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In reply to the discussion: What is the average age group of posters on this forum? [View all]DFW
(54,378 posts)As a local obscure band, we never got name billing, of course.
The story of how we got the gig at all is a typical sixties story. The guy who did their sound system was the son of a friend of my mom's. He also had built a few things for my band as well. One day we were out at his place, and he was driving us back to my house in Virginia (I wasn't even 16 yet!), and he asked if we were in a hurry. We said no, we weren't. He said he needed to do a sound check at the Ambassador before their show that night. It was just me, the drummer and the lead guitarist, and it was about 1 in the afternoon. He warned us it would be better if we brought our equipment inside with him, as the Ambassador was a raunchy part of town. So we did. He told us to set up and play a few things so he could get his sound check right. We said "SURE!!" Hey we could tell people we had played at the Ambassador! This was like having a high school band in San Francisco and being able to say you played at the Fillmore!
Anyway, we set up in the big empty theater, and he turned on the sound system. Of course, we sounded our best with that kind of hall and acoustics. I was on organ and bass organ (same set-up as Ray Manzarek of the Doors), and there was our lead guitarist and drummer. After a few numbers, this guy materializes and asks who we are. We said we were friends of Van (the sound engineer), helping him set up for that night, and who was he? "He" turned out to be Court Rodgers, and he was the owner of the place.
OOPS. We started apologizing for the "noise" and said we were only there helping Van out, didn't mean to disturb anyone. He said, no, no, it was alright, and by the way, were we by any chance free that night? WERE WE?! As of that second, we sure as hell were free. We spent the afternoon calling ALL our friends, and had a decent turnout. We played four weekends there. The place was already financially shaky, and closed soon after, but we DID get to play The Ambassador, quite a feather in the cap of any local DC band that was more into progressive rock than top 40.