Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Late night open thread

On this day in history The Who gave their famous performance on the Smothers Brothers Show. Bette Davis fainted backstage from the explosion. More backstory:

Keith Moon was already in the habit of placing an explosive charge in one his two bass drums to detonate during Pete Townshend's guitar-smashing at the end of each Who performance. But for their Smothers Brothers appearance, Moon packed several times the normal amount of explosives into his drum kit, and when he set it off, a gigantic explosion rocked the set as a cloud of white smoke engulfed Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey. Though bassist John Entwistle never lost his cool, Daltrey practically flew downstage and when Townshend emerged from the smoke, his hair was almost literally blown to one side of his head. Though the incredible explosion has been rumored to have caused Pete Townshend's eventual near-deafness, credit for that should probably go instead to the Who's pioneering use of stacked Marshall amplifiers as a means of achieving maximum volume during their live performances.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

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