Every year or so there is a concert in the Cities that attracts attention from numerous local bar patrons, as they share stories over a beer from such past concerts and look forward to adding more. But few artists have induced the sheer number of comments that lingered on for more than a week, from those looking forward to his show(s), while socializing at many different venues in and around Hudson, as the recent Garth Brooks foray. Many of those people couldn’t wait to again see his groundbreaking form of country music and showmanship, and the fact that he slated 11 different shows likely fueled the fire. These local fans were of all ages and genders, despite the fact that this was called an “unretirement” party for Brooks, age 52, by the AARP magazine. (Yes I receive it, hence my taste for classic rock).
— Also recently, a Dick’s Bar and Grill employee said he and some of his co-workers scored tickets for a luxury suite at the much-anticipated Black Keys show in the Cities. They were only one such box away from being right next to the stage.
— This whole occasional mega-concert theme had first played out, as my memory serves me, when an old friend Danyiel had dressed up as the actress on a Blink 182 album cover at Halloween, which was followed up by going to a concert of the same ilk as Blink with a whole crew of co-workers from Dick’s.
— Bartender Matt at Dick’s told me his parents didn’t care for the fact that he listened to the likes of Slayer, in concert and out, while growing up. But then he found, as Cheap Trick would sing about, his parents’ old records and put them on. In the stash was an original Black Sabbath vinyl, and added that the album cover was so vintage that Ozzy had his name signed as he was previously known, Ossie.
— Matt and others also have invoked the band Gwar as the best they’ve seen in the Cities, in some cases gaining that status than one time. Even in the upper balcony, they were reached out and touched by the fake (I think) blood that was spewed by the band, to the point that plastic sheets were needed to deflect it by those closer to the stage. And here I thought I was being hip, knowing all about metal music and even the dinosaur-like costumes worn by Gwar, but I really wasn’t sure if their blood was as real as that broadcast by, say, Gene Simmons of KISS. The guy who enlightened me most about Gwar, which was back in the Twin Cities late last fall, looked like another of their contemporaries, Scotty Ian of Anthrax, but with a better beard. A close second as far as information, was the aformentioned Matt, who said Gwar can play their loud guitar while in those bulky costumes because they are constructed largely of glorified, football-like shoulder pads. He and some of his family know this much because, for example, Matt’s sister once dressed up for a costume party as a Gwar-woman.
— And lastly on this theme, a friend said he’d seen Twisted Sister perform in a show along the riverfront in St. Paul, where frontman Dee Snyder chastized those watching for free from a nearby bluffline while not buying a ticket. That from Dee, imagine! You’d not get a similar beef from the late Ronnie James Dio, the friend said about a different metal concert, which also differed in that he was in the front row, close enough to see that Dio’s feet were as small as his stature.