On May 27th, 1984, Brian and I were at the American Rock Festival at the Timber Ridge Ski Resort in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was an all day show. The concert goers were spread out all over the ski slope and the stage was set up in front the base lodge. It was certainly a festival atmosphere. There were thousands of people in attendance. I remember there were guys selling acid. They would simply walk back and forth in the crowd holding up a little picture card about half the size of a business card.
The bands at the show were Ratt, Accept, Night Ranger, Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, and Triumph. How cool was that? Six bands that I was into and Triumph with whom I was at that point unfamiliar.
Based on the crows reaction during the show, I would have put Quiet Riot on ahead of Mötley Crüe. The crowd wanting more Mötley Crüe and it kind of bled into Quiet Riot’s set. Of course that was nothing compared to the way that Triumph must have felt. After Ozzy left the stage, the crowd started leaving in huge numbers. Maybe that was the plan. The organiziers may have realized that there would be a traffic problem so they put on Triumph last hoping that half the crowd would disperse while they played. I felt bad for them because it was supposed to be their return and most everybody walked out on them.
Ratt – Round And Round This video says live March 18,1984 which was just a couple momths earlier.
Accept – Balls To The Wall
Night Ranger – (You Can Still) Rock In America
Mötley Crüe – Shout At The Devil
Quiet Riot – Metal Health
Ozzy Osbourne -Crazy Train
Triumph -I don’t know, we left.
It was a great show but sunburn followed.
Actually triumph was the best band at the concert.