Quote:PRAC was always good for great deals on concerts and other events. 

 

There was a time when it seemed like Aerosmith was in town every other week.

 

This goes back about 20 years ago if not more.  There was a big music festival down at Metro Park.  It was an interesting venue.  Among the artists playing the concert were a couple of local bands, Adam Ant, The Smithereens, and Miami Sound Machine.  We were there to see the Smithereens, but got down there early enough to catch Adam Ant.  As a child of the 80's, there was at least a mild curiosity to see him live.  The guy got booed off the stage for lip syncing.  It was embarrassing.

 

While one of the "pop" bands was playing leading up to the headliners, Miami Sound Machine, we were wandering around when we ran into The Smithereens standing along the fence just watching the show.  We walked up to them and asked them to autograph some stuff, and struck up a conversation.  Pat Dininzio, their lead singer, was perplexed as to why they were even invited to play the show considering they had nothing in common with the rest of the artists that were there.  One of my buddies who was a huge Smithereens fan continued to talk to them for long enough to get an invite to party with them after the show.  He ended up becoming good friends with the guys in the band.  He moved to Orlando years ago, and the Smithereens used to play down there all the time, so any time they were in town, they would hang out.  He still gets Christmas cards from Pat. They blew the other artists away that particular day.

 

They actually came back to town a few times after that, once playing the band shell at the beach, and another time doing a show for Lex and Terry.  The Smithereens continue to put out music, although it's mostly self published now, but for about 5 minutes in the late 80's, early 90's, they were riding a pretty nice wave of popularity.