MY SPECTRUM: “If I had my way, I WOULDN’T tear this old building down†either.
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I don't even know where to begin kiddies - so I guess I'll start with I've missed you ALL !!! More than you know !!!
If anyone can understand the tears that are ready to run down my face - it would be all of you.
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The second beginning to this is all about my city, my first concert venue & its soon demise.
Philadelphia.
The Spectrum.
To be torn down late this year.
The Spectrum. Sure it's changed names due to the investors - but to this city it's been The Spectrum from the fall of 1967 & will remain The Spectrum in our hearts forever. It's been a home to Wilt, Moses Malone, Dr. J. & many of the 76ers. It's been the home of The Flyers before The Wachovia Center was built. It's housed its fair share of music concerts over the last 40+ years including The Doors, Elvis Presley, The Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Springsteen, Queen, Jethro Tull, U2 & Phish. (Of course I could go on forever with those who've played here… I won't). Just imagine a music/sports venue that's been in your city for 40+ years & think of all the sports victories & defeats & all stars that have played there - think of all the bands that would have come to that locale & rocked the roof off that sucka & you'll know where I am coming from… I hope.
Now for MY beginning of a love affair at The Spectrum. My Dad bought tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters play there when I was still in grade school. I got hit with a severe case of food poisoning a few days before we were to go, but wrapped in a quilt & wearing my pjs (oh the irony), we went. I drank 7-Up, ate saltines & had a blast with my Da… barring a brutal stomachache & a few quick runs to the rest room.
Fast forward to 1990. My Mom spends an hour on the phone trying to get tickets for Wendy Clossey, Eli Wenger, Mark Schlotterbach & myself to see The The & Depeche Mode. She gets the tickets, TOTAL nosebleeds in the UPPERMOST 400 section all the way at the end of the other side of the stage. That show still remains one of my all time favorite shows in my 19 years of live music. I couldn't see the lads, but I smelled weed for the first time, saw a male couple dressed entirely in black dance SNL Dieter Style throughout the two bands & was one of the only two people to enter the venue without being frisked (Wendy & I were as preppy as all get out)… the rest of the crowd was all kinds of Gothed up to the hilt.
Then 1991 comes along & I pick up the album Ten. It changed my whole world. Don't get me wrong, music has a tendency to change my whole world often - sometimes several times in a single day. But this grunge sound amazed me. Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament & Dave Krussen brought a sound to my eardrums that mystified. The angst, pain, strength & vulnerability boggled my young high school girl's mind. Every time they played in town I struggled to get tickets only to miss out as they'd sell out before I could get tickets in my hot little hands.
I've followed them since… through all the band member changes & albums, through the live imports where I've dropped over a hundred dollars for a three disc set played at Soldiers' Field from the first two albums, on through to the present.
So we're now close to my heartbreak today. Bear with me please.
Some of the final acts for The Spectrum are announced a few months ago. Pearl Jam will be on tour but aren't playing any East Coast dates during the final concert season of this institution where I was raised, so I take them off my dream list. Bruce & the E Streeters will be there (nah), Grateful Dead (cool - but still nah), Leonard Cohen (definitely - but just saw him at Coachella), Green Day (from what I've heard an amazing show - still nah). Then SOMEHOW as the great finale, Pearl Jam, the band I've never seen live, yup kiddies, they're closing out The FINAL concert series at my first concert home with two dates on the 28th & 30th of October.
OF COURSE, I can't get tickets when they go on sale - SOLD OUT. So I check other sites & find two tickets in the 400 level, this time much closer to stage left for a ridiculous amount, but I get them; Actually Deb, my musical partner in crime, gets them for us for the 30th.
THIS IS MY DREAM - HOW CAN IT BE A REALITY ?!? I am going to FINALLY see Pearl Jam !!! At The Spectrum !!! On the LAST NIGHT a concert will EVER play there before it's torn down to make way for a friggin hotel.
