Toad's Place

They're gonna be...

There's gonna be a f- uh, a free T-shirt for," like whatever, "the first 50 to 100 people in the door." And I remember there was a band Bulletboys was playing Toad's Place-

Okay

... and I went to flyer that show, and that was like a glam show.

It's a little bit like trying to get tickets to some rare concert.

People will sometimes or there's someone coming to Toad's who's very famous and you have trouble getting tickets.

Is that right? Did anything like this happen It happens somewhere anyway.

So, you might end up standing in line for hours the first time the ticket office opens.

You know this, right? These stars are managed and they're not just spectacularly good singers.

The impresario is critically important in maintaining the career of a singer and the impresario is very concerned about appearances.

You don't want to charge a really high price to get into Toad's because then it would only be wealthy people from the suburbs who would be coming and it would destroy the whole atmosphere of the place.

You've got to charge reasonably low-priced tickets then a lot of people will come flocking to you and then they'll create the excitement.

Sure, he was a mystery.

My friend h- said, you know, a friend of his said, "Hey, Andy, I got some tickets, uh, for Toad's Place in New Haven to go see Beck." Right? So my cousin thinks it's Jeff Beck.

He says-

Common problem, yeah.

Yeah.

They were an incredible funk band back in, like, the '90s, early 2000s, and he took me to see them when I was still, like, 13 or 14, and it was, like, at Toad's Place.

Yeah.

'Cause they played at Toad's, like-

Yep.

And it was just like, the feeling was very visceral and, like, the whole band and especially the drummer, I was like, "Oh my God, this is...

I can't believe, like, you can feel, like, music can make you feel this way." And so I saw them at Toad's Place, like, 15 times, but that was, that had to b- have been, the first Deep Banana Blackout show was probably the first show where, like, that, that happened.

Probably in like '99, 2000, something like that.

that was their first charted album in america made number 90 and their first charting single fool for your loving made 54 however now i still had great expectations in spite of what i was told because the owner of mirage lived in my hometown and i got to know him and uh So one day I rang him.

I saw Steppenwolf at Toad's Place, right down the road from Yale University.

And yes, I went to Yale.

I went to the... art museum a few times.

And, uh, he's also a friend since high school who at the time in Trumbull, you know, you're a little weird if you like the talking heads or anything different or REM.

And, uh, he was one of he was he was one of my my guys and uh he's a little younger than me but there was a good crew of younger people that loved and would go to these shows rem at the harford agor and all the stuff and so the problem is sid loves all types of music and he said hey you know it'd be great i'm going to a show at toad's place tuesday it's a hardcore trio show And he gave me some songs to play, and I'm like, okay, fine.

I'm going to play some hardcore.

But the thing is, I said, well, I can't play anything with curses.

He's a great supporter of WPKN.

And so we heard Live While You Can, Pennywise, Crucial Barbecue from Murphy's Law.

And I don't care from Black Flag, although Circle Jerks are playing, not Black Flag, but Circle Jerks, Murphy's Law, and Pennywise over at Toad's Place next Tuesday night.

I'm going to see the Buzzcocks tonight.

Oh, great.

So one time he invited Niall to a big club that we played at often, Toad's Place in New Haven.

I'm sure you've heard of that.

And he said, now you got to come up and hear the band.