Fillmore East in NYC, 1970.
My brother-in-law used to be a roadie for them, and he confirmed that they were not always good live by any means. I've heard that the Byrds were inconsistent, too.
The one live gig I missed and really wanted to hear was lost forever by accident back in 1968 or 1969. A friend of mine had done the sound for the Ambassador Theater in Washington, D.C., which was D.C.'s short-lived version of the Fillmores. My band actually had the honor of playing there four times. We backed up Canned Heat (original line-up), Junior Wells, the Youngbloods and were in one gig with all local bands. My friend had to do a sound check one time when we were all in his van with our stuff, and he asked us to bring it in and play so he could do a more accurate sound check. So there we were on a Saturday afternoon actually playing at the Ambassador theater. Something to tell our grandchildren, we thought. Then some guy came down out of nowhere and asked who we were. We said we were called the Clockwork Orange (3 years BEFORE the film came out, remember, so no one knew what our name referred to), and who was he? He said, "I own this place." OOPS!! We said we were very sorry for the noise, and that we were just helping out for a sound check. He said, no, it's fine, and by the way what were we doing that night? Well, as of that second, NOTHING!!
Anyway, this guy also did the sound for other live gigs around D.C., and he had recorded a concert by Spirit in northern Virginia. I heard about ten minutes of it, and he has promised to play it for me some day when he had time. He never did, and when I met up with him again about 10 years ago, he said he had lost the recording. I made a noise very similar to the one Charlie Brown supposedly makes every fall when Lucy pulls the football away before he can kick it.
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