I've been doing a little spring cleaning and came across a box filled with mostly junk. When I dug down to the bottom I found a scrapbook that I started in the mid 80's. Yeah, I'm really showing my age here. The scrapbook was filled with concert ticket stubs and reviews clipped from local papers.
I thought this one was funny then and even funnier now. This was the height of the Satanic Panic or maybe the very start. The group Morality in Media protested the Motley Crue concert and tried to control what concerts would be allowed in the Memorial Auditorium.
Yes, that Motley Crue... Pure evil 🤣
These were the concerts that started me on my musical journey. The first auditorium concert I attended was Iron Maiden in 1985. What a great concert. It's funny because I actually remember this like it was yesterday. We sat in the nosebleed seats, but it was still a really great show.
I took a date to see Motley Crue, I kind of thought they were posers back then. I appreciate their music now, way more than I did back then. Judas Priest was a great show, also took a date to that one. I don't remember seeing Alice Cooper, so that must have been extra fun. 🤣 I was a huge Ace Frehley fan too. Can't believe I don't remember that one.
I honestly don't think to this day, anyone could put on or even afford to put on a stage show like Ronnie James Dio did for The Sacred Heart Tour. I got a migraine headache at this concert, but I'll never forget that stage show. Many compared it to a Disney meets metal. It was an incredible production IMHO!
An interesting side note.... The promoters on the ticket stub is a company called Harvey and Corky present. They were the biggest concert promoters in the city back then. The Harvey in Harvey and Corky is no other than disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. He attended college in Buffalo NY and paid his way through college promoting concerts. Almost every concert in Buffalo from the mid 80s to early 90s were his events. He brought some really big names to Buffalo.
Here are some more recent tickets from the 90s.
Janes Addiction is still one of my favorite bands. I drove to Rochester with a girl who would later become my wife. The concert was simply incredible. They were better live than in the studio. Just an absolutely incredible show.
I don't remember going to see Molly Hatchet, again must have had a blast. 🤣
Ice-T was at a small club by the airport. He rapped for the first half of the show, then came out with Body Count his punk band, for the second half. It was a really great time.
Guns n Roses was another migraine concert. I did eventually outgrow my migraines. Thank god. Migraine headaches ruined a lot of good times for me back in the day.
God I miss the punk rock years. So many good times. I also seen Black Flag around this time but lost the ticket. The Circle Jerks show was incredible. We partied with Wattie backstage after The Exploited concert and he cracked a beer bottle over the promoters head calling him a Mucky over a money dispute. Oddly enough I couldn't stand the promoter and it sadly made my night. Sorry, not sorry.
The LA Guns show was a blast. I remember that one like it was yesterday. Another show I was falling down drunk for. Oddly, I remember every moment.
King Diamond was incredible. This was the height of the satanic panic. Every church group in the area tried to prevent that concert. What a show!
Buffalo was to death metal like Seattle was to grunge. A lot of death metal concerts got canceled back then. Buffalo also gave birth to bands like Cannibal Corpse and several others who's names currently slip my mind.
I think the most interesting stub of this lot is the Monsters Of Mosh stub. DRI, Gang Green, The Goo Goo Dolls (opened the show they were a really good small local punk band back then, they sounded nothing like they do now.) and Holy Terror. The show was held at the Native American Cultural Center named The Turtle. The building was built to look like a massive turtle in the middle of the city. I think it's gone now. Sad, that was such a cool building.
I'll leave you with some images that a photographer friend gave me. This was right around the time I started working in the entertainment industry in Buffalo. I ran into the guy that did the concert reviews for the newspaper in a night club a week or two after the concert and he ran out to his car and hooked me up with these. I did mostly security for the bands while they were in town, stage security, and also stage set ups and tear downs. There aren't many concert tickets after this era, because I never had to pay for concerts. I went to just about every local event or worked at it. I really couldn't of asked for a better job to get me through my younger years. Good times for sure. Met a ton of famous people and partied with them. I would have done it for free, the best part was I got paid for it!
I've never really been one for scap booking. I'm glad I came across this though and actually took the time to create it back in the day. What a flood of memories. People I haven't thought about in 20 or 30 years. So many good times and pleasant memories.
The really wild thing is that I have no idea how this came back to me. How long had it sat in that box? Pretty wild it survived all these years without getting tossed into the trash or given away.
Even better than the concerts were some of the adventures sleeping out for seats. God those were good times! This was pre-internet and I don't even think you could order by phone. If you wanted good seats, you spent the night sleeping outside a record store and partying with a small group of die hard fans like yourself. Those were some wild nights! Maybe even funner than the concerts themselves!
Till next time.... Rock on Hive fam!