1985

As I recall, this sort of homecoming concert was in support of Roadmaster's final studio album, Fortress. The band did an in-store meet and greet at Obidiah's, a local independent record store (later bought out by Karma Records). The show was heavy on the new material along with favorites from Sweet Music and Hey World. A couple of days later, I was invited over to Steve MacNally's mom's house, where Steve was staying for a few days. It was pretty cool hanging out with him for the afternoon and listening to stories about the band. This was the last time I saw Roadmaster. They reunited in Indianapolis for a few benefit shows in 1989, which was also captured on the hard-to-find Live Plus Five CD. Unfortunately, Steve MacNally passed away several years ago.

MEET & GREET: Roadmaster (Steve MacNally, Rick Benick, Michael Read, Bobby Johns, Toby Myers)

ROADMASTER

Not unlike the first Van Halen concert I attended, The Fools seemed like a group of impostors, paid and willing to perform horribly before Van Halen would take the stage to dominate the evening. The trick worked because Van Halen was awesome once again. Armed with material from the new album, Fair Warning, which was heavier on the guitar sound, Van Halen played a set list designed to favor the newest material while managing a fair number of past classics. This was the last time I saw the band with original singer David Lee Roth until the 2007 US tour.

SETLIST:
On Fire
Sinners Swing
Drum Solo
Hear About It Later
So This Is Love
Jamies Cryin
Bass Solo
Runnin With The Devil
Dance The Night Away
Sunday Afternoon In The Park
Romeo Delight
Everybody Wants Some
Ice Cream Man
Mean Street
Guitar Solo
Feel Your Love Tonight
You Really Got Me

ENCORE:
Unchained
Aint Talkin Bout Love

VAN HALEN
THE FOOLS

This show was great for a couple of reasons. First, Loverboy was a brand new band that was being played on the local radio stations and at the time; the first album was pretty strong. I haven't listened to it for several years, so it may sound really dated today, but they were a welcome warm-up band for the show as far as I was concerned. I also remember the first Loverboy album sounding a lot less commercial than all the Loverboy records that followed. Second, ZZ Top was just monstrous as a headline performer. They planned the set list perfectly so that you were rocking all the way through the show. The lighting featured some laser effects and this was all pre-Eliminator era ZZ Top, so not overly commercial, as they would soon become. And speaking of Eliminator, this El Loco phase of ZZ Top was somewhere between the classic ZZ Top of the past and the next phase of ZZ Top that enjoyed so much commercial success, largely due to their videos on MTV. So the set list was heavy on the classics and they played several cuts from El Loco - a bizarre little record indeed, even by ZZ Top standards.

SETLIST:
Groovy Little Hippie Pad
Waitin For The Bus
Jesus Just Left Chicago
I'm Bad I'm Nationwide
Don't Tease Me
I Wanna Drive You Home
Ten Foot Pole
Manic Mechanic
Heard It On The X
Fool For Your Stockings
Pearl Necklace
Cheap Sunglasses
Arrested For Driving While Blind
Beer Drinkers And Hellraisers
Partio On The Patio
Tube Snake Boogie
Jailhouse Rock

ENCORE:
La Grange
Tush

LOVERBOY SETLIST:
Little Girl
Always on My Mind
Prissy Prissy
Lady of the 80's
D.O.A.
It Don't Matter
Turn Me Loose
The Kid Is Hot Tonite

ZZ TOP
LOVERBOY

Sometimes I look back on this concert and wonder, What was I thinking? I'm not a Pat Benatar enthusiast by any means and I didn't even know who David Johanson was at that time. To the best of my recollection, I think I just happened to have the night off and decided to buy a ticket at the door. As it turned out, David Johanson had sort of re-energized his career since leaving the New York Dolls. His live concerts were capped with his cover medley of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place/Don't Bring Me Down/It's My Life. He had not yet transformed into the campy lounge crooner, called Buster Poindexter. Pat Benatar was a tenacious and tiny person who belted out a lot of hits. This show featured drapes in the upper arena sections to kill some of the noise and provide a smaller setting for a smaller audience. They used to market this technique as Draped for Intimate Seating. Essentially what that meant was, this show should be over at the convention center, but we put it here and used drapes to make the place look smaller.

PAT BENETAR SETLIST:
Fire and Ice
Promises in the Dark
Treat Me Right
You Better Run (The Young Rascals cover)
Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Eddie Schwartz cover)
Hell Is for Children
Heartbreaker (Jenny Darren cover)
I Need a Lover (John Mellencamp cover)
My Clone Sleeps Alone
No You Don't (Sweet cover)
We Live for Love
Helter Skelter (Beatles cover)

PAT BENATAR
DAVID JOHANSEN

There used to be this really cute blonde girl that managed one of the local independent record stores in my home town. This was the kind of record store that sold records, t-shirts, bongs (back when you could still call them bongs. Now I think they legally have to call them water pipes for tobacco use only, as if that changes anything) and of course they were one of the few local outlets for concert tickets. One day I was there and this girl was wearing a concert t-shirt from a Triumph show and this would have been around the Just A Game time period. She was saying what a great light show Triumph had and how incredible they were to see live. So, the next time they came around, I had to see for myself. When I heard they were playing close to my birthday, well there wasn't much stopping me either. I still kind of wish they had a better support act, but Point Blank was OK. Point Blank had a hit single called Nicole, one of those songs that became redundant quickly after a few times on the radio, so after tolerating most of their set, they could end with that and we could move on to the headline act. The light show was (as promised) unbelievable for it's time. I think they used to call it The Blinding Light Show - but the set was packed with great music too. Allied Forces was a fantastic album for it's time. I have listened to some of their music in recent years and unfortunately some of it really sounds dated. Nevertheless, I am glad to have seen Triumph in their prime.

