EGT Capitol Theatre Special Edition

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Capitol Theatre Run

Table of Contents

Special Edition March 8-12, 2023

TOC & General Venue Information A Brief History About The Capitol Theatre Honk For a Cure For FOXG1 Syndrome: The Power of "Yes" The el Goose Times Interview with Jay Blakesberg Local Recommendations Crossword Puzzle: The Capitol Theatre Trivia Edition

Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Pages 6-15 Page 16-17 Page 18

Editorial Staff

General Venue Information

Jon Caruso TEDitor-in-Chief Lisa Governa Goose Chicks TEDitor & Classifieds Queen Ryan Storm Music Maestro Marc Komito Contributing Writer & Resident Dance Teacher Rick Gallego Resident Chef de Cuisine Amanda Cad Master Storyteller & Logistics Specialist Andrew DaRosa Feature TEDitor Tamara Sastow BC Music Therapist & Multi-instrumentalist Joe Joseph Creative Guru & Webmaster Rus So OG Fan & Historian Paige Caruso Idea Entrepreneur & Goose Chicks Ambassador Jack Quinn Number One Newsie

Venue Address: 149 Westchester Avenue Port Chester, NY 10573

(satellite) Team

Showtime: ~8:00PM

Marc Chiavon Sparkman Clark Mikah Atkind Rebecca Jane Lee Khalee Kay Alex Grosby Brian Weber

Meme Wizard & el Confidante Comic Artist & Strange Man Accomplice Sister Spud Canadian Artiste & Visionary Creative Queen TEDvertising Adviser Music Analyst & Sage

Special Thanks To: Jay Blakesberg Caroline Herbster (Rising Tide Art Studio) The Capitol Theatre Greg Knight & Dave DiCianni

Phone (General Ticketing Inquiries): (914) 937-4126 Venue Capacity: 1,800 Box Office: 2PM to 6PM on show days Doors Open: 6:30PM

Will Call: The Will Call window is located at the main entrance to the theater at 149 Westchester Avenue.

Will Call tickets are available for pick-up on the night of the show once doors open (typically 7PM).

Prohibited Items: According to their FAQs, outside food and beverages are not permitted. The venue doesn't allow illegal drugs or paraphernalia, spray paint, laser pointers, weapons of any kind or vapor pens.

Bag Policy: Both bags and coats can be checked in the theater’s second lobby, just inside the second set of glass doors. The venue advises to arrive early if you plan on utilizing this, as it fills up.

Unfortunately, at time of writing, there isn't a clear bag policy on the website, in terms of what's allowed inside the venue - so we would exercise precaution and advice packing lightly, if possible.

Transportation: Consider taking the Metro-North trains to The Capitol Theatre. They are across the street from the Port Chester station on the New Haven line. The last train toward NYC from Port Chester leaves around 1:14 AM, and the last train toward Connecticut leaves around 2:41 AM (please note: these times are subject to change).

Parking: Parking in all Capitol Theatre lots is permitted until 1 hour after the performance ends.

There is limited street parking available in the Village of Port Chester, in all cases street parking is not permitted beyond 1am. Parking in municipal lots is permitted (in most areas) until 1am as well.

The Metro-North Garage lot (second floor of the garage structure at Brickoven Road) is listed as open 24 hours. (please note: similar to the above, these times are subject to change).

For additional information, including seating charts, venue maps, accommodations, upcoming shows at The Capitol Theatre & more, please visit: https://www.thecapitoltheatre.com

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Page Three

A Brief History About The Capitol Theatre Photo Credit: Jay Blakesberg

Written by Andrew DaRosa

In 1976, an ordinance banning The hallowed halls of Port Chester’s music after 1 a.m. spelled trouble Capitol Theatre could tell an endless stream of stories. Whether for the venue, which ultimately led to its closure, according to the it be screenings of a little known New York Times. Over the next movie called “Gone With the Wind,” couple of years the theater would or the stadium-shattering Rolling fall into a state of disrepair. The Stones performing one of its most roof of the venue collapsed as intimate concerts at the height of its commercial success, The Capitol birds swooped in and out of the theater to attend to their nests.

Theatre has earned its unofficial title as the “rock palace” of By 1983, developer Marvin the Northeast.

