Favorite/Remarkable Small Shows

I saw DSO at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai a couple of years ago and was very impressed by this tiny venue. It's located in a grove of trees, has seats for about 1000 and an additional 200-300 on the lawn.

http://libbeybowl.org/

I saw a great Stephen Stills show at the Belly Up (holds 600).

Also saw Willie Nelson there.  That was a good show too.  The only other time I had seen Willie was probably one of the worst concerts I've ever seen.

Any Robyn Hitchcock show. And he's still doing it. Go see him.The Haunt in Ithaca had some great shows and I'm sure they still do.  Phish was a treat back in the day. I remember a Hot Tuna show , sorta, those scientists from Cornell might have been conducting a great experiment that night.....

Great thread, Judit. Please post anything you can remember. 

I saw Bowie on April Fool's Day 2004 at the Air Canada Centre, which was not small. And then, almost two months later, I saw him again in Buffalo, NY, at Shea's Theater, which is very intimate. 

He played Beweley Brothers, Station to Station, The Motel, amongst all the standard tunes of the tour. I was blessed. 

Experiencing Mike Garson so closely was thrilling, I felt the electricity. 

Hello Spaceboy tore our heads off, like the memorex guy with no heads. Smashing. 

Awesome shows, Judit!! Really cool.

Some small ones I will never forget:

2 small Van Morrison shows in Ireland

Hot Tuna at Fur Peace Ranch

Patti Smith at Old Town School of Folk Music

Phil three times at Levon Helm's. That room is just magic. 

I saw Phish in the U of R cafeteria and small shows at the old Warehouse in Rochester. 

JJWood (former Zoner) was at those shows with me.

http://phish.com/tours/dates/sat-1991-04-20-douglass-dining-center-unive...

"This was Phish’s third 4/20 show.  It took place at Douglass Hall, which was named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass and reportedly hosted a few hundred people for this all ages show.  Fan reports recall bouncing super-balls around the crowd during Bouncing Around The Room (see 12/31/91).  Fish began Setting Sail out of the You Enjoy Myself vocal jam and the rest of the band joined him a cappella.  Before The Sloth, Trey welcomed Fish’s parents and sister, “who were last seen at the Ithaca State Theater gig.”  Speaking to Fish’s parents, he said “i just want you to know that that car we gave away at the Ithaca gig…I just heard yesterday that the guy who got it…I’m not going to tell you how much he sold it for.”  Fish replied “My dad’s not supposed to know this but this guy got 2300 bucks for that piece of junk.”  Fish then explained how the winner of the Fishman family minivan almost got sued because “he spent the the deposit on dope or something.”  Fish and Trey then joked around with Dr. Fishman about the 2/14/91 minivan giveaway, apologizing (“Sorry Dad”) and asking for the key to the next car.  There are no tapes of this show in the archives.  The setlist was adopted from David Schanker’s audience tape." 

I miss JJ Wood. :(

Jerry and Grisman , And all these plus more At the old sweetwater in Mill Valley

Santana 

John lee Hooker

John Lee with Carlos

Zero 

Commander Cody

   But my favorite small show was just YUGE

THE ROLLING STONES OLYMPIA THEATRE PARIS 1995, great show 

I saw the Band for two nights straight at the Horizontal Boogie Bar, in Rochester, NY. So intimate. So packed. Great sound. Awesome songs. The Band.

I've seen a lot of shows there: the Fixx, Reverend Horton Heat, Frank Black, Ween, Mule, Great Southern, Tripping Daisy, the Ramones, and so many others. That Ramones show was sick. Right in our faces. Need I say more? 

This place is the old Warehouse, that China mentioned above. JWood and China were a bit older than me. I couldn't get into the Warehouse yet at that time. Wish I could've. 

