d love to hear me some Night Ranger.” But this was a pretty rockin’ outdoor show that came free with the price of admission to the fair.

Setlist:

Big Life, Sing Me Away, Color Of Your Smile, Rain Comes Crashing Down, Four In the Morning, The Secret of My Success, Seven Wishes, Hearts Away, Sentimental Street, Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight, Touch Of Madness, This Boy Needs To Rock, Let Him Run/Goodbye, Sister Christian, Don’t Tell Me You Love Me, (You Can Still) Rock In America

Country Joe McDonald 8-9-87 San Diego Comic-Con, Golden Hall CA

I designed my first concert poster for this San Diego Comic-Con concert by Woodstock vet Country Joe McDonald, who was promoting a new Eclipse graphic novel called Real War Stories, spearheaded by Alan Moore. The venue was part of the Convention Center, Golden Hall, which used to host touring headliners like Pink Floyd.

Alvin Lee 8-16-87 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Another trip to the Bacchanal in Clairemont, this time to see guitar god Alvin Lee of Ten Years After fame, touring in support of his 1986 full-length Detroit Diesel, his last album to make the U.S. charts.

Setlist:

One Of These Days, Detroit Diesel, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Slow Blues In C, Rock & Roll Guitar Picker, She’s So Cute, Love Like a Man, Scat Thing, Hey Joe, I’m Going Home, Choo Choo Mama, Rip It Up

Spirit 9-20-87 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan

We went to see the 3-piece Spirit with my old Jolar boss, the late Lee Bickel, and his partner Rob Hyre, who later became an art teacher in the L.A. public school system. It was a one year anniversary celebration for the local radio station Magic 102 FM. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eBai6l9KUI

Setlist:

Fresh Garbage, Miss This Train, Nature’s Way, Animal Zoo, Dark Eyed Woman, Jackrabbit (from Randy California solo album), Sweet Child, Nothing to Hide

Roger Waters 9-23-87 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

RW, Graham Broad, Paul Carrack, Doreen Chanter, Mel Collins,
Jim Ladd, Andy Fairweather Low, Katie Kissoon, Jay Stapley

Radio KAOS tour with Jim Ladd in the DJ booth. Altho the hall was only half full, Waters later said it was one of his favorite dates of the tour. At one point, audience members were able to form a line to ask the musicians questions from the audience via Ladd in the DJ booth. I enjoyed the way Waters melded classic solo and Pink Floyd tracks with the new Radio KAOSmaterial, and this was my favorite Waters backing band (after Floyd, anyway).

Setlist:

Tempted (Paul Carrack), Radio Waves, Welcome to the Machine, Who Needs Information, Money, In the Flesh, Have a Cigar, Pigs (3 Different Ones), Wish You Were Here, Mother, Molly’s Song, Me Or Him, The Powers That Be, Going To Live in LA, Sunset Strip, Fish Report With a Beat, Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert, Southampton Dock,
(Arnold Layne video), If, 5:06 AM (Every Stranger’s Eyes),
Not Now John, Another Brisk in the Wall Part 1, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick Part 2, Nobody’s Home, Four Minutes, The Tide Is Turning, Encore: Brain Damage,
Eclipse

Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention 12-15-87 Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles CA

Not sure why we had to drive all the way to LA to catch this Tull show, he’d be back in San Diego the following June to play SDSU. He was playing a three night stand in L.A., December 14-16, and we caught the second night concert. Audio of the entire show from December 16 is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_HgmGutAHU

Setlist:

Songs From the Wood, Thick As a Brick, Steel Monkey, Farm On the Freeway, Heavy Horses, Living In the Past, Serenade to a Cuckoo, Budapest, Hunting Girl, The Waking Edge/solos, Wond’ring Aloud, Skating Away, Jump Start, Too Old to Rock ‘N’ Roll, Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Thick As a Brick, Windup

Steve Morse with Albert Lee & the Biff Baby All-Stars 12-28-87 Guitar Center, San Diego CA – Morse, Lee, Jimmy Cox (K), Sterling Ball (G), Biff Ball (B), John Ferraro (D)

Guitar gods Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, future Deep Purple) and Albert Lee teamed up with the guys from Ernie Ball strings to do a Q&A clinic and performance. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKuoxD1Rug&t=418s

Setlist:

Barefootin’, Gone By 7am, That Old Country Time, Intros, Q&A, Ain’t Nobody

3 (Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, Robert Berry) 5-9-88 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

The shortlived trio of Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, and bassist/singer Robert Berry only recorded one album, To The Power Of Three, released by Geffen shortly before this gig, on March 14th. By the end of the year, the band had already split. Emerson and Palmer reformed ELP for 1992’s Black Moon, and Berry formed a band called Alliance. The 3 setlist mainly consisted of material from their album, including an extended jam version of “Eight Miles High.” They didn’t exactly do any ELP songs, but they did their own versions of music ELP had covered like “Fanfare For the Common Man,” “America,” and “Hoedown.” A couple of gigs from this tour were later released as concert albums. An entire set from April 8 is online - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwEuTtP1lH82u3KR2nBM1SZg1RTDyl2i0

Setlist:

Fanfare For the Common Man, Desde La Vida, Lover To Lover, Hoedown, You Do Or You Don’t, Talkin’ Bout, Dream Runner, Creole Dance, On My Way Home, Standing in the Shadows of Love, America, Blue Rondo a la Turk, Eight Miles High, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Pink Floyd 4-15-88 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, CA

After seeing that first Wall show in February 1980, I never thought I’d get to see Pink Floyd again. I was wrong, tho we had to drive to L.A. for this one.

Setlist:

Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Signs Of Life, Learning to Fly, Yet Another Movie, Round and Around, A New Machine Part 1, Terminal Frost, A New Machine Part 2, Sorrow, The Dogs Of War, On the Turning Away, One Of These Days, Time, On the Run, The Great Gig In the Sky, Wish You Were Here, Welcome to the Machine, Us And Them, Money, Another Brick In the Wall Part 2, Comfortably Numb

Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention 6-5-88 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

Ian Anderson, Martin Barre (G), David Pegg (B), Maartin Allcock (K), Doane Perry (D)

Fairport Convention had recently released their album Red & Gold. Tull was still touring behind their 1987 album Crest of a Knave, which they had weirdly won a Grammy for in February as Best Heavy Metal. This was a comeback tour after a few years away while singer Ian Anderson (mostly) recovered from throat issues. He had a few issues at SDSU and online chatter seems to indicate a lot of people would drop off the Tull train soon.

I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jyxvbnmQx8

Fairport Convention setlist:

The Widow of Westmorland’s Daughter, Double Concerto For Two Violins in D Minor, The Deserter, Dirty Linen/Jam’s O’Donnell’s Jigs, Matty Groves, The Rutland Reel/Sack the Juggler, Here There and Everywherem The High Road to Linton

Jethro Tull setlist:

Cross-Eyed Mary, Nothing Is Easy, Thick As a Brick, Steel Monkey, Farm On the Freeway, A New Day Yesterday, Fat Man, Budapest, The Swirling Pit, Cheap Day Return, Mother Goose, Part Of the Machine, My God/Bouree/Soiree, Pussy Willow, Pibroch (Cap In Hand), Jump Start, Too Old to Rock ‘N’ Roll Too Young to Die, Wind Up, Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Seal Driver, Black Sunday, Thick As a Brick (reprise)

Wild Man Fischer and Seduction of the Innocent 8-5-88 San Diego Comic-Con, CA

Bill Mumy, Miguel Ferrer, Steve Leialoha, Max Allan Collins

Concert for Human Rights 9-21-88 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Joan Baez, Sting, Bono, Peter Gabriel, Yousou n’Dor

All star event that was part of a worldwide tour of 20 benefit concerts intended to raise awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the work of Amnesty International. Gabriel and Sting sang "They Dance Alone", a song about supporting the loved ones of people who were jailed or murdered for their political views. Chapman and Gabriel also performed a duet of Gabriel's "Don't Give Up."

Heather recalls “I remember that one well. We were on the floor. They herded us all through a single tunnel. I was thinking how odd it felt. Like we were all cattle. Then someone mooed. Then everyone started mooing. Suddenly it was funny and not at all creepy anymore.”

Springsteen’s entire set is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-3l-YEOBs0

Tracy Chapman’s set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RczZ5PW3QFk

Sting’s set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w_qCiTOT_w

Peter Gabriel set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77RN31M3d-U

Joan Baez setlist:

Oh, Freedom, Imagine

Tracy Chapman setlist:

Across the Lines, She’s Got Her Ticket, Behind the Wall, Fast Car, Freedom Now, Baby Can I Hold You, Mountains O’ Things, Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution, Why?

Peter Gabriel setlist:

Of These Hope, Games Without Frontiers, Shock the Monkey, No Self Control, Don’t Give Up (with Tracy Chapman), Sledgehammer, In Your Eyes, Biko

Sting setlist:

(Peter Gabriel intro), King of Pain, If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, One World (Not Three), Fragile, Fortress Around Your Heart, Bring On the Night, When the World Is Running Down, Every Breath You Take (with Bruce Springsteen)

Springsteen setlist:

Born In the USA, The Promised Land, Cover Me, The River (with Sting), Cadillac Ranch, War, My Hometown, Jungleland, Thunder Road, Glory Days, Born To Run, Raise Your Hand

Chimes of Freedom (with Bono, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracey Chapman, Joan Baez, Youssou N’Dour)

Get Up, Stand Up (with Bono, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracey Chapman, Joan Baez, Youssou N’Dour)

Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson 10-12-88 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Hunter, Ronson, Pat Kilbride (B), Howard Helm (K), Shawn Eisenberg (D)

The Mott the Hoople frontman and David Bowie guitarist teamed up to play 60 shows in 60 days, and this was show number fifteen. The duo would return to the Bacchanal December 11, 1989, tho I didn’t attend that one. Got a tape of this 1988 show that I uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY_S_dl1u54

Setlist:

You’re Never Too Small to Hit the Big Time, All the Way To Memphis, Cleveland Rocks, All the Young Dudes, Irene Wild, Instrumental, How Much More Can I Take, American Music, Following In Your Footsteps, Down On Your Knees, Just Another Night (On the Other Side), Sweet Dreams, It’s All Right (To Be Up All Night), Gimme Back My Wing, Standing In My Light, Rock Star

It’s Garry Shandling’s Show taping 10-25-88 Sunset Gower Studios, Hollywood CA

We took one of my young comic shop customers Alec Scott to this TV show taping, he drew comics for my fanzine Midnight Hour. This was the episode spoofing the baseball movie The Natural.

Peter Bardens (Camel) and Mick Fleetwood 1-27-89Bacchanal, San Diego CA

This Peter Bardens show teaming the late Camel keyboardist with Mick Fleetwood was the third of only 11 dates the duo did together (Bardens' first tour in over a decade). Fleetwood played on Bardens’ then-new album Speed Of Light, as did the other drummer that night, Jethro Fox. Fleetwood wore a sensor-pad covered suit hooked up to drum sounds that he used to play a drum solo by tapping spots all over his body. I taped but only ended up with part of the set due to a defective tape - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PCpHW3veSo&t=1624s

Setlist:

Seascape, Speed Of Light, Westward Ho, Black Elk, Seen One Earth, Home Thoughts, Columbine, This Could Be Paradise, Heartland, Whisper In the Wind, In Dreams (I Can Fly) – includes Fleetwood electronic bodysuit drum solo, On the Air Tonight, White Magic (movie theme)

Tania Maria 2-19-89 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

No recollection of this show, even tho the ticket stub says we attended.

