30 years ago… My first Rock concert!
As the days grew warmer, there were two concert announcements that grabbed my attention, one was for Def Leppard and the other was for Van Halen.
Despite the changing musical landscape, both of these bands continued to have a large fan base, myself included. Like that of Van Halen, the music of Def Leppard was tied to a plethora of memories for me. To this day, when I hear songs from the “Hysteria” album, especially the title track, I am immediately taken back to my first two years of high school. Arguably, music has an ability to defy the restraints of space and time. The Summer of 1993 was also blessed with several great live albums from goliaths such as Van Halen (“Live: Right Here, Right Now”), Kiss (“Alive III”), and Ozzy Osbourne (“Live & Loud”), all of which increased my excitement for the upcoming shows.
“I almost always chose to purchase tickets in-person. They generally went on sale at 10:00 a.m. on Saturdays. Ticket outlets, especially those located in grocery stores, sometimes utilized a lottery system in a worthy, yet futile attempt to reduce the number of people waiting in line and in front of the store. Despite all measures taken, fans, myself included, would begin filing in at around 7:00 a.m. A dozen people, became two dozen. Two dozen, quickly became four dozen. And, four dozen, often became a gross; a hundred or more people, all united for one cause, one mission. Occasionally, small arguments and skirmishes would develop as folks jockeyed for position. However, more times than not, people would simply tell stories of past concerts and good times had by all, share band lore and trivia, or debate over which album or song was the all-time best; all of which fueled excitement for the upcoming shows. For a budding musician and musicologist like me, I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything, except for maybe back stage passes...”
- Woodard, Anthony. “Driving with binoculars...”. Mar. 16, 2023
The Def Leppard show on July 18, 1993 was my first Rock concert, with Van Halen following nine days later. Both concerts were stellar. In addition to the planned pyrotechnics at the Van Halen show, nature provided its own fireworks in the form of cloud-to-cloud lighting from storms fifty or so miles away to our North and West. The lightning formed a memorable backdrop for the stage and perhaps was also foreshadowing the band’s future contribution to the “Twister” soundtrack, possibly even its eventual (second) stormy breakup.
My ticket stub…
Photo Credit: Anthony Woodard
After experiencing those two shows, I was definitely hooked.
I also knew two things; (1) I really had to learn how to play the guitar and (2) I preferred live performances/recordings over studio recordings. And so, about two months later, I arrived at my local music store with $500 and a plan…
- Woodard, Anthony. “For Those About to Rock…”. Feb. 16, 2023
Epilogue
And it came to pass that twenty years later a certain rollicking cover band from Kansas City would “rock the house” with a song from that memorable summer of 1993…
July 24, 2013: I was “blinded by the light”…
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