July 8, 1970 Mississippi River Festival, Edwards, IL Grateful Dead (confirmed)

Deadlists suggests that there was some question whether or not the Grateful Dead actually played the Mississippi River Festival in Edwardsville, IL on July 8, 1970. Since they played the Fillmore East the next night, the gig may have seemed unlikely. However, the review (above) in the Alton (IL) Evening Telegraph of July 9, 1970 puts that to rest. The Dead played an excellent, well-attended show.

Although the article is primarily a news article, writer Doug Thompson does describe the scene:

The Grateful Dead, a California-based "Acid Rock" group, drew a crowd of 8,500 young persons Wednesday night to the Mississippi River Festival--the largest attendance thus far of the current season.

He goes on to describe that after a late start, the band began with low-key folk and country tunes, and then "livened up the concert with a 23-minute rendition of "Good Lovin'" that included drum solos by two drummers playing simultaneously." The article continues on to describe the scene at some length, but much of the reporters time was spent amongst the crowd or backstage, rather than reviewing the band. Extra special attention is paid to what the young women in the crowd were wearing, which turns out to be not that much, but obviously the news must be reported as it happened.

As near as I can tell, the Mississippi River Festival was at least a week long, possibly longer, and held on a temporary site on the banks of the Mississippi River. There appear to have been temporary pavilions, using large tents. In between talking about miniskirts, the writer alludes to the fact that the Dead were the first rock group to play the Festival that year, and mentions that upcoming acts include composer Henry Mancini (presumably conducting an orchestra) and jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley.

As to the Dead's touring schedule, Amalie Rothschild mentioned in her fine book Live At The Fillmore East that the Fillmore East's sound system was so good it was the only venue where the Dead used the house sound instead of their own. Since Rothschild was not only Fillmore East staff herself, but later married the house soundman, she was in a position to know. Considering this, the Dead's touring schedule for the month of July makes sense. After finishing up in Canada, the band played the River Festival, and then their equipment turned and headed to San Francisco, while the band took their guitars and backline on a plane to New York. After a weekend at Fillmore East, the Dead returned home also, and band and sound system were recombined for two shows at the Euphoria in San Rafael on July 14 and 16.

This wasn't unprecedented: for many years it was a mystery how the Dead could have played Kirkwood, MO on May 14, 1970 and the Fillmore East on the following day, but they followed the same pattern. The Dead flew to New York for a gig at Fillmore East, leaving their equipment an extra day to get to Temple University in Philadelphia on May 16.

March 19, 1971 The Syndrome, Chicago, IL The Grateful Dead (canceled)

The February 6, 1971 Billboard mentions in its "News From The Music Capitals Of The World" for Chicago that the Grateful Dead are scheduled to play The Syndrome on March 19. There is indeed a blank spot on the Dead's Spring tour for Friday, March 19, between the Fox Theater in St. Louis (Thursday March 18) and the University of Iowa Fieldhouse (Saturday, March 20), but no sign of a Chicago show. The reason for this is simple: the April 10, 1971 edition of Billboard remarks on the abrupt closure of The Syndrome. It seems clear that the Dead had a gig booked there, and when the venue closed the band was simply stuck with an open date.

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.