I've seen lots of bands in open and closed arenas. From Gabriel to Living Color. Rush, Boston, Floyd, Page, Tull, Seal, Styx, tons.
I'd say the best are tied.
1987 Pink Floyd at Ohio State's Buckeye stadium. It was incredible. Wasn't as good when they came back in 1994, but maybe it's because I wasn't as wasted then.
I think it was 1985, Legend Valley (Central Ohio) is really a farm. They've had some really good concerts there though. Got there on Friday night, drank a lot in "outside" the gates. Thousands of people hanging out, passing drinks around and stuff I was never into. Saturday was a few bands, don't think I ever knew who they were. Sunday was three bands, one got booed off the stage. People were throwing mud at them. Someone not very known then came out and said "Dudes, that's was wrong. Sure they suck, but please don't throw mud at us". That was Jon Bon Jovi. They played for about an hour, maybe hour and a half. Then it was Def Leppard. It was insane there.
It was supposed to be about 72 and mostly cloudy. Turned out to be 91 and full blazing sun. 3 fire departments brought their big engines and were spraying the crowd all day long. I heard reports on the radio that week that there were an estimated 130,000 people there on both days. I got so sun burned, even through my shoes. I was too drunk to care though.
Funny and sad story. I went with my best friend and other friends. He was a skinny dude, had a congenital heart defect but didn't let that stop him from having a good life. We had a few 110 cameras to take photos of all the hot chicks. Got so many I couldn't remember them all. Years later, him and I were going through old photos and I found one that caught my eye. I was quite stunned. Hot chick, big boobs, very wet white totally see through one-piece suit. Big rocker chick hair that was popular in the 80's. I said "hey do you remember much about that weekend at Legend Valley?" He said, "Not really, I was pretty wasted and stoned". His wife said "Legend Valley? You guys were there?". I said "Yep, were you?" She said "Oh god yea, it was freaking awesome, I got so drunk I ran around in a white suit and guys kept throwing water on me. I didn't know why until a friend said they could see everything through the suit!".
You should have seen the look on her eyes when I turned the photo around. Totally priceless. Not to mention weird that none of us realized we were all there years before they started dating.
Sad part is my friend passed a few years later and his wife moved away and took both the kids with her. I used to see them a few times a week and haven't once for over 12 years.
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