Journey at Saratoga Performing Arts Center — July 3, 2001
Journey played SPAC in Saratoga Springs. ‘Don’t Stop Believin’,’ ‘Open Arms,’ ‘Faithfully,’ ‘Wheel in the Sky’ — arena-rock anthems under the pines. Twenty-five years ago.
Loretta Lynn at Bonnie Castle Recreation Center — July 2, 1990
By 1990, Loretta Lynn was already country music royalty — the Coal Miner’s Daughter who turned a hardscrabble Kentucky upbringing into one of the most decorated careers in Nashville history. On this summer night she brought “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” and “Fist City” to Bonnie Castle in Alexandria Bay, a Thousand Islands […]
Phish at Saratoga Performing Arts Center — July 1, 2016
Phish played the first of three nights at SPAC. The Vermont jam band’s annual SPAC run was a pilgrimage for fans across the Northeast. Three nights of improvisation, community, and musical adventure. Ten years ago.
Bob Dylan at Artpark Mainstage — June 30, 2016
Bob Dylan played the Artpark Mainstage in Lewiston — the Nobel laureate’s Never Ending Tour bringing six decades of American music to the Niagara Gorge. Dylan live was always unpredictable, always essential. Ten years ago.
Run-D.M.C. / LL Cool J / Whodini at Rochester Community War Memorial — June 29, 1986
Forty years ago tonight, the Raising Hell Tour pulled into Rochester Community War Memorial — Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, and Whodini — and hip-hop officially graduated to the arena circuit. ‘Walk This Way’ had dropped weeks earlier and was already remaking American radio. Run, DMC, and Jam Master Jay tore through ‘My Adidas,’ ‘It’s Tricky,’ […]
The Rolling Stones at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium — June 28, 1966
The Rolling Stones played the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones — the Stones at the height of the British Invasion. ‘Satisfaction,’ ‘Get Off of My Cloud,’ ‘The Last Time.’ Western New York got the most dangerous band in the world. Sixty years ago.
Megadeth, Slayer & Anthrax at Orange County Fairgrounds — June 27, 1991
Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax — the Clash of the Titans tour — hit the Orange County Fairgrounds in Middletown. Three of thrash metal’s Big Four at a Hudson Valley fairgrounds. Thirty-five years ago.
Thundercat at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre — June 26, 2025
Just one year ago tonight, Thundercat brought his low-slung six-string bass and falsetto to Kodak Hall for the Rochester International Jazz Festival’s Headliner Series — Stephen Bruner, the genre-melting Grammy winner who held down the bottom end on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ and made jazz cool for a generation that grew up on […]
Elvis Presley at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium — June 25, 1976
Fifty years ago tonight, Elvis Presley walked onstage at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in front of 17,950 fans in the Bicentennial Jumpsuit — white silk, gold-eagle appliqué, the cape that took two men to manage. Fourteen months later he was dead. This is late-era Vegas Elvis, prescription-fogged and bloated, but it’s still Elvis, still throwing scarves, […]
Journey & The Doobie Brothers at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts — June 24, 2016
Journey and the Doobie Brothers played Bethel Woods — the original Woodstock site. ‘Don’t Stop Believin” meets ‘Listen to the Music’ on the sacred ground where the counterculture was born. Classic rock at its most iconic setting. Ten years ago.