Category: Setlist History

Bruce Springsteen's biggest selling album, Born in the USA turned 39 years old on June 4, 2023. Over 30 million copies of the album were sold around the world and it produced a stunning seven top-ten singles. From May 1984 through November 1985, Columbia Records released "Dancing in the Dark," "Cover Me," "Born in the USA," "I'm on Fire," "Glory Days," "I'm Goin' Down," and "My Hometown" as singles and were rewarded at the register.

58 years ago today the Rolling Stones played their first US concert in front of 3,500 maniacal fans in Los Angeles' Inland Empire.No, really, the kids went nuts. “When they opened the doors, the screaming crowd jammed through en masse," San Bernardino Sun writer Ronald Plotkin reported the next day. "The doors, literally, were ripped off the hinges. One window was broken.” Once inside, the fans were almost invited to mob Mick, Keith, Brian and the Stones during the show due negligence from the organizers who never saw what was to come.

The legendary, Grammy-award winning, multi-platinum singer and dancer, Tina Turner, died this week in her home in Switzerland. She was 83 years old.

On May 23, 1988, Metallica rocked the cozy Troubadour in West Hollywood for a two-night club date at the historic venue that helped launch the careers of Elton John, David Bowie and the Eagles. Metallica were poised to release their fourth studio LP, …And Justice For All, which would be their first since Cliff Burton's untimely death in '86. James Newsted, with Burton's parents' blessing, was given the job as bassist, a role he would man through the year 2000.

On May 2, 1980 Joy Division played its last concert. In front of about 300 fans at High Hall, a dining commons at a residence hall of Birmingham University in England, singer Ian Curtis and his band performed 11 songs.

Stadium Arcadium was a breakthrough album for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006, a mere 23 years into the LA band's career. The toned-down double LP was the group's first number one debut on the Billboard Top 200, it was the first time they were nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year, and it was the last time guitarist John Frusciante would record an album with the group until 2022.

The earliest known show by LA punk pioneers, X, complete with a setlist, happened April 13, 1979. Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake performed at the mysterious Rikki's in Los Angeles on Friday the 13th some 43 years ago. Rikki's is mysterious because there's no apparent trace of it on the Internet other than a bootleg recording of this gig which also included the Latino punk trio, The Plugz.

In 1986, heavy metal / hard rock was in full force. New albums were being released every week by the likes of AC/DC, Judas Priest, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Mötörhead, Sepultura, Poison, Stryper, Queensrÿche, and even Bad Brains. But the tour with the most buzz around it was Ozzy Osbourne with opening act Metallica. A double dip of new and old guard. Ozzy had just emerged from a stay in the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and was eager to get out and deliver unto his faithful fans new music from his latest solo offering, The Ultimate Sin, an album that would sell millions of copies and peak at #30 on the charts. Not bad for an LP with really just one single, "Shot in the Dark."

We blinked and somehow it's now been 22 years since blink-182 released the classic album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.