Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To

Frontons Of Steel

WHAT COULD THIS POSSIBLY HAVE SOUNDED LIKE?

This is the Miami jai-alai fronton; the Dead somehow–possibly through various dark magic (excuse me: darck magicks)–stuffed the Wall into here for two nights in June, ’74. The second night, with its deeply weird closing sequence (Dark Star Jam>Spanish Jam>US fucking Blues), is legendary and I’ve linked to it, so here’s the first night of the run: 6/22/74.

Different feeling show: instead of the rear-engined behemoth of the second night, the first night’s huge Playin’ jam is smack in the middle of the show, making it a mid-engined sports car in this analogy, which is poor at best.

I can’t even imagine the nightmare making this place sound good was: frontons are made from echoes. Echoes are load-bearing.

10 Comments

  1. spencer

    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mxy8hKJ-l00/0.jpg

    • spencer

      Being a resident of Florida, have you ever ventured out to a Jai Alai match ?

      • thoughtsonthedead

        of course, man. Seen a gator and eaten a guy high on flakka, too

      • spencer

        Saw it in Tampa once a long time ago, crazy sport

      • spencer

        It was the eighties so no flakka, but i bit a guy on coke

  2. dj5000000

    As I remember it, there was a floor-to-ceiling wire net to prevent the high-speed pelota from hitting anyone in the audience. So, does that mean when the Dead played there, they played behind chicken wire ?

  3. corry342

    Wasn’t there a lot of wagering built into a Ja Alai match? That could have been a feature of Fare Thee Well, y’know–10:1 on a Shakedown opening, that sort of thing.

    I don’t know how you calculate Fair Value on any of these things, but that wouldn’t be my problem

    • thoughtsonthedead

      Jai-Alai is like horse racing: its point is to be gambled on.

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