Arts & Culture
Rock of Ages
In honor of tonight's Bruce Springsteen concert, we look back at some local landmark performances.
At the height of Beatlemania, The Beatles played two shows at the Civic Center (now Royal Farms Arena). The band’s sets each lasted about 30 minutes and featured future classics including “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” The Fab Four stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street and partied in its top-floor restaurant after the gigs.
Part of the so-called “Chitlin Circuit” of African-American performance venues, West Baltimore’s now-demolished Royal Theatre hosted a who’s who of black entertainers over the years, including James Brown. Brown’s November 1964 concert is preserved on his live album, Pure Dynamite!
The Rolling Stones have played Baltimore four times over the band’s career, but the 1966 show was perhaps the most quintessentially Stonesy. According to The Sun, about 40 teens rushed the stage during “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” incited, apparently, by Mick Jagger’s “gyrating.” Fed up, police ended the gig early. “Suddenly the house lights came on, the music stopped, and the asbestos fire curtain came down,” The Sunreported. “Amid the chorus of boos, the police yelled that the show was over.”
Columbia’s Merriweather Post Pavilion was barely a year old when Jimi Hendrix performed there in August 1968. Amidst a violent thunderstorm that caused lawn ticket holders to seek cover under the pavilion, the guitarist played a 48-minute set that ended with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” quite possibly the first time Hendrix ever played his famously feedback-laden version.
In the mother of all double bills, a then little-known Led Zeppelin opened for The Who at Merriweather Post Pavilion in the spring of 1969—the only time the groups ever shared a stage. According to lore, the mighty Zep ran over their allotted time, causing a member of The Who’s crew to literally pull the plug on the future supergroup.
Though approximately the size of a shoebox, the original Ottobar at 203 E. Davis Street in downtown Baltimore attracted some of the best alternative rock acts of the day, including Death Cab for Cutie, Queens of the Stone Age, and, in February 2001, The White Stripes, who were then still five months out from releasing their breakthrough album White Blood Cells. – Courtesy of Post Typography
As the reigning king and queen of pop music, Jay Z and Beyoncé were expected to wow at M&T Bank Stadium, and they did. Their On the Run Tour concert was met with the excitement of a state visit, and the couple performed all their hits for an adoring throng of 51,212. – Getty Images/Kevork Djansezian
After the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray, Prince’s Rally 4 Peace benefit concert at Royal Farms Arena was a welcome balm for an agitated city. During the concert, a portion of which was streamed live over the Internet, the Purple One brought city state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby up on stage and debuted a new song titled “Baltimore.”