Ticket Stub Time Travels

39 years ago today... February 28, 1982 - Tempe, AZ Shelley Berman brought his comedy act to Gammage Center at Arizona State University. Berman's comedy career started in the fifties and continued for more than 50 years.  He won the first-ever Grammy for spoken comedy and was active on TV and the nightclub circuit.  His most recent recognizable role was as Larry David's father on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Gammage is a large theatre for a stand-up comedy act.  This ticket was for a seat in the tenth row, but I don't remember much about the show or the crowd.  

 21 years ago today... February 27, 2000 - Phoenix, AZ Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas played a bluegrass and country concert in the round at Celebrity Theatre. This was first and only time, so far, that I've seen Alison, the pride of Champaign, IL, in concert.  Union Station was incredibly tight and fun, particularly with the new addition of Jerry Douglas on dobro, and band leader Dan Tyminski on guitar and mandolin. Great musicianship was on display, but this was overall a very mellow, laid back affair.  Alison's vocals were the star of of the show, highlighted this night by her covers of "When You Say Nothing At All" and "Baby Now That I've Found You."   Alison hasn't toured much around Arizona in the last 21 years.  We saw Jerry Douglas solo in Flagstaff and at the MIM, and Tyminski played a tremendous set that only Therese and me and about 100 early arrivals to the Innings Festival mainstage saw on a Sunday morning a few ...

 12 years ago today... February 26, 2009 - Phoenix, AZ  Frank Zappa's oldest son Dweezil played a tribute to his late father in a concert at Dodge Theatre. Titled "Zappa Plays Zappa," Dweezil offered a sampling of Frank's more rock-oriented songs of the 70s.  I never saw Frank Zappa in concert, and only knew a couple of his novelty songs like "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "Dinah Moe Hum."  Neither of these songs were played at this show. Just two weeks earlier, Dweezil won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Peaches en Regalia."  I wasn't familiar with this song either. Dweezil was an affable front man and good guitarist, but I wasn't inspired to add any Zappa songs to our musical inventory. Here's the set list for the show: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/zappa-plays-zappa/2009/dodge-theatre-phoenix-az-bd49142.html

 9 years ago today... February 25, 2021 - Queen Creek, AZ Pat Benatar and Eddie Money played classic rock on a country club driving range at The Good Live Festival at Encanterra. This festival series was designed to drive traffic to Encanterra, a 55+ active adult residential community in the far southeast Valley.    Eddie Money opened the afternoon with hits including "Two Tickets To Paradise," "Take Me Home Tonight" and "Shakin'" among others. Pat Benetar shared the stage and the billing with her guitarist husband Neil Giraldo.  "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Love Is A Battlefield" and "Heartbreaker" are among her most popular songs.

 15 years ago today... February 24, 2006 - Las Vegas, NV Celine Dion, Canada's top selling recording artist of all time, performed one of 717 shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Dion's "A New Day" ran from 2003 - 2007 and is the highest grossing concert residency of all time, attracting 3 million people over 717 performances.   This show was produced by Franco Dragone, artistic director of Cirque du Soleil, and performed in the new 4,000-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace, a venue built specifically for Dragon and Dion's vision.  "A New Day" was the hottest, and priciest, ticket on the Vegas strip at the time. This residency combined music, dance, performance art, special effects and state-of-the-art technology as Dragone incorporated aspects of his Cirque du Soleil shows with a pop music soundtrack. For all the hype, I was underwhelmed with Celine and her show.  While her vocals are truly impressive, she was stiff and awkward in bantering with the a...

 8 years ago today... February 23, 2013 - Peoria, AZ Spring breakers and West Valley locals flashed back to the 90s when Mark McGrath & Sugar Ray brought their SoCal vibe to the P83 Street Party outside Peoria Sports Complex. Sugar Ray had a few radio-friendly pop hits that charted in the late 90s including "Fly," "Every Morning" and "Someday."  Lead singer and front man Mark McGrath spun off the band's popularity to land some TV gigs as a personality on Extra and cable TV game shows and reality series. I was the stage announcer for this street festival performance, held on 83rd Avenue outside Peoria Sports Complex, spring training home to the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres.  P83 was the city's attempt to brand the area as its sports and entertainment district for economic development. Before the show, McGrath told us that the band's popularity and income potential was higher now than when the group had Top 10 hits in the 90s.  Now 5...

