The Warfield

[Drunk Monk]

The Warfield has been purchased again and the new owners are planning to shut it down by March of next year. It's breaking my heart. I've been working RM for the Warfield for almost two decades. I courted Stacy there, while Jerry played. When I was at AFS, I would stroll up to Market after work for almost every show. One year, we did the rehearsals for the Dead's Chinese New Parade there, and I snuck all the way to the top of the spiral staircase on stage and wrote my initials on the ceiling rafters. We had many grand private Holiday parties there when Bill Graham was still alive. The Warfield is an extraordinary, historic theater, a treasure of S.F. It was built to last, with amazing acoustics so even the nosebleed seat offer a great view and great sound. Charlie Chaplin performed on that stage. The basement is an old speakeasy with crazy art deco on the walls. When we first started working there, some of the old prohibition escape tunnels were still open. One tunnel that left from where the RM space is, went under Market street to a long sealed hatch in SOMA. It had been partially blocked by the Bart tunnel. I've seen so many acts there - more than I can count. I've probably seen Jerry alone there more times than all of the shows all of you have seen (deducting ED and LB - and LB seldom pays attention to who is playing). Many of my top musical experiences were there, like Dylan's show. I've seen everyone from Spinal Tap to GWAR there - I can't even count them (those AFS daze were pretty hazy and I didn't keep all my backstage passes).

It's been bought by House of Blues, which means it will probably be reopened as a concert venue, but that also means a completely new staff, and it's not likely that RM will be included within the transfer of power. I'm hoping beyond hope that there will be some last minute reprieve, but right now, things are looking very grim. Loosing the Warfield will be way up there for me personally - like when Jerry and Bill died - the end of an era.

[El Dingo]

That's kind of sad but The Warfield never really clicked for me. The seats upstairs were a nightmare for anyone over 5 feet tall, the tables downstairs were easily blocked by standing patrons and the drinks were very expensive.

I also never got the 'friendly' vibe from the staff like I do at The Fillmore.

The acoustics are better than the Fillmore though. I remember seeing Marianne Faithful there and during quiet passages you could hear a pin drop.

I'll have to check out a couple more shows before the doors close.

Here's a (nearly) complete list of shows I've seen at the Warfield. This list doesn't have some RM shows since I didn't have a ticket to save. Maybe DM can help me fill in the blanks.

09/06/81 - Psychedelic Furs
06/03/86 - Tangerine Dream
11/06/86 - Fresh Aire
12/02/87 - P.I.L.
02/05/90 - Ministry
03/05/90 - The The
04/06/90 - Alice Cooper
12/08/90 - Penn and Teller
04/18/91 - Front 242
08/10/91 - EMF
09/01/91 - The Special Beat
10/13/91 - Lenny Kravitz
11/20/91 - Ozzy Osbourne
04/20/92 - Mr. Bungle
06/01/92 - Spinal Tap
07/08/92 - Skinny Puppy
03/03/93 - Adam Ant
08/14/93 - Danzig
05/14/93 - Jesus Jones
06/05/93 - Cyndi Lauper
11/17/93 - Bjork
07/11/95 - Peter Murphy
03/27/97 - Marianne Faithful
08/17/98 - Bauhaus
08/06/99 - Ween
10/26/05 - Bauhaus
06/27/06 - Ween

[Drunk Monk]

I'm sure you did some Warfield shows since you were active with RM when I first started doing them, but I can't for the life of me remember which those were. The Warfield RM period is super blurry. You have no idea what we might have worked together? Didn't we see the Residents there together once with tickets? I can't even remember what shows we did together.

Given your list, I only remember being at these: Tangerine Dream, Penn and Teller, Bjork and I'm not sure the dates matched. I think we've seen TD together. Was that the show? I think P&T had only one run of shows. BTW, they made us give a complete dressing room to all the duck used in their act and tricked it out to the nines. Warm up bands never got that kind of treatment. Yea, that was wacky backstage, let me tell you. Didn't LCF be chosen to go on stage for one show? Did Bjork play more than one show there? I saw her once there and she was astounding.


I have a lot of backstage passes from then. I keep meaning to collect and tabulate them. Perhaps it'll be a meditation of mine should the closing come to pass (still being hopeful). I didn't keep all my crack-and-peals and I don't always get them. Once they gave me my Warfield laminates, I didn't really need them anymore. Besides, the crew has known me for years so access is never an issue.

