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Other artist(s): take Five. This venue later became the Fillmore East. Not sure what set Schoolgirl was played in. 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 the Village 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 during 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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