Spirit and Bachman Turner Overdrive 6-25-89 Del Mar Fair with Robbie Krieger (Doors), Steve Hunter, Bachman Turner Overdrive

BTO opened this outdoor concert at the Del Mar Fair, with a lineup featuring Randy Bachman and Fred Turner backed by guitarist-singer Blair Thornton and drummer Robbie Bachman. Sprit was still basically on the Night Of the Guitars tour, playing a set that included guests on several songs including Robbie Krieger and Steve Hunter. I recorded and uploaded –

Spirit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YlWOcZXOkw&t=1273s

BTO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W7iWbIXUEY&t=1s

BTO setlist:

Let It Ride, Gimme Your Money Please, Hey You, Blue Collar, Take It Like a Man, Not Fragile, Don’t Get Yourself In Trouble, Rock Is My Life, Hold Back the Water, Looking Out For Number One, Blue Moanin’, Four Wheel Drive – drum solo, Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet/Roll On Down the Highway, Takin’ Care Of Business

Spirit setlist: Need Your Love Tonight, Mr. Skin, Dreams Come, Fresh Garbage, Nature’s Way, Rapture in the Chambers, Don’t Want You Around, Like a Rolling Stone, Hard Love, I Got a Line on You (this song and all but the final track are jams with Robbie Krieger and Steve Hunter), High Heel Sneakers, Back Door Man (Krieger vocals), All Along the Watchtower, Dark Eyed Woman

Timbuk 3 and The Club Of Rome 10-11-89 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

The Club Of Rome opened and played a solid set that I taped and uploaded, they were a local band not to be confused with the Australian punk group with the same name. As for Timbuk 3, this was apparently the first show the duo ever played with a live drummer sitting in for a bit. I recorded and uploaded.

The Club Of Rome - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKuoxD1Rug&t=418s

Timbuk 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQELogMqXaU&t=11s

The Club Of Rome setlist:

City Night, The Children With the Mushrooms in Their Eyes, Nuclear Dogs, Roses To Moses, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Gonna Change My World, I Was Born the Day Kennedy Died, How Now Chairman Mao, Geneva, I Like Girls, Turn Of the Century/New World Coming

Timbuk 3 Setlist:

B-Side Of Life, National Holiday, Waves Of Grain, Nobody at the Wheel, Count To Ten, Facts About Cats, Dance Fever, Standard White Jesus, Rather Be Workin, Dirty Dirty Rice, Just Another Movie, Things I Should Not See, So Easy, Future’s So Bright, Grand Old Party, Kingdom Come, Assholes On Parade, Try To Get Along, Not Fade Away, Wheel Of Fortune, Next Best Thing To Heaven, Hairstyles and Attitudes

Hawkwind and Not Guilty 10-12-89 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Dave Brock, Alan Davey, Harvey Bainbridge, Richard Chadwick

The day after Timbuk 3! According to the ad, a band named Not Guilty opened, but I have no recollection of them. This was the final date of Hawkwind’s 1989 U.S. tour. Their dry ice machine during “Hassan-I-Sahba” while they chanted “Hashish, hashin, hashish, hashin” smelled great. I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJzJi_iGXaA&t=3s

Setlist:

Magnu, Down Through the Night/Treadmill, Time We Left This World Today/Heads, Hassan-I-Sahba/Wind of Change, Assault and Battery/Golden Void, Back in the Box/Arrival In Utopia, Brainstorm, Dreamworker, Damnation Alley, Needle Gun, Ejection

Spirit and Healing Arts 12-1-89 Winstons Ocean Beach, San Diego CA

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan

Jethro Tull and It Bites 12-8-89 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Ian Anderson, Martin Barre (G), David Pegg (B), Maartin Allcock (K), Doane Perry (D)

I was impressed by the somewhat proggy opening act It Bites and still frequently play the CD Heather bought for me that Christmas. Tull was on their Rock Island tour.

Setlist:

Strange Avenues, Steel Monkey, Thick As a Brick, Rock Island, Requiem, Black Satin Dancer, Cheap Day Return, Mother Goose, Jack-A-Lynn, Annother Christmas Song, My God/Bouree/Soiree, The Pine Marten’s Jig, Drowsy Maggie, The Whaler’s Dues, Budapest, Farm On the Freeway, Sealion, Kissing Willie, Nothing Is Easy, Aqualung, Wind-Up, Locomotive Breath, The Third Hoorah (instrumental)

Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker and Comanche Moon 12-19-89 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Bernie Worrell (K), Blues Saraceno (G), Gary 'Mudbone' Cooper (V, Percussion), Tom Goss (D)

Opening act Comanche Moon featured Paul Kamanski, who came up in local bands like the Fingers with Billy Thompson (later of the Mighty Penguins) and Joey Harris of the Beat Farmers. Kamanski authored several tunes recorded by the Beat Farmers, who released eleven of his songs on eight different albums. The Cream duo teamed up for around 40 U.S. dates, hitting San Diego twice – the Bacchanal on December 19 and the Belly Up the following year on January 22. Bruce and his band played first, and then they were joined by Ginger Baker for the second half of the set.

Jack Bruce setlist:

Life On Earth, No Surrender, I Want To Make Love, Born Under a Bad Sign, Blues You Can’t Lose, Weird of Hermiston, Theme For an Imaginary Western, Keep It Down, Grease the Wheels

With Ginger Baker:

NSU, Obsession, White Room, Roll and Tumble Blues, Toad, Sittin’ On Top of the World, Politician, Sunshine Of Your Love, Spoonful

Marillion and Flies On Fire 3-1-90 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Steve Hogarth, Ian Mosley, Steve Rothery, Pete Trewavas, Mark Kelly

Opening band Flies On Fire were funny, and not in a good way. They had released an album on Atco in 1989 and would release a followup in 1991 before vanishing without a trace. The post-Fish Marillion was touring with new singer Steve Hogarth in support of their first album with him at the helm, the surprisingly engaging Season’s End. Even as they were selling out arenas and stadiums overseas, we got to see them at the Bacchanal. They were still doing a few Fish-era songs at the time, including the final encore “Market Square Heroes” – helluva great show!

Setlist:

The King Of Sunset Town, Slainte Mhath, Sciot For a Jester’s tear, The Uninvited Guest, Easter, Warm Wet Circles, That Time of the Night, Holloway Girl, Berlin, Seasons End, Kayleigh, Lavender, Heart of Lothian, Hooks In You, The Space, Encore – Incommunicado, After Me, Market Square Heroes

Sinead O’Connor and Hugh Harris 3-29-90 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

Opener Hugh Harris was a British singer-songwriter being compared to Prince and Terence Trent D-Arby with his 1989 album Words For Our Ears, tho he soon vanished from the music scene with only two more low key releases over the next 25 years. At the time of this show, he was dating O’Connor, who was at the peak of her career with a new single and video covering Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2U” and new album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. I recorded and uploaded both sets.

Hugh Harris set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hiBBIvdzVU&t=17s

O’Connor set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DDE7OU7Ryc

Hugh Harris setlist:

Home Sweet Home, Music Lies Bleeding, Mr Woman Loves Mrs Man, Helen Highwater, Rhythm of Life

Sinead O’Connor setlist:

Feel So Different, The Emperor’s New Clothes, I Want Your (Hands On Me), Three Babies, Black Boys on Mopeds, Jackie, I Am Stretched On Your Grave, The Last Day of Our Acquaintance, Nothing Compares 2U, Jump In the River, Jerusalem, Troy, Annachie Gordon

Michelle Shocked 5-31-90 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

No recollection of this show, even tho I have the ticket stub. I wasn’t a fan, perhaps we won tickets or got them cheap via the annual “name your own ticket price” sale they had via lineups at the downtown ArtTix booth (manned at the time by my old boss from the Gaslamp grindhouse theaters, Mr. Merlin.

The Origin 6-20-90 Bacchanal San Diego, CA

Michael Andrews (AKA Elgin Park), Daniel Silverman (AKA Daniel Cage), Roni Abada, Topper Rimel

Free concert put on by Virgin Records as a showcase for The Origin, who were big on local 91X FM radio at the time. The Origin was a 1980s/1990s somewhat proggy rock act that originally included Gary Aguirre, aka Gary Jules, who later gained fame for his cover of Tear For Fears' "Mad World" in the Donnie Darko film scored by his Origin bandmate Michael Andrews (Greyboy Allstars). Andrews and latterday Origin player Daniel Silverman attended high school together in La Jolla. The band formed from the ashes of a group called R a h! that featured Rony Abada and Gary Jules, soon joined by Michael Andrews and Topper Rimel. While still in high school, they recorded a 1985 single with producer Matt Silver and engineer Mike Harris at Western Audio in Santee, "Music To My Ears" b/w "Staff And Glove," released on the Pop Records label.

Augmented by new keyboardist Daniel Silverman, the Origin played well-received all-original sets that attracted the interest of several companies. They signed with Virgin Records. Gary Jules was no longer with the Origin when their self-titled debut album was recorded at Powertrax Studios in Hollywood, with producers David Kershenbaum and Paul McKenna. The album was released by Virgin in 1990, spawning three singles: "Everyone Needs Love" (UK only), "Growing Old" (which reached #19 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks on the strength of a popular video), and "Set Sails Free" (also shot as a video). The album track "November Days" earned airplay on U.S. college and alternative radio and the album won an RMS Music Society Award for Best Album of the Year. (Reader ad Origin6-20-90.jpg)

I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKZHEs4Lsg&t=34s

Setlist:

One Of These Days/Set Sails Free, Everyone Needs Love, November Days, Hear Myself Falling, Never Coming Down, Ride, Lonely Place Alone, Who Would’ve Known, Growing Old, Troubles On the Inside, Untitled/new, Pull the Weight

UB40 and the Smithereens 7-8-90 San Diego Sports Arena, CA

Another one I barely recall, but the ticket says I was there. More bands I knew nothing about at the time, so probably an ArtTix score.

San Diego Street Scene 9-7-90 with Jeff Healy, Tower of Power, Eric Burden with Robbie Krieger, Mojo Nixon, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Time Weisberg, Beat Farmers, more

We attended Day One of the annual outdoor music festival, with stages set up at various spots throughout the Gaslamp District.

I taped bits and pieces as we walked from stage to stage.

Part one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb1bFhBm4bQ&t=4212s

Part two - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSeCAxloV4I

Manual Scan and Marshmallow Overcoat fall 1990 Che Café, UCSD San Diego, CA

We took our 12 year-old goddaughter Christie MaConnell to this all-ages venue on the UCSD campus to see my friend from Diamond Comic Bart Mendoza and his band Manual Scan.

The Sweet 11-24-90 Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Mal McNully (V), Andy Scott (G), Mick Tucker (D), Jrff Brown (B), Steve Mann (K)

One of The Sweet’s final U.S. shows with drummer Mick Tucker.

I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXEhTV8E9Pg&t=80s

Setlist:

Action, Teenage Rampage, Burn On the Flame, Sweet FA, The Sixteens, No You Don’t/ACDC, Love Is Like Oxygen, Fanfare For the Common Man/Oxygen reprise, Hell Raiser, Fox On the Run, Blockbuster, Ballroom Blitz

MOVE BACK TO CONNECTICUT

Molly Hatchet 3-23-91 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

I remember meeting the band at this New Haven club for a meet-and-greet signing, and the singer signed the Molly Hatchet album I had, writing his name on the Frazetta painting so near to the horse’s genitals that we joked about it for years. But I don’t recall how we got passes, whether the band played, or even if I brought the album to be signed or if it was a release party and we got it there. Any excuse to go to Toad’s!