[Drunk Monk]

GDTS Too Mailorder Tickets: May 16-18 - SOLD OUT*
*All orders postmarked by March 12 will be considered.
May 13-14 - Still Accepting Postmarks (March 11-21)
PhilLesh Online Tickets: SOLD OUT
Public On-Sale: March 16 @ 10AM PT
5.13-14: Doors: 6:00 PM / Show Time: 7:00PM
5.16-18: Doors: 7:00 PM / Show Time: 8:00PM
(Please note: Details subject to change)

Warfield Grateful Dead History:
JGB 88 (includes 3 with JG Acoustic Band in 87)
PLF 25 + the upcoming 5
GD 21
Garcia + Grisman 14
Ratdog 12
Weir + Wasserman 3
The Dead 2
Garcia/Weir/Hart 1
Garcia + John Kahn 1
Bobby and the Midnights 1
Weir, Wasserman, Ratdog + Bonnie Raitt 1
The Other Ones 1
Mickey Hart & Bembe Orisha 1
(with Bill Kreutzman's Trichomes + special guest Bob Weir)
Mickey Hart & Planet Drum 1
(+ 2 shows opening for Ratdog in 99)
Rhythm Devils 1
Deadheads For Obama 1

http://www.phillesh.net/philzonepages/fr...field.html

[El Dingo]

It had a good run, and I saw some fine shows there, but in the end I can't say I'm shattered. The seating layout sucked, the sound was lacking, and for some unknown reason the staff and crowd were equally annoying. Parking is hell and the goddamn homeless crazies pester you in line.

I had such an awesome time at the Fillmore the other night. The ID checkers gave me a hard time about being to old to be going out, the upstairs guard showed my friend and I all the coolest posters in the bar and the upstairs bartender made my Irish coffee with a good portion of Irish.

So whilst I bid a fond adieu to The Warfield, I still love my Bimbo's and Fillmore.

That being said, DM - Can you sneak us into one of those final shows?

[Drunk Monk]

It's a crushing blow for me. I've worked it for so many years and had so many adventures there. CF & LCF might remember practicing for the Grateful Dead Chinese New Year's Parade there. I've always found the sound there to be solid - the concave dishes built into the architecture act like the sound tiles at Davies. As for the neighborhood, true, that's a hassle. I remember after a Jerry show when a homeless psycho came barrelling through the exiting post show glow deadheads with a baseball bat, taking out anyone in his way. I've also chased IPRs out on to Market, which is frightening from all angles.

I'm in for all 5 shows, down in the speakeasy, where I've stood my post for the past two decades. Mrs. Dm is considering renting a hotel room for the weekend.

ED, I have a huge queue of people asking me to get them in - deadheads that love the Warfield. I'll see what I can do if you're serious, but it's going to be a major effort for me to get Mrs. Dm into the run, what with our cub and all, so I'll try if your serious, but no promises...

[Drunk Monk]

Warfield Theatre has new promoter
Aidin Vaziri, Chronicle Staff Writer

AEG Live, the second-largest event promoter in the United States, has begun programming at San Francisco's historic Warfield Theatre in advance of the expiration of Live Nation's lease on the venue in May.

"We're not going to be the promoter there anymore," said Erik Siebert, marketing manager for Live Nation. "We're working on finding a new venue."

AEG Live is a subsidiary of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Denver concert promotion giant that owns and operates the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the O2 in London. It produced Celine Dion's long-running Caesars Palace show in Las Vegas and holds interests in sports teams including the Los Angeles Kings, Lakers and Galaxy.

The company's chairman, Philip Anschutz, a champion of conservative Christian causes who is the 31st richest person in the United States, according to Forbes, also acquired the San Francisco Examiner in 2004 and revived the struggling paper as a free tabloid.

AEG Live has previously booked shows at San Francisco venues, including the Nob Hill Masonic Center, the Great Meadow at Fort Mason, AT&T Park and the War Memorial Opera House. AEG has taken over programming for the Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center as well.

Bill Graham Presents, which was absorbed by Live Nation, started hosting concerts at the 2,200-person-capacity Warfield in 1979, establishing the Market Street theater as one of the country's most popular midsize venues, with shows by Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and David Bowie.

Opened by theater chain owner Marcus Loew in 1922, the theater had previously hosted silent films and vaudeville revues with the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson and Rin Tin Tin.

Atlanta real estate investor David Addington bought the venue and office building on Market Street from Florence Fang, former publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, for $12 million in 2005.

A recent attempt at renaming the venue the SF Weekly Warfield, after the local paper owned by the New Times chain, was blocked by a lawsuit brought by Addington.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...01&sc=1000

ED, there's no way I can get you in to those shows. Some of my most hardcore deadhead buds got shut out. It's unbelievably tight.

[Drunk Monk]

This is going to be a long week.

