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HOT_SUFFOLK_FORUM

                                             August 2, 2007

  Some of the Stage Crew gang
  I was hanging with were
  Dead Heads, and by extension
  they were up for going to see
  "Hot Tuna".

  So we went to see them
  perform live:

     "General Admission".            Ah, never would those
                                     two simple words have
                                     such an innocent ring
  Myself, I was something            to them.
  of a Jefferson Airplane
  fan, and I thought the
  Hot Tuna records I'd heard
  were at least listenable,
  and I'd never done a              This was at the mildly pathetic,
  "real concert" before...          slightly scuzzy Long Island hockey
                                    arena known as "The Suffolk Forum".

      People were screaming
      to each other across
      the parking lot:

      "*Hot* *Fucking* *Tuna*!!!!"      In retrospect:
                                        a common pattern
                                        of forced gaiety...
      The warm-up band was
      remarkable for their
      technical proficiency,
      and for the amazingly
      conceited, condescending    The audience was
      vibe the guitarist          screaming "Fuck
      managed to project.         You" at him, which     Though I later
                                  was understandable.    realized that
                                                         this was part
         Then Hot Tuna themselves                        of the ritual:
         started up, and I can                           the hatred of
         remember not a thing                            the "warmup" band,
         about the music they                            which you did
         performed.                                      *not* pay to see.

            My Dead Head friends, as it                      ("warm-up" isn't
            turns out, were proud of                          really it:
            their crowd surfing skills,                       more like
            and they were into the game                       "filler".
            of repeatedly squeezing                           Gotta make it
            their way up front, then                          feel like a
            retreating and doing it again.                    big production,
                                                              even though the
            Myself, I was more interested                     main band isn't
            in not getting crushed to                         going to want
            death, in this solid sea of                       to play for
            humanity all pressed chest to                     more than an
            back, elbow to elbow.                             hour.)


                  One of my friends --
                  an asthmatic -- was
                  sucking on some dope
                  and managed to black
                  out for a minute.
                  Luckily someone thought
                  fast and held him up,       Some years later I talked
                  saving him from a           with another woman who was
                  trampling.                  at this concert -- she
                                              doesn't remember anything
                      (No doubt, she          about it, because she
                      would take the          was so wasted, she just
                      wheel if he was         went to sleep in the back.
                      seeing double.)
                                                     Ah, Long Island...
                                                     Ah, the Seventies...

            We were all fused together
            into a physical mass, but
            by no means a spiritual one...



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