Ravikoff took on the task of bringing the venue back to its Debuting in 1926, The Capitol former glory and in 1984, The Theatre initially served as a movie Capitol Theatre was once again theater that also specialized in revived. Though plays and vaudeville entertainment. musicals became the principal According to the venue’s website, it artistic medium for acts coming to had to turn hundreds of people the venue, The Capitol Theatre away on its opening night. For experienced a rock revival with almost 50 years, the venue shared bands like Phish, Widespread the art of cinema with the Panic, Blues Traveler and Max Westchester County community Creek playing in the early 90s. before promoter Howard Stein took over and established The Capitol The 90s were also a period of Theatre as a live music destination. inconsistency for The Capitol Theatre. Due to financial woes, The 1970s became the golden age Ravikoff led the venue into a of the venue. Acts like the Grateful number of different directions Dead, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers including hosting seminars and by Band and Frank Zappa passed 1997, becoming a catering hall. through its doors in the early 70s and entertained the masses of That same year, the venue hosted music fans who sought out the two concerts for MTV’s “Live at the venue. It’s even speculated that 10 Spot” series. According to the Janis Joplin wrote the lyrics of “Mercedes Benz” at a local bar in aforementioned setlist.fm, the last recorded public concert to take the village, and then went to place at The Capitol Theatre premiere it acappella the same before its next revival took night when she performed at the place on Dec. 27, 1998, venue, according to the featuring Strangefolk.

Washington Post.

Page Four

In 2011, former Wetlands owner and current operator of Brooklyn Bowl, Peter Shapiro, was brought on board to helm the next chapter of The Capitol Theatre. The multimillion dollar renovation brought The Capitol Theatre into the modern age. On Sept. 4, 2012, The Capitol Theatre was officially back with a performance by legendary folk musician Bob Dylan.

Not too long after The Capitol Theatre reopened, the lobby bar was christened as Garcia’s, a project that stemmed from a partnership with the Jerry Garcia family that allowed for smaller bands to perform at the venue on the Garcia’s stage.

Eleven years after the return of The Capitol Theatre, the Port Chester staple continues to entertain concert goers with its year-round schedule. In 2022 alone, everyone from Billy Strings and Tedeschi Trucks Band to The National and Eddie Vedder have performed at The Capitol Theatre.

Beginning on March 8, Norwalk jam band Goose will make its longawaited (and sold out) return to the Port Chester rock palace.

Though no one knows exactly what will happen, one thing is for certain: if it’s anything like the venue, the shows are going to be historic.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Honk For a Cure For FOXG1 Syndrome: The Power of “Yes”

by Guest Writer: Nicole Zeitzer Johnson, Co-Founder, The FOXG1 Research Foundation During the thick of the pandemic in January of 2021, my then 13 year-old son Tanner had a Zoom guitar lesson with Rick Mitarotonda! I couldn’t believe this was really an option when I bought it for him during the holidays. They played for an hour and after the lesson Rick and I talked for a while. We talked about the pandemic, about the music biz, and Tanner’s guitar knowledge (I’m bragging). I told him about Tanner’s sister, Josie, and how she was born with this awful rare disease called FOXG1 syndrome and that I started a research foundation to find a cure for it. With the coolest sincerity, Rick said, “Whatever I can do to help, please let me know.”

My eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yes,” he said. And he meant it.

When Rick put me in touch with his manager Ben, I knew I better hurry up and follow through because these guys were about to take off!

You know how they say, you know a truly good person within the first few seconds of meeting them…Ben is one of those people. I told Ben about our work, that we have exciting gene therapy underway, and that we’re going to cure this disease. Ben said, “Yes. We’d love to try to make something happen to help.”

And he meant it, too.

I knew to be patient and grateful if we could do anything together. These guys are so busy and more in demand by the minute. They’re constantly on the road touring, recording, not to mention their side projects, and, oh, they have lives, too! Still, they all said yes to helping. The power of yes. One word that could set off the dominos to help improve lives.

Another yes that will move mountains came from Peter Shapiro. In between magically making rainbows, naming stars in the sky, putting on 100+ shows a year, and creating new projects, he said, “Let’s do something to help your work for FOXG1,” and then joined my business advisory board! The power of yes.

So when Ben and Peter told me that we could do an event during the five-night run at the Capitol Theater, I won’t lie, I turned up Butter Rum and did a dance in front of my computer that I think even embarrassed Josie.

