I started compiling lists of Grateful Dead shows in the early 1980s, soon after receiving the “Janet Soto” list. My Comfort list mostly comes from contemporary copies of BAM and Relix Magazines, as well as a few circulating flyers. In the 1990s, someone named Doug Aldridge was working on a complete Hunter performing history, but his work seems no longer to be online (although some parts of it are accessible at Setlists.com).
Since there was no Internet or anything when I compiled this, I had no way of checking on late additions, cancellations or much of anything. There were considerably more dates, particularly around the Bay Area. Any updates, insights or corrections are welcome (note: dates added to the original post are shown as added).
ROBERT HUNTER AND COMFORT 1977-78
Robert Hunter-vocals, guitar
Kevin Morgenstern-lead guitar
Rodney Albin-violin, mandolin
Richard McNees-keyboards
>Ozzie Allers joins in February 1978, replacing McNees
Larry Klein-six string bass
Pat Lorenzano-drums
Marlene Molle-vocals
Kathleen Klein-vocals
Larry Klein, the bassist, was from Seattle, and I do not believe he is the same as the bassist Larry Klein who played on Joni Mitchell’s albums.
May 12, 1977 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
A setlist exists, which is my only source for the date.
July 29-30, 1977 Shady Grove, San Francisco, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
August 11, 1977 Shady Grove, San Francisco, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
August 25-26, 1977 Shady Grove, San Francisco, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
September 21, 1977 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort [added]
October 20-22, 1977 The Troubadour, Santa Monica, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
Possibly moved to November [added: see Comments]
[update] The former soundman confirmed the October date. He recalls that
the show at the Troubadour was definitely that night in October because it was the night of the Lynnyrd Skynnard plane crash. the other band (who was supposed to open the show) was from macon, georgia (who knows who they were?) and so we swapped and did a short set - the idea was to do a showcase for label executives, but no one showed up - and then the macon band did a really, really long tribute set.October 23, 1977 Fubar, Santa Barbara, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort [added]
October 26-27, 1977 Rancho Nicasio, Nicasio, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort [added]
October 28, 1977 Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
"Hooker's Ball" Robert Hunter and Comfort/others [added]
November 10, 1977 Crossroads Inn, Santa Cruz, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort [added]
A poster turned up on the Grateful Dead Archive.
December 4, 1977 Uncle Charlie’s, Corte Madera, CA Free Clinic Benefit
Robert Hunter and Comfort
December 5, 1977 Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
Live broadcast on KFAT-fm (Gilroy, CA). There is an excellent 18-minute version of the Alligator Moon Suite, mixed by Bob and Betty in the truck. I discuss the entire show at length elsewhere.
December 16-17, 1977 Crossroads Inn, Santa Cruz, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
The Crossroads was at the Old Sash Mill complex, where Highway 1, Highway 17 and River Street converge.
December 19-20, 1977 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
December 22-23, 1977 Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
February 7-8, 1978 Shady Grove, San Francisco, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
Richard McNees left the band at the end of December, and was replaced by Ozzie Ahlers.
February 18, 1978 Marin Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, CA
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
February 19, 1978 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
March 4, 1978 Rio Theater, Rodeo, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort/Peter Rowan
March 6-7, 1978 Shady Grove, San Francisco, CA Robert Hunter and Comfort
March 9-10, 1978 My Father’s Place, Roslyn, NY
Robert Hunter and Comfort
There were early and late shows each night. Each show had two sets, a solo acoustic set by Hunter and a full electric set with Hunter backed by Comfort. Some of the second night (March 10) was broadcast on WLIR-fm (Hempstead, NY). Setlists are available for all sets.
The soundman recalls:
my fondest memory is of the shows at my father's place. I had spent a lot of time there during high school and half of comfort were from upstate new york, so all the parents' showed up. my mother got very stoned from all the people passing her joints in the audience.
March 12, 1978 Suffolk Forum, Commack, NY
Jerry Garcia Band/New Riders of The Purple Sage/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
March 14, 1978 Music Hall, Boston, MA
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
March 16, 1978 The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
March 17, 1978 Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ (early and late show)
Jerry Garcia Band/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
March 18, 1978 Warner Theater, Washington, DC (early and late show)
Jerry Garcia Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort
UPDATE: A tape of a Comfort set from an WHFS-fm broadcast has surfaced. I assume that the Comfort set was broadcast along with the JGB show. It does beg the very interesting question of who paid for it (for a band to play live on commercial FM radio, the record company had to pick up the lost advertising costs). I assume Arista did it as a favor to Garcia, but that raises a host of interesting issues in its own right, such as whether Arista was considering releasing the Alligator Moon album.
