Twitter Fun - Music

[Otis 83]

Had the privilege of bumping into @Old Titan on Twitter this week in a thread that posed the question "What's the biggest music act you've seen in the smallest venue?"  Old Titan responded with Ray Charles and Tina Turner at Ziegfeld's Dinner Theatre in Tulsa.   I responded with Talking Heads at the Cain's Ballroom in 1979.  Anyone else want to play the game?

I did see Robert Guillaume doing stand-up at Ziegfeld's but he's not a music act so it doesn't qualify.

P.S.  I will always call it Twitter.  Sue me!

[Old Titan]

21 minutes ago, Otis 83 said:

Had the privilege of bumping into @Old Titan on Twitter this week in a thread that posed the question "What's the biggest music act you've seen in the smallest venue?"  Old Titan responded with Ray Charles and Tina Turner at Ziegfeld's Dinner Theatre in Tulsa.   I responded with Talking Heads at the Cain's Ballroom in 1979.  Anyone else want to play the game?

I did see Robert Guillaume doing stand-up at Ziegfeld's but he's not a music act so it doesn't qualify.

P.S.  I will always call it Twitter.  Sue me!

I was a valet at Ziegfield's one summer in high school, so I saw a bunch of fading Vegas-style acts in that venue.

I think that little cinder block building on the southeast corner of 71st & Sheridan is now a hospice facility. 

Talk about irony:  "Acts check in, but they don't check out!" 

P.S.  Very jealous that you saw David Byrne & Co. at "Tulsa's Timeless Little Honky Tonk".  Add them to a long list of "Wish I'd Been There!" acts who have played "The Cain's" on their way up:  The Police, U2, The Ramones, Van Halen, Foo Fighters, The Pretenders, etc.

[Cletus]

I won 2 tickets to see BJ Thomas at Ziegfield's my first year at ORU (1979) by guessing the right Bible verse (Matt. 5:16) on a radio station question from KXOJ (Sapulpa) at 1am. 

Tickets were downstairs at the desk in EMR in the morning when I went down the elevator. Ticket said no jeans allowed (wish I had tickets to prove this). 

I had to receive permission to attend concert from my RA because event started at 10:30pm and our freshman curfew was 12am. Also, I needed to borrow a wing mate's Malibu car because we weren't allowed to have a car the first year (as I recall...it's been a while). 

[theeagleman5]

TheEagleman was a huge fan of Mylon Lefevre and Broken Heart back in the day.....saw them at a small venue in Allentown PA and sat on the front row...this would have been late 80s....right before his heart attack that forced his retirement.....great Christian Band arguably best of all time which is another discussion....Mylon could preach and rock it up.....saw him multiple times in the 80s in Trenton, NJ at a smallish theatre.....he passed away last fall at like 78 yrs old....                                  RIP Mylon.....More of Jesus....Less of Me.......

[Otis 83]

53 minutes ago, Cletus said:

I won 2 tickets to see BJ Thomas at Ziegfield's my first year at ORU (1979) by guessing the right Bible verse (Matt. 5:16) on a radio station question from KXOJ (Sapulpa) at 1am. 

Tickets were downstairs at the desk in EMR in the morning when I went down the elevator. Ticket said no jeans allowed (wish I had tickets to prove this). 

I had to receive permission to attend concert from my RA because event started at 10:30pm and our freshman curfew was 12am. Also, I needed to borrow a wing mate's Malibu car because we weren't allowed to have a car the first year (as I recall...it's been a while). 

Well you made better choices than me...which isn't that surprising.  The Talking Heads show was on a Monday night.  I was freshman so still had curfew.  My buddy and I missed the wing meeting so it was obvious that we were out past curfew.  Got "campused" for a night or two which was a small price to pay to see that show at a great venue.

[Otis 83]

3 hours ago, theeagleman5 said:

TheEagleman was a huge fan of Mylon Lefevre and Broken Heart back in the day.....saw them at a small venue in Allentown PA and sat on the front row...this would have been late 80s....right before his heart attack that forced his retirement.....great Christian Band arguably best of all time which is another discussion....Mylon could preach and rock it up.....saw him multiple times in the 80s in Trenton, NJ at a smallish theatre.....he passed away last fall at like 78 yrs old....                                  RIP Mylon.....More of Jesus....Less of Me.......

