A little less than one week ago, I posted a blog entry for the 30th anniversary of a Pink Floyd concert that my brother and father went to. It was a great concert, and marked the one time that any of us got to see Pink Floyd in concert. Also, it was just a wonderful day. We went to the Bronx well before the show, and shopped at Jerome Avenue, then visited the Bronx Botanical Gardens. The weather was perfect, and the day also felt mostly perfect. I remember feeling satisfied and happy with how the day, and the show, went as we went back to our car via the subway after the show ended. Those pleasant memories have also lasted a long time, and it became one of my very favorite concerts from that point on.
Well, today marks the 30th anniversary of another memorable day, and another concert, as well. It was on this day in 1994 that my brother and I saw Metallica for a second time, with Danzig and Suicidal Tendencies opening. We had seen Metallica in that tour they did with Guns 'n Roses in 1992, with Faith No More as the opening act. In a very different way than the Pink Floyd show, that was a great show, and I largely have very good memories of that.
This second show, on the other hand, was a different story. It happened on June 17th in Middletown, New York, was not nearly so great. It felt like the sound system was just a bunch of regular stereos piled on top of one another. It was cranked up all the way, and the quality just was not nearly there. Also, I guess I was moving away from the days when Metallica had been undisputedly my favorite band. One way or the other, it felt....well, subpar. My brother and I both went, and my guess is that he probably feels the same way. It just felt inconvenient and annoying, almost through and through.
Yet, that day was memorable for other reasons, as well. There was actually a documentary about it, a whole episode of ESPN's "30 For 30." The title is simply "June 17th, 1994," and it aired in 2010. If memory serves correctly, it was the first ever "30 For 30" documentary that I ever saw, and it was very enjoyable. It has no narration, just clips from the news and live sports broadcasts of the various events of the day. In it, it goes back to the major sports (and other) news of the day. That was a day when the 1994 World Cup opened, as well as some major gold tournament which, if memory serves correctly, marked the last for gold legend Arnold Palmer. Also, the New York Rangers had just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years, and enjoyed their victory celebration in New York City that day. The 1994 NBA Finals continued with, I believe, Game 4, between the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets at Madison Square Garden.
And of course, that was the day that OJ Simpson's slow speed chase in that white Bronco occurred. I did not watch it (think my brother and I must have been heading towards the Metallica concert by that point), but I remember it being all over the news after that. Admittedly, I never cared much for the Simpson trial, feeling it was a big distraction and marked more America's obsession with celebrity culture - and particularly, the dark underbelly of watching the fall of someone once considered a hero - instead of actually representing something substantive in the news. Truth be told, I still feel that way. No disrespect intended to the victims of Simpson, Nicole and Ron Goldman. I'm just calling the show trial that seemed to dominate the news for the next year and a half or so as I saw it, and still largely see it, in truth.
Still, all of that happened on this day 30 years ago. It seemed like a significant day, one in which I remember where I was and what I was doing. It was a good time in my life, and I remember going to my minimum wage sales job at Steinback in Willowbrook Mall the next day, and the talk was divided between the Knicks in the NBA Finals, and the OJ Simpson police chase. That spring and summer of 1994 was a good time in my life, and I still remember those times fondly. And June 17th of that year proved to be one of the most memorable single days from that summer, although I would not necessarily know it at that point, not appreciate the full xtent of it for many years, until I watched the "30 For 30" documentary.
Just seemed worth noting.
It's the 30th anniversary of June 17, 1994: World Cup in Chicago; Knicks vs. Rockets; O.J. Simpson car chase by Austin Nivison, June 17, 2024:
The day also saw Ken Griffrey Jr. match a feat accomplished only by Babe Ruth
https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/its-the-30th-anniversary-of-june-17-1994-world-cup-in-chicago-knicks-vs-rockets-o-j-simpson-car-chase/
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