1981-10-07 Peter Tosh (Early Show, Late Show)

Strand Theatre (Ithaca, NY)

My Early and Late Show stubs.

After seeing the Stones in Buffalo coincidentally my next show was Peter Tosh, back at the Strand Theatre in Ithaca (see previous posts about the Strand). Tosh of course had been the first additional artist on Rolling Stones Records, and had put out a great hit single with Jagger adding vocals. That was way back in 1978, and by the fall of 1981 it was turning out to be a big year for the Stones.

In any event I had been a Tosh fan and the 1979 performance he did at the Bottom Line was the first cassette I recorded on my brand new Technics (Panasonic) tape deck I got for college. Now here came Mr. Tosh to Ithaca and, as noted in other posts, Ithaca was a robust scene for reggae music by this time. An exciting opportunity, and I went to both the Early and Late shows. I kept one of the posters announcing the shows in Ithaca.

1981-11-07 The Rolling Stones

Brendan Byrne Arena, The Meadowlands

This was an incredible Saturday night show. There are some familiar clips of video online from this big show. We were a little puzzled, at the time, by "20 flight rock" and another song we had not heard before. The following month the Stones played the famous show in Virginia that was broadcast and documented in a video. A cassette of that show recorded off the radio was soon obtained by a buddy in Ithaca and was circulated - that one is a classic and provided many great listens.

1981-11-13 Frank Zappa

Manley Field House

Zappa conducted and wailed on his guitar. This was the only show I ever saw at Manley Field House.

1981-11-27 The Rolling Stones

Carrier Dome

My roomate and I purchased our tickets from someone living in the Giles St apartments in Ithaca who could not attend this show on Thanksgiving weekend. The tickets said obscured view but were in a lower section. I don’t remember the seats being obscured at all; we had a great time and were desperate to return on Saturday night. 

I dont recall why they did a 4pm show times that weekend, but it was Thanksgiving weekend and who knows what football games or other things affected the scheduling.

Below: Pages from the program for the Syracuse shows. Click arrows to browse pages of the program.

1981-11-28 The Rolling Stones

Carrier Dome

Front section of the floor, Saturday night, Thanksgiving weekend, 1981.

After seeing the Friday show but without tickets this time, we drove up from Ithaca in the early afternoon again, with great hopes about the Saturday night show. Another 4pm show time, and as the afternoon passed, it started snowing in Syracuse. As we walked around the dome it became clear that there were not many tickets around. I found one guy with a single ticket who wanted $35 for it but the seat was in the front section of the floor. Luckily, I had $40 in my pocket and went for it. My roommate was not as lucky. But he had limited his chances by bringing a grand total of $20 to the show - irresponsible behavior for a rare and important opportunity to see the Stones on Saturday night in Syracuse - I told myself, as I made up to meet him after the show and he made his way down to one of the bars for a few hours.

Sitting down in my seat about 20 rows back from the stage, I was able to relax and considered the $35 well worth it to be that close to the stage. When the show started the view was good enough to see the lead singer's blue eyes - and everything else - very clearly.

1981-12-10 Reggae at The Haunt (Various)

The Haunt

The date on the title of this post is just one of the many reggae shows that took place at The Haunt in downtown Ithaca.

In the late 1970s and early 80s The Haunt was one of the best clubs in Ithaca. It was located in the back of a paved lot (not really an alley, per se) on Green Street.

There was a bunch of great music in town in the late 70s, and I became aware of Bahama Mama’s regular gigs at the Haunt during that time. They played there regularly; it became one of the best known music events around town. After a couple of years, Bahama Mama broke up, James Kraut going on his own and the Majestics becoming more visible throughout the area.

The owner of The Haunt, Jon Peterson, was instrumental in bringing a lot of the great music to Ithaca in multiple ways. (I did some searching but it seems you have to dig pretty deep to find information on the scene at the Haunt and his role in bringing great bands there.) It was also Jon Peterson, known on Ithaca College’s radio station as “Jah-Lounge” who spread to eager audiences the sounds of the latest, greatest reggae records, directly from Jamaica, throughout that time.

Several more posts follow on The Haunt, including one with photos showing the inside of The Haunt during a reggae show…