The now and future looks so good, it’s easy to forget diamonds in the dust. But back in the day, a staggering amount of music legends performed in Huntsville, Alabama. Long before this heretofore nerdy tertiary market was trendy, semi-cool or whatever it is now.
With the new Orion Amphitheater booming and legendary Von Braun Center thriving, there are shows coming now that will be buzzed about years later.
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But let’s appreciate the roots. Below is a list of 12 classic Huntsville concerts. For the purpose of this list, I stuck to big shows. Thousands of people, not hundreds. So none of those transcendent gigs from Tip Top, Kaffeeklatsch, Crossroads and other legendary holes-in-the-wall (as much as we loved ’em) are listed. I also stuck to concerts at least 15 years and back.
Of course, these 12 concerts aren’t the only legitimately classic ones to ever occur in Huntsville. This list is meant to be spark conversations, not food-fights. Think of the below 15 concerts as a starting point and explore out from there.
Prince, 1983, Von Braun Civic Center
March 11, 1983 was possibly the most awesome Friday night ever in Huntsville. That’s when 9.599 lucky party-people got to see to see Prince and The Revolution throw down at the Von Braun Civic Center. (The Huntsville arena later to be known simply as Von Braun Center.) In ’83, Prince was touring behind his “1999″ album. Setlists this tour featured the jubilant title track and neon ballad “Little Red Corvette,” and earlier jams like “Controversy.” The opening acts on the “1999 Tour” were hot stuff too, The Time and Vanity 6. Tickets were $11.
Taylor Swift, 2007, Big Spring Jam
These days, she’s one of the most famous people on the planet. Back in 2007, Taylor Swift was a talented 17-year-old with a hot debut album, ambition and work ethic. That year, she performed at Big Spring Jam. Now defunct, from the mid ‘90s to early 2010s BSJ was Huntsville’s multi-day, large-scale music festival, which brought acts ranging from the Allman Brothers to Destiny’s Child to Al Green to Huntsville. For Swift’s 2007 Big Spring Jam performance, at estimated crowd of 25,000 gathered in front of the stage at the corner of Williams Avenue and Church Street downtown. A large percentage of those were teenage girls there to hear her songs from her 2006 self-titled album. Hits like “Tim McGraw,” “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Our Song.” According to an industry professional who worked closely with Big Spring Jam, the festival booked Swift for just $1,000 for an hour-long set. Two years later, Swift’s stadium tour was grossing millions per show on ticket sales alone.
Van Halen, 1980, Von Braun Civic Center
Unlike ‘70s touring juggernauts The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, top ‘80s rockers frequently included tertiary markets in their tours. For example, Van Halen’s classic David Lee Roth fronted lineup played the Von Braun Civic Center in 1980, 1981 and 1982. In 1980, Van Halen was touring behind their third LP, “Women and Children First.” That album included the Tarzan-rock classics “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “And the Cradle Will Rock…” Tickets were around eight bucks for the ‘80 VBCC show. A young local guitarist named Dave Anderson, who’d go on to rock arenas with Brother Cane in the ‘90s, saw Van Halen’s ‘80s and ‘82 concerts in Huntsville. “They were both incredible,” Anderson told me in 2020. “But they were meaner in ‘80 and hungrier.” That was Van Halen’s best-selling Huntsville show too, with an attendance of 8,245. Curiously in 1986, Van Halen’s first tour after they replaced Roth with Sammy Hagar, did 6,524 at the VBCC. A few months later Roth’s first big solo tour bested his old combo, with an attendance of 6,544.
Billy Idol, 1984, Spragins Hall
“Rebel Yell”? Hell yeah. And god bless University of Alabama in Huntsville’s 1984 student government association. On May 19 that year, the UAH SGA presented a concert by punk-pop star Billy Idol. The show took place at the college’s basketball gym, Spragins Hall. Tickets were $8. Wyatt Akins was a Lee High School student at the time. Akins was excited to see Idol perform, as he was a big fan of his pre-solo punk band Generation X. “A member of Generation X being in Huntsville, I thought that was really cool,” Akins told me recently. “They were one of my favorites.” Akins recalls the UAH crowd for Billy Idol being a mix of high school and college students. There was a “Billy Idol lookalike contest” held leading up to the show, and the singer in the local band Akins was in, called Dead Pigeons, won the contest and got in free that night. Back then, Idol was one of the world’s biggest pop stars. Music videos for his songs “Rebel Yell” and “Eyes Without a Face” were all over MTV.
Foo Fighters, 1997, Big Spring Jam
The stage was on a gravel parking lot. At the ‘97 Big Spring Jam festival in Huntsville, Foo Fighters had a dynamic new drummer named Taylor Hawkins, formerly with Alanis Morrissette, with them . Playing drums for the new band of the decade’s best drummer, former Nirvana percussionist Dave Grohl, wasn’t a gig for the meek. But Hawkins thrived. His playing was big yet nuanced. Hawkins, blond and lithe, was a star - that night and always - behind the drums. At one point during the Foo’s Big Spring Jam set, Grohl, who most of the show fronted the band on guitar and vocals, joined along with Hawkins on a second drum kit. The band was touring their second album “The Colour and the Shape.” Songs in the set included now classics “My Hero,” “Big Me” and “Everlong.” And 25 years later, Huntsville can say the great Taylor Hawkins, who tragically passed away in 2022, laid some of his beats down here.
Deep Purple, 1972, Madison County Coliseum
Before the Von Braun Civic Center’s 1975, many of Huntsville’s concerts went down at Madison County Coliseum. ZZ Top played at the Coliseum early in their career. In the ‘60s, icons like James Brown and Sonny & Cher did shows there. Occasionally concerts in Huntsville were also held at Milton Frank Stadium, where the Alabama A&M football team played home games. Milton Frank shows include the likes of ‘70s hitmakers like Three Dog Night and The Guess Who. At Madison County Coliseum, a sweet March 23, 1972 bill featured Buddy Miles (the former Jimi Hendrix drummer, known for solo hit “Them Changes) and Nazareth (future “Love Hurts” blooze-rockers). The headliner? British proto-metal legends Deep Purple. Purple was hot off their masterwork album “Machine Head,” loaded with bombs like “Space Truckin’” and “Highway Star.” And a little song with a pretty decent guitar-riff, called “Smoke on the Water.”
Funkadelic, 1978, Von Braun Center
Funkadelic is one of the most influential bands to ever exist. Their space-funk set the course for the best rap music that would follow in later decades, not to mention inspiring Prince and other guitar-oriented greats. Before Funkadelic’s 1978 VBCC show, the sprawling band’s Mothership touched down at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. That night at the VBCC, opening acts included Bar Kays and Cameo lit the fuse for Funkadelic’s set. A few months later, Funkadelic would drop their essential album “One Nation Under a Groove.”
Metallica, 1992, Von Braun Civic Center
Thrash-metal kings Metallica first destroyed the VBCC in 1989 on their “...And Justice For All Tour.” Three years later, the band was one the biggest in the world, thanks to the streamlined supernova known as “The Black Album.” Their ’92 Huntsville set opened with the dark hit “Enter Sandman.” With singer/guitarist James Hetfield howling and riffing away, Metallica also tore through “Sad But True,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “One.” And brutal closer “Battery” sent the black T-shirt throng headbanging into the night.
Tina Turner, 1987, Von Braun Civic Center
After 1984 comeback album “Private Dancer,” soul belter supreme Tina Turner was promoting a new LP, “Break Every Rule.” Her 1987 VBCC set included “Typical Male,” a number two single. In the VBCC setlist, there were also “Private Dancer” essentials like “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” But the covers are what’s fascinating. In addition to “Proud Mary,” which Ike & Tina Turner had made their own in 1970 with a gospel-boogie version, that night at the VBCC Tina also performed Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love,” The Who’s “The Acid Queen,” The Beatles’ “Help!” and Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Whoa.
Rush, 1979, Von Braun Civic Center
Tickets for Rush’s first-ever Huntsville show started at a princely $6.50. The Canadian prog-metal trio was touring their 1978 LP “Hemispheres,” with classic disc “Fly By Night” and concept opus “2112″ also in their catalog to that point, among others. Glam metal pioneers Starz opened the show. Rush setlist that tour featured gems like “Working Man,” “Closer to the Heart” and all of side one from “2112.” And of course, a drum solo from The Professor himself, Neil Peart. If ever there was a rock concert tuned to Huntsville’s aerospace engineer backbone, it was ‘79 Rush.
Heart, 1977, Von Braun Civic Center
“Ooh, Barracuda!” Female fronted rock has never been better than Heart. The Wilson-sisters fronted band first walloped Huntsville in ‘77. Setlists on this tour were juiced with recent hits like “Barracuda,” “Crazy On You” and “Magic Man.” And the shows closed with a rip through a cover of “Rock and Roll,” by Heart’s touchtone Led Zeppelin. The attendance was around 7,600. Heart would return to the VBCC in ‘78, ‘80, ‘82, ‘83 and ‘86. But 1977 was their Huntsville Valhalla.
Dolly Parton, 1978, Von Braun Civic Center
By 1978, Dolly Parton had transcended country music stardom. She was a superstar. Parton had previously scored country classics like “Jolene,” I Will Always Love You,” and “Coat of Many Colors.” Her latest album “Here You Come Again” was a platinum smash and would later net a Grammy. Her talent and savvy blueprinted the crossover success later stars like Shania Twain would follow. Hits, wigs, curves and charisma, Parton brought all that and more to her VBCC crowd.
Elvis Presley, 1975, Von Braun Civic Center
Did you really think we’d leave out the King of Rock and Roll? Elvis sold-out five shows during his three-day 1975 stand (held during May 30, May, 31 and June 1), each attended by 8,738. The shows opened with a country-fried version of “CC Rider.” They closed with the powerful ballad “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” The King’s sets also included early hits (“All Shook Up,” “Blue Suede Shoes”) grandiose interpretations (“American Trilogy”) and his last top 10 smash (1972′s “Burning Love”). Presley returned to Huntsville in 1976 for another sold-out VBCC run. But by then, according to some fan accounts, he was overweight, sweating profusely and forgetting the words. A year later, The King was dead. But memories of Presley’s world-shaking music – and epic ‘75 Huntsville stand – will never die.
Honorable mention (all Von Braun Civic Center): The Jacksons 1979, Tom Petty 1995, Johnny Cash 1975, Boys II Men 1995, Kiss 1976, Duran Duran 1993, Eagles 1975.
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