Time marches on: A look back at L’Amour
On Jan. 25, 1985, Metallica played L’Amour, the Rock Capital of Brooklyn. Billed as the Metal Massacre weekend, the show featured the triple threat and triple treat of Armored Saint, W.A.S.P. and Metallica, the latter a scrubby, California-based heavy metal outfit comprised of four lean, mean, long-haired musicians who were little-known outside the loud and proud heavy metal community.
While loud and proud, the community itself rumbled just under the mainstream. Though New York City boasted three rock radio stations at the time, contemporary heavy metal, as a genre, was carefully avoided. Word of new bands spread through word of mouth and through exchanges and sales of albums and audio cassette tapes.
There was, however, one option if you wanted to hear it through your radio: tune your dial to 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall University’s college radio station. Depending on reception, you also might have extended the aluminum foil-wrapped antenna on your boombox out the window. Back then, if people wanted to hear your music, they did what they had to do.