Rick Derringer and Young Neal 4-9-91 Moby Dick’s, Waterford CT

Heather and I moved back to CT for awhile and caught this show promoted by my old bandmate drummer Jim Ensminger. Opening act Young Neal was a local guitar hero. I have photos I shot of Derringer's set that I used to make a CD cover for the recording I uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opUtlVs9kt8&t=3291s

Setlist:

Play Guitar, Teenage Love Affair, Blood From a Stone, Turn On the Light, Rhapsody In Red, The Sky Is Falling, Jump Jump Jump, Hang On Sloopy, Scrambled Eggs, No Turning Back

The Ramones and Blitzspeer 4-9-91 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Marky Ramone, C. J. Ramone

One of the first shows I covered for New England ‘zine Soundwaves, who I wrote a bunch of stuff for over the next coupla years, even after going back to San Diego with Heather. This was the final 1989 – 1996 lineup of The Ramones, whose most recent album at the time was 1989’s Brain Drain. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUEEb_ksCMk&t=617s

Setlist:

Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment, Rock N Roll High School, I Wanna Be Sedated, Beat On the Brat, I Wanna Live, My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg), Commando, Sheena Is a Punk Rocker, Rockaway Beach, Pet Semetary, 53rd and 3rd, California Sun (Joe Jones cover), Mama’s Boy, Animal Boy/Wart Hog, Surfin Bird (Trashmen cover), Cretin Hop, I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You, Today Your Love Tomorrow the World, Pinhead, Chinese Rocks (Heartbreakers cover), Somebody Put Something In My Drink, Love Kills, I Want To Have Something To Do, Judy Is a Punk

Jesus Jones 4-23-91 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

We won tickets on the radio to see this show, and took our friend Tony Lee, a guitarist I played with in several bands. I remember picking him up at his house in Black Point and his Dad was really annoyed when he found out the name of the musician we were going to see. “What kind of person names himself Jesus,” he griped, “and why would anyone listen to his music?” Well, the only song I remember by Jesus Jones is “Right Here, Right Now,” and most people probably don’t recall the guy at all, so I guess Tony’s Dad made a somewhat accurate call.

Setlist:

Never Enough, Move Mountains, International Bright Young Thing, I’m Burning, Nothing To Hold Me, Damn Good At This, Real Real Real, Right Here Right Now, I Don’t Want That Kind of Love, What Would You Know, Bring It On Down, Info Freako

Steve Morse and Ricardo 5-2-91 Toad’s Place, New Haven CT

Steve Morse, Dave LaRue (B), Van Romaine (D)

We took Tony Lee to this one too, Morse was touring in support of his Southern Steel album. I interviewed Steve on tape backstage for Soundwaves Magazine, and Tony got to ask a few questions too. He even did one of the songs from his tenure with Kansas! I recorded and uploaded.

Concert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA5KJOOOYTg&t=643s

Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shPO5dL0hzo&t=4s

Setlist:

Cut To the Chase, Vista Grande, Rock ‘N’ Roll Park, Southern Steel, Night Meets Light, Weekend Overdrive, Highland Wedding, Sleaze Factor, Point Counterpoint, Ice Cakes/Carry On Wayward Son, Simple Simon, General Lee, Take It Off the Top, Cruise Missile

The Band, Joe Walsh, Roger McGuinn 7-17-91 Thames Pavillion, Groton CT

The Band: Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Jim Weider, Randy Ciarlante

Joe Walsh band: Walsh, Al Kooper, Joe Vitale

Joe Walsh’s band included the great Al Kooper, from the original Blood Sweat and Tears, and legendary session player Joe Vitale. I interviewed Rick Danko from the band and Roger McGuinn backstage. McGuinn complained to me “Oh, you write for that magazine that spelled my name wrong on the cover.” The interview didn’t go well. I recorded much of the show and uploaded.

The Band - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPRXQmtW_eA

Joe Walsh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4usv8t4Zts&t=605s

The Band setlist:

Good Feeling (unrecorded on my tape), Baby Don’t You Do It (unrecorded on my tape), Stage Fright (unrecorded on my tape), Blind Willie Mctell (unrecorded on my tape), The WS Walcott Medicine Show, Blue River, Rag Mama Rag, The Weight, Knockin On Heaven’s Door (with guest Roger McGuinn)

Joe Walsh setlist:

Two Side To Every Story, Life in the Fast Lane, Ordinary Average Guy, Turn to Stone, In the City, ILBTS, In The City (unrecorded on my tape), Look At Us Now (unrecorded on my tape), Life’s Been Good (unrecorded on my tape), Funk #49 (unrecorded on my tape), Rocky Mountain Way (unrecorded on my tape)

Rick Derringer 7-26-91 Oakdale Theater, Wallingford CT

We drove up to my old hometown of Wallingford for this show without tix, figuring we could score them there. But it had been so many years since I’d driven in CT that I got us completely lost, and we didn’t get there until well into Derringer’s set. Rather than pay for tix, we just watched and listened from outside the outdoor tent, this was before the Oakdale was rebuilt as an indoor venue. I suck. The ticket I picked up off the ground as we left says 1990 for some reason, but this was definitely 1991.

Bob Dylan 7-24-91 Thames Pavilion, Groton CT

Dylan was touring in support of his 27th studio album Under the Red Sky. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDYu6Ah2lyM&t=1940s

Setlist:

New Morning, I Remember You, Maggie’s Farm, Shelter From the Storm, Gotta Serve Somebody, Wiggle Wiggle, I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We’ve Never Met), Leopard Skin Pill-box Hat, Trail of the Buffalo, It Ain’t Me Babe, Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right, Girl From the North County, Folsom Prison Blues, Everything Is Broken, Simple Twist Of Fate, Highway 61 Revisited, Lenny Bruce, Ballad of a Thin Man

Allman Bros 9-8-91 Thames Pavillion, Groton CT

Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Butch Trucks, Warren Haynes, Allen Woody, Marc Quinones

The Allman Brothers were still breaking in new guitarist Warren Haynes as they toured in support of their tenth studio album Shades of Two Worlds, released that July. Local harmonica hero James Montgomery guested with the Allmans for a bit. I interviewed Warren Haynes backstage. I taped and uploaded the show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8VwXwu1rZs&t=57s

Setlist:

Intro Jam, Low Down Dirty Mean, Melissa, Come On In My Kitchen, Midnight Rider, Hot ‘lanta, Statesboro Blues (with James Montgomery), Blue Sky, End Of the Line, Nobody Knows, Get On With Your Life, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed, Revival, One Way Out, Jessica (with James Montgomery), Whipping Post

Leslie West 10-31-91 El ‘N’ Gee Club, New London CT

Leslie West, Ritchie Scarlet, Paul Baretta

A Halloween show that we attended with Scott Gibson and his wife Elaine. West’s most recent albums at the time had both been released in 1989, Alligator and Night of the Guitars Live. West was screaming obscenities at the soundman for much of the night. I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv1-HOt6pMY&t=26s

Setlist:

Star Spangled Banner, Never In My Life, The, Theme For an Imaginary Western, Red House, Goin’ Down, Voodoo Chile/Wind Cried Mary, Hey Joe

Little Feat and Badfinger 12-6-91 Palace Theater, New Haven CT

My Soundwaveseditor David Pottie drove me and Heather to this show, arriving so late that we only caught the last two songs of the set I most wanted to see, Badfinger. I interviewed Little Feat backstage for an article and show review, they had reunited in 1988 minus their late frontman Lowell George and had a new album out called Shake Me Up that they opened with a track from, “Let it Roll.” They also did two songs from Representing the Mambo, as well as an acoustic set of “Hate To Lose Your Lovin,” “Down On the Farm,” “Sailin Shoes,” “Roll Um Easy” (!), and “Willin.”

Setlist:

Let It Roll, All That You Dream, Fat Man, Changin’ Luck, Things Happen, Forty-Four Blues, Apolitical Blues, Down on the Farm (acoustic), Hate To Lose Your Lovin’ (acoustic), Sailin’ Shoes (acoustic), Roll Um Easy (acoustic), Willin’ (acoustic), Cajun Girl, Rad Gumbo, Spider’s Blues, Shake Me Up/Oh Atlanta, Dixie Chicken/Tripe Face Boogie, Texas Twister, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

James Montgomery 4-24-92 Moby Dick’s, Waterford CT

Attended and interviewed for Soundwaves.

Earth Day 4-25-92 at Foxboro Stadium, MA

With Steve Miller, Indigo Girls with Joan Baez and Mary Chapin Carpenter, a rare set from the Kinks brother Ray and Dave, an acoustic Violent Femmes set, plus Sophie B Hawkins, Fishbone, Midnight Oil, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Bruce Cockburn, and Robyn Hitchcock. I have photos we shot backstage and of the show itself, and a tape with some partial sets.

Steve Miller Band – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhEkKHTk6wo

Fishbone – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJaTpxs43fw

Violent Femmes – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvo7_j6il6w

Robyn Hitchcock – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixr1mt1RA_A

Steve Miller setlist:

Intro/Fly Like and Eagle, Wild Mountain Honey/voting speech, Here We Go, Take the Money and Run, Jungle Love, Rock’n Me, Dance Dance Dance, The Joker, Serenade

Fishbone setlist:

Jammin Ska, Everyday Sunshine, Sunless Saturday

Violent Femmes setlist:

What Do I Have To Do, Out the Window, Add It Up

Youssou N’Dour setlist:

The Truth, Immigres, My Daughter, Old Tuscon, Healing Rain, Shakin’ the Tree

Robyn Hitchcock setlist:

Oceanside, So You Think You’re In Love, Globe Of Frogs

Indigo Girls with Joan Baez setlist:

Intro/Don’t Think Twice It’s Allright, City Of Angels, Diamonds and Rust

MOVE BACK TO CALIFORNIA

Chris Squire 8-20-92 Sound FX (formerly Bacchanal), San Diego CA

Chris Squire, Billy Sherwood, Alan White, Jimmy Haun, Steve Porcaro, Michael T. Williams

Heather and I returned to San Diego to find the Bacchanal had become Sound FX. For awhile, anyway --- it was later the Rhythm Café and then a country western place. Yes bassist Chris Squire played a great set that included once and future Yes drummer Alan White, future Yes member Billy Sherwood, and Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro.

I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9wyNxYBbQo&t=4657s

Years later, someone else uploaded video of the same show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOMAHJ7fi0s.

Setlist:

Wish I Knew, The Lonesome Trail, You’re the Reason I Live, One World Going Round, Days of Wonder – keyboard solo, Follow Your Dreams, Say Goodbye, Whitefish, Wish I Knew (reprise)

Tori Amos 8-26-92 Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD, San Diego CA

Just that May, three months earlier, almost nobody had heard of Tori Amos and she was playing Sound FX (formerly the Bacchanal). We were still out east then, but after Todd Loren was murdered in June 1992, we relcated back to San Diego and I took over running Revolutionary Comics. My nephew Jesse had just moved from New England to stay with us for a while, and he went to this concert on the UCSD campus with us. Little Earthquakes was still all over local radio, and in fact I taped a local radio station interview and performance she gave the day before the show, using a boombox set up in my brand new office at Revolutionary Comics. I didn’t tape the concert but I did upload the radio tape - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoXccJjm33s

Setlist:

Numbness, Crucify, Silent All These Years, Precious Things, Happy Phantom, Leather, Here In My Head, Little Earthquakes, Whole Lotta Love/Thank You (Led Zeppelin covers), Me and a Gun, Winter, Encore: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Mother, Sugar, China, Angie (Rolling Stones cover)

Prong, Big Chief, DFA, Psychic Zoo 10-16-92 Soma, San Diego

Attended with Heather and Spike at Soma’s original downtown locale at 555 Union Street. Prong had released their third album Prove You Wrong in September 1991. Troy Gregory was playing bass with Prong, he’d soon quit the band. Spike recalls “I gave them a bunch of Crowley books and they started arguing over them.” The main thing I remember is a sweaty basement room where the walls seemed to bleed urine.