 13 years ago today... February 22, 2008 - Phoenix, AZ Over On the Poor Side of Town, Johnny Rivers brought memories of the late 60s on Sunset Strip to the Celebrity Theatre for an old-time rock and roll show. Rivers had a string of hits in the late 60s including "Secret Agent Man," "Poor Side of Town," "The Seventh Son," "Memphis" and "The Midnight Special" among others.  His album "Live at the Whisky A Go Go" when he served as the house band at the Sunset Strip club was hot in its day. Some visiting family members including my mom were in the house for this oldies revue.  Rivers was good, but my main memory of this night was the atrocious opening act, an off-color comedian, not at all appropriate for the audience, who was not only unfunny, but wince-worthy embarrassing and not up to par for what we typically see at Celebrity Theatre.

 42 years ago today... February 21, 1979 - Carbondale, IL Rock band Heart played a concert at the SIU Arena. Heart had released their first four, and arguably best four, albums by this time and were at the peak of their popularity.  Heart was fronted by the Wilson sisters, vocalist Ann and guitarist Nancy. I was one of thousands of college kids with a celebrity rock star crush on one of the Wilsons.  I liked Nancy.   The next time I saw Heart was 2006 at Celebrity Theatre/PHX, a 17-year gap from this college concert.  Following some sister feuds and falling out, the band reunited again and we saw them from the lawn at Ak-Chin Pavilion in 2019, still rocking those first four records plus the MTV-era hits.  I still like Nancy.

 39 years ago today... February 20, 1982 - Phoenix, AZ Singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg performed an afternoon concert with a full band at the original Compton Terrace. Born in Peoria, IL, Dan was popular in coffee houses and small venues during his early career while a student at University of Illinois.  Since he was from central Illinois, we followed his career rise closely.  His dad was a band director at high schools in Peoria and Pekin and the subject of his hit song "Leader of the Band." Dan's first two records, "Home Free" and "Souvenirs," provided a mellow soundtrack for Illinois high school romance in the 70s. Even with his Illinois roots, this show was the first time I saw him perform live.  He had a full band playing a more rocking set behind the album "The Innocent Age."  He returned to Phoenix just 10 months later for a solo acoustic show that was a fund-raiser for Bruce Babbitt's Arizona gubernatorial campaign.  I saw him two...

 13 years ago today... February 19, 2008 - Marana, AZ The WGC Accenture Match Play Championship began play on the South Course of Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain. This was a day of practice rounds and a chance to see everyone in the 64-player field before half of them catch a plane home after the first day in this single-elimination match play event.   Tiger Woods crushed Stewart Cink 8 & 7 in the championship and took home the $1.35 million purse for first place. This was the second and final year the event was played at Gallery GC.  Players were critical of the course's quirky holes and goofy  greens.  Player wives were critical of the remoteness of the location and lack of amenities.  The match play tournament moved to the nearby Ritz-Carlton Golf Club designed by Jack Nicklaus in 2009 and remained there thru 2014.   A strange memory of this day was seeing a number of spectators requiring medical attention after brushing against or ...

 45 years ago today... February 18, 1976 - Champaign, IL Country rock and bluegrass were on display when Heartsfield and Vassar Clements performed in concert at the Virginia Theatre. From Chicago, Heartsfield was a tight and talented 5-piece band that was very popular in the Midwest, but never reached the popularity peak of other country rock bands of the early 70s.  Heartsfield could headline a 1,400-seat theatre like Virginia, but often was tour support for bands like Atlanta Rhythm Section, Marshall Tucker, etc.  In my view, Heartsfield was on par with many of these groups they opened for. By 1976, Heartsfield had released its self-titled debut record, "Wonder of It All" and "Foolish Pleasures," their three best albums, highly recommended for readers not familiar with them. Bluegrass fiddler Vassar Clements opened the show.  A few years earlier, he had played on the classic "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, winning an instrument...

 30 years ago today... February 17, 1991 - Pacific Palisades, CA As part of the West Coast Swing, the PGA Tour held the Nissan Los Angeles Open at Riviera Country Club. The setting is spectacularly beautiful, as Riviera CC sits in Santa Monica Canyon, just below the mountains and a block south of Sunset Boulevard.  The stately clubhouse immediately identifies Riviera.  It sits high on a hill above the 18th green which itself is a natural amphitheater.  See for yourself this weekend on CBS and the Golf Channel during the broadcast of the Genesis Invitational, the event's current name. This was the first golf event Therese and I attended together, part of our long-distance romance at the time.  When she secured the tickets and suggested we go, I knew then we would have a long future of fairways and greens ahead of us. Relative unknown Ted Schulz captured the last of his two PGA Tour wins here this week.  The next year, Tiger Woods made his Tour debut here as ...

