tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667800298422570910.post1814115717992622048..comments2024-03-25T14:10:52.808-07:00Comments on Rock Prosopography 101: August 17, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Jefferson Airplane (and a new PA)Corry342http://www.blogger.com/profile/08049035074121231425noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667800298422570910.post-69922888166813278492019-01-03T02:23:03.652-08:002019-01-03T02:23:03.652-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04487317252056718299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667800298422570910.post-32641569224577015732011-10-06T23:48:17.131-07:002011-10-06T23:48:17.131-07:00It was at the Vancouver shows at the end of July 1...It was at the Vancouver shows at the end of July 1966 that the Dead finally had enough of Owsley's sound system - the band considered the trip a disaster, and Lesh remembered the first Vancouver show as "one of the worst performances I can remember." <br />Lesh continues, "Everyone was grumbling about the sound problems we'd had, and about the fact that Bear was still on a control trip. We were all getting a little tired of...muddy sound compounded by interminable delays while Bear tuned the system... Bear, for his part, was reaching his limit with our constant grousing; he was ready to turn us loose and return to his alchemical work... We talked it over and agreed to part amicably, but not before Bear...offered to buy us all new stage equipment."<br /><br />McNally agrees in all the details. Anyway, what interests me here is the question of when Dan Healy's first show with the Dead was. Healy was already a studio engineer, and was appalled by the state of the Dead's PA system when he first saw them. "The PA for rock & roll shows was almost nonexistent; it was just terrible... When the bands played you could barely tell the system was on. You could never really hear or understand the vocals." <br />Healy tells the story: <br />"I originally met the Grateful Dead via John Cipollina at a Quicksilver gig at the Fillmore, where the Dead were opening... It was during the Dead's set that we showed up, and the music had just stopped. There was no such thing as 'spare equipment' for the band in those days. Oftentimes, if an amp died, it could stop the whole show. I think in this case it was Phil's amp that died... So Cipollina basically shoved me up there, and I fiddled a little with Phil's amp, and it started to work. At the end of the show, Phil and Garcia walked up to me and said 'Hey thanks man' and all that, and we introduced ourselves... <br />I remember making some crack to Phil and Garcia about how the sound system really sucked, and Garcia sort of challenged me... I said, 'All right, you're on.' The next time they were going to play was about two weeks later, also at the Fillmore..." Healy rented sound equipment from a few companies and patched up a new system for the Dead, which worked: "It was a horrible-looking monstrosity, but when the gig came, you could hear the singing."<br /><br />The interesting question for me is - when was this? <br />McNally's book places it as "shortly after Bear's departure," but the Illustrated Trip places it in June 1966.<br />The Dead played at the Fillmore with Quicksilver on June 3-4 (opening), and on Sept 4 (headlining). Either date raises questions - if in June, where was Bear while Healy did all this tinkering; or if in September, what had happened to this state-of-the-art sound system you wrote about? <br /><br />Other sources also point to the June date, for instance Skeleton Key: "By the time the Dead played at the Fillmore again about a month later [July 3], Healy had put together an impressive system, one that sounded much better than any other rock concert sound system in use at that time." <br />Which then raises the possibility that the great sound system that the Fillmore inherited may have been more Healy's work than Bear's....though I'm sure either would take credit for it!Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667800298422570910.post-35736531504488840092011-09-29T02:37:14.514-07:002011-09-29T02:37:14.514-07:00I believe that this was the first performance by T...I believe that this was the first performance by The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities at a San Francisco venue. They had been resident at Prince Charley's Inn in Tiburon during August and had appeared at one of the Muir Beach shows that were then pretty regular and often used as "auditions" for elsewhere.The Yellow Sharkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17001772238662274893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667800298422570910.post-25459359220495026332011-09-29T01:08:04.708-07:002011-09-29T01:08:04.708-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.The Yellow Sharkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17001772238662274893noreply@blogger.com