Honolulu International Center, Honolulu, HI July 1968 (canceled)

A note in the August 10, 1968 issue of Billboard (accessible on Google Books) says

The Grateful Dead, Warner Bros-Seven Arts artists, bowed out of a late July stint at the HIC. An early 1969 date now looms.

None of this turned out to be so, and the Grateful Dead did not play Hawaii until January 23-24, 1970. I do not know if Honolulu International Center (HIC) was the same as Honolulu Civic Auditorium, but I suspect it is so.

This at least partially explains the absence of late July 1968 dates, after Kings Beach Bowl on July 13 (the next gig is August 2 in San Diego at The Hippodrome).

Kokomo with Brent Mydland and Bill Kreutzmann Tour History-Summer 1985

(h/t Michael for the poster scan)

Brent Mydland was always in the shadow of the other members of the Grateful Dead, because he was always "the new guy." One of the many interesting aspects of the Grateful Dead was that fans could see the musical interests and abilities of the individual musicians in their various side projects, and then see how those sounds were integrated or excluded from the Dead's sounds. Most Deadheads, however--and I am certainly including myself--paid little attention to Brent's individual activities outside the band because they were too busy following Garcia or Weir.

Certainly, if you were a Bay Area resident, and you had a chance to see Jerry Garcia or Brent Mydland in a club, you would generally pick Jerry. Also, like most Dead fans I liked many kinds of music, and being fortunate enough to see the Grateful Dead regularly, I made a point of seeing other groups rather than the spinoff bands. As a result, Brent Mydland projects tended to be quite obscure. Kokomo was a group that only existed for the Summer of 1985. Although all the players are recognizable, I know of no circulating tapes, no reviews, don't know anyone who saw the band and can only guess exactly what they played. I'm not suggesting that the band was world changing, or even any more than a solid bar band, but one of the purposes of this blog is to document little known performances of the Grateful Dead and its members.

update: Correspondent Stevo Rood turns out to have great photos from the Kokomo show at Club Casino in Hampton Beach, NH on August 14, 1985, and was kind enough to let me post them. These are the only photos of Kokomo in concert that I have ever seen. Thanks Stevo! Is the Internet great or what?

Kokomo on stage at the Club Casino, Hampton Beach, NH on August 14, 1985. (L-R) Brent Mydland, David Margen, Bill Kreutzmann and Kevin Russell (photo (c) and courtesy of Stevo Rood

Kokomo
Kevin Russell-guitar, vocals
Brent Mydland-keyboards, vocals
David Margen-bass, vocals
Bill Kreutzmann-drums

David Margen and Kevin Russell on stage at Club Casino, Aug 14 '85 (photo (c) and courtesy of Stevo Rood)

Kevin Russell had been in an "arena rock" band called 707 from 1977-83. They had a hit called "I Could Be Good For You" on Casablanca Records, and three albums on Casablanca and Boardwalk. Despite some success on tour opening for larger acts like REO Speedwagon, the band broke up in 1983. Kevin Rusell, originally from Detroit, had moved from Southern California to Marin County during his time in the band.

David Margen was a Berkeley musician had played bass for Santana for several years (1977-82), as well as playing bass in a variety of other groups.

Brent Mydland on stage with Kokomo at Club Casino, Aug 14 '85 (photo (c) and courtesy of Stevo Rood)

Performance List
All the dates come from contemporary newspapers or the Grateful Dead hotline recorded messages.

July 26, 1985: River Theater, Guerneville, CA
July 27, 1985: Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA w/Zero
July 30, 1985: Wolfgang's, San Francisco, CA w/Zero
July 31, 1985: Cabaret Cotati, Cotati, CA
August 1, 1985: New George's, San Rafael, CA

August 5, 1985: Toad's Place, New Haven, CT
August 6, 1985: The Casablanca, Rochester, NY w/Jorma Kaukonen [solo]
A Commenter writes:

I was at that show! - the venue was called The Casablanca - it was a small nightclub on East Henrietta Rd. - there is now a T.G.I.Fridays in that location ;)

I met Brent briefly in the parking lot before that show. I had a "Hot F***ing Jorma" sticker with me (Hot Tuna was also on the bill that night), and he signed it on the back, asking "you're not gonna just stick this somewhere and throw away the backing, are you?" I assured him I wouldn't (and haven't) - I think I got fellow bandmembers Billy Kreutzmann and Santana bassist David Margen to sign it also, not sure, since that sticker is in a box somewhere in the house!

