Ticket Nostalgia (Or Thoughts On Youth), Part Two

Like the Hokies, I am back!  Welcome home, take off your shoes, pour yourself a cold beverage, and let me make you comfortable.  Where were we?  Ah, yes, talking about ticket stubs and associated memories.  I’ll bet you are ready for more. 

I’ll reengage with the Masters of Rock.  Yup, I saw a lot of them – and I’ve got the tickets to prove it!  The Stones at RFK Stadium. 

 
This one is kind of funny because I was on the “floor” but my brother and a group of his friends were about 15 rows closer (10 rows back from the stage, but because of the stage size and the huge security pit in front of it, still required binoculars).  They got their group into their seats, grabbed some stubs, and came back and got us past security with those stubs.  We packed into the rows with them only to have one of my brother’s friends sing every song to me the entire night – shoulda stayed where I was, haha.

How about the Allman Brothers in 1975? 

 
Great show!  I got in trouble with my mom on this one because it was during the week on a school night, and she did not approve.  I bought the ticket without her knowledge, and she freaked when I sprung my plans on her.  Luckily, being a depression era child, she was too cheap to make me eat the ticket and lose my money, so I got to go.  But I recall that I paid for it.  (And by the way, I appreciate my mom trying to be a good parent – I did a lot of insane stuff that she never knew about, but when she was aware, she didn’t shirk her role.)

The Who in 1979. 

 
Another really good show.  It was basically a greatest hits show, but with more Quadrophenia than you would ever hear today – that’s cool, because I love that album.  Keith Moon was dead by this time, but the rest of the band was there and in fine form.  This was on the tour where the band played in Cincinnati with “festival seating” (first come, first served for seats), and about 9 kids died in a melee because they didn’t open enough doors to allow people into the arena. 

Led Zeppelin in 1977.

 
LZ came to DC and played four nights at the Capital Centre.  I went on the third night, by which time I had learned that they were playing 3 hours – but with a 20 minute drum solo and a 30 minute keyboard solo included.  Four of us went to the show in a Nissan 240Z, and me and a buddy rode in the hatchback around the beltway:  yup, the damn thing was open the entire way, and we rode sort of lying down in the back because it was a 2-seater.  No worries, we had plenty of beer, driver included.  Safety first!  Anyway, this was one of those “could have been the best concert ever,” but due to the aforementioned drums/keyboards, was equal parts great and boring.  I’ll never forget Jimmy Page playing guitar with a violin bow while a “pyramid” of laser lights spun around him and went faster and faster as he accelerated his pace doing his guitar hero thing.  Self-indulgent?  Umm, yeah, it was LZ in 1977, the height of their self-indulgence.  But cool, too.   

Paul McCartney, 2016.

 
I had never seen McCartney until last year.  (You can dig into the BRP archives and get a review with pictures.)  It was a good show, but included too much of his solo stuff and songs from Wings.  Hey, Paul, people like your former band’s songs, you know, THE BEATLES, because it was the greatest band EVER.  The ticket stub shows no price because I was in a corporate box.  My 16 year old self would have hated me for that.  But my 16 year old self had never been comped in a corporate box before, either.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

I need to take a quick break.  Yup, you know why.  But I’ll be back before you can say “Supertramp sucks” with yet another ticket post that will BLOW YOUR MIND.  And maybe before that, a live music review.  Are you with me?  Cool, back soon.  In the meantime, turn up the volume and enjoy.