I do not have any particular recollection of this August, 1994 John Mellencamp concert, however the interesting thing about this show is that Mellencamp, a notorious lifelong cigarette smoker, reportedly had a “mild” heart attack either on this night or the day before. Thankfully Mr. Mellencamp is still rocking, making music and occasionally touring all these years later.
Your Life Is Now
Rock on!
GQ
The H.O.R.D.E. Festival was a pretty cool traveling one day event that included the Allman Brothers Band, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, Rusted Root, Screaming Cheetah Wheelies, and Big Head Todd & the Monsters during this incarnation. I am not sure if it was this show or another, but there was a small tent set up near the Jones Beach Theatre entrance for impromptu performances where John Popper and Dave Matthews supposedly played together before the show proper. I never missed a chance at going to an Allman Brothers Band concert and Blues Traveler was a pretty fun jam band with Popper on lead vocals and harmonica. Honestly, I had no idea who Dave Matthews was at the time and we only arrived at the venue after they had already been on. Go figure that it was DMB that would ascend to the heights it has, end up playing stadiums and headlining festivals for all of these years. For this one my wife and I had really good seats up front in front of the stage on the right side of the orchestra where I remember John Popper blowing me away with his harp play. Blues Traveler is on a 35th anniversary tour this year
Ants Marching
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GQ
For what might have been my only concert at Yankee Stadium thus far, my wife and I went to see the Roger Water- less version of Pink Floyd in the Bronx for The Division Bell your. My few memories of the evening are that the parking was atrocious, I parked in one of those tiered parking garages nearby the stadium, our seats were on the field to the right of the stage (not bad) and I think the flying pig made an appearance. I vaguely remember the band onstage at the “House That Ruth Built” and, being a Mets fan, I have only attended a handful of baseball games there through the years so Yankee Stadium as a concert venue made the night noteworthy.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
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GQ
My wife and I took our 4 year old daughter to the Big Apple Circus who famously regularly perform at Lincoln Center, however we caught them Cunningham Park in Queens which was much closer to home for us. I had grown up with the much larger scale of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus which always performed at Madison Square Garden when they were in New York City; the Big Apple Circus came with a real circus tent and was a much more intimate an experience. My daughter was excited to go and she drew a picture with crayons to give to the lead clown Grandma. I had bought front row seats for the performance and when Grandma passed by my daughter, she stuck her hand out and gave the picture to Grandma who did not speak but was clearly happy to receive the gift while continuing on her way. At some point there was some audience participation required and Grandma returned to us and pulled me out of the audience to act as a prop for someone to leap over me during the act. Unfortunately I just read in a Newsweek article that Barry Lubin,, who played the Grandma character for years, was reportedly pressured to retire in 2012 because of sexual misconduct allegations but managed to return to the circus in 2017.
Send in the Clowns
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GQ
My father has always loved Frank Sinatra and his music so in 1993 I bought a pair of tickets to see Sinatra during his multi-night stand at the Westbury Music Fair. For some reason, the Westbury dates were combined and moved to the much larger Nassau Coliseum for one night and tickets were reissued. The stage was in the center of the arena and I remember Don Rickles harassing someone late to their seat in the front. I am definitely glad that I got to see Frank Sinatra perform at least once snd that I got to take my dad to see his musical hero. Presently, he is 91 years old, in great shape, and we are all waiting for the New York Jets to get back to the Super Bowl.
Fly Me to the Moon
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GQ
Rod Stewart has been around seemingly forever; from his days with Ronnie Wood, the Faces and “Maggie May” to the present, Stewart has managed to keep his career going with a variety of musical styles with many hits along the way, with that iconic voice and his rock and roll roots that never goes out of style. I have no particular recollection of this 1993 Jones Beach Theatre concert. Rod Stewart returns to the outdoor venue this August after a couple of years of Covid tour postponements. Sadly, the last time I saw Rod play the beach a couple of years back, the crowd looked like they had piled out of a senior center bus and the concert had a Vegas sort of vibe about it; time marches on. My wife and I swore then that we were done with Rod Stewart shows but I have been holding on to these orchestra seats since before the lockdown and we will endeavor to attend, with Cheap Trick opening.
The Warrior
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GQ
I vaguely remember attending this Santana and Bob Dylan concert at the Jones Beach Theatre in September of 1993 with seats in the orchestra to the left side of the outdoor venue’s stage. Truth be told, I am a somewhat casual fan of Santana, and while I have been a fan of Bob Dylan through the years, I only more recently truly appreciate his genius, now finding myself playing catch up, obsessed with listening to all of the numerous phases of Dylan’s extraordinary career. Bob Dylan performed at the Beacon Theatre this past November and Santana is on tour this summer with Earth, Wind & Fire after last year’s Covid postponements. Some of the best, and most fun, Chicago concerts that I have attended through the years were when they toured with EWF and joined forces on songs from each other’s catalogues throughout the shows. While the bands are fundamentally different stylistically, they complimented each other magnificently, particularly the horn sections, making for a crowd pleasing joyous night of entertainment.