The Police at Shaboo Inn in Ct...owner was a friend, and musician who regularly.played the club that my brothers and I worked at. He knew how much we all were in to all styles of music etc....after they had played a couple songs, he called one of us, and told us that this great band from England was playin his club, and at the moment, he had sold 13 (or so, but thats number ive always remembered) tickets, and the place now had less than 40 people there including friends, guest lists etc...he basically sold one of my bro s when he said.."its 3 piece, and i heard sound check, and cpl tunes, and they are one of best ive ever seen on my stage." Shaboo was notorious for booking great shows...so, no brainer, all 3 of us were managers at same club in htfd (chef, GM, and i was bar mngr), so we didnt think twice, just jumped in car and drove (very fast..i recall a crazy, crazy, drive, just cant recall who drove..lol), and when we got there half hour or so later we walked into a club w no more than 50 ppl in it....and we only caught a cpl songs...(maybe more, their songs were short, even live, i remember that, but dont remember at all what we saw for songs), although ill look it up, but i think they opened and closed w a song that would break on U.S. radio one week later---Roxanne.

Cpl side notes...to this day of course, ive met hundreds of ppl who said they were there, lol, including good friends. Its too funny, looking at them, and saying really? Me too, cant blve we didnt "bump" into each other, considering there was less than 50 of us..lol

Like i said above, Roxanne was released around a week or so later...(in my memory) , now, to this day (and i guess we ve never asked the owner, Lefty, if we wrong about that, as i do know that ive heard since then, that it was released before the show)..what i do know, is that i can clearly remember hearing it on the radio about seven or so days after show. I can recall where i was (driving on hwy at time) and who i was with when we heard it. Memories are so funny because that memory is so much clearer than show itself. i remember that in the car, my friends and i talked about song we just heard, and how i had just seen band. General consensus in car was song sucked...lol, including me, although it sounded great (and much more reggae-ish) live. I did eventually grow to like song, although its not nearly high among up among my favorites by that band. 

I saw them three more times, including back to back nights at a sold out htfd civic center within about a year later.

Also saw U2 at Trinity College (unannounced show for school kids only...until it leaked) with less than 1,000 ppl...but that figure grew and grew as day went on. Big regret i didnt see Dylan or Stones at Toads..i was allowed in for a cpl songs late night for Stones (again via a friend at club)...but, i dont recall that at all..for both of those shows i was living in New Haven, but that night of Stones show (and Dylan because we were at club, just not inside) are a blur, memory wise.

Phish at Woodbury Ski and Racquet Club (outdoors on THAT hill) was fun, but dont remember much of that show either.

First Horde tour...Jones Beach...not a small, small show...but, that place just seems so small. Very intimate etc.

Dylan a cpl times in parks outside for free.

Im sure im forgetting a whole bunch in late 70 s -early 80 s, Agora Ballroom..wow, just thought of that place, no, that list deserves its own thread (blog) ...lol

2001 - Backstage at Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival
I entered a cabin behind the stage at midnight.
Inside was no more than 10 people standing in awed amazement watching
the first ever musical meeting of the at the time, 21 yr old mandolin phenomenon: Chris Thile
& David Grier (obsessed bluegrass guitarist who's father was for a time, the banjo player for Bill Monroe).
Also present was Gene Libbea, multiple Grammy Award winning bassist with the Nashville Bluegrass Band.

I left that room at 5 AM - Mind completely blown.  Grier and Thiele went at it for hours without speaking to each other - just jamming.
Gene Libbea left at 2 AM with his bass.
At 4:45 Grier shrugged and said he had to take a leak.
For the next 15 minutes Thile played the Bach's 2nd Violin Concerto in G minor for the 1/2 dozen of us left in the room.
I nearly threw my mandolin in a campfire after leaving that scene.

------
Jorma Kaukonen at Schoenberg's Guitar Store in Tiburon, CA.  
The room held 28 people, one performer and dozens of guitars.
I sat 1 foot in front of Jorma.
This was 12/30/02 the night prior to Hot Tuna opening for the Other Ones at Oakland Coliseum/
-----

 

banyan at a pizza joint.

Hey Painted, I was also at that Jorma show in Tiburon. What a great night!

Also:

Jorma solo in a tiny room at the Univ. of Rochester in '85.

Jorma at a chapel at Hamilton College in NY.

Hot Tuna at the Tralfamador Cafe in Buffalo. (We had to do some fast talking

to get into that as we were underage).

Several Hot Tuna shows at the old, tiny Sweetwater.

Grateful Dead at Niagara Falls Convention Center in '84.

Rolling Stones at The Wiltern in LA.

Neil Young at Old Princeton Landing

Dylan at Copa Room in Atlantic City. (800 people)

Oh yeah Floops, good memories at the warehouse and HBB.  We were probably at many of the same shows.

