April Wine at the Centroplex June 1981

First song they played. fricking rocked right from the start.

Oohwatanite

I was there. Great band, great show. They aren’t talked about much now but they were a solid rockin band.

Just between You and Me

Gotta love how the bass player got all dressed up.

ETA:

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06/81

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what date is this?

ETA ETA: N/M. thought this was announcing a future tour date.

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I was there. Great band, great show.

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They aren’t talked about much now but they were a solid rockin band.

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Yep. And they already had a good sized catalog when they had that modicum of success with Harder, Faster and Nature Of The Beast. Very much a classic rock sound in the early and mid 70’s.

Awesome stuff here...
Drop Your Guns

And a phenomenal cover here...
You Could’ve Been A Lady

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They aren’t talked about much now

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Very true but would you believe they still play? Not all original members of course but man I’d love to see em again. Sadly I don’t think they ever come any further south than Illinois or Iowa.

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What up kindred spirit?

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Nothing much, brother. Got my vinyl of Harder... Faster that I’m gonna crank up after the Tigers bb game.

Frigg off Ricky lol

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I was there. What I remember most was the drummer on 20th Century schizoid man.

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Yep. Always have loved their version. I was about halfway back on the floor and I still remember Jerry Mercer’s shiny dome and drum solo quite well.

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I always dig that three part guitar exit on I like to rock.

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Yeah Day Tripper and Satisfaction actually work quite well together.

The Killing of Randy Webster (1981) was a TV movie about the true story of a Shreveport kid who the Houston police killed and then planted a throw down gun on him to claim self-defense.

April Wine was in the soundtrack. When I heard Crash and Burn, I had to have the record. Bought the Nature of the Beast album and wore it out.

Story time:

I got my driver’s license just a few days before this show. Since that was the case, about 4 of my friends and I decided to get tickets and when the time came it would force my parents’ hand to let me borrow the car to get there. Day of the show, I ask to use the car, my dad goes “Nah”. I had a meltdown and told him that all my friends would be out a bunch of money and they would hate me. He countered with being absolutely livid that I had committed to this without asking first. After my mom went to bat for me, he relented.

So we pile all of us into a small car and off we go. Come to the first traffic light, I turn left without an arrow and “bang!” we get into a fender bender with another car. Their car had no damage and our car had a big dent in the right front quarter panel. I was freaking out because I thought it was required to get the cops for any wreck. They said “No damage, no biggie. Don’t worry about it” so now all I’ll have is my dad to deal with later, and he already wanted to kill me.

We make it to the concert, April Wine sounds great, we’re all having fun in spite of everything. So we’re on the floor level (general admission) and we continue making our way up toward the front because drunk/stoned/fricked up people kept passing out and we would move up in front of them for a better vantage spot. (If you went to Centroplex rock shows back then, you know they were basically a Sodom and Gomorrah of dope and alcohol. Everybody was inebriated to the extreme.) We ended up next to the stage and then a flashpot went off right in my face at the end of the last song.

We left the show and I told my buddy George that I couldn’t see anything. I had a big blue spot blinding my vision. So we drove home with me literally driving blind, George riding shotgun and telling me when to stop and when to turn. That was it’s own little harrowing experience for everybody in the vehicle.

Crazy fricking night. Great show. Sorry for TL;DR.