July 28, 1990. In what has to have been one of the more bizarre bookings they ever played, Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom was the special musical guest at the 1990 United States Lifesaving Association’s National Lifeguard Championship in, or, more accurately, ON, Pompano Beach in FLA. Yes, there really is such a thing, and no, points are not added if you look like David Hasselhoff.
Someplace between the Junior Lifeguard Treasure Hunt, the Women’s Run-Swim-Run, (again, there really is such a thing) and the Senior Men’s Tournament, in which we presume the victims were instructed to drown very, very slowly, the band unleashed their brand of mayhem on the estimated 15,000 spectators and sun worshippers in attendance.
“The Party Starts Now” was getting heavy airplay all over Florida, and the boys were riding the unfamiliar wave of commercial popularity with a seven-gig tour of the state. Well, it turned out that the majesty of their rock was too much for the crowd to handle, as security had to shut the show down after only seven songs because they thought the over-enthusiastic crowd was on the verge of a musical riot. The band was all revved up, but at least they had someplace to go, as they played a second gig later that same day in Ft. Lauderdale.
— Salvi C.
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