Jambone, you reminded me of a Police show I saw also right around when Roxanne first came out.  UB40 opened up, it was a free show on the beach in Toulon, France. 

Neil at the Catalyst and at the long gone Saddle Rack in San Jose (1984?)

Prince at the DNA Lounge (2013)

Phil and Friends at places like Bimbos, the old Sweetwater, and the Independent in SF were considered pretty F'N awesome until he started playing regularly at that new small place in San Rafael.

And though it's not truly a small venue, the High School basketball gym sized Santa Cruz Civic felt pretty damned small when I saw the likes of Santana and Frank Zappa there in the 80's.

Mekons at Bottom of the Hill

Mike Watt & Second Missing Men at DiPiazza's( 2nd drummer almost didn't fit on stage )

Melvins/Butthole Surfers at Grand Ballroom

Thats cool, China...i just looked up some info on show...the owner of Shaboo did it as a favor to booking agent that was also selling him Iggy Pop. He said, if you want iggy this year, you ll take my brothers band...lol...agent was Police drummer Stewart Copelands brother Ian.

Unfortunatley, there was no set list. But, cpl follow up articles, one mentioned the bookings of Aerosmith, who at time was still doing some covers (mostly Stones) and a few originals..shaboo inn owner booked them for 4 nights..$700 w a case a beer, a btl of gin. Money was for all 4 nights, id assume they got the beer and gin nightly...;)

Thanks, Judit, great thread...i just read about ten articles about old shows in Ct that i either saw, or just now learned of! (Aerosmith opening for James Montgomery or Tom Petty opening for NRBQ, to name a cpl ) and since your thread includes "favorites" as well, Id be remiss if i didnt mention the James Montgomery show i saw in September with maybe...maybe..200 ppl..outside in Mass...he still rocks...

12-31-11.  Max Creek.  I had just gotten a DUI and was about to lose my license on 1/2.  I knew I had life changes I needed to make.  Got dosed to the gills and had this unbelievable experience which I was left beaming from.  Something happened to me that night.

Robben Ford at The Catalina Bar and Grill Hollywood !  So Freaking Great !

Sipping STIFF Cocktails !!

China>Rider- the guy who won Phish's van in Ithaca was/is a good friend of mine, we all got to root through it after the show. If you're interested, here's what ultimately happened with the van;

https://backinmyday.net/2012/02/13/21491-the-state-theatre-ithaca-ny/

Best small venue shows for me were Sharon Jones/Lee Fields/Antibalas at No Moore, Derek Trucks Band at the Knitting Factory, Medeski Martin & Wood at Tonic, Sonic Youth in the South Street Seaport Atrium, Phil at SOB's, Weir/Wasserman at Wetlands, Willie Nelson at Tramps, Steve Winwood at Bowery Ballroom (all NYC).

3/29/91 Phish at the DNA Lounge in SF.
1st ever San Francisco Phish Show.
Ticket cost $8.

Had to sweep my jaw off the ground upon leaving.
 

Is there anyone here who got to see Miles Davis? I personally don't know anyone who ever has.

Come to think of it - I know about a dozen peeps who saw Hendrix but no one has bragged to me about having seen Miles.

One of the cooler teeny tiny shows I saw was Jaco Pastorious at the Blue Note in Manhattan in 1982.

I was 17 and had a friends Joisey ID (no photo at that time).

Jaco came out alone at first and started to percussively beat the snot out of his legendary Fretless Fender J Bass.
Then he stepped on a primitive but at the time pretty advanced MXR delay pedal and began to play gorgeous leads over the percussive loop he'd created.
Finally his band appeared and went through a list of standards and originals.

Seriously impactful experience.....

Cool story about Phish's van!  Too bad he didn't keep it, would have been worth a lot in years to come.

