City Will Remember Legendary 1974 Concert

Aerosmith, Brownsville Station played to crowd estimated at 50,000 to 60,000 in Renzie

By Kristen Keleschenyi
The Tube City Almanac
October 10, 2024
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

The view from the bandshell stage at Renziehausen Park on Oct. 27, 1974:  “It was just like any other Sunday in the park,” McKeesport Mayor Jack Pribanic later said, “except it was the day of the big Rock Concert.” (Courtesy Tom Rosso)

If you were in Renziehausen Park on Oct. 27, 1974, you know why that day was special.

It was the day — 50 years ago this month — when a crowd estimated at more than 50,000 people from all over the Pittsburgh area descended on Renzie to see three of the biggest rock groups of the year — the headliner, Brownsville Station, the opening act, a Pittsburgh band called Diamond Reo, and a new band that was on one of its first U.S. tours: Aerosmith.

On Saturday afternoon, the city, McKeesport Lions Club and McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center will pay tribute to that memorable weekend and host a 50th anniversary concert featuring Aerosmith cover band Ledsmith and opening act Three Sides, a local acoustic band.

“It was a defining kind of moment for that generation,” said Jen Vertullo, vice-president of the McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center. “For small town people to be able to see something as big as Aerosmith — and at that point, they were not even as big as they would come to be.”

The 50th anniversary celebration starts at 4 p.m. at the Lions Bandshell. There will be food trucks, concessions and of course a 50/50 which will benefit the Heritage Center.

Lions Club President Marie Domingo remembers walking from her Craig Street home to Renzie to see the event everyone was talking about.

“They estimated 18,000 to 20,000 people, and it was not just in that area,” recalled Domingo, who was 14 years old at the time. “People were spread out to all the fields as far as they could hear it. It was massive.”

One estimate in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette later put the crowd at up to 60,000 people.

The concert was sponsored by radio station WKTQ (1320) — 13Q for short — which was then battling with other stations like KQV, WDVE and WPEZ to be the number one rock-music station in Pittsburgh.

Aerosmith in 1974, from a newspaper review of their album, “Get Your Wings.”

According to articles in the McKeesport Daily News from October 1974, the concert almost didn’t happen. It was an era when adults — more attuned to the easy-listening sounds of Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra and The Carpenters — were suspicious of rock artists. Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler had been arrested a few months earlier in Memphis and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly making “obscene statements” on stage.

Other local venues turned down the show including Rostraver Twp., Pittsburgh’s Point State Park, Schenley Park and South Park.

Allegheny County’s parks director denied the concert a permit “because of the unpredictability of the crowd,” according to a 1974 story in the Post-Gazette, while Pittsburgh officials told the newspaper “the people of Pittsburgh don’t want rock concerts.”

A Point State Park official alleged that a free concert on Labor Day Weekend 1973 had caused damage to that facility, according to the Post-Gazette.

But McKeesport Mayor John (Jack) Pribanic was not concerned. Pribanic told the Pittsburgh Press he had “faith in youth and feels they need this kind of recreation.”

There was controversy due to the number of people who would possibly attend the event — one estimate said up to 75,000 might attend — since it would attract people from all over, not just McKeesport. Some city council members were concerned about liability issues and whether the city’s insurance policy would cover any calamities.

According to the Daily News, an emergency city council meeting was scheduled for the day before, with neighbors lined up to ask McKeesport to cancel the concert, and the McKeesport Jaycees club there in support of the event.

But the show went on at 2 p.m. Sunday.

“We are not going to penalize all the kids because of a thoughtless few,” Pribanic said.

Annette James, a childhood friend of Domingo and fellow member of the Lions Club, was also at that momentous show.

“Everybody listened to 13Q,” she said. The concert “is all they talked about on the radio. They were sponsoring this concert coming to Renzie Park, so I’m sure all the kids knew about it who lived in the tri-state area.”

Brownsville Station was riding high on the success of a No. 3 single, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” which still gets airplay on classic-rock radio stations. After several additional singles failed to reach the Top 40, the band broke up in 1979.

Aerosmith had just gotten its first record deal in 1972 and had a minor hit with “Dream On,” which went to No. 55. In 1975, the band’s album, Toys in the Attic, became a monster smash, and a re-release of “Dream On” went to No. 6 on the rock charts in 1976.

The group has since been called one of the most successful U.S. rock bands of all time, having sold an estimated 150 million albums and won four Billboard Music Awards, six American Music Awards and two People’s Choice Awards. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

But in October 1974, they were still the kind of band that could play at Renzie Park in McKeesport, where the show went off without a hitch.
 
It was such a great event that Pribanic, who died in 2015, published a detailed report about the show entitled “Rock Concert: A Profile.” He examined every aspect of the event from crowd control to the actual show itself. The concert ran from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. to not interfere with church traffic and to allow enough daylight to clear the area safely.

One year later, a giant rock concert would return to Renzie when 13Q sponsored a free show by the band America. About 50,000 people attended that show.
 
City electrician Tom Rosso was also at the show 50 years ago.

"I was 14 and the group of us were standing right near the big tree to the left of the stage,” Rosso said. “If you were looking out it was just throngs of people playing music and having fun. It was peaceful.”

It was Rosso's son, Anthony, that actually planted the seed for the 50th anniversary show when he came across an Aerosmith concert poster from 1974 and texted the photo to his dad.

Since there was some extra money in the summer concert series budget it seemed like the perfect way to commemorate such an historic happening, Rosso said.
 
Vertullo said events like these highlight the mission of her organization — celebrating the history of McKeesport and educating a new generation about the past. “This anniversary is unique in that we kind of get to recreate the experience both for folks who were there and those who weren’t,” she said.

Kristen Keleschenyi is a freelance writer in North Versailles Twp. and one of the hosts of the Kristen & Amber Show on Tube City Online Radio at 5 p.m. Saturdays, 9 p.m. Mondays and 4 p.m. Thursdays. She may be reached at kbishop25@hotmail.com. Editor Jason Togyer contributed.

Originally published October 10, 2024.

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