04-20-1969
Clark University
Worcester, Massachusetts
This show is another sweet example of how awesome the Dead were, day in and day out, in 1969. The Dark Star here goes down several different paths, each one more compelling than the last. The Death Don’t Have No Mercy is exceptional as well, with some delightfully restrained playing that creates an achingly intense experience. And, the Lovelight is, well, another tremendous ’69 Lovelight.
Clark’s Atwood Hall is an academic building with a 640-seat student theater inside. Over the years, it hosted some amazing concerts as the student activities board would get bands who were already playing Boston to schedule a night at Clark, under an hour to the west. As someone reports on Archive, not only did the Dead play there in the late 60s, but so did Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry, the Chambers Brothers, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Ten Years After, and a host of other bands.
A couple folks on Archive contend that this was actually the second show the Dead played at Clark. The first supposedly came about a year earlier. As one of these commenters, a former Clark student, explains,
The Dead made their first appearance at Atwood Hall in late ’67 or early ’68. They performed a lot of material from Anthem although it had not been released yet. I was sitting near the center aisle when all of I sudden, maybe 40 minutes into the set, Paul MacGalliard goes running down the aisle towards the stage. That’s funny, I thought. I wasn’t used to seeing Paul, a man of significant size, move so fast. I was working with the theater group, learning stage lighting, and Paul, who was a year or two ahead of me, tolerated me and taught me the ropes. Suddenly I realized that all of the little red lights on the guitar amps had gone out. The Dead had blown out the power, but I was so entranced, I didn’t even notice. The stage lights were still on, they were on a different circuit. The band members all picked up percussion instruments and just kept playing. (Maybe this was not the first time this had happened). They kept jamming until Paul threw the breakers and the power came back. The Dead played a while longer until the circuits heated up and they blew the power again. It was no use, they excused themselves, and promised to come back, which they did in April of 1969. We had new power lines in Atwood, installed especially for them.
In support of the earlier Clark show, someone points out that you can hear Jerry saying in the initial tuning that “Last time we were here, it was a colossal disaster…this time it will be worse!”
Regardless, the Dead’s show here in April was originally scheduled for the 19th. However, the equipment did not arrive on time, leading them to push back the date from Saturday to Sunday night, allowing for another 4/20 show.
On this night the Dead shared the bill with Roland Kirk. Rumor has it that Kirk insisted on getting top billing – playing last – by bringing a gun to the negotiations with the Dead.
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