Life is very strange in that we all get to choose the method that we make it through the challenges that face us. I had the chance to invite a friend over for dinner last night that I hadn’t spent any time with in 30 years. Jose Artalejo, “Joe”, has blazed a much different trail than myself. He was surprised to see how I turned out and I was equally surprised to see how he turned out. What was great was the time we took to catch each other up on how we made it here.

MEMORIES - I was amazed at how we both remembered such different things from the high school and late teen eras. After our evening together I went to bed and awoke at 3 AM with my mind racing. I kept thinking about my memories compared to Jose’s memories. I was shocked to realize how differently I retained memories from the era. It wasn’t whether he was correct and I was wrong, or that I was right and his memory was in error. Instead, it was what we retained in our memory banks about the same exact events. Jose remembered people details while I remembered events details.

CONCERTS - Let’s face it, when it comes to concerts, I remember events and don’t really remember the people that I went to event with. During that faze of my life going to the major music concerts was the big event. I remember happenings from the event, but who I actually went with was secondary.

During our dinner conversations Jose brought up seeing Ozzy Osbourne together with me when Ozzy was with Black Sabbath. As he spoke it dawned upon me that this was the 1978 Summerfest concert with Boston headlining the event. I hadn’t talked to anybody about this concert for several decades. I really didn’t remember going specifically with Jose, and I don’t remember who else would have been in our group, but I do have clear memories of the concert.

SUMMERFEST 1978 - The bill was Boston, Black Sabbath, Journey (See my Journey correction later down the entry), and an up and coming group called Van Halen that hailed from Southern California and we all claimed as our own. All were set to perform on the center field stage of Anaheim Stadium in the days long before the stadium was fully enclosed. before the start of the show I can remember fighting my way within 20 feet of the stage and watching David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and Eddie’s brother (Alex) who played drums all parachute into the event. They landed behind the stage and came forth taking off their jumpsuits with their performing clothes underneath. It was late afternoon and David Lee Roth and Van Halen rocked the house. I loved their music. I loved their happy, let’s have a good time attitudes. I remember catching the drumstick that David Lee Roth used to beat his cowbell. As he threw it to the crowd I reached for it and missed it in flight, but I had learned from prior events to hit the ground within the swaying mob to retrieve the artifact. Once again it worked and I shoved the stick down my surf trunks and let on to nobody that I retained the prize. Who was with me? It must of been Jose and some others, yet I have no clear recollection.

As Van Halen left the stage after their encore (rare for the opener on a four bill festival concert to be granted time for an encore), I was excited because the next act was Journey. At that time “Wheel in the sky” was just getting heavy airplay and I loved them, yet many in my peer group were just getting hip to their music. They were by no means the powerhouse that they later became. At that time they were this newer sensation from the San Francisco era. Journey lived up to my expectations as it was getting dark and the stage lighting was bringing everything to life. Steve Perry’s vocals completely won me over and the group was as musically tight in person as they were on their albums. I remember staying up front throughout their performance, because I really wanted to see them up close and personal.

As Journey left the stage a different feeling came over the 10’s of thousands in the stadium. The roadies were busy changing over the stage for Black Sabbath. Near the front, a different type of fan was barging its way forward. Older, rowdier, and definitely more biker types were cramming their way forward with chants of “OZZY, OZZY, OZZY” being heard. As the lights came on their became an entirely different mood amongst the crowd. As Tony Iommi hit the power cords to “Symptom of the Universe” the crowd went into a frenzy. The mood became angry and violent, to the point that I wasn’t enjoying it one bit. This was my older brother Jimi’s music. I knew the songs and I knew the members of the band, but I felt an evil violent mood that spelled clear and present danger. My desire to take my overheated, sweaty, moving body and rub it up against all of the biker types surrounding me like a sardine tightly packed in a can, had my senses on edge. The smell of pot and alcohol was heavy and once all the way to the front the bikers wanted more breathing space from the crowd. I clearly remember one of them next to me reaching for his waste and he pulled out a long steel rod and he started to wield it to clear some space. With that visual I decided I was out of the there and I quickly made my way back across the large field to the concessions and more importantly the bathrooms. And all of this while Ozzy kept droning on and on and on and on. To me he was jaded, un-fun, and I counted myself not one of his types of fan. I wanted little association with their following.

