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3/20/71: university of Iowa fieldhouse w/the new riders of the purple sage.

the dead and the new riders roll into Iowa city on the frontend of a productive spring tour, with enough fire to char-broil all the maize in johnson county. the local folks hadn’t seen or heard anything this weird or transcendent since john freeman presented his combined film, light and sound "empathy generator" sculpture installation at the U of I art museum the previous year.

the sponsors—the committee for university entertainment—had asked for a sit-on-the-floor show. those in attendance had other ideas, and simply folded up their chairs and passed them off to the side of the venue to accommodate dancing. administrators at the school were upset by the lack of respect for fire regulations, not to mention reports of ripple drinking and marijuana use. in an interview with the Daily Iowan the following week, a member of the CUE, don pugsley, shared the following in response to a question about the administration’s take on the scene: “they were disturbed by that whole thing. they were worried about flying bottles. i don’t know what to say. i’ve never been to a concert where someone was hurt in a ripple bottle fight.”

from the truckin’ opener, this one really grabs you by the horns. in the spirit of 1971, the regular shoot-em-up saloon band gallops through two sets of solid rock ‘n roll tunes with jerome’s gibson adeptly leading the way. pig is fully in his element as well, delivering standup versions of hard to handle, next time you see me, good lovin,’ and lovelight. recorded by bob mathews and digitally transferred by steve barbella, this night in the hawkeye state is worthy of a listen or two.

https://archive.org/details/gd71-03-20.sbd.barbella.5582.sbeok.shnf/gd71-03-20d1t02.shn