Judas Priest Cincinnati Gardens 1986
This was my farewell to my twenties show.
I was working third shift and headed down to Lazarus (or was it still Shillito's ?) to get my ticket the day the ticket sales started. I figured there would be a couple hundred people there. I guess the Priest's day had come and gone. There were about 15 people there, most of whom had spent the night. I got a ticket for the 4th row just left of center.
This was towards the end of my dope days with cocaine being about the last illegal recreational drug of choice. Fortified with beer, pot & coke, I headed to Cincinnati Gardens fashionably late. I really did not want to hear the opening act. I am not that big of a metal head. My timing was perfect. I got there right as the intermission started.
I frequently sat in other people's seats at concerts (squatting ?). People don't make it to shows or sit elsewhere with friends - I always relinquished when an owner arrived. So somebody was in my seat. ~no biggie~ I told him it was my seat. He informed me he didn't care. He informed me someone else was sitting in his seat & I should talk to him. Fortifried, I told him I didn't care about his seat. Getting nowhere, I talked to an usher. He couldn't do anything (They always seemed to be able to do something when I was the squatter). The usher referred me to the head usher. Nothing there. I approached a large burly SECURITY guy. nope - I was on my own. I thanked him and told him I would just have to beat the guy's ass. I returned to my seat and proceeded to engage in the yelling, cussing and posturing that usually precedes a fight. As this escalated, head usher and security guy finally intervened.
Turned out the asshole was not only a seat thief but a liar as well. His seat was, yep, right next to me, so I got to spend the rest of the evening sitting next to the butt head I had just been threatening to kill.
yay
The show was good. The guitarists could get some good interplay going. They had this one prop that was straight out of Spinal Tap. A robot looking thing with Christmas tree lights on it. It had 3 appendages that lifted the singer and 2 lead guitarists into the air. Rob Halford clearly did not want to get onto the thing. It was wobbling really bad.
After the show I bid my new friend adieu. He grunted at me and slunked away. I went on my way and broke the law a little more. The next day, I turned 30.