 18 (and 17) years ago today... February 16, 2003 & 2004 - Scottsdale, AZ Community boosters The Charros kicked off spring training in their city with "1st Pitch," a celebrity softball game and country concert headlined by Trick Pony at Scottsdale Stadium in 2003 and Rawhide Western Town in 2004. In a TSTT rarity, the same event with the same band happened on the same date in consecutive years. Serving as goodwill ambassadors and fundraisers for City of Scottsdale, The Charros help operate Scottsdale Stadium for San Francisco Giants spring games and run the Charro Lodge, an all-inclusive F&B patio in right field.  The Charros also present the Parada del Sol rodeo and parade and the Trails End street party, recalling the roots of "The West's Most Western Town." Local media celebrities, politicos and a few old timer baseball players took part in the softball game.  Trick Pony, the 2001 CMA Artist of the Year, headlined the live concert in both shows.  The ...

 2 years ago today... February 15, 2019 - Phoenix, AZ The final concert tour from Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band played a career-retrospective hits show at a sold-out Talking Stick Resort Arena downtown. Titled the "Travelin' Man" tour, this would be Bob's last big road trip before retirement and a chance for fans to remember when he set a high standard in live rock albums with the iconic "Live Bullet" of 1976. Saxophone player Alto Reed and bassist Chris Campbell from the original Silver Bullet Band were still there.  Shaun Murphy, former lead singer with Little Feat, was a background singer. Although Bob had released some new music on albums in 2017 and 2014, he knew what the classic rock audience wanted to hear; none of the new stuff and all of the greats from "Live Bullet," "Night Moves" and "Stranger In Town." The Silver Bullet Band was tight and the sound good for the sometimes lousy Arena.  With still long hair tu...

 12 years ago today... February 14, 2009 - Phoenix, AZ  Chefs from top local restaurants teamed with former pro basketball greats to raise money for hunger relief at the inaugural NBA Cares & Cooks event. Phoenix was hosting the NBA All Star Game for the third time.  The night before the game, this event blended signature menu samples with basketball celebrities and charity auction at Phoenix Convention Center. Each grazing/drinking station featured a local chef with a special dish to taste, a wine pairing and a former NBA player to meet & greet. JoJo White, Dominique Wilkins, David Thompson, George Gervin, Spencer Haywood, Tom Chambers and Eddie Johnson were among the NBA alumni.  Vincent's, Phoenician, Elements and Arizona Biltmore were some of the restaurants participating.  This was a delicious way to enjoy Valentine's Day and be part of the All Star Weekend festivities without attending the game. Confined to a wheelchair from cancer treatments, pro ...

 10 years ago today... February 13, 2011 - Chandler, AZ In one of the final appearances of  a 60+ year career, B.B. King took the stage at Ovations Live Showroom at the Wild Horse Pass Casino. I called this an "appearance" because at age 85, the "King of the Blues" could not truly perform the way we knew, loved and respected. Later in 2011, Rolling Stone proclaimed BB King as the 6th greatest guitarist of all-time.  This night was a final tribute to King, but in a 90-minute show, BB was on stage for maybe 30 minutes and his fingers on his guitar Lucille for a small fraction of that time. BB King was known for incessantly touring the world, routinely doing over 300 concerts annually.  I've seen him 11 times starting in 1983 and those early shows were tremendous, with a tight backing band with a horn section.  We saw BB at Sun Devil Stadium in 1988 with U2 in an unforgettable performance forever captured in the "Rattle & Hum" live concert film.    Th...

 28 years ago today... February 12, 1993 - Phoenix, AZ Country crossover star Eddie Rabbitt performed a taped-for-TV concert at westside honky tonk Toolies Country. We attended the later of two shows this night that were being filmed for later playback on The Nashville Network.    Eddie was past his popularity peak by this time, but had a long list of radio-friendly hits like "Drivin' My Life Away," "I Love A Rainy Night," "Suspicions" and Every Which Way But Loose" among others that highlighted this show. Toolies Country was an 800-capacity cowboy roadhouse that had drawn us to the westside for acts like Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels before the TNN taping with Eddie.  Rabbitt's concert was one of the last held here.  Country music was waning at the time and Toolies closed a year later, morphing into a Latino nightclub. Eddie passed away five years later at age 57 from lung cancer.