 And true to his word, here it is (front and back)

Brent, Billy and David Margen signed the back of the Jorma sticker

As if that wasn't enough, reader Mike sends in a photo of the Casablanca Club in the mid-80s (not likely the night Kokomo was playing)

August 8, 1985: The Living Room, Providence, RI
August 9, 1985: The Chatterbox, Seaside Heights, NJ
August 10, 1985: The Metro, New Brunswick, NJ
August 11, 1985: The Bayou, Washington, DC
August 13, 1985: Paradise Club, Boston, MA

Bill Kreutzmann at his drum kit at Club Casino in Hampton Beach, NH, Aug 14 '85 (photo (c) and courtesy of Stevo Rood)

August 14, 1985: Club Casino, Hampton Beach, VA
August 15, 1985: The Ritz, New York, NY
August 18, 1985: [venue], Norfolk, VA
August 19, 1985: Chestnut Cabaret, Philadelphia, PA

September 13, 1985: Major Pond's, San Francisco, CA
September 19, 1985: New George's, San Rafael, CA w/Zero
My notes (now twenty-three years old) say Bob Weir and Merl Saunders played with them.

September 28, 1985: River Theater, Guerneville, CA

If anyone can direct me to an online tape, or has a setlist, or went to a show, or knows someone who went to a Kokomo show and recalls the description, please put them in the comments.

Bill Kreutzmann shares some wisdom with the crowd during a Kokomo show at Club Casino in Hampton Beach, NH, while bassist David Margen looks on (photo (c) and courtesy of Stevo Rood)

In the next Summer and Fall, with Jerry Garcia out of commission, band members played a lot of shows in local clubs. Kreutzmann and Margen started The Kreutzmann/Margen band, which involved into Go Ahead, which will be the subject of future posts.

December 19-20, 1969 – New Old Fillmore, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead, Osceola, Rhythm Dukes, Jef Jaisun, Lightyear

A run of the mill pair of shows – nothing obviously notable except the support acts. My Grateful Dead list (and I guess we all have one of those) also shows a performance at the same venue on December 21, the Sunday. But without the means to check (given I am writing this from 38,000 feet over Canada), I am assuming that this was an entirely separate event.

I want to concentrate on a couple of the support acts, but following Corry’s template I shall briefly review all of the performers.

Grateful Dead: From what little evidence exists, they were a popular music combo based in San Francisco. By all accounts they had quite a keen following.

Osceola: Sometimes found as Oceola – a Family Dog at the Beach (660 on The Great Highway) favourite that first appeared around October 1969. I should probably know way more off the top of my head, but sadly don’t.

Rhythm Dukes: This really is off the top of my head, but as I recall: (a) Matthew Katz laid claim to the name Moby Grape and the remnants of the band took on the name Rhythm Dukes, (b) at some point they pulled in John “Fuzzy” Oxendine and John Barrett from local “filler” band Boogie, (c) they played the Second Sky River Festival, and (d) Oxendine kept on working with Jerry Miller in later years.

Jef Jaisun: Ah, El Jefe. Multitalented Jef Jaisun – artist, lover, pop singer, journalist, photographer, memory man – first showed up at the Jabberwock on June 3, 1966. Jef’s real claim to fame is that Richie Unterberger accused him of being the janitor at the good old ‘Wock – and that may be how he goes down in history. But we know better. I would like to quote now from those nice folk at www.chickenonaunicycle.com: This is the night that twenty year old aspiring musician and photographer Jef Jaisun first walks in to the Jabberwock. It was 1:45 am and Perry Lederman is playing a guest set which consists of a half-hour raga like piece on electric guitar. Lederman, though little known now, was widely regarded by local musicians at the time. He was a solo guitarist somewhat in the John Fahey mode, but more influenced by Indian music. His only known recording was on an Arhoolie sampler. He was also a seeker-out of vintage 3/4-size Martin guitars, which he continued to favour throughout his life. Lederman died at the age of 52 in 1995. Jaisun will become immortal in the Bay Area for producing the much-played and fondly remembered record “Friendly Neighborhood Narco Agent”. This record, independently released as a 33 RPM EP by Jaisun in 1969, was later picked up Dr Demento, and the song reached an audience outside the Bay Area. See http://www.eljefe.net/fnnafaq.html for the hilarious and unbelievable story of this song. Jef recalls "The entire package was patterned after Country Joe's Rag Baby EPs, right down to using Sierra Sound as the recording studio. I figured if it worked for him, well... not to mention that people in the Bay Area, and Berkeley in particular, had become accustomed to that type of EP packaging, thanks mostly to Joe. Several other folkies released similar EPs about the same time". Jef also has another significant link to the Grateful Dead as he was later a member of Phoenix – who with their co-conspirators and predecessors (Universal Parking Lot, Bluehouse Basement and Mount Rushmore) appear as support to the Dead on many occasions. This is a show probably of transition. We saw a year or so gap between the last Phoenix show and a flurry of shows in San Francisco. The “imposter” Phoenix (who had a couple of albums on ABC) were unlikely to have been responsible for these shows, but the mid decline appearance of a JJ show sort of hints that the efforts made to figure out the history of Phoenix were probably correct.

