tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post2707261352060527634..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: October 23, 1970: McDonough Gym, Georgetown U, Washington DCLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-2526789543751712882024-01-06T07:46:42.361-08:002024-01-06T07:46:42.361-08:00As a GU student from 1974-78, I can speak firsthan...As a GU student from 1974-78, I can speak firsthand to the condescending attitude of Dr. "Patsy" (as we called her) Rueckel. Am proud that the Dead made their DC debut at GU, although McDonough was not the greatest acoustically. Needless to say, we did get to enjoy concerts at McDonough during my time there, Including Springsteen shows in 1975 AND 1976, David Crosby and Graham Nash in 76 or 77 (memory fail), and soon after I graduated, Elvis Costello in 1979Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-30325725251231515242020-09-20T14:50:30.867-07:002020-09-20T14:50:30.867-07:00I attended Georgetown from 1994-1998 and was/am a ...I attended Georgetown from 1994-1998 and was/am a major Deadhead. I'd found the initial Hoya article, but not all the follow-up articles. Great job to this blog for finding all the follow-ups. It made for very interesting reading. I think the first review is probably from the Georgetown Voice. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-48568131611120927592019-08-06T19:59:38.875-07:002019-08-06T19:59:38.875-07:00Dec. 10:
"I just returned from the latest &#...Dec. 10: <br />"I just returned from the latest 'pig' versus 'the beautiful people' battle, and would like to write a few words about what I saw and did. I am referring to, of course, Georgetown's Traffic concert... <br />There was quite the crowd trying to get into the concert free. Nothing unusual about this. However, when the mob realized their attempts were futile, they found it necessary to throw off their oppressors. Hence a barrage of bricks, sticks, stones, pipes, ladders, etc. The effect of these can be seen by all who ever venture near Georgetown's gymnasium. <br />What were the security guards doing besides picking their noses? Trembling. There is nothing unusual about this, for the tiny group of Keystones had no protection or defense for the great castle under siege. Eventually, after the crazed mob broke their quota of windows, lights, etc. they were allowed in. It was a tough fight, but they made it. Victory for the people! <br />Victory for the people? Well, too bad for the suckers who bought tickets. Everyone now knows that to get into GU's gym all that is necessary is a violent temper tantrum. After confiscating a sizeable battery of the 'beautiful people's' weapons and trying to cool things, I too realized the futility of my efforts. I therefore found myself rapidly becoming violent and thusly made a hasty retreat... <br />What is to be done? With the financial situation and facility inadequacy, free concerts can be ruled out... I suggest that advertising off campus be stopped, knowing the situation that has continually resulted. If not enough Georgetown students buy tickets, perhaps it is because they don't want or can't afford ($6.00 at the door!) concerts... <br />I am told there are to be no more concerts; I fully endorse this moratorium of concerts until at least the end of the school year. Perhaps then, with a better competency and atmosphere, concerts may be continued. <br />I would now like to say something about these 'beautiful people.' If they were what the cliche meant, they could not be bothered with trying to get students to riot for free admission to a concert. Brick throwing is the extent of their creativity. I am told that a cop's bullet ricocheted and hit a student. This is truly sad. I also helped a youth who probably threw the most bricks to the [hospital]." <br /><br />Patricia Rueckel, vice president for student life, was interviewed in the 12/10/70 issue of the Hoya, and was asked about the recent shows. <br />"After the rock concerts, I talked to some students and they said that this is the only meaningful thing for [them] at Georgetown, to use drugs and to go to concerts, and that makes me very sad. Because I worry about what the future of our world is like if this is the only experience that is meaningful to people who are 17 [to] 20 years old."<br />Her experience at the Traffic show: "I thought the concert itself was probably a very good musical experience, as Tom Zito [of the Washington Post] said. There was a great deal of order in the gymnasium. There was a fantastic amount of drug use. We had taken an amazing number of security precautions, and as you know those of us who were sitting in the offices were stoned out of them, literally, by breaking glass. We had to move our operation upstairs. We did call the police on that occasion to move the people who were not admitted to the concert, when the fire marshall closed the hall, from the area outside the gymnasium. I guess maybe I feel that our first obligation is to our own student population... My guess is that 90 percent of that audience was from the local community, and as I said in the paper I don't see any obligation we have to provide entertainment for all the teenyboppers in Washington." Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-20092276665036005262019-08-06T19:59:26.029-07:002019-08-06T19:59:26.029-07:00I believe the review here ran in the Georgetown Vo...I believe the review here ran in the Georgetown Voice. Georgetown U was unusual in having two student newspapers, the Hoya and the Voice; the Hoya archives are available online. <br /><br />The Traffic show at Georgetown on 11/15/70 turned out to be more violent than the Dead show, with gatecrashers battling security and storming in, and the Hoya supported the university's decision to cancel future rock concerts on campus. (The 11/19/70 Hoya ran a brief review: "Traffic put on a fine show last Sunday, despite the usual problems which accompany a McDonough concert... It is fitting that such a fine performance will be the apparent finish of rock music at McDonough.") <br /><br />Later issues of the Hoya included letters to the editor about the Traffic show and the violence there. <br />Nov. 19: <br />"[What baffles me] is why horror shows like Sunday last's occur... The Old Georgetown Concert faced different problems. Nary a gate-crasher showed (who would risk life and limb to endure The Four Tops...?), and little destruction was noted (except of the concert promoter's pocketbooks). The sole crisis over stimulants was whether or not one could smuggle one's Bud past the occasional security guard. Ah, nostalgia! <br />But the New Georgetown Concert (born October 4, 1970 - died November 15, 1970) [created] dilemmas that dwarfed those of the [old] era. Dilemmas like whether or not to open the doors for the surging masses outside who have somehow decried that concerts must be free. Dilemmas like what to do if the decision is to resist the invaders. Dilemmas like who is responsible for the injuries encountered in the melee of flying bricks, lead pipes, and drawn pistols that marks the rent-a-cops' attempt to hold the line. Dilemmas about who salvages what's left of the gym (shattered windows, a broken backboard, et al). Decisions about why these quasi-sieges take place at concerts in the first place... <br />Concerts, mon cher revolutionaries, are show biz and show biz is based on the buck. Stevie Winwood and Traffic were not giving their all up there as a gesture of friendship to student government - they were paid good pound sterling to be so brilliant. People who wish to see their show must fork over the shekels necessary to gain admission, in the same manner that one does at a theater. It amazes me that people view these concerts, but not performances by Leonard Bernstein or [theater] performances, as events which should be [free]... <br />Concerts are finis at Georgetown. No more... 'If we had been dealing with reasonable people, it would have been different,' noted one of the higher-ups (digression - the odor of glorious cannabis was so strong that just about everyone who was breathing was a higher-up). Sad to say, he is right. Precautions were taken for Traffic that would have made von Clausewitz green with envy. But who can cope with loonys?"Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-51314060021480759682019-02-03T22:42:39.153-08:002019-02-03T22:42:39.153-08:00I posted another newly-found student review of thi...I posted another newly-found student review of this show: <br />https://deadsources.blogspot.com/2019/02/october-23-1970-mcdonough-gym.html <br /><br />By the way, this reviewer, Larry Rohter, was a Georgetown student who went on to become a journalist, in recent decades working with the New York Times. It's strange, in a way, to read young student rock-music reviews by people who later became well-known reporters in quite different fields.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-3871016506762866652016-10-30T22:40:06.202-07:002016-10-30T22:40:06.202-07:00The original idea of those jams was that they were...The original idea of those jams was that they were intended to subvert the linear time sense of the listener. I'm not surprised whenever I learn of evidence that the music was effective at accomplishing that purpose. Same with not getting all the tunes...I could never quite get to do that, either. Come on, you need to resort to pencil and paper to pull that off. Like taking notes on a surfboard. I mean, hats off to anybody who's done it. But setlists were just not that much of a thing, in 1970. Consider that about half of the material being played had yet to show up on a record- at least not on an official release, with titles and such.<br /><br />As somebody once said, "I have no memory- that's the price that I pay."<br /><br />In 1970, NRPS was hardly more than a band rehearsing on stage. Their book had some covers and some brand newly written songs. And they probably had an easier time with the covers than with their own kinda-sorta arranged songs, which had just been written. <br /><br />But hey, it was an informal time. I just auditioned the entire set that Hendrix played at Woodstock, August 1969. That sounded like a rehearsal to me, too. Riveting, often enough. But it did not resemble a set of music played by a band of seasoned musicians who had the arrangements down. <br /><br />Despite that, it was worth listening to, to get to the good parts. More or less the same as listening to NRPS in 1970, to see if they could manage to redeem an uneven set with a decent version of "Take A Letter, Maria".<br /><br />DC Readehttps://disqus.com/by/dcreade/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-1244291065643731662016-10-30T22:01:30.292-07:002016-10-30T22:01:30.292-07:00You don't want to over-think this.