I found that Police show, it was 8/26/80 with UB40, XTC, and Skafish.  I only remember UB40 playing.

http://www.thepolicewiki.org/Police_wiki/index.php?title=1980-08-26

Neil at the boots and saddle in the Honda with the horse early 70s

Old n in the way at homers warehouse in Palo Alto

The band that  became new riders of the purple Sage peninsula school AthertonThe dead on a flatbed truck El Camino ballpark summer of 67

Variations of the Keystone/Sophie's/Cincinnati um pa pa Jerry with   James Brown the sons of Champlin sly and the family stone Greg khimn Ron tutt w Jerry James Brown the sons of Champlin sly and the family stone Niels (lol grin 

Slashes snake pit and 40 other fantastic bands  in that room

Mine would have to be Warren Zevon at Raoul's in Portland Maine back in 88. Warren, Tim B. Schmidt and Danny Dugmore. Literally 6 feet away from the small stage with maybe less than 200 others in the room. One of the pleasures of my life...

https://archive.org/details/wz1988-11-30.D1-rem.sbeok.flac16/wz1988-11-3...

Mine would be watching Darol Anger practice a couple of tunes with my cousin's band in a hotel room in Tacoma. My wife and I were the only audience. Not really a show I guess but it was still really cool. Seeing Nirvana at a keg party when I was in college was also pretty sweet: that was definitely a real show.   

>>is there anyone here who got to see Miles Davis?

I saw him once. He had to use an oxygen mask a LOT. It was kinda sad, but it was still Miles Fucking Davis! 

Hi Judit I also attended that Dylan show hadn't thought about in awhile good times

The Shaboo!

Caught Elvin Bishop there!

But my two favorites would have to be at the Bottom Line 

Garcia and Mike Bloomfield. 

It was pretty special I scored a ticket out front before the show remember the buzz after the radio announcement or something like that also saw Dylan at the hult center

8/24/08

Benefit for "Big Red", an attempt to salvage an art gallery/workspace in Astoria destroyed by a storm.  Outdoor show rained out, moved to an old Catholic church/performing arts center. Country Joe, Marty Balin with Signe Anderson, and then, Cold Blood. Was the most high.

Also, I'm not the bad rusty on bizzaro.net

That kinda pissed me off.

Great show in a small room but the highlight of the night was meeting one of my best friends still to this day,

Zoner Emily 

Bob Dylan 10-13-04

The Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center

San Francisco, CA

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Watching the River Flow

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

Ballad of a Thin Man

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum

This Wheel's on Fire 

Seeing the Real You at Last

No More One More Time (Jo-El Sonnier)

Ballad of Hollis Brown (acoustic)

Honest With Me

Sugar Baby (acoustic)

Summer Days (Instrumental, Bob on guitar)

----------

Cat's in the Well

Like a Rolling Stone

All Along the Watchtower 

For me, Robert Hunter at the "Other End" on 5/21/82 in Greenwich Village was a magical night in NYC.

After the show, dosed and walked to World Trade Center into the jingle jangle of the morning sun

The night before at My Father's Place in Roslyn, NY was in front of 50 folks was also very special.

Jorma & Bobby at the Lone Star after the Grateful Dead played the Byrne. Late 80s - could have been Bobby's b-day maybe? Can't recall for sure. I know Brent was in the room but I don't think he played.... you'd think I would know, right? I was on the way-high side of high, which might be why trying to memorize details for accurate future reminiscence was the last thing on my mind. 

Anyway at the time, I sure didn't think I would be around nearly this long, nor Bobby, nor Jorma. Nor most of the folks in the Lone Star that night, for that matter. Except maybe Brent, go figure.

Many years later I heard the tape & couldn't even listen all the way through. But everything sounded perfect in the moment, it was amazingly great to be there.

Some time in the 90s I saw Zen Tricksters at the Joyous Lake and there was only a small handful of other people there, most of whom worked there, but nobody else was dancing except for me. Not sure why it was so empty, because I had seen them pack that place a year or so earlier.

Danko solo acoustic at the Tinker Street Cafe - probably 1997. Big snow storm that night, but I lived right around the corner, and Rick drove himself there. Barely anybody else did. I remember he played Blind Willie McTell. And some other songs too, I'm sure.

That's all I can think of right now. Interesting thread, great idea Judit!!

Bluelight - I was at the same Hunter Show at the Other End.
It was special but it also showed me that Hunter was no Garcia.

I saw a really fun - but not particularly special show of Rick Danko with Max Creek at Rockypoint Amusement Park in Warwick, RI - probably sometime in '85.
We all dropped before heading into the park and the fool who drove us lost his car key on our very first ride on the inverted roller coaster.
He neglected to let us know about this loss until perhaps 1 AM...
We had to call the lock smith and hang out for an hour with the cops "observing us," tripping balls until the locksmith rescued our asses.
Show was great though!

