Concert & Event Listings
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Photo by Antoine Julien
There are currently more than 6,500 Indiana concerts listed in chronological order beginning in 1955. The listing may never include every event, however with your input as we continuously update, we will achieve a comprehensive list of Indiana's major concerts and events .
Events in an orange box
represent significant historical moments in time.
Ozzy Osbourne
Def Leppard
Promoter: Sunshine Promotions
Attendance: 2,901, Gross Receipts: $25,178
Ozzy Osbourne: Guaranteed Fee: $5,000
Def Leppard: Fee $1,500
Ticket courtesy of Bruce Croak
Courtesy of Steve Sybesma
Ad courtesy of Doug Bauerle
Ad courtesy of Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library
Photo by Remembering Mesker Music Amphitheatre
Photo by Remembering Mesker Music Amphitheatre
Remembering Mesker Music Amphitheatre is at Mesker Amphitheatre.
· Evansville, IN ·
On August 21, 1981, Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz tour rolled into the Mesker Music Theatre in Evansville, Indiana, featuring rising stars Def Leppard as the opening act.”
The Vibe & Reviews
The concert drew an energetic crowd of about 2,901 fans to the 6,000-capacity amphitheater. Interestingly, the local press absolutely roasted both bands, but the crowd didn’t care.
A review from the Evansville Courier & Press claimed both bands played “embalmed, early-1970s power rock with such a thorough lack of imagination and drive that vapidity seemed to take on a new dimension”. The reviewer heavily criticized Def Leppard’s screeched vocals and compared them to AC/DC, but begrudgingly admitted that the young audience absolutely loved the show—screaming, raising fists, and jamming to every song.
The reviewer did give Def Leppard one compliment: they started the concert exactly on time.
Def Leppard was touring in support of their second album, High ‘n’ Dry. While full bootlegs of this specific night don’t exist, historical tour records and the local review indicate they played a short, high-energy 7-song opening set that included:
* On Through the Night (Opener)
* It Could Be You
* It Don’t Matter
* Another Hit and Run
* Lady Strange
* Rock Brigade
* High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night)
This was Ozzy’s first major North American solo tour, featuring the legendary Randy Rhoads on guitar and Tommy Aldridge on drums. Their standard setlist for this leg of the tour featured heavily from his debut solo album, mixed with Black Sabbath classics:
* “O Fortuna” (Audio Intro)
* I Don’t Know
* Crazy Train
* Believer
* Mr. Crowley
* Flying High Again
* Revelation (Mother Earth)
* Steal Away (The Night)
* Tommy Aldridge Drum Solo
* No Bone Movies
* Suicide Solution (featuring Randy Rhoads’ Guitar Solo)
* Iron Man (Black Sabbath cover)
* Children of the Grave (Black Sabbath cover)
* Paranoid (Encore – Black Sabbath cover)
This was definitely Blizzard of Oz tour