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 […]
Elvis Presley at War Memorial — May 25, 1977
Elvis Presley played the Rochester War Memorial on what would be among his final tours — he passed away just three months later in August 1977. Whatever the tabloids were printing, the King of Rock and Roll could still command a room with his voice alone, and Rochester audiences got a show that included “Suspicious […]
AC/DC at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium — May 24, 1991
AC/DC brought the Razors Edge World Tour to Buffalo Memorial Auditorium behind one of the biggest albums of their career. The Razors Edge had gone platinum multiple times on the strength of “Thunderstruck” and “Moneytalks,” and the tour was one of the highest-grossing rock tours of 1991. With Brian Johnson at the helm and Angus […]
U2 at JB Scott’s — May 23, 1981
U2 played JB Scott’s on Albany’s Central Avenue just months after their debut album Boy had introduced the world to Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. The Irish band was still small enough to play 500-seat clubs — the same circuit as Joan Jett, who had played this exact room the night […]
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at JB Scott’s — May 22, 1981
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts played JB Scott’s in Albany in May 1981 — the Bad Reputation era, just months before “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” would make her a household name. The debut album had come out in February, Jett was grinding out a grassroots following after being rejected by 23 record labels, and […]
Siouxsie and the Banshees at Harro East Ballroom — May 21, 1986
Siouxsie and the Banshees brought the Tinderbox Tour to Harro East Ballroom just one month after the album’s release — and Rochester got the band at one of their creative peaks. The show opened dramatically: dry ice billowing, a red curtain rising, then the earthquake riffs of “Cities in Dust.” Tinderbox had landed only weeks […]
ZZ Top at War Memorial — May 20, 1994
ZZ Top brought their Antenna Tour to the War Memorial in Rochester, reuniting with a city that had seen them through decades of touring. The Texas boogie trio had survived the synthesizer era of the ’80s and were returning to their blues-rock roots on Antenna — a back-to-basics move that longtime fans celebrated. Billy Gibbons’ […]