March 19, 1978 Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
Jerry Garcia Band/ (Robert Hunter and Comfort)
UPDATE: A commenter says that while the Jerry Garcia Band played this night, Hunter and Comfort did not.
 |
| A long unseen poster for the March 22, 1978 concert at Sebastopol Veterans Hall (thanks JGMF) |
Jerry Garcia Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort [added]
For more about the Sebastopol concert, see here. Ozzie Ahlers may have done double duty, and played with the Jerry Garcia Band on an emergency basis.
April 15, 1978 Knightsbridge, San Rafael, CA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 4, 1978 Bailey Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Robert Palmer/Robert Hunter and Comfort
Thanks to a Commenter for this. Confirmed by an interesting link to Cornell rock events. There is a chance that this show replaced New Paltz (and may have been May 8).
May 7, 1978 SUNY Albany, Albany, NY (afternoon show)
Bonnie Raitt/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
(update) In the Comments, the former Comfort soundman recalls that this was an outdoor show at SUNY Albany.
May 7, 1978 Memorial Auditorium, Utica, NY (evening show)
Robert Palmer/ Robert Hunter and Comfort
(update) The soundman recalls that Robert Palmer headlined. The New Riders were apparently scheduled originally as the headliners, but somehow got replaced.
May 8, 1978 SUNY, New Paltz, NY
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 9, 1978 Paradise Club, Boston, MA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 11-12-13, 1978 The Other End, New York, NY
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 14-15-16, 1978 The Cellar Door, Washington, DC
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 19-20, 1978 Main Point, Ardmore, PA
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 21 and 23, 1978 Player’s Tavern, Westport, CT
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 24, 1978 Hard Rock Café, Hartford, CT
Robert Hunter and Comfort
May 26-27-28, 1978 My Father’s Place, Roslyn, NY
Robert Hunter and Comfort
Comfort stopped touring at this point. Hunter continued to tour, with bassist Larry Klein, and some excellent tapes of the duo’s performances endure, but that is a different post. Comfort did reform for the Rodney Albin Memorial (Wolfgang’s, San Francisco August 28, 1984) but Hunter did not perform with them. There was also a 1988 reunion show at The Shady Grove, which did include Hunter.
No Hunter & Comfort show on March 19, 1978, only the Jerry Garcia Band. Great blog. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI was nosing around, and finally discovered Doug Aldridge's 70s Hunter set lists (and the rest of them) in a different location. Here they are
ReplyDeletehttp://www.darkstarcrashes.com/hunter/1970s.html
Well worth a look, as it includes set lists as well as concert dates.
Corry
I'd say that Ozzie Ahlers was added in late January. David Gans's "Dead Ahead" column in BAM magazine (#27, February 1978, p. 72) notes that Ahlers was added. The rest of the column reports on stuff from January/early Feb, including the planned JGB/Comfort dates on 2/18 and 2/19.
ReplyDeleteI found another Comfort date: September 21, 1977 at Keystone Berkeley.
ReplyDeleteCorry
Hunter has confirmed that Ozzie Ahlers did replace Richard McNees on keyboards, but he doesn't remember the date.
ReplyDeleteCorry - You can add a March 22, 1978 show with the Jerry Garcia Band to the lists of Robert Hunter and Comfort shows. I can only confirm this as I saw a poster for the event at Sebastopol Veterans Memorial Hall whilst browsing the goodies at the TRPS event in San Francisco today. Ross
ReplyDeleteLarry Klein was not from Seattle (although I read on the internet several years ago that he was living in Washington or Oregon, and played in a band called Tiny Giants or something like that). Larry moved to SF around 1970 from barely-upstate NY - Rockland County or possibly Westchester. It's my understanding that Kathleen Klein (who was Larry's wife at the time, and I've also seen her listed under her maiden name, Kathleen McSomething I think) sang with Comfort regularly, rather than sporadically. She was definitely a member of Comfort before Hunter started playing with them, as well as afterward.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this Larry Klein definitely isn't the one who was in Joni Mitchell's band. In the second half of 1980 he was playing mainly in local bands in the Marin area. He also toured once in a while semi-locally (Humboldt area) with another band. Previously - up until a very short time before Keith died - Larry had been in Keith & Donna's post-GD band, the Ghosts. I forget who all was in that band. Greg Anton and Bill Middlejohn, Larry, Keith & Donna, and I believe some others. (It's probably googleable - sometime in the early 80's, Relix Records released an album by that band, with members varying from song to song. On the album, the name of the band had been changed from the Ghosts to the Heart of Gold Band, and I have seen Donna refer to it as the HofG Band in an interview online somewhere, too.)
Interesting blog!
Thanks for the clarification. I don't know where I got the idea that Larry Klein was from Seattle--I think it was to distinguish him from the "other" Larry Klein.
ReplyDeleteI'm always careful about assuming relationships for people with the same last name, so its good to have Kathleen Klein clarified too. Since Marlene Molle married Rodney Albin, it sounds like a tight-knit little ensemble.
I discovered this spring that a cut and incomplete version of the late set of 3-10-78 circulates as 3-4-78, My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY. Obviously wrong by the date alone, but I spent an hour or so comparing the two, and the "3-4-78", such as it is, is identical to the 3-10-78.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog--very informative.
Here are a few more. These are all listed in David Gans's "Dead Ahead" column, BAM no 23 (October 1977), p. 67. I obviously can't say whether they happened.
ReplyDeleteOctober 20-22, 1977: Troubadour, LA ("might be moved to early November")
October 23, 1977: Fubar (?), Santa Barbara
October 26-27, 1977: Rancho Nicasio
October 28, 1977: Fourth Annual Hookers Ball, SF Civic
The September 21, 1977 date may be Keystone Korner in SF (the jazz club), not Keystone Berkeley.
ReplyDeleteNot sure where to put this info so here it is:
ReplyDeleteI have a copy of The Ghosts, 8/7/80, it's an audience recording from someone named Levene. John Cippolina plays on it.
There is a circulating tape dated 12/6/77 Keystone, FM broadcast, Bob-n-Betty in the truck, Alligator Moon.
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance this might be right? I don't have a Keystone listing for 12/6/77. Odds are obviously that this is a mislabel of your listing.
One interesting note: between Alligator Moon and Promontory Rider, Hunter invites any Cubberly alums of 1959 (he then says 1958) to come on by, because they'll be playing another set. Not sure where "there" is. Maybe an after-party at the Keystone Palo Alto?
The tape circulating as 12/6/77, per your description, has to be the Dec 5 '77 show from Keystone Palo Alto, broadcast on KFAT-fm out of Gilroy. Hunter is encouraging people to come down to Keystone PA for the second set.
ReplyDeleteI say more about it here: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/10/december-5-1977-keystone-palo-alto-palo.html
Tiny little thing, but David Gans's August 1977 "Dead Ahead" column in BAM has a few lines on the Hunter/Comfort 7/29-30/77 gig at Shady Grove, and I think specifically 7/29.
ReplyDeleteGans, David. 1977c. Dead Ahead: Hunter’s New Band/Garcia Live. BAM (August): 52.
3/22/78-my notes say Ozzie Ahlers filled in for Keith Godchaux on this date, sorry to say I don't know where that comes from.
ReplyDeleteI was at Robert Hunter and Larry Klein gig at Shady Grove, I think it was in 1977 and also the 12/5/77 Keystone Palo Alto show.
ReplyDeleteA tape of a Comfort set from an WHFS-fm broadcast has surfaced. I assume that the Comfort set was broadcast along with the JGB show. It does beg the very interesting question of who paid for it (for a band to play live on commercial FM radio, the record company had to pick up the lost advertising costs). I assume Arista did it as a favor to Garcia, but that raises a host of interesting issues in its own right, such as whether Arista was considering releasing the Alligator Moon album.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't be the first time Clive Davis would have thrown some money toward Friends of Jerry.
DeleteAnd here's a cite for that idea:
DeleteArnold, Corry. 2011. Grateful Dead Solo Album Contracts, 1970-73. Lost Live Dead, January 15, 2011, URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/grateful-dead-solo-album-contracts-1970.html, consulted 1/24/2014.
ha ha indeed. The WHFS show is pretty convincing evidence. I guess after CUTS (or Cats) stiffed, there was less enthusiasm for Alligator Moon.
DeleteOzzie Ahlers has confirmed to me that he sat in for Keith on 3/22/78.
ReplyDeleteI have a post about this subject: http://hooterollin.blogspot.com/2013/07/march-22-1978-veterans-hall-sebastopol.html
DeleteThe big question is not whether Ozzie subbed in on occasion--he clearly did--but what was the date? It may have been Rohnert Park Oct 5 '78. In the Feinberg interview, Ozzie recalled playing Sebastopol, which pointed to Mar 22 '78. However, while Comfort opened the show, and Ozzie was clearly there, he may be conflating the show.
thanks for the memories. just stumbled on this. I was hunter's sound man from the fall of 76 to the end of 78. I was working all those shows.