White Zombie and T-Ride 1-22-93 Coach House, San Juan Capistrano CA

T-Ride wanted to do a Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics story and invited us to this gig a little north of San Diego, where Rob Zombie’s original White Zombie were headlining. We went with Tom Potts and his wife, but they weren’t impressed with White Zombie and we all left before they finished their set.

Jefferson Starship and the Travel Agents 1-23-93 Rhythm Café (formerly Bacchanal), San Diego CA

Paul Kantner, Darby Gould, Jack Casady, Mark “Slick” Aguilar, Tim Gorman, Papa John Creach, Prairie Prince

The day after seeing White Zombie at the Coach House. Local jam band the Travel Agents opened, they also turned up before a couple of Spirit gigs. Starship hadn’t released a new album in nearly nine years and was essentially split until January 1992, when Paul Kantner recruited Airplane bassist Jack Casady and Starship fiddler Papa John Creach, along with his KBC Band bandmates Mark “Slick” Aguilar and Tim Gorman and Tubes drummer Prairie Prince. New singer Darby Gould fronted the new lineup thru 1995.

Jefferson Starship setlist:

The Light (Ginger & Metaphysics), Wooden Ships, Blues From an Airplane, I’m On Fire, Poem (My Desire For You), Shadowlands, I’m Movin’, Poem “For the Good of All”, America (KBC), Sunrise, Hijack, Home, Have You Seen the Stars Tonight, XM, Starship, Poem “Get Ready”, Volunteers

Spirit and the Travel Agents 1-30-93 La Paloma Theater, Encinitas CA

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan

This show was recorded for live album, and a couple of songs were restarted due to issues with the recording equipment, with some l-o-o-o-n-g gaps between a few numbers. I got to meet with the band backstage briefly, where they signed an issue of Rock 'N' Roll Comics I'd done with a Spirit bio comic. Randy teased me about never getting any money for the comic story.

Spirit setlist: Life Has Just Begun, Sadana, Mr. Skin, Hey Joe, I Got a Line On You, Prelude-Nothing To Hide, Going Back to Jones, Give a Life Take a Life, La Paloma Jam/Jamacai Jam/Super Paloma Jam

Allan Holdsworth 2-18-93 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

AH, Chad Wackerman (D)

Holdsworth had released his seventh studio album the previous year, Wardenclyffe Tower, and he was about to drop Hard Hat Area. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tP6sQsk15U&t=530s

Setlist:

Looking Glass, Pud Wud, Ruhkukah, Low Levels Hight Stakes, Non-Brewed Condiment, Devil Take the Hindmost, House of Mirrors – drum solo, Tell Me, Water On the Brain, Proto Cosmos, Zone

A Blaze In the Sun 3-27-93 Palm Springs, CA with Kyuss, Grant Lee Buffalo, more

Attended with Herb Shapiro, the publisher of Revolutionary Comics, because we co-sponsored this outdoor desert concert and had our company logo flags hanging on the stage backdrop. Kyuss was on their Blues For the Red Suntour. Herb had no idea who any of the bands were, he was in his 50s at the time.

Kyuss setlist:

Odyssey, Thumb, Green Machine, Gardenia, Whitewater, Writhe, Freedom Run, Allen’s Wrench

Paul McCartney 4-17-93 Anaheim Stadium, CA

This show made me think a lot about the late Todd Loren, who authored our Beatles Experience comics. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQC7YdVRn88&t=25s

Setlist:

Drive My Car, Coming Up, Looking For Changes, Another Day, All My Loving, Let Me Roll It, Peace in the Neighborhood, Off the Ground, Can’t Buy Me Love, Robbie’s Bit, Good Rockin Tonight, We Can Work It Out, And I Love Her, Every Night, Hope Of Deliverance, Michelle, Biker Like an Icon, Here There and Everywhere, Yesterday, My Love, Lady Madonna, Live and Let Die, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour, C’Mon People, Long and Winding Road, Paperback Writer, Fixing a Hole, Penny Lane, Sgt Pepper, Band On the Run, I Saw Her Standing There, Hey Jude

KISS Rock Walk Of Fame Induction Ceremony 5-18-93 Hollywood CA

Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick

We were working with the band on the Pre-History comics, and they were hoping we’d foot the bill to create their KISStory book, although that deal ultimately fell thru. At the time, they were trying to impress us with how popular they still were. We were with them behind the velvet ropes, and at one point I was tossing free Kiss comics into the crowd, causing no small amount of pandemonium. I took many photos, though I lost most of them to a roof leak that soaked one of my photo boxes.

Gene Simmons 44th Birthday Party 8-29-93 Sports Center, Studio City CA

Heather and I attended Gene’s birthday party with Herb Shapiro, Spike Steffenhagen, and Spike’s wife Melissa. Held in the bowling alley of an L.A. sports complex, all four KISS members were there, as was Gene’s wife Shannon Tweed, Pamela Des Barres, Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa, Roseanne and Tom Arnold, Lita Ford, etc. A comedic comedy-metal band wearing animal costumes (lead singer was a cow) named Sykotik Sinfoney played a set at the far end of the bowling alley. Although Kiss and Revolutionary Comics eventually had a falling out, this event was essentially where Carnal Comics was born.

Gene was a fan of Revolutionary Comics Rock 'N' Roll Comics line, which I began writing for in 1989. The company's founder, Todd Loren, died in June 1992, the victim of a still-unsolved murder. However, Revolutionary kept on producing comic books, including a Kiss biography, under the leadership of Todd’s father and myself.

I contacted Gene Simmons in 1993 about doing some new Kiss comics together, and the band ended up working with Revolutionary on our Kiss Pre-History comics, as well as a hardcover coffee table book later called Kisstory. This was before the four original Kiss members reunited, during a period when the group was essentially a trivia footnote in rock history. Kiss financial coffers were fading and they wanted Revolutionary to cover the cost of producing the Kisstory book. Hoping to impress us with their potential to still generate merchandising income, Gene invited me and several Revolutionary staffers to his birthday party, to be held in an L.A. bowling alley, promising a star-studded evening of rock and roll nirvana.

It was during a meeting leading up to this event, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, when Gene took me aside and said "Jay, instead of just rock stars, you should do something like Jesus comics. Or maybe porn star comics. People will always be into Jesus and porn stars."

"Hopefully not in the same comic," I allowed, and the subject was dropped.

I didn’t mention to him that I'd already looked into doing porn star biographies, but since the girls use pseudonyms and work in a somewhat secretive underground subculture, I'd had little luck making the necessary contacts. Pity, I thought. Todd had started an adults-only line in '92 called Carnal Comics - sex filled fictional stories having nothing to do with the adult film industry, but the series was cancelled after only three money-losing issues. I felt the name Carnal Comics would make a great imprint title for a porn star bio series, but the moniker had died with Todd.

It would have stayed buried, were it not for ol’ lizard-tongue’s birthday party. Gene’s bash was filled with celebrities. One of the people Gene introduced me to was a hairy, nearly hunchbacked little man named Ron Jeremy, whom I recognized as The Hedgehog of countless porn loops.

I did not shake his hand (I've seen where it’s been).

Looking around, I thought I recognized many of the half-nekkid ladies in attendance as porn starlets, but I hadn't been an active porn watcher in some time so I wasn't positive.

At one point, Gene asked me if I had any business cards, because "This would be a good opportunity to make some contacts." I handed him a dozen or so and off he went. I found out later that he placed those cards in the palms of porn stars throughout the room, telling them "That guy over there wants to do a comic book about you."

The following Monday, I was mystified when I began getting calls from sexy sounding women telling me that they were anxious to meet me and work with me. Most started right off by saying they wanted to send me naked pictures of themselves, and did I want to see them in softcore or hardcore shots?

This was not the usual Rock 'N' Roll Comics morning, to be sure!

One woman with a veddy propah British accent announced "I seduce women who’ve nevah been with a girl before…I’ll send you some tapes."

This turned out to be Miss Sarah-Jane Hamilton and I decided that I liked her quite a bit.

I wrote up a contract to do a three issue comic book series with the beautiful, busty redhead. The comics would serialize her illustrated life story and each issue would have a fictional fantasy tale which Sarah herself would write, with my help, based on her own fantasies.

Using that same basic format with dozens more adult film stars, we went on to sell over a million Carnal Comics between 1994 and 1999 - they're still being published to this day by Steve Crompton, whose famed Demi the Demoness character made her debut in Carnal Comics, before going on to become the first underground comic character to be adapted as a live action film!

I took a bunch of photos that night, plus I found a pro set from Getty Images online - https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/44th-birthday-party-for-gene-simmons-august-29-1993

The Scorpions and Stick at Foundations Forum 9-10-93 Hilton & Convention Center, Burbank CA

Private gig during a three-day heavy metal music industry convention, Foundations Forum, held annually from 1988 to 1997 in Los Angeles. I caught bits of several sets but the only complete sets I caught on this day two were Stick and the Scorpions. The Scorpions were on their Face the Heat tour. I took a bunch of photos from right up front. Another photo set is online - https://iconicpix.photoshelter.com/gallery/Sep-10-1993-SCORPIONS-Foundations-Forum-1993-Burbank-Ca-USA/G0000MD2HB74xr4s

Setlist:

Blackout, Someone To Touch, Taxman Woman, The Zoo, Alien Nation, No Pain No Gain, Bad Boys Running Wild, Hit Between the Eyes, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Encore: Big City Nights

Accept (reunion with Udo) and I Mother Earth at Foundations Forum 9-11-93 Hilton & Convention Center, Burbank CA

Private gig during a music industry convention, I Mother Earth played before the stage hosted a full Accept reunion with former singer Udo Dirkschneider, who’d left the band in 1987 and returned for their 1993 album Objection Overruled.

I Mother Earth setlist:

Levitate, Not Quite Sonic, Lost My America, Rain Will Fall, Undone, No One

Accept setlist:

Starlight, Living For Tonite, Princess of the Dawn, Slaves To Metal, Bulletproof, Metal Heart, Fast As a Shark, Balls To the Wall

KISS at Foundations Forum 9-11-93 Hilton & Convention Center, Burbank CA

Private gig during a music industry convention, with several historic numbers. They played “King Of the Night Time World” live for the first time since 1986. They did “Makin’ Love” and “Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll” for the first time since 1979, with the latter track being the full-length extended version they last performed in 1976. “Take Me” hadn’t appeared in concert since 1977. “Got To Chose,” “Rock Bottom,” and “She” hadn’t been done live since 1976. They also played a live version of “Goin’ Blind” for the very first time.

