Rush6/26/84 St. Paul Civic Center w/? Ticket Price: Unknown
I don’t recall who I saw this show with and I haven’t had a chance to ask John about it. He may have been there.
Rush is one of those bands that I liked in my pre-Who enlightenment days. However, they are not one of the bands that I’m embarrassed to say that I liked back then. In fact, I still like some of their stuff. I have ‘Permanent Waves’, ‘Moving Pictures’, & ‘Signals’ in my active listening library. Three great albums back to back to back.
We had main floor seats. This was the only arena concert at we which had main floor seats. (The Clash doesn’t count.) Whenever you attend an arena concert and have main floor seats you can’t help but have to stand on the chairs. Or try. The security guards make you get down for a while, but the crowd in front jump back up. What are ya gonna do?
So, Rush was great. Great sound and a big old screen above the stage to play visual assists during the concert. The best video clip was Count Floyd, Joe Flaherty’s hilarious character from SCTV, doing a bit about how scary the band was. They timed it out perfectly so as to have Alex Lifeson running across the stage as Count Floyd pointed it out. “Look at that man running across the stage! Oooooo, scary!”
This was also the one concert where I noticed the people who are there to assist those fans who might be having a bad trip. On the drugs, don’t you know.
Also, don’t you just hate it when the ticket takers rip the tickets so as to completely obliterate the band name?
The Psychedelic Furs w/Talk Talk
7/28/84 Orpheum Theater w/John Ticket Price: $11.00
Tickets were purchased for this show before John and I had heard any of The Psychedelic Furs' material! It is possible that John may have read some good things about them, but as far as I can remember, we bought tickets because we liked the name of the band. Seriously. We knew more about the opening act, Talk Talk, than about the headliner.
Right after picking up the tickets, John bought The Furs’ latest album, ‘Mirror Moves’ in the cassette format. We listened to it in his car on the way home from gambling our $11.00 each on an unknown band and we were relieved. It’s a really good album.
The show was good, too. I recall ‘Imitation of Christ’ being played. After the show, we sought out more of their albums and found some very good music. We took a chance on a name of a band and it paid off.
The Pretenders w/Simple Minds
8/19/84 St. Paul Civic Center w/John & Steve Ticket Price: $11.00
As part of a big send off for my younger brother, who was about to enter army, John and I brought him along to this show. Thanks for your service, Steve.
In a similar vein as The Clash show we attended, this was a version of The Pretenders. The Pretenders 2.0 if you will. Unlike The Clash, The Pretenders continued to produce good albums after their lineup changes. Their many, many lineup changes. This tour was to promote their very good third album, ‘Learning to Crawl’.
The show was good. Although the seats were a bit far back, we did have a straight on shot of the stage. Again, I don’t have much more than that to tell you.
Oh! Chrissie Hynde’s then husband (or almost husband, they were married sometime in 1984), Jim Kerr’s band Simple Minds opened. They played a short set that was pretty good. I had their album, ‘Sparkle in the Rain’, and really liked their tune ‘Up On the Catwalk’. They played that tune, as well. Woot, woot.
I don’t recall who I saw this show with and I haven’t had a chance to ask John about it. He may have been there.
Rush is one of those bands that I liked in my pre-Who enlightenment days. However, they are not one of the bands that I’m embarrassed to say that I liked back then. In fact, I still like some of their stuff. I have ‘Permanent Waves’, ‘Moving Pictures’, & ‘Signals’ in my active listening library. Three great albums back to back to back.
We had main floor seats. This was the only arena concert at we which had main floor seats. (The Clash doesn’t count.) Whenever you attend an arena concert and have main floor seats you can’t help but have to stand on the chairs. Or try. The security guards make you get down for a while, but the crowd in front jump back up. What are ya gonna do?
So, Rush was great. Great sound and a big old screen above the stage to play visual assists during the concert. The best video clip was Count Floyd, Joe Flaherty’s hilarious character from SCTV, doing a bit about how scary the band was. They timed it out perfectly so as to have Alex Lifeson running across the stage as Count Floyd pointed it out. “Look at that man running across the stage! Oooooo, scary!”
This was also the one concert where I noticed the people who are there to assist those fans who might be having a bad trip. On the drugs, don’t you know.
Also, don’t you just hate it when the ticket takers rip the tickets so as to completely obliterate the band name?
The Psychedelic Furs w/Talk Talk7/28/84 Orpheum Theater w/John Ticket Price: $11.00
Tickets were purchased for this show before John and I had heard any of The Psychedelic Furs' material! It is possible that John may have read some good things about them, but as far as I can remember, we bought tickets because we liked the name of the band. Seriously. We knew more about the opening act, Talk Talk, than about the headliner.
Right after picking up the tickets, John bought The Furs’ latest album, ‘Mirror Moves’ in the cassette format. We listened to it in his car on the way home from gambling our $11.00 each on an unknown band and we were relieved. It’s a really good album.
The show was good, too. I recall ‘Imitation of Christ’ being played. After the show, we sought out more of their albums and found some very good music. We took a chance on a name of a band and it paid off.
The Pretenders w/Simple Minds8/19/84 St. Paul Civic Center w/John & Steve Ticket Price: $11.00
As part of a big send off for my younger brother, who was about to enter army, John and I brought him along to this show. Thanks for your service, Steve.
In a similar vein as The Clash show we attended, this was a version of The Pretenders. The Pretenders 2.0 if you will. Unlike The Clash, The Pretenders continued to produce good albums after their lineup changes. Their many, many lineup changes. This tour was to promote their very good third album, ‘Learning to Crawl’.
The show was good. Although the seats were a bit far back, we did have a straight on shot of the stage. Again, I don’t have much more than that to tell you.
Oh! Chrissie Hynde’s then husband (or almost husband, they were married sometime in 1984), Jim Kerr’s band Simple Minds opened. They played a short set that was pretty good. I had their album, ‘Sparkle in the Rain’, and really liked their tune ‘Up On the Catwalk’. They played that tune, as well. Woot, woot.
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