On This Day (February 1)…Works in Buffalo

Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed on this day in 1978 at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.

Ticket stub for the show. Retrieved from here.

With this show, ELP opened the second month of the second leg of their Works Tour, the final tour they would undertake until the summer of 1992.

Scan of an ad for the show.

Thankfully for fans, who had no way of knowing their ELP stage fix would soon dry up, the group played a mix of their hits from all periods of the 70s. The setlist, naturally, favored their most recent albums, four showing up from Works, Volume 2. Five songs from Works, Volume 1, including one from each individual side and the entire fourth side of the double album, showed up as well.

No recording of the concert is known to exist.

ELP had already performed at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium back on the Brain Salad Surgery Tour. The auditorium was built to replace the Buffalo Broadway Auditorium and opened on October 14, 1940. It was designed by Green & James. Later renovations added to its capacity, leaving it at over 16,000 in some settings.

Exterior of the building. Retrieved from here.

Yes also performed at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium six times in its history. Besides concerts (some of which can be found here and include a shocking amount of Mötley Crue), the Memorial Auditorium also notably housed basketball games. Hockey games were first hosted there in 1970.

The auditorium was demolished in May of 2009. Ironically, the Buffalo Broadway Auditorium is still standing.

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  • Edit on 2022-05-09: Added more information on the venue. Optimized for new site.

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