6/15/1988 - Three Rivers Stadium
This was my first trip to Pittsburgh PA. Actually at the time it was the longest trip I had ever been on. Especially since I was working 3rd shift and left shortly after I got off work in the morning. We took my buddy's car. I drove to his house after work and we left from there.
The day turned out to be hot. Like 96F and sunny. The drive down was uneventful and I slept most of the way. We only took one wrong turn in Pittsburgh itself and knew it immediately so we got there in good time. I think it was around noon if I remember correctly.
Three Rivers was a big
place! First time I had ever been in a stadium like that. We were
all the way up on the 3rd deck. Could see the stage ok, but the
view wasn't awesome or anything. The people down on the field
looked like they were having a blast. Crowded around the stage,
and getting hosed down with water at fairly regular intervals.
Did I mention it was hot? Between bands, we would go down to the
bathroom on the level below us and stick our heads under the
faucets to cool off. We also had our shirts off in our seats. Big
mistake as we both ended up getting burned pretty good, though we
didn't realize it at the time.
The show was no where near a sell out, and we could have moved
around and tried to get better seats, but we didn't bother. We
were just chilling and enjoying the tunes and the show.
Kingdom Come opened. They weren't bad, but nothing special either. They had a single out and a video on MTV. Not a disappointment. as we really didn't expect much from them.
Dokken on the other hand was a bit of a disappointment. They were pretty popular at the time and I had a few of their tapes. But their stage presence was somewhat lacking. Don't know if it was just the huge stage they were on, or what. But they just didn't grab out attention. The guitar work also seemed a bit spotty. It was ok, but didn't sound a lot like what was heard on their studio releases. Which was one of the big hooks for me.
I was a bit disappointed with Metallica as well. Not the band themselves, but with the sound mix they had. Really hard to hear. Couldn't really pick out the lyrics and the instruments all seemed to blend together. Couldn't really pick out riffs or anything just the beat and pulse of the music. Which was still pretty good. It was Metallica after all. On their Justice For All tour. We knew most of the words to the songs already so we could follow along, but I felt sorry for anyone who didn't. The band themselves were full of energy. They were jamming at 110% and giving it all they had. Which always makes a show good.
Scorpions were awesome!
The sound was great. The tune selection was good. And their stage
presence came across well. The only thing that would have made it
better is if it would have been dark. It was getting close to
dark when they were on stage, but not enough to have any kind of
light show or anything.
Van Halen.
What can I say?
I went not expecting much.
I liked their music. Had a bunch of tapes. Even liked some of the
stuff with Hagar. But I didn't really go to see them. I went to
see Metallica and the Scorpions. Both of which are more my type
of band.
When VH hit the stage though, I could see why they were the
headliners.
They were awesome!
Mix was perfect. Performance was perfect. They worked the crowd
like the pro's they were.
So much so, that I didn't even mind the keyboard stuff with Eddy.
Definitely worth the $25 I
spent for a ticket to go experience this.
Especially since we don't get a lot of these festival type things
here in the states.
Did I mention how hot it
was that day?
Man the car was hot when we got back to it. Windows up all day
with the sun out.
Also, the drivers window didn't work, so I couldn't roll it down,
and I was the one who got to drive home. Boy I was glad when we
got out of the bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go traffic near the
venue and finally got some air moving in the car.