Molly Hatchet / April Wine, Feb. 24, 1981, El Paso County Coliseum, El Paso, TX

This was my first concert.  I was fifteen years old and my family had just moved to El Paso, Texas, from Spangdahlem, Germany---my Dad was in the U.S. Army.  After spending my early teen years reading Rolling Stone Magazine, spinning numerous live albums on my parent's turntable, and having a Frank Zappa concert cancelled before I could attend, I was anxiously looking forward to finally experiencing a live rock and roll concert.

I was already a fan of Molly Hatchet, a southern rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, and was quite thrilled to have them as my first show.  My older brother, Tom, owned their first two albums, the self-titled debut---featuring Frazetta's "Death Dealer" painting on the cover, and "Flirtin' with Disaster," and I had recently purchased their latest album "Beatin' the Odds," for which they were touring.

The tickets were going for $8.00 and the seating was general admission.  I accompanied my Mom to a local department store called The Popular, and we bought two, one for me and one for my friend John, who was going to attend the show with me.  I was so excited and proud to have those tickets in my possession. I kept them on my bedside table, where I could always see them.  Then, I came home one day to find that our family's poodle, Candy, had chewed them up.  I'm pretty sure that people in the next county heard me scream when I saw those mutilated tickets, but fortunately, we were able to tape them back together and they were later accepted without question at the venue door.

The chewed-up tickets were not the last bump in the road for the show, however.  My friend John got into trouble with his parents and they punished him by forbidding him from attending the concert with me.  Fortunately, I had a good friend in my journalism class at Andress High School named Mary who was able to go with me, and so, on the evening of February 24, 1981, my parent's drove us to the El Paso County Coliseum in their brand new, wood-paneled Pontiac Bonneville station wagon.

Once inside the Coliseum, the first thing I did was wade into a mob of people in front of the vendor's booth to buy a t-shirt and a poster.  (A few days after the show, I mailed the poster to a friend named Marc in Germany.  In 2003, I found and purchased the same poster on eBay.  It now hangs in my garage.) 

After buying the t-shirt and poster, Mary and I headed out to the concert area.  The coliseum was a multi-use facility---including everything from rodeos to concerts to ice-skating shows, with a wide open floor for standing room-only and seats on the side.  We were lucky to find front row seats on the left side of the stage, and since the seats were about ten feet higher than the floor, we had a perfect view of the stage.

We sat down, and immediately I noticed a long-haired man running around on the floor who I came to know as Simon.  In fact, just about anybody who has gone to a concert in El Paso in the last thirty years knows about Simon.  He made a reputation for himself at countless shows as the ultimate rock and roll fan.  He'd run through the crowd singing and interpretively acting out the songs played over the PA before the show.  He'd yell to the crowd, and when the show started, he'd push his way to the front.  He did all of these things at most---if not all---of the rock and roll shows I attended in El Paso and nearby Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Shortly before the show started, I noticed a man standing in the backstage area, leaning on the rail that ran in front of the stage.  He had long brown-blonde hair and a mustache and was smoking a cigarette.  I was certain  he was Molly Hatchet guitarist Duane Roland, but was dissuaded of this notion by the people around me.  These days, I'm more sure that I was right and I have a daydream of walking over to talk to him, explaining that I was attending my first concert, and having him take Mary and I backstage for the best first-concert experience ever!  But, of course, the people around me told me he was a roadie and I kept my seat and a lifetime of regret.

April Wine hit the stage around eight o'clock.  A veteran band from Canada, they were touring for their new album "The Nature of the Beast."  Technically, they were the first band I ever saw live, and I was impressed.  I was only familiar with one song of theirs---"Just Between You and Me," which was currently being played on the radio---but it wasn't hard to like songs that I had not heard before.  I remember liking "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" as well as "I Like to Rock."  By the time they finished their set, I had no complaints about the music of April Wine.

Finally, at around nine-thirty, the house lights dimmed and Molly Hatchet stormed the stage to a blast of Norse-sounding trumpets.  The speakers on either side of the stage were lit and adorned with the covers from their first two albums and the latest album cover dominated the back of the stage.  After the trumpet blast, a guitar riff growled and lead singer Jimmy Farrar bellowed "Hell, yeah!"  He kicked the bottom of his microphone stand so that it spun as he walked to the front of the stage, singing the song "Bounty Hunter" while the band roared behind him.

My eyes had to have been the size of dinner plates as I watched with fascination and I'm sure that my ears had never heard a better sound up until then.  It was very loud and I loved it!

Danny Joe Brown, Molly Hatchet's original lead singer, had left the band after the "Flirtin' with Disaster" album, and Jimmy Farrar was his replacement.  I was already a fan of Farrar's vocals on the "Beatin' the Odds" album and had no doubts that he could handle the older material.  He ably led the band through a ferocious set that included old Molly Hatchet favorites "Gator Country," their cover of the Allman Brother's "Dreams I'll Never See"---featuring dry ice covering the stage, and of course "Flirtin' with Disaster."  And, the new material, including "Beatin' the Odds" and "The Rambler" were delivered nicely as well.

After the show, Mary and I found my parents in the parking lot and climbed into the back seat, where for the duration of the drive back to our neighborhood I chattered away like an excited squirrel about every detail of my first concert.  We dropped Mary off at her house and then headed for home, where I collapsed in bed and finally noticed that my ears were ringing.

My ears were ringing when I got up the next morning, as well.  In fact, my ears were ringing for a good portion of the day.  I didn't care.  I wore my Molly Hatchet t-shirt to school like a prized trophy and basked in the memory of my first rock and roll concert.