This picture above is pretty much the last remaining vestige (if it’s even still here) of what used to be arguably the best outdoor concert venue in Columbus: a gate piece and some concrete barriers. Accessible just off of Polaris Parkway, buried behind that strip of businesses currently housing Liberty Tavern, Bella Nails & Spa, and others. The restaurant employee on smoke break back there was giving me weird looks as I snapped this footage, but hey, such is the price you pay for your art.
Considering what a major deal it was at the time, putting our city on the map for some bigtime touring acts it might ordinarily fail to attract, Polaris (as it was originally known – only renamed Germain Amphitheater somewhat near the end of its run) had a shockingly short shelf life. Just about 15 years, give or take, from the early 1990s up until 2007. Though hard to even fathom now, when the venue was built, it was located just beyond the fringes of the city, basically in pure wilderness. But, that area obviously blew up in short order, which to me became the entire reason this controversial amphitheater had to go. While you will hear that the reason behind this was volume/noise complaints – and yes, it certainly did receive its fair share of those, from nearby residents – I feel like that was ultimately just a smoke screen. Developers seeing dollar signs used the noise complaint angle to shoehorn their way in, because there was obviously a lot more money to be made by bulldozing this puppy and putting in a bunch of other businesses.
Toby Keith played the final show held here, closing out the 2007 concert season. The first one I personally attended was an Eagles reunion gig in 1994, the last this Aerosmith/Motley Crue twinbill from 2006. I do have some photos snapped from a concert or two held here, but such was the technology of the time, with our sad little 35mm film cameras, that for the most part all you’re seeing is the back of some people’s heads, with tiny glimpses of the stage beyond. Still, I will probably post them anyway once I get around to digging them out.
Regarding the Aerosmith/Motley Crue show, it was held on September 5, 2006. A coworker/friend of mine, Ancie Schmidt, and her husband Dan, were so stoked about it and generous in general that they bought a whole slew of tickets for a bunch of us to attend. Therefore a veritable slew of Wild Oats employees attend this one and hang out together. Really unbelievable and exceptionally kind of Ancie and Dan to do this, and we all have a great time.
I have Lisa with me, an on/off again “person of interest” for more than a decade – shockingly enough, as far as I can recall, this is the first concert we’ve attended together. She actually drives us here. Otherwise, as these are lawn seats, although everyone is moving around quite a bit, mostly we’re hanging out with Ancie and Dan, of course, Kevin Spain, Ned and his girlfriend Amanda. Though bouncing around some and conversing with anyone else familiar encountered.
Here are some set lists, along with whatever notes I might have:
Motley Crue:
1. Dr. Feelgood (they sound rough here at the beginning, but round into shape soon enough)
2. Shout at the Devil
3. Looks That Kill
4. Wild Side
5. Live Wire
6. Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
7. Home Sweet Home
8. Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
9. Louder Than Hell
10. Too Fast for Love
11. Sick Love Song
12. Primal Scream
13. Girls, Girls, Girls
14. Kickstart My Heart
Since it’s the first stop on the tour, there are some kinks to iron out. Like Vince Neil surprisingly enough is strumming an acoustic early on, except for some reason there’s this really crackly sound coming from his speaker every time he does. So they drop that from their act entirely. Ditto Nikki Sixx’s headbanging, which lasts for about 2-3 songs before he apparently suffers whiplash or something and never does so again. They’re just a really peculiar act overall because their drummer is probably the most famous member at this point, and therefore Tommy stands up behind the kit between songs quite often, does the most between-song talking of anyone. Most hilarious of all, when Motley does their final bow, it’s just three of them out there – Mick Mars ran off the stage the instant they were done playing. From a presentational standpoint, they have some phenomenal looking colored flashpoints, and cool animated imagery on the screen behind them, like upside down crosses with leather clad babes, et cetera.
They sound okay, put on a pretty solid show, but suffer I think to some extent from being billed as “co-headliners” with Aerosmith. If you’d have called them the opening act, the perception and reaction would have been much better, leaving people believing that was an awesome added bonus. Aerosmith meanwhile sounds killer as always and while the two Joes blew me away the first time I saw them (and are just as awesome here), I have to say Steven Tyler really impressed me tonight. He had throat surgery of some sort and is obviously quite pleased with his pipes now – like this one moment during Seasons Of Wither where he really belts out a line, and then I see him turn, off-mic, and shout a triumphant “hoo!” like you would to yourself if totally jazzed about something you just did. Akin to sinking a basket at the buzzer or winning a big poker hand, something to that effect.