I doubt it...You don't want to over-think this.<br /><br />I doubt it was quite that "heavy". The guys were all in their 20s. And the Seventies was not an era for worriers. Especially of that age. <br /><br />Yes, "shit was going sideways." They were used to that. That was arguably what they cut their teeth on, both as musicians and road warriors. <br /><br />It really is an interesting exercise for me to reflect on some of the differences between how history gets lived by those who were there to experience it, and how it gets portrayed and/or interpreted after the fact. I assure you, what you're reading as a tone of "condescension" by Georgetown's Vice President for Student Development c.1970 is more accurately termed "incomprehension." That's a massive component of the fabled 1960s-70s era- American youth was flying under the radar of their parents. Or over it, or above it. Or sideways to it. It wasn't like Baby Boomer parents and their offspring, where there's some common ground of experience. Very few WW2 Gen or Silent Gen people did so much as buy a ticket to the film about Woodstock, much less attend electric rock shows in person (except of course for the musicians of that age, who were playing the music!) . As far as the audience, it was as if there was some force field of self-selection that kept out anyone but the freaks- the spaced out and illegal. Hordes of us. Invisible in the grossness of our visibility, back then. For better and worse. Not invulnerable to riptides, falls from cliffs, or even more perilous risks. And "impune" is not the same as "legal". <br /><br />Of course Georgetown U. shut down their concert series at McDonough- for a while, anyway- after the Dead show! Man, it must have been chaos! however benign. And the Dead prolly had to foot the bill for the damages. Oh well, sometimes parties cost money...but approximately everyone got along, and no one burned the place to the ground, except maybe metaphorically. DC Readehttps://disqus.com/by/dcreade/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-75157306980011987752014-09-05T08:17:06.262-07:002014-09-05T08:17:06.262-07:00Wow, that is quite a saga. Thanks for curating all...Wow, that is quite a saga. Thanks for curating all of that!<br /><br />I like this bit: "complaints from trans-Potomac residents of Virginia concerning the outdoor speakers through which those who could not be admitted for the Grateful Dead concert listened outdoors"; I love the idea that CIA et al. people couldn't sleep because live GD music blasting across the Potomac, and I love that the Dead (or someone) was trying to keep the ticketless horde at bay from crashing the venue even more dangerously, maybe ameliorating the circumstances a little bit on music-soothing-the-savage-best lines, too.<br /><br />Georgetown is between a rock and a hard place. I must say, it sounds like a nightmare - something like that would impact my work own work life, and the work lives of many others - meetings, memos, etc. $3,000 damage in a classic facility is not nothing - I'd be pissed if some dumbass came in and wrought such destruction at my place of work, study, etc.<br /><br />Vice President for Student Development, Dr. Patricia Rueckel sounds just a wee bit condescending, though: "Rock concerts of this nature are considered a meaningful experience by a certain segment of the student populace, and I am sorry for them," she stated. C'mon, now, don't bring it that way. Please don't condescend, Dr. Rueckel, if you never took the chance, depending on your birth cohort and taste, to let Benny Goodman or Frank Sinatra or Perry Como or Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis or the Beatles or (gasp!) the Tempations take control and move you a little bit. It's the bad behavior that's the problem, ma'am, not the music.<br /><br />Anyway, sheesh, what a nightmare. I feel bad for the Dead, I really do. For whatever reason, reading this saga makes me see what a nightmare problem their own popularity, combined with the need to play live vs. relying on records, must have been. They're trying to make a living playing music, and shit is just going sideways. This whole period feels really off-kilter - Jimi, Janis, riots, vandalism, bombs, violence, Mickey probably in a bad way as Lennie's perfidy stews in him -- ick. And the musical performances, naturally enough, suffer for it. A very bleak period.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-65713292417118316402014-08-21T11:09:21.611-07:002014-08-21T11:09:21.611-07:00That is classic!That is classic!Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-27346854321319322312014-08-21T09:21:17.659-07:002014-08-21T09:21:17.659-07:00As always fascinating material. I think I saw what...As always fascinating material. I think I saw what must have been Garcia's return to this venue almost exactly 11 years later when the JGB played there 11/7/81. Nice show in which I remember seeing the Georgetown basketball team (with Patrick Ewing) enter in the middle of the 1st set looking as if they expected to practice. DLeopoldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12539597705353359882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-10824439726207772932014-08-21T06:23:34.296-07:002014-08-21T06:23:34.296-07:00I actually like the little "GD coming to town...I actually like the little "GD coming to town" previews. They are all part of the fabric, and I have found some interesting stuff in those.Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-74656225203291617282014-08-21T06:14:14.938-07:002014-08-21T06:14:14.938-07:00I wasn't trying to nit pick this college kids ...I wasn't trying to nit pick this college kids writing ability,but I find it curious if I can spot obvious mistakes how the author or someone who is publishing it didn't make an effort to correct them.Part of my point is I don't understand why an article on any subject in a newspaper would have obvious limitations.I am in full agreement that the article did add perspective as to how the show was received and performed.jerlouvisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-58012255593480556592014-08-20T23:39:04.135-07:002014-08-20T23:39:04.135-07:00The NRPS didn't have an album out yet and I...The NRPS didn't have an album out yet and I'm sure many were curious how this new outfit with Garcia sounded - it was notable just for being a Dead "subgroup." I appreciate when a reviewer does spend some time on the NRPS set since it gives more of a feel of how the show went - everyone got 45 minutes or so of the NRPS before they got the Dead, like it or not. This audience, it seems, was rather restless.