Re: Oakland 7/23/77

["C.Cimino" <ccimino@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> These Oakland memories are great to read. Does anyone else on the list have
> any memories of the 7/24/ 77  Oakland show? Everytime I see the pictures of
> Page from this date I can't help to notice how sick he looked, like he was
> thinning away to nothing. Could anyone possibly give a review of this show?

I was at both Oakland shows, and yes, Jimmy was not looking (or playing very
well) IMHO.
After all this time, my fading memories are more a meld of both days although
some things do stand out.

Well, I won't bore everyone with the details of our journey from Sacramento to
Oakland, although I will add that it included a large thermos (yep, I said
thermos) of Old Crow which we snuck out of a friends house. We arrived very
early in the morning for the first show and stayed the night in the car for the
second. I don't know if they still do this (I doubt it) but they used to let
you come into the parking lot as early as the night before and line up. It was
obvious that many people had been there all night, because the line was huge.
We spent the morning plotting our strategy of where to go in the stadium and
how to get the best location in between gulps of Old Crow and Red Grape Malt
Duck. We felt we were seasoned concert veterans of the Coliseum because we had
been there a little while earlier to see Pink Floyd (awesome). Being young and
stupid, we tried to pick up girls by asking them if we had seen them at Floyd.
Didn't work. While in line, I remember tickets being scalped for a much as $40
which was a huge amount of money for a scalped ticket. If memory serves me,
most scalpers were asking for $25 before the show. There were a lot more
scalpers than usual at this show and I think a lot of them ate tickets. I think
I paid $12.50 face value at Ticketron but I'm not really sure. I do remember a
ton of people in the third base dugout! For those of you unfamiliar with the
Coliseum, it was the infirmary for drugged out, passed out folks. What a waste.

We ended up in about the center area of the rear third of the lawn on the first
day and we were much closer on the second but slightly off to the right of the
stage. Judas Priest opened on both days and was heavily booed on the second
day. It was a riot! Rick Derringer was incredible, though. In my opinion, he
was the best performer of the shows. Don't get me wrong, Zep is still Zep, but
Derringer was incredible and was probably hitting the high point in his career
at about that time. Aside from being in awe of my idols, one of the memories
that lingers most in my mind is the incredibly long wait for Zeppelin to come
out to the stage. I'm still not sure if it was because of Bonhams violent
antics or not, but I've been told that it was. When they walked out, it was
very inspiring. Page was my idol and I just remember thinking about how cool
his boots looked. Haha... funny the things that stand out in your mind when
you're young! As for the show, I remember The entire band seemed tired and
unenergetic. It didn't really matter to me, though. I was happy to be there.
The high points for me were SIBLY, Achilles, and of course STH. I just remember
staring with a big grin on my face as they played THE song. Uninspired or not,
it was still incredible to be in the same stadium with them.

Sure wish I still had the shirt I bought. I also found some unused tickets on
the ground as we walked out on the 24th. Sure wish I knew what happened to
them. Above all, I sure wish I'd known that it would be the last time I'd ever
get to see them.

Chris