What a strange bill to bring together, a then dinosaur act from the early 70’s together with the happier and more upbeat acts from the late 70’s. Clearly it was to attract a bigger ticket buying base and clearly there was at least 25% of the audience there to endure the bands I loved for another view of the aging and decrepit Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. By the time Black Sabbath was finished with their umpteenth screeching encore, I couldn’t have been more done with them and with all of their fans. I could only hope that all of those fans would depart the stadium once they realized that Ozzy had clearly left the stage, and to my delight they did!

 I have read many people say that Black Sabbath rocked and that is why the mass exodus, but the truth is that it had been over 100 degrees and the total concert was 9 hours long with many of the attendees partying in the parking lot the entire night before. Most of the concert attendees were spent before Boston ever hit the stage.

Personally, I was refreshed and cooled down once Black Sabbath had departed and I was regaining enthusiasm to fight my way back to the stage front to see Boston. It was incredible that they had exploded onto the scene with such force as to be the headlining act at Anaheim Stadium. I loved their music, of which they had two albums out. I had not yet had a chance to see them live and I had my doubts as to whether or not they could pull off the headlining slot. But it was worth my effort to try to get as up close and personal as possible.

It is weird that I have no clear recollections of who I was with that day and night. Being tall, I was the landmark that friends could follow in a crowd. If it was Jose with me, then he really had to trust my judgment because he stands 5’3” and I was probably 6’4 or 6’5” at the time. I guess that I am going to have to tap into Jose’s memories for the details of who actually went and what their thoughts and memories were. My memories were that of a music critique there to document the events occurring on stage... Strange but true.

BOSTON - From the opening musical interlude with the powerful organ, base, and guitar, Boston dominated the stage. I still am amazed because their music is so powerful, but they had no clear front man. Tom Scholz was the leader, but he played guitar, keyboards, and now a huge pipe organ and he was quite the showman during solos. Brad Delp and Barry Gordeau shared the roles as lead vocalists, but theirs was not a visual presence, especially when we had already witnessed the incredible up and coming David Lee Roth, as well as Steve Perry and Ozzy. There was no front man persona with Boston. Instead, it was the incredible music and lighting that dominated the stage along with the pipe organ. Gone was the feeling of evil and anger. Gone were the bikers and the concealed steel rods. All that remained was a feeling of good music and good times. It was a visual feast and I really enjoyed Boston on stage...

THAT’S RIGHT, A PIPE ORGAN! - Never before had I seen one of these on a concert stage. Okay, the pipe organ solos did go over the top a bit just like Brad Mason in church on Sundays. And even though they were over the top with Tom Scholz sporting a long flowing cape as he played, I still greatly enjoyed it... Wait a minute... Without a doubt I would have preferred more Eddie Van Halen guitar because I was still warming up to all of the keyboards and synthesizers that were taking over the rock and roll scene of the day. But I loved the unique sound of Boston... It is interesting that all of these decades later I exposed my kids to all of Boston‘s music, a bit of Journey, a tad of Van Halen, and virtually no Black Sabbath. Wait a minute, I can’t take the credit for Journey because a 2000’s TV show called Glee took an acapella version of “Don’t Stop Believing” and revitalized any and all Journey hits to a brand new generation. But I will take all the credit for exposing my younger three kids to Boston.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS - In fact, two years ago my son Adam was asked to be in Orem High School’s Battle of the Bands as a lead singer and he had to try to sing Brad Delp’s high range vocals in a stirring version of Boston’s “Rock and Roll Band.” I remember showing Adam video footage of incredible front men like David Lee Roth and Steve Perry to show him how they would dominate the stage and win over the hearts of the fans in attendance. Interesting though, I could find no such footage of Boston because they were not a front man type of a band.