For his great sense of humour, fabulous recollections and for being an all around good egg, Jef remains on the good guy list to this day. I dropped the ball over completing the Phoenix/Mt Rushmore tree (due to work commitments) and then went off at a tangent – but by the end of the year we will be back on track.

Lightyear: The clue for me here is in the poster. I don’t know of Lightyear at all but the poster is credited to Lightyear Studios. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that Lightyear were a lightshow/art group. Little has been written to recognise the light shows and the work they did – eventually receiving billing and payment in line with some of the bands. So (a) we should perhaps make a little more effort in documenting the light shows, and (b) we would be really appreciative of knowing more about Lightyear.

August 24, 1975 Trenton Speedway, New Jersey State Fairgrounds, Hamilton, NJ: Aerosmith/Kingfish/Poco/others

Continued research into the touring history of Bob Weir and Kingfish has uncovered a hitherto forgotten outdoor concert in the Summer of 1975 featuring the band opening for rising stars Aerosmith at an auto racing venue in New Jersey. The actual listing would be

August 24, 1975 Trenton Speedway, New Jersey State Fairgrounds, Hamilton Township New Jersey
Aerosmith/Kingfish/Poco/Slade/Nils Lofgren/Mohagany Rush/Hootchie Kootch

The concert was a Sunday afternoon event beginning at 1:00 pm. Trenton Speedway was a 1.5 mile oval track (IndyCar/NASCAR) inside the New Jersey State Fairgrounds. Hamilton Township is the town right next to the capital city of Trenton, so both the Fairgrounds and and the Speedway were usually referred to as in Trenton. The ad prior to the concert is from the Bucks County Courier Times of August 15, 1975. Promoters Hollow Moon Productions apparently insisted that only 8000 people would be allowed inside the bowl of the oval track of the concert.

The promoters seemed to have underestimated the appeal of Aerosmith, whose album Toys In The Attic had been released in April and was steadily climbing the charts. The first single from the album, "Sweet Emotion," was climbing the charts, and "Walk This Way" would follow later in 1975. By the next year, an earlier single, "Dream On" had re-entered the charts, and Aerosmith was one of American's biggest rock bands. Hollow Moon productions correctly anticipated that Aerosmith could headline an 8000-ticket event, but even they must have been caught by surprise at the turnout.

As the post-mortem review from the Bucks County Courier Times on Monday (August 25, 1975) revealed (above), the concert rapidly gotten out of hand. A huge crowd stormed the chain link fence, and despite the best efforts of baseball bat wielding security staff, eventually everyone was let in for free. The problems at this concert were still being mentioned in the Courier Times the next Summer, and seem to have put a damper on big outdoor events at the State Fairgounds.

