In 50 years, Carter-Finley has also proven to be a good music venue
Wearing a bright red shirt at the end of a 100-foot long runway, Mick Jagger asked the crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium a question that needed no answer.
“Do you support the Wolfpacks?” asked the lead singer of the Rolling Stones.
Since 1979, rock-and-roll’s biggest names certainly have when Carter-Finley Stadium has been available for traveling tour shows.
Beginning with a multiband show called June Jam and most recently with pop star Beyonce, the stadium has rocked as the Triangle’s largest outdoor music venue.
It got off to a bit of a rocky start: Four bands played in the inaugural day-long concert on June 2, 1979, beginning with Poco, followed by Van Halen (making its national tour debut), Boston and The Outlaws. David Lee Roth, lead singer for Van Halen, stopped in the middle of a song to confront concert-goers who were tossing red stadium cups into the air.
With three appearances, the Stones (Sept. 16, 1989; Sept. 7, 1994; July 1, 2015) have played more concerts than any other band at Carter-Finley, including the 2015 show as part of its Zip Code Tour that marked 50 years since Mick and the boys first played on NC State’s campus with a 1965 appearance in Reynolds Coliseum.
Jimmy Buffet (July 4, 1998) filled the place with Parrotheads for an Independence Day concert, the Grateful Dead (July 10, 1990) packed it with Deadheads and George Strait (May 30, 1998) filled it with country music fans.
Pink Floyd (May 4, 1988 and May 10, 1994) ended both its shows at the stadium with “Run Like Hell,” which surely could have been All-America running back Ted Brown’s theme song during his record-setting playing career. Paul McCartney (July 22, 1990) stopped by during his first U.S. tour in 13 years and gave a long tribute to former bandmate John Lennon and the music of The Beatles.
The Who (July 27, 1989) played at Carter-Finley and then returned a quarter century later (April 21, 2015) to play across the street at PNC Arena as part of its last (again) world tour.
Jerry Lee Lewis (April 6, 1991) played a free, sparsely attended pregame concert before the first game of the Raleigh Skyhawks, one of 10 charter members in the World League of American Football, an attempt to play spring professional football. The Skyhawks were coached by former Wolfpack legend Roman Gabriel, but lost all 10 of its games that season and folded after just one year.
Outdoor stadiums are always subject to foul weather, and the Grateful Dead show was marked by severe lightning and a power outage. Most of the notoriously oblivious patrons, however, hardly noticed.
Severe lightning and rain did, however, interrupt the Beyonce concert (May 3, 2016) for about 50 minutes. The stadium had to be cleared, with fans taking shelter at both PNC Arena and the Close-King Indoor Practice Facility. After the storm passed, Beyonce returned to the stage and played another 40 minutes, well past midnight.
Irish rock band U2 had to cancel a concert scheduled for May 29, 1997, because of a weather problem, but not in Raleigh. A spring storm in Washington, D.C., damaged the group’s multimedia video screen at RFK Stadium three days before the Raleigh show. The show was never rescheduled.
Bono and crew finally came back to Raleigh 12 years later (Oct. 3, 2009) when the worldwide tour hauled rock-and-roll’s most elaborate 360-degree stage into Carter-Finley in 51 tractor trailers.
It was the first concert since NC State spent more than six years and some $150 million to expand and renovate Carter-Finley, but proved that the facility could withstand a massive production even in the middle of football season. The promoter paid NC State handsomely to set up the show over the course of a week and U2 played on a Saturday night while the Wolfpack football team was on the road at Wake Forest.
Immediately after the show, the stage was taken away, a new turf field was installed and the football team hosted Duke one week later.
The fast turnaround proved that Carter-Finley remains a viable venue for the music industry’s biggest shows, even during a hectic football season.