Cool website: Stonybrook late60s / Cap Thr early 70s
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This website was put together by a student at Stonybrook who helped put on shows who then became the lighting director at the Cap. Lots of links so you have to poke around.
https://www.moyssi.com/intro.htm
Excerpts:
Please remember that I was studying at Stony Brook to be an engineer when I first met the Grateful Dead. If I recall the scene, the band roadies carried a case of theatrical breakaway bottles. They sat on the stage risers, eyeing the crew, and intimidated us by biting the tops off of their beer bottles. It was only later, when I was on the road that I realized how unreliable house crews at colleges tend to be. The first time that I lit this band, Pigpen wore a red, white and blue turban, blouse and pantaloons. What style!
and a related site: http://www.hotrails.co.uk/blueskybag/features/stonybrookforever.htm#top
My favorite fact is that we paid the Allman Brothers all of $300 for their first gig in our gym. It was a Thursday night with just ABB in 1970, followed by them opening for two shows with Mountain on Friday or Saturday. ABB did Stormy Monday, which Mountain also did as the headliner. After the early show, Leslie West wisely asked if he could open for ABB on the late show. What a friggin' wonderful show that turned out to be. They introduced Mountain Jam that night. (But I've done about 2,000 shows and mix up dates and bills and everybody's name, so take it for what it's worth.)
Many, most, maybe all of those shows were recorded with permission on an Ampex 300 or 301 from the sound mixer. Seth Dworkin was the mixer--a brainiac who went on to win a Grammy with the Grateful Dead and direct satellite operations for Wall Street Journal--kept all the original recordings (made on Scotch professional 1/4" tape supplied by me). He died of Crohn's disease summer a year ago, just after we got reacquainted and he verified that he still had all the tapes.
The Problem is that I can't figure out how to get in touch with the family and those tapes would need careful attention.
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: g-reg
That place was small even fo
..of course the Mountain Jam appears much earlier with Jerry peppering it in many times during the Alligator jam...and also on Anthem of the Sun..
That place was small even fo 1970 standard. Alot of great music went down in the Gym
..including some Jerry Band
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
Except:
Excerpt:
This website is dedicated on the 35th anniversary of John Scher’s Capitol Theatre (Passaic, NJ) to all the people who helped transform a half-hearted relic of the 1920s into what Billboard Magazine eventually described as “the No. 1 concert hall in the nation under 6,000 seats.”
If the theatre had defects such as its miniscule stage, the lack of a fly loft, and dressing rooms unfit for anyone other than mad dogs and Englishmen, it also had great qualities that included an unobstructed view of the stage from every seat, and a peerless acoustical environment due to 2-inches of painted acoustical padding on all the interior walls—and no balconies to interfere with the sound waves. Most importantly, the Capitol Theatre carried on a great tradition established by Bill Graham at the Fillmore East: the best bands, the best crews, and the best place to enjoy a great show.