Significant Roadshows: James Brown ('60's), AC/DC ('70's) and Talking Heads ('80s)

Austin hosted concerts that were incredibly noteworthy for reasons beyond musical greatness

JAMES BROWN at Municipal Auditorium Aug. 1, 1966

If that date looks familiar that’s because it was the day UT engineering student Charles Whitman killed 11 people from the observation deck of the UT Tower, after killing three on the way up.

JAMES BROWN PLAYED AUSTIN ON THE NIGHT OF THE SNIPER MASS MURDER!

You would think that would be a substantial event, except that, until a few years ago, hardly anybody had even known about it. This wasn’t like the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the James Brown show went on to quell rioting in Boston. There had been absolutely no trace of this concert in Austin lore until Tim Hamblin, a video archivist for the Austin History Center, was going through some old footage from 1982 at Club Foot and found an interview with James Brown. Asked if he’d ever played Austin before, the Godfather of Soul said, “Yeah, I played here the night that guy went crazy up there on the tower!”

Was there mention of the mass murder- the highest body count by an individual in U.S. history up to that point- at the concert? That question brought me to the Austin History Center to peruse copies of the Capital City Argus, Austin’s black newspaper of the time. There I found a review of the Monday Aug. 1 show written by “Roving Eyes,” which is one of the pseudonyms Bert Adams used. According to the review, James Brown sat in with the 18-piece band for about half an hour on organ before he took the spotlight. Nowhere in the review did it mention the day of terror, which began just 11 blocks from Municipal Auditorium (later renamed Palmer) at the Bouldin Creek house at 906 Jewel Street, where Whitman stabbed his wife to death while she slept. He then went to the Penthouse Apartments at 901 Guadalupe St. and killed his mother in similar fashion.

Austin was pretty much segregated in 1966 and what happened over at the white college didn’t affect the goings on in the black community. So, although it’s a tad surprising the review didn’t mention 16 murders in town that day, it’s not a shock.

AC/DC at Armadillo World Headquarters July 27, 1977

The Australian riff maestros were big back home, but had yet to conquer the States when Atlantic Records booked them to play a club tour to promote Let There Be Rock. They were so unknown in the U.S. at the time that AC/DC opened for Canadian band Moxy on four Texas shows promoted by Stone City Attractions of San Antonio. In a 1995 interview, guitarist Angus Young told me how the Austin show became their first-ever concert on American soil. “We were supposed to play in

Phoenix the night before, but Bon followed a girl off the plane in L.A. and he missed the flight.” The setlist for their U.S. debut at the ‘Dillo was “Live Wire,” followed by “She’s Got Balls,” “Problem Child,” “Whole Lotta Rosie,” “Dog Eat Dog,” “The Jack” and “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The band’s metalized Chuck Berry riffs, with Bon Scott’s vocals slicing through, stole the show no doubt. The next time AC/DC came to Austin, in July ’78, they headlined a sold-out show at Willie’s Austin Opry House on Academy Drive.

TALKING HEADS at Fiesta Gardens Sept. 7, 1982

This was the Talking Heads’ 7th concert in Austin in four years and the first not at the Armadillo World Headquarters. Yet, although there were some amazing shows on Barton Springs Road, this was the T. Heads’ most notorious night in River City. First, this stop on the “The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads” tour was moved from City Coliseum with just a couple days notice when it was determined that, after playing a smoke-filled Civic Auditorium in S.F., an outdoors venue would be healthier for eight-months-pregnant bassist Tina Weymouth.

The neighborhood wasn’t sufficiently notified- or it didn’t matter if they were- so after the hipster gringos invaded the Eastside enmasse on a Tuesday evening, some of their cars were negatively altered. One row of cars parked on the street had all their windows smashed. Others were graffitied or had antennas torn off.

But the show, sandwiched between Remain In Light (1980) and Speaking In Tongues (1983) was worth suffering mere property damage according to fan Rick Belden. “I was so euphoric by the time it was over that I didn’t even care that someone had spray-painted a black line down the side of my car during the show,” he posted. His car wore it proudly like a tattoo, reminding him of that fabulous night of heady dance music, opening with “Psycho Killer,” and ending with encores of “Take Me To the River” and “Cross-Eyed and Painless.”

Original poster. Show was moved

Don’t know if the venue change ended up being such a great thing for Weymouth, who traded smoke for 100 degree heat, with her bass strapped on for two hours. But fan Lisa Wyatt Roe, who danced all set with 3,000 other ticketholders (plus those who exploited a breech in perimeter security by arriving by boat) said Weymouth was an inspiration. “She played so well, considering she was pregnant and it was a million degrees.”

The other Talking Heads show to consider as their most significant in Austin was Nov. 21, 1980 at the Armadillo. This was a month after the release of the masterpiece Remain In Light, with its Afrobeat grooves, and the band was augmented by Adrian Bellew on guitar, Bernie Worrell on keyboards, second bassist Busta Jones and others. Every punk/new wave band in town wanted to open the show, but manager Gary Kurfirst gave the plum to legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, who had been using our fair city as a moveable flophouse for several months. Bangs had been rehearsing with various Austin players, but replaced them for the Armadillo gig with an existing punk band called the Delinquents. While the Dillo crowd was known for acceptance and leniency, they booed Lester’s awful performance- at least the ones who were there. The hall didn’t start to fill up until just before the Heads set because Nov. 21, 1980 was when the world locked into its TV sets to find out “Who Shot J.R.?” on Dallas.

Here’s great audio of a Talking Heads show a few days before Fiesta Gardens.