Jim Koplik Facebook Page Brings Back Great Concert Memories

One of my favorite Facebook pages that I follow is the Jim Koplik Presents Archive. Every day as I'm checking my FB with my coffee, Jimmy puts up a list of shows he's promoted on that day in music history.

This morning, my memory was jogged bigtime by mention of a Cars concert at the Hartford Civic Center on March 19, 1982. I remember this one because it was the first concert that my parents allowed me to drive to. Although I was just 16 and had only been driving for a couple of months, I somehow convinced my parents to let me drive my friends to this show. They weren't particularly happy about it. My dad told me repeatedly, "make one mistake on I-84 and you're DEAD!" Ummm, OK. I'll try not to make any mistakes then.

Somehow I got us safe and sound to Hartford and into the show we went. I remember the Cars being very good musically, but they didn't do very much onstage and had only minimal interaction with the audience beyond "Hello, Hartford!" and "Good Night!" Still, they played the songs well, and they were touring in support of their "Shake It Up" album so they had plenty of great songs to choose from between their 4 albums at the time.

Apparently New Wave legend Nick Lowe opened that show, but I have no recollection of that. I was probably preoccupied with not making any mistakes and ending up DEAD on the drive home. Which miraculously we somehow survived.

Anyway, the point of my long winded story is that if you need a nice reminder of concerts you've been to, follow Jimmy's Archive page, and occasionally you'll get a cool throwback to being 16 with a new driver's license, the open road in front of you and a great concert ahead. Just don't make any mistakes on I-84, or...

Here's me with the man himself at the Ives Concert park a few years ago.

Here's an on-air interview with Jim, explaining what it's like to vote for the acts that will be inducted into the Rock 'N' Hall of Fame.