I started to make a list but realized it would go on & on in classic Lance fashion, so I decided to mention just the one set of shows that are far & away at the very top of my Favorite/Remarkable Small Shows list...

The 10 three-set Neil Young & Crazy Horse "rehearsal" shows I saw in April, May & June 1996 at Old Princeton Landing, a tiny dive bar next to the ocean just north of Half Moon Bay that's packed with 100 people.

I missed the first run of four shows in March, but got in for the next show in April. After that show I was very lucky to finagle a deal where I helped the guy handling tickets at the door and then got to go in after everyone else was in. I'm pretty good at finagling those type of deals, but this one was the best deal I've ever finagled.

After every show no one really knew if there would be more, since it was all on Neil's whim, but ultimately there were 14 legendary shows "The Echos" played at OPL and I saw 10 of them, plus the two they did at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz during that same run. 

That experience remains at the top of any musical experience I've ever had, and almost certainly ever will have. And I've had some pretty damn good musical experiences and plan to have more.

The only downside to the whole thing is that those shows and everything about them ruined to an extent Neil Young shows for me ever since, as nothing can ever come close to what those events were like.

Here's a sample set-list from one of the OPL shows...

Country Home / Stupid Girl / Bite The Bullet / Roll Another Number

Barstool Blues / Cowgirl In The Sand / Drive Back / Homegrown / Pocahontas / Dangerbird / The Losing End / Prisoners Of Rock 'n' Roll

Cortez The Killer / F*!#in' Up / The Loner / Powderfinger

Lots of those were played every night, but they also mixed it up, with amazing versions of Like a Hurricane, Down By The River, Sedan Delivery, Cinnamon Girl, Rockin' In The Free World,  Baby What You Want Me To Do, etc. played multiple times as well. 

In '96 Neil & the Horse were still at the top of their game, they held NOTHING back at these shows, and the whole damn thing was fucking great.

(That's me in the doorway with the white shoes and poor posture)

A few other great small shows:

-05/12/90
Jerry Garcia Band at Waikiki Shell in Honolulu
Had just left a 7 week camping trip on the Big Island.
Bought dead center reserved tickets at the Box Office prior to the show.
Had VIP waitress service and were surrounded by dosed Naval personnel (cause the Navy has no test for LSD).
Seeing Jerry in Paradise was Paradisical!
http://ia902708.us.archive.org/8/items/jgb1990-05-12/jgb1990-05-12.mp3?c...

-08/10/84
Jerry Garcia Band at Rocky Glenn Amusement Park in Moosic, Pennsylvania.
Swelteringly muggy night.  Gig played on a floating theater in the park's pond.
Garcia wailing like a banshee while dosed heads did backflips into the pond.
http://ia902205.us.archive.org/18/items/jgb1984-08-10/jgb1984-08-10.mp3?...

-11/26/83
Jerry Garcia Band at The Forum in Binghamton, NY
Day after Thanksgiving: Early and Late Shows.
We sat on the Kettle Drums in the Orchestra pit at Garcia's feet.
http://ia601408.us.archive.org/31/items/jgb1983-11-26/jgb1983-11-26.mp3?...

-

Just saw MMW at their 25 year reunion in NY. Saw 2/3 shows. I've seen them over twenty times now and I think those were two of the greatest I've seen, by and band or group. Really excellent.

Hi Bright Day, 3/30/88 was the date of that Jorma show that Bobby showed up for at the Lone Star Café.

I caught one of my favorite bands “Big Country” at the peak of their popularity; 6th row in a small play house at Hofstra in 1983. One of the best shows I ever saw.

Was fortunate to see Robin Trower front table at small club in East Islip, NY in 1984. He shoe-horned his Marshall Stack in this place and let it rip.

(Saw The Band at the same venue a year or so later)

Then the famous JGB Good Skates show in August of 1984!!

Chris Robinson Brotherhood at The Henry Miller Library in Big Sur was an amazing night in a beautiful setting.

Kimock at the Howard Theater, Betts at the Birchmere, Martino at Blues Alley. 

