What are your favorite Charleston concert tales?
In the podcast, article and slideshow links in the post below, Budget Tapes and Records’ John Nelson dishes on some of Charleston greatest/most notorious concerts. What are yours? Best replies will be featured in a mid-January cover story in print gazz. Add them to the post below (or this one) by clicking on ‘Comments.’ Or e-mail gazz@wvgazette.com with subject line “My Concert History.” Or fax 348-1233. Might want to bounce off John’s memories first.
December 26th, 2008 at 2:38 am
70’s - Queen is by far my best Charleston concert memory of the decade, but they were my favorite band long before I hit the arena door. The way Freddie Mercury’s voice rang through the Civic Center was fantastic. Ditto that for Brian May’s guitar. I’m pretty sure that “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” was number one the week they were here and “Another One Bites the Dust” had just taken off straight to the top of the charts. I lucked into getting to meet Freddie and Brian before the show. They were incredibly nice and down to earth and cordial. They opened the show with “Jailhouse Rock” and when they ended the show Freddie knocked some things over on stage and got on top of a knock-over amp and started beating it with his half-mic stand until it was bent sort of l-like. The opening act was a band named Dakota whom I’d never heard a thing about before or since. (AC/DC played here a LOT in the 70s. They opened for almost everyone. It literally got to the point where people would be like, “It’s AC/DC again? Are they from around here?̶
80s - Def Leppard with Krokus as the opening act. Def Lep was at the height of their fame. The place was packed. If the sprinkler system would have kicked on, there would have been a veritable river of hairspray running out of the joint. Everyone was dressed and teased and sprayed into their hair metal best. Both bands delivered in a big way, too.
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Judas Priest and anyone else. It didn’t matter who opened for Judas Priest, really. Once Rob Halford hit the stage, whatever happened during the opening act no longer mattered. I wasn’t a big fan until I saw them live for the first time. Never before or since have I seen a person with as much stage presence and charisma as Rob Halford. The show always opened the same. The band would be on stage playing full guns. The smoke or fog would be starting to spread on the stage. And then it seemed like every person in the place would simply be drawn to notice a dark corner above or to the side of the stage. There would be Rob Halford standing quietly and doing nothing to draw attention to himself. And all at once the crowd would go wild and they would throw the lights on him. Like nothing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen Freddie Mercury, so that’s saying something anyway. (Bon Jovi opened for so many bands I was totally sick of Bon Jovi. They’d not had one hit yet, but they opened a lot of shows.)
90s (or was it 2000s) - Red Hot Chili Peppers with Stone Temple Pilots opening. Scott Weiland was fresh from rehab and jail. I’ve heard he can have off nights, but his voice was just like it is on the records, but somehow clearer. Both bands were excellent. Mother Lovebone also opened.
December 28th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
John,
My biggest concert to date would have to be May 10,1969. Jimi Hendrix appeared at the old civic center. He wowed a crowd dressed mostly in tennis sweaters and penny loafers, exept for about 25 per cent hippies who actually knew who Jimi was. The opening act held up their first album cover commenting this was their first album to be released next week. Chicago Transit Authority.
December 29th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
My first concert was Yes, in 1975. I was 15 (a sophomore in high school), not old to drive and one of the other guys drove (an old beat-up Ford Maverick). It was the “Relayer” tour and we were very disappointed that Rick Wakeman didn’t play. Instead it was Patrick Moraz on keyboards. The opening band was the Possete (sic?)-Dart band.
The light show was state of the art, it was like three skeletal brontosaurus necks and skulls, all lit up, shooting lasers and articulating above the band. I remember they played at least two of three songs on “Relayer”; it was cool to see Steve Howe play his lap steel on “To Be Over”.
They played one song off “Tales” and John Anderson joked about having the lyrics on sheets taped to the floor so he could remember them - he laughed and said that the audience probably had them memorized better than he did.
At one point, one of the keyboards broken down in mid-song and Moraz was so frustrated he kicked it before choosing another keyboard and continuing to play. Roadies crawled out with a flashlight and worked on the bottom of the keyboard and got it back into action.