FF a few weeks after these tickets go on sale… they announce that because of the great demand, there will be two more shows added for Pearl Jam. 27th & 31st of October.
WHAT ?!?
The 31st is NOW the FINAL FINAL show.
I am now attending the SECOND to FINAL show at MY SPECTRUM.
This happened when I saw Phish for their "Pharewell Tour" in 2004 & I was ok with it. I'd seen them countless times & my show was at Camden NJ, the last one night show before their mudfest in VT that from all the "pholks" I know who went, really was a total bummer anyway.
I nearly spent a ridiculous sum to get a single shite seat for myself on the 31st. But really - I can't afford it in today's climate & I am doing my best to be OK with that decision - a truly hard one for me to make. Plus if this means twice as many Philadelphians & surrounding areas will also get to see them - how can I bear a grudge ??? Then there is the Chase factor (for those who know me) - I haven't missed a Halloween with him in his 2 ½ years - don't want to miss his 3rd.
Plus, knowing how much PJ loves playing Philly & how they hold The Spectrum in such a high regard, I don't doubt for a minute they won't play the roof off the place all four nights. Maybe even give a little nod to those of us who scored our tix for the "Original LAST SHOW" on the 30th.
I just really loved my "bookends".
Favorite first band/concert - Depeche Mode & another favorite band Pearl Jam as my last show, at The Spectrum.
I guess it will still be that for me - but it's not THE last show.
I…………………………
Well, I am still breathing, still got my family (many of you), friends (also many of you), a job & crappy health… how can I complain ???
Thanks for reading - lge, pity party of one - your table is ready over here ;(
Guess I will just go cry in my "Jam" til the 30th.
To quote Bob Weir & his substitution of lyrics in their final song "Samson & Delilah" on May 2nd for The Dead's final show at The Spectrum… "If I had my way, I WOULDN'T tear this old building down" either.
xoxox,
~lge
Locating MOG account...
Comments (24)
Wow..what a lot of code LGE. You are missed immensely..
as much asmore than you miss the Spectrum actually. We miss you here..top notch reminice..^!%&^!%&^! Hope you are feeling as good as you can.awww shucks MOGfather of Motown... my code & I are blushing - hopefully though I've fixed it & now there should be "No Code" (PJ pun intended). It feels good to be back - hope I can work it in here & there... missed it much - why must life get in the way of living ;)
I felt a small smidge of that when they torw down the McNichols Center in Denver, as Melissa and I had seen The Cure there, first time for each of us.
But hey, you get to see PJ!!! Go you! :)
too true Dalebro !!! I saw The Cure at The Spectrum too... love that my MOGtiply family gets me... truly gets me. <3
Wow! so good to see a post from you! Welcome back. My first concert was Jerry Garcia in about 1991 and countless Wings (indoor box lacrosse, not Macca), Sixers, Dead concerts, etc. I'll allaborate further later, but good to hear from you!
wow
so sad
end of an era
sadness
DAMNITRAWK
Imagine what Zappa must have felt like, as the next-to-last act to play Filmore East.
And remember that the Filmore East closed with KISS.
Just as i prefer to recall Bogdanovich's Targets as Boris Karloff's last film (actually he made three horrible ultra-low-budget Mexican/American cheapies after it), i prefer to think of Zappa and the Mothers as the Filmore's final show.
What a twist cone of emotions! Congrats on finally getting to see Pearl Jam, too bad about your fav. venue. Good to see you blip up on the radar!
Just think - in 20 yrs, you'll get to remember both the PJ show *and* Chase's 3rd Halloween. He's getting to a good Halloween age, it'll all be good. :)
Enjoy both!
Look at all these veterans! sniff,sniff
...Such an enjoyable read, Lizzie. You have such an easy natural way with words....seems like i was there with you. Very nice. & yes, its good to hear from you.
I feel your pain; we had the same in London when the pulled down the Hammersmith Palais and then the Astoria to make way for a new railway...