 9 years ago today... February 11, 2012 - Phoenix, AZ The 48th state celebrated its 100th birthday with a concert of home-grown artists at the Capitol building as part of the Arizona Centennial celebration. We scored some VIP passes to this free public event, so we had choice reserved seats and access to backstage, bar and catering.   We were offered the opportunity to do a meet & greet with regional favorite Jerry Riopelle, a friendly and charming guy who was happy to talk about his annual New Year's Eve party concerts at Celebrity Theatre. We kept the meet & greet passes and hung around like we belonged in order to surprisingly also meet Michelle Branch and Gin Blossoms.  All the artists signed our passes. Wayne Newton and Rex Allen Jr. were also part of the next day festivities but without our AARP card available, we did not qualify as VIPs for their performances.

 41 years ago today... February 10, 1980 - DeSoto, IL Tired of playing his daddy's songs, Hank Williams Jr. showcased his raw Southern rock sound and continued a career renaissance at DuMaroc nightclub. I was privileged to interview Hank Jr. before the show and wrote about his story and a concert review for the college newspaper.   The accessibility and candid conversation that he offered a 20-year-old student reporter was incredible.  A newspaper photographer and myself were invited on to Hank's tour bus for a 30-minute chat prior to his show.   A few years earlier, Hank Jr. had fallen while hunting in Montana, and went skidding 400 feet down Ajax Mountain, virtually landing on his head and nearly killing him.  During the interview, Hank removed his hat and tinted glasses to show his surgically-repaired forehead and cheek, now clearly formed from plastics.  One eye looked at you while the other looked away.  Without a touch of ego or vanity,...

 36 years ago today... February 9, 1985 - Phoenix, AZ Bonnie Raitt and John Prine performed acoustically both separately and together in an intimate concert in the round at Celebrity Theatre. At this stage of their careers, Prine was the more accomplished musician and he headlined the show as a solo act.  Raitt was accompanied by two acoustic guitarists in this performance.    Bonnie had recorded Prine's song "Angel From Montgomery" some 11 years earlier, and they sang this song together as a duet in this show. Fast forward to 1991...Bonnie has released both her 5X platinum album "Nick of Time," winner of three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, and "Luck of the Draw," the 7X platinum follow-up, another Grammy winner, and her top selling album ever.  Prine and Raitt return to Phoenix, but the show has moved from the 2,500-seat Celebrity Theatre to the 19,000-capacity Desert Sky Pavilion and now Bonnie headlines with John opening the show. What ...

 34 years ago today... February 8, 1987 - Phoenix, AZ Retired baseball players from the Dodgers and Giants recreated the 1962 playoff for the National League pennant in "Dream Game '87," an old timers fundraiser for Phoenix Memorial Hospital at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. This would be the first of nine of these annual Dream Game fundraisers that I was privileged to be part of.  The idea was to create a years-later "dream matchup" from a historically significant baseball series, bring those players in for an old timers game, and enhance the weekend with a golf tournament, dinner banquet and memorabilia auction.   Phoenix Memorial Hospital was the beneficiary.  Western Savings & Loan, my client at the time, owned Superstition Springs Golf Club and donated the course for a day each year to Dream Game for a tournament, leading to some terrific opportunities and memories for me with this cool event. While teams from 1962 didn't really resonate with me, partic...

 7 years ago today... February 7, 2014 - Phoenix, AZ "The Cowboy Rides Away" concert at US Airways Center was billed as George Strait's farewell to touring.   Now we know that was just a marketing strategy, hardly the end of the trail for George, as he's now a Vegas regular and plays a lot in Texas still too. But this show, performed in the round in large arenas, was great fun with a lot of music, later resulting in a live CD/DVD package of this show from AT&T Stadium in Dallas with special guest stars joining George for a duet.   In Phoenix, we got Martina McBride, not only as the opening act but also to sing "Jackson" and "Golden Ring" with Strait.  Both duets were performed on the live album. This was a long, greatest hits show with 29 songs before a four number encore.  The link to the setlist is at the bottom of the page. In the club of bands who sold me a "farewell" concert ticket only to keep right on touring, Strait joins Doob...