All in DC area. 

Big Country....cool band^^

Prince & the New Power Generation

DNA Lounge (San Francisco, CA)

APR 12, 1993

The attached article seems to indicate Prince & NPG came up to SF after a San Jose performance, but what I remember is it being after a Bill Graham Civic Center performance. What is for sure is that the late night show was rumored after the BG Civic show and the line went around the block for the 400 pperson capacity club. A LOT of people gave up on the rumor  around 2:00 AM. but I waited and Prince rolled up closer to 3:00 AM, and he and The NPG blew the roof off tha sucka till 5:30 am!  I danced my tie dyed ass off!!!

http://www.concertvault.com/prince-and-the-new-power-generation/dna-lounge-april-12-1993-set-2.html

I always thought seeing Jerry in the Warfield was pretty special

This thread may have legs...

Fur Peace Ranch with Warren, Jorma, and Jack.

I was there

Fur Peace Ranch

September 20, 2008 now playing.

First set Warren solo acoustic.  (Hallelujah Boulevard)

Second set with Jack to open and Jorma joining in for the duration.

Troubadour, I saw Miles Davis twice. Once at Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center NYC. I recall his sweet rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time". My favorite Miles moment was seeing him outdoors at Pier 84 overlooking the Hudson River in NYC. Boats would pull up on the River, and listen for free. At one point during a Miles solo, a boat blew it's horn seemingly directed at Miles. It seemed everyone paused for a moment, as if to say "Was that cool?...or uncool?" Miles looked up and issued a sustained blow of his own horn  in response. Friggin' hilarious! Everyone was cracking up!

I can think of a couple other small, remarkable shows I went to.  One was Clapton at The Metro in Boston circa 1985, holding about 1000 people. Amazing show with Nathan East on bass. It was during his Behind The Sun Tour.

All the shows at the original Sweetwater Cafe in Mill Valley, CA were very special. Hot Tuna, John Lee Hooker, John Hartford, Merl Saunders, Weir & Wasserman... Great times!!!

Carlos Santana solo/electric at Carnegie Hall, NYC in May of 1981

On the inner sleeve of Santana's "Moon Flower" double album read "for information on Carlos's spiritual adviser write so and so"

What came back were 8 free tickets to see Carlos solo at Carnegie Hall. You could hear a pin drop during "Europa".

The first show I ever saw at the Fillmore in SF:
Carlos Santana w Wayne Shorter.
It was like two rambunctious puppies at play - chasing each other around the room.... melodically.

Oh yeah, I saw Miles twice, once at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, the other at the Greek where he headlined a show with Milton Nascimento & John McLaughin opening.

Both shows were toward the end of his career and I was seriously under-whelmed by the overall style of the music and especially by his performances. Especially at the Greek show he barely played, mostly just roaming the stage making random, occasional bleating and blaating sounds with his trumpet while the guitar player and band overall seriously over-played almost everything. It was sad more than bad, and very disappointing.

It was the classic deal of going to see a legend and having predetermined expectations shocked by getting just the fumes that remained.

I had very similar experiences when I saw Ray Charles & James Brown at the very end of their careers.

Not good shows, but good life lessons. These people aren't automatons, they get old like everyone else.

Which is why I still get such a thrill when I see Phil Lesh these days. He may not be the player he was 30 - 40 years ago, but it's amazing to see him still playing at such a highly creative level.

There is still PLENTY of gas left in his tank.

And that's far out. 

Robben Ford in a unitarian church for 6 bucks in 1999

Susanne Vega @ HART in CT 

Dickey BEtts Pickle BArrel VT

Bobby Solo Pittsfield MAss

RAdiators Fishmarket in Norwalk CT  I miss the fuck out of the RAdiators

The DNB, Moonalice, and Airplane show at the barn in Ny

Chik Corea and BElla Fleck

Great thread Judit!  I've got a few.

