On this date in history, 5/21/1989, I was in attendance at the very first rock concert held at Deer Creek in Noblesville.

That venue has gone through several name changes since then, but it will forever be Deer Creek to me and many others I have spoken to throughout the years. Back to the concert…it was a hair metal extravaganza starring Cinderella, Winger, and BulletBoys.

Deer Creek is an outdoor amphitheater, or “shed”, as it is known in the industry.

As we discovered that night, it is a fantastic place to see a rock show, with a big pavilion full of seats and a large expanse of lawn beyond that with plenty of room for dancing, moshing, and general concert party activities. BulletBoys kicked off the show with their heavily Van Halen influenced hard rock attack. They were well received by the audience and played most of their debut album in their short set.

Next up was Winger, popular with a lot of the ladies due to Kip Winger’s good looks and the radio friendly hooks of their pop metal tunes. Reb Beach blazed on several guitar solos and they paved the way for Cinderella to come out and own their headliner slot.

Cinderella always had a bit more of that bluesy hard rock attitude that was primarily the domain of early Aerosmith.

Tom Keifer howled out his vocals and played his Les Paul with authority. At the conclusion of their set, Cinderella had both opening bands join them onstage for a rousing encore of “Street Fighting Man” by the Stones and “Sweet Home Alabama” by Skynyrd, with everyone contributing to vocals and looking like they were all having a blast.

It was a perfect ending to a show that demonstrated that central Indiana had a new place to experience summertime concerts. They are still going strong to this day, even if they are officially called Klipsch Music Center now…nowhere near as catchy as Deer Creek!

Written By Braddon S. Williams aka The Concert Critic