The Monkees at Stanley Theatre — June 4, 1986
Forty years ago tonight, the Stanley Theatre in Utica hosted what felt impossible just a year earlier: Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz back together, with Mike Nesmith joining for select dates of the 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour. The reunion was supposed to be a nostalgia lap. Instead, MTV had just put their old […]
Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band at Lakeview Amphitheater — June 3, 2016
Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band played the Lakeview Amphitheater in Syracuse. A Beatle in Central New York. ‘Yellow Submarine,’ ‘Octopus’s Garden,’ ‘With a Little Help from My Friends.’ Plus hits from the All Starr band members. Ten years ago.
U2 at Pepsi Arena — June 2, 2001
U2 played the Pepsi Arena in Albany on the Elevation Tour. Twenty years after their club show at JB Scott’s, they were filling arenas worldwide. ‘Beautiful Day,’ ‘One,’ ‘Where the Streets Have No Name.’ The arc from dive bar to arena is one of rock’s greatest.
Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger at Bailey Hall, Cornell University — June 1, 1946
Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger played Bailey Hall at Cornell University. Two of the founding fathers of American folk music — ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ ‘We Shall Overcome’ — at a college in the Southern Tier. Eighty years ago.
“Weird Al” Yankovic at Riviera Theatre — May 31, 1996
Thirty years ago, “Weird Al” Yankovic brought his Bad Hair Day Tour to the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda — the ornate 1926 theater that is one of Western New York’s great concert landmarks. The album had produced “Amish Paradise,” his biggest hit since “Eat It,” and his touring show was getting more elaborate and […]
Kendrick Lamar at Washington Avenue Armory — May 30, 2013
Kendrick Lamar played the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany just months after good kid, m.A.A.d city had established him as the most important voice in hip-hop since Jay-Z. The Compton rapper’s live show was already matching the ambition of his studio work — dense, cinematic, performed with the urgency of someone who had something to […]
John Lee Hooker at Belle Starr Lodge — May 29, 1976
Fifty years ago, John Lee Hooker played the Belle Starr Lodge in Colden — a small Western New York venue far from the stages he’d shared with the Rolling Stones and the Doors, but exactly the kind of intimate setting where his boogie blues hit hardest. Hooker was a living link to the Mississippi Delta […]
Aerosmith at Rochester Community War Memorial — May 28, 1976
Fifty years ago, Aerosmith hit the Rochester Community War Memorial on the Back in the Saddle Tour — their biggest and most aggressive touring run to date. Rocks had just come out, widely considered their greatest album, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were at the height of their Toxic Twins partnership before the drugs […]
Iron Maiden at Rochester Community War Memorial — May 27, 1985
Iron Maiden arrived at the Rochester Community War Memorial on the World Slavery Tour — the most ambitious production in the band’s history at that point, featuring a 21-foot Eddie stage prop and a crew of dozens. The Powerslave album had made Maiden a global phenomenon, and Bruce Dickinson’s vocal power and theatrical stage presence […]
Dave Matthews Band at SPAC — May 26, 2013
Dave Matthews Band returned to SPAC — one of their most beloved annual stops on the touring circuit — for a summer night of extended jams in Saratoga’s natural amphitheater setting. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center and DMB have had a relationship spanning decades; the band treats the outdoor venue like a second home and […]