Video and audio of the entire set is online - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyjecu-kwVo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9v4vd7pRoM

Setlist:

King Of the Night Time World, Take Me, Goin’ Blind, Got To Choose, Rock Bottom, She, Makin’ Love, Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll, Encore: Parasite

Jethro Tull and Procol Harum 9-19-93 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheatre, San Diego CA

Procol Harum – Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, Geoff Whitehorn, Matt Pegg, Ian Wallace

Jethro Tull – Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Andrew Giddings, Dave Pegg, Doane Perry

I recorded both sets and uploaded – Procol Harum – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgqLsBY7R2w&t=17s

Tull – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDcviJOZgr4&t=79s

Procol Harum setlist:

Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Simple Sister, The King Of Hearts, The Truth Won’t Fade Away, A Salty Dog, Whiskey Train, Last Train to Niagra, Conquistador, A Whiter Shade of Pale, As Strong as Samson

Jethro Tull setlist:

My Sunday Feeling, For a Thousand Mothers, Living In the Past, Bourree in E Minor, So Much Trouble, With You There To Help Me, The Whistler, Thick As a Brick, Sossity You’re a Woman, Reasons For Waiting, Songs From the Wood, Too Old to Rock ‘N’ Roll, Heavy Horses, Budapest, Andy Gidding’s Parrot, Passion Jig, Seal Driver (instrumental), A New Day Yesterday, Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Cross-Eyed Mary, Dharma For One – drum solo

Mozart November 1993 Spirit Club, San Diego CA

I spotted an ad in the Reader for this band that was said to be a lot like Queen, I still have it – “Are you ready for some different music? From L.A., IRS recording artists Mozart – opera rock, if you like Queen, you’ll love ‘em.” So I rounded up Heather and a guy from Revolutionary Comics who was a big Queen fan, Tom Potts. The ad says a few other bands played, tho I don’t recall any of them (Loaded Bones, Crime of the Century, Wally World, and Typhoid Mary). However, we were so impressed with Mozart that we signed them to do an authorized Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics story. This ended up landing me and Heather at the IRS Records headquarters of Miles Copeland (brother of Police guitarist Stewart Copeland), sitting in the office of legendary Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker!

We were interviewing Mozart, a terrific prog-opera glam rock group who were at the time the kings of the Sunset Strip scene. Their comic story was to appear as a backup feature in the Meatloaf comic book, since their operatic 70s Queen-like sound seemed a good match. It was completely drawn and being prepped for lettering. Unfortunately, the Meatloaf comic went unpublished, and this Mozart artwork remains one of the lost "What If" gems of the Revolutionary Comics archive (tho I did manage to use one of the art panels to design a CD cover for a Mozart concert we all went up to see at the Roxy in L.A.).

Steve Hackett and Brand X 11-10-93 Chillers, Mission Beach San Diego CA

Steve Hackett band: SH, Doug Sinclair (B), Julian Colbeck (K), Hugo Degenhardt (D)

Brand X: John Goodsall, Percy Jones, Steve Katz

The former Genesis guitarist seemed like he didn’t quite know what to make of Chiller’s, a beachside bar in Mission Beach on the outer edge of Belmont park where they had blacklight-lit frozen drinks of all different neon colors lining the wall behind the bar. Phil Collins’ old band Brand X opened, now manned by John Goodsall, Percy Jones, and Steve Katz.

I recorded and uploaded Brand X - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdftNkoW2RA

I recorded Hackett and uploaded in two parts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3HFSC5bk10&t=1469s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VFExRzKulE&t=15s

Steve Hackett setlist:

Vampire With a Healthy Appetite, Shadow of the Hierophant, Take These Pearls, Sierra Quemada, Depth Charge, In the Heat of the City, Walking Away From Rainbows, There Are Many Shades To the Night, Dark As the Grave (drum and bass solo), The Air Conditioned Nightmare, Lost In Your Eyes, Every Day, Spectral Mornings/Firth Of Fifth/Clocks, Horizons, Cinema Paradiso, In the Quiet Earth, Camino Royale

Steve Howe 11-22-93 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

The Yes guitarist’s Not Necessarily Acoustic Tour kicked off with this date in Solana Beach, wrapping up on December 19th in Montreal, Canada. We attended with a young artist from Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Marshall Ross, who drew my scripts on Metallica and Kate Bush and was working on our Yes comic at the time. I was jazzed that he did a track from his early band Tomorrow, “My White Bicycle.”

I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLQCeEKTlJ0&t=17s

Setlist:

Corkscrew, Heritage Review, Surface Tension, Tales From Topographic Oceans (excerpt), Arada (Andres Segovia), Mood For a Day, Masquerade, And You And I, Sketches In the Sun, Second Initial, The Glory Of Love, Country Mix, Winter, Running the Human Race, Cactus Boogie, Ram (Beginnings excerpt), Wayward Course, Roundabout, The Valley Of Rocks, Clap, Dorothy (aka Sweet), Darla Strange, Swedish Rhapsody, Whispering, Untitled Country, Meadow Rag, Sometimes, Heat Of the Moment, My White Bicycle

Badfinger and The Shambles 12-15-93 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

Joey Molland, Greg Eidem, Eric Bretl

My old friend Bart Mendoza from Pacific Comics opened the show with his band The Shambles, who also played at our Comic-Con booth that year.

We got in early and taped the Badfinger soundcheck, as well as the show itself. There were supposed to be four players but apparently their other guitarist was a no-show and they had to play the set as a three-piece. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4FqUkNv4VU

Setlist:

Come and Get It, Way back Home, Suitcase, Baby Blue, The Dreamer, Moolah Rey (Molland solo song), No Matter What, Sweet Tuesday Morning, What Happened, Money/Flying, Vampire Wedding (Molland solo song), No More, Day After Day/Come and Get It reprise, I Don’t Mind

Mozart 1-7-94 Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles CA

The kings of the Sunset Strip glam scene at the time invited us to this private showcase concert featuring a one-time setlist. Backstage, we bumped into both Gene Simmons and Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker, who produced Mozart’s debut album (which did sound very Queen-ish). We went with Tom Potts from Revolutionary Comics, who posted his recollections online –

“Jay, I and our significant others went up to Hollywood and met up with the late great Daerick Gross and his wife to see Mozart at the Roxy. Love this band, they were gonna be the subject of an upcoming book. Now, by the time i turned 30, I had my name in a published comic book. Score! After the show, Jay and I went backstage. I mean, who gets to go backstage at a club in Hollywood – score! Backstage was the Demon and the guy who produced Mozart's CD – score!"

"Now, I've met the Demon before, and it's always awesome to meet celebrities. But the producer of this album also produced a song that you might have heard of, in fact, you might have seen the movie with the same title, Bohemian Rhapsody. Now the Demon, being the person that he is, grabbed the comic, Queen's Greatest Hits, opened it up to show Roy Thomas Baker how he had been drawn. RTB didn't seem that upset. But he did sign that book. Score! With everything that happened that night, it was probably one of the greatest nights of my life.”

I taped the entire set and uploaded – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETKc2Q7A0xI

Setlist:

The Boys Are Back in Town, Speed Train, I Don’t Want To Set the World On Fire, Sea Shells, Static DJ, Young Man Years, Glory Days, Bennie and the Jets, Demon Sea, I Fly, Three Strikes, No Sugar, Under My Skin, Enemies, Money Drugs, The Shoe, Romance O’ Blu, Won’t Get Fooled Again

Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Fishbone 1-28-94 Iguana’s, Tijuana Mexico

Heather took photos of me interviewing the Bosstones for the Reader, outdoors behind the venue.

I taped both sets and uploaded:

Bosstones – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T57wbYN3P4o&t=245s

Fishbone – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Va0BCrePds&t=55s

Bosstones setlist:

You Can’t Win, Illegal Left, A Little Bit Ugly, Do Something Crazy, Someday I Suppose, Chocolate Pudding, Go Big, Holy Smoke, Where’d You Go, Tin Soldiers/band intros, Last Dead Mouse

Fishbone setlist:

Donuts, Cigarettes and Coffee, The Warmth Of Your Breath, Pressure, Sunless Saturday, Give It Up, No Fear, Black Flowers, They All Have Abandoned Their Hopes, Unyielding Conditioning, A Selection, Drunk Skitzo

RIP Magazine Party 3-13-94 with Pantera, Entombed, Stuttering John, Stormtroopers Of Death (reunion), Hollywood Palladium, CA

March 13, 1994 will forever known around our house as The Night Ma Hung Out Backstage With Pantera. It was my Mom’s first time visiting Hollywood, so of course she wanted to see the Star Trek cast’s signatures in cement outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater. She was literally hit up by a wino for change before she got all the way out of the car, so she really got the Hollywood experience (it especially made her day to see a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum). Then it was off to a private concert for Larry Flynt’s RIP Magazine, which was running our Rock Tales comic strip at the time, with Pantera, Entombed, Stuttering John, and more bands on a bill co-sponsored by Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics.

It was neat to see how proud and special she felt as we walked right past the huge lineup and into the backstage entrance, wearing her Hard Rock Comics T-shirt (the same one Gene Simmons wears on the Alive III cover and videos). Copies of our Pantera comic were everywhere, we’d donated thousands for the swag bags and were carrying a bunch more that we peppered backstage (something I did pretty much any time I got backstage, hoping other bands on the bill would call us up and commission their own comics).

Right away, someone – I think one of the guys from Entombed - looked at my mom in her Hard Rock Comics shirt and started calling her “Hard Rock Grandma,” and that’s what everyone called her for the rest of the night. We found some really cool seats in the private balcony overlooking the mosh pit, and she was fascinated by how much it reminded her of tribal Indian circle dances, with everyone moving in geometric patterns that can only really be discerned from an overhead view like ours.

For years after that, every once in awhile I’d get a phone call from my Mom. “Who was that panther band you took me to see again?”

“That was Pantera.”

Then I’d hear a young sounding voice in the background squealing – “You were backstage at PANTERA?! No way!”

At least a dozen times that happened. Pretty sure she knew the band name, she just liked unfolding the tale and soaking in the reaction! That’s just how Hard Rock Grandmas roll!

Video of Pantera set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr_DNO5hUw4

Video of Entombed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AScHkA-Z64

Pink Floyd 4-14-94 Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego CA

I was gassing up my car at 70th and El Cajon in San Diego one day in early 1994 when I heard a strange humming engine sound from the sky, looked up, and there was the Pink Floyd Division Bell blimp puttering along, heading eastward! It was flying so low that there was no mistaking the markings and logo, which I'd seen in ads for the upcoming April 14, 1994 concert that I already had a ticket for, folded in my wallet.

We lived just a block away, and only Heather can tell you what she thought when the biggest Pink Floyd fan she'll ever know ran into the house screaming "Quick, get in the car, we have to follow the Pink Floyd blimp!"

Somehow I managed to convince her to forgo calling the asylum in favor of a car ride, and off we soared down the Boulevard, onto route 8 and down the highway, following the blimp and snapping photos with a little 110 Instamatic camera I grabbed. I think we went just about to Campo before the blimp finally started to descend into a canyon, where it appeared to be turning around or landing. It eventually passed out of sight, but we were thrilled for the adventure.

A few weeks later, we were guests of the band when they played the stadium, thanks to having done the Pink Floyd comic books that they featured in the booklet their official Shine On box CD set (in a double page spread that poked fun at us for not seeking authorization first by announcing that they were reprinting our comic artwork without OUR permission!). The night before the show, head of security Kevin Keenan let us backstage to look around, and to watch them rehearse the light show and prototechnics.