[Drunk Monk]

When I awoke, the Dire Wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinnin at my window
All I said was "come on in"

Don't murder me
I beg of you don't murder me
Please
don't murder me

The wolf came in, I got my cards
We sat down for a game
I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades
but the cards were all the same

last night, there was a guest instructor at my shaolin class. gm zhou tao, a traditional master of shandong mantis, was one of the masters that came with jet li on the historic '74 white house tour, the second ever group of prc emissaries, right after the ping pong team. great lesson - i could barely follow it. this guy has lightening fast hands and all sorts of crazy fist techniques - brilliant traditional nasty fuck-you-up-bad moves - the best kind. the headmaster and one of the coaches are from chengdu. they gave me some terrifying secondhand reports. i wrote a letter for the coaches family - he's trying to bring his parents out of prc. he can afford to support them here better than there now. couldn't sleep at all last night. wound up watching jack black on leno plug kung fu panda. woke up groggy to find the sleepover for tara was canceled by the flaky single mom host, so stacy cannot come tonight. that sucks. that really sucks. not off to a good start. then i noticed that the bay to breakers is sunday - the last show - but that should be long done. still, i flashed back to the legendary ninja b-2-b run, as well as other time when i ran it dressed as a caribou. got to work and discovered that we are now doing a benefit show for the chengdu quake. the memorial day tournament is going to now do a benefit masters demo for quake victims. so i was just in a meeting at the official shaolin temple auto shop. i shit you not. the u.s. *official temple* is here in fremont. shaolin follows me like incense in old clothes now. it's a converted auto shop. well, not really converted. the training floor is in the old window display room of a used car lot. we had to cut through the lobby of the auto shop to get to the back room, where we did a short press release right smack in the middle of the first meeting to decide what to put in the press release. my master was there, and my boss and three others. oh, on the way there, i was driving my bosses fully loaded lexus and she told me to turn this way to get into the shaolin auto shop, which of course was the wrong way up a city street. i only went about 100 ft until i could turn off but scared the crap out of some other drivers. anyway, the bulk of the meeting was in mandarin, which meant i could only pick up fragments. am i mc-ing this whole damn show? maybe. i'll do it. i'm not that good on the mike on stage, but it's karma work and those jobs pay the best. now i got to put together this event during the phil run. plus i just got my official invite to the closing party, which starts at 11 pm on sunday. how is this place going to shut down? with big booming base, for sure. time to go... more tomorrow....

[El Dingo]

ED, there's no way I can get you in to those shows. Some of my most hardcore deadhead buds got shut out. It's unbelievably tight.

No worries, I don't want to go for a show, I just want 'I was there the final night' bragging rights.

Too bad they couldn't have got someone good to play. (/duck)

[El Dingo]

(Unreadable block of text)

DM - I know you're going through hard times so I'm going to lend you 600 capital letters and 350 paragraph breaks.

Pay me back when you have it, no rush.

[Drunk Monk]

nix narnia ~ sdck: minglewood w/bobby ~ j9 & e1-3 ~ halibut filet & ny steak ~ raz, leigh, barf bucket bob, barbara ~ go go dancers for bobby ~ japanese maples ~ electric chill ~ golden raod>beat on down the line>?jg? {t-shirts, program, website, silent acutions, raffle, press release} cold rain and snow>sitting on top of the world>?bobby? go go dancers, platform boots, mini hot pants, floppy caps, frilly shirts confetti cannons>morning dew>minglewood ~ perfumed sweat and pheramones ~ sour booze ~ the balcony bounce ?alligator?>break ~ spindrift.cc ~ dr. smith: lost in space ~ calls, calls, calls ~ other ones (screaming for 2 drummers)>nobody's fault but mine {emei dvd series, next issue} ~ tv is evil ~ ice in shoes ~ bobby (ala other one)>phil (ala franklin's) ~ everyone's eatin' nachos ~ hippie chicks bring cookies and food and dance aournd in skimpy shimmery skirts ~ my couch is your couch ~ E: NFD w/go go dancers...

home by 1AM. could not take my rest. up again at 4:20AM. walk the dog, go to work. leaving on the BP-SO express at 4:20. more *cohesive* 2morrow...maybe. eh, maybe not. better to annoy e.d.

[Drunk Monk]

The boys are playing their albums. 1st night, 1 set = The Grateful Dead, 2nd set = Anthem of the Sun. 2nd night, 1st set = aoxomoxoa, 2nd set = Live Dead. Which leaves Friday - Workingman's Dead and American Beauty - undeniably the Dead's finest studio albums. The posters are deadified versions of the mural above stage, which divides neatly into five. aoxomoxoa is very surreal, even by deadhead standards - Therese Campbell sat in for vocals with husband Larry on mandolin. Live Dead is just six songs - Mark Karan sat in, but many were too high to notice him at first, much less recognize him. The Dark Star Saint Stephen was astonishing, relentless, constantly morphing, and of course, the big rush of chaos for RM. A good Dark Star is always so. It keeps making you think it's going somewhere else, but it's not. Or maybe it is.

I eat backstage. It has been a privilege I've enjoyed for nearly two decades. The Warfield chefs are excellent. Dinner was catfish or turkey (I chose catfish), garlic mash potatoes with mushroom gravy, glazed carrots, peas, organic greens (I chose the balsamic dressing) and lemon meringue pie.