Black Magic Woman
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GQ
I always love an Aerosmith concert but this particular one is not ringing a bell. The first time I saw the band perform live I was standing on a folding chair on the left side of the orchestra at the Nassau Coliseum. Aerosmith opened up with “Back in the Saddle” and when it came time for a Joe Perry guitar solo, they turned the volume up to 11 tilting me straight back snd nearly off my perch; it got loud fast. Stories of the band doing pop up club dates around Long Island after their peak, then drug fueled decline, and before they returned to the rock and roll mountaintop are the stuff of legend. To paraphrase Gregg Allman “the first million you just piss away” which apparently Aerosmith did, then amazingly came back bigger and better than ever. I saw the last Joe Perry Project performance at My Father’s Place in Roslyn where a YouTube video from that night reminded me that Steven Tyler joined the band onstage that night before an official reunion took place not long after. Aerosmith is scheduled to play Fenway Park this fall for a postponed 50th anniversary concert in their home town.
Kings and Queens
Aerosmith Rocks (on)
GQ
In August, 1993, Neil Young toured the northeast with Booker T and the MGs; Soundgarden and Blind Melon opened the shows making for a great triple bill. I vaguely remember seeing Blind Melon on stage from our Jones Beach Theatre orchestra seats to the right of the stage but I will never forget Soundgarden’s set that came next. The Jones Beach Theatre is an outdoor venue and when Soundgarden was on stage a summer lightening storm came through the area. A long haired barefoot Chris Cornell swirled around the stage as if possessed all the while the rain poured down and lightening lit up the sky. As puddles formed around Cornell’s bare feet, the band played on, spectators scampered back underneath the main structure for cover, and I wondered if lightening hit the water onstage would the band disintegrate before our eyes. As I recall, Soundgarden seemed empowered by the storm, and defiant, as the band powered through its set; when the band was finished, and just before Neil Young took the stage, the rain suddenly stopped and the sky cleared as if on cue.
Like a Hurricane
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GQ
My wife and I attended our first event at the UBS Arena, the new home of the New York Islanders at Belmont Park. I had entered a Newsday contest for Journey concert tickets and although I did not win, I received an email that I could have tickets anyway leading me to believe the concert was likely far from sold out. I was on the fence about going at all, but the seats were pretty good- first level adjacent to the rear orchestra on left side of stage, and valued at about $130, so we decided to venture out on this cold February Friday night. The parking was $50 bucks with a long hike to the arena but hopefully when the parking garage being built is completed this will improve. The UBS Arena looks a bit like a mall on the outside; we had arrived early so we could check the place out and froze waiting for the doors to open at 6:30 PM. It is a new facility with a lot of Islander photos and memorabilia throughout the wide spacious hallways and very unlike the Nassau Coliseum’s cramped walkways where beer vendors and bathroom lines make the navigating to your seat cramped and uncomfortable. The UBS was built as a hockey arena first with an upper deck that is pretty high up. From our vantage point, the orchestra section was large snd flat with no incline; I would not be purchasing any tickets passed the first twenty rows as sight lines in the rear appear to be problematic. There were plenty of concessions and the section we were in had it’s own private food snd drink situation which I wish I had realized before my wife bought her food in the hallway. I believe Billy Idol was supposed to open but I think his tour was another covid casualty opening the door for Toto to step in. The last time I saw Billy Idol perform was on a pier in New York City a few years ago and it was a lot of fun. We were not really looking forward to Toto but I have to say I did not hate them even though the sound was not so great. I have seen the headliner Journey a few times through the years, most recently at The Classic East at Citifield, and they are one of those bands that seem to never stop touring. Journey plays all of the many hits that you remember from the radio, and that the masses want to hear. The “ new” singer, who replaced Steve Perry quite a few years ago now, is energetic with an extraordinary voice that sounded a bit fried occasionally on this night, but overall was good. If not for the free tickets it would have been an expensive night out, but for what I ended up spending total, it was well worth the trek back to the car in the frigid weather. Would I go back again? They have some big acts like The Eagles and Roger Waters coming up but currently ticket prices are obscene, the service charges are abusive, and the parking situation is far from ideal, so It would have to be something special to get me back there any time soon.
Any Way You Want It
Rock on!
GQ