From: Tom Jacobs <Tom_Jacobs@qms1.life.uiuc.edu>
Subject: SHAMELESS BAY AREA VENUE NO
Reply-To: Tom_Jacobs@qms1.life.uiuc.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:03:49 GMT

SHAMELESS BAY AREA VENUE NOSTALGIA


OK,Gail you asked for it:

I have no idea who was running the soundboard at the
Carousel.  Owsley was a PRESENCE and a LIVING LEGEND
at the time.  Every piece of blotter paper then was
said to have originated in his factory (though few
in circulation did, in fact -- we got busted in '70
at the Juarez/El Paso crossing [committed a
"Timothy Leary Turnaround"] with what WE thought
was the powdered essence of a certain Sonoran
dessert succulent :-), the local justice department
bretheren thought was mexican smack, but what the 
San Anton' DEA lab later assayed to be strawberry 
Nestle's Quick and speed. Goes to show...).

One funny thing about the Carousel was that it had a
basketball hoop at the sbd end (opposite the stage).  
What's funny is that I don't recall the room being
big enough to be a basketball court.  Maybe it was
just a half-court.  It also had blacklights in the
right and back arcades, and people would dress
*accordingly* (before dayglo found its true home
on ski slopes and rollerblades :-).

One gimmick they used to pull at Winterland, besides
beaming a light at the reflector ball on the ceiling,
was to TURN ON ALL THE HOUSE LIGHTS late in the 
show, usually during the raging ending refrains
of Casey or Sugar Mag.  Boy, did that turn up
the excitement level a big notch.  Do they still
do that at indoor shows?  (haven't been to an 
indoor show in years).  The boyz also used to have
a FIRE SHOW (which we always referred to as 
"Pigpen's Fire Show" -- does anybody know if he
actually had anything to do with it?).  These
wild bursts of flame would shoot ceiling-ward from
somewhere backstage (right as I recall), just at
*appropriate* moments during songs (e.g., "Wish
I was a headlight (BOOM)...on a northbound 
train", although they only started to exploit that
moment in later renditions of Rider)

No, I never saw Janis at the Carousel.  I saw her at 
the WEIRDEST place to see her I can now imagine:
Ravinia Park (Highland Park, IL)!  She and I both
were pretty looped, as I recall.  While we're
at it, the MOST LOOPED of all was Jim Morrison,
when I saw the Doors at Winterland in about '71
(?).  He was hanging onto that mike stand as
if it were a post in a subway car going 85
around a bend.  Ironic that someone threw an apple
and hit Doug Kershaw, the Cajun Fiddler, right
in the fingerboard, before the Doors came on, and
Bill Graham came out and reprimanded those who
were foolish and throughtless enough to be 
drinking rather than smoking.

At the Carousel, I did see:

BB King
Elvin Bishop (w/Seals & Crofts, great show)
Miles Davis (intergalactic)
Albert King
Sons of Champlin
Quicksilver
Jefferson Airplane
Allman Brothers
Stevie Guitar Miller
Boz Skaggs
It's a Beautiful Day
Chicago (awful)
others I can't remember :-)
and lots of lesser known local bands


ANOTHER CLASSIC VENUE:

--<-@  ROSCOE MAPLES PAVILLION  @->--
--<-@  Palo Alto, CA            @->--

The early '73 show there (don't have my Deadbase
handy) was especially wild because the basketball
floor was built with SPRINGS under it, supposedly
to lessen the abuse players' knees take in running
up and down the hard floor during a roundball game. 
When the boyz played there, with the Wall of Sound,
and the crowd started jumping up and down *in synch*,
the entire floor started bouncing and the stacks of
loudspeakers swayed I bet 3 feet.  I remember Phil
looking up at the swaying towers during a song, then
looking at the crowd, and smiling a scared but "I hope
the roadies have it under control" smirk.  What was
REALLY cool, though, was, with the entire floor 
deflecting about 6 inches, you couldn't stand still, 
and, if you got just out of phase with it, it would
TOSS YOU UP IN THE AIR about a foot higher than your
usual vertical leap!  So when you looked out over the
crowd, you'd see these heads :-) shooting up all over
the place.  Imagine your favorite venue with the 
entire floor being a trampoline -- and no damn chairs
like they all have now :-(.

Enough. If the boyz don't get back on tour soon, this
net will drift into pastimes like playing anagrams
with Janette Pazer's email address.

Tom "can't believe I wrote the whole thing" Jacobs


Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead