My friend Marko took this picture of the Spectrum, the music and sports arena. They started to tear it down yesterday. (We saw Don Henley there.)
The first thing I ever remember seeing there was the circus, and the Philadelphia Flyers when they were so new, they gave away the tickets. (My dad worked there as an usher.) I watched Dr. J. play there.
I saw several WWF matches, too. (Hey, my kids liked them.)
I also saw Joan Baez, Hot Tuna, Boz Scaggs, The Grateful Dead (they played there 53 times), Big Brother and the Holding Company, Steve Miller Band, John Mellencamp, Cyndi Lauper, Chicago, Jefferson Airplane, The Chambers Brothers, Delaney and Bonnie, Hoyt Axton, Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon’s Graceland tour, Billy Joel, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, CSN&Y, Van Morrison, Grand Funk Railroad, Dr. John, Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Moody Blues, Electric Light Orchestra, Herb Alpert, Roberta Flack, Jackson Browne, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, James Taylor, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs and God knows who else. I can’t even remember them all. All I know is, I never turned down a free ticket. Lots and lots of memories…
Anyone else have any memories to share?
WOW! I am envious about Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cream, Grand Funk Railroad and more! I saw Eric Clapton play lead guitar for Roger Waters “The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking,” I saw Neil Young with the Shocking Pinks (!), George Thorogood opened that show, I saw ZZ Top, and AC/DC, the Dead, and many more…I can’t remember them all right now (although if I sat down and made a list, I could)…
flyers oh so long ago….the first flyers wives fight for lives carnival…still have pictures of a young hot paul holmgren and an omg sexy rick macleish. remember when he smacked a bat out of the air? remember the fog on the ice? my uncle was an usher there too so we got lots of tickets thru the years esp for the flyers before the stanley cup years.
springsteen….some of the best springsteen concerts in the country were at the spectrum. my daughters first concert was springsteen at the spectrum. had to start her off right. she was 9. and dressed like blossom…oy. “the midnight gangs’ assembled” was one of my favorite banners.
also saw the circus there….left my shoes somewhere stuck in the muddy field (its true it always rains when the circus comes to town) on the way to find the car. god forbid my dad should pay to park in the parking lot. he only drove because it was raining. my family lived up the street from the spectrum for 30 years. we usually walked there to go to a concert. or got my dad to drop us off at the front door.
what i appreciated most about the spectrum was the design. that deep bowl. i dont think there is any place like that. it was like you were almost sitting on top of the event. and the sound to me was fantastic. they didnt need giant banks of speakers that felt like percussion bombs going off and reverberating through your body. you were in the music without being beaten up by the music.
The Beach Boys were my first two concerts there, when they were all still alive! Afterwards, it was Aerosmith with Styx opening up (saw that twice). Adam Ant! When I turned 13-14 years old, it was all Grateful Dead, Neil Yound, and, of course, Yes — in the round. I still remember Rick Wakeman’s hair flying all over the place. Last concert there: Van Morrison when my ex kicked down a pair of tix he won.