Cher at Niagara Falls Conv. Center — May 15, 1990
Cher played the Niagara Falls Convention Center on the Heart of Stone Tour, which had become one of the biggest-grossing concert tours of 1990. Fresh off her Oscar win for Moonstruck and the massive “If I Could Turn Back Time” video, Cher was at the height of a remarkable solo comeback. Western New York got […]
X Ambassadors at The State Theatre — May 14, 2016
X Ambassadors returned to Ithaca — where they first formed as students at Ithaca College — for a homecoming show at the State Theatre, ten years after they’d first started playing together. Their breakthrough single “Renegades” had made them a genuine mainstream presence, but the Ithaca crowd knew them from before the stadium anthems. The […]
Cage the Elephant at Palace Theatre — May 13, 2016
Cage the Elephant brought their kinetic live show to the Palace Theatre in Albany, a venue that perfectly matched the band’s scrappy, crowd-surfing energy. The Kentucky rockers had broken through nationally with “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and were now alternating between anthemic rock and darker, more introspective material. Albany has always responded to […]
Four Tops & Temptations at Seneca Niagara Events Center — May 12, 2017
Two of Motown’s greatest groups shared the stage at the Seneca Niagara Events Center for a night of pure classic soul. The Four Tops and the Temptations together represented decades of ‘My Girl,’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself,’ ‘Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,’ and ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ — a catalog that defined a generation. […]
Phish at Pauly’s Hotel — May 11, 1989
Before they were selling out Madison Square Garden, Phish was playing Pauly’s Hotel in Albany — a legendary dive bar on Central Avenue that hosted some of the most important underground music in Capital Region history. In May 1989, Phish was still a Vermont-based cult band with a reputation built entirely on word of mouth […]
Ramones at SUNY Buffalo — May 10, 1985
The Ramones brought their 30-song, 75-minute blitzkrieg to SUNY Buffalo at a time when the punk veterans were searching for ways to stay relevant in the MTV era. Their debut album had launched the entire genre a decade earlier, and their live show — fast, loud, relentless, no breaks, no solos — remained the blueprint […]
Grateful Dead at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium — May 9, 1977
The Grateful Dead played Buffalo Memorial Auditorium during what many fans consider the band’s finest touring year. The spring 1977 tour — which produced the legendary Cornell recording just two days later — found Garcia’s guitar at its most fluid, the jams cohesive yet exploratory, and the audience and band locked in rare communion. Buffalo […]
Reverend Horton Heat at Bridge Street Music Hall — May 8, 2003
The Reverend Horton Heat tore through Bridge Street Music Hall in East Syracuse on a tour that found the psychobilly kingpin at the height of his live-show powers. Jim Heath’s band blended rockabilly fury with punk energy in a way that still sounded dangerous in 2003, and their Syracuse fans knew every word. Bridge Street […]
Bonnie Raitt at SUNY Albany — May 7, 1978
Bonnie Raitt played SUNY Albany on the same night the Grateful Dead were across the river at RPI in Troy. A tough choice for Capital Region music fans — Raitt’s slide guitar and soulful blues on one side, Jerry Garcia’s jams on the other. Raitt was still a decade away from her commercial breakthrough with […]
Foghat at Mid-Hudson Civic Center — May 6, 1977
Foghat hit the Mid-Hudson Civic Center at the peak of their commercial power — “Slow Ride” was still working its way through rock radio and the Fool for the City album had cemented their place as FM staples. The British boogie-rockers were a ferocious live band, leaning hard into extended blues jams that turned their […]