The Best Rock Concert of the Last Millennium?
The 25th Anniversary
Pink Floyd, Cleveland Stadium, June 1977,The "Animals" Tour
By: Rick Brown

I went to Capital University here in Columbus, Ohio. There's nothing really dynamic about this. We used to refer to it as "a small Christian College for small Christians". Draw your own conclusions. I had lots of acquaintances there but not many friends. Why? Because I didn't fit in very well...which was fine with me. So I had a few good friends and stayed away from the middle class Sunday Schoolers. One of these friends was Dave Lundstrom. Dave was obnoxious. REAL obnoxious. But unlike many Capital students he never...ever...bored the shit out of me. He was the son of a steelworker from Gary, Indiana. So, I could relate to his upbringing. My father…affectionately known as Snook…worked in a shop for most of his life. Dave had a certain passion for things and I appreciated that about him. Like his idea of opening a steakhouse in the middle of a cow pasture…so people could look at cows while they were eating them. I'm NOT making this up!!! Another buddy of mine and I actually visited him outside Gary after we graduated. He was raising a cow. He called her over, "Here Bessie girl. Good Bessie-Cow. Bessie, Bessie, Bessie" The cow walked over to him and licked the side of his face. Dave lovingly petted her, turned to my buddy and I and said, "I'm going to eat her." This may give you an idea what kind of guy Dave was...and still is...a big, obnoxious, boorish guy who'd give you the shirt off his back. Most men should have the heart of Dave Lindstrom.

When Dave was a senior at Capital…and living above a funeral home…he bought an old Chevy van to customize. He glued Astroturf to the outside of it. The ENTIRE body of his van was covered with Astroturf...and the top flew off on I-71 at 65 mph...but that's another story. Astroturf on a van...it makes sense to me when I look back on it.

Anyhow...Dave went with my wife, me and my brother-in-law, Rod (there might have been other people... I can't remember EVERYTHING! Hey…this was 1977) to see Pink Floyd at old Cleveland Stadium. Although I don't believe we went in "The Grass Patch". That's what Dave called his van. Cute huh?

Pink Floyd had just released "Animals" which is kind of an Orwellian thing equating British social classes with animals...dogs...sheep...etc. The show was "festival seating" which means the sooner you get there the better the seat you had. General admission is what they call it now. We arrived a good 2 hours before the show was to start. In rock and roll terms that's about 3 1/2 hours before the show starts. The stadium was already about 3/4 full so we ended up in the upper deck, left field side about halfway up...which turned out to be okay.

So I settle down resigning myself to waiting at least a three hours when I hear this guy behind me SCREAMING at the top of his lungs, "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE!!!!" I turned around and saw a very "high" individual with a seat on the isle about four rows back. He was standing up seemingly oblivious to anyone except himself. Every five minutes it was, "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE!!!"

At first it was amusing. All his friends were pointing at him laughing. "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE!!!" The whole section started cracking up. "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE!! GET OUT HERE!!! PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE!!"

After an hour of "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE!!!"...which I calculated at around 25 or 30 "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERES" it got old...very…very…old. There were about 80,000 people at the show by now, we're in the upper deck of Cleveland Stadium and this guy thinks the band can hear him. I guess that was this guy's brain on drugs. And Dave had had enough. He decided he was going to shut this guy up. He was, after all, being more obnoxious than Dave himself...and at the time...Dave was the KING of obnoxious.

Of course Dave and this guy started getting into a fight. It took all of us AND the other guy's friends what seemed like ten minutes to get them separated. The guy's friends pushed him down into his seat and held him. I calmed Dave down and assumed we could all live in peace and harmony for the rest of the evening...except after five minutes I hear, "PINK FLOYD!!...........GET OUT HERE!!!! GET OUT HERE!!!!" His friends shoved him back into his sea violently and started slapping him silly. For the next half hour or so it was like, "PINK FLOYD!!" Slap, slap, slap..."GET OUT HERE!!!" Slap, slap, slap. "GET OUT HERE!!!" Slap, slap..."PINK" Slap, slap..."FLOYD" Slap, slap, slap, slap....silence..."GET OUT HERE!!!" Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, slap...silence...silence...silence..."PINK FLOYD!!!" SLAP...SLAP...SLAP...SLAP..."GET"...SLAP, slap..."GET"...slap..."OUT"...slap..."HERE"...slap, slap.

Fortunately the show was starting by now. The lights dimmed and the band came on stage. It was a beautiful June night on Lake Erie. I had never seen Floyd before and it was all very exciting. This was the REAL Pink Floyd…with Roger Waters. The sound was very good from the get go...which is quite unusual for rock concerts...and it didn't take long before I realized that this band was hell bent on diverting attention away from themselves. During "Pigs" a giant pink pig flew around the stadium's nether regions. During "Sheep" fireworks exploded and little parachutes in the shape of sheep cascaded gently down into the crowd. A lot of groups use special effects...but most times it's to enhance not-so-good music or to draw more attention to the band itself. But Pink Floyd almost hid in the shadows while they were playing...and it was an incredible illusion that's difficult to put into words. Maybe it was just a good night for them...I dunno...but everything flowed well and the special effects seemed so in-sync with the music that it was...well...magical. It didn't matter whether it was music from, "Wish You Were Here", "Dark Side of the Moon" or anything. The concert lasted a good 2 hours (which was still an hour less than sitting listening to "PINK FLOYD! GET OUT HERE" every 30 seconds) and the grand finale was a stunning rendition or "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" with a firework's display resembling Niagara Falls stretching from the rooftop of the left field upper deck to the rooftop of the right field upper deck, over the bleachers and behind the band. Truly…truly…amazing. My brother-in-law has pictures but they don't do it justice. I guess some things are best left to memory.

I saw Pink Floyd again in Ohio Stadium in 1988. Roger Waters had left the band years before. They SOUNDED like Floyd...but the special effects were used indiscriminately and the effect was less than special. A flying pig makes no sense without a reference point...even a preposterous reference point. I sat there thinking, "What's next? A giant, flying kitchen sink?" The soul of Pink Floyd was gone. I'm not sure their passion could match Dave's.

Roger Waters played Columbus a few summers ago. Since he wrote all the songs he did them with another band...and it was quite good. There were subdued effects but nothing extraordinary. They were like a lava lamp as opposed to 4th of July. The SOUL of the music WAS there...And that made it strange...Beautifully strange but strange none-the-less. And his solo stuff shined more than the Floyd music. So there really is no Pink Floyd anymore...hasn't been for years. Bands come and go...and some go on longer than they should. After the show in June, 1977 a reasonable facsimile just won't do...at least not for me…and I KNOW it wouldn't please Dave.