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CROSSTOWN BUS - 08/11/1967

BRIGHTON, MA - U.S.A.

Venue Address: 337 Washington St. - Brighton, MA
Promotion: Crosstown Bus/Brighton Center Brighton Presents
Event: In Concert

Also Performing:
The Ragamuffins

Setlist:

Harvard Yard Harp Jam (Robby Krieger)
Early Show Light My Fire (Incomplete)	Late Show The End (Incomplete)

Recordings / Film:
Unavailable

Photographers:
John Kreidl
Peter Simon - Click HERE to see these photographs!

Reviews / Info:
-Promotional Artwork by Jim Phillips (Poster), Phil Bronx (Print Ad#1), and J. Woodring (Print Ad#2).
-Elektra's Steve Harris accompanies The Doors in Boston during this time period.
-The Doors relax in Harvard Yard prior to these shows and are approached by harp players.
-Robby Krieger borrows a harp and begins an impromptu jam with the hard players in Harvard Yard.
-8:00pm & 10:30pm scheduled start times.
-Tear gas is released by an audience member prior to one of the Crosstown Bus shows and the venue is evacuated.
-The Doors leave for New York the following morning.
-The Ragamuffins headline the Crosstown Bus on August 12th.
-This venue is open Mon-Sat, features go-go cages, and tinfoil decorating on the walls.
-The Crosstown Bus closes unexpectedly during the last week of August.

FIRST-HAND REVIEWS:

"Seeing The Doors at the Crosstown Bus in Boston was a defining moment of my life. I later became a staff pop critic at the Boston Globe for 28 years and today teach the online Rock History course at Berklee College of Music. But one event that helped drive me toward a rock career was seeing Jim Morrison smash boundaries in concert. It was a pure, over-the-top rock 'n' roll evening. Jim was crawling around on stage, making strange, otherworldly noises and singing in a booming voice that made you think the roof was going to blow off, while the band accelerated behind him.

The scene had the flavor of a hedonistic Sunset Strip club with a couple of women dancing in go-go cages at the side of the stage, and tin foil mounted on the walls to reflect the psychedelic lights. And Jim, the master of hedonism, did the rest. What I had heard was all true -- he would take swigs of drinks handed to him by the crowd and as the night reached its peak, he lay down on the stage and swiveled around crazily like his Lizard King nickname implied. He was absolutely electrifying. I wish I could remember the set list, but it all elevated me to another world (and I was not on psychedelics -- I was just an innocent, 18-year-old kid from the suburbs at the time).

But the most memorable moment for me came when it was over. I was walking out of the men's room and I spotted Jim swerving and staggering toward it (guess there was no backstage bathroom; it was a small club). I'm very tall and I held up my hand as a sign to steady him. He saw it and suddenly snapped to attention, pulled himself together and high-fived me on the way in. He thanked me for the help, and I thanked him for the show. We never shook hands again, but I'll never forget it. I provided a moment of clarity for Jim Morrison."

Steve Morse
Boston, MA
Copyright © 2022 Steve Morse

A Special Thanks to Steve Morse for providing his review of the concert to MildEquator.com!

Steve Morse, staff pop critic at the Boston Globe for 28 years now teaches the online Rock History course for Berklee College of Music - https://online.berklee.edu/faculty/steve-morse

"I was 18 years old the summer of 1967 and my boyfriend at the time took me to a performance by The Doors. The Crosstown Bus was located in an old factory building in Brighton, MA. We went to this show with another couple and we had to walk up a set of stairs to reach the actual show area. As we waited on the stairs, a club employee was counting off how many people had already been admitted. When he got to my date and me, he cut off the couple behind us. I started coughing and soon everyone around me was coughing. I thought they were making fun of me until the club staff passed out chewing gum to all of us. Other people around me said someone had let off a tear canister upstairs.

When we finally entered the actual show area, there were no chairs. If you wanted to sit down, you had to sit on a dirty wooden mill floor. I was wearing a mini skirt and the only place for me to sit was in a puddle of spilled Coca-Cola. I think I stood for the show.

We also saw The Doors later that summer at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom. My younger brothers have a hard time picturing The Doors performing at the beach, but they did."

Sandy Cartwright
Windsor, ON
Copyright © 2010 Sandy Cartwright

A Special Thanks to Sandy Cartwright for providing her review of the concert to MildEquator.com!

PUBLISHED INTERVIEW:

Publication: New England Teen Scene
Issue: October - 1967
Interview Date: August 11th - 1967
Publish Date: October - 1967
Interview Location: Boston, MA

Info:
The proprietors of local Boston magazine New England Teen Scene accompany The Doors and Steve Harris for lunch and an outing around Cambridge on the second day of band's scheduled performances at the Crosstown Bus. Ray discusses the performances from the night before, and the band visits Harvard Yard where they are joined by a group of harp players who loan one to Robby for an impromptu jam. The interviewers later attend the tail end of the early show, and the full late show at the Crosstown Bus. No recordings or photographs appear to have been made during this session.