The Damned

A few years ago, I chronicled concerts I had attended but noted that a few had 'gotten away'. I was just made aware that 28 years ago tonight, I was at a Damned concert at the Jockey Club in picturesque Newport Kentucky. The band had done an in store promo at one of those old supermarket sized record stores.
Later, during the show, fluorescent lamps started falling out of the ceiling fixtures into the crowd. Dunno if anybody got hurt. The band probably figured it happened all the time.
Later, my date kept shouting ELOIIIIIISSE!!

Is Bethel "Out of Control" ?Bethel band Thin Blood organized a 'Summer Jam' primarily because of a lack of venues for live music in the area. Unfortunately, it was closed down after olice deemed it "out of control" because a few people were allegedly dinking alcohol.
Some people claim village officials & police conspired against the event because it promoted devil music. Police, belying their union thug agenda, claim they should have been hired for overtime to 'secure' the event.

Read all about it here.

Hearing this reminded me of the first time I heard Miles Davis play Time After Time at Cincinnati's Music Hall. He's playing who?

Derek & the Dominoes Music Hall 11/26/70

Earlier in '70 there was the Midsummer Rock thing at the baseball stadium with Iggy Pop, Traffic, Alice Cooper, Mountain, Grand Funk, 10 Years After.....
WTF happened?

Monster - 1970

Steppenwolf
rough ending but you get the idea.....

Live From Cincinnati

ya think Al had a hard time with Iggy? Alice was promoted (in TV Guide at least) as a female folk singer…..

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie

WCPO reports that Paul McCartney's request to not serve meat at his shows will not be honored in Cincinnati. Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann says fans need not worry and hot dogs will be served.
ok, how hard would it be to serve vegetarian hot dogs & just not tell people? In my experience, carnivores & vegetarians have a knee jerk reaction to the word "vegetarian" with carnivores blurting out "HELL NOES" & vegetarians getting all giggly & tittery.
If it tastes good, people tend to eat it.

Doesn't That Stink
WCPO's John Matarese exposes big music industry practices that deny fans good seats.
Back in the general admission (festival seating) days, fans would camp out at the concert site to get a front row seat. Of course they were all taken already by folks who got tickets from friends of the bands, promoters, radio stations & contest winners & such. Nothing new there. The later release of good tickets that Matarese mentions is pretty weird, tho.
Back in the 70s, big music industry practices that treated the fn like poo led to a surly backlash called punk, a raucus grassroots uprising that hit the big music industry like a jail on wheels. It was hard back then because there were few venues for local bands to play. The legacy of the original punk scene, of course, is a lot of venues for local music.
I can only really address rock music but Cincinnati is blessed with a decent local rock scene in both musicians & venues. Would you rather sit in a damp field out in the middle of nowhere on a hot muggy night listening to a band playing oldies (that you would prefer to hear on records) policed by capricious goons and infested by mosquitoes or go to a lively neighborhood with numerous activities & hear a guy play theremin or hear a jazz band at a club where the bandleader's wife is cooking dinner?
To hell with corporate music and it's goofy practices. I'm sorry the jonas Brothers had to cancel but if you want to hear somebody play an SG, go see Wussy.