Of course I taped and uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inSR5PbsQRQ&t=26s

Someone else uploaded video of the entire set - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoYkjQMPKW_VPU4BXqvLrlvt0gQo32OkF

Setlist:

Astronomy Domine, Learning to Fly, What Do You Want From Me, A Great Day For Freedom, Sorrow, Take It Back, On the Turning Away, Keep Talking, One Of These Days, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Breath (in the Air), High Hopes, Wish You Were Here, Another Brick In the Wall Part 2, The Great Gig in The Sky, Us and Them, Money, Comfortably Numb, Encore: Hey You, Run Like Hell

Traffic 6-6-94 Marina Park, San Diego CA

Traffic: Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Randall Bramlett, Rosko Gee, Michael McEvoy, Walfredo Reyes Jr.

Traffic had just released their first album in 20 years the previous month, Far From Home.

I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThbJ_xSCAK0&t=3s

Setlist:

Pearly Queen, Medicated Goo, Here Comes a Man, Some Kinda Woman, Every Night Every Day, Rock and Roll Stew, (Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired, Nowhere Is Freedom, Forty Thousand Headmen, Empty Pages, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, Glad, Freedom Rider, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone

Spirit and Arthur Lee & Love 7-23-94 Flash Café, San Diego CA

Love: Arthur Lee, Mike Randle, Henry lut, Rusty Squeezebox,Dave Daddye Green

Spirit: Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott Monahan

The Fountaines opened this show where Spirit was billed as the headliner right up until nearly showdate, when things were flipped so that Spirit opened and Love headlined. This concert was one of only two times the band ever played "Feathered Fish" with the late Arthur Lee. It's kind of a crazy set, Lee keeps trying to get the band to play one tune that they refuse (you can hear one guy saying "No, we're not," and requesting a band conference several times, but Lee mostly ignores him). Lee then introduces and tries to start a song they already played, until a band member cuts him off and corrects him, requesting another "conference" while Lee rambles on to the audience about "Coach House tomorrow, Coach House tomorrow, Coach House tomorrow..." - great set, tho! I recorded and uploaded both sets:

Love - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3HkVS4Ysa0&t=88s

Spirit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERmD5QCthQ&t=32s

Love setlist:

7&7 Is, Alone Again Or, Signed DC, Andmoreagain, Stephanie Knows Who, Your Mind and We Belong Together, Orange Skies, My Little Red Book, That’s The Way It Goes, Girl On Fire, Singing Cowboy, Between Clark & Hilldale, A House Is Not a Motel, Feathered Fish (one of only two known performances with Lee)

Spirit setlist:

Instrumental/Love From Here, 1984, Fresh Garbage, Nature’s Way, Pawn Shop Blues, Mr Skin, Red House, Animal Zoo

Jesus Christ Superstar 8-17-94 Mount Helix Amphitheatre, San Diego CA

Excellent outdoor stage production staged by CCT/Christian Community Theater in the amphitheater carved into the top of Mt. Helix.

Tori Amos and Bill Miller 8-21-94 Copely Symphony Hall, San Diego CA

Tori’s Under the Pink tour featured as an opening act American Indian singer-songwriter Bill Miller, who I met and interviewed for Soundwaves magazine in New England a few years previous, while we were living back east.

I recorded and uploaded both sets:

Bill Miller - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EsYMbG2oBk&t=1331s

Tori - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNOAXMg3g7g&t=102s

I also uploaded a local news promo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KL_66fDdZE

Setlist:

Space Dog, Crucify, Leather, Icicle, Precious Things, God, Silent All These Years, Honey, Bells For Her, Me and a Gun, Baker Baker, Encore: Cornflake Girl, American Pie (Don McLean cover), Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover), Past the Mission, Landslide (Fleetwood Mac cover), Winter

Tesla 2-21-95 New Bacchanal, San Diego CA

After changing names and even genres for a while, the Bacchanal was now known as the NEW Bacchanal. Tesla did a sit-down set for the "5 man acoustic band." Tommy Skeoch was reportedly fresh out of rehab and sporting a bandage on his arm from IVs. I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA1tyMIixFI

Setlist:

Solution, EZ Come EZ Go, Need Your Lovin’, Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out), Song and Emotion, Modern Day Cowboy, The Way It Is, Paradise, Try So Hard, What You Give, Signs, Getting’ Better, Edison’s Machine (Man Out of Time), Earthmover, Love Song, Cumin’ Atcha Live, Action Talks, Mama’s Fool

Spirit 5-20-95 Catamaran Cannibal Bar, Mission Beach San Diego CA

Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Scott MonahanThis was the second weirdest Spirit gig I ever saw, after the Swap Meet. Catamaran then was a yuppie bar inside a Mission Beach hotel, which had once been a rock venue but at that time was spiffed up like a disco for DJs. The servers wore stylized tuxedos, the drinks were all foofoo umbrella booze, and most all the patrons were hotel guests who wandered in and out and seemed oblivious to the live music. A few dozen of us clustered around the stage, there for Spirit, but the rest of the bar kept its nightly meat market routine, including TV sets running in banks behind the bar (while the band played!). I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jUGMb6lYaI&t=1617s

Setlist: Love From Here; Nature's Way; Fresh Garbage; Pawn Shop Blues; Hey Joe; Animal Zoo; Red House; La Paloma Jam (Electro-Jam); I Got A Line On You; Prelude: Nothin' To Hide; Turn To The Right; Mr. Skin

Alan Parsons Live Project and Kansas 7-29-95 Oceanside Pier, CA

Alan Parsons, Ian Bairnson, Stuart Elliott, Richard Cottle, Peter Beckett, Chris Thompson, Felix Krish, Andy Powell

We were having a crazy hectic time at the San Diego Comic-Con, where Carnal Comics was becoming one of the biggest attractions of the show. But we dropped everything as soon as Heather and I could close up the booth and drove all the way up to Oceanside, with no tix, in hopes of seeing a band I never thought would tour, Alan Parsons Project. Heather and I bought tix out front from a teenage girl whose parents had given her the passes, she had no idea who the bands even were. Good seats, too! Kansas was okay, but I’d seen them in their prime in the 70s and was mainly there for The Project. Who – were – amazing! I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORAmujilsHQ&t=186s

Setlist:

Sirius/Eye In the Sky, Turn It Up, What Goes Up, Luciferama, Old and Wise, Can’t Take It With You, A Dream Within a Dream/The Raven, I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You, Take the Money and Run, Limelight, Dreamscape, Time, Prime Time,
Standing on Higher Ground, Games People Play, Psychobabbe

Ringo Starr 8-16-95 Humphreys By the Bay, San Diego CA

With John Entwistle, Billy Preston, Mark Farner, Randy Bachman, Felix Cavalere

We spotted Who bassist John Entwistle near the hotel pool either before or after the gig, I forget which, and he signed my ticket. Ringo came back to Humphreys for a second show on August 28 but we didn’t catch that one. I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikYNeklZqN8&t=186s

Setlist:

It Don’t Come Easy, I Wanna Be Your Man, The Loco-Motion, Nothing From Nothing, No Sugar Tonight, People Got To Be Free, Boris the Spider, Boys, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, You’re Sixteen, Yellow Submarine, My Wife, I’m Your Captain, Honey Don’t, Act Naturally, Groovin/Just My Imagination, Will It Go Round In Circles, Takin’ Care of Business, Some Kind of Wonderful, Good Lovin’/La Bamba, Photograph, No No Song, With a Little Help From My Friends

Leslie West and Mountain with Noel Redding 8-17-95 Banx, San Diego CA

Leslie West, Corky Laing, Noel Redding

Jimi Hendrix bassist Noel Redding only recorded one album with Mountain, for 1995’s Over the Top, and he only did this one tour. After only 13 dates, he quit the tour after the very next day’s gig on LA. Which Heather and I drove him to.

Not long after we put out the Jimi Hendrix comic, I was in my office and I think it was Tom Potts who buzzed me to say “Noel Redding is on the line for you. Is that, like, THE Noel Redding?” Knowing of no OTHER, I gulped, and a few seconds later I was talking to the one-time bassist of the Jimi Hendrix Experience…..

Keep in mind that, when a rock star called Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, that usually meant we were gonna get sued (again)…or at least yelled at, especially if Gene Simmons was on the line. Mr. Redding was calling me from his home in County Cork, Ireland, and – luckily and happily – he seemed to like the comic quite a bit. Just a lovely, sweet guy, and only too happy to talk to me about Hendrix’s legendary San Diego gig, which turned up in bits and pieces (and eventually in its entirety) on albums like In The West, immortalizing a night where many feel Hendrix performed his all-time best rendition of “Red House.” Noel’s side band Fat Mattress actually opened that gig, and he told me some hitherto unreported stories like how the promoter made Fat Mattress stay in a separate/cheaper hotel, and then didn’t even pay their hotel bill!

Since we seemed to be hitting it off, I asked if he’d do a full-length interview for Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, and he kindly agreed. THAT resulted in a face to face meeting, when he came to San Diego to play with Leslie West’s Mountain, which then included drummer Corky Laing, someone I’d already interviewed for Soundwaves magazine in Connecticut. They played a dingy little club called Banx right alongside highway 8 that soon became a Chinese Restaurant, and Noel invited my girl and I to meet with him after the set.

I have a pic taken by Heather with me, Noel, Corky, and Noel’s girlfriend Candace. Leslie West was nowhere in sight. West had been an asshole all night long. Both Corky and Noel didn’t even want to ride with West in the bus up to their next gig in LA, at House of Blues, the dude was even being a dick to them onstage, as they played.

Next thing I know, I heard myself saying “WE’LL give you a ride to LA tomorrow,” and - to my amazement - Noel said “Sure!”

And that’s how I came to find myself parked outside the Travelodge in Mission Valley, being handed Noel Redding’s bass case, by Noel Redding himself, to put in my trunk as he and Candace climbed in the back of our (then brand new) Chrysler LeBaron convertible.

I nearly crapped myself! And thank gawd we just traded in that crappy old Honda Accord with the fake tigerskin seat covers!!

So all four of us took off, and went to see Hans Jensen and Fritz Jensen, a couple of my oldest friends in San Diego, so that we could all party for a bit at their house on Rolando near 70th before the 2 hour drive up north. Noel really wanted to party, he was still stressed about West. He relaxed as the joints and bong hits started going around, and he seemed to really get a kick out of the HUGE Hendrix poster in their living room (not put up just for him, it was a fixture of the room).

The trip to LA was cool, albeit filled with invectives RE West. I got to hold the bass once again as we unloaded the duo at the LA House of Blues and walked them inside, our first time there actually. He offered us tix for the show, but we had some pressing deadline or other that we’d already taken great risks by ignoring all day, but dude, sooooo worth it, for the drive alone. We all hugged and said nice things to each other, and my girl and I rode home on a cloud of our own fancy and construction, we were so happy to have spent that time with Noel and Candace.

Noel Redding quit Mountain that night, immediately after the LA House of Blues gig, and flew home to County Cork, Ireland with Candace and went back to playing occasional weekends at the local pub with a local pickup band of rotating players. He sent me a wonderful fax praising (and correcting) the comic script written by Spike Steffenhagen, and I have a copy of the comic he signed over some panel art by Scott Pentzer, whose artwork for that issue Noel also raved about, as well as complimenting cover painter Scott Jackson.

I talked with Noel on the phone maybe two or three more times after that, and then a few years went by before I heard about him passing away. I’ll always remember the faraway look in his eyes for a few seconds when he first laid eyes on that Hendrix poster at the Rolando house, as if nodding “hello” once again to a ghost that never leaves him alone for long.