Notes on the bands
Aerosmith: Toys In The Attic, released April 1975, was Aerosmith's third album. They remain major concert headliners to this day.
Kingfish: Kingfish, with Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead and Dave Torbert of the New Riders, had come together after the Dead went on a touring hiatus in late 1974. Up until this show, save for one show in Reno, the band had not played outside of California.
Poco: Poco, an excellent if not quite headlining band, was now a four-piece, featuring guitarists Paul Cotton and Rusty Young, bassist Tim Schmidt and drummer George Grantham (everyone sang). Their current album Head Over Heels (ABC Records, July 75) had just been released.
Slade: Slade was an English "Glam" hard rock group, managed by former Animals bassist and Hendrix manager Chas Chandler. Hugely popular in England, their mass appeal never translated to the United States. Nonetheless, Gene Simmons of Kiss cited them as a big influence, and Quiet Riot had huge hits with remakes of some Slade songs in the 1990s. However, the Courier Times reviewer singled out their music as "typical of...all the poorer aspects of rock music," which was a standard American response to the band.
Nils Lofgren: Guitarist/singer Nils Lofgren had played around the Northeast with his band Grin from 1969 to 1974, and he had also worked with Crazy Horse and Neil Young. He had just released his first solo album (on A&M).
Mahogany Rush: Mahogany Rush was a Canadian power trio led by guitarist Frank Marino. I saw them a few months before this (at Winterland), and I can assert that despite all protestation to the country, Marino sounded like a Hendrix knock-off. That being said, it was pretty enjoyable. Their current album was probably Strange Universe.
Hootchie Kootch: Hootchie Kootch was a local band.
note: the excellent Poco site has an ad featuring Ambrosia instead of Mahogany Rush.

Notes on the venue
Auto races at the New Jersey State Fairgrounds near Trenton had been held as early as 1900, and continuous racing began in 1912. A new oval dirt track was opened in 1946, and it was paved in 1957. It was a regular stop on the Indy Car circuit in the 1960s, where stars like AJ Foyt and Parnelli Jones raced (Jim Clark drove Indy Cars there in 1963 and 1964). NASCAR raced there with some regularity from 1967 to 1974, and Richard Petty won three Grand National Events.

The Allman Brothers Band headlined a huge show on October 7, 1973. Apparently over 60,000 attended and the concert security was completely overwhelmed, ending outdoor concerts there until the Aerosmith event.

The race track closed in 1980, and the Fairgrounds closed three years later. The site is now a huge outdoor museum called Grounds For Sculpture.

August 7, 1976: Wembley Stadium, London, England – Grateful Dead, Santana, New Riders of the Purple Sage (Cancelled)

Bill Graham had lined up England’s national soccer stadium (capacity 80,000 plus) to lay on an outdoor show at Wembley called “Greetings from San Francisco”.

The Dead were booked, Santana were booked and the NRPS were keen to hit London. The bands had been lined up to fly in on August 5 from JFK to London Heathrow. Wembley had been sold out the previous summer for an all day event featuring Elton John, The Eagles, Joe Walsh, Beach Boys (with Chicago’s horn section) and Rufus. However, it seems that Bill Graham was overambitious to think that he would be able to fill Wembley for his San Francisco show. Although tickets were issued, the show ended up being cancelled. The Dead would not return to England again until the Rainbow Theatre shows in March 1981.

July 19-20, Los Angeles Coliseum Stadium: Eric Clapton/Grateful Dead (didn't happen)

The very end of the weekly rock column "Rock Talk From KG" in the Hayward Daily Review always included a few notes about upcoming shows, some of that not yet final or advertised. This is the final paragraph of the May 17, 1974 column, with the tantalizing note that Eric Clapton and The Grateful Dead would play together at the giant Los Angeles Coliseum, with a capacity of about 80,000. Needless to say, it didn't happen.

The idea wasn't as far fetched as it might seem. Eric Clapton had just returned to touring after a four year layoff, and his tour was a huge event. Stadium concerts were "in", at the time, a chance to see major acts in a venue with refreshments and bathrooms, as opposed to a muddy field. The Grateful Dead had a new, expensive sound system, and they needed high paying gigs. While the Dead were never as popular in Los Angeles as they could have been, even in 1974 it was well known that Deadheads would travel in large numbers, given the incentive. OK, the LA Coliseum was an old dump, and the area around it wasn't exactly hippie central, but a 4-hour Dead show followed by a couple of hours of Clapton would make it all worthwhile, right? And then we could do it all again the next day? Oh, well.

Eric Clapton did indeed play Los Angeles on July 19 and 20, but he played at the much smaller Long Beach Arena. The Grateful Dead played Selland Arena in Fresno on July 19.

