Lynch
Here for the cookies and the tunes
One of the best concerts I ever went to had 5 bands. Three of those 5 kicked ass, but the first band sucked balls. They were absolutely horrible.
Concert: Monsters of Rock (July 1988)
Venue: HHH Metrodome (Minneapolis)
Lineup:
1) Kingdom Come
2) Metallica
3) Dokken
4) Scorpions
5) Van Halen
First band, Kingdom Come. They were terrible. Basically, they were booed off the stage. If I remember correctly, they even played one of their two "hits" twice, the song Get It On. I just remember that when they walked off stage they told the audience to F**k off and flipped us off. I could be wrong, but I think that they opened for the Scorpions on the Scorps' Savage Amusement tour (which started that fall/winter in the US) and we skipped the opening act because we didn't want to see that crap again.
Second band: Metallica. This was just prior to And Justice For All being released. They played all of the standard tracks from the first three albums, kicked ass... 'nuff said.
Third Band: Dokken. Again, a kickass show. There were already rumors flying around that George Lynch and Don Dokken were fighting and that the band would be calling it quits after that tour (which in fact did happen). You could tell they weren't getting along as Don stayed on the one side of the stage or the middle with very little interaction with GL. However, as a band, they still kicked ass. Lynch was fantastic, with about a 9 minute version of Mr Scary in the middle of their set, which really got the crowd roaring. If you've ever heard their album Beast From The East, that was basically the same show. Hell of a good time.
Fourth Band: Scorpions. These guys kicked ass and took names. From start to finish, they were energetic, crowd pleasing and it was just a top notch performance. Easily the best of the 5 bands that day. What was cool, especially when comparing them to Van Halen, was that they came out kicking and screaming. Klaus running around doing his frontman thing, Rudolf and Mathias leg kicking while rocking out on the dual guitars. Just a great show.
Fifth Band: Van Halen. Couple of disappointing things about VH on this day. As I said, the concert was at the Metrodome and if you don't know anything about that place, it's a dome, but not a solid dome. The roof is a big inflatable white baggie, so when it's light outside, it's light inside (see image below)
So, of course Van Halen wanted to play in a dark venue and between the Scorps and VH, we had to wait probably 80-90 minutes for it to get dark out, and of course in the summertime in the northern hemisphere, it doesn't get dark until 10pm. So that was annoying.
Secondly, when the lights finally went out in the Dome and the stagelights came up for VH, you'd expect Sammy, Eddie and crew to come out jammin'. Instead, they walked out on stage as the stage lights came up. No music, just them walking out to get to their normal places. Sammy goes up to the mic and says "Hi, I'm Sammy Hagar" (some people cheered), then he points towards Michael "this is Mike", points towards the drumkit "That's Alex" (more crowd cheering) and then points at Eddie "and that's Eddie" (most of the crowd roars).. "we're Van Halen". THEN they finally break into a tune.
I was like "W...T...F?!?!"
After that, it was a pretty good Van Halen show. But the way they came out was just sad. We had a good time after that. They played classic VH as well as the VanHagar tunes. For their encore, they played a couple of cover tunes. One was Don't Get Fooled Again (the Who) and I can't for the life of me remember the other track. I'm thinking it was the Beatles, but can't say for sure and just can't think of it.
Anyway, 3 of the 5 bands hauled ass. VH did a good job once they got out, but the Scorps blew them out of the water. Kingdom Come.. meh. They sucked. no nice way of saying it.
So I'm not sure I completely stayed on topic here or not. Monsters of Rock, overall was one of the better concerts I've ever been to, but I was also quite disappointed in a couple of aspects of it as well.
Concert: Monsters of Rock (July 1988)
Venue: HHH Metrodome (Minneapolis)
Lineup:
1) Kingdom Come
2) Metallica
3) Dokken
4) Scorpions
5) Van Halen
First band, Kingdom Come. They were terrible. Basically, they were booed off the stage. If I remember correctly, they even played one of their two "hits" twice, the song Get It On. I just remember that when they walked off stage they told the audience to F**k off and flipped us off. I could be wrong, but I think that they opened for the Scorpions on the Scorps' Savage Amusement tour (which started that fall/winter in the US) and we skipped the opening act because we didn't want to see that crap again.
Second band: Metallica. This was just prior to And Justice For All being released. They played all of the standard tracks from the first three albums, kicked ass... 'nuff said.
Third Band: Dokken. Again, a kickass show. There were already rumors flying around that George Lynch and Don Dokken were fighting and that the band would be calling it quits after that tour (which in fact did happen). You could tell they weren't getting along as Don stayed on the one side of the stage or the middle with very little interaction with GL. However, as a band, they still kicked ass. Lynch was fantastic, with about a 9 minute version of Mr Scary in the middle of their set, which really got the crowd roaring. If you've ever heard their album Beast From The East, that was basically the same show. Hell of a good time.
Fourth Band: Scorpions. These guys kicked ass and took names. From start to finish, they were energetic, crowd pleasing and it was just a top notch performance. Easily the best of the 5 bands that day. What was cool, especially when comparing them to Van Halen, was that they came out kicking and screaming. Klaus running around doing his frontman thing, Rudolf and Mathias leg kicking while rocking out on the dual guitars. Just a great show.
Fifth Band: Van Halen. Couple of disappointing things about VH on this day. As I said, the concert was at the Metrodome and if you don't know anything about that place, it's a dome, but not a solid dome. The roof is a big inflatable white baggie, so when it's light outside, it's light inside (see image below)
So, of course Van Halen wanted to play in a dark venue and between the Scorps and VH, we had to wait probably 80-90 minutes for it to get dark out, and of course in the summertime in the northern hemisphere, it doesn't get dark until 10pm. So that was annoying.
Secondly, when the lights finally went out in the Dome and the stagelights came up for VH, you'd expect Sammy, Eddie and crew to come out jammin'. Instead, they walked out on stage as the stage lights came up. No music, just them walking out to get to their normal places. Sammy goes up to the mic and says "Hi, I'm Sammy Hagar" (some people cheered), then he points towards Michael "this is Mike", points towards the drumkit "That's Alex" (more crowd cheering) and then points at Eddie "and that's Eddie" (most of the crowd roars).. "we're Van Halen". THEN they finally break into a tune.
I was like "W...T...F?!?!"
After that, it was a pretty good Van Halen show. But the way they came out was just sad. We had a good time after that. They played classic VH as well as the VanHagar tunes. For their encore, they played a couple of cover tunes. One was Don't Get Fooled Again (the Who) and I can't for the life of me remember the other track. I'm thinking it was the Beatles, but can't say for sure and just can't think of it.
Anyway, 3 of the 5 bands hauled ass. VH did a good job once they got out, but the Scorps blew them out of the water. Kingdom Come.. meh. They sucked. no nice way of saying it.
So I'm not sure I completely stayed on topic here or not. Monsters of Rock, overall was one of the better concerts I've ever been to, but I was also quite disappointed in a couple of aspects of it as well.
So damn boring
