This was basically my first concert that I can recall following a couple of close calls (i.e. shows I tried to go to, but just couldn't make it).
One of those was a No Doubt concert ca. 1997 at RCC, the local community college that I planned on attending, but didn't possibly due to a disciplinary measure. That was right after the band blew up on the success of "Just a Girl" and the venue was way too small for their rapidly increasing fanbase. The show resulted in moshing and trampling and they didn't allow another concert at the venue for several years.
Another aborted attempt was a Dropkick Murphys show at an American Legion Hall in Teaneck. This was on the heels of their Do or Die album and they were way too big for such traditional Oi! venues. That overcrowded hall coupled with the hardcore, somewhat imposing Murphys fans were enough to prompt our ride (my friend's father) to prohibit our attendence at the show.
That same friend's father was also our ride to Jones Beach that day. As for the show itself, I don't remember too much about it. I recall The Dickies playing "My Pop the cop," which I knew from a Fat Wreck Chords (Fat Mike from NOFX) compilation. Lit played their one and only hit, "My Own Worst Enemy" and Offspring must've run through all their classics with a focus on the recently released Americana.
The venue itself, Jones Beach Theater, is situated on the picturesque waterfront which serves as a stunning backdrop to the stage and it would be the locale of several memorable future concerts.
What I recall most about that day is the live radio broadcasts of Woodstock '99 we listened to on the way. That festival was just several hours away from one of the largest debacles in American music festival history, arguably a final nail in the coffin of the peace, love and music ethos of the 1969 edition.
And thus began an ongoing obsession with live music and other assorted merriment which will be meticulously cataloged and remembered herein.
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