 14 years ago today... February 5, 2007 - Mesa, AZ Singer songwriters Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt and Joe Ely shared the Ikeda Theatre stage alternating telling stories and singing songs at Mesa Arts Center. We are big Lyle Lovett fans and have seen him dozens of times, some with John Hiatt, but this was the only time we saw Guy Clark.  He was not in good health, but the others clearly reverently deferred to him in this go-around-the-circle guitar pull.  His "Desperados Waiting For A Train" was a highlight.    All of these guys are very funny, and their between-song questions and banter among one another added to the casual, unscripted feel of the night.  They sang four songs each, leaving us wanting more. The 1,600-seat Ikeda Theatre is an acoustically-excellent intimate venue at Mesa Arts Center, the crown jewel of downtown Mesa.  This is a great place to see a show, parking downtown is free, and some new restaurants and breweries have opened ...

 40 years ago today... February 5, 1981 - Carbondale, IL The travelling production of the Tony Award-winning musical "Ain't Misbehavin'" showcased swing music from the Prohibition era on stage at Shryock Auditorium. The play's title comes from the Fats Waller tune of the same name.  Fats, a jazz/blues piano player, developed the beat known as stride piano, a driving, bouncy, improvisational style.  Fats was known for his overindulgence in food, liquor and women, and his songs revolve around these central themes.  For the Roaring 20s and 30s, Waller's songs were rowdy, raunchy and funny. The original Broadway play won the Tony Award for Best Musical three years earlier.  One year later after I saw this play live, a version with the original cast aired on NBC-TV. Loyal TSTT readers will note that this performance was the night after the Springsteen concert at SIU, featured yesterday.  I was entertainment editor of the student newspaper at the time, and wrote ...

 40 years ago today... February 4, 1981 - Carbondale, IL The high-energy and long-running concert performance of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band returned to SIU Arena for a midweek show. Touring behind the 5X platinum double-album "The River" released just three months prior, Springsteen played a 28-song show with an intermission and 4-song encore.  Fast forward to 2016, we saw Bruce salute this #1 ranked LP on its 35th anniversary with a tour where he played the album in order and in its entirety. We saw Springsteen make his SIU Arena debut in 1978 and were totally blown away, not knowing back then how powerful his live shows were (spoiler alert: to be reviewed on TSTT in December).  It was a great coup for the University to book The Boss again just a few years later.    Springsteen's legendary live performances during this time were highlighted on a triple-album box set "Live 1975-85," an excellent representation of the shows we saw at Southern Illin...

 5 years ago today... February 3, 2016 - Phoenix, AZ Golf Channel personality David Feherty generated a lot of laughs when he did his "Live Off Tour" stand-up comedy routine at the Orpheum Theatre. In town as part of the broadcast team for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Feherty showed his charming Irish personality and quick wit to an audience of golf enthusiasts.    Feherty won five times on the European Tour and was on Europe's 1991 Ryder Cup team, but he is best known for his show "Feherty" on Golf Channel.  The show just announced that it would be ending after 10 years and nearly 150 guests including four U.S. Presidents.

 13 years ago today... February 2, 2008 - Scottsdale, AZ Celebrity-hosted "Big Game" parties the week of Super Bowl XLII were held all across metro Phoenix including the annual Bud Bowl bash featuring Kid Rock in the Old Town Nightclub District. As noted in yesterday's post, we have never been able to score Super Bowl tickets for games held in our local market.  Thanks to contacts at Hensley, the area Budweiser distributor, we obtained passes to see Kid Rock at the Bud Bowl bash. Located in a dressed-up parking lot between nightclubs in Old Town Scottsdale, the Bud Bowl was a celebration of excesses, with dancing girls in mini skirts and go-go boots on 60s-era elevated platforms, strolling entertainers, magician bartenders and the Kid on the main stage. Kid Rock was hot at the moment, having released his "Rock 'n' Roll Jesus" album and the hit single "All Summer Long" just three months prior. Little did we know we would be an invited guest at t...

 12 years ago today... February 1, 2009 - Tampa, FL It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.  In stunning fashion, the Pittsburgh Steelers came from behind to defeat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in Super Bowl XLIII at Raymond James Stadium. Within a few minutes time, we Cardinals fans went from the giddy high of watching a Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald 64-yard TD pass to take the lead to a crushing low when Ben Roethlisberger found Santonio Holmes in the back of the end zone for the winning score. The 2 minutes 37 seconds left on the clock after the Fitz TD is easily the longest and most painful 2:37 of my sports-watching days.  Spoiler alert: the $800 face value of this Super Bowl ducat will be the highest price paid by the author for any ticket over the life of the Ticket Stub Time Travels blog.    What a whirlwind two weeks it was between the Cardinals defeating the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game at University of Phoenix S...