Our Senior year we went to see the Doobie Brothers. I had missed the show the year before, which had been the “Stampede” tour, with the Memphis Horns. This was the “Living on the Fault Line Tour”. Tom Johnston wasn’t with them, which really disappointed us, but it was still a great show.
I think it was during “Neal’s Fandango”, Jeff Baxter was behind his pedal steel getting ready for his half of the solo. He was wearing headphones for his monitor and evidently could hear himself in the headphones, but his pedal steel couldn’t be heard by the audience. The band members turned and tried to signal him, but he kept his head down and played his portion of solo without being heard. And I think that was only song that featured the pedal steel.
It was also the first time I saw a guitar synthesizer outside of print; the band used one on “Chinatown”.
In the summer of 1978 I saw Gordon Lightfoot at the Civic Center (it may have been his “Summertime Dream” tour, it’s been to long to remember for sure). It was a good show, with his full band, but I missed the string orchestra that was on many of his studio recordings.
The power failed during his set and all the instruments except his acoustic guitar were disabled. He moved to the edge of the stage, leaned out over the audience with his acoustic guitar and started another song.
Before he finished, however, the power came back on and he continued his normal set.
One of the last great concerts I saw was the Stevie Nicks “Wild Heart” Tour in the early 1980’s. At the time, I wasn’t a fan, but a buddy talked me into going. The real treat was that Joe Walsh opened the show.
Shortly after the concert, a woman I worked with who had been a backstage worker at the Civic Center told me this story:
Stevie was back stage after the show and showing the signs of much rock & roll excess when she was introduced to Charleston’s Mayor, the late Mike Roark. Stevie, squinting and struggling to keep her balance, replied to her introduction to the Mayor with, “He doesn’t look like a ******* Mayor!”
December 29th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
My first concert was in May of 1981 when VAN HALEN came to Charleston on their “Fair Warning” Tour. I remember David Lee Roth asking for the “f@%*ing jungle lights” as Alex began his thunderous drumming intro to “Everybody Wants Some.” I also remember looking around the arena and seeing literally EVERY person there standing up, pumping their fists, and shouting “HEY, HEY, HEY!” at the end of “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love.” I must say I’ve never seen a sight like that since.
There were many other great shows I attended in the 1980’s in and around Charleston… IRON MAIDEN opening for JUDAS PRIEST in Huntington (1982); BRYAN ADAMS opening for JOURNEY on the “Frontiers” tour (May 1, 1983); The HEART & KANSAS 1983 Tour (they reportedly flipped a coin each show to see who would headline); THE POLICE “Synchronicity” Tour (February 13, 1984); RUSH’s “Signals” & “Grace Under Pressure” Tours (March, 1983 & November, 1984); RATT (July 13, 1985) which was probably the loudest concert I’ve ever seen; VAN HALEN & JOURNEY returning again in 1986; R.E.M. with 10,000 MANIACS (October 14, 1987) at Charleston Municipal Auditorium; AC/DC with WHITE LION (August 28, 1988); ROBERT PLANT (November 2, 1988); and 1989 bringing METALLICA & THE CULT to Charleston for the first time, and the SKID ROW/AEROSMITH tour in December.
As Buzzardbilly mentioned, one show that definitely stands out for me was when DEF LEPPARD came to the Charleston Civic Center on May 31, 1983 for the “Pyromania” Tour. As I recall, it was a festival seating show and I wound up around the 12th row after running across the folding chairs, stepping too far back on one, and nearly flattening the poor girl who was in front of me. It was amazing that my friend and I managed to go from the upper level near the clock for KROKUS to the main floor for DEF LEPPARD and end up that close. It was a phenomenal show. Rick Allen still had both his arms and proved his rear end was also intact by pulling down his signature British flag boxers and mooning the crowd at the end of the show. KROKUS had their biggest hit “Screaming In The Night” to showcase, and let us not forget the awesome guitarist GARY MOORE who brought his band to start the night off!