Aerosmith:
1. Toys in the Attic
2. Mama Kin (Whitford up on this walkway, takes guitar solo)
3. Dude Looks Like a Lady (“Yes!” Spain cheers, when Tyler hits this one high note)
4. Cryin’
5. Walking the Dog
6. Jaded
7. Back in the Saddle (according to my notes, this was actually played 10th, after What It Takes – but most of the internet seems to be saying I’m wrong. Which I agree is certainly possible, therefore will go with the prevailing take)
8. Stop Messin’ Round
9. Seasons of Wither
“Jay, what is this?” Spain asks me.
“Seasons Of Winter,” I tell him, yet another fact I get slightly wrong. Then again, considering I only heard this song once prior to tonight, perhaps it’s somewhat impressive I even remember that much.
“Awesome,” he concludes with an approving nod.
10. What It Takes
“This beat reminds me of the circus,” Ned says.
“All that’s missing is a monkey climbing out of a box,” I joke.
11. Dream On
12. Eat The Rich
13. Rag Doll
14. Sweet Emotion
15. Draw The Line
Encore:
16. Love In An Elevator
17. Walk This Way
Tyler’s voice sounds amazing tonight. Seems really into it, too, instead of going through the motions like he is at times. Hitting the high notes like mad – another “wakackackackow” esque adlib near the end of Jaded, for example, high pitched. Leopard shirt, opened, and red pants, shades, blonde streaks in hair. He, Perry, Kramer all three look young as hell and in amazing shape. Green lasers during Jaded. Tyler and Perry sit on the ramp together while playing Wither. Tyler starts What It Takes a cappella.
“This one’s for Tom Hamilton,” Perry says, before the Fleetwood Mac cover (Stop Messin’), “he’s probably watchin a baseball game right now. Or something.” Their longtime bass player is out for the tour due to throat cancer surgery, so they’ve recruited Dave Hull to replace him.
Smitty’s here with his girlfriend, rocking a green army jacket or something, and is unintentionally cracking me up with his antics as they stand here the entire time on the lawn. As in, I find it plenty ridiculous. You see this kind of stuff all over this town, though, and surely just about everywhere. Where all you’re really getting from certain people is (what they perceive as) image maintenance, not actual opinions. I don’t know why I even bother to ask him what he thinks of the Crue. And then when Aerosmith take the stage, it’s even more hilarious. Whenever they play a “post-comeback” era tune, he crosses his arms and pouts like a toddler past nap time. He clearly wants it to be known he does not approve of these newer cuts AT ALL. Not at all! Did everyone observe this? Huh? Did you? But then the instant they launch into an older cut, he begins head banging like crazy, raises one fist in the air with his fingers in the devil horn shape, and shouting an over the top, “YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
I just find him comically absurd. Nobody notices this crap, dude. Well, no, one person did, but he thought you were ridiculous.
Then there’s this moment where I happen to drift past him and Jay Taylor standing there talking.
“J-Mac! What’s up!” Taylor asks me with a grin.
“Well, you know, I’m a dreamer, but my heart’s a road,” I tell him.
“Huh?” Smitty retorts, his face screwed up with complete (exaggerated) bafflement.
“Gold,” Taylor corrects.
“Huh?” It is now my turn to reply.
“My heart’s o’ gold,” Taylor explains.
“My heart’s a gold?” I question, “that doesn’t even make any sense!”
“My heart’s o’ gold,” he repeats, and I finally get it.
When asked about this show, there’s also Matt Miner’s take on Aerosmith to ponder, which I find much more credible than Smitty’s: “I think I’ve just heard these songs too many times,” he says, then laughs and concedes, “of course, the second time I heard them was probably too many times…”
2000
May 13: Kiss, Ted Nugent
May 20: Charlie Daniels Band Volunteer Jam! Featuring Hank Jr. and Little Feat also
June 4: REO Speedwagon and Styx
June 16: Don Henley plays a somewhat unique, pavilion seating only show
June 19 & 20: Dave Matthews Band plays both nights. What’s most interesting about these, perhaps, is that the show on the 19th appears to be his first ever performance of Grey Street.
June 21: Poison with Cinderalla and Dokken. Say what you will, but I’m sure this was a pretty good time.