FOLLOW-UP COMMENTS & CORRECTIONS - I did a little research after writing the above and it is interesting to see how I kind of mixed together two concerts in the above recollections. I did my normal internet research, of which I love to do and I found out that Journey did not play at this concert. Instead, they played the same venue about a month earlier and my brain stored them together. I also wiped from my memory banks the presence of Sammy Hagar as the opening act.

I found this from the Van Halen website regarding the Anaheim Stadium concert....

09/23/78: Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, CA. The bill for this show included Richie Lecea, Sammy Hagar, Black Sabbath and Boston. Attendance: 56,000. Van Halen stole the show by hiring look-a-likes to parachute from an airplane into the stadium (David Lee Roth's idea). An announcer frantically declared, "From out of the sky, Van Halen is coming into the stadium!" Looking as though they would land right on the stage, the four parachutists maneuvered to an area just outside the stadium gates at the last minute. Moments later, Van Halen, dressed in parachute gear, took the stage arm-in-arm to a thunderous ovation (though Alex Van Halen twisted his ankle while waiting for the parachuters to land). The event set a new one-day gross record with receipts totaling $710,000. Unadvertised Lecea, fresh from opening the California Jam 2 at Ontario Motor Speedway, opened the 9-hour extravaganza, followed by Hagar, who relied heavily on his then newly released live album, All Night Long. Van Halen followed with a 10-song set made up of nine songs from Van Halen and Bottoms Up! Audio recording exists.

Gone also are memories of Richie Lecea. And if he was at Cal Jam 2, then he really made little impression upon me because Jose and I were right up front for that event too (another major memory maker for another journal entry). I now remember Sammy Hagar opening the show, although I enjoyed him as the front man to Montrose better than his poppy solo music that later included such hits as “I can’t drive 55” and “3 Lock Box”. It is also interesting because it wasn’t until reading the Van Halen website details above that I gained confirmation to what I suspected all along, and that was that Van Halen wasn’t actually flying from the sky. It was a real memory maker though. I have still yet to find photos of the parachute stunt... But I am still searching.

Yeah, for Van Halen all the hot chicks were hanging out at the front of the stage and for Black Sabbath all the hunchbacks pushed their way up front.

It was Sammy Hagar then Van Halen then Black Sabbath and finished with Boston. I was tripping heavily so I don't think my review would count.

Sabbath (and other bands) said that when they saw/heard VH, they new it was a new era. Game-changing band.

Montrose, Van Halen, Sabbath and Boston. It still elicits some head scratching as far as how the heck Boston was the headliner. This is the show where Sammy met Eddie (VH). Van Halen on their first supporting tour opening for Ozzy' last tour with Sabbath. VH KILLED it! Their homecoming to So Cal and first arena stadium gig. They did whole parachute gag and came out and had the entire sold out stadium on their feet the whole time they played. I was 3 people from the stage directly in front of Eddie Van Halen. Sabbath was great but you could see Ozzy was a bit "out of it". I have never seen such a mass exodus of people leaving BEFORE the headliner went on stage. I felt bad for Boston but then had to leave myself. More than a Feeling didn't sound quite right after War Pigs and Children of the Grave

I remember waiting in line to get into the stadium and it being 102 degrees. Huge crowd. Seemed like every jarhead from Camp Pendleton was at this show. People were throwing water on each other all day - I remember someone dumping water from a huge metal trashcan from the third deck, and the can slipped and went over the deck... not sure how it didn't kill anybody. Boston headlined this show because in terms of record sales they far outpaced the others, and Don't Look Back had just been released. Sabbath sold the most t-shirts that day. Van Halen were fresh, at their peak, and everyone loved them. I loved Boston at the time, but even I left halfway through the show - it was getting late, and they were anticlimactic. (And I was 15 - mom was waiting in the parking lot. How were pickups like that coordinated in the days before cell phones?)