Concerts
Last year I started this series of reminiscitating on concerts I had gone to over the years. It was influenced by VegasAnt sending me a couple gigantic scans of his old ticket stubs & an e-friend, mx sara, who started to document 1979 on a day to day basis. I sought to document concerts on their corresponding anniversaries for a year.
When I went to these shows I thought the music was the most important thing in the world. As I started writing these posts, I realized that what I really remembered was pretty much everything but the music. My friends, traveling to the various places, the weird venues all had a bigger impact. Well, without the music I wouldn't have done any of that crap. I would have got a tan in the summer of 1970, too.
Doing research on these posts has been fun. The interwebs have given folks a lot geekier than myself a way to promote their favorite musicians & forums have brought all sorts of old nerds together. Fans have set up websites documenting gigographies of numerous artists that are pretty daggone amazing. I have found that people actually buy old ticket stubs, too. weird.
There are, of course, some strays.
Jeff Beck touring the "Orange" album - fucking great use of Hara Arena. The dang floor wasn't even sold out. Looking Glass, for some weird reason opened. Their song, Brandy, always makes me think of Beck.
Jeff Beck with Beck, Bogert & Appice (sp?) at Mershon Auditorium - the less said the better.
Jeff Beck & Stevie Ray Vaughn at Hara Arena - Beck was incredible, Vaughn was adept but a one trick pony at best. All my friends thought Vaughn was God & Beck was weird / didn't like him.
Lou Reed at Music Hall. Squatters a couple rows in front of us threatened to rape the people who owned the seats. Police followed.
D.O.A at the Polish club in Dayton. Punk had arrived. The Dates opened. Then there was about a dozen other D.O.A. shows in Dayton, Cincinnati & Newport.
Willie Dixon at Gilly's in Dayton. He didn't get out his upright bass til the second part of the show. He wasn't walking well but his fingers just flew.
Richard Hell & the Voidoids at Gilly's. Some guy was walking around groping girls. I was going to tell security about him & then I realized he WAS security.
Social Distortion a Gilly's - Dance Fever.
All the shows at the Jockey Club - Tupelo Chain Sex, Jah Wobble, Johnny Thunders, Toxic Reasons, BPA, The Auburnaires, The Thangs, The Warsaw Falcons, 11,000 Switches, Sluggo, The Edge, SS-20, Snare and the Idiots, Doc and the Pods, The Reduced, The Customs, The Libertines, The Violent Femmes, Black Flag, The Wolverton Brothers, The Dead Kennedys, Lords of the New Church.....
The Dead Kennedys in Yellow Springs where the management asked Jello Biafra to promote the cookies & cider in the lobby. They had a neo-hippie security team that seemed to have taken notes from the Chicago Police of 1968.
The Flaming Lips at the Southgate House.
All the weird bands that played at Sam's & The Walnut Hills Bar in Dayton. The infamous first gig of Toxic reasons at the Walnut Hills, some band from Antioch that only played one gig.
Danny Gatton at Gilly's. There was a display of the most beautiful Telecasters in the world in the lobby.
Muddy Waters, Livingston Taylor, Glass Harp & a bunch of others that Wittenberg drew in. Sneaking into the Witt Field House... heh
Hell, Trudy Faber & Ron Crutcher's recitals at Wittenberg were freakin' awesome. Some German string quartet at Weaver Chapel about turned my life around.
Alice Cooper @ Hara, Mountain @ Bogarts, The Faces @ Hara, Hank Williams Jr with KD Lang as an opener at Riverbend, Steve Winwood (altho the Ruverbend Gestapo tossed me out half way through), The Replacements in Minneapolis, Pere Ubu in Columbus, Evan Johns in D.C., Evan Johns in Cincinnati, Human Switchboard @ the Walnut Hills & She Club, Brother Wayne Kramer at Top Hats, Cincinnati's Pigmeat Jarret (dude ruled the ivories), Loretta Lynn at the Taft where I ran into Phil K and we went to the Obryonville Blue Wisp & Oakley Chili Company afterwards, Sun Ra at a downtown Blue Wisp, Laurie Anderson at the Taft, Laurie Anderson at Mershon Auditorium (nearly the last show I attended), friggin' Mike Mingo & Grovor (they're still around), The Count basie orchestra @ Cliff Park, Charlie Townsend & Joe Quissenberry jamming in the Snyder park bandshell (although, to his grave, Charlie denied it ever happened), The Godz, Seals & Crofts & Bob Seeger at Memorial Hall, Bob Weir & Patti Smith at a much smaller Bogart's that barely resembled the current venue, The Ramones / White Zombie double bill from God at hara Arena, Dwight Yoakam (sp?), James Gang at the Ohio State Fair, Tanya Tucker at the Clark County Fair although she opted to sign autographs but not perform.....
And Tiny Tim who played at the weird bar north of Springfield on route 68 a most friendly & gracious man.
Anyway, thanks to everybody who actually puts themselves out there & mounts the stage, bringing untold people so much pleasure. Thanks to all the people I accompanied - hadablast.

