Me and a bunch of my buddies went to buy tickets to see Ted Nugent at
the International Amphitheater in Chicago. I have always been a huge Nuge
fan. I used to play guitar some and I tend to get into bands that have
a great lead guitarist and the Nuge is king. Well any way, when we got
to Ticketron we found out it was a real popular show and they had already
sold out most of the tickets. They had a diagram of the place and it looked
like we could get some fairly decent seats on the right side, not far from
the stage. We kinda figured we were gonna get blasted out by the speakers,
but we didn't have many options so we bought em. Imagine our outrage when
we got there and our seats were next to (not in front) of the stage, with
a huge mountain of amps blocking our view. Apparently the stage was set
up a lot further from the back than the diagram showed. We couldn't see
shit. Me and my buddy Eddie decided that this really sucked and since we
bought tickets, we should be able to see the damn show. We took off to
try to find some empty seats that were better. No luck. We ended up in
the balcony, standing at the end of the aisle, looking down. We could see
pretty good. We did get a few dirty looks, but we didn't care. After a
while we were really getting into the show and decided to stand on the
railing (don't ask me why, but I think it had something to do with the
funny little pieces of paper we had eaten. hehe). We were able hold onto
something over heads, can't remember what. Well, there we were, listening
to Stranglehold, when all of a sudden all the lights went out. As my eyes
slowly adjusted, I could see some activity below us.......then suddenly
the lights came back on, and to my utter amazement, there stood Ted Nugent
right in front of me. 5 feet away. In the dark, the roadies had tossed
a ladder up to this mountain of speakers in front of us and they had carried
the Nuge right up the ladder and set him on top the amps. He never missed
a note. The speakers were the same height as the balcony, so there he was,
almost close enough to touch. He looked over, and seemed surprised to see
us. He looked me right in the eye......kinda smirked and let out this huge
scream, which startled the hell outta me. He then did a back flip off the
speakers. The lights went out again for an instant then there was a big
pyrotechnic explosion as Ted landed! I nearly fell off the balcony. He
kept on playing the whole time. This was the first "big" concert that I
had ever been to and sure is one of the more memorable ones.
*** *** ***
Come On, Come On Up!
I'm not sure of the year, but it was probably 1977. It was the summer
that there was a series of Superbowl of Rock shows at Soldier's Field in
Chicago. Overall this was not an impressive performance, mainly due to
the mediocre sound system. I think Terrible Ted is always better indoors,
some of the intensity is lost in big arenas. Even so, you can always count
on the Nuge to find a way to fire up the crowd. This time, once again,
it was during Stranglehold that things got exciting.
I guess I need to give you a little background information. Nugent
played on an unusually hot sunny day. The management at Soldier's Field
had informed us through the local TV stations that bottles of water would
be allowed into the stadium. I guess everyone got the word, because it
seemed we all had brought plastic gallon milk jugs filled with water. People
were passing the jugs around and then refilling them from hoses that had
been provided. Hoses were also being used to douse the crowd with water
which felt great on this brutally hot day.
Okay, so the Nuge is up there on stage playing an extended version of Stranglehold. He gets to the part that goes: Come on, Come on up! Come on, Come on up! He had played that part several times and then it started.........
Somebody decided to throw an empty milk jug up onto the stage. Ted looked a little surprised, but kept it up: Come on, Come on up! Another jug came flying out of the crowd and right up onto the stage, then another, and another. Ted started motioning with his hands towards the crowd, like he was inviting more of this! Some fools thought that this was their personal invitation to "Come on up!" and they climbed right up onto the stage. This was no easy thing to do, since the stage was at least 10 feet off the ground. These confused individuals were returned to the crowd unceremoniously by Ted's alarmed roadies. The Nuge kept singing: Come on, come on up! and the milk jugs kept coming too. Everyone who was within throwing distance, threw their jugs up onto the stage. He was now waist deep in a pile of milk jugs. Some other items started being thrown at Ted. The Nuge didn't like that and gave the crowd a warning: "Okay now, nobody throw anything that hurts or one of my devoted fans who is standing right next to you might just rip your fucking face off!" By now, everyone who had a jug was hurling it in the general direction of the stage. Other people picked them up and threw them again. It was one of the craziest damn things I ever saw. All around the stadium these jugs were flying through the air and the Nuge seemed to be attracting them like a magnet. Soon the entire stage was covered with a pile of milk jugs several feet deep. All that you could see of Ted was his head and guitar. It was an amazing sight to see: The Nuge up there on stage, in a sea of milk jugs, guitar held high in the air playing the final notes of Stranglehold. Ted Nugent always puts on a hell of a show and this one was no different.