June 23: Steve Miller with special guest Gov’t Mule
June 27: Allman Brothers Band
July 7: A blight descends upon Columbus, as we become the latest stop in The Masterworks Tour: The Epic Side of Yes. And here I was thinking that the normal side of Yes was far more epic than anyone could possibly stomach. Even so, I’d rather watch them than opening act Kansas.
July 12: Sting
July 14 & 15: Phish. I’ve never really heard much to get excited about, but give them credit, not many bands would attempt booking this venue two nights in a row.
July 18: Ozzfest 2000.
July 25: Jimmy Buffett. This puppy sold out fairly early, of course.
July 26: All That & More Festival. I feel sorry for the people who have to clean up after something like Jimmy Buffett, and wonder if they ever make a pointed decision to book something a little more tame immediately afterwards. Instead of, say, The Dead or something. This I think is some kind of lite teenybopper pop music tour. The names are M2M, Angela Via, B*witched, LFO, Take 5, No Authority, Blaque, and Leslie, but I only recognize two of those.
July 28: “Club 80’s The Flashback Tour” is how they’re stylizing the name of this event. Pretentious or not, that Yes title rolls off the tongue a little better than this. As for the music, though? Eh, maybe not so bad: Wang Chung, A Flock Of Seagulls, Missing Persons, Gene Loves Jezebel
July 29: The Judds, with some guy named LeeRoy Parnell opening
July 30: Def Leppard
August 1: Chicago, Little River Band
August 4: Stone Temple Pilots, Fishbone, Jesse James Dupree, Dope, U.P.O., The Union Underground
August 8: Blitz 8th Anniversary bash featuring Counting Crows, Live, Galactic.
August 18: Montreaux Festival…on Tour!! Al Jarreau, Roberta Flack, David Sanborn, Joe Sample and George Duke are on hand to deliver the smooth and mellow jams.
August 20: Duran Duran
August 21: Pearl Jam with Sonic Youth. I did review this show but am never quite sure whether to post something like this in multiple places, or post it in one place and link to it from all over. But yes, if interested, you can read about it here.
August 24: Kid Rock, David Allan Coe, Dope
August 25: Neil Young, The Pretenders, Tegan And Sara
September 2: Motley Crue with Megadeth and Anthrax as openers
September 3: Britney Spears
September 8: BB King Blues Festival featuring the man himself, as well as Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, and Corey Harris. I’m pretty sure this is the show I attended. We kept getting a bunch of free passes to the B.B. King fest every year from this one rep at Kroger, but it almost never worked out for me to attend. Only once was I able to, and I believe this was it.
2001
May 11: Bad Company, Styx, Billy Squier
June 2: 9th Anniversary Bash for local FM hard rock station The Blitz. Staind, Buckcherry, Monster Magnet, Saliva, Oleander, Cold, Professional Murder Music, Stereomud, Systematic are among the impressive lineup of performers.
June 12: Men At Work
June 30: Ted Nugent, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple
July 6: Toby Keith, Brooks And Dunn
July 7: Paul Simon, Brian Wilson
July 10: Can this possibly be true? A bill with John Mellencamp and…Blink-182? Regarding the latter I like a few of their songs, but reading a review of the show makes me glad I wasn’t here – sounds very juvenile, and that includes the band’s humor just as much as the predominantly teenybopper crowd. Like these guys saying they played in “Shitcinnati” yesterday, which might be the funniest of these “jokes” that I have read about. Alkaline Trio and New Found Glory are allegedly here also.
July 11: Aerosmith, Fuel
July 13: Journey, Peter Frampton, John Waite
July 14: Barenaked Ladies, Vertical Horizon, Action Figure Party, Sarah Harmer
July 17: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne
July 18: Phil Lesh & Friends, Ratdog
July 21: Poison, Quiet Riot, Warrant
July 24: Trey Anastasio Band
July 27: Tony Bennett
July 28: James Taylor
August 3: The latest Ozzfest. Black Sabbath, Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Papa Roach, Black Label Society, Disturbed, Crazy Town, Mudvayne, Drowning Pool, The Union Underground, and a bunch of other bands I’ve never heard of.
August 8: Matchbox Twenty, Train, Old 97s.
August 14: MTV TRL Tour, featuring Destiny’s Child, Nelly and St. Lunatics, Eve, Dream
August 15: Rod Stewart
August 16: Deftones, Godsmack, Puddle of Mudd, Darwin’s Waiting Room, From Zero
August 22: B.B. King, Buddy Guy.
September 2: John Mellencamp, The Wallflowers
September 10: Sade, India.Arie
September 17: Stevie Nicks
October 7: Alice Cooper
2006
May 30: Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band (doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?)