the Ramones, Columbus Agora 1980
It was a Ramones show. You know it was good. I remember running into Big Ed of Toxic Reasons. He had no cash. hell, I would have bought this guy a beer if he was rich. There was a bunch of Daytonistas at the show. Kinda rounded out the generally polite Columbus audience. We had a lot of fun.

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Todd Rundgren Palace Theater, Dayton 1974
An ex-student teacher at my high school convinced the school to let him teach an advanced psychology course. You were supposed to have some minimum grade average, completed the standard psychology class & you had to get permission to take the class on top of that. My grades were borderline but I got in. One day while biking through the park on a nice sunny day I spied a hot chick drinking wine while sitting on a blanket. She was drinking the wine out of a glass. I had to stop. When I approached her I noticed she was sitting amidst a sea of papers. As we chatted I found out she was my psychology teacher's girlfriend (or one of 'em) and she was grading the class' papers. She had given me a B. She said I had taken an interesting approach to the subject. We smoked a joint.
I went to this show with the little sister of the girl I went to see Rundgren with at the Xavier Fieldhouse. I dropped acid. It was a weeknight & I had a psychology test the next day.
So who should I run into at the concert? yup - the psychology teacher & his girlfriend. Teach told me he hoped I studied for the test. right...
It was a fun show. I think I actually did ok on the test.
I loved The Palace.

Flashback Friday

Taking a page from The Black Fist Blog (hey X! Activate yer comments!), I give you The Human Switchboard. The above recording was made on a $19 tape deck at The She Club in The Gem City in 1980. Sorry about the ultra Lo-Fi ®, but, hey, it was the 70s. I am also new to Audacity so I am not sure how to use the various gadgetry. I located a bunch of old tapes recently & hope to post some more weird ass locally recorded crap in the future.
The Switchboard knocked around Ohio & New York for some time before breaking up in the mid 80s. The leader went on to run Disney's Hollywood Records for awhile.
Anyway, here's about the closest thing they ever had to a hit (shot in NYC).

Brownsville Station - Mike Quatro 1972
One of a few rock concerts at Springfield's Memorial Hall.
For some reason it was popular in the late 60s & early 70s to name your band after something you saw on a sign. Everybody remembers Trudy & The Hopple Street Exit, right?
These bands both hailed from the Detroit area. Brownsville Station played pretty much straight rock-n-roll. I don't remember them doing anything as cheesy as Smokin' in the Boy's Room. Quatro was doing a kind of Nice/ELP thing with some weird electric spinet piano contraption. Kind of an odd mix. I think I bought a copy of Quatro's album after the show. I don't know where else I would have got it.

Johnny Cash - Cincinnati Music Hall 1981
This was billed as the Johnny Cash Family or something. June Carter appeared & some little boy came out & sang. Rosanne Cash & Carlene Carter did not perform.
Getting to the show was pretty stupid. Al drove. We had been to the venue before but short term memory loss kicked in. Al said he knew where Music Hall was. It was the big half dome art deco place you saw from the highway. I knew the building & told myself Al was right. ~Rule #1 - doh!~ Imagine our surprise when we got to the place & nobody was there. Some old guy out front gave us directions. Fortunately, Music Hall is a straight shot about a mile away.
Before we went in, we had to answer nature's call. We stopped in an alley & relieved ourselves on some trash cans. We heard movement behind the trash cans. I kicked the one I was marking. Rats scurried away & down the alley. I thought it was hilarious. When I moved to Cincinnati later, I remember seeing bright orange stickers on trash cans without lids. The stickers read, "Starve Rats". I always thought that was pretty cool.
Sat in the balcony. Cash played a bunch of old tunes & hits. It was extremely family oriented & upbeat.

