Pick a Day

Music History Events: Memorable Concerts

November 4, 1978 Boston plays in the city of Boston for the first time, a sold-out show at the Boston Garden.

October 22, 1978 Earth, Wind & Fire begin a 75-date, sold-out US tour in Louisville, Kentucky.

October 3, 1978 At an Aerosmith show in Fort Wayne, Indiana, cops arrest fans for smoking marijuana, prompting Steven Tyler to chastise them Jim Morrison-style from the stage. Tyler announces that the band will bail out anyone who is arrested that night, and the next day they do just that. Understandably, memories of the event are hazy, and the number arrested has been reported at anywhere from 28-58.

August 9, 1978 Muddy Waters performs at the Carter White House.

May 25, 1978 A London concert by The Who turns out to be the last for drummer Keith Moon, who dies a few weeks later.

May 23, 1978 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band begin their "Darkness Tour" at Shea's Buffalo Theatre in Buffalo, New York.

April 28, 1978 Cheap Trick play the first of two shows at the Budokan arena in Toyko, Japan, where the band is huge. The shows are recorded and released as the album Cheap Trick At Budokan, breaking the band in their homeland of America, with the live version of "I Want You To Want Me" becoming a huge hit.More

April 5, 1978 Duran Duran play their first live gig, in Birmingham, England. Singer Stephen Duffy leaves the band two years later and is replaced by Simon Le Bon - shortly before the band are signed to EMI records.

December 25, 1977 At Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield, the The Sex Pistols play their last UK gig before their split. The show is a charity benefit for firemen who are on strike.

September 29, 1977 In the middle of a tour, James Brown's backup band, the J.B.s, walk out before a gig in Hallendale, Florida, complaining of being underpaid. Most of the band return to complete the tour.

September 3, 1977 The Grateful Dead, with support acts The Marshall Tucker Band and New Riders Of The Purple Sage, headline a show at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, that lasts 11 hours and sets an American non-festival record for a ticketed concert with 107,019 in attendance. That record stands until 2024 when it's broken by George Strait.

July 21, 1977 Linda Ronstadt, who's just released a cover version of The Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice," hops onstage at the band's Tucson, Arizona concert to sing it with them.

June 1, 1977 Billy Joel ends a US tour with a concert at Carnegie Hall.

June 1, 1977 Bob Marley and The Wailers play the first of four nights at the Rainbow Theatre in London. There are six nights booked at the Rainbow, but the last two shows are called off because of a serious toe injury Marley sustained in a friendly soccer game with French journalists just before the tour's start in Paris. Subsequently the tour's second leg in the United States would be postponed and then canceled.

May 24, 1977 Marc Bolan plays his last show with T. Rex. The concert takes place at Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden, with Bolan the only original member of the band at that point. The singer would die in an auto accident on September 16 that year.

May 8, 1977 The Grateful Dead play a show at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, that becomes legend among Deadheads when the soundboard recording is widely distributed. In 2011 it's entered into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, and in 2017 is officially released as Cornell 5/8/77.

May 3, 1977 Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and others perform a benefit for the New York Public Library.

April 25, 1977 Elvis Presley makes his last-ever recordings at a session after a show in Saginaw, Michigan.

April 24, 1977 At the Volkshaus in Zurich, Talking Heads begin their first European tour, supporting their Sire labelmates The Ramones.

March 13, 1977 David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Blondie begin a North American tour.

March 4, 1977 The Rolling Stones perform at Toronto's small El Morcambo Tavern, a rare intimate show that provides four tracks for their notoriously bad 1977 LP Love You Live.

February 14, 1977 The B-52s perform their first live gig, a Valentine's Day party in their hometown of Athens, Georgia.

January 19, 1977 Charlie Daniels and The Marshall Tucker Band perform at President Jimmy Carter's inauguration ceremonies.

January 18, 1977 President Jimmy Carter's Inaugural Concert takes place the night before the swearing-in, featuring performances by Linda Ronstadt and Aretha Franklin, among others. John Lennon and Paul Simon are among those spotted in the crowd.

December 10, 1976 Billy Idol's Generation X play their first live performance, at London's Central College of Art.

November 4, 1976 A bomb threat delays the start of Bruce Springsteen's concert at the Palladium in New York; Springsteen jokes that the threat was made by former manager Mike Appel, who's currently suing him.

October 21, 1976 Keith Moon plays what is to be his final show with The Who, a concert at the Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

August 21, 1976 Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren, 10cc and The Rolling Stones play the Knebworth festival in England.

July 26, 1976 With endless touring and recording, as well as various addictions, tearing the band apart, Three Dog Night play their last concert tonight in San Francisco, California. (The group would reunite in 1981, but that reunion would prove short-lived.)

July 3, 1976 At a show in Anaheim, California, Brian Wilson appears onstage with The Beach Boys for the first time in 12 years.