smallest crowd at a show smallest crowd at a dead show

I sat on a sofa next to Stanley Jordan playing in a record store. That was cool.

For nationally known touring acts, it would have to be the Zen Tricksters at a bar in Hood River.  Probably 45 people in the bar total and of those, only about 15 were there for the band.   The band coped an attitude, which was disappointing.

James Montgomery Band at a bar in Waterbury, I'm thinkin 80's. Me my honey, a buddy and his date on a colder than a witches -15° nite,  went to the bar figuring he'd cancel. Nope. They played to us, 4 other locals, and the bartenders. 10 people total. It was great, the band put a nice jump to us, then joined us for breaks thanking us for just being there in a deep freeze,  joking and having a great nite. The band with him were all young kids who really had it but looked about 15.  When they 1st got onstage I hollered up ' do your parents know your out this late?' James laughed loudest, then they started and kicked our ass.  Love James

Smallest dead crowd was at the New Haven Colosseum late 70's. You were able to go hither and fro with hardly any ob stackles. Floor, anywhere, that was a fun time

Richie Havens at a bar in Stowe Vermont and the Dead at Patrick Gymnasium at University of Vermont. 

Phil in the bar with 15 people, mostly staff

Robert Fripp in the early 80's at a used record store in Bryn Mawr, Pa called Plastic Fantastic.

Great store with 2 locations, gave them a lot of business, one of the guys behind the counter who knew me and what I would buy gave me the tip.

Saw David Allen & Gong later that night downtown in a punk bar called the Hot Club.

Saw Jerry Band at Keystone Palo Alto in the early 80s with less than 50 people.  The advertisement in the Chronicle had the wrong week listed and I just happened to walk past venue that afternoon..  There was a line for the payphone with people calling friends to get to the show, which is funny to think about now.

Late 70s or very early 80s ,Badfinger in a bar. Maybe twenty people . It was kinda sad.

I googled it.

Posted by: gut ()

Date: October 6, 2005 20:06

Their downfall was tragic, espeically from the heights they had known once.

I remember them going to jail in Monroe, Louisiana in 1982 after they failed to pay a bill and were also busted for pot after a show at some small tick-tock inn club there. They claimed it was revenge from the club owner for not wanting to pay them for the gig. One of them stayed in jail for several days before someone bailed them out. It was recorded as a minor back-page story by the Associated Press during that time.

you have to wonder it that humiliation helped lead to Evans suicide a year later

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...<<<

https://iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,262076,263042

This a night or two later.

The Dinosaurs (John Cipollina, Robert Hunter, Peter Albin, Barry "The Fish" Melton and Spencer Dryden) at the Country Club, Reseda, Ca. March 25th 1983. Around  25 people there but it held 1000. Saw Jerry and Bobby and the Midnites there a bunch. The GD were in Tempe that night so I imagine that's the reason for nobody being there. Still have the stub.

I remember seeing Max Creek at a cheesy little bar in the Manchester, CT (if I recall correctly) in the mid-80s. Besides myself and the bartender, I think there were about a half a dozen others in attendance.

If you're ever in Ojai, CA, you should check out the Libbey Bowl. I've seen DSO play there a couple of times in the last few years. There's seating for just under a thousand and a little lawn area. Might be the kindest place to see a show I've ever been to.

Numerous record store gigs, always fun!

Smallest dead shows I saw were likely the Hult Center Shows in Eugene

Genesis at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood (a few hundred vs the stadiums they were touring at the time).

Several intimate backstage moments at the Oregon Country Fair after hours get togethers...   (Rob Barraco is an excellent guitar player, not just amazing on keys)

> The Dinosaurs

Saw them play The Catalyst in Santa Cruz the summer of 1986. There were probably a couple of hundred in attendance.

I saw the Steve Kimock Band play a tiny bar called The Edge in Santa Barbara in 2001. There were maybe 200 people there.

Hello mike dalton!

yes, Palo Alto my sweet home

i miss the Cincinnati oom Pah pah, Sophies and finally keystone Palo Alto 

(think it was an appliance store before that)

saw MANY amazing shows in that room - under all three iterations 

Monks Of Doom 2009 Brooklyn, NY.

