THE DOORSDanbury High School Auditorium
Danbury, CT
1967-10-11
Format: mp3 192kbps
Tracklist:
01 - Announcements 1:0402 - Moonlight Drive - Horse Latitudes 6:57
03 - Money 3:49
04 - Break On Through (To The Other Side) 6:05
05 - Back Door Man 5:33
06 - People Are Strange 2:57
07 - Crystal Ship 3:34
08 - Wake Up! 1:52
09 - Light My Fire 10:00
10 - The End 20:55
From Greg Shaw's book The Doors On The Road:Western Connecticut State College opens their annual Fall Weekend by sponsoring this appearance by the Doors. It is attended mainly by students of the college and Danbury residents. Jim Morrison spends a good portion of the day drinking with his friend Tom Baker, who incidentally gives a brief introduction to the Doors at the outset of the show. The Doors bring a good deal of energy to this show despite the somewhat awkward conditions. The show commences with a thoroughly repellent female announcer who warns the audience to stay in their seats or risk being escorted out of the auditorium. Despite this dictatorial atmosphere and the mediocre acoustics, the Doors put on an energetic and lively show, probably fueled by all their previous nights in New York City. Unfortunately, one segment of the audience is clearly disappointed that the Four Seasons haven't been rescheduled from the previous year. The school attendants gawk at the band in astonishment and are heard chattering away about how scruffy the band looks. Morrison's stage movements seemed uncustomarily sedate until the conclusion of "The End", when he abruptly leaps from the stage toward the startled audience. He then spins around, jumps back on the stage, and continuously smashes the microphone stand against the floor until the stand breaks and he exits the stage with no encore. The dents in the floor are still clearly visible on the auditorium stage.Danbury's News-Times report is not thrilled with the performance: "The first impression of the group of four males as the curtain opened was 'If seen on Main St., they would have been picked up as vagrants'. Faroutsville. As they wildly ripped into each number, they seemed to work themselves into a psychedelic trance. Their biggest claim seemed to be their ability to drag a song out for 15 minutes. However, this was what the house was clamoring for —this was what they paid for. The music was loud, had a fast beat and the psychedelic theme was emphasized even more by the lighting effects". (Kevin N. Barry, "The Doors swing at Danbury High; And so... luckily... do the doors", Danbury News-Times, Oct. 12, 1967).
That review prompted this response in letters to the editor: "Those of us who were fortunate enough to see the Doors' concert at Danbury High School will know better than to take the News-Times review of the concert with any measure of seriousness. Your intrepid, neatly clipped short haired authority on popular music was obviously completely out of touch with the performers, their music or the audience. His painfully cute remarks about them looking like Main St. vagrants, reflects accurately the feelings of amorphous, middle-aged Mr. Danbury who knows that anyone with long hair is a communist, a homosexual and has fleas. Cracks about long hair have been a tried and untrue device since the Beatles first appeared five years ago. Worst of all, the review ignores the musicianship of the Doors. Describing the music as 'loud' and with a 'fast beat' tells nothing, nor does sprinkling of the ingroupy sounding catch-all 'psychedelic'. The pieces were definitely not dragged out to 15 minutes. There is a difference between dragging a piece out and clever improvisation, which obviously your reviewer missed". (P. Gordon, "Letters to the Editor", Danbury News-Times, Oct. 16, 1967)
Note: The date of this performance is often incorrectly cited as occurring on October 17. There is only one show, at 9:00 p.m.
My notes:A really energic performance, too bad the quality is not that great (it's an audience recording by a faculty member). Other versions have some cuts, but here we have the complete recording, including a 20 minutes long The End!
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