Largest first, Santa Cruz Civic:  HALL doesn't consider it officially small, but Neil Young with Booker T and the MGs at the Santa Cruz Civic in '93 seemed like a big artist in a small venue to me.  We'd heard rumors of Neil at the Catalyst, but we learned it would be the Civic and got in line at the Civic box office.  I wasn't sure we were close enough to the front of the line to get tickets, so I rode to Capitola to a ticket outlet at a record store.  No cell phones so we couldn't coordinate, so I went through the line twice and bought the max each time.  My now wife and our friend were each able to get the max (6) at the Civic, so it turned out we had 24 tickets.  All our Santa Cruz friends got in, then another showed up late, and one of the door guys was another friend who let the laggard in, so there were 25 of us in the Civic that night!  It was a "full dress rehearsal" for the Harvest Moon tour, and it was a wonderful show!

Old Waldorf - not super small, a regular size SF nightclub, but my friend knew who Soft White Underbelly was in the the '70s and got tickets.  Blue Oyster Cult had sold out the Cow Palace not that long before, so seeing them in a club that small was pretty cool.

Jerry at the Stone, the Berkeley Keystone, and the Palo Alto Keystone.  Again, not super small, but in SF he walked through the audience right past us with his brief case (damn, was he late!), and in Palo Alto I was right on the rail of the low stage, right in front of Jerry (unusual for me to go up front).  I felt I could have reached over and untied his shoe, he was that close.

Hot Tuna acoustic in a bar in Soquel, early '90s.  Intimate, and high quality.

Jerry and John Kahn - Dunsmuir House 1985-08-18.  I remember a very exploratory acoustic jam during Bird Song and turned to a friend:  "Acoustic space!"

Michael Manring - house concert in the hills of El Cerrito.  Extremely creative bass player based in Oakland, played with Michael Hedges (RIP), I've seen him in a number of small venues, but the intimacy of a residential living room was really special.
 

Great read. Thanks for sharing the memories Judit

>>>>Carlos Santana solo/electric at Carnegie Hall, NYC in May of 1981

I spent a good portion of my day disputing the date and if Carlos Santana ever played Carnegie Hall with the archivist/curator of Carnegie Hall NYC

I took a step back the other day to realize the musical historic significance; as Carlos, may have never played solo before and finding proof on the internet led me back to Carnegie Hall and Carlos himself.

The stage manager (Gino) confirmed that Carlos Santana was there on 4/21/1980, but didn’t recall him playing. I was the first person to state so. To make long day for the Carnegie Hall Archivist longer, in the basement they found the program from the Sri Chimnoy event and that Carlos Santana was scheduled to play 4/21/1980

I claimed it was during the day; Carnegie Hall proved with a NY Times article and the actual booking note book's page that Itzhak Perlman was there during the day.

Thanks to the Carnegie Hall.

Ha, the Radiators ! At Citi Lights (a small bar) in htfd...

Spin Doctors at the Cape Cod Cafe in New Haven

Sorry the Carnegie Hall playbill says Carlos was there 4/20/1980, not the 21st. My error.

I was just watching some Cypress Hill videos and was reminded of a show I saw in a San Francisco in about 2001 or 2002. I was visiting a friend and he told me that Cypress Hill were playing an unadvertized show at a bar in his neighborhood. It was like a $5 entry, and cans of PBR were $2. Cigarette smoking in bars in California was long gone at this point, and as we pulled up I couldn't help but notice all the people outside smoking cigarettes. We went in and fired up some joints and it was probably the first experience I have were it was totally okay and accepted to smoke weed in the bar, but cigarettes were shunned to outside. I distinctly recall having a burning joint in one hand while ordering a can of beer at the same time. B-Real took a huge joint from someone in the front row and smoked it for about 15 minutes, holding it up to the other guys mouths to take tokes as they were playing instruments and then passing it to the crowd, which returned still it to the stage 5 minutes later. It was a fun night, that's for sure.

The 2 that come to mind for me are both David Bromberg shows. 

Havana - a small club in New Hope, PA 9/12/10

Grounds for Sculpture Hamilton, NJ 11/18/11 - Only 250 tickets were sold for this one.

Since this thread is still rolling I'll add a couple more...

I've seen a ton of excellent small shows at TxR, but one that was really unique while still being Phil-centric was the Peter Rowan Ramble with Phil & the Family Band a couple of years ago.

Rowan opened with a solo set, which was just excellent but not unusual, but then after a break he lead an electric set with Phil and the FB as his backing band, with Scott Law added.

They played virtually all Peter songs, but with Phil and an electric band behind him, which is rare, the music just soared.

It was freakin' great.

