Dream live show?

[axel]

proto-headbanging!

Or is it even proto hair-metal?

 

[tom kirby]

That sounds like a pretty perfect rock'n'roll event, Tom. The Woolies were the ones who did that hard rockin' version of "Who Do You Love?", right? And the Bossmen were Dick Wagner's first band, I guess?
By the way, I think it's great when people dance to the music. That's what it should be like. I hate it when people just stand and stare at the band playing. Unless it's the Pink Floyd doing Ummagumma, but then they might as well stay home in bed...

YEAH, Those Woolies. Boogie Bob Baldori still lives around here and is still playing. They were all really good guys. And The Bossmen was the first band I met Dick Wagner with, anyway. You know he wrote, produced and played on our second 45. So did Donny Hartman of the Bossmen. For the most part, if you went to see live music in the mid-60s it was a dance venue whether at a school or a bar. That seemed to add a lot to the good time and actually picked the bands up, too. A lively audience is alot more fun to play to than a room full of blankfaced zombies. Do crowds even raise lighters or matches anymore? Well, now, they probably raise cell phones.

 

[Ned]

Being one of the few resident "old timers" here, I can comment first hand on a few of the selections mentioned earlier from first hand accounts:

Yes, Mitch Ryder could dance & was a top notch front man. The band was fuck*ing great as well. Jim McCarty was a great guitar player & the overall age of the combo was mid 20's - not your idea of pimple faced teen amateurs. These guys had been around & were very proficient. Two slick well rehearsed 45 minute sets @ a converted ice skating ring in my home town for $3.00 in 1966.

Paul Buterfield Blues Band during the East/West era was a great band, but there was a certain displeasure from the segment of the crowd that wanted to hear "Look Over Yonders Wall" & their strait Chicago blues set. Don't underestimate Elvin Bishop @ that time period either, he went on to be a real yahoo but he played his ass off in that band. Drummer Billy Davenport really made things work with that lineup. Mike Bloomfield was something to behold live @ this point. They had a very tough "don't fu*k with us" stance on stage. I only saw them in twice, but a good friend claims they attracted the who's who of the SF scene when that swept through the Fillmore & forever changed the locals approach to extending songs and improvising.

Velvet Underground was NOISE extreme. I got to see the band @ a Ukranian Social Hall in NYC with a white haired Andy Warhol shifting between the slide projector & two sets of highschool overhead projectors (remember those blasted overheads in chemistry class for notes when the semester was coming to a close?) with puddles of colored dyes floating in oil in pyrex baking dishes. Loud was not quite the word for their live show - kinda sloppy and very standoffish toward the crowd. I remember them turning their backs on the crowd for most of the set. What a crowd, a mix of the "so called elite" of the NYC scene in evening gowns & tuxedos rubbing shoulders with junkies & debutants all thinking they were in the right place @ the right time. Saw them in Boston @ the Boston Tea Party several times & @ the Woodrose Ballroom in Springfield also.

For my taste, the best live band of that era that somehow fits into the category here was ? & the Mysterians. Tough, competant band with a fabulous frontman - he must have destroyed 3 or 4 sets of moracccas & several tambourines in the set I saw. Stage diving before it became the thing to do 30 years later & rolling & crawling across the floor before most of the "77 punk crowd" were out of their strollers. The fuck*r could sing, too & the band was well rehearsed but still loose enough & with plenty of feel. There was a certain sense of danger in being in the front row or two on the floor.

A few of the pleasures of live music before it all changed

Ned

 

[depravedskippy66]

Being one of the few resident "old timers" here, I can comment first hand on a few of the selections mentioned earlier from first hand accounts:

Paul Buterfield Blues Band during the East/West era was a great band, but there was a certain displeasure from the segment of the crowd that wanted to hear "Look Over Yonders Wall" & their strait Chicago blues set. Don't underestimate Elvin Bishop @ that time period either, he went on to be a real yahoo but he played his ass off in that band. Drummer Billy Davenport really made things work with that lineup. Mike Bloomfield was something to behold live @ this point. They had a very tough "don't fu*k with us" stance on stage. I only saw them in twice, but a good friend claims they attracted the who's who of the SF scene when that swept through the Fillmore & forever changed the locals approach to extending songs and improvising.

Velvet Underground was NOISE extreme. I got to see the band @ a Ukranian Social Hall in NYC with a white haired Andy Warhol shifting between the slide projector & two sets of highschool overhead projectors (remember those blasted overheads in chemistry class for notes when the semester was coming to a close?) with puddles of colored dyes floating in oil in pyrex baking dishes. Loud was not quite the word for their live show - kinda sloppy and very standoffish toward the crowd. I remember them turning their backs on the crowd for most of the set. What a crowd, a mix of the "so called elite" of the NYC scene in evening gowns & tuxedos rubbing shoulders with junkies & debutants all thinking they were in the right place @ the right time. Saw them in Boston @ the Boston Tea Party several times & @ the Woodrose Ballroom in Springfield also.Ned

Great stories, Ned! I have heard the same thing about The Blues Project being influential on the SF bands as well as Butterfield's band. Grace Slick has said she was blown away by The Blues Project when The Great Society shared a bill with them at The Matrix, if I remember right.

