Here's a few pics of the crowd from that night. Coneheads, Unknown Comic, Rocky Horror, "Punk Rock," very fitting costumes for the late 70s:
And here's a short article from the week after the concert. Although there's a few pics from the VCU concert, there's surprisingly almost no mention at all of the actual concert.
Photo courtesy of VCU Libraries
Great history, but it reads like a 5th grade book report!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I was there!
ReplyDeleteI was at the Halloween VCU concert in '78. Most of us in the crowd were gawkers, thats fer sure, and heard this new sound for the 1st time. We had trouble making sense of it. There was no mosh pit. However, it was held at the VCU, the largest art school in the country, on halloween, and the costumes were truly outrageous. Admission was free. A few people were hip to it in the days leading up, all northerners. I recall 1 NY gal who was a rarity, and id'd with punk, telling me she was going "as Ramona". The gabba gabba hey guy came on-stage at the end of the last song- this was catchy, and the only song I can identify. I became a huge fan later in life, but it felt like nothing, at the time.
ReplyDeleteI was dressed as a banana as part of a Fruit of the Loom costume my roommates and I came up with by making a pair of "tighty whities" out of two sheets.
DeleteI took some pics of them in front of the Album Den at Brookhill-Azalea that afternoon. They were supremely bored and/or hungover.
ReplyDeleteI too was there. We decided at the last minute to go to the show. My roomie and pals all lived in Scherer Hall. We got all dolled up in some stupid outfits and went to the gym. We'd never heard of the Ramones and "punk rock" was mostly a mystery to us still. This band "The Ramones" was a complete unknown to us, as one guy was a Beatles Only guy, one was a prog-rock guy who lived and breathed Yes and Genesis, one was a folk music fan and I was a Stones and Motown and Top 40 guy. We went in and this band took the stage in their leather jackets and you heard "1234!" yelled out and this sonic blast hit us like an out of control city bus. My pals all curled their lips, and said things like, "eh-h-h....not for me..."
ReplyDeleteI shook my head and told them as I stood with complete rapt attention, "No. You are wrong, THIS is the best band in the world!" The next day I went out and bought the only Ramones album available in Back Alley Disc, "Rocket to Russia." I still play that LP to this day in 2016 and still get that rush when I hear it.
I was there, and was a Ramones fan already. Pushed my way to the front. Enjoyed all the costumes, especially the woman dressed as Jackie Onassis in pillbox hat, and covered in blood. And also the guys who came dressed as sperm.
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