Monsters of Rock Tour
| Tour by Van Halen and Metallica | |
| Start date | May 23, 1988 |
|---|---|
| End date | July 30, 1988 |
| Legs | 1 |
| No. of shows | 30 |
| Van Halen and Metallica concert chronology | |
The Monsters of Rock Tour 1988 was a festival tour headlined by hard rock band Van Halen as part of their promotion for their OU812 album. The Scorpions were a co-headliner. Opening bands included Metallica, Dokken, and Kingdom Come. It formed the first section of the OU812 Tour, the main part of which followed immediately after Monsters of Rock 1988. As one of the many well known Monsters of Rock tours, the tour featured an impressive line-up, especially for a single day event, and proved very popular.
Being a large scale event with multiple acts, there was a long gap between many dates when the bands' gear was transported and set up.
The opening night of the tour in Alpine Valley was not without incident. The band Dokken had terrible sound and was subsequently booed for a lengthy amount of their set. The amphitheater at Alpine Valley had been recently sodded and before the Scorpions took the stage, fans had become impatient and started hurling chunks of the freshly laid sod into the air. It truly looked like a massive sod fight. Attendants came out and threatened to close down the venue. The scene calmed down and the show finished to thunderous applause.
In San Francisco's Candlestick Park a stadium-wide food fight took place aimed solely at the upper deck. Unfortunately each band played only five minutes longer than the band before them. Kingdom Come played for only 15 minutes, and the show closed with Van Halen playing only 35 minutes. This was after Van Halen held a press conference at Universal Studios, while seated in front of a giant robotic King Kong – Eddie Van Halen stated “Five bands will be playing full sets”.
In Tampa, a stadium-wide food fight took place. The show was general admission and the food fight took place between the concertgoers in the stadium stands and those on the field. Police around the perimeter of the field were being hit with bottles and garbage and eventually had to leave the stadium. The front field was so jammed with people they were starting to pass out and had to be passed to the front of the crowd and pushed over the rails to safety. They also had to spray the crowd in the front of the stage with firehoses to cool them down. Dokken also had issues with their PA system, it was broadcasting on the same frequency as Tampa International Airport's tower.
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