My first show at Nassau was Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers in around 1973, when I came out to Long Island to go to college. My then-girlfriend (now wife) took me to see Cat Stevens there in '76.
Pull out of my driveway, make a right and a left, and six miles later you're there. Many great Springsteen shows starting that rainy night in June '78, where we stood outside the arena to listen until a sympathetic guard finally let us in near the end of the show.
The reconstructed arena was better sound-wise but worse for the crowd - no improvement or widening of the concourse - it is a tough place to get to concessions, not to mention entrance or exit.