Not surprisingly, Chicago had a huge rock market, but various efforts to establish a Fillmore type venue were not successful. One such effort was The Syndrome. The site of The Syndrome was actually the Chicago Coliseum on Wabash Avenue (between 14th and 16th Streets). The Coliseum, actually the second building with that name, was built in 1899 and mostly housed sports teams, including the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL 1926-29), Roller Derby and the Chicago Packers (NBA 1962-63, they moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets). Starting in the late 1960s, it was used periodically for rock concerts. The capacity of the room for basketball was about 7,000. I do not know the rock concert capacity, but I have been told that Chicago promoters had a tendency to pack in as many people as humanly possible, since any fire or other building codes that were being violated could be overlooked for a modest consideration.
The venue had been used for rock concerts under the name Chicago Coliseum in the 1960s, generally for acts too large to play the Kinetic Playground or Auditorium Theater, Chicago's main rock venues. Cream played there on October 13, 1968, and Jimi Hendrix Experience played there on December 1, 1968. The venue became known as The Syndrome sometime in 1970. The promoters seem to have been The 22nd Century, and put on shows at both the Syndrome and the smaller, seated Auditorium Theater. The Dead played there on Friday, November 27, 1970. Since The Syndrome probably held at least 7,000, it was considerably larger than the usual venues that the Dead played in during the early 1970s.
Things must have gone well enough to be re-booked, but The Syndrome closed in early March. The building remained largely unused afterwards, and was torn down in 1982. Coliseum Park, at 1400 Wabash, stands on the site today.
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I understand that whilst the city had closed the venue after papers were served on March 9, agreement was reached to allow the scheduled performance of Carole King and James Taylor (on March 12) to go ahead, but that was the last performance. My brief notes against this show state that the venue was at one time once as the Avalon Ballroom - but I have no recollection of how I picked that up.
ReplyDeleteHistorian Jim Hofman explains the events leading to the closure: March 8th, was the Ali-Frazier heavyweight championship fight in NY, which was televised via closed circuit television in the Chicago Coliseum. The closed circuit picture went out in the 3rd round and the technical people were unable to reinstate it. The people who paid to see the telecast got rowdy, a near riot ensued because the producers announced a refund would not be forthcoming that evening ... patrons would need to come back to the box office at a later date. Chairs were thrown around the venue, the place was basically trashed, the Chicago police and fire squads were called in to calm things down, and a Chicago Fire Captain named Quinn was hit in the back of the head with a chair and hospitalized. The next morning, March 9th, the City of Chicago slapped numerous safety and fire code violations on the owners of the Coliseum.
This is great stuff. It explains how the Dead concert got canceled so abruptly.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that an audience tape of the concert by the great English band Free from January 23, 1971 (referenced above in the Billboard ad) is currently circulating.
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