What Went On Under the Stage at Fillmore East

‘Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever’ Book Excerpt

Grateful Dead perform at Fillmore EastPhoto byBen Haller

Before he became an acclaimed television and film director, Allan Arkush was a member of the stage crew and later joined Joe’s Lights at Fillmore East. In this excerpt from Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever, Arkush recalls the area of the New York City concert hall favored by Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, singer and keyboardist of the Grateful Dead.

Allan Arkush: Stairs go up to the upstairs dressing room but right next to them was a set of stairs that went downstairs underneath the stage. And in there, that’s where all the sound people were and all the equipment people were and that’s where often there was a tape recorder to record live concerts.

It was also a place where certain rockers who wanted no part of any of the other craziness, because of all the people backstage, would go and hide. And just hang out there. And we left room for them to be there but they had to be people that got along with the sound people. That was also where all those secret quarter-inch tapes were made.

What the bands didn’t know was that the sound system was hooked up through the floor down to the sound tech room where all the equipment was repaired and worked on and they always had a tape machine running on every set of every band.

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan outside Fillmore EastPhoto byDr. Arlene Q. Allen

Owsley [Stanley] used to hang out down there and Pigpen was always down there because he wanted no part of the craziness. In fact, when the Dead would be around every so often, they set up a couch and a table and bar for Pigpen to hang in.

It was that kind of atmosphere. If you went down there to hang out with the sound techs, they would also have other technicians from Broadway. It was like Nerd City down there. They’d tell jokes about transistors.

And that’s also where the water bottles were kept for the backstage water cooler. And the extra sodas and beers and coolers. So the night that the backstage got dosed, which was the night of the weekend of Love, the Allman Brothers, and the Dead, the Saturday night show, that’s where I carried the empty bottle, went down there, got a full bottle, and while I was down there, somebody put acid in the water bottle. ’Cause the top was opened.

Frank Mastropolo is the author of Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever and 200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.