Circa 1990
Steppenwolf
- Date
- Circa 1990
- Dating
- John places it late 1980s or early 1990s; 1990 splits the window. The Del Mar Fair runs late June into early July, so it was a summer night whatever the year.
- Venue
- Del Mar Fairgrounds
- City
- Del Mar, CA
A Del Mar Fair grandstand-circuit show — John Kay's Steppenwolf worked the fair circuit hard in this era. No ticket survives and no database dates it, but a roadie's complete 1988–2018 touring history exists as a PDF at toursupportservices.com, which would likely pin the night. John's third room at the fairgrounds, after O'Brien Pavilion and Bing Crosby Hall.
The moment
Twenty-some years after 'Born to Be Wild' put the phrase 'heavy metal' into a lyric and Easy Rider put the song into permanent American rotation, John Kay was still carrying Steppenwolf across the fairground circuit — the classic-rock economy in its natural habitat, where the hits outlive the era and the era outlives everyone's memory of the opening acts. A circa record: the year is roughly 1990, the night is gone, the riff is eternal.
From the time
- Born to Be Wild
“The 1968 anthem that never stopped paying — the reason the fairgrounds kept calling.”
The stub
No physical stub on file — this show was reconstructed from the
confirmation email. Drop a photo in public/stubs/ and add
"stubImage" to this show's record to attach one.