I was sure you were going to tell us you saw Hall and Oates at a skating rink in 1971.

[tmh8286]

I saw James Taylor in a concert that featured his son, Ben Taylor, at the Old Lady on Br . . . er, I mean the Tulsa Theater. I guess that's not that small of a theater, but JT usually plays the BOK these days.

[theeagleman5]

HAHAHA!!!....honestly never saw Hall and Oates but TheEagleman sure wishes he had.....Philly boys who hit the big time....now I hear they are no longer friends or speaking and in litigation over song rights.....so not gonna see these boys in concert any time soon short of a kiss and make up session.....gotta love Sarah Smile and Kiss on My List..... 

[Otis 83]

1 hour ago, tmh8286 said:

I saw James Taylor in a concert that featured his son, Ben Taylor, at the Old Lady on Br . . . er, I mean the Tulsa Theater. I guess that's not that small of a venue, but JT usually plays the BOK these days.

Yea not sure the Old Lady on Brady qualifies but it is a nice hall.  I saw the Kinks in the fall of '79 there.  Local Dallas blues legend Bugs Henderson was the opener.  That was on the Low Budget tour which is an underappreciated Kinks album.  I also saw Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers there in the spring of '80 I believe.  That would have been the Damn the Torpedoes tour.  The Fabulous Poodles opened supporting their fourth album Think Pink.  My recollection is the Poodles had a huge pair of pink wayfarer style frames hanging over the stage.   Those were the days...

[theeagleman5]

TheEagleman attended some really good concerts while at ORU back in the mid 70s but most were at the old Tulsa Civic Center which i am not sure even exists any more....saw Alice Cooper....Doobie Bros....Three Dog Night....Seals and Crofts and my personal favorite Jackson Browne with Bonnie Rait......lots of great memories....and I also had a job on the clean up crew at Mabee Center during my time on campus so got to hear some classics there from backstage like Elvis, John Denver, Johnny Cash and I believe the O'Jays......or maybe it was the Spinners.....but it was a super good show as I recall from almost 50 years ago......

[theeagleman5]

Two words that TheEagleman never thought he would hear in the same sentence....Otis and the Kinks......lol

[ORUJason]

I saw Mylon Lefevre at the Old Lady on Brady in the late 80s.  One of the best concerts I have ever seen.  A little known fact that Peter Furler, the former lead singer of the Newsboys, is/was the son-in-law of Mylon LeFevre.

[tmh8286]

The Tulsa Civic Center still exists, eagleman, under it's current moniker of the Cox Center Tulsa. 

Since the topic seems to have strayed a bit from Otis's original post, I'll add that I saw Earth, Wind, and Fire at the Brady a few years back. It was a remarkably good show! They had FIVE drum sets on stage, and I believe that every member of the band played one or the other of them at some point in the concert. I believe they said that three of the band members were originals from the 70s group, the rest being newer additions. Great night and great music!

[theeagleman5]

Mylon Lefevre surely was one of the great Christian rockers of all time and a fabulous speaker.....incredible story of redemption....originally one of the Singing Lefevre's gospel group back in the 60s he wrote the famous hymn WITHOUT HIM which was loved by Elvis Presley who recorded it on a gospel album making teenage Mylon a very rich man before he even hit 20. I remember Mylon saying in his testimony that he started receiving royalty checks of over $90K per month when he was just 18 which led him down a dark path of booze and drugs....Mylon got kicked out of the family singing group and went down the secular route playing with some of the all time greats of the 70s...his record with the great Alvin Lee of Ten Years After was a classic....On the Road to Freedom....but Mylon sunk deeper into the drug culture of the time and recalled snorting coke thru $100 bills with the Allman Bros in their hotel room....but the Lord never lets us go too far and Mylon was invited to a Second Chapter of Acts concert where he gave his life back to the Lord and began a changing of his ways around 1980....wound up humbled as a janitor at his old church in Atlanta where he began playing with some guys that became Broken Heart....the rest is history......unfortunately after his heart attack and retirement from Broken Heart he almost died but got involved with the WOF movement in Texas with Kenneth Copeland and that decision was part of what cost him his first marriage....he claimed his heart was fully healed after praying with Copeland and his wife....and yeah his daughter is married to Newboys founder Peter Furler....TheEagleman a huge fan of Mylon back in the day and his music and testimony helped bring me back to the Lord after some doubting and roaming in the early 80s.....I will always be thankful to Mylon and his ministry.....his 2nd wife Christie still carries on the ministry since his death last September......the Lord works in mysterious ways......RIP MYLON!!! 

