Around this time of year it seems like there are a lot of great rock concerts happening in the area and this year is by far no exception. Being only an hour away form the heart of NYC means I have access to practically every one. Every tour stops in New York City, if somethings gonna happen, it's gonna happen here.
The fall concert season also coincides with my birthday which is a great rationalization for buying expensive tickets - it's a present! Sure.
But this season's birthday show is Roger Water's "Wall" concert. This is, for the uninformed, a recreation of the original Wall Concert. Never heard of the original "Wall" concert? Don't feel bad, there were only four places at the time that were large enough for Rock's greatest spectacle ever. One in Earl's Court England, one at the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County, Long Island, one in Dortmund, Germany, and one more in Los Angeles. There was a total of only twelve shows performed in the United States.
The Wall concerts were a major revolution, a cosmic giant step in taking theatrics, every form of media in existence (accept maybe a newspaper...), every new technology they could get their hands on and gel incredibly well together. This incredible show that was backing up what is quite possibly the greatest concept album ever made.
I had seen close to a hundred concerts by the time I was a senior in High School. The Wall concert was, and no exaggeration here, at least a hundred times more incredible than any other type of "show" I have ever experienced. And that statement is still very true.
Let's digress a little here boys an girls. Talk about some other great shows, eh?
I'd been to some pretty fine shows, this was the seventies and there was still a shitload of great bands out there.
Aerosmith - I saw Aerosmith on their first major coliseum tour when they were promoting their first self-titled album, "Aerosmith". They were all in their early twenties and the stage presence and the power they exuded was stellar. Their remake of the Yardbirds hit "Train Kept A Rollin'" was a hit in itself again in Aerosmith's capable talented hands.
The guitar work on that very song is the reason I started playing the instrument myself. When Joe Perry strapped on a white Fender Stratocaster to play that one song I was annoyingly jazzed as I played the same guitar. To a thirteen year old that's some heavy shit. Must be, I still remember it like it was twenty years ago (it's been a lot longer).
I'll never forget the jealousy I felt when my good buddy Scott snagged some Who tickets with the help from zany Wayne (a whole 'nuther column). Seeing the huge shit-eating grin on his face as we pulled up next to each other at a stop light. Me in my bright orange '74 Honda Civic and Wayne and Scott in Wayne's blue Datsun B210 (remember them?).
This was huge because this was their "Final Tour". Or as we all know, the first of dozens of "Final Tours". But no one knew that. Not us, and not the band. I finally snagged a ticket for myself and was witness to the Who playing like they'd never play again, literally.
Sometimes it's just the experience and not necessarily the actual music that makes a great show. When you get both, like we did at a "J. Geils Band" show at the New Haven Coliseum it's like an unexpected Christmas present. We had seats that were just off of the floor level. We were sitting in the seats right above the floor seats.
There was a barrier/wall set up to keep people from just walking out onto the floor. There were people climbing over the wall to get to the floor seats all night. This was not allowed by the security guards whatsoever. It was fun seeing these totally wasted hippies (like us) try to make stoned excuses to these huge guards.
The best part of this set-up though was the fact that the security guards didn't care one little bit if the people jumped the barrier to get out of the floor seat sections. Now the barrier was about four feet high, maybe a little more. We watched several people intelligently negotiate the barrier. We also, to our delight, saw a whole shitload of fucked up guys try to be macho and jump over the barrier.
This usually resulted in them only getting one leg over, thus crushing their nuts on the top of the barrier. There was the pause, the "sick-to-my-stomach" groan, then the inevitable fall to the grimy floor of the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum. As I've said before folks, funny is funny! I'm sorry if they got hurt (no I am not) but, shit, it was fucking hysterical!
I don't know how many of you have had the pleasure of seeing the J. Geils Band in their prime, but they consistently put on four hour shows. This gave the audience plenty of time to get good and wasted. Plenty of time to get brave enough to jump the barrier! We watched a steady procession of guys encounter the barrier for at least three hours.
After a while we started yelling "JUMP YOU PUSSY!" for the guys that hesitated to take the challenge and leap. Call a drunk rock-an-roller a pussy at a good concert in front of thousands of freaks and hot young girls and they will jump the barrier!
There were literally hundreds of crushed nuts that night, and all of us, at one time or another, had to turn away from the action because our faces hurt so fiercely from laughing. Laughing so hard, for so long. What a show!
Van Halen went on tour opening up for Black Sabbath when they first broke big. It has been rumored, mostly by rabid Van Halen fans, that Eddie, Dave and the boys blew Black Sabbath away on that tour. This, as I witnessed, was not true. This was when Sabbath had their original lead singer, Ozzie Osbourne. There was not a more intense band in the world than Black Sabbath at their Blackest. No more tinny P.A. systems and cheap English amps that would constantly set themselves on fire - not this tour.
There was a massive P.A. system, this was when hearing damage from rock concerts was very real and nobody displayed that fact better than Black Sabbath. With their new Marshall amplifiers (from England - they got it right) the floor of the coliseum was vibrating! I somehow managed to rush the stage, seeing Black Sabbath up close, in their prime, with Ozzy was an incredible experience that I will never forget. The music and intensity caused the fans to explode with energy as was evident by the trashed Men's room I stopped to use.
Massive carnage - every stall, every toilet, every sink and mirror, all the doors were pulled from the wall and smashed all over the the floor. When I entered I was standing there by myself, stunned at the dichotomy between the total silent destruction inside and the amazing Rock history that was happening out in the main room.
One night we went to see Frank Zappa in Hartford. I was at the ripe old age of fifteen. I had never seen the kid of fabulous freak show that a Frank Zappa concert attracted. We had great seats, this was when it was still possible to get great seats if you got in line early, the good old days of live Rock.
We were so close, Zappa's personal security guy, a huge white bald man - I mean fucking HUGE, spotted the microphone the guy next to me had hidden in his coat. This behemoth walked off the front of the stage and was walking straight towards me! I almost shit my drawers, people. I was relieved to see he wasn't after me, but I didn't escape unscathed. He crushed my right foot as he was ripping the microphone guy's coat from his back.
I thought that was fucking wild! I lived a pretty boring middle class whitey life - I never got to see shit like this. Or shit like the riot that started right in front of the stage, right where we were standing. My good friend saw the danger and grabbed me, running back into the room about one section. We only went back one section because he was wise enough to want to stay and see the blood and carnage.
We were not let down as the cops led several bloody "scary/uglies" away in handcuffs. It was reported in the following day's "Hartford Courant" that these gentlemen were from the Warlocks and Hell's Angels. They weren't real keen on sharing the same section and they made that fact real fucking obvious! I was fifteen, driving with no driver's license, stoned on black hash, and had just seen handcuffed bikers beaten bloody by a Policeman's nightstick. Another classic night!
I could go on forever, those were fun days. You could get away with all kinds of behaviour that is just not tolerated now. I pity the fool that yapped incessantly at a concert. Back then you just got punched in the face if you annoyed the wrong person!
However, you also didn't have to put up with all the bullshit that is now allowed.
There was this annoying woman (selfish bitch) holding her fucking cell phone camera up in front of my view of the stage at the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts held at Madison Square Garden. These seats cost, well let's just say it was a massive shitload of dough for these seats. And she could not have cared less, why should she? Nothing would have been done even if I did complain.
I wonder what the late Mr. Frank Zappa's security guard would have done to her back in the early seventies? Well it better not happen at Roger Water's "Wall Concert".
We're gonna party like it's 1979 all over again, just like we did at the original concert.
And there weren't no fuckin' cell phone cameras in 1979...
Selah.
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