THE
TWELVE
STRANGEST VELVET UNDERGROUND CONCERTS EVER GIVEN
The Velvet Underground not only sounded like no other band—they gave
concerts like no other band, or at the very least in settings rarely
used by other groups. Much of this, of course, had to do with their
affiliation from early 1966 through mid-1967 with the Exploding Plastic
Inevitable, a multimedia environment the likes of which few if any
other acts used. Even before and after their association with Andy
Warhol, however, they did some gigs that were downright peculiar. Here
are a few, all of which are discussed in greater detail in White Light/White Heat: The Velvet
Underground Day-By-Day:
1. Summit High School Auditorium,
Summit, New Jersey, December 11, 1965: Commonly regarded as
their first concert with Maureen Tucker on drums; possibly the first
concert at which they were actually billed as the Velvet Underground;
and probably the first at which they were actually paid, instigating
the resignation of original drummer Angus MacLise, who didn't want to
stand for anything as commercial as showing up at a scheduled time and
accepting money for the performance. Supporting the Myddle Class (who
feature future Carole King husband/collaborator Charles Larkey on bass
and future Steely Dan singer Dave Palmer), they played three
songs—"There She Goes Again," "Venus in Furs," and "Heroin"—to an
almost wholly uncomprehending and unappreciative audience of
adolescents. "The band just emptied that auditorium," says Sterling
Morrison's wife, Martha.
2. Café Bizarre, Greenwich
Village, mid-to-late December 1965: The VU played about two
weeks in this beatnik club-cum-tourist trap in front of largely
uninterested, and occasionally hostile, customers. The stage was so
small that Maureen Tucker couldn't even set up her drums, instead
getting relegated to tambourine. Told they'd be fired if they played
the room-clearing "The Black Angel's Death Song" even one more time,
the Velvets proceeded to lead off their very next set with it. They got
fired for their mischievousness, but not before meeting and impressing
Andy Warhol in the audience, leading to a management deal with him and
Paul Morrissey.
3. Delmonico's Hotel, New York, Annual
Dinner of the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry, January 13,
1966: The VU wreaked havoc at their first gig after hooking up
with Warhol, playing "Heroin" with a film of a torture scene with a man
tied to a chair. In front of the movie danced a real, whip-wielding
guy, Gerard Malanga. The group's friend Barbara Rubin filmed the
psychiatrists, at the same time confronting the 350-strong audience
with embarrassing questions about their personal sexual behavior. "It
was ridiculous, outrageous, painful," said Dr. Harry Weinstock in the New York Times. 'Everything that's
new doesn't necessarily have meaning. It seemed like a whole prison
ward had escaped.' "You want to do something for mental health?" asked
another psychiatrist. "Kill the story."
4. Playboy Club, Chicago, late
June-early July 1966: In Up-Tight:
The Velvet Underground Story, Sterling Morrison remembers
playing a noontime show at the Playboy Club in Chicago during their
two-week residency at Poor Richard's at the beginning of summer 1966,
with clothing "given to us by a mod shop in [the] Old Town
[neighborhood]." As with many Velvets anecdotes that seem to be
ludicrously improbable, Morrison's memory turns out to be dead
accurate. It's verified by a photo of the event in the fall 1966 issue
of Playboy's VIP magazine showing Morrison, John
Cale, and Gerard Malanga onstage performing for several dancers,
costumed Playboy bunnies
prominently among them. The picture's captioned as follows: "A recent
fashion show-happening at the Windy City, sponsored by Mod shop Man At
Ease, featured the nouvelle vogue entertainment troupe, 'The Velvet
Underground,' touting the most modern in way-out wearables." In the
audience was Hetty MacLise, future wife of original VU drummer Angus
MacLise, who'd recently met Angus and seen some of his performances
with the band (which he'd temporarily rejoined in the absence of an ill
Lou Reed) in Chicago.
5. Michigan State Fair Coliseum,
Detroit, November 20, 1966: As part of "the world's first mod
wedding happening," the Velvet Underground, according to a piece that
runs in the local underground paper The
Fifth Estate just prior to the shows, "play the traditional
wedding songs which will be sung by Nico. Superstar Gerard Malanga will
then dance as the Velvet Underground improvises a 'happening' comprised
of instrumental sound effects and psychedelic music." The article also
indicates that at least part of the event might have been captured on
celluloid, as Warhol "will bring his movie camera to Detroit to film
the wedding. The newlywed mod couple will also receive a screen test
for Underground Movies from Warhol during their honeymoon trip to New
York City." Warhol himself gives away the bride, after which he
sits on a box of tomato soup autographing cans.
6. Philip Johnson's Glass House, New
Canaan, Connecticut, June 3, 1967: An evening outdoors benefit
concert for choreographer Merce Cunningham at the glass house of
architect Philip Johnson. Also on the bill was John Cage, performing
his music with viola, gong, radio, and a slamming door, as well as the
windshield wipers and engines of three cars. "For $75 a ticket, guests
will see an hour-long performance by the dance company and hear the
premiere of a score by John Cage, electronic composer," promised the Bridgeport Post a few weeks before
the event. "Guests may tour Mr. Johnson's glass house on Ponus Ridge,
the lake pavilion and underground museum of contemporary painting and
sculpture. Dinner will be served and guests will help themselves to
wine from barrels scattered in the gardens. Fireworks and outdoor
dancing also will be part of the program." Women's Wear Daily even ran a short
article on New York Republican Senator Jacob Javits. Vogue does a similar spread, one of
the photos showing well-heeled guests on a raised outdoor platform
dancing "to the frantic sounds of the Velvet Underground."