John Entwistle 1975
Entwistle was the other composer in The Who. He had also released a few albums of his own. So it wasn't terribly surprising he would tour on his own. It was just kind of odd that this guy who had been gigantor type venues was on a bar tour. I recall him commenting on being able to see the back of the Columbus Agora appreciatively.
His band was just a small ensemble. The lead guitarist took to leaping about the stage a bit. He played a lot of fast ingle note lead (unlike Pete Townshend). I want to say there was a keyboard player who doubled on sax. No french horn solos.
Wolfgang's Vault has a show from this tour here.

Yes 1974
Yes had just released Tales of Topographic Oceans. The show at Cincinnati Gardens had a lot of long jams. Well, maybe a little more orchestrated than jamming. That's about all I remember.

Steppenwolf - OU Convocation Center 1971
This was Siblings Weekend, or something, at OU. My sister asked me if I wanted to come & if so, did I want to see a concert. I was a big Steppenwolf fan, I had even read the book! I think I was vaguely aware of the name Edwin Starr, of course I knew his recording of the Bruce Springsteen song, War. Steel River? No clue. Don't think my sister thought much of Steppenwolf. Seats seemed to be a million miles from the stage. I had never been to an arena show before. Never been to an arena that doubled as a dorm either. Haven't been to one since, for that matter.
I had never really experienced college dorm life either, still being in jr high. The idea of a bunch of young people having free reign over a residential building was like heaven. Nowadays it just seems like a good reason to keep everybody under 24 in prison, manacled & with black canvas hoods over their heads.
I was introduced to something called cable TV that weekend, too.
Anyway, it was fun & extremely exciting for a kid. One thing especially intriguing was the antiwar message of Steppenwolf & Starr on a campus that had, less than a year earlier, erupted in rioting.

At this concert, the police were be-bopping to the music in their bright yellow slickers. If they knew what these kids kids were going to be like....

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The Clash - Clevo Agora 1979

Garage Band
This was, I believe, the first of many pilgrimages in Phil's van up to The Cleveland Agora on Euclid Ave. Why we would go to Cleveland in February for anything is beyond me. Well, nowadays. friggin' cold, maaannnn.....
The Clash had just really hit in the U.S. recently, had just released their second album, Give "m Enough Rope, & we were hooked. They were young, loud & snotty, not to mention drunk, sloppy & generally noisy. That is, they were great !
These British punk bands were big on giveaways for some reason. At this show, we got iron-on patches!
This concert is available at Wolfgang's Vault.
yup. We drove all the way to friggin' Cleveland for a half hour show.
sigh
There was an opening act or two. I forget them.

Joan Jett 1987
yeah, late again.....
As I previously posted, I hadn't been able to wrangle anybody into going to a Joan Jett show. I tirelessly told everybody how great she was & my haranguing paid off. Not well for me, however.
I got Bunny to go. Phil came down from Frogtown. So far - so good. Then this drooling idiot from work decided he would tag along, too. With a friend. Bunny & Phil quickly picked up on Larry's goofyness & proceeded to leave me to his antics & enjoy a nice evening themselves. With friends like these.....
As usual, Jett rocked out. I ignored the whole crew during the show. After, we went down the street to Daniels for midnight nachos. Again I was abandoned to entertain Larry & his friend. His friend seemed a bit more rational & a little less brain damaged than Larry, but he was strictly the follower to Larry's lead. It explains a lot about how we choose our politicians in America.
We went back to our cars & encountered some girls with a flat tire. Larry & his pal rushed to their rescue & promptly started to jack the car up on University Ave. I begged them to roll down to a flat bit of road, but no go. I expected to see severed hands any minute. The jack did slip a bit & the chivalrous goonballs, relented & moved the car to a flat piece of road.
We parted ways, everybody went home & as I drifted off to sleep, I wondered what crazy stories Larry would be telling my co-workers come Monday. Never again....