[Otis 83]

22 hours ago, tmh8286 said:

The Tulsa Civic Center still exists, eagleman, under it's current moniker of the Cox Center Tulsa. 

Since the topic seems to have strayed a bit from Otis's original post, I'll add that I saw Earth, Wind, and Fire at the Brady a few years back. It was a remarkably good show! They had FIVE drum sets on stage, and I believe that every member of the band played one or the other of them at some point in the concert. I believe they said that three of the band members were originals from the 70s group, the rest being newer additions. Great night and great music!

No offense from me tmh as I have driven inumerable threads off topic.  So let's bring it back to small venues.

The Eagleman saw Bonnie Rait open up for Jackson Brown at the Mabee center.  In 1980, I saw Bonnie Rait open for Muddy Waters at The Cain's Ballroom.  She came out with that slide guitar and delivered the goods!  I remember her resting one of her cowboy boots on the monitor at the front of the stage, fling her red hair back and flat out play the blues. 

I somehow convinced a a number of guys on my wing, who were very solid citizens if you know what I mean, to join me for this event.  A couple of them had probably never been in a bar in their lives.  I had read in Rolling Stone a few months earlier that Muddy Waters had married a young lady in her 20s and, at the time, I predicted Muddy wasn't going to live much longer.  So I told these fine young men if they wanted to see a legitmate blues legend this was their chance.  We had a great time and no one broke the honor code.

I had seen Muddy Waters open for Eric Clapton a year or so earlier.  He was great that night at the Cain's.  Had to sit on a stool most of the night but his guitar playing and singing were incredible.  He did get off the stool and dance a jig during his signature hit Mannish Boy.  Muddy passed away three years later so I wasn't too far off on my prediction.  I've lost touch with all but one of those guys.  I wonder if they remember the night that "wild" freshman took them to The Cains!

[tmh8286]

Well, here’s another marginal one. My birthday is New Year’s Eve, and a number of years ago B.B. King did a New Year’s Eve concert Mabee Center, in the Johnson Theater configuration, and we went for my birthday. That’s probably smaller than Brady. Anyway, it was a very fun evening. The thing I remember most was near the end he started tossing a few guitar pics in the crowd down in front. After a little bit he pulls out an entire plastic bag, full of hundreds of guitar pics, and start slinging them everywhere! Pretty funny way to end a fun concert.

[Otis 83]

 

18 hours ago, tmh8286 said:

Well, here’s another marginal one. My birthday is New Year’s Eve, and a number of years ago B.B. King did a New Year’s Eve concert Mabee Center, in the Johnson Theater configuration, and we went for my birthday. That’s probably smaller than Brady. Anyway, it was a very fun evening. The thing I remember most was near the end he started tossing a few guitar pics in the crowd down in front. After a little bit he pulls out an entire plastic bag, full of hundreds of guitar pics, and start slinging them everywhere! Pretty funny way to end a fun concert.

B.B. King never has been and never will be marginal.  One of the 3 Kings of the Blues, along with Albert and Freddie, The "Beale Street Blues Boy" is in the pantheon of blues guitarists.  Saw BB King at what was then known as Starplex.  It was a package show with a bunch of the greats including John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins and Etta James.  

[tmh8286]

4 hours ago, Otis 83 said:

 

B.B. King never has been and never will be marginal.  One of the 3 Kings of the Blues, along with Albert and Freddie, The "Beale Street Blues Boy" is in the pantheon of blues guitarists.  Saw BB King at what was then known as Starplex.  It was a package show with a bunch of the greats including John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins and Etta James.  

I didn't mean to suggest that B.B. King was marginal - me and his 15 kids think he was great!! I was referring to Johnson Theater fitting the description of "small venue." Just looked it up - Johnson Theater holds around 2,500. Tulsa (Brady) Theater holds 4,200. Not sure either fits your original intention for this thread.