7. Lincoln Center, New York, November
13, 1967: A fundraising benefit for public television station
Channel 13 (WNET) at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and one of their only
three known gigs (all low-profile) in New York between spring 1967 and
summer 1970. Billed, even at this late date, as "Andy Warhol's Velvet
Underground," they shared the bill with "music by Alan Logan and his
Orchestra" and "The Multi-Media Constructed Worlds of Stan Vanderbeek's
Sound and film projections." The program also printed a menu listing
"Relish Bowl, Blanquette de Veau a l'Ancienne Rice Pilaff, Glazed Baby
Carrots with Chives, Cucumber & Cherry Tomato Salad with Dill,
Fresh Fruit Bowl, Assorted Cheese Tray with Biscuits, Petits Fours,
Demi Tasse, Champagne, [and] Cognac" as the evening's refreshments. Women's Wear Daily confirmed the
next day that "tables were set up around the dance floor but when Andy
Warhol's Velvet Underground rock group started tuning up, the guests
chickened out, and a more sedate band took the stand."
8. Beverly Hills High School, Late
October-November 1968: Believe it or not, the Velvet Underground
did play at this most famed and ritzy of American high schools sometime
in the fall of 1968, probably while recording their third album and
playing a few gigs in Los Angeles. Though exact date hasn't been pinned
down, we have proof it takes place, the damning evidence being a photo
in the Beverly Hills High School 1968-69 yearbook of the band sitting
amiably onstage with what look like various school officials and
students. The quartet's haircuts and wardrobe make it virtually certain
that this must have taken place in the fall of 1968, so similar are
they to promo pictures of the group taken during this time. The Velvets
seem unlikely candidates to play for teenagers at one of the most
affluent public high schools in the United States, but apparently it
wasn't not wholly atypical of the programs staged in the building's
auditorium. That same year saw famous novelist James Baldwin and
Malcolm X's cousin Hakim Jamal, one-time president of the Malcolm X
Organization of Afro-American Unity Inc., speak to students at the same
facility. A few years later, the house band of Father Yod's hippie cult
The Source Family gave a concert on the institution's outdoor grounds.
More conventionally, pop-rock hitmakers Three Dog Night and early
country-rock pioneers Poco (then called Pogo) also played at the high
school during this semester. "I don't remember that at all," admitted
an incredulous Doug Yule when shown the yearbook pictures. "That makes
me think maybe I was abducted by aliens or something!"
9. The Boston Tea Party, Boston,
December 14, 1968: The MC5 opened for the Velvets, accompanied,
as Rob Norris later writes in Kicks,
"by a whole troupe of leather-clad White Panther crazies and a raving
MC who after their dynamite set exhorted the audience to tear down the
hall because it was not large enough to hold their energies and to take
to the streets. When the Velvets came on, Lou spoke first to everyone
present, saying, 'I'd just like to make one thing clear. We have
nothing to do with what went on earlier and in fact we consider it very
stupid. This is our favorite place to play in the whole country and we
would hate to see anyone even try to destroy it!' The Detroit
contingent was stunned by this remark and the thunderous applause that
followed it. The Velvets played especially well that night..."
10. The Kinetic Playground, Chicago,
April 25-27, 1969: For the second and last time, the Velvet
Underground shared a bill, unbelievably, with their ultimate antithesis
in attitude, the Grateful Dead. According to Doug Yule's recollection
in the fall/winter 1994 edition of the fanzine The Velvet Underground, "That show
the Dead opened for us, we opened for them the next night so that no
one could say they were the openers. As you know, the Grateful Dead
play very long sets and they were supposed to only play for an hour. We
were up in the dressing room and they're playing for an hour and a half
and, hour and 45 minutes. So the next day when we were opening for
them, Lou says, 'Huh, watch this.' And we proceeded to play a very long
set. We did 'Sister Ray' for like an hour and then a whole other show."
But for all the differences between the Velvets and the Dead, they do
share one thing in common: sheer volume. "There was a guy standing over
by the sound mixing board, and somebody said, 'that's [Grateful Dead
soundman] Owsley,'" remembers Milwaukee radio DJ Bob Reitman. "I walked
over to him and said, 'Are you Owsley?' He turned to me to answer, and
the whole sound system just—and it probably was him—it's like somebody
turned the whole thing up so loud that we couldn't hear each other. We
just looked at each other and shrugged."
11. Hilltop Pop Festival, Rindge, New
Hampshire, August 2, 1969: The Velvet Underground headlined an
actual rock festival the same month as Woodstock—albeit a much smaller
one, the only other famous performer on the bill being Van Morrison.
Admission to the event was $3, all the artists performing for free, as
it was a benefit to—of all things—buy the town of Mason, New Hampshire
a new fire engine.
Honorable mention: Though
these take place in early 1971 after Lou Reed leaves the band, somehow
the band still billed as the Velvet Underground—with Doug Yule,
Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker still aboard—ended up playing New
England ski lodges. At least they got free passes for the ski lifts,
according to Sterling Morrison's account in his 1986 interview with
Ignacio Julia. "I was kind of aghast that [manager Steve Sesnick] had
them playing ski
lodges, but it was really fun, and of course it was beautiful," adds
his wife Martha. "We all learned to ski."
unless otherwise specified.
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