02-13-70 Fillmore East, New York, NY
From: "Oldenburg, Don" OldenburgD@washpost.com
The Fillmore East 2/13/70: My first show...
Six of us took the train down to NYC from New Haven and bought tickets for the late show at
the box office, which next to walking in free was the miracle in those days. (Also picked up tix
that night for a Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Miles Davis/Steve Miller Band show a few weeks
later).
Outside the old opera house was crawling with molecular energy. An unreal
streetlight-illuminated scene surrounded by the darkness of that end of town late at night made it
like we all were on stage. A guy who looked like Jimi Hendrix but wasn't walked by murmuring
"acid, acid" in a fog that emanated from him. We stepped into the crowd gathered in front of the
closed doors, waiting, milling. Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.
A band called Love and a relatively little known group from the South called The Allman
Brothers opened. Love was eminently forgettable and didn't play long; The Allman Brothers
turned lots of heads, closing after maybe 45 minutes with a muscular Whipping Post, Duane, I
think it was, saying as they left the stage, "We know who y'all came here to see..."
Stage dark. Equipment set up and check. 'Round one o'clock or so, a guy who some thought was
Bill Graham and other figure was a N.Y. DJ known for stage pranks. Whoever he was, he
walked into a small spotlight and said like, "The Fillmore East welcomes The Grateful Dead."
Spotlight widens and moves to a black casket that's propped up back where Pigpen used to hold
out with the percussions in front of the giant gong, and where Bruce more recently had been
strapped to an accordion. The casket opens, out comes what some of us remember to be Jerry,
but others say it wasn't. And the boys start in on a knockout Cosmic Charlie. Great scene.
Immediate big dose of energy moves like wind blowing off the stage at the audience. The Dead
played all night long, virtually nonstop, doing a little acoustic here, mostly charged though.
Without checking a setlist, I couldn't even tell you the numbers. China Cat and Rider, Me and
My Uncle. But the Dark Star, that'll stay in me forever. The Other Side and Cryptical, too.
They closed the show with Pig doing an all-time great Lovelight (had to be close to 30 minutes,
though my state of mind wasn't tracking time well, so I might be off a bit here, and I've never
clocked the tape). It left everyone standing on the armrests of their chairs screaming and
clapping so loud that when the band stopped playing, said goodnight, walked off the stage, the
sound didn't drop a decibel.
Crowd noise for the encore went on for 15 minutes, 'til the boys came back out (Jerry, Bobby
and Phil, at least) and calmed everyone with verse after verse of And We Bid You Goodnight,
starting loud, getting quieter. When they walked off stage, a few cheers spent themselves into
total silence. Pin drop. An amazing power play--the kind talked about in Electric Kool-Aid Acid
Test.
It was hazy morning sunshine on the streets of New York City pouring out of the Filmore. It was
close to 7 a.m. Heads were blown away, people in disbelief that the boys had played all night
long. I've never SEEN a show to match it--and I've seen plenty of incredible Dead shows.
Neat Postscript:
My third son Coley was born five days before his due date--on the afternoon that Jerry
died...Like the headlights of two trains passing in the night, Jerry and Coley, I'd like to think. A
bitter-sweet day that prompted me to start gathering tapes for my boys (and me).
A kind and generous taper on this list sent me 180 minutes of 2/13/70--and the music holds up
mightily. But three hours ain't five or six. So far, I've never seen tapes of this show listing the
opening Cosmic Charlie and the other missing "early" hours. Anybody ever hear a tape of 2/13
that runs the distance?
In those days, the Dead often played five or six hours. Once I saw Jerry open with the New
Riders in Portchester, N.Y., and played for more than two hours on the steel, then came back 45
minutes later with the Dead and played another six. Amazing guy, Jerry.
Peace.
Don Oldenburg
oldenburgd@washpost.com
(
geocities.com/sunsetstrip/gala) (
geocities.com/sunsetstrip)