OMG, it's Lizzie! i'd like to be sorry to hear about The Spectrum but it's a little hard 'cause i'm happy you're here. ;p
Oh man have I missed all of you... I knew that talking about my saddness over the loss of The Spectrum with you would make me feel a whole lot better about it. Sure it's just a building, but it (for me & many others), it is a HUGE part of Philly's history.
hcihw fo wonk uoy ...lived der@
I totally get what you're saying, and have also seen my share - though not your share - of great concerts there. But it must also be said that the sound was often less than great (not as crappy as the Electric Factory, tho - why aren't they tearing that abomination down instead?). I remember one Elvis Costello concert at the Spectrum in the early Eighties (in fact, the last time I saw him until you and I caught him at the Mann Center after the MOGMeet), and he was so frustrated at the sound that he just started howling into the mike. Either that, or he was trashed.....
Hey LGE! I take a Mog holiday and the first thing popping up in the feed is your tale of the Spectrum.
Not being a native Philadelphia, not sure I have the same reverence for the place, though I have seen some good acts there-- Midnight Oil's show comes first to mind. I am envious of the Pearl Jam show--- that will be excellent! We saw the Grateful Dead at the old JFK Stadium right before they tore it down, and I admit to being sad about that. That had seen 80 some years of events, boxing, track, Springsteen.
And speaking of venues.... Does anyone else automatically think Harrisburg when an ad comes on for the Susquehanna Bank Center? I initially wondered why I was hearing ads for a place by the Susquehanna River, until it was pointed out to me it was in Camden.
So it takes a building demolition to get you to MOG again? What happened to "Hey! Check out this song!" or a simple music-skewed inquiry? Sorry about the Spectrum. I probably have a comparable amount of sports-and-music-oriented memories tied to that quasi-oval construct, but the wrecking ball swings, don't it? Your absence was noted. Whatever precipitated it, I hope you're getting along and enjoying the good things that each day has to offer. As I like to say, "Life - it's the only thing worth living."
It's great to see you back, Lizzie. But I will shed no tears for the Spectrum - finding basketball the most boring sport on earth, and hating the sound there during concerts.
But enjoy your PJs...
My favorite sports-related Spectrum moment came last winter, when Master Ivylander and I went to see the Philadelphia Kixx indoor soccer team. We were infinitely better than the ragtag squad from Massachusetts who opposed us. Each time the Kixx scored, the PA announcer would call out, "One more goal for the Kixx! Who wants another?" And the crowd, such as it was, would roar. Finally my son turned to me and said, "Why does that guy keep asking if anyone wants an oven?"
.for some strange reason, this comment sections only types backwards & it's driving me nuts...won't let me ti tub uoy fo eno hcae ot tnemmoc ot tnaw I
That's a melborp.....
My queen! You return! Even with such sad tidings 'tis great to see your green eyes back again.
I went to the Spectrum once - I think I must have conned someone into a story when I was spending a Christmas in New York, but can't for the life of me remember why I needed to go to Philadelphia and see The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Manfred Mann, and J Geils. God knows Alex and J were stunning and amazing and all that other stuff, but what really made it memorable was the sight of a bunch of kids, during J Geils, lighting a big bonfire on the main floor. During ice hockey season. With ice under the floor.
It got weirder. In the subway on the way back the station was filled with cops handling attack dogs, the platforms filled with furious barking that the kids all ignored. When they got on the train the first thing a lot of them did was light joints. I talked with one of them because I had to ask: was all this normal for Philadelphia? He assured me it was.
If that was a typical night at The Spectrum, they ought to be listing it as a historic monument, not tearing it down.
Jonh, the scenario you describe could only have taken place during the golden years when the infamous Frank Rizzo was mayor. The cops with attack dogs are sort of the giveaway....
This was on the cusp of 75/76....when mayors obviosuly knew how to run a city the right way, not the sissy-man way.