r/oldreceipts

What a night!

35 years ago I saw the show of a lifetime. Was up front on the barrier when Temple of the Dog played. This was my first Pearl Jam show. Also the best Soundgarden show of the five or six times I’ve seen them. And I saw Alice In Chains play the Whisky 3 weeks before this show. Went to Oakland a week later and saw Soundgarden play with Metallica, Faith No More and Queensryche. Just a great time for live shows.

I was just a nineteen year-old kid from the Jersey suburbs, and had only been to a couple of raucous stadium concerts as a teenager. The Bottom Line was a legendary music venue in New York City where you could sit at a table with a great view of the stage and order food and drinks to be brought to you. The drinking age was 18 back then. It was a profound experience. I felt so adult. Larry Carlton was magnificent, of course. There’s a great book about the Bottom Line’s thirty-year history called Positively 4th & Mercer. It’s an excellent trip down memory lane if you’re from the New York metro area.