Anaheim Stadium (Angel Stadium back then) First and only time I saw Boston - Great laser show - way too hot that day (Over 100 plus) and food fights galore. Boston was off, and due to the weather and late start, alot of people didn't stay for the whole set. Black Sabbath on the bill, plus Sammy Hagar and this band called Van Halen. Guess who killed it that day? The band that supposedly parachuted into the venue. (great gag) BTW - thanks so much to the person that uploaded the ticket stub - now if I can only find my concert shirt...

Here is a great fan review from Brian C. in Japan...

The "Don't Look Back" album was still fresh and riding high on the charts, as I recall, when Boston came back to town about a year and a half after Long Beach ? this time to the outdoor Anaheim Stadium (home of my then-favorite baseball team, the Angels) to play a summer festival concert. I remember this one because it was on my mother's birthday.

By this time, of course, I was well into my rock 'n' roll conversion. It was a period when I went to one rock concert after another. I had survived another big outdoor festival at Anaheim Stadium earlier that same summer ? the Rolling Stones on the "Some Girls" tour in July ? and was still hungry for more. So there was the bill: Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Black Sabbath and....Boston. How could I resist? My brothers and friends were into Sabbath, I was into Boston and Sammy Hagar, and *everybody* was into Van Halen (their debut album tour), so we made a group trip out of it.

I remember us camping out with hundreds of other fans in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot the night before the concert, too excited to even think about sleeping. Sometime during the late evening, we could hear the echoes of Boston doing their sound check inside the stadium ? that alone was enough to get the parking-lot crowd cheering. One funny episode: I do remember going to one of the portable toilets on the outer edge of the parking lot for an extended "visit" and when I came back, someone telling me that Boston had jammed a bit on Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" as part of their sound check. I would've loved to have heard it.

To move the story up by hours: Dawn broke, we're still jacked up from partying all night, and sometime between late morning and early afternoon, they opened the gates and let all us "savages" into the arena. We rushed toward the outfield area and staked out our place maybe a couple yards from the massive stage. It was the biggest stage setup I'd ever seen. And the heat ? yes, that I remember. It was a scorcher, even that late into the summer. The whole day was one sweaty, hot, chaotic party.

Hagar eventually came on in the afternoon and did his thing (which was great back then), Van Halen "parachuted" into the backstage area from an overhead circling plane (great gimmick), Sabbath came on and played to their loyal followers (Ozzy and mates looking a bit jaded, in my opinion), and then by evening, it was time for Boston. My mind flashed back to Long Beach a year and a half earlier, and I wondered if the band would knock me out again as they had that first time. Well, you can only lose your virginity once, but somehow I knew I wouldn't be disappointed.

A few highlights that still stick with me from that 1978 Anaheim concert: the wild audience reaction to the new songs from the "Don't Look Back" album, the ELO-like lighting system that the band now had (they'd come a long way, baby), and that massive pipe organ that Tom Scholz ? draped with a cape this time ? banged on during "Smokin' ". I can still see Tom sitting and playing this huge pipe organ and then, when it came time for him to play those two quick keyboard fills in "Smokin' ", he moved to his regular keyboard. But his timing was off, and I remember seeing Tom Scholz literally jumping over something on stage and diving from his pipe organ over to his regular keyboard to reach the notes just in the nick of time, his cape fluttering behind him. One second later, and he would have thrown the whole rest of the song out of time. "Phantom of the Opera" Tom wasn't, but the band put on a great show nonetheless. It seemed that Boston was still riding on top of the world that night.

We left the stadium late that evening sleepless and exhausted to the bone, but I was glad I had gotten to see Boston just one more time. By the time the band's third album had come out several years later, I had moved on to jazz and university studies, and still later I moved overseas. I never got to see Boston again. But it's good to "look back" on one's rock 'n' roll roots from time to time, and thanks in part to Boston, I can say my life has gone in a good direction.