As to the CSNY/Allman Brothers/Beach Boys/Marshal Tucker gig at the LA Coliseum, it didn't happen either, but it almost did. CSNY were just starting their titanic National tour, mostly in Stadiums, but the Bill Graham produced show was scrapped, and they did not open until July 9 in Seattle.  The Beach Boys were on the CSNY tour, and they too opened in Seattle with them. The Allman Brothers tour seems to have been between Tulsa (July 5) and St. Paul (July 8) during these dates.

I'm listening to "Dark Star">"Have You Ever Loved A Woman">"Not Fade Away" in my mind's ear.

Bob Weir and Kingfish Tour History, August-December 1975 (Kingfish III)

After the Grateful Dead "retired" from performing in October 1974, Bob Weir started to play some gigs with his friend Matt Kelly and former New Rider Dave Torbert in their band Kingfish. After a few late 1974 gigs, Weir became a member of the band, and the group started to learn new material and gig seriously around the Bay Area. This post covers the period from August to December 1975. The Grateful Dead were working on the album in Weir's home studio that would become Blues For Allah, but save for a few stealth dates they were not a performing entity. Weir and Kingfish performed steadily however, and I suspect the dates listed here are only partially complete.

Kingfish 1974-76
Robbie Hoddinott-lead guitar
Matt Kelly-harmonica, guitar
Bob Weir-rhythm guitar, vocals
Dave Torbert-bass, vocals
Chris Herold-drums

This is the third installment on Kingfish's performance history (for the first two, see here and here). The sources from my dates include Deadbase IX (to which I was an initial contributor), the fine Weirworks site, some contemporary newspaper archives and a few other sources. I believe there are still many dates to add to this list. If you know of one from this period, please Comment or contact me, and I will add them to the list.
(note: dates added to the original post are shown as added).

August 9, 1975 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford University Eric Clapton/Kingfish
I am aware of no Kingfish gigs between June 20 and August 9, and there are almost no Jerry Garcia gigs for that period also. I have to assume Garcia and Weir were focused on finishing off Blues For Allah. Although Kingfish had its own throwback sound, they communicated well as a conventional rock band, and opened a number of big shows around the Bay Area. Stanford University, after some bad experiences with Frost Amphitheatre in the early seventies, still alllowed the occasional rock show. Eric Clapton had only returned to performing the year before, and this was a very big deal of a show.

I attended this show, and Kingfish absolutely knocked me out. I had seen the Dead a few times, and I understood they weren't the Dead, but Kingfish managed to get a lot of motion out of a very few notes. Weir and Torbert's experience in larger venues really showed. Torbert was a terrific presence, too, for those who weren't lucky enough to see him, and his Cowboy Surfer cool made a nice contrast to Weir's dynamic presence (I'm pretty sure the girls really liked him too).

Clapton and his band were great, and Carlos Santana showed up to jam on the encore, but that's for another blog.

August 14, 1975 Fox Theater, Venice, CA Kingfish
The Fox in Venice was a converted movie theater. Commenter RD reports there were two shows this night.

There are probably a number of gigs I am missing from this period.

August 15, 1975 La Paloma Theater, Encinitas, CA Kingfish
A commenter recalls this show quite clearly (added). There was also a show at the Orange Theater in Orange around this time.

August 24, 1975 Trenton Speedway, New Jersey State Fairgrounds, Hamilton Township, NJ Aerosmith/Kingfish/Poco/Slade/Nils Lofgren/Mahogany Rush/Hootchie Kootch
14,000 people attended this outdoor event at a race track in New Jersey, for Kingfish's first journey away from the West Coast. I have written about it extensively elsewhere. [added]

August 29, 1975 Olympic Gold Ice Arena, Modesto, CA: Fleetwood Mac/Kingfish
Commenter David uncovered this remarkable booking. Even more remarkably, he found some professional quality photos of both bands at the show.

Fleetwood Mac, newly-reconstituted with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, had just released their Fleetwood Mac album. The band had been very well-received at an Oakland Coliseum Day On The Green on August 3. They were now playing shows around California. Mick Fleetwood had jammed with the Dead a few times in 1970 (the other band members who had played with them were no longer with the group).

