Show # / Group(s) / Date / Venue / Entry / # shows for year 1
Led Zeppelin 7/29/73 Madison Square Garden F2
Elton John / The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver
9/23/73 Madison Square Garden F3
Emerson, Lake & Palmer / Stray Dog
12/18/73 Madison Square Garden F (3)4 Grand Funk Railroad
4/22/74 Madison Square Garden H5 Mott The Hoople /
Queen 5/11/74 Uris Theater L 6
The WHO / Montrose
6/14/74 Madison Square Garden F 7
Yes / Gryphon
11/20/74 Madison Square Garden F 8
Elton John / Kiki Dee (
John Lennon appearance)
11/28/74 Madison Square Garden L (5)9
Led Zeppelin 2/7/75 Madison Square Garden F10
Queen / Argent /
Kansas 2/21/75 The Capitol Theater P/L 11
Jethro Tull / Carmen
3/7/75 Madison Square Garden F 12
Alice Cooper / Suzi Quatro
5/5/75 Madison Square Garden F13
Bad Company / Maggie Bell
5/30/75 Madison Square Garden F 14 Chicago / The Beach Boys
6/14/75 Madison Square Garden F 15
Pink Floyd 6/15/75 Roosevelt Stadium P 16
The Rolling Stones 6/27/75 Madison Square Garden F 17
Aerosmith /
Ted Nugent 8/29/75 Wollman Rink (Central Park) P 18
Black Sabbath / Aerosmith 12/3/75 Madison Square Garden F19
KISS / Blue Oyster Cult / Leslie West Band
12/31/75 Nassau Coliseum S (11)20
Queen / The Cate Brothers
2/6/76 Beacon Theater P21
Queen 2/7/76 Beacon Theater S 22
The WHO / The Steve Gibbons Band
3/11/76 Madison Square Garden F23
David Bowie 3/26/76 Madison Square Garden F 24
Bad Company / Kansas 4/5/76 Madison Square Garden F25
Genesis 4/9/76 Beacon Theater (early show) S/H 26
Aerosmith / Ted Nugent 5/10/76 Madison Square Garden F 27
Paul McCartney & Wings 5/25/76 Madison Square Garden F 28
Yes /
Peter Frampton / Gary Wright
6/12/76 JFK Stadium P 29
KISS / J. Geils Band /
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band 7/10/76 Roosevelt Stadium P30
Jethro Tull / Robin Trower
7/23/76 Shea Stadium P31
Elton John / Billy Connolly (
comedian)
8/11/76 Madison Square Garden P 32
Elton John 8/13/76 Madison Square Garden F33
Elton John 8/17/76 Madison Square Garden F 34
Billy Joel 10/2/76 The Capitol Theater H 35
Peter Frampton 10/8/76 Madison Square Garden S/G36
Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band 10/30/76 The Palladium H 37 The Bee Gees / Tavares Brothers
12/2/76 Madison Square Garden S/G 38
Black Sabbath / Ted Nugent 12/6/76 Madison Square Garden F39
Aerosmith / Rick Derringer
12/16/76 Madison Square Garden P (20)28 Yes / Peter Frampton / Gary Wright
6/12/76 JFK StadiumThe 2nd longest concert day of my life (only to be topped in 1980 which went much better). It was really difficult for me to purposely NOT ATTEND a concert that some of my “crew” were planning on going to. MOST of the time I was really glad I went. Some of the time, regardless of the quality of the band or concert itself, I wish I hadn’t. This was one of those times.
A few weeks earlier, a bunch of guys at our schoolyard had a handful of tickets for the Yes concert in Philadelphia and were looking for takers. Not scalping or anything, just looking for people to make a day of it, and they had obviously bought too many tickets. I mean, Yes
WAS playing in our hometown only a few days after the Philly show, but the allure of A) a road trip, B) a Saturday “all day” concert, C) the hottest performer at the time in Peter Frampton also on the bill & D) the upcoming Yes show in Jersey City was on a Thursday night & school night, was hard to resist. So, me and two of my same aged 16 yr old buddies bought the tickets and secured plans for the ride with some of the older guys who had cars. All in, we had two cars going carrying 10 of us in total. We decided to meet at the schoolyard at 10am on the day of the show and trek down to Philly for the 4pm show. Seemed a little early to me, but I wasn’t driving, and they figured the earlier we got there, the earlier the partying could start. It was the beginning of a
VERY LONG & arduous day! The drive down was pretty seamless until we actually got to Philly. Even at around noon, the 3-5 mile area around JFK stadium was in gridlock! Both cars decided to park about a mile away instead of dealing with the horde of people and traffic trying to get to the stadium parking. We just parked on some side street, all got out of the car (
food & drink in 3 BIG coolers in tow) and just decided to hang out and party there. We weren’t the only ones, and the neighborhood people did not look so happy. We were playing loud music on boom boxes, smoking pot and drinking beer but not once did police bother us. They probably couldn’t get there! At one point I went to take a piss way down the end of the block, across the street in a small sandlot baseball field, and saw a guy with his girl, right there, humping in the grass!
