The Orpheum, Boston - Cruzados, The Alarm
My first "large venue" show. I went with Carla, who I was seeing at the time. She was thrilled to have someone to go with who actually listened to WFNX! (I know you enjoy reading these, Carla!) Cruzados were a major label flop who put out an LP in 1985. They got to open for The Alarm. Their second CD, After dark, is available on Amazon for a lot of money. So is the first one, Cruzados. I remember liking "Just like roses" from some movie soundtrack I can't recall. One of the members now performs with Tito & Tarantula. Cruazdos had started out as the East L.A. punk band The Plugz, who I knew from their track on the Repo man soundtrack ("El Clavo Y La Cruz").
The Alarm did a great show, from what we could see of it. We thought we had bought seats at the back of the house. We ended up in one of the side balconies with half of the stage obscured by stacks of large amps, so we couldn't see stage right at all. Other than that, we had a great time. The Alarm were starting to hit their commercial peak and the crowd went nuts. At one point, we headed down to the floor, only to be chased back upstairs minutes later. I did manage to pick up a playing card that Mike Peters threw into the crowd during "Where were you hiding when the storm broke?" ("All cards are marked/and all fates will collide"). I may still have that playing card. Later, it was on to The Rat for part 2...
As an added bonus here are four songs recorded that night. They all appeared on the "Spirit of '76" 12" released early in 1986. They also appear on the rerelease of Strength.
Where were you hiding when the storm broke?
So far:
Number of shows seen, November 1985: 2
Number of bands seen, November 1985: 5
Total number of shows: 7
Total number of bands seen: 17
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