Can we nominate Bill Graham for sainthood and be done with it? After years and years of having no live footage of the 6-man line-up available except for 1 tune from the Old Grey Whistle Test, Wolfgang’s Vault comes across with an entire 50-minute set, from Winterland in San Francisco on 7/30/77. Fantastic quality, multiple cameras, many Jewfros, arena stage moves by the galore. Grab a beer, and prepare to be amazed:
Wolfgang’s Vault: The Dictators
— Salvi C.
Filed under Archive, Dictators Assembled, Internets, Live, Video
On this day in 1977, the Dictators took the Belt out to Lung Island for this gig at Ubies. I’d bet a bomb pop that the “Guest Attraction” was either the Good Rats or Twisted Sister, since Ubies was a regular spot for both bands. The rumor remains unconfirmed that Ritchie Teeter and Mark the Animal, both native LI’ers, had to translate for the evening.
$2 cover!! That didn’t even cover the tolls to get there!
— Salvi C.
Filed under Dictators Assembled, Live, The Cincotta Archives
April 12 marked the anniversary of 1997’s star-studded Tom Clark Benefit at Brownie’s in NYC. The DFFD Blog asked Dictators fan Adam Gerstein for his memories of the show.
So I get an email from Sal, who I have not heard from lately, asking me to remember the night that the Dictators played at the Tom Clark Benefit at Brownie’s in 1997. How can I forget that night — it was the night I rediscovered the band who probably has been my favorite band of the last 15 years … and that is saying a lot, as I go to a lot of live shows. Below is a review I did after the show for the Babel list (Patti Smith list) in 1997:
“Lenny Kaye was the first band that I saw last night. I used to see the Lenny Kaye Connection all over NYC and they were always fun. However, I always appreciated Lenny more of a backing musician with Patti rather than on his own due to the limited range of his voice. He put on an animated set and the interplay between J.D., Tony, and Lenny was great.
Jim Carroll surprised the hell out of me. I have seen him stumble on many stages since the seventies, but last night he looked fit (hard to imagine) and healthy. Then again he never played with a band as good as the guys last night. In addition to playing with J.D., Lenny, and Tony, he also played with Adam Roth, who added tasty slide leads. “Catholic Boy” and “People Who Died” were the standouts last night and Carroll definitely impressed the crowd.
Filed under Archive, Dictators Assembled, Live, Live Review
This week marks the anniversary of the first-ever West Coast trip for the Dictators in 1977. They borrowed the Ramones van and headed way out west. The Left Coast has never been the same.
The trip started and ended with gigs at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Fran, with gigs in Berkeley and Palo Alto in between. The great-looking poster below is from the final show, and the famous pic above of the 6-man lineup was taken backstage at the Mabuhay. Scott appears to have borrowed eye-liner from Johnny Thunders in this pic!
— Salvi C.
Filed under Dictators Assembled, Live, The Cincotta Archives
This weekend marks the anniversary of the Dictators’ 1975 legendary road trip to Atlanta, GA, to open for Rush at Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom. Open from 1974 through 1979, the Electric Ballroom was a major touring destination of the time, hosting such names as Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent and Broooooce.
This was one of the earliest road trips for the Dictators, who were in the embryonic stages of the road from Complete Indifference through General Disdain, before settling down in Open Hostility. The guys only completed 2 nights of a scheduled 4-night stand before being sent home by Rush. The epic failure of the road trip has taken on mythical status, so much so that it’s recounted by band members with almost perverse glee. According to Shernoff, “It was right about here where they stopped ignoring us and started hating us.”
It’s hard to picture the Atlanta crowd digging Rush more than they dug our boys. Technically, it’s hard to picture ANY crowd digging Rush more than they would dig our boys, but that may be provincial thinking on my part.
— Salvi C.
Filed under Live, The Cincotta Archives
On this date in 1977, the Dictators opened for Kiss at McElroy Auditorium in Waterloo, Iowa. This was the first of 6 sporadic dates the guys did with Kiss between February and March of that year.
Manitoba used to tell the story of the 2 bands’ different perspectives as follows:
“We would show up at these shows, and say to ourselves, ‘Alright, we’re finally starting to get someplace, 10,000 people!’ and then we’d pass Simmons in the hallway, and he’d be complaining, ‘Why are we playing in this tiny 10,000 seat dump??’”
Rumor has it that there were significant problems with the backstage accommodations, as the Dictators got bumped from their dressing room into Auxiliary Electrical Closet B to make room for Kiss’ pyro crew and the crates of Paul Stanley’s emergency girdles.
— Salvi C.
Filed under Dictators Assembled, Live
And you thought today was gonna suck.
Here’s the Dictators’ full performance from Little Steven’s Underground Garage Festival!
Thanks much to MonkeyBeat!!!!
— DFFD123
Filed under Dictators Assembled, Live
For Day 6 of our Hanukkah celebration, we again travel back to CBs circa December 2003:
Lovely to look at, miserable to drive in, and soon to be a very limited edition at punkrocksnowglobes.com.
Many thanks to Mike Frigerio, who risked life and limb in climbing to the rooftop across the street to take the picture, and to Brother Rob for the technological hook-up.
— Salvi C.
Filed under Live, Photos, Special, Tomfoolery
See what you might have missed in The Dictators Holiday Gift Guide!
DFFD123
Guest Contributors
Robbiecube
Salvi C.
Thunderbolt Patterson
The DFFD Blog 