The Olympic Gold Ice Arena had opened in Modesto in 1972, and was used for occasional concerts. It burned down in 1976. The site is currently a parking lot for Modesto Junior College. [added]

August 31, 1975 Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe, CA: Boz Scaggs/Kingfish
Alpine Meadows was a ski lodge in the Lake Tahoe area. In the summer it was used for the occasional concert. Boz Scaggs was a big star in the Bay Area at the time, and played with an orchestra (local string players playing charts). Kingfish opened the show. Some photos have recently surfaced. Looks like a nice day outdoors...[added]

August 31, 1975, at the Alpine Meadows ski lodge. Kingfish opens for Boz Scaggs, on another beautiful day in Lake Tahoe, CA (photographer unknown)

September 13, 1975 Stanford Music Hall, Palo Alto Kingfish/Link Wray/Barry Melton
Kingfish returned to the Stanford Music Hall, where they had played the previous New Year's Eve. This was the second time I saw them, and they played a lengthy, dynamic show. It is easy to listen to old Kingfish tapes and shrug that their playing seems rather simplistic, but it had a very powerful effect in concert.

Barry Melton was added to the bill at the last minute, and opened the show with a solo performance. 

September 26, 1975 Acker Gym, Cal State Chico U., Chico, CA: Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Commenter David found this Friday night show in the Chico State student paper.

October 4, 1975 Winterland Kingfish/Sons of Champlin/Keith and Donna
Kingfish was a terrific live band, but many California Deadheads had seen them a number of times by now. One friend of mine who attended the concert said that while Keith and Donna and The Sons were great, he felt that Kingfish wasn't playing anything new. In that respect Kingfish was acting like a normal rock band, but Deadheads were used to constant variation, even at the cost of sloppinesss.

October 17, 1975 Concord Pavilion Jerry Garcia Band/Kingfish/Keith and Donna
I attended this show, and once again Kingfish played great, although even I noticed that I was starting to become awfully familiar with Kingfish's material on only my third show. Even though Jerry Garcia was the advertised headliner (the ad above is from the October 5, 1975 Oakland Tribune), Kingfish closed the show. In the Bay Area, at least, when Kingfish and the Garcia Band shared the bill, Kingfish usually closed.

Although the show was well attended, it was nowhere near sold out. Garcia and Weir were so omnipresent in the Bay Area that there wasn't an air of specialness to their performances. For Bay Area fans, that lead to a relaxed atmosphere at local shows.

October 21, 1975 River City, Fairfax, CA Kingfish
River City was a tiny watering hole, reputedly favored by one Philip Lesh.

November 6, 1975 Elting Gym, SUNY, New Paltz, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Kingfish and Keith and Donna toured the East Coast in November. In the Bay Area, with Jerry Garcia a regular in nightclubs since 1970, Deadheads were very casual about the opportunity to see Grateful Dead spinoffs. In the East, however, the chance to see 4 members of The Dead (Weir, Kreutzmann, Keith and Donna) plus an ex-New Rider (Dave Torbert) in the same night was somewhat of a big deal. The Kingfish/Keith and Donna bill played medium sized theaters that neither band could have played at home. I have to presume that the bands also only used one crew and one sound system, another efficiency.

November 7, 1975 Beacon Theater, New York, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 9, 1975 Pritchard Gym, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
We only have scattered dates from the East Coast tour, mostly based on what tapes have survived. The Beacon show was on a Friday, and the Stony Brook show was on a Sunday. I have to believe the bill played somewhere in the Tri-State Areaon Saturday night. I don't think the tour played every night, but most tours make sure they fill in their weekends.

November 10, 1975 War Memorial Auditorium, Trenton, NJ Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Kingfish returns to Trenton. The small auditorium is only two-thirds full (per a review), but that's pretty good for a Monday night. A Commenter reports that there was an early and a late show. [added]

November 12, 1975 New Century Theater, Buffalo, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
The tour hit Buffalo on a Wednesday night. Thanks to commenter David for tracking this down. Also, he found excellent photos of the show.

November 14, 1975 Brooklyn College, New York,  NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Again, this show was a Friday night, and I'm sure the bands played somewhere Saturday night.