ReplyDeletedoctor, welcome aboard. If you recall anything interesting, or recognize any mistakes, let me know (in comments or email at corrarnold at gmail dot com) and I will update the post.
Deletewell, a long time has passed.
ReplyDelete1. larry klein of comfort is definitely NOT larry klein who played with joni mitchell.
2. the albany show was not at a theater. it was outdoors at suny albany if memory serves, but it was definitely outdoors. (somewhere I have a picture of me & owsley at that show).
3. my fondest memory is of the shows at my father's place. I had spent a lot of time there during high school and half of comfort were from upstate new york, so all the parents' showed up. my mother got very stoned from all the people passing her joints in the audience.
4. the utica show was not with new riders. I think it was supposed to be, but we wound up opening for Robert Palmer (addicted to love) - a very strange show. what I do remember for sure was ordering a pizza in the hotel room and it came without sauce, because apparently you have to tell them to add sauce when ordering a pizza in utica.
Your story about asking for pizza sauce in Utica sounds completely nuts, except for the fact that it's probably true. In Central New York (Utica/Rome area) there is "white pizza" (without sauce) and it is not taken as a given that pizza has tomato sauce. It's a strange town.
DeleteI remember the albany show outdoors. Bonnie Raitt played too, such a FUN time!
DeleteI saw that Albany show and shook Hunter's hand! Fun stuff but hard to miss the Dead 8 miles away at RPI.
Delete5. also the show at the Troubadour was definitely that night in October because it was the night of the Lynnyrd Skynnard plane crash. the other band (who was supposed to open the show) was from macon, georgia (who knows who they were?) and so we swapped and did a short set - the idea was to do a showcase for label executives, but no one showed up - and then the macon band did a really, really long tribute set.
ReplyDeletep.s. the reason I was digging around and found your site was because Marlene Molle passed away this morning and I was just searching for her voice from back then on the interwebs. it's been 30 years since I'd last seen her.
ReplyDeletedoctor, thanks so much for all these details.
ReplyDeleteAs a reader, I also want to thank the good doctor for the details. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteIn Robert Hunter's interview with the UK magazine Dark Star (Dec 1980), after going into details about playing with Roadhog and the Barry Melton Band, Hunter talks a bit about the Alligator Moon album, saying he decided not to put it out because it put Barry Melton to sleep!
ReplyDelete"I think I will release it at some point. I've got it tied up with terrible vocals right now. People are on about why don't I put some decent vocals on the thing? Maybe I could recoup some of the losses on that, I don't know. Christie was in it, we did ballet with it, fully choreographed. We did 'The Hooker's Ball' and the whole 'Alligator Moon' suite with the ballet. It was quite impressive! I hear there are videotapes of it somewhere, but I have to get a hold of them. We did it down at Santa Cruz Auditorium with the Jerry Garcia Band. We also did it at Marin Civic Center and Ranch Nicasio. I guess we played it four times. That was some production. I had thirteen people in my crew, plus the three ballerinas."
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ReplyDeleteCross-posting this from over on the Roadhog post. Just seeing if anyone else remembers this - I'm certain I didn't imagine it, and the date seems pretty tightly constrained by the tenure of the band and by my student days:
ReplyDeleteWhile it is not on your list, I do have a distinct memory of Hunter and Comfort playing another Beta Nooner at Stanford when I was a student there. It must have been in Spring 1978 if they disbanded later that year....
Fred, this seems pretty logical to me. Beta House had the phone number, Hunter and Albin probably remembered the gig. That's how bookings happen for local bands.
DeleteI hope someone remembers with some additional details (you know how memories can be...)
I saw Robert Hunter w Comfort open for Robert Palmer at Bailey Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, on or about 04 May 1978.
ReplyDeletehttp://orgsync.rso.cornell.edu/org/ccc/pastevents5 confirms the existence of a Cornell Hunter / Palmer show May 1978.
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DeleteThanks, "Lost Live Dead", for adding the Cornell show to your list. I wish I could be more certain about the exact date. I have a nagging suspicion that the 08 May "New Paltz" was cancelled at the last minute (after the tour was publicized), and Cornell was added in its place. Except for the link I cited above, Cornell Concert Commission and the Cornell Daily Sun have yet to help clarify this.
