I always thought that my first rock concert was KISS at Tarrant County Convention Center in 1978. Somehow, in the haze of years and fading memories this presented itself in my memory as my very show. It wasn’t until a few years ago, right before my Uncle died, as we were having beers at Fred’s Café when he told me that he first started taking me to concerts when I was 9 and 10 years old! I vaguely remembered this, but as we talked, the details and memories flooded back to front. I started to slowly realize that he, my Aunt Barbara, and I went to quite a few concerts together. I used to spend entire weekends with them swimming. My very show? The Kinks and Cheap Trick at Will Rogers Auditorium in April of 77! I remember my friend Steve later being completely envious that I saw the mighty Rick Neilsen and Dave Davies in the same night. I ended up seeing Cheap Trick twice there! I also saw The Who at TCCC as well that summer, Daltrey swinging his mic, Pete doing windmills during every other tune, and the level of pure rock noise plastering our ears even way up in the balcony. I had always mixed up these concerts as being after I saw KISS, not before, which made more logistical timeline sense to me in my later years. I was a music junkie by the time I was 12 years old because of these concerts. Every issue of Creem Magazine was procured at the local 7/11 when I bought a Slurpee; perusing Peaches Records every weekend while we were eating at Crystals Pizza. It was my addiction and still is, as witnessed in this very blog!

Living within walking distance of the art deco Will Rogers complex in Fort Worth was something to behold for this young tone freak. There was a concert there nearly every weekend. And since my family was always at Hockey games in the arena, my brothers and I would sneak over there to see what was happening on the other side. As youth who frequented the facility regularly, we knew a secret way to get in the little 2900-seat theatre without a ticket: outside next to one of the stage doors was an emergency exit, which if you pulled hard enough would give way and open. This led to a staircase up in the balcony. We saw a lot of free shows that way without the ushers or B Don Magnuss (Mr Mrs Texas himself aka Facility Manager) noticing us. So I was able to watch sets by Dave Mason, UFO, Rush, Gary Wright, Journey, Montrose, Pat Travers, Robin Trower, Mahogany Rush, Paul Simon, Peter Frampton. And of course, the inevitable and ever present weekly Johnny High Country Music Review, slowly broadening my taste for older country and bluegrass music later in life. Darren Irvin and I would look at the local concert calendar, and then go down to watch load in and soundchecks, and the roadies and bands were totally cool with this! And sometimes we’d get kicked out by B Don Magnuss himself! But then we’d get a lucky laminate from one of the crew and then they couldn’t keep us out! We’d help roll in amps or carry in boxes of merch if the let us, OSHA be damned! Roadies would sometimes give us tour swag or stickers; I still have my Robin Trower laminate signed by Jim Dewar. Rob Halford actually gave us kids Heinekens from the band’s rider snack area during the “You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wise” soundcheck, British Steel Tour. It was an aural candy-store for this young music fanatic, week after week.

J Geils Band in the summer of 1980 was a complete game changer. I had absolutely NO IDEA who they were or what they sounded like at all. We scored two free floor tickets from my Uncle to see someone that we’d never heard of but were supposedly amazing. We got there early to watch the crew set up and the band soundcheck. Their manager told us that the opening band had skipped this tour date and we were in for a special full two hour show. We filtered in early and took our spot directly in front of the stage, despite having tickets further back. The crowd was mostly TCU students and we were super young middle schoolers by obvious comparison. No one ever came to claim our seats miraculously, and the partying college kids were soon being really nice to us and talking up the band. “This will be the best band you will ever see, kid. This ain’t Styx!” When they hit the stage, I realized that we were in for one hell of a ride. I’d never been this close to a band, in a crowd so fanatical and wild…dancing, singing along to every song, joints passed everywhere, beers spilling on the floor. Peter Wolf noticed us right off the bat and come over to sing right directly in front of us several times, including one time taking off my hat and wearing it for a song. It is still one of the Top 10 greatest concerts I’ve ever attended and easily the highlight of my concert-going youth. A year or so later, they had the number one album in the country.

 

Alice Cooper, Billy Squire, Bram Tchaikovsky came through town about the same time. Darren and I figured out at this point that the Holiday Inn on University and I-30 was the Hyatt House of Funkytown, with rock stars, groupies, and pool-side parties happening the same day of a big show. We saw Alice and Billy and Bram out by the pool, even chased down Alice to an elevator to get the coveted autograph. Billy Squire was fresh out of Piper and on his first solo tour, the Bram Tchaikovsky boys ripped through a blistering set of Power Pop which we loved. This was Flush The Fashion Tour, with Alice in full New Wave mode backed by Elton John’s band, Davey Johnstone ripping it up out front. It was a slow time for Alice, having been thrown back to smaller theaters, but we were all the better for it. He came back through a year later before ascending back into the rock royalty limelight and larger venues in the mid 80’s.

 I was fortunate enough to see Blizzard of Ozz Tour at Will Rogers in the summer of 1981, and Motorhead fucking opened too. I honestly knew maybe two or three Sabbath songs at that point, because New Wave and Punk was more my speed back then. Motorhead was very impressive; I remember thinking they were almost punk! When Ozzy and Randy and Tommy and Rudy and Lindsay hit that stage, it was like a heavy metal maelstrom. Randy’s riffs were like razors, you feel Rudy’s bass in your solar plexus. Tommy Aldridge played on this riser with lights that moved with his drumming, which I had never seen before; total strobe effect during every breakdown. And OZZY, his voice cut through all of it clear and perfectly. He worked the stage like a true showman. Every song was an anthem. It was also at this point that I started working as a Concession Stand Stocker at the complex, so concerts were even easier to watch because I had nothing to do during the events! Concessions were always slow during shows, so we could watch the concerts while getting paid hourly. My boss even watched shows with me! Thank you Mike Hemphill for making my first job so easy-going! By 1983, I’d been to probably 35 to 40 concerts in the theater, a lot of them due to my job!

Later in life, Will Rogers provided some amazing opportunities to see touring acts that benefited from smaller intimate venues. Depeche Mode in 1986 wins the award for LOUDEST band I’ve ever seen there, with them tearing up the place on the Black Celebration tour. I’m surprised that the roof tiles held out! Duran Duran in 1989 was fantastic, the band regaled back to smaller stages at that time, making quite a fan-scene for their sold-out Big Electric Theater tour. The entire place was a dancing mass of writhing bodies all night long. Same with the Phish show in 1995, completely packed with dancers and mayhem. And they played “Life On Mars”! Marilyn Manson’s AntiChrist Superstar Tour was originally booked for the little auditorium, but was moved into the arena for New Years Eve 1999 when “The Beautiful People” blew up on the charts. But that’s another crazy blog entry in itself contained within these pages!

In 2001, I left Fort Worth for the second time in my life, returning again in 2018 to find a huge new arena next door, and little happening at my beloved little theater. Then in the Summer of 2021, right after Covid restrictions lifted, one of my favorite bands in the World, King Crimson played a date at Will Rogers Auditorium on their final tour. The old place looked amazing and had aged quite well! My favorite spot in the balcony was the perfect setting for a live career review of Fripp’s band, a group that I had first heard in the Summer of 1980 a mere 300 yards away at 1404 Montgomery Street. A night that I will never forget!

Who knows if I will run into the old girl again? My dreams are sometimes filled with visions the old hall, it’s corridors, enclosed “family” areas, backrooms, secret passages, and red curtains. My life could easily be measured by everything that I took in there…