12-27-67 Village Theater, New York, NY

From: Walter Karmazyn 
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: 28 YEARS AGO TODAY 12/27/67, A RECOLLECTION
Date: 27 Dec 1995 20:25:06 GMT

OK, so flame me if I'm off by a day, but I think not.  In those days I used to hang out in the East
Village and as an Xmas present to myself, I bought a sitar from this store on E 9th St called the
House Of Musical Traditions.  By the time the owner had given me a free lesson, it was near or
after 8pm and I realized that I wouldn't have time to drop off my new instrument and still make
it over to theVillage Theater (later the Fillmore East) to catch the early show with the dead.
Ticket prices at the Village in those days were $2.50, 3.50 and 4.50 and the seats in the pit were
removed for dancers, so you could pay 2 and a half bucks to hang out and dance in front of the
folks with the $4.50 tickets.  This didn't help me any as I had only pocket change after my big
purchase. I had seen the Dead 3 times previous, twice at the Cafe Au Go Go and in Tompkins Sq
Park back in june, so of course I had to go to both shows tonight.  On the way over to the gig, I
bumped into a couple of friends who didn't have any money either and decided it was too cold to
hang on the Street and they'd come along to the show. I could've walked an elephant down 2nd
Avenue that night and gotten less attention than my sitar, which I was carrying over my shoulder. 
Seems everybody heard of them but never saw one up close. Must've shown it off to a dozen
people who stopped me along the 3 block walk to the theater.  When we got there, we found a
few more folks who also had a desire to see the band and a lack of money.  No Problem, we say.
Follow us.  On 6th St., there was this door that was open and you went up a flight of stairs,if you
took a right you were at the East Village Other offices and if you took a left, you were in this
room full of circuit breakers, went through a door and were in the foyer of the ladies room in the
balcony. This was a well known secret among some of us locals and we had caught a fair
number of free shows this way.  I guess somebody discovered that the door was unlocked, as
tonight it was locked tight.  Disaster. Back down to 6th st., pull down the ladder to the fire
escape for the balcony and head on up in hopes of getting somebody inside to pop the door. Not
only no luck, but we got the distinct feeling that this old fire escape was going to come down if
we hung out much longer.  After a hasty retreat, we are at our wits end. short of storming the
gate (which we weren't into)It seems that we are left out in the cold, so to speak.  Things were
looser in those days, esp when it wasn't crowded, so the 6 or so of us duck into the lobby to
warm up and see if we could con the lone ticket taker. I notice him looking at my sitar so I
immediatly sit down about 6 feet from him and start to strum. Over he comes. "Farout man, a
sitar!"etc. Over his shouolder I see my co conspiritors walking into the theater. He suddenly
remembers he's working and turns around to catch the action and goes running after them.  Job
done, i sling my instrument over my shoulder and walk right in.  I don't think he tried too hard,
as I saw most everybody who walked in in the course of the evening.  No, I don't remember the
set list, only that Pig did a bitchin Schoolgirl and at the end of the first show one of the band said
if we wanted to stay for the late show we were welcome to, and another one (Weir?) said "yeah
we didn't sell any tickets for that one either." Anybody out there at that show? Anybody
remember taking part in our "creative" gatecrashing?  BTW, in my 28 years almost to the day of
seeing the Dead, 6/67-6/95, that was the only time I ever crashed the gate. I did see the guy i
conned later that evening and he just looked at me smiled and shook his head, so i guess he was
more impressed with our creativity than pissed about our getting in.  It was cold outside, and
things were looser in those days.

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