DeleteFixed, thanks.
DeleteI was at the May 7, 1978 show in Albany. It was an outdoors show, at SUNY, and Robert Hunter and Comfort played in the afternoon. I remember how UNimpressed I was with the overall level of musicianship from the band; Rodney Albin and Larry Klein were the only players of any note. Ozzie Ahlers appeared sometime in 1980 w Jerry Garcia and Johnny D'Fonseca at the Palace Theater in Albany, and Robert Hunter played a duo show, w Larry Klein, at J B Scott's in 1979. No, I don't remember exact dates, but I do remember thinking the duo show was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteLarry Klein is quite well and living in Mcleary Washington. Lkleinever@aol.com.
DeleteI agree on Comfort but Bonnie was great! I also saw that duo show in Syracuse that year which was cool.
DeleteI was at the May 7, 1978 show in Albany. It was an outdoors show, at SUNY, and Robert Hunter and Comfort played in the afternoon. I remember how UNimpressed I was with the overall level of musicianship from the band; Rodney Albin and Larry Klein were the only players of any note. Ozzie Ahlers appeared sometime in 1980 w Jerry Garcia and Johnny D'Fonseca at the Palace Theater in Albany, and Robert Hunter played a duo show, w Larry Klein, at J B Scott's in 1979. No, I don't remember exact dates, but I do remember thinking the duo show was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI attended the show at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hartford, CT, intending to review the show for the Hartford Advocate, for whom I was free-lancing at the time. Hunter and Comfort played two sets, and I used my press pass to speak with Hunter backstage between sets. He came off, frankly, as bitter and arrogant. "Why don't you go interview Kevin for a change?" His reason for playing out after having spent so many years in the shadows of the Dead: "I was broke." I found the music so barely competent, that I didn't have the heart to write a bad review, and so I just pretended I never went.
ReplyDelete12/1/77 Shady Grove Sarah Baker Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort
ReplyDelete1/23-24/78 Shady Grove Robert Hunter and Comfort / New Harvest Moon Band
ReplyDelete6/23/78 Robert Hunter and Comfort billed for a benefit for KRAB-FM at the HUB, University of Washington, Seattle.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have a copy of 3-10-78? I can’t find it anywhere.
ReplyDelete6/26/77 Shady Grove
ReplyDeletethey also apparently played the Whole Earth Festival, I believe at UC Davis in 1978, per video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1I2H7NYOb0
ReplyDeleteThe June 23, 1978 KRAB Benefit concert has been digitized, and can now be heard in the KRAB archive and in the Internet Archive's Robert Hunter collection.
ReplyDeleteFound a ad for Shady Grove (SFexaminer-24apr77)
ReplyDeleteApril 25-26, 1977 Shady Grove SF CA Comfort w/Rodney Albin(roadhog)
Wow From The Herald Statesman (24sept78)
ReplyDeleteOctober 13-14 1978 My Fathers Place Roslyn NY Comfort with Robert Hunter
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75577310/robert-hunter-comfort-1013-141978/
Also same listing in The Morning Call (16 sept 78)
DeleteI need to track down the actual ads from the voice. I think I remember the ad starting as comfortw/hunter but ended up dropping the Comfort part just before the show dates.
DeleteLong ago and far away.... 1975-1977, I was living in Santa Cruz, hanging out at UCSC. First as a friend of some students, and then as a student myself. I had a Deadhead friend who had taken some excellent photos of the band, and he taught me how to use a darkroom to develop B&W film and then make prints. Capable and nice guy. He had also collected the gear to put on a good, old-fashioned light show - overhead projectors with colored swirling oils, etc.
ReplyDeleteOne day he invited me to help him do a little light show for a Robert Hunter gig at a small club on Haight Street. Maybe Shady Grove. We drove up and set up on a tiny stage. RH arrived, and I had a quick, friendly encounter with the man of mystery and myth. But the coolest encounter was with Rodney Albin. As I remember, he wasn't playing that night. But he loved seeing the gear, which was already a relic. He said he had something to add, and disappeared for 20 minutes. When he came back, he had a cool little wooden box with him. In it was mounted a tiny speaker, like from car audio. In front of the cone was a thin rubber membrane stretched at a 45 degree angle on which was glued a mirror. There was a second part, a focused light (maybe an early laser?) that you could train on the mirror. When the speaker was plugged into the sound-board and the light turned on, it would make a spot of light dance on the ceiling to the beat of the music. Simple. Psychedelic. He seemed delighted to be able to dust it off for us that night!