Before the LA drive, just after leaving the Rolando house, after we got back on the road, we were heading for the highway when we saw another huge Hendrix poster in the window of the guitar shop on the corner at El Cajon Boulevard. It had been there in the sun so long that Jimi’s blue suede shirt had faded to a dull gray.

I caught Noel’s expression in the rear view as one of us (I forget which) pointed out the Hendrix poster in the window as we drove past. He seemed, all at once, very happy, and very sad.

Neville Brothers 9-30-95 Embarcadero Marina Park, San Diego CA

Bargain Arts Day special, I think this show got cancelled because I don’t recall it and I know at least one of the shows I bought tix for on the “name your own price” day got cancelled.

UFO and Triangle 10-19-95 New Bacchanal, San Diego CA

Phil Mogg, Michael Schenker, Pete Way, Paul Raymond, Simon Wright

This was when UFO had drummer Simon Wright (Dio, AC/DC), who joined in July and would stay thru around April 1998. Audio of the whole set is online - https://www.guitars101.com/threads/ufo-new-bacchanal-san-diego-ca-19th-october-1995.632935/

Setlist:

Natural Thing, Mother Mary, Let It Roll, This Kids, Out in the Street, Venus, Pushed to the Limit, Love to Love, Only You Can Rock Me, Too Hot To Handle, Lights Out, Doctor Doctor, Rock Bottom, Shoot Shoot, C’Mon Everybody

Gov’t Mule and Swamp Boogie Queen 1-21-96 4th & B, San Diego CA

Warren Haynes, Allen Woody, Matt Abts

Featuring Warren Haynes and Allen Woody from the Allman Brothers. I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seweyt76Y2I

Setlist:

Mule, Temporary Saint, Rocking Horse, Mr. Big (Free), Kind Of Bird (Allman Bros), The Same Thing (Willie Dixon), Trane/Third Stone From the Sun (Hendrix), Eternity’s Breath (Mahivishnu Orchestra), St. Stephen, Grinnin In Your Face (Son House), Pygmy Twylyte (Zappa), Blind Man in the Dark, Mother Earth, Painted Silver Light, Presence of the Lord (Blind Faith)

Jefferson Starship Acoustic Explorer and Travel Agents 2-28-96 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

Paul Kantner, Jack Casady, Gary Cambra, Diana Mangano

Locals the Travel Agents opened this show, I think the third or fourth time we’d seen them (they opened for Spirit too), tho this is the only time I recall seeing them do an all-acoustic set. With two members of the Airplane, this was a highly anticipated show, coming around a year after Starship’s Deep Space/Virgin Sky concert album. My enthusiasm wasn’t dampened a bit when I noticed the Reader ad for this show went out of its way to mention “Marty Balin will not be appearing,” he had just dropped out of the band yet again (altho the ticket itself listed his name among the bandmembers).

I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHoWpJO5_lc&t=664s

Setlist:

The Other Side Of Life, Mountain Song, Lather, White Boy, Transcaucasion Airmachine Blues, Shadowlands, The Light, When the Earth Moves Again, Fat Angel, Your Mind Had Left Your Body, Out of the Rain, Triad, Royal Canal, Four Strong Winds, Darkly Smiling, Across the Board, Have You Seen The Stars Tonight

Moody Blues 5-23-96 Hospitality Point, San Diego CA

Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas, Bias Boshell (K), Paul Bliss (K), Gordon Marshall (Percussion), Sue Shattock & Tracy Graham (V)

The first of two local dates on the band’s Time Traveler tour was the very first concert ever staged at a new outdoor venue called Hospitality Point, part if a Summer Pops Bowl event that saw them accompanied by the San Diego Symphony for several numbers. They hadn’t released a new studio album since Keys Of the Kingdomin 1991, but they still packed the place.

Setlist:

Overture, Late Lament, The Voice, Gemini Dream, Tuesday Afternoon, Eternity Road, Lean On Me (Tonight), Never Comes the Day, Say It With Love, Steppin’ in a Slide Zone, I Know You’re Out There Somewhere, The Story In Your Eyes, Your Wildest Dreams, Isn’t Life Strange, The Other Side of Life, I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band), Nights In White Satin, Legend Of a Mind, Question, Ride My See-Saw

Tori Amos 6-25-96 San Diego Civic Theater, CA

Tori Amos’ third studio album Boys For Pele had dropped in January, with “Caught In a Lite Sneeze” a hit onlocal radio. The Dew Drop Inn Tour, her third world tour, kicked off in February and featured a more experimental version of her music than on previous dates we’d seen her. She was accompanied on guitar for a few numbers by Steve Caton.

I recorded and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXCGVs1rqlQ

Setlist:

Beauty Queen/Horses, Happy Phantom, Blood Roses, Little Amsterdam, Cornflake Girl, Doughnut Song, Frog On My Toe, Little Earthquakes, Putting the Damage On, Precious Things, Not the Red Baron, Caught In a Light Sneeze, Talula, Me and a Gun, On Saturday Afternoons in 1963, China, Pretty Good Year, Hey Jupiter

Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect Republican Convention Special 8-12-96, Lyceum Theater San Diego, CA

Attended with our friend Jamie Gardner, a Carnal Comicsand Reader contributor. I have the episode on tape.

Jethro Tull and ELP 9-20-96 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheatre, San Diego CA

Openers ELP surprised me by doing an Emerson, Lake and Powell song (“Touch and Go”), plus they performed “Bitches Crystal” for the first time in over 20 years.

I taped both bands and uploaded:

Jethro Tull - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDcviJOZgr4&t=85s

ELP – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VORLRjryqk&t=3013s

ELP setlist:

Hoe Down, Touch and Go (Emerson, Lake and Powell song), Knife-Edge, Bitches Crystal (first live performance in over 20 years), Hammer It Out, Still You Turn Me On, Lucky Man, Tarkus, Pictures At An Exhibition, Fanfare For the Common Man/Blue Rondo a la Turk

Jethro Tull setlist:

In a Strong Circle/Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Bouree, Dangerous Veils, In rthe Grip Of Stronger Stuff (instrumental), Mother Goose, We Used To Know/Outer Circle (Barre solo), Songs From the Wood, Heavy Horses/keyboard solo, My God/Hunting Girl, Nothing Is Easy, Locomotive Breath, Aquadiddy (instrumental), Cross-Eyed Mary/Dogs in the Midwinter/The Dambusters march/Thick as a Brick (reprise)

Alan Parson Live Project 10-13-96 4th & B, San Diego CA

Alan Parsons, Ian Bairnson (G), Stuart Elliott (D), Peter Beckett (V, K), John Giblin (B), Neil Lockwood (V, G), Gary Sanctuary (K)

My second Alan Parsons show happened right around the same time Parsons and guitarist Ian Bairnson released their concept album On Air, concerning airborne flight, so those new songs were heavily featured in the setlist.

I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcSxKRf1pQs&t=97s

Setlist:

The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather, You Can’t Take It With You, I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You, Old and Wise, Money Talks/La Sangrada Familia, Days Are Numbered, Prime Time, Limelight, Time, Turn It Up, Standing On Higher Ground, Blue Blue Sky, I Can’t Look Down, So Far Away, Fail Free, Cloudbreak, Brother Up in Heaven, Psychobabble, Sirius/Eye In the Sky, Don’t Answer Me

Bruce Springsteen 10-22-96 San Diego Civic Theater, CA

Glad I got to see Springsteen rock out in LA, because this San Diego date of his Ghost Of Tom Joad tour was an all-acoustic sleeper. I was almost dozing when Bruce lead the crowd in a chant of "Happy Birthday To You" to Kevin Buell before launching into "Sinaloa Cowboys." Not everyone seemed happy that he did “Balboa park,” since it’s about gay male hustlers working a track just three blocks from the Civic Theater.

Setlist:

Tom Joad, Atlantic City, Straight Time, Highway 29, Darkness On the Edge Of Town, Johnny 99, Highway Patrolman, Sell It and They Will Come, Red Headed Woman, Brothers Under the Bridge, Born In the USA, Dry Lightning, Long Time Comin’, Point Blank, Sinaloa Cowboys, The Line, Balboa Park

Grand Funk 6-30-97 Del Mar Fair, San Diego CA

Don Brewer, Mel Schacher, Mark Farner

The Mark Farner, Don Brewer and Mel Schacher reunion didn’t last very long. Someone uploaded audio of the whole set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShPQJ4wmzyg

Setlist:

Are You Ready, Rock 'n Roll Soul, Footstompin' Music, Time Machine, Paranoid / Sin's a Good Man's Brother / Mr. Limousine Driver, Heartbreaker, Aimless Lady, T.N.U.C., Inside Looking Out, Shinin' On, We're an American Band, Mean Mistreater, Some Kind of Wonderful, I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home), Gimme Shelter

Justin Hayward 7-3-97 4th & B, San Diego CA

JH, Mickey Feat (B), Paul Bliss (K), Gordon Marshall (D, K, Flute)

Hayward was touring behind what would turn out to be his last solo album for 17 years, The View From the Hill. A concert from April the following year at a club just north of San Diego was released as the live album Live in San Juan Capistrano.

I taped the 4th & B show and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUruze0xYi4

Setlist:

It’s Up To You, The Land of Make-Believe, Your Wildest Dreams, Children of Paradise, Troubadour (with Mickey Feat, then full band), The Way of the World, Forever Autumn, The Actor, The Voice, Watching and Waiting, Something To Believe In, Broken Dream, The Story In Your Eyes, Billy, It’s Not Too Late, Tuesday Afternoon, Nights In White Satin, Question

Pink Froyd early 1998, Jason’s Point Loma

Local tribute band that later evolved into the Pink Floyd Experience, at a club run by Jason Mershon, who had briefly been the singer for The Box Tops.

Joey Molland & Rockola at BeatleFair 7-12-98 Doubletree Hotel Mission Valley, San Diego CA

Joey Molland from Badfinger did an audience Q&A session, and then played a little solo before being joined by locals Rockola with a short full band set. Hey performed a new song live for the first time, “Blessed.”

I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofou7XCwljw&t=82s

Setlist:

Sweet Tuesday Morning, Harder Now, Icicles, Blessed (new, first performance), Got To Get Out Of Here, Baby Blue, No Matter What (with Rockola), Come and Get It (with Rockola)

Yes and Alan Parsons Live Project 7-22-98 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

Yes: Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Billy Sherwood, Chris Squire, Alan White, Igor Khoroshev

Parsons Live Project: AP, Ian Bairnson, Stuart Elliott, John Giblin, John Beck, Neil Lockwood

The Open Your Eyes Tour and the 30th Anniversary Tour basically ran all at one with over 150 shows between October 1997 and October 1998.

I taped both sets and uploaded:

Alan Parsons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uThPyFID7Q&t=1173s

Yes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_W0z4n07GE

Alan Parsons setlist:

Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather, I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You, Can’t Take It With You, Money Talks/La Sagrada Familia, Psychobabble, Prime Time, I Can’t Look Down, Standing On Higher Ground, Sirius, Eye In the Sky, Encore: Games People Play

Yes setlist:

Siberian Khatru, Rhythm Of Love, Yours Is No Disgrace, Open Your Eyes, And You And I, Heart Of the Sunrise, Classical Gas, Mood For a Day, Second Initial (Steve Howe song), Long Distance Runaround, Whitefish – drum solo (Ritual excerpt), Owner Of a Lonely Heart, Wondrous Stories, Close to the Edge, Encore: I’ve Seen All Good People, Roundabout

Bauhaus 8-20-98 Golden Hall, San Diego CA

Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David J, Kevin Haskins

Went to this reunion show with Persephone, whose shipping and receiving job at Diamond Comics Distribution eventually went to me. She was dressed in all her Goddess of Death finery, pairing combat boots with a flowing spider-webby dress and awash in black lace and leather accessories. As she entered the Hall, her powdered white skin and huge smoky Egyptian-painted eyes made her appear almost like a floating apparition. Half a dozen little goth girls no older than my sideburns immediately gathered around her to “ooh” and “ahhh.” It was like squiring the queen of the vampires into Anne Rice’s Mardi Gras party.

