I know that there’s already a show called “Rockstar” (that briefly featured Phil Ritchie of the local band Lennex) but I want to see some up close and personal! Compared to 2005, which was my first summer here, this year’s been a complete dud concertwise.
A year ago in August I enjoyed the “Rock Never Stops” tour when it made an appearance in Salisbury, a concert that featured four bands that became popular in the 1980’s – Cinderella, Ratt (with Jizzy Pearl, onetime vocalist for L.A. Guns and Love/Hate, doing vocals instead of original member Stephen Pearcy), Quiet Riot, and Firehouse. Then November brought classic rockers Journey to the WYCC. Since then, phfffffft. Has it become a policy of Wicomico County (the Civic Center owners) to not have rock bands here anymore? They certainly can bring a lot of country acts in and I saw that there’s a show tentatively scheduled for February featuring guitar legend B.B. King, but there’s a pretty decent percentage of us out here that like to bang our head.
And of course we have what I consider the ill-advised decision by Clear Channel (who owns 96 Rock) to not bring in bands this year for Thirsty Thursday games and also making other programming decisions I didn’t care for (like dropping “Local Lixx” and “Local on the 8’s”). During the 2005 season I got to see some seriously kickass bands basically for free, and it continued a great introduction to the local music scene. For an area without a lot of population, the Delmarva area has quite a few great bands. I know a good percentage of them are based in the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas but the lower Eastern Shore can be a frequent stop; that is, if they’re given a reason to stop.
So what has 2006 brought? The only decent national band to have made the effort to play here was Lynard Skynard and unfortunately their ill-fated July 4th show was washed out by a severe thunderstorm. Now tonight I’m planning on making the drive over to Ocean Downs to see Foghat like I did last year to see classic Southern rockers Molly Hatchet. (I’ve missed Blackfoot two years in a row at Bike Week because they played Friday night, which is my bowling night.)
Now Foghat is an interesting blues-rock group that brings back memories of the first indoor concert I ever attended. In fact, they were an opening act at the first two concerts I went to, because they also were at the outdoor “Toledo Speedway Jam” earlier that summer. I still have the ticket stub for that indoor concert:
Unfortunately I’ve long since discarded the Blue Oyster Cult shirt I got at the concert, not that it would fit me anyway! I seem to recall the shirt cost $10 or so and the concert ticket was $7.50. But kids today have to pay at least $30-40 for the ticket and the same for the shirt. I know we’ve had inflation since 1981 but not that much!
But these kids also have to drive up to Baltimore/DC/Philly or down to Norfolk to see the national acts. I’m not expecting the Aerosmith/Motley Crue tour to stop in Salisbury but let’s make some efforts here! Even the classic groups would be great because the kids of today can see the influences their favorite bands had. And I can see some rockstars just a couple miles from my house again.
(Message to Dani if she’s reading this: Lennex is at Peabody’s in Cleveland on the 30th, go see them because you should like them.)