1st shows in about 8 or 9 years. We drove up from atlanta.

1st nite/thurs.  about 15 people in the room

2nd nite/fri.   maybe 3 dozen.

Monks Of Doom again, last year at a very small club, 529 in east atlanta village, maybe a dozen folks. half of them/us had seen the previous 2 shows in Athens & Savannah. A few were going to see the whole (if short) tour ending in chicago the following friday.

Hey Jammin' Joel.  Hope you're doing well.

I missed Sophie's but KPA was great place.  Saw JGB, Reconstruction, Bobby & Midnites, Neil Young, NRBQ and a host of others.  Amazing line up of bands for that tiny place.  I think it's some kind of rental space now.  My daughter went to a bar mitzvah there a few years ago and of course I had to fill her in on stories from the 'good old days'

Also saw Jorma in Asbury Park around 79 where the place was plenty full when he started but only about 10 rows of people by the end at 2 AM or so.  I think that was the White Gland phase with Benny Boredom on bass and Happy Go Lucky Space Rats.

20 people for Mickey Hart Band in May 2000.

On Sunday, May 28th, I left Buckeye Lake after seeing Ratdog play at Hookahville to huge +20,000 crowds and on that sunday drove to Cinci to see Mickey Hart play at the Electra. Vince Welnick was in the band for this run. There were only about 20 people there. It was really weird. Vince kept drinking pepto bismol all night.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000510111626/http://dead.net/hotline_info/...

https://web.archive.org/web/20000510124440/http://www.gdtstoo.com/GDTSTO...

Kinda depressing after seeing Bob play an outstanding show

I saw Mickey play with Babatunde Olatunji at the Rubloff Auditorium in the Art Institute of Chicago back in the early 90s. There were probably less than a thousand people there, but there was nothing depressing about the show.

I saw Mickey and Planet Drum play on 7/31/1999 at a nearly sold out outdoors High Times festival and that show was one of the better ones I've seen, so I can understand that.

I've seen Dave Alvin, Alejandro Escovedo, Larry and Teresa,  The Bottle Rockets, Graham Parker and a few others at this place in Freehold NJ. Holds about 60 people. Great place.  Usually a potluck dinner and small party with the artists after the show.  

http://www.concertsinthestudio.com/

Grateful Dead nothing smaller than Hampton.  

Keith1 - the Freehold place; is that when Bruuuce invites you over?

Yonder Mountain String Band at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY (it was the day after the November 2015 CAP Run -- fewer than 50 people showed up -- fun night)

Mike no Bruce sightings in Freehold.  Was hoping he'd pop in for Garland Jeffries but no such luck. 

Did anyone say Grateful Garcia Gathering?

Last year at an awesome, tiny little jazz venue/art gallery around the corner from the Warfield I saw Henry Kaiser play with Alvaro Domene, a brilliant Spanish guitar player. Counting me there were five of us in the audience. The room holds fifty tops, but still, five of us.

The show was great.

If we're talking  about the Grateful Dead, the Warfield is the smallest place I saw them play.

I would imagine under the name Grateful Dead the smallest shows they may have played could have been at the Matrix on Fillmore Street. That place was small, maybe held 100 max.

I'm sure there were other no-name little places they played in '65/'66, but the Matrix was SMALL.

Other than at a bar, or small club?

Hot Tuna in Toms River NJ 2014.  They played a small arena on a high school campus. Might have been 100 people there. I sat stage right, 2nd row, had my feet up on chairs in the empty first  row. I even angled my seat so I was facing center stage 

Phish 6.26.94 Municipal Aud. Charleston West Virginia. 

Only a couple hundred people there. Trey called it "The snooze you lose show" 

Played Gamehendge and Hoist.

Saw Stacy Starkweather and Jaime Masefield in a small Thai restaurant in Burlington. Sunday afternoon lunch crowd,  not big.

Lance - where you at the San Mateo Fairgrounds show with Joan Baez?  I think that room was around 2,000 so probably my smallest GD venue

I was there Mike, and that one crossed my mind, but I was right in front of the stage that night. With the stage set up on the side instead of at one end of the long hall it was a crush scene at the front so my recollections of that show are that is was huge & packed.