I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoGymztDn2c&t=679s

Setlist:

Double Dare, In the Flat Field, A God In An Alcove, In Fear Of Fear, Hollow Hills, Terror Couple Kill Colonel, Silent Hedges, Severance, Boys, The Sanity Assassin, She’s In Parties, The Passion of Lovers, Dark Entries, Telegram Sam, Ziggy Stardust, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Bela Lugosi’s Dead

Walter Trout January 1999 ‘Canes, San Diego CA

I took Susan Clinton to this Reader-assigned gig at a little Mission Beach club that would earn fame for hosting a secret Prince concert.

Tori Amos and The Devlins 9-26-98 SDSU Outdoor Amphitheater, San Diego CA

Tori was touring with her electric rock band and only sang a couple of songs solo, “Mother” and “Flying Dutchman.” I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwJCAVCw8xg

Setlist:

Precious Things, Little Amsterdam, Black-Dove (January), Caught In a Lite Sneeze, Iieee, Liquid Diamonds, Mother (solo), Flying Dutchman (solo), Putting the Damage On, Tear In Your Hand, Father Lucifer, The Waitress

Lagwagon and Bouncing Souls 3-5-99 Soma, San Diego CA

Jazz Is Dead and Pure Noodle 4-2-99 Belly Up Tavern, San Diego CA

T.Lavitz, Alphonso Johnson, Jimmy Herring, Billy Cobham, Jeff Sipe

Jazz Is Dead is an all-star Dead tribute headed up by T Lavitz of the Dixie Dregs, alongside Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson, Billy Cobham (Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra), Jimmy Herring (Allmans, Aquarium Rescue Unit), and drummer Jeff Sipe (Leftover Salmon, Aquarium Rescue Unit). I taped and uploaded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEGoawJrC0&t=380s

Setlist (partial)

Up On the Lane, Franklin’s Tower, Shakedown Street, It Must Have Been the Roses

Mighty Mighty Bosstones summer 1999 Soma, San Diego CA

Alan Parsons Live Project and David Pack 10-2-99 4th & B, San Diego CA

AP, Ian Bairnson, Stuart Elliott, Dick Nolan, John Beck, Neil Lockwood

David Pack from Ambrosia opened, with a local guitarist named Alan Silverstein accompanying him on the first song and his cousin Michael pack sitting in later during the set. It was one of only five shows on the entire Parsons tour to feature Pack. In fact, Pack also did a guest turn with his old bandleader during the headline set for one of the only known concert renditions of the Alan Parsons track “Oh Life featuring him reprising his vocals from the original album version. This was Parsons’ Time Machine tour, and I bought passes to the pre-show meet and greet where I got the new CD signed by Parsons. I taped both sets and uploaded:

David Pack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YQWDmTrU-I&t=33s

Alan Parsons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf4PuYtppag&t=4091s

David Pack setlist:

Pinball Wizard (Who cover with SD guitarist Alan Silverstein), World Leave Me Alone, You’re the Only Woman, Cecilia (Simon and Garfunkel cover with cousin Michael Pack), How Much I Feel, Biggest Part Of Me

Alan Parsons setlist:

Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather, You Can’t Take It With You, I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You, Old and Wise, Money Talks/La Sangrada Familia, Days Are Numbered, Prime Time, Limelight, Time, Turn It Up, Standing On Higher Ground, Blue Blue Sky, I Can’t Look Down, So Far Away, Fail Free, Cloudbreak, Brother Up In Heaven, Psychobabble, Sirius/Eye In the Sky, Don’t Answer Me

Blue Oyster Cult 2-27-2000 4th & B, San Diego CA

Interviewed the bathroom attendant for a Reader article about people who work in bathrooms.

Setlist:

Stairway, OD’d On Life, ETI, Harvest Moon, Buck’s Boogie, Take Me Away, Teen Archer, Subhuman, Joan Crawford, Cities On Flame, Burnin For You, Harvester Of Eyes, See You In Black, Astronomy, Lips In the Hills, Godzilla, Eye Of the Hurricane, Don't Fear the Reaper, Pocket, D&S

Roger Waters 6-19-2000 Coors Amphitheatre, Chula Vista CA

With Don Menza on saxophone.

Setlist:

In the Flesh, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall part 2, Mother, Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert, Southampton Dock, Pigs On the Wing Part 1, Dogs, Welcome to the Machine, Wish You Were Here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun, Speak To Me, Breathe (In the Air), Time, Breathe (reprise), Money, 5:06AM (Every Stranger’s Eyes), Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2, The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range, It’s A Miracle, Amused To Death, Brain Damage, Eclipse, Comfortably Numb, Encore: Each Small Candle

Music Midtown 6-10-2005 thru 6-12-2005 with Kid Rock, Devo, Joan Jett, Def Leppard, more

Went to this multiday outdoor show with Susie Gaudet, whose family ran Pat-A-Cake bakery in Ellijay. I was caught by surprise when the video screen behind Def Leppard started flashing images from their issue of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics.

Donna the Buffalo August 2005 Variety Playhouse, Atlanta

Went with Susie Gaudet to see this terrible hippie jam band.

Roger Waters “The Wall” 11-18-2010 Philips Arena, Atlanta GA

A much more high tech production than that opening night concert I saw in LA back in February 1980.

Lana Del Rey and Jimmy Gnecco 5-1-2014 The Tabernacle, Atlanta GA

This date on the Paradise Tour happened around the same time that her sophomore albums hit stores. I’d been playing Born To Die just about daily at the time, and had been one of the first journalists to write about her, even before the album came out, after “discovering” her on SNL. Of course, my sideburns are older than most of her teenage fans, but I was and remain fascinated by her cinematic take on pop music. I decided to do what I used to do back in the day: get down to the venue first thing in the morning, and be one of the first to lineup for that night’s show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, where this video was shot. (Pretty sure the videographer is the same woman who kept elbowing my ear to get her shots)

There were already two dozen young people forming a line when I arrived, a few who already seemed to know each other but most appeared to be strangers. Average ages 14 to maybe 20. I was nearly 60. I took my spot, sat down on the curb, and began reading a paperback collection of old EC comic books. Right away, a teenage guy with really, really long hair – half again as long a mine, and mine reaches my ribcage – came over and said "Excuse me, m'aam."

M'aam?! You'd think a fellow longhair would know better! Ah, but I've been used to getting that, ever since I shaved off my beard.

The kid asked if I knew what the lineup was for, I guess assuming that I was some wandering paperback reader who just decided to sit down in their midst.

As soon as we started talking about Lana, he got all excited, and then others around us started getting excited, and suddenly it was like someone had switched on the greenlight for everyone to gather around and start swapping stories about how they first heard about her, their favorite Lana songs, and times they’ve seen her in concert. At one point, I was rapping some of her lyrics in an impromptu a capella duet with the longhaired guy’s girlfriend, and I noticed one kid was filming us on his cell phone.

“I can’t believe grampa knows all the lyrics to ‘Off to the Races,’” he laughed. I still dread the day I spot that video on YouTube, probably under that very title.

Truth be told, though, I was having a blast. I’m fully aware that I was the object of no small amusement. But it wasn’t derision. The welcoming nature of my fellow concert attendees only spread as the crowd grew to several hundred. I swear all but maybe a dozen of them came over to talk with me at one time or another. I guess it was hard to not be curious about the old guy with long white hair in their midst.

A few hours into the lineup, I was approached by a woman who looked about my age. At first I thought, aha, I’m not the only Lana fan nearly eligible for a senior citizen discount! But then she introduced herself as the mother of a young girl I’d been talking to a few moments earlier with her friend. Her daughter had just asked Mom to hold her place in line while she and the friend got something from the car for Lana to possibly autograph. Mom was planning to leave them on their own to attend the show.

“You don’t look like the usual Lana Del Rey fan,” Mom said as she eyed me warily. Just then, several of the kids around us chimed in “Hah, he’s the biggest Lana fan here! Look how close he is to the front of the line!”

“And he can rap all the lyrics to ‘Off to the Races!’”

This seemed to satisfy Mom, and she looked directly into my eyes, quite sincerely, and said “Look, this is my daughter’s first concert. And you 've got this kind of Jesus thing going for you. Can you keep an eye on her and her friend, make sure they don’t get in any trouble?”

Not being a dad myself, and not having much experience with teens since I was a teen myself, I was far more accustomed to moms telling me to stay the hell away from their daughters than asking me to keep an eye on them!

Soon, we were all inside, and I was right there in the front row awaiting the headliner, just like back in the ‘70s. The main difference was, as I realized when I looked around the entire room, that at this concert – for the very first time – I was the oldest person there! I don’t think anybody in the building was even born yet when I went to my first concert, and that includes the staff and security.

This was an odd feeling, to be sure, but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment. I tried to remember whether, back in the 70s and 80s, I’d ever seen anyone who looked like me at a concert. All I could think of was a longhaired old guy who asked if I had any acid or pot outside a Grateful Dead concert, who then turned out to be an undercover cop that materialized a whole cop squad to bust the next dude who answered in the affirmative.

I didn’t realize just how much I’d stood out in that crowd of Lana fans until around a year later, when I had the opportunity to do a phone interview with Miss Del Rey. I mentioned having been the old guy with long hair in the front row at that Atlanta concert.

Del Rey, who had been somewhat unresponsive until that point, suddenly seemed fully engaged. “Wait, you’re that white haired guy I was taking pictures with at the end, right?”

At first, I was flattered to have been remembered as part of the crowd that she hugs and poses with for stage-front selfies during her closing number (I don't carry a cell phone, but others were snapping away all around me, as was Lana herself).

“I have a picture of you on my cell phone that I’ve been showing to everyone,” she announced. “I tell them that Gandalf the Wizard came to my show!”

You can’t imagine the bi-polar rush this gave me. First, the thrill of finding out that Lana Del Rey has (or at least had) a picture of me on her cell phone. How amazing is that!

But, then, to be likened in her mind to Ian McKellen. A man in his late 70s. Who plays a 2000 year-old wizard.

Well, I guess it’s better than being called “ma’am.”

Setlist:

Cola, Body Electric, Blue Jeans, West Coast, Born To Die, Young and Beautiful, Carmen, Gods & Monsters, Summertime Sadness, Million Dollar Man, Ride, Video Games, National Anthem

Nick Mason’s Saucer Full of Secrets 3-29-2019 The Tabernacle, Atlanta GA

Staged at the same venue where Lana Del Rey performed, I was on the phone the second these tix went on sale and scored fantastic balcony seats looking right down onto the stage, with one of the best views of Mason himself in the whole venue.

Setlist:

Interstellar Overdrive, Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam, Fearless, Obscured By Clouds, When You’re In, Remember A Day, Arnold Layne, Vegetable Man, If, Atom Heart Mother, The Nile Song, Green Is the Colour, Let There Be More Light, Childhood’s End, Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun, See Emily Play, Bike, One Of These Days, Encore: A Saucerful Of Secrets, Point Me at the Sky

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