I always loved a good outdoor festival and today was going to be a great one. Iron Maiden would be headlining this one at the Spartan Stadium. Tesla was opening along with Waysted and Y&T. We filled up the coolers with beer and cranked up Maiden all the way there. Their new album Somewhere In Time was cool. I liked how the band’s sound was evolving. It was funny how this album featured guitar synthesizers, even after they had previously bragged about how they didn’t use them. But it was all good. Bands evolve. And I for one, thought it was cool how they incorporated new things into their sound.

But as much as I loved Maiden, it was actually Tesla that I was most excited to see this time. I’d already seen Maiden a bunch of times now, including a killer show just a few months ago in Oakland. But this would be my first time ever seeing Tesla and they were my new favorite band. Everything about them, in my opinion, was cool. They were heavy, melodic and they could rock their ass off.

Also, I loved how they didn’t care about image. The way they dressed was usually just jeans and a t-shirt. Just like me. They seemed so down to earth but they could really play. Their dual guitar rhythms were awesome.

But the thing that really set them apart in my mind was Jeff Keith. He was such a soulful singer. Not many singers I knew of could sound that good singing hard rock, but also be that soulful at the same time.

The other band, Waysted, had been getting some airplay lately with their new song “Love Loaded”, which wasn’t a bad song. I didn’t know much about them though. Just that they were a new band formed by Pete Way, the former bass player of UFO.

And of course there was Y&T. You could always count on them to do a kick ass show. Dave Meniketti always blew my mind. How could someone sing that good and also kill it on lead guitar?

This has been an excerpt from the book:
In Search Of The Perfect Buzz: An 80s Metal Memoir
Please see the following links to read more.










Subscribe for news and future offers