In between the Sally Can’t Dance tour and Street Hassle tour Lou came to St. Louis playing the Ambassador Theater downtown May 23 1975. This was a show that was open seating. Meaning, you took the seat that you could get. Like the festival theater that proved a horror show in Cleveland for The Who concert.
Well fortunately Lou’s fan weren’t quite that rabid. (stay tuned for future festival theater nightmares regarding The Rolling Stones in Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium and the first Super Jam in St. Louis) At the time I was a big fan of Lou thinking of him as one of the unholy Trinity of Bowie, Reed and Iggy. We arrived early and were not trampled to death or anything when we got in and snatched front row.
The first set was by a band called the Roadies, which were composed of roadies for Bachman Turner Overdrive. The second band was Sting Driven Thing, most noted for the K-SHE Classic song Circus. Both bands put on spirited and competent performances. I was filling with anticipation.
In the seat next to me there was a congenial fellow. We engaged in our fandom of rock & roll and Lou Reed in particular. And being such a nice fellow he invited me to share his cocaine, of which I was more than happy to accept .(you would think I would’ve have learned from my previous Lou concert… story to come)
He placed it up on the stage and I felt quite the 18 year old rocker snorting down a portion right on the stage. After the fact I asked where he acquired it. He told me he got it from a random black guy outside the venue before coming in.
Oops! I don’t think I had much experience with coke before then. My experiences after I never took to it much because it never did anything for me. I would complain of that fact to friends and associates. They would ask me, “T-bone, what else are you doing when you do coke?” I would say, “You know, drinking a lot of beer, smoking a lot of pot.” And they would respond, ” Well that’s the problem you shouldn’t be mixing it like that.” And my response to that was, “If it don’t mix well with beer and pot then I don’t think this is an appropriate drug for me.” So while many suffered problems in the 70’s and the 80’s with cocaine I was not one of them.
But I digress.
The reason I mentioned all that was to explain that the high I was getting from this alleged cocaine was not coke, I would say it more resembled a hallucinogenic. Which would have minor tragic consequences shortly.
Lou came on the stage. I yelled at the top of my lungs, “God Bless Lou Reed!”
The band was playing loose and sloppy, in between every 3 or 4 words of lyric Lou would insert a cuss word.
For example Sweet Jane.
Standing on the fucking corner shit suitcase in my mother fucking hand
Jack’s in his fucking corset prick me I’m a mother fucker in a rock and fuck you band
I was not enjoying this performance and Lou seemed to be enjoying it less than me. About 3 songs in I shouted “play some fucking music!” Being in the first row right up against the stage Lou shot me a look of incredible malice, hatred and disgust and told me to go fuck myself.
From that point onwards I had become a focus point for Lou’s anger. All the cuss words he was singing before he was now aiming right for the chubby Mexican in the first row. Glaring and grimacing at me. You know… like the movies where the singer sees his love in the audience and it’s as though the rest of the crowd fades away and it is only the two love birds making eye contact and having deep feelings. But replace all those feelings of love with the desire to kill on Lou’s face and the fear of death on mine.
‘Bout this time the effects of the drug were really kicking in. Here I was a hapless teenager on the wrong end of one of my music hero’s intense rage. There was nothing else to do but give up my prized seat and hang in the theater lobby trying to chill my shaken self.
Eventually I went back in. Put on a brave face and had my evening fall apart in other ways which I’ll not go into here. On the plus side a concert that stays in my memory to this day because… well… how often does one get cussed out by Lou Reed?
Just another day, in The Rock & Roll Days.