What's The Oddest Venue Where You've Seen A Major Act?

I saw the Beach Boys in 1964 playing in a gymnasium at an Air Force Base in Idaho. Well, I didn't really see them because I was too short. But I heard them!!

 

I saw many shows on the Riverboat President in New Orleans. U2, Dave Edmunds, The Dwight Twilley Band and the Neville Bros come to mind.

I also saw the Sex Pistols on their first US tour at a small club in Baton Rouge called the Kingfish. That was an amazing night!

Bobby Sutliff

 

I attended a private party on Cass Lake, Mich. a few years back where Todd was the entertainment.
I actually had the privilege of participating in the "jam" that wrapped things up.

Another notable venue was the band shell on Belle Isle, Detroit, Mi.
This is an island park in the Detroit River, sort of like Central Park is to Manhattan. All day free concert, with Foghat, Bob Seger, Teegarden & Vanwinkle to name a few.
Summer of '72 or '73.

 

You know just as I hit reply I realised that the thread was 'oddest' NOT 'oldest' so my post about seeing loads of bands (CSN, Van M, Squeeze, etc...) at the Brighton Dome (which was built 204 years ago in 1805) suddenly seems a bit superflous...

(trivia fans: The Brighton Dome famously staged the Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April 1974 where ABBA won for Sweden with Waterloo.)

err... so how about seeing Neal Casal (who I believe now does what is technically known as a 'Ronnie Wood' in Ryan Adam's band 'The Cardinals') in a barn on a farm in Guildford, England about 10 years ago...?

And if it had been a warm night he wouldn't have played in the barn, but in the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre that was in the next field...(!)

 

Wow!
Respect! (as I believe young people say)
Now that's a thing to be able to say!

 

Aw gee! I also almost saw them a few days earlier in Memphis at the Taliesyn Ballroom ( I had a ticket) but the Fire Marshall would only let a certain amount of people in and I got there too late.

Bobby

 

Klaus Schulze at the London Planetarium.

 

I saw Blue Oyster Cult at Six Flags over St Louis in 1986. It was outside, and it was still loud as hell. We were so close we all yelled out Godzilla and they played it. Pretty wild.

 

Prince played with the bar band at the Marriott after one of his concerts in the 80's.


I saw Glen Campbell's son play in the corner of a bar at Sun Dance (no stage) and then his dad joined him for Rinestone Cowboy....I was listening to the son's band and not really watching and then heard "Rinestone Cowboy" and thought wow! that sound just like the old man...looking over it was!

 

In 1971 or '72 my friends and I saw Canned Heat, Edgar Winter's White Trash and Mitch Rider and the Detroit Wheels do a show at the Levittown Roller Rink! The most interesting thing about this is that the owner of the roller rink hated hippies, and wouldn't allow males with long hair into the rink to skate. His business started losing money, and he turned to rock shows to try to save it! It was a great show.

 

Can I say wow? WOW! What a lineup!

 

I saw Loverboy not once, but twice (2005 and 2006) at Ester Short Park in downtown Vancouver, Washington.

Okay, I understand Loverboy isn't a "major act" anymore, but back in the early 80's they were about as big an act as there was. And just so you know, Ester Short Park isn't like Griffith Park in LA. We're talking a very small neighborhood park with a swing set and such! Saw Eddie Money at the same place in 2007.

Good stuff!

 

I saw Pat Benatar at an outdoor even called Rib-fest about 7-8 years ago. The stage was basically set up in a parking lot and I was able to get as close as first row would be. Pretty good show, albeit fairly short (no pun intended, Pat).

I also attended an outdoor concert that accompanied a "100 Years of Flight" anniversary in Dayton a few years ago (hometown of the Wright Brothers). You could bring blankets or there were big round tables in the grass. Wonderful show that included Todd Rundgren, Alan Parsons, Christopher Cross, and a couple others I can't remember now. I do remember they did a Beatles tribute that was very impressive.

 

Cream in what was basically a big bar in Milwaukee in 1968 or '69. I think the place was called The Scene. Must have been their first tour of the US.

 

I went to a bar in West Hartford Connecticut called thw Agora West on a Friday night around '79 or '80. My friends and I used to go there to play pool because there was usually a live band there. There was this band there we had never heard of- U2.

 

I saw The Warlocks (Grateful Dead) play at a Unitarian Universalist Church circa 1965. It was a religious experience...

 

Perry Como at the Westchester Premier Theatre ,Tarrytown,N.Y., in the mid-'70's..the theater was in the middle of NOWHERE!! There was NOTHING surrounding it,except trees..it's been torn down (Faulty construction and a Payola scandal in 1980 forced it to close.) and replaced with a Office Building....a sad reminder of what used to be!

 

the Schaffer Beer sponsored Dance on a Show Boat Replica with Guy Lombardo at Palasades Park in 1969!

 

Lyle Lovett touring for "Step Inside this House" tour. He and his small band played in a Borders. Now what was strange is that the book area was small, but was 2 stories high. the second story a hallway around the perimeter with glass walls looking down on the space. The store manager placed additional PAs upstairs in the hallway as the store was completely mobbed. I did not stay to meet Lyle & Co., but I was told he stayed until every last person who wanted an autograph got one. IIRC Lyle left the store around 12:30 am.

I also was fortunate to see Keb' Mo perform in this store.

The very fine singer songwriter Don Henry in the parking lot of the Upper Merion Twp building. He was there to perform a scheduled concert in the bandstand. Severe storms were approaching and the shut down the electricity. Everyone could not fit in the performance space in the building, so Don played solo in the parking lot, spinning around to see the lighting strikes in the distance. Don lost his voice for a few days after this show.

Finally, I also remember see Thin Lizzy (some later variation of this band I'm sure) when I was a kid. They opened for a Demolition Derby at a fair in Ohio.

 

Oddest place to see a band: Themeland Amusement Park, 1982, for puppet show and Spinal Tap. Premiere of "Jazz Odyssey."

 

In 94 while residing in Waterloo... I attended SXSW (back before it became huge)

That year Johnny Cash played at Emo's... unbelievable.

From what I could tell about four generations of humans were represented.
Perhaps even five. There were black shirt tattoo'd and pierced folks intermingling with cowboy hat clad Texicans. It was surreal.

There were more black clothes than I have ever seen in one place.
Yet another great live set I have been fortunate enough to see. I feel lucky.

 

Ringo Starr at the Minneapolis State Fair.

 

Cheap Trick for me too, on a flatbed truck in downtown Indianapolis.
I guess this is quite common at fayres and festivals in the USA, but it was "odd" to me to see a named band next to the hamburger stall, playing during a police motorcycle display, no less.

In the UK...it would be Rainbow and Whitesnake playing in a "disused Tram Shed" given the grand name The Queens Hall in Leeds.

 

Joe Strummer, post-Clash, at a leisure centre in Brentford, west London in 1988. Memory could be playing tricks but sure the swimming baths was still open during the gig so you could see the swimmers through glass to one side.

 

The Bar-B-Q Mitzvah Tour '93

The Bar-B-Q Mitzvah Tour '93

Butthole Surfers (headliner), Stone Temple Pilots, Flaming Lips

This tour was all about playing odd locales.

Tickets were checked as you drove up a lone dirt road. Then just past a grove of trees with a stream running though it the stage was set up in a small open field situated between a corn field and an old abandoned motocross track in the middle of nowhere southwest Ohio. This was easily the most casual show I've attended. You could wander back and forth from the stage to your car. No real boundaries or police or hassles. Open fun for all.