Nov 28, 1973 (50 years ago) The St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Only concert I ever saw in this arena, spur-of-the moment decision. Drove from NW Tenn with my wife, brother-in-law, and a couple of other friends. The gas regulations were in effect, we filled up and drove into downtown St Louis, found a gas station, filled up again and asked directions to The Who Concert, we were only five/six blocks from the Arena. We parked and found out the only tickets left were “obscured vision” for $7 apiece. Our seats are on the right side of the stage second row seats behind the (hockey) wall, a wall of speakers on side of stage blocked our view of the drum stand, a big biker dude was guarding the wall so no one could climb over after walking down the aisle or from the floor(his girlfriend was sitting in front of us. A few people tried to cross the wall, but after he clocked a couple of persistent ones, they stopped trying. The Who were doing Quadraphenia on this tour, there were huge banks of speakers suspended from the ceiling in all four corners of the arena. The lights dimmed(a little) and Skynyrd came on with Free Bird-the crowd was starting to raise hell, hollering louder and louder for the “WHO”. First time I ever saw a band booed off stage, Van Zandt said fuck y’all and threw his mike into the crowd and walked off, the lights back up, one by one the rest of the band walked off except for Allan Collins, he was in the middle of his long solo...and they cut the power on his guitar...end of Skynyrd! During the intermission, they came out and moved the speaker banks toward the back of the stage...😊 we could see the drum kit. When the lights dimmed the entire building sorted chanting for the WHO...the people on the floor started pushing forward and you could literally se waves in the crowd where people were being lifted off the floor from the surge behind - that didn’t last long, Roger Daltrey came on and told the crowd they better “calm there asses” down, cause if anybody got hurt they wouldn’t play. The crowd on the floor backed off and seven/eight minutes later the WHO performed one of the best concerts I attended, the did a long set, the sound was goddamn loud but absolutely clear...I had the opportunity to see the WHO twice over the next ten years, they were great....but I’m grateful to have seen them in St Louis. I drove all he way back home that night.
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