That's one reason why I'm not always a fan of being right up front at a GA show; you don't get a sense of the whole room.

Does that seem odd?

I would think you had a great 360 view since you'd be able to see over everyone's head!  Honestly I wrote that it was 2000 people because I saw that in the post on Lost Live Dead.  The chances of me remembering a one off venue from almost 40 years ago isn't very high.

◇

And there ya go. Fading memories and all.

Solo Jorma show early 80s at a bar in Kent Ohio, at Ray's or The Loft 50-100 people. I remember he had the little Galian Krueger amp. 

Jorma at Eric Schoenberg Guitars in Tiburon, CA., 2005.

I think there were less than 50 people.

After he was done I went to the counter to have my parking validated and Jorma

was sitting there and grins and says "Man this is such a great place, you even get validated parking!"

I said yes it's a nice little perk to offer, and thanks for playing here man, it was really cool.

He laughed and thanked me.

Fun night.

Grateful Dead -  Beacon Theatre -   2,894. I thought it might be Berkeley Community Thr but that's 3,500

Here's an interesting list I found online of all venues and their capacity 1976-80:

http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2016/08/grateful-dead-venue-size-1976-197...

On the Fallout From the Phil Zone CD, Phil included a 31:49 (minute: second) Midnight Hour from the Russian River Resort Ballroom in Rio Nido, Ca on 9/3/67.  

In his discussion of the song Phil says: "I don't think there were more then 25 people there, but we played our little hearts out for them, anyway."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRqv2-47dDM

http://uglyradiorebellion.com/about-us/

I found out about this show at the last minute.

Ugly Radio Rebellion did a local music store showcase and announced a show that night in town (Columbus).
Ike was sitting at the bar when I arrived with the Thing-Fish libretto in hand.

Ike was happy to sign and we shared a couple laughs before the band went on.

12 people total in the bar that night. The band, the bartender, and half a dozen lucky folks!

Grateful Dead - Hampton Coliseum  '87 and '88.

Good times at shows together returning soon to a venue near you!

Thunder & Lightning @ The Ranch... a crowd of 3. They made fun of us then said they'll be back in two weeks and we need you to bring your friends! We did and it was full-house. 

I've seen Dave Alvin, Alejandro Escovedo, Larry and Teresa,  The Bottle Rockets, Graham Parker and a few others at this place in Freehold NJ. Holds about 60 people. Great place.  Usually a potluck dinner and small party with the artists after the show.  

http://www.concertsinthestudio.com/

I saw Slaid Cleaves there. The house concert market is pretty strong in NJ. I've attended at least 40 or so shows at them; including some of the above names as well as Jesse Malin, Willie Nile, James Maddock, Tommy Stinson, Manitoba and a host that I can't recall. The pot lucks at these things rock. Some of the attendees could open up their own eateries. 

Dead at Patrick Gymnasium at University of Vermont. 

Probably the same here. 

Since "Bruce" was mentioned above, I will add the special Holiday show inside the carousel room at Asbury Park's Casino. It was less than 100 people in there, including production staff. 

Steve Forbert for a Sunday brunch  at some restaurant in Aptos or Soquel late nineties 20 people

Kimock at Tipitina's in Nola. During Jazzfest with a 2:30am start he didn't draw more than 30 folks. Having dance space at Tips is a good thing. No lines at the bar that night either.

>>>>Cameron Indoor Stadium - September 23, 1976             3,000

Holds more than that!

This one is borderline, but I'm counting it since in effect it was "a show".

In 2012 Neil Young & Crazy Horse rented Shoreline for a few nights to rehearse for their upcoming tour. The last two nights were dress rehearsals with full lights & sound and their full show from start to finish, no stops, no re-do's.

One of those nights I just happened to be able to get in the venue. I sat in the very last seat in the very last row of an otherwise completely empty 22,000 amphitheatre. I was the only one in the place other than the people at the mixer.

They rocked for two hours.

That show got 100% positive reviews from the audience in the house that night!

Innie