Dio concert review; April 30th, 1997 by Terry Herzog

The following is a review of a show on the third North American leg of the Angry Machines tour, originally posted to alt.music.dio. Please note that this article does not represent my views about drugs.


From: Terry Herzog (macviper@earthlink.net)
Subject: DIO DESTROYS LEXINGTON KY 4/30/97
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 02:51:36 -0500

WARNING!!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED....... MAY CONTAIN REFERENCES TO SEX DRUGS AND ROCK N’ ROLL

WED APRIL 30, 1997

Got up about noon. Finished watching some tv stuff I had taped the night before. I had been thinking about heading out for the concert early - but - I didn’t feel like waiting in line all day again to get up front. I had somehow acquired a bad cold from someone else at the Indy show. I ended up going to the doctor and he gave me this nice bottle of cough medicine. Yea.....it seems to do the job. So I spent the rest of the afternoon at a friend’s place, getting a jump on the concert. Finally I noticed that it was after 6 pm est. I thought I’d better head out now, since the main rush hour was grinding down. So I slipped in my Metallica Live at Woodstock, and hit the road. Lexington was about 100 miles away, and gliding along about 60 was real enjoyable.

It only took me less than 90 minutes to get there. Had to ask directions to A!A but after 3 questions, I rolled right up along side the club. As I came out of a nice middleclass country section, the area turns into a clean looking college town. The club A!A was just on the right and the tour bus and semi was parked down the first driveway. I continued on past the club, and just fifty yards on, a car at the curb pulls out, leaving me a Great place!!! I pulled on in and since it was only 8 pm, I decided to wait in the car, where I played the 1st side of Rainbow Live in Germany. At 8:30 I opened my trusty bottle of rum. I had decided that, tonight I was just going to get wasted first, and then kick it back about 20 rows and watch from there to see a different show than what you experience in the front. About 8:50 I finished the rum at - amazingly enough, the same time the cd ended. I got out of my car walked on over across the street. There was this kinna dark alley there that looked like fun to explore. Finding that no one else was there, I decided to smoke a nice fattie of some killer green skunk that someone had just recently given me.

Feeling MUCH better now, I headed towards the show, stopping at my car to get my other “special” DIO Joint. About then, I was noticing that my nagging cough from the other day had reappeared. So I took a rather large gulp of my yummy cherry flavored codine syrup. Now....off the the show.

By now the line had thinned down to only about 10 deep. As I go in we are all being patted down and then having a metal detector run over us. I was sure happy that I was already wasted. As I entered into the stage area, My Dying Bride, had not died yet, so I was left to endure their next 4 songs. In all fairness to them, they played much better than at Indy, and the songs were different and much better. But still......

I am about 15 rows back, and I see that the stage is of a rather large size, but there is an 8 foot gap between the stage and a fence with 6 (growing to 10) guards in it. This made me glad I took my time to get there. They got the band set up pretty quickly and as the crowd started to get louder chanting DIO, DIO,DIO!!! The lights dimmed out. They stayed off for a while and the people calmed down some, so I decided that this was a ideal time to light my “special” J. I shared it with 2 others by me and they got so wasted that they only did 2 hits.

The band comes out and the place starts going wild. There was a sudden surge behind me and I was pushed flat into the people in front of me. The lights came on, I take a hit of amyal nitrate, and DIO rips into Jesus, Mary & The Holy Ghost. Really got the crowd going wild. I was being crushed as I was being shoved even closer. He continues right on into Straight Thru the Heart. Then the crowd starts going wild again as RJD jumps into Don’t Talk to Strangers. The crowd behind me is crushing me into the people in front. Several leave and as they do I find myself pushed and shoved and slammed - and the next thing I know, I am standing directly in front of Tracy. He sees me and gives me a big grin.

At the end of the song Ronnie reaches over and slaps someone close to the stage at center. As he jumps back, he sees me about 10 feet over and he comes over in front of me and reaches to me and I get a solid handshake!!! I could not believe that this was happening, I had resigned myself to being in the back. Damn!!!! It’s so strange how things have a way of working out even better than I plan. Next he takes us into Holy Diver, GREAT version!!! Then Vinnie does an extended drum solo. He still beats the skins off those drums. Ronnie comes out and takes us to Heaven & Hell which gets the crowd frantic. He talks about the “little white shape” but he leaves out the part about burning with all of you.

A small break and he introduces Double Monday. Tracy goes into a way extended solo. Not bad, but a bit long. My only complaint was that it was so loud on this solo, that I had to hold my ears, and that doesn’t happen often. Then a Great intro to Hunter of the Heart. Now we are treated to the highlight of the show where Tracy does a GREAT job (not comparing him to Ritchie). Ronnie just kills on these vocals. The best part is how they mix Catch the Rainbow into the center of the song and go back into Mistreated.....only then to go into The Last in Line. Before they leave, Ronnie reaches down into the audience to get some programs or something to sign for about a half dozen people before the guards cleared that area. By now the entire front row was Monster security dudes - the crowd was going nuts!!!!

Then he comes back out and launches into Mob Rules, then going into Rainbow In The Dark. He starts to go but the people are going mad, so he stays on stage and they jump into Man on the Silver MT and then Long Live RnR then into We Rock. The Pit was getting out of hand now and more Zombie Guards were entering the area. I figured that this was all the DIO this place could handle, so I let this girl who had been hanging on my shoulder most of the show, slip into my place as I ducked down and backed out to about the 20th row to watch the close. Ronnie & Co all waive to the crowd and exit the stage and the lights go on and the “other” music begins. I had a good start towards outside. I was completely sweat soaked from the heat that was generated up there.

This was ANOTHER GREAT DIO CONCERT!!! But I have NOT ever been to one that wasn’t GREAT. I think that the show about 2 weeks ago in Indy was better. That one had the good fortune to be a “Magical” DIO CONCERT!!! It is so hard to believe that after all the touring these guys have done, they still make every show special and exciting so that each person that goes retains their own special exciting memory of it.

As I was leaving, I walked over to the side of the building, just to see if anything was going on at the tour bus. A few people were there but suddenly the sky opened up and it started pouring down rain. “BRING ON THE RAIN” I just made it to my car as it hit hard. I throw in the 2nd half of Rainbow Live in Germany and head to the freeway. After that I put on my import AM and the special cd of “STARS” that RJD did for Hear N Aid. I had that on a 45 when it first came out and it had been many years since I have heard that. I think that “STARS” is one of RJD’s Best songs..........

WHATEVER it takes.........if DIO comes ANY WHERE even close to you - GO!!! This is a show you will NOT ever forget.

As ALWAYS........
DIO - was - IS - and shall REMAIN:
THE KING OF ROCK ‘N ROLL
***DIO RULES***
TeRRY

There is NOTHING like a DIO concert!!!


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