There are few places where I can run amok like I do at the Warfield.

Odd thoughts: A grate thing about loud concerts is that you can fart really loudly anytime. The shows are sold out tight and it's freaking sauna. Lots of syncopy. For the love of JAH, send Molo reinforcements! Huge vaporous clouds rising like specters to infest the withering architecture. Too much blood on the floor. When you have a whole in your head that size, it's time to leave. Gene split his head, which surprised no one. Renovation is great, but keep the patina.

We've secured a sleepover for T this Friday. Workingman's & Beauty for the DMs. I am so grateful for everything.

[Drunk Monk]

So this blog is split into my dead world and my martial world. In my dead world, I can barely wait for tonight. In my martial world, I'm working like a dog to pull together this benefit. Everyone on the committee is fluent in Mandarin except for me. They discuss this stuff wildly, with little experience in doing benefits (nevermind my 20+ years working for a free clinic) and then ask me to write it all down. My Mandarin is at kindergarten level at best now. I haven't been immersed in China since 2004, so what little I knew is pretty rusty, plus at Shaolin, they all speak dengfenghua, which is a course, almost Brooklyn-accent version of Chinese. So here's my other blog - the martial 'official' one:
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/sh...p?p=861651
Don't worry. I'm saving all the good stuff for you all - exclusive here on DOOM. BTW, I am looking to put together a Dragon Crew like we did in 2002 for our 10 Year Anniversary Benefit. I sent some of you an email about that.

I suppose I should address ED's criticisms of the Warfield. His experience is quite different as a patron. I can't fathom his sound issues. The Warfield has phenomenal sound. There are sound-tile-like dishes built into the architecture. Back in the day, they really knew how to build theaters. This was originally designed like an opera house so a person speaking can be heard in the back row. And that works in an empty house. I've done it. However, some bands do mess up the sound, so that's more about the band than the house. It's very true about parking and the homeless. I deduct my parking so that's not so much of a factor (it's under volunteer contributions, along with my mileage, for shows). The homeless, well, yea, that's a total bitch. I remember after a Jerry show when some nutjob came through the exiting deadheads swinging a baseball bat. I think it was PPFY. As for the seating, it's true, you can't see above someone standing in front of you in the balcony. That's also true in Davies Symphony Hall, although they seldom stand unless for ovations there. At the Warfield, when the band is rocking, everyone's standing and dancing, which brings up the balcony bounce. The Warfield balcony bounces when everyone is dancing. It saves you the trouble of having to dance for yourself. Unless you'd rather just sit on your ass and wait for the ovation to get up. As for the staff, the Fillmore and Warfield actually has the same staff. The Warfield is larger so there are ushers. Perhaps ED hates ushers. I can't say I blame him there.

I got a decent night's sleep last night. I'm ready for tonight. Workingman's is acoustic, so I'm really hoping they go that way tonight. I'm not sure if I'll post on this over the weekend, but I really should, lest I fall behind and my rants descend into their standard dead run incoherence.

This is the most bittersweet show run I've done so far.

[Drunk Monk]

no s.f. st. drinks blood like market. 4 pts. and an hour later, it wants more. 1st call was an arterial slash. dm elevated & sealed the pressure pt. as cops and fire circled & assholes shot randomly w/their cells, despartately trying to catch a real moment for their youtube collection. the ambulance left because the chest wound, which dm totally missed, being focused on the bubbling artery. there's nothing like real blood on asphalt. it glows with the last moments of life, slowly turning from brilliant red to deep crimson to earth. then a flurry of calls, people dropping w/the heat, but it all mellowed by 2nd set. market was sated by it's blood sacrifice. cops came & the milling crowd 'o deadheads dispersed.

they did go for workingman's & beauty, but only partially acoustic. dave nelson sat in, and therese again. larry on violn, mandolin, slide - jackie on acoutic occassionly, but no standing bass for phil. dm miscalculated on the joy of w & b. it's everyone's fav - we all know almost all the lyrics, so it became a drunken sing-a-long, which is fun as long as your neighbor can carry a tune. that's unlikely. still, an amazing sugar mag. jakcie was so soulful on brokedown. phil, therese & larry w/only a violin for attics was a real treat. didn't think phil had the pipes still. we used to chant 'let phil sing' because his selection of songs were great, but then we often regretted it. but the new organ seems to have sweetened his voice and he's smart enough to sing low, the bassline, of course, and find others that can harmonize. molo is still the weak link. was in the speakeasy with mickey's kid and she laid it out perfectly. he falls behind, and then smothers the jam with some werid catch up rhythm, then phil needs to bury it with a power chord, ending the jam. send molo reinforcements.

mrs. dm felt it wasn't as good as the obama show.