TRIUMPH SETLIST:
Tear The Roof Off
American Girls
Lay It On The Line
Allied Forces
Fight The Good Fight
Blinding Light Show/Moonchild
Rock N Roll Machine
I Live For The Weekend
Natures Child
Drum Solo
Guitar Solo
Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh cover)
Hot Time In The City Tonight

TRIUMPH
POINT BLANK

I remember being one of the first to hear about this concert among the other bus boys at the local Elks club where I worked after school. Everybody wanted the night off for this one, but I asked first and got the OK to go. I had heard of Billy Squier from his earlier single, The Big Beat from Tale Of The Tape. Now he was gaining even more exposure with several rockers from his new album, Don't Say No. Billy Squier was moving from small venues to arenas very steadily and the new album had strong airplay. Lonely Is The Night, In The Dark, The Stoke and Whaddaya Want From Me were delivered with style and energy deserving of the artist. I think Foreigner had an oversize jukebox prop on the stage for their hit single, Jukebox Hero. While I liked Foreigner, I was not a devotee by nature, but once they started rolling out the classics and hits, the concert was very enjoyable. They were touring in support of the album, Four, which represented the smaller, streamlined band format from the 6 piece that had created the debut album, Double Vision and Head Games. Scorned members Al Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi had already split from the group and formed their own project called Spys.

FOREIGNER SETLIST:
Nite Life
Dirty White Boy
Cold As Ice
Blue Morning Blue Day
Waiting For A Girl Like You
Love On The Telephone
Break It Up
At War With The World
Long Long Way From Home
Women
Spellbinder
I'm Gonna Win
Starrider
Head Games
Double Vision
Urgent
Juke Box Hero
Feels Like The First Time

ENCORE:
Headknocker
Hot Blooded

BILLY SQUIER SETLIST:
In the Dark
Rich Kid
My Kinda Lover
Whadda You Want From Me
Lonely Is the Night
Young Girls
I Need You
The Stroke
You Should Be High, Love
Too Daze Gone
The Big Beat
You Know What I Like

FOREIGNER
BILLY SQUIER

The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You tour of 1981 was not coming to Indianapolis. However, the Rolling Stones marketed to several pay per view venues in other metro markets for the December 18 Hampton, Virginia show. The result was to be a "Live via Satellite" performance that was scheduled to be held at the Indianapolis Convention Center. The new LP, Tattoo You was spawning radio hits, the tour was a thriving success and sold-out everywhere, sharing the bill with bands like Journey, J. Geils Band, George Thorogood and others as opening acts. The Live via Satellite event wasn't going to be the same as having the Stones appear live in Indianapolis, but it capitalized on the popularity of The Rolling Stones at that time. Despite the affordable ticket price ($7.00 as I recall) the event was suddenly cancelled and cash refunds offered. Never realizing those ticket stubs might actually be worth more to me in the future than getting my $7 bucks back, I took the refund. Hey what can I say, the economic downturn in the late 1970s was still apparent to me in 1981.

The concert was in fact held in Hampton, VA and the setlist is as follows:
Under My Thumb
When the Whip Comes Down
Let's Spend the Night Together
Shattered
Neighbors
Black Limousine
Just My Imagination (Temptations cover)
Twenty Flight Rock (Eddie Cochran cover)
Going to a Go-Go (Miracles cover)
Let Me Go
Play Video
Time Is on My Side
Beast of Burden
Waiting on a Friend
Let It Bleed
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Little T&A
Tumbling Dice
She's So Cold
Hang Fire
Miss You
Honky Tonk Women
Brown Sugar
Start Me Up
Jumpin' Jack Flash

ENCORE:
Satisfaction

Having snowed heavily for several days preceding the show, we weren't sure whether the concert would be canceled or if we could even make the trek to Indianapolis from Kokomo. The show did go on and we made the trip to Indianapolis in the snow. It was a treacherous night for travel and everyone was tracking snow and ice into the arena on their shoes. The steep concrete staircases inside the arena made for a slippery evening as well. My friends and I grabbed three seats near one of the aisles. A drunk slipped on the steps right next to us and landed on his back. His bottle of whiskey went airborne and splashed most of us in the vicinity. Imagine smelling like whiskey for the rest of the evening and the long drive home - under 21 of course. Former Ten Years After guitarist, Alvin Lee was the least of our concerns. I may be an oddball but my all time favorite era of Black Sabbath was the Dio period in the early 80's. They burned through an impressive set drawn mainly from the albums Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules.The stage set was based om the album cover art from Mob Rules, complete with thhe torture rack. A light was shown on the rack with a devil's face in glowing red. Shortly after this tour, Dio embarked on his own solo career. Dio did cover a wide selection of the Osbourne era classics and the essence of the concert can be heard on the subsequent Black Sabbath album, Live Evil.

BLACK SABBATH SETLIST:
E5150
Neon Knights
NIB
Children Of The Sea
Country Girl
Black Sabbath
War Pigs
Slipping Away
Iron Man
The Mob Rules
Heaven And Hell
Paranoid
Children Of The Grave

ALVIN LEE SETLIST:
Sweet Little Sixteen (Chuck Berry cover)
Good Morning, School Girl (Sonny Boy Williamson cover)
Slow Blues in 'C'
Pecan Pie
Can't Stop
Slow Down (Larry Williams cover)
Boogie All Night Long Jam
I'm Going Home
Choo Choo Mama

BLACK SABBATH
ALVIN LEE