by Dave, Princeton Jct., NJ

I have seen a LOT of concerts and these are just some thoughts on a few of them. I am a child of the 80’s and my concert memories start in the very late 70’s. My memories are probably not quite accurate and certainly told through the proverbial rose colored glasses.

In the early 80’s, NJ changed the drinking age from 18, first to 19 and then to 21. So, the year I turned 18 the legal age changed to 19, and the year I turned 19, the legal age changed to 21. NY, on the other hand, remained 18 to drink. As a result, we used to cross the border and go to places like the Orangeburg Pub (at least I think that was the name of it) and a few other establishments whose names I don’t recall. I saw the Allman Brothers at one of these places. The place was crowded but not overly so, and I literally stood 5 or 6 feet from a seated Greg Allman not realizing the significance of it.

At another show in one of these clubs, at about the same time (I have to warn you that I have very eclectic tastes), Lemmy of Motorhead stopped their performance to use the bathroom. A whole bunch of us had the very memorable experience of patting a sweaty Lemmy on the back. As a side note, I had previously seen Motorhead at the Capital in Passaic and it was by far the loudest concert I had ever seen.

Sometime in the 90’s my wife had purchased tickets to see America (unfortunately, the lobotomy center was closed that day) at the Garden State Art Center (now the PNC). We got there a bit late and while walking through the parking lot I could hear the band playing. I kept saying to her that it sounded like Yes, either that or America was covering Yes tunes. Well, I don’t quite understand what happened but I guess America canceled and (and to my pleasant surprise) Yes replaced them. We ended up unexpectedly seeing Yes in a sparsely populated Garden State Art center with essentially our choice of seats.

Ringo and his All Starr Band always put on a great show and I have seen most of the incarnations and can share several great moments but I’ll just give 2. His first tour was great (I saw it at the GSAC in ‘89) with Ringo, Jim Keltner and Levon Helm on drums, Rick Danko on bass, Dr. John and Billy Preston on keys, Nils Lofgren and Joe Walsh on guitars and Clarence Clemmons on sax. Bruce came out as a guest and did “Get Back.” When the song was starting (this is only an approx. quote) Springsteen said something to the effect of, “Man, it is weird to do a Beatles’ tune, turn around and have Ringo on drums.”

At one of Ringo’s more recent tours, he had Greg Lake on bass and some dude from the 80’s on keys along with Sheila E. on the drum kit or percussion. After Ringo scurried off stage, the 3 of them broke into “Karn Evil 9,” “First Impression,” “Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends.” I had seen ELP with both Carl Palmer and the one tour they did with Cozy Powell and I will tell you that this particular performance with Sheila on drums was jaw dropping.

First concert was Steven Stills at the Capitol in Passaic. Most concerts by far, Rush. Best encore was Devo when they did Working in a Coal Mine at the Capitol in Passaic. Most regrettable moment was being wasted for Frank Zappa at the Beacon.

A sort of music-related experience, occurred at a now-defunct liberal arts college around ’86 in NJ. Timothy Leary was giving a talk to a small group (it was open to the public). I really didn’t know who he was at the time and his historic significance but I did know he was definitely stoned.

Funniest mistake on stage was probably during the intro for “Wish You Were Here” at one of the fairly recent Roger Waters shows (I think it was the one at the Garden). There were many guitars lined up in front of the drum riser and one of the technicians snuck out on stage along the front of the drum riser and inadvertently kicked over one of the guitars. Unfortunately, the guitar was live and set at (what sounded like) “11”.

The most poignant was Chris Whitley at a small club in Philly a couple of summers ago. I was not familiar with him and a friend of mine was turning me on to his work. He was drinking heavily and becoming erratic during the show (spending most of the time tuning) to the point where he left the stage and canceled the show. Soon after, my friend called to tell me of his passing from lung cancer.

I’ll stop now.