Rainbow In The Dark by DIO
Cortland, NY native Ronnie James Dio used to play locally in and around my hometown of Kirkwood, NY as Ronnie Dio & The Elves. They Packed the house everywhere and every time they played. Hard driving Rock was his signature style with his vocals coming out loud and clear through the p.a. mix. Huge tower speakers pumped up loud as a freight train made conversation impossible. I know. I was there. That is how I became a LiveRockLover. I'm going to share a story with you of my bad boy rebel youth:

When I was 16, myself, guitarist/buddy Tommy Guinan and half the kids in town had fake ID's to do things that kids shouldn't have been doing. But it was fun so we did so gleefully. Our favorite use for these less than authentic documents was getting into "The Warehouse" on Friday and Saturday nights. The Warehouse was a huge hangar size pole building built for hosting large regional rock bands and large regional bands of bikers. Schlitz Dark Beer was $1.50 a picher, cigarettes were 50 cents out of the machine, admission was $2.00, and top drinks and shots were 75 cents. Ronnie Dio And The Elves played there often. Many of us had part time jobs learning the lifelong lesson "work hard, party hard". And to boot, some of us including Tom and myself managed to graduate from High School. Oh well, I am who I am today thanks to old friends, Ronnie Dio, and that local Honky Tonk! Long Live Rock & Roll!!!