A Few Memories of 70's and 80's Arena Rock

The 70's and 80's were a time of great music especially if you were a rock music fan. Over the course of the two decades many bands such as Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Poison, Ratt and other became mega superstars. The late 70's and early 80's also was a time of some great arena and stadium concerts. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Rolling Stones at JFK Stadium in Philly on June 17, 1978. While I know JFK is not an arena and the concert did not take place in the 80's I included it because it was one of the most memorable concerts I ever attended.

The stadium was packed with thousands of fans, add the fact it was a hot day. Fans waited hours in the heat to see the Stones play. When they finally took the stage , the baked crowd, from the heat and other illicit drugs, cheered. They were ready to party. After only 45 minutes the Stones stopped playing and exited he stage. The crowd waited for them to return. When it was obvious they were not coming back the crowd started throwing stuff on stage.

Then the crowd really went nuts. They stormed the stage and trashed the instruments and drum set before security could get them off.

What a fun day

Aerosmith is another group I loved seeing in Philly at a building which is no longer thre known as the Spectrum. The first time I tried to see them was also in the 70's, October 1977 to be exact and the night is memorable because some idiot in the crowd threw an M80 onto the stage which injured Joe Perry and the group stopped and left.

Aerosmith did come back on November 25, 1978, but only five songs into the set, someone threw a bottle from the balcony and it shattered, sending shards of glass into Steve Tyler's face. Another Aerosmith concert ended all to soon, I dejectedly left the arena. I did get to see Aerosmith a year or so later when they appeared at a small club in New Jersey. I guess they wanted to test the waters before coming back to an arena.

One of my favorite concerts was Bruce Springsteen. I don't remember what year it was but it was in the late 70's or early 80's but anyway back then the man could rock. Three hours of not stop Bruce music. The whole Spectrum was alive with this vibe. At the time I wasn't even a fan of his, but I soon became one and in tune with his mucis.

I saw ,many more arena rock concerts at the Spectrum in the late 70's and early 80's. Some of the more memorable ones are Van Halen and AC/DC,my ears are still recovering from that concert, Yes, Heart, Ted Nugent, Genesis, Styx, KISS, the Cars and the list goes on and on.

I guess I never really saw many arena concerts in the 80's because I got married and had kids, which puts a crimp in your concert dollars. Some of the concerts I wished I had gone to were Bon Jovi,RATT, Poison, Cinderella and others in the big hair band genre. Oh well life moved on and I did go to more concerts over the years, but the feel of those concert years in my teens and early teens just wasn't there.

If you have a favorite concert story, please leave it in the comments.