All I could think of was, “this is my woodstock”!
At around 3pm, all liquored up and buzzing nicely, we decided to make the
long walk to JFK stadium
. We were in a steady stream of thousands of people hoofing it. SO many girls, wearing basically nothing too
, as it was a REALLY HOT day! We all figured “they’re here for Frampton”! By the time we got to the stadium, the lines getting into the place were massively long. We didn’t wait. I don’t want to admit that we were all pretty much assholes, but we were
. We all walked about two thirds up the line and just cut in. We got yelled at, threatened, etc. but the guys I was with could care less. All part of being 16-18, arrogant and fearless. By now, between the heat, the drinking, the walk and being high, I was completely exhausted. Even with cutting the line, it took a while to finally get in and we all at once headed to the bathrooms. I can still feel the relief!
Once we entered the stands, it really did seem like Woodstock! I had NEVER seen so many people in one place in my life!
I had been to two outdoor concerts (one at the 10 thousand Wollman Rink & once at Roosevelt Stadium in JC which had about 40 thousand) but
THIS was something completely different. There had to be
100 thousand people here! AT LEAST! Just a sea of humanity that was incredibly amazing to me.
We all had agreed to meet back at the car after the show in case we got split up, which was inevitable. Myself and Scott wound up going off on our own, not purposely, it just happened. After a few minutes, Gary Wright came on stage. He played for about a half hour and the two songs I knew by him were performed really well. Not that I could see him or his band that well, as we were pretty far back. At one point, Scott, who had taken a hit of mescaline just before we entered (I never understood taking hard drugs, I mean, how high do you have to be?
) wanted to go down to the field, which I was somehow able to talk him out of…for a while. There were so many people on the field, there was no way of staying together. As we walked around, we bumped into my buddy Mike who stayed with us. That was great for me because as soon as Frampton came on stage, I couldn’t find Scott. He was just “gone”! Mike and I found a decent place to stand in the stands and watched Frampton from a decent sightline. This is where things got crazy….
During Frampton’ set (which was basically his “alive” album in full and VERY enjoyable
), the girls were going crazy. There were these two girls who were right next to us dancing and singing…oh and jumping up and down and all over the two of us
. The fact that they were both “stacked” and bra-less made us VERY HAPPY
! During one of his love songs, we partnered up and started making out with these two very “motivated” girls (who were at least 2 or 3 years older than we were and pretty “tanked up” themselves). Things were REALLY going well, and we’re goin’ at it like nobody else was there. Hands everywhere without a care as the music continues. The next thing I knew, I get a hard punch to the side of my head, and I’m knocked down a row or two. As I shake my head clear, I see two guys jumping on Mike and throwing fists. I jumped in and just started hauling punches. Before you knew it, it was a melee with about twenty people involved
. I can’t even remember how many punches I got hit with, but it was a pretty good ass whoopin’ I took, even though I was really no worse for wear. As the pile continued to fight, I was able to pull Mike away and split as we watched the huge brawl continue. It was kind of funny actually watching about twenty people fighting for who knows what reason. I had a bloody nose and I could feel a knot on my eye, but Mike got it worse, although we didn’t immediately know it. We went two sections further away and went back down the long flight of stairs to pick up the show where we left off. Frampton by now was starting the great, “Do You Feel, Like We Do” and all was right again until Mike started throwing up. Now, we both just figured the fight brought up the beer we had been drinking, but looking back and knowing what we know, he probably had a concussion. He said he WAS kicked in the head a couple of times during the fight. The good thing was that two very cool people let us sit in their spots on the bench in the row. That worked out as we stayed there the rest of the show!
As the hot day turned into dusk, Frampton ended his set and the place was insane! I think even the old school proggers enjoyed his performance
. I know Mike & I did (well, we saw most of it). As nighttime approached it started getting cooler and by now, we were starting to feel it. Between our high wearing off and the ass kicking we took starting to kick in, we were freezing and, in some pain, not to mention,
FRIGIN’ EXHAUSTED! I remember thinking, I just wanted to go home and get in the shower, but Yes wasn’t even on stage yet. Finally, the stadium lights go out and Yes arrives to a thunderous greeting. The show was awesome and took my mind off the cool night air and pounding head and face. The band, while still pretty far away, played masterfully and looked great. The staging and lighting was awesome as were the multiple laser effects they used. They closed their set with “Ritual” which was really mind blowing. Of course, they came back and played “Roundabout” which had the whole stadium in a frenzy. Once that ended, Mike and I decided that was enough and we started to leave. While we were walking towards the exit, they came back for another encore, “I’m Down” by the Beatles, which Mike wanted to go back inside, but I talked him out of it. We just listened as we walked away from the stadium on the long walk to the cars.