November 15, 1975 Passavant Center, Thiel College, Greenville, PA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
A commenter writes

Somewhere between Nov 22-29, 1975, Kingfish & Keith & Donna played a small college (Thiel Coll) in rural western PA. And for our little coterie of Deadheads adrift in northeast Ohio at the time, it WAS A BIG DEAL! We showed up expecting a Dead show type crowd experience but instead were greeted by a practically deserted sleepy college town and equally sparsely populated theatre! We have an amazing story surrounding this adventure, perhaps for another time...It DOES get stranger

I have assumed that the date was Friday, November 28, although I don't know that for certain [update: I now believe the date was Tuesday, November 25] A correspondent adds

The show was in a (small) theater, probably in the student center (it definitely was not in a gym).  I'm not sure if the Passavant Center on campus was there in 1975 (2,000 seat) but if it was the venue, it would have been (way) less than 1/4 filled for that show.

This hitherto forgotten event serves as a nice reminder that when a band featuring a member of the Grateful Dead came to a smaller city or a more out of the way place, it was still a memorable event for those in attendance. Deadheads lucky enough to live in the Bay Area or New York City could be casual about regular Deadheads and accessible Garcia appearances, but part of the Dead's magic was their relentless journeying to unconquered territory.

Update:  Commenters report that the event was on November 15, and have even included a poster (thanks Nick and Mark)

November 18, 1975 My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY Kingfish
Two shows. Keith and Donna probably didn't play this club date. 

November 19, 1975 [outdoors], Nassua Community College, Garden City, NY: Kingfish
Kingfish played a free outdoor concert at this Long Island JC, starting at noon or 1:00. The band probably got paid, at least a little bit. Keith and Donna also didn't play this date.

November 20, 1975 Fieldhouse, Sullivan County Community College, South Fallsburg, NY: Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 21, 1975 Loews Theatre, Syracuse, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 22, 1975 Masonic Temple, Scranton, PA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
I do know a Scranton native who attended this show, and it was a very big deal for any Grateful Dead related bands to play in Scranton. He had nothing much to compare it to, but he thought it was a terrific show (and he went to Harvard).

November 23, 1975 Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 24, 1975 Palace Theater, Albany, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
This was a Monday night show, which suggests that the tour played a lot more than just weekends.

November 25, 1975 Student Union, U Mass-Amherst, Amherst, MA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
There were early and late shows.

November 29, 1975 Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
This was the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Once again, a Friday show somewhere seems likely.

Reader sdwinkler sent in a flyer for the Lisner Auditorium show on December 2, 1975

December 2, 1975 Lisner Auditorium, GWU, Washington, DC Kingfish/Keith and Donna (early and late)

December 4, 1975 Roxy Theater, Northampton, MA: Kingfish/Keith and Donna

December 5, 1975  Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ Kingfish/Keith and Donna

December 6, 1975 My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY Kingfish
I assume we are missing numerous dates from the East Coast tour. 

December 7, 1975 [gym], Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY: Kingfish free concert
WLIR-fm, based in Uniondale, was the hip rock station for Long Island, remembered for sponsoring many live broadcast. WLIR promoted a free concert on the Nassau CC campus in nearby Garden City the afternoon after My Father's Place, as recalled by Commenters.The show would not have been advertised in advance, since that might have cut into ticket sales at MFP. In the Grateful Dead tradition, Kingfish was amenable to free concerts in a way that many contemporary bands were not.

December 19-20, 1975 Winterland Jerry Garcia Band/Kingfish/Keith and Donna/Clover
A Poco/Kingfish/Keith and Donna bill scheduled for Winterland on December 19 was converted to a Garcia Band/Kingfish/Keith and Donna bill for two nights. I attended the first night. Marin stalwarts Clover opened the show (Clover guitarist John McFee had played pedal steel on "Pride Of Cucamonga"). Keith and Donna played a brief but excellent set, joined by Matt Kelly of Kingfish on harmonica for the set closing "Scarlet Begonias." After a great set by the Jerry Garcia Band, Kingfish closed the show. For the final number, Keith Godchaux and Nicky Hopkins sat at the same piano, while saxophonist Stephen Schuster played along as well.

Kingfish continued to tour throughout 1976, and they also recorded an album at Weir's studio, released on Round/UA in March of 1976. However, once the Dead returned to action, it was clear that Weir's role in Kingfish was part time at best. Weir stayed with Kingfish until August of 1976, when his Grateful Dead schedule took over permanently. Weir would continue to guest periodically with Kingfish over the next few decades.


Until I complete my research on 1976 Kingfish dates, the best source is Weirworks, which I have not yet been able to improve on.