Top 20 Spectrum Moments

The Building Wanted Blood


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Published: Nov 3, 2009

Jim Horwat

You could call it a bad omen that the roof blew off the five-month-old Spectrum during the Ice Capades in 1968, but I think the arena was just asserting itself. I mean, the frickin' Ice Capades? To paraphrase Jurassic Park: The Spectrum doesn't want to be fed — it wants to hunt. Sure, it could handle circuses and soft stuff like that, but it was built for the hard-checking Flyers and hard-dunking Sixers. It was the city's main arena during the heyday of big, ballsy arena rock. It was the loudest place in town.

My first in-person/non-Prism Spectrum memory is my dad taking me to see the Flyers versus the Russian Red Army in 1990. It wasn't quite as tense as the infamous bloodbath of '76, but the walls shook with chants of U-S-A and hilarious obscenities. American flags waved. Scuffles broke out in the seats. Fights broke out on the ice. Yeah, the Flyers lost, and Hexy didn't play, and we had obstructed seats way up in the nosebleeds. But the atmosphere was intense, insane, awesome.

Last week, the bloodthirsty and suddenly venerable old coliseum said goodbye with a series of epic concerts. Next year they're gonna blow it up. Below are links to our lists of the Spectrum's top moments in sports (by me) and music (by A.D. Amorosi who, legend has it, simply materialized from the ether during a Bowie show). Weigh in with your own at citypaper.net/spectrum.

TOP 10 SPECTRUM SPORTS MOMENTS

TOP 10 SPECTRUM MUSIC MOMENTS

COLOR GUARD: MORE (IN)FAMOUS CHARACTERS THAT LIT UP THE SPECTRUM

Comments

I was disappointed to not see the Grateful Dead's banner being mentioned in the Greatest Music moments article. When they had their 53rd sellout at the Spectrum a banner commemorating that feat was hung in the rafters along with the sports team's championship banners where it stayed for years until, rumor has it, it was stolen by Pierre Robert. To mention Bobby Brown and the Club MTV tour but not the Grateful Dead, was in my opinion, a terrible error in judgement. Hate the band all you want but try to put together a list that is unbiased.

by Rob Ledbetter on November 8th 2009 8:12 PM

AGREED! Though the whole article lost credibility with me when the author states their first Spectrum memory was in 1990! I have so many memories from that great arena. WWF Wrestling, Monster Trucks, Flyers games, Jordan vs Barkley, PHISH, Guns N Roses, and of course The Dead!

by Steal Your Face Paul on November 9th 2009 3:07 PM

Oh man, I could not agree with you two dudes any more if I tried. You can't have a list like this and not have Jerry on there. Personally, I would have had 3/19/95 on the list for the time the boys debuted "Unbroken Chain" and when I saw Vince Welnick from The Tubes turn into a pack of butterflies right on the stage. But whatever you pick, the little dude who made this must have gone out of his mind on crippler hits to leave the Dead off all together.

by Bryce Prefontaine on November 10th 2009 9:38 AM

I've been to umpteen kajillion events at the Spectrum from 1970-2009, including 50 of the Dead shows. How could this kid overlook the most frequent performers at the venue!?

by Sunshine Daydream on January 20th 2010 4:23 PM

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Color Guard

More (in)famous characters who lit up the Spectrum.

Top 10 Spectrum Music Moments

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The Boss, The Who, Bowie, U2 ...