George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic at Stewart International Airport — September 26, 1976
On September 26, 1976, George Clinton brought Parliament-Funkadelic to Hangar E at Stewart Airfield in Newburgh to rehearse the elaborate P-Funk Earth Tour — the trek that would literally land the Mothership on stage. The session was recorded and later surfaced as the live album “Mothership Connection: The Newburgh Session,” cut during the band’s absolute […]
Johnny Cash at Potsdam Civic Center — September 25, 1961
On September 25, 1961, Johnny Cash brought his touring show to the Potsdam Civic Center — a stop deep in the North Country, seven years before “Live at Folsom Prison” made him a household name. This was Cash the road dog, still a hard-touring Nashville riser crisscrossing the country night after night, not yet the […]
Chuck Mangione at Melody Fair Music Theater — September 24, 1976
Chuck Mangione — the flugelhorn-playing, Rochester-born jazz star who’d soon become impossible to avoid on pop radio — played Melody Fair’s famous rotating stage in North Tonawanda a year before “Feels So Good” turned him into a household name. Playing Western New York wasn’t just a tour stop for Mangione; it was close to home, […]
Styx at Mid-Hudson Civic Center — September 23, 2016
Styx pulled back into the Mid-Hudson Civic Center a decade ago, proof that “Come Sail Away” and “Renegade” never stopped filling rooms four decades after they first charted. The band that helped define arena rock’s grandest, most theatrical era was still doing the work — full production, full harmonies, a catalog deep enough to make […]
Taylor Swift at Mid-Hudson Civic Center — September 22, 2006
Taylor Swift played the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie a full month before her self-titled debut album even hit shelves — a 16-year-old opening act with one song, “Tim McGraw,” getting people to pay attention. She opened for country hitmaker Phil Vassar that night, still years from becoming the biggest star on the planet, just […]
Johnny Winter at Charity’s Pub — September 21, 1996
Johnny Winter, the albino Texas guitar phenom who’d been tearing up stages since Woodstock, played Charity’s Pub in Clifton Park on this night in 1996 — a genuine blues-rock legend in a room the size of a living room. Decades past his star-making run and his 1969 Woodstock set, Winter was still touring hard on […]
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium — September 20, 1986
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band rolled into Buffalo Memorial Auditorium on the Like a Rock tour, the run behind his March 1986 album of the same name. Seger’s brand of blue-collar, heartland rock was built for a barn like the Aud, and Buffalo turned out for it the way it always has for […]
Stevie Wonder at Onondaga War Memorial Auditorium — September 19, 1986
Stevie Wonder brought his commercial and creative peak to Syracuse on the In Square Circle tour, the trek behind his 1985 album that had already spun off “Part-Time Lover” and “Overjoyed” into radio staples. The Onondaga County War Memorial crowd got a career-spanning set that reached back through “Superstition” and “Higher Ground” and forward into […]
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons at Rochester Community War Memorial — September 18, 1976
On September 18, 1976, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons brought that unmistakable falsetto to the Rochester Community War Memorial — in the middle of one of pop’s great second acts. More than a decade after “Sherry” and “Walk Like a Man” first made them stars, the group had roared back with “December, 1963 (Oh, […]
Rush at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena — September 17, 1976
On September 17, 1976, Rush rolled into the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton as the opening act — not the headliner — on a Blue Öyster Cult tour, part of a swing that took the bands through Syracuse, Plattsburgh, and Rochester within the same week. It’s a striking footnote given the timing: Rush’s […]