The VU at the Ukranian Social Hall: Was that The Dom? Was this before the first LP came out? There are several VU Boston Tea Party gigs floating around amongst collectors these days and the Springfield show is also in circulatiion.

 

[M.T. Wallet]

For my taste, the best live band of that era that somehow fits into the category here was ? & the Mysterians.

funny how his almost-whispering voice is so entertaining while lots of other singers were shouting... great sense of rhythm by the whole band and not one weak song in their sixties era

 

[soundog III]

OK, is there any chance that the opening band at this August 1968 LA show was the you know who Caretakers...?

 

[soundog III]

Here's a pretty solid New Years Eve triple bill, though I've no idea what a Smokestack Lightning is. Anyone?...

 

[soundog III]

Here's one that a certain regular on this forum might appreciate.

 

[soundog III]

Three out of five at this 1967 show of shows are a lock for me, the other two might very possibly have turned in solid performances as well.

 

[soundog III]

Into the realm of legendary here--->

 

[soundog III]

I certainly would have prioritized this on any 1967 things to do list.

 

[eargasm!]

I saw a dream show in Boston about 10 years ago ...The Remains, The Lost and The Rising Storm...a tough combo to beat!!!!

 

[60'sGarageHero]

Take me back to the Sunset Strip circa 1966: Love, Limey & The Yanks, Sloths, Yellow Payges and the Knack (or Leaves, Palace Guard, Byrds, Turtles, and countless others...).

All excellent choices. I was able to see, Love, Limey and the Yanks, Yellow Payges, Leaves, Palace Guard, and Turtles live as well as others not mentioned. Limey and the Yanks and Yellow Payges were the two best acts live of those mentioned. Another of my all time 60's bands was Captain Cook & His Crew. Not as known as the others, but probably one of the finest live bands I have ever seen. Little if anything has ever been written about them.

 

[depravedskippy66]

I certainly would have prioritized this on any 1967 things to do list.

View attachment 126

Scott, that spate of Them gigs at the Whiskey was '66. Shows were taped, I recall reading somewhere, with the intention of putting out a live LP which obviously never happened although a version of "Baby Please Don't Go" has since turned up on a Van Morrison bootleg CD.

To answer your question about Smokestack Lightning, they were (I believe) an LA area band with a 45 on White Whale before moving on to Bell where they released the Off The Wall LP.

 

[ian]

Velvet Underground was NOISE extreme. I got to see the band @ a Ukranian Social Hall in NYC with a white haired Andy Warhol shifting between the slide projector & two sets of highschool overhead projectors (remember those blasted overheads in chemistry class for notes when the semester was coming to a close?) with puddles of colored dyes floating in oil in pyrex baking dishes. Loud was not quite the word for their live show - kinda sloppy and very standoffish toward the crowd. I remember them turning their backs on the crowd for most of the set. What a crowd, a mix of the "so called elite" of the NYC scene in evening gowns & tuxedos rubbing shoulders with junkies & debutants all thinking they were in the right place @ the right time. Saw them in Boston @ the Boston Tea Party several times & @ the Woodrose Ballroom in Springfield also.

thank you for sharing this memory with us.
it must have been great fun to have been there in person.

 

[depravedskippy66]

thank you for sharing this memory with us.
it must have been great fun to have been there in person.

Indeed. Just the idea of being in on the ground floor of something new and different that would, over time, be viewed as seminal had to be pretty damn incredible.

 

[chas_kit]

It's kinda inauthentic to want a lineup of five bands from three continents and vastly different U.S. locales to play one show back then. How about the best lineup that actually occurred at the time? Then you could choose that amazing one Patrick mentioned from Salzer's Showgrounds, or:

The Velvet Underground and the Forty Fingers opening up for the Myddle Class, or
Baby Huey & the Baby Sitters and the Shadows of Knight at the Jaguar, or
Remains opening for the Beatles, or
Outspoken Blues and the Bryds, or

The Souls as in Christopher & the Souls - Diamonds, Rats & Chewing Gum
The Cavaliers as in Thee Kavaliers - Congregation for Anti-Flirts, Inc

or course, at this one you'd probably be hearing mostly Stones covers all night, so I have to agree - best records may not mean best live shows.

 

[Stampy]

Here's one for the ages - a little different, thou!

Just read the ad on the right. The Down & Out also played the same venue 12 months earlier, also BCU's vocallist on the night was from the Down & Out too.

 

[axel]

Another of my all time 60's bands was Captain Cook & His Crew. Not as known as the others, but probably one of the finest live bands I have ever seen. Little if anything has ever been written about them.

I never heard of them and they don't seem to be on any compilations. Did they put out any records? Were they from L.A. as well?