live! from new orleans...

during our trip home last month s.a. and i sat with my dear friend, the reverend mr. freeze, and reminisced about the good old days for a few hours or so. s.a. just sat and giggled as we dredged thru our collective memories of all the shit that happened at concerts we had attended (if i had told her alone she'd would have thought me making it all up). she found it all very amusing and quite unbelivable, even tho i have played numerous shows for her claiming i was there. she still seems a little skeptical, but more willing to accept it as truth now that it has been corroborated. also, i may have mentioned it in here once or twice the fact that we attended nearly every concert in the greater new orleans area from 1970 until... well, until it all seemed to peter out.

almost all of those shows are preserved on tape. mr freeze would get his trusty sony recorder in concerts everytime, usually by using subversive and underhanded means (well he didn't get away with it everytime, he did get caught once or twice, but somehow still got a tape of the show. he is amazing like that). his list of live recordings is unbelievable and every now and then he surprises me with a copy of a show we went to that i forgot all about, but there i am, all over the tape, yelling and being a rock-n-roll fool... ahhh, those were the days.

a few shows were truly historical. the sex pistols next-to-last gasp on jan 8, '78 in baton rouge was one of those unforgettable events (documented here in the w'room awhile back) as was the wailers show at a warehouse a few months later (disscused here). to hear this stuff all these years later just brings back a rush of memories and goose bumps, just knowing that i was there while all this was happening.

back then it seemed every band, big and small, came thru the easy. new orleans was the one city most of them claimed they loved to play. the place most cited was a warehouse on tchoupitoulas st. it was a real warehouse, a huge rickety old building with a leaky roof, no air and just nasty enough to make ya wanna go back next week to catch a low priced rock and roll show. it was always too hot in summer and too cold in the winter, but man did that place rock.

the crowds were always loud, boisterous, and usually all drunk and hopped up on something or another, as they were in almost every other venue in the city like the municipal auditorium, the dome or any club (tho the pistols show was the most outrageous concert ever, and that was in baton rouge). it certainly was a blast then. i can't see that scene ever happening again, anywhere... ever again. it's a whole new world now, and never as much fun as it was tho. but i still have the shows to listen to...


...i know i promised the reverend i wouldn't let these shows go as a whole, but i can't help using pieces, some of this is just too good not to share. so here is a taste of just a few of the concerts i was fortunate to see (if ya listen close i am the one with the biggest mouth, mr. freeze is on the whistle), in mp3 for a limited time via yousendit:

the new york dolls at independence hall, baton rouge, march 1974:
trash
the new york dolls at ballin' jax, new orleans, march 12, 1976 (1st set):
personality crisis/looking for a kiss

the kinks at tulane university, new orleans, feb 20, 1976:
alcohol
lola

the sex pistols at the kingfish, baton rouge, jan 8, 1978:
god save the queen
anarchy in the u.k.

bob marley and the wailers at a warehouse, new orleans, may 7, 1978:
kaya
get up stand up
lively up yourself

the ramones at old man rivers, new orleans, jan 14,1979:
blitzkrieg bop
surfin' bird
do ya wanna dance