Next is a show from many, many years ago; Zakir Hussain & his legendary father Alla Rakha played a show in a tiny church in Berkeley in 1982. I had never heard of either and the only reason I was there was because the opening act was Zakir Hussain & Mickey Hart, so naturally a friend & I blazed up to Berkeley to check out Mickey playing with somebody in a church.

The Zakir/Mickey set was excellent, with them just moving and improvising among a sea of traditional and odd percussion instruments arranged all around the stage. It was mesmerizing, as you'd expect.

That's what I came for and I was very satisfied with that, but then Zakir & his father came on and it was simply unreal. As he and his father were preparing to play Zakir explained the deep traditions of tabla playing that they were both going through, from how they tuned the tabla's all the way through the very particular way they folded the cloths they sat on, everything just exactly so, and also about the history of tabla playing in general. Then they began to play - oh man Alla Rakha's hands moved like hummingbirds.

It was awesome in the true sense of that word. With seemingly no effort at all they lifted us all off the ground with just their two hands. Zakir is a master but his father was clearly beyond that - it was simply unbelievable. I can still see it and hear it clearly in my head to this day, and I became a life-long fan of Zakir's after that night.

A fun side bit to this little show was that Owsley was there recording the show with some new type of microphones that were set on or under the floor of the stage, and before the show he admonished us all to not tap our feet AT ALL!!! ABSOLUTE SILENCE PLEASE!!!

At the break my friend and I were standing in front of him at his little board and Mickey walked up to him and said, "Hey Bear, you got any buds? I KNOW you do man, common'!" And of course he pulled out a glass jar and spread the wealth, grumbling all the while.

It was an amazingly unique, fun and educational night for a 22-year-old dead head, and one of many nights that continue to remind me that being a fan of the Grateful Dead was and is far more than just being a fan of a rock 'n roll band.

^Great Stories Lance!

Husker Du at the what I think was called the Living Room in Providence

Red Hot Chili Peppers at a club in Boston near the train station can’t remember the name. Saw Big Audio Dynamite and The Cramps there too which were great shows

David Bowie at the Warfield one of my all-time favorite shows

Carlos Santana at the Fillmore

Pixies just recently at Ace of Spades in Sacramento

Smallest place I saw the Dead was the field house at University of Vermont although come to think of it my first show at the hockey rink in Billerica may have been smaller.

Furthur in the Grate Room before it was the Grate Room

i saw Jeff Buckley and his band perform at Tower Records, Westwood, CA sometime in '94

Zephyr was a medium size club in downtown SLC in the 80's & 90's...maybe held 250 max.

Caught some goodies in there:

Robin Trower

Chick Corea/Paint The World tour 1993

John Mayall

Panic- Sit & Ski 1996

Merl Saunders

Mule

Also the Dead Goat saloon /SLC-- Tiny blues club....Kim Simmonds/ Savoy Brown - 1999....smoked!

Bob Weir/Kingfish 1975 Keystone Palo Alto...great night

and Jerry/ Merl..Keystone Berkeley 1973 - was there when they recorded the album.

Bruce Cockburn Hotel du Nord , Paris

Peter Rowan , Hotel du nord Paris

Two Weeks Of Panic, Chesterfield Café,  Paris (I was the chef there)

That reminds me, Thomas. Peter Rowan and Tony Rice at the ever-intimate Turning Point in Piermont, NY, nestled underneath the Tappan Zee Bridge was as sublime as it gets.

Heard crazy tunes outside the bar one afternoon at Colorado State University. Wandered in and said,"Y'all sound great. Who are you?" "We're Phish." "Where are you from?" "Vermont." It was their first tour west. Heard the rest of the sound check and got on the guest list for the show that night. They totally rocked, but never really became a fan.

Saw Santana in our home town in a basement at a community center with about 125 attending back in 1969. Had never heard him before. The sound from all the percussion with carlos searing guitar  transformed me. Was very young and my bro dragged me to the show and was always informing of what new bands I needed to go see. Very glad I went. Never forget all that percussion. Not much singing if I remember correctly just jamming.

Turtle used to work at the Coach House.  Pretty sure he saw Miles Davis there.

Make with the stories Turts.

Masada at the Khyber pass in Philly. Think it was 1996.