The walk seemed to take forever because we actually went too far.
We had no real idea where the cars were! We wound up making our way back, walking up and down three or four blocks before I finally saw the sandlot park from earlier. By the time we got there, some of our group was already back and everyone seemed a bit grumpy. It was just too long of a day. Not everyone arrived as of yet, but we had a driver and 5 of us climbed in his car and took off. Didn’t make much sense waiting. The next night I found out that the other driver and a crew including Scott didn’t get home until 5am because they all had trouble finding the car! It was a really good concert, but honestly not worth everything we dealt with! I had a shiner and headache the next day, and a good story to tell my friends for days!
29 KISS / J. Geils Band /
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band 7/10/76 Roosevelt Stadium A month later, I was back at an outside stadium show!
We had a bunch of us going as Kiss were now pretty popular with most in our group, especially after I told everyone how great they were on NYE last year. About 8 of us purchased tickets for the show, and on a
HOT Saturday night, after a good helping of beer, headed down route 440 to the stadium
**fun fact. Many years later, after the stadium was long torn down, two of my buddies, now married with kids, both bought condos in the exact area where they saw this show with me! The show started at 7:30 with a band we didn’t know at all, so we just hung outside, running into many high school friends, and just listening to the music while getting high. I was “free” tonight (and the rest of the week) as my family had driven to upstate NY for the week to visit my stepdad’ family.
Once the first band ended, we went inside. We went to the field area but stayed pretty far back to just relax and enjoy the night. Next up was Bob Seger, who I had heard of but didn’t know any songs by. He and the Silver Bullet Band were great rockers and little did I know that he would explode onto the bigtime scene soon enough.
After their performance, I thought Kiss would be next. Nope! Next was the J.Geils band. Another band who I had heard of but didn’t know any songs by. They were very energetic, but I wasn’t as impressed with them as I was with Seger. By now, I just wanted Kiss!
Finally, Kiss, in all their explosive glory, hit the stage. Smoke, bombs, flash pots, LET’S GO!
Their latest album, “Destroyer” had been out a few months and was generally received by most of us as a really good one! A nice follow up to the great “live” album with some really great rockers. They opened the show with the opening pair from the album, and the place went crazy! It was another great spectacle by Kiss, and even then I thought, “what they may lack in musical originality, they more than make up for in performance & theatrics”! This band kicked ASS on stage, there was no doubting that! The set ended with “Flaming Youth” which I thought was cool at the time, but in the many years that followed, the fact that I got to see this very rarely played track meant something to me. An incredible 4 song encore followed, closing with everybody’s rockin’ mantra at the time, “Rock and Roll All Night”!
On the long walk back from the concert, everyone was in agreement that Kiss was a fantastic live band! The staging, the blood, the fire, the lights,
ON TOP of some really rockin’ songs! What more could you ask for?
30 Jethro Tull / Robin Trower
7/23/76 Shea Stadium Another damn outdoor show, and unfortunately, the weather REALLY spoiled the fun for this one.
This was supposed to be a pretty special show for me. I was seeing a band I had really grown to like, had seen them before and loved it AND the show was at MY TEAM’ stadium! I had been to the big shea MANY times for Mets & Jets games, but now I’d be there for a rock show.
4 of my concert buddies and I arrived at the stadium late and missed the opening act, Rory Gallagher, who I knew nothing about. The big problem was the damn rain, which at times was annoying
and at others a downright deluge!
None of us brought umbrellas or ponchos (oh no, we were too cool
“stupid” for that and we were soaked before we even got to our seats (which weren’t that great, but not horrible). We actually got to our soggy seats as Robin Trower was on stage. I found his guitar playing decent, but a couple of my buddies were big fans and loved his performance which we all witnessed through the raindrops. There was no sense worrying about trying to stay out of the rain as we were already drenched. I bought a Mets hat to try and avoid some of the rain, but my shorts, sneakers and newly purchased Jethro Tull shirt were drenched. I got up and watched the last half of Trower’ set from the concession area, chomping on hot dogs and pretzels. Since we were late getting started there was no drinking. Just some joints to keep us warm. Once Trower finished, we all just walked around the promenade to try and dry out.
The wait was excruciatingly long, but Jethro Tull finally bounded on stage. Between the crowd & the jets constantly flying overhead, it was a noisy evening for sure! The best thing was the two huge screens that televised close ups of the band on stage! Mostly, the screen image was of Ian Anderson who did his best to entertain the wet crowd. While the set was great and the performance matching, between the rain, the jet noise and the obvious fact that J-Tull was
NOT made to be a stadium act, the night was not as good as hoped. I also bitched and moaned on the way to the 7 train, that this was THE LAST stadium show I’ll ever see. That was a lie…………
Next up 3 PHENOMENAL Elton shows at MSG....
Topic: 2023 FIFTY-year anniversary of concerts! (1973-77...more stories to come) (Read 7591 times)