<br /><br />The whole Truckin'>Other One>NFA medley was about 25 minutes - I can understand if this writer wasn't being perfectly exact or didn't keep accurate notes on the timing. After all, he failed to mention that there was a whole other song inside NFA! <br /><br />It also struck me that he didn't mention at all how overcrowded it was, besides saying that "conditions were hectic and chaotic." Perhaps he felt it went without saying that the show was packed. At any rate, this review has obvious limitations (like any newspaper article), but does add some perspective as to how the show was received at the time.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-8343232748281611652014-08-20T04:53:05.630-07:002014-08-20T04:53:05.630-07:00"The band's harmony was stunning and rema..."The band's harmony was stunning and remained so throughout the evening"<br /><br />Words you would be hard pressed to find again in a review of a live GD performance.<br /><br />However I do share your sentiment in wishing that more lost shows were reviewed in this detail as it would provide a different viewpoint into what we don't have available on tape.Even though the author of his piece made some errors and rather strange comments on the music it somehow in 2 paragraphs covered the feel of the crowd and got in most of the music played.I've noticed a pattern with the shows the N.RP.S. opened that in the review the writer feels compelled to dedicate some space to their set because Garcia is in the band.It usually goes poorly for the N.R.P.S. and seems the space would have been better used covering the Dead's portion of the show.Another opening band would received one or two lines.<br /><br />The author also seemed to fall into that famous GD time sinkhole and lose touch with it.He states the NFA suite went on for 20 minutes when in actuality the suite only lasted about 12 or 13 minutes which is a considerable amount of time to be off in a 20 minute span. <br />jerlouvisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-65859989348585305412014-08-20T04:15:53.884-07:002014-08-20T04:15:53.884-07:00I added a number of pieces from the Hoya, the Geor...I added a number of pieces from the Hoya, the Georgetown U paper, about the circumstances after the show. <br />We can see what chaos the Dead left in their wake - overcrowding, "general havoc," vandalism, noise complaints, and "flagrant violation of drug laws"... <br />It's interesting to read about the grim aftermath (from the administration's perspective) of the Dead's brief (and only) visit to Georgetown. <br />The next time the Dead played in Washington DC would be 9/30/72 - a free show at Washington University. <br /><br />The article the day before the show about the upcoming event is also revealing. I haven't posted many of these "the Dead are coming!" type pieces, usually they're just brief uninformative announcements; but this was quite an awestruck outburst from an east-coast fan: "things will be different after the Dead perform." (He even praises their first album and the new Vintage Dead record.) In a way, this is an example of the word-of-mouth spreading about the band - San Francisco legends from the 'early days,' great long shows different from their albums, the promise that everyone will be "turned on." <br />As an aside, he also mentions that the PA is being provided by Hanley Sound - so it wasn't the Dead's own Alembic system. I wonder if they used Hanley for other shows on the tour.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-75157320595864126152014-08-20T02:10:48.542-07:002014-08-20T02:10:48.542-07:00This review probably comes from a Georgetown stude...This review probably comes from a Georgetown student newspaper. The writer was fairly familiar with the Dead - he knew which songs were new, and recognized the Other One from Anthem of the Sun - but it's likely he only knew them from albums, since there are no comparisons to previous shows, and he just mentions their "reputation for putting on long and powerful performances." He does accurately notice their "steady drift towards the country sound" during the show. <br /><br />He's uncertain about naming the songs he hasn't heard before - the unnamed Hard to Handle features Pigpen's "fine country yodelling" (!), and he guesses at other titles: Sugar Magnolia is "Goin' Down by the River," and Candyman is "Goodbye My Child Again." (Truckin' is also completely new to him, so he doesn't mention it.) He's stunned by the Not Fade Away suite in particular, with its "startling improvisational themes" - mostly based around the brand-new Goin' Down the Road.<br /><br />He pays some attention to the New Riders, but doesn't think much of them: "dull and lifeless...generally disappointing," saved mainly by Garcia's pedal steel. <br />He also notices the crowd reaction at various points: before the show, "conditions were hectic and chaotic" (delaying the show); the crowd were apparently impatient during the NRPS set; but by the Dead's rock & roll finale, they're going nuts - "mass insanity ensued...almost to the point of ecstasy." Uncle John's Band is mentioned as the perfect encore choice to calm down the crowd.<br /><br />He mentions the Dead's "much vaunted sound system," which sputtered at the start but by mid-concert "was working excellently...the best sound system ever seen at Georgetown." Which is interesting, since I thought the Dead actually didn't bring their own PA system on this tour - Garcia said a couple weeks earlier that they couldn't afford it, so they were using local PAs. So the writer may have been mistaken about this. <br /><br />I wish more of the lost shows of 1970 had been reviewed with this much detail! Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com