05.09.08
I hate the Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm
Radiohead was in South Florida on Monday, May 5th, and I missed them. Why? Well, the concert was held at the South Florida Fairgrounds. This place has been variously known as the Mars Music Amphitheatre, Sound Advice Amphitheatre and now Cruzan Amphitheatre. Can’t they stick to one fucking name? My hate affair with this venue goes back several years. In 2000, I made the mistake of rushing to buy tickets for a Red Hot Chili Peppers & Foo Fighters joint concert at the aformentioned cursed by myself venue. I assumed they were playing at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise. Then, I found out this place was in West Palm Beach, almost 2 hours away. And there was no way my thundering 85′ Chrysler would make the trip. With no friends going either, I had to sell the tickets.
Fast forward to 2003. Pearl Jam came to South Florida and performed at the damn venue. For $40 dollars, I saw Eddie Vedder from 400 feet away. I was more irritated than Hugh Hefner at the BBW convention. I like seeing my bands up close, less than 10 feet away. Granted I must push my way through tons of sweaty people and those drug-addled ones in the mosh pit. But it’s worth it!! That’s what I always do at concerts held at Bicentennial Park. But at Cruzan you must pay like $70 dollars to do that. And there is no mosh pit! I was in the lawn area, which was muddy as hell, as it had rained cats and dogs earlier.
Around August 2003, Lollapalooza was re-ignited, if only for 1 year. And the tour included Jane’s Addiction, Audioslave, Incubus, The Donnas. Just awesome. But where did they come to? Cruzan Amphitheatre. Since my internet dial-up connection loads 56 kb a month, I had to buy tickets at the box office at Cruzan. After a long drive, I discover that the best tickets are sold out and I can only buy tickets for the lawn area, 400 feet away. Well, the only advantage this time was that there was plenty of people smoking a doobie in this area. Oh, and no mud! This was the last good rock concert to come to South Florida for a while, if you exclude OzzFest the year Black Sabbath reunited.
My question is, why do promoters hold concerts up there? For those of us who live in Miami-Dade County it is a hell of a long drive and with these glorious gas prices we’re fucked! Yeah, I know. Miami is all reggaeton, hip-hop and Spanish music, according to the industry know-it-alls. Our local rock stations are powerless. Funny is, when concerts have been held at Bicentennial Park or Bayfront Amphitheatre, they’re always full. Well, I’ll wait 5 years until Radiohead comes again or maybe catch them in another city. They don’t seem to be threatening to break up. They’re like the Stones, keep playing til we’re 80.