June 7: Dave Matthews Band, G. Love & Special Sauce
June 14: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Trey Anastasio
June 16: Warped Tour. A small armada of different bands played and I’m not about to list them all.
June 25: Sammy Hagar and the Wabos
June 28: Nine Inch Nails survive a rain drenched show at Germain Amphitheater. They play Terrible Lie, Closer, and Down In It alongside other golden oldies. Bauhaus and Peaches open.
June 30: Chicago
July 12: Lynyrd Skynyrd, 3 Doors Down
July 14: Counting Crows, Goo Goo Dolls
July 21: This year’s Ozzfest horde hits Germain Amphitheater. System Of A Down, Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Atreyu, All That Remains, Bad Acid Trip, Between The Buried And Me, Black Label Society, Bleeding Through, DragonForce, Full Blown Chaos, Hatebreed, Lacuna Coil, A Life Once Lost, Norma Jean, The Red Chord, Strapping Young Lad, Unearth, Walls Of Jericho all play.
July 30: Poison and Cinderella are performing over at Germain Amphitheater, meanwhile, if you’re looking for something to do a little later.
August 2: Earth, Wind & Fire are at Germain Amphitheater, with Chris Botti
August 15: John Fogerty and Willie Nelson double bill
August 18: Mary J. Blige
August 29: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at Germain Amphitheater. They seem to do this quite a bit for guys who somewhat hate each other.
September 5: Aerosmith/Motley Crue show I have written about above.
September 10: A wholly unique rock n’ roll fantasy camp descends upon Germain Amphitheater – if you rightfully call a one day event a “camp.” Spencer Davis, Skunk Baxter, and Mark Farner are among the most noteworthy camp counselors, who are tasked with splitting the attendees into 11 different bands, teaching them one song, and then throwing them onstage to battle at the end of the day, in front of a crowd. The prize? An opening slot for Journey and Def Leppard, members of which show up late in the day for a meet and greet.
Other counselors forming their own bands include Teddy Andreadis (touring member of Guns N’ Roses), Fred Coury (Cinderella, and actually also a touring member of Guns N’ Roses at one point), Artimus Pyle (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Simon Kirke (drummer for Paul Rodgers in both Bad Company and Free), and then a few more people from the 80s you might have sort of heard of.
Chris Deville from Alive! is sent to report and participate. He’s playing guitar in the Skunk-led group, alongside another Columbus local, Read Wineland, and a handful of out-of-towners. Instead of kissing up to their teacher, though, they decide to try and impress Farner with a Grand Funk Railroad tune, I’m Your Captain. Baxter is less than impressed by the early results, so he decides to teach the fortysomething woman playing keyboards a Bach prelude, leading into the tune, and this seems to work much better. They dub themselves Skunk’s Punx and, since their isn’t much of audience the first time around (they are the opening act of the eleven), get to play a second time later. Still don’t win, though Deville reports that even a short lesson from Baxter has noticeably improved his guitar playing. At least one other known C-bus resident, this guy named Greg Schweppe, is mentioned as attending, and is quoted saying, “this is totally worth the two grand I blew on it.”
Here are the respective set lists of the co-headliners, later that night:
Dep Leppard:
Let’s Get Rocked
Let It Go
Promises
Bringin’ On the Heartbreak
Foolin’
Hysteria
20th Century Boy
Bass Solo
Rock On
Rocket
Photograph
Armageddon It
Animal
Rock Of Ages
Love Bites
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Journey:
The Star-Spangled Banner
Stone in Love
Ask the Lonely
Wheel in the Sky
Keep On Runnin’
Edge of the Blade
Who’s Crying Now
Chain Reaction
Lights
Piano Solo
Open Arms
Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
Escape
Dead Or Alive
Faithfully
Don’t Stop Believin’
Any Way You Want It
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
I wasn’t here, obviously, but would like to cite Journey for excessive apostrophe use. Also this questionable choice of an opening cut and having the drummer sing lead on 3 of their biggest hits.
September 13: Family Values Tour, featuring Deftones, Korn, Stone Sour, Flyleaf, DIR EN GREY, Deadsy, Bury Your Dead, Bullets And Octane, 10 Years, Walls Of Jericho
September 29: Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood play Germain Amphitheater.
October 6: In only slightly less terrifying news, Toby Keith and a drunken mob of redneck fans close out the concert season at Germain Amphitheater.