On March 11, before the Saturday night show, Goose is going to play a private intimate performance just for Team Josie: the friends and community members who have said yes to supporting the FOXG1 Research Foundation along the way. In the midst of five consecutive shows, they’re setting aside the time to “help in any way they can.”

Here’s where it gets really exciting. This is about so much more than saying yes to helping me find a cure for FOXG1 syndrome. When Josie was diagnosed with this ultra rare disease, I thought, shit, who the hell is going to care about this? But, I guess we got lucky when we spun the wheel of gene mutations. There is a VERY big reason why people will care.

FOXG1 is one of the most important genes in brain development. We all have it and we all need it to do simple things like, talk, walk, use our hands with purpose. The gene plays a role in many other genes and is linked to many other neurological disorders.

Get this - FOXG1 is also one of the most dysregulated genes found in a population of Autism and is also linked to other major neurological diseases like epilepsy, schizophrenia, Altzheimer’s, brain cancers and more. So while FOXG1 is a rare disease, there is nothing small about the impact of our work.

Every yes has the power to help millions of people live a healthier and easier life. <<Insert Rick channeling Nina Simone, ”I cried Power, Power, Lord. Power, Power, Lord.>> I like to think about Josie in her dorm room one day, with her poster of Rick on the wall, telling her roommate that she used to have this really bad disease called FOXG1 syndrome but she doesn’t have it any more. Then she plays the "Red Bird" from 3/12/22 and they carry on with their day.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

There will be many children one day who tell their friends about a disease they were born with that was fixed right away. They will never know what could have been thanks to the work we’re doing now. So as we celebrate this incredible purpose together on March 11th with our private performance by the band who is equally as kind as they are talented, we know just how deep the power of yes runs.

There are many ways you can say yes to helping. You can donate directly at www.FOXG1research.org or you can buy some Honk for a Cure merch in the FOXG1 store.

I once said to my friends in a text group, “these guys are the definition of cool. I’m replacing the word ‘cool’ with ‘Goose.’” It stuck and now we often say things like, “that’s so Goose.”

Another way you can say yes to helping… donate to win a gorgeous Gibson guitar signed by all the members of Goose.

How Goose is that?

Page Five

The el Goose Times interview with

Jay Blakesberg Photographer, Filmmaker & Public Speaker

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Bowling Written by Jon Caruso

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

This old adage is resoundingly true and speaks to the power of photography. Photographs capture fleeting moments in time that recall a profound variety of memories and emotions, unique to every individual – and photographers, in a lot of ways, are visual historians. They observe and document our world and without them, special moments in history (or even small moments of personal significance) would be lost forever. Like other visual forms of art, photos can transcend language barriers and connect us in ways other mediums can’t.

Rock and roll photographers, in particular, have played an important role chronicling different eras of music, spontaneous moments and epic collaborations between generations of musicians.

Concert photography is about capturing the art of the performance and the overall vibe of any given show.

It can be extraordinarily difficult, as the quality of concert photos largely depend on conditions out of their control. For example, changing light conditions from lighting rigs can affect camera exposure, while the overall movement and unpredictability of live performances keep photographers on their toes to ensure they have focus and good composition.

Page Six

Great music photography can bring people back to a particular moment in time and make them feel like they’re a part of the audience – even if they weren’t there. No one knows this better than Jay Blakesberg, legendary rock-and-roll photographer, filmmaker and public speaker.

His iconic live photos and portraiture have been featured in print for magazines, books and record companies countless times and he has worked with many legendary artists, including the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Carlos Santana, B.B. King, Phish, Radiohead, Soundgarden and many other well-known, critically acclaimed musicians.

Beginning in 1987, he shot over 300 assignments for Rolling Stone magazine and his first solo museum exhibition at the Morris Museum - New Jersey’s only Smithsonian-affiliate; closed February, 2023.

Jay has published 16 coffee table books: including his newest; RetroBlakesberg – Volume One: The Film Archives, a 312-page hardcover coffee table book curated by his daughter Ricki and out now.

The el Goose Times had the opportunity to speak with Jay about his background and what attracts him to the medium. As we reflect on his legendary career, we also talk about why The Capitol Theatre is a special venue to so many people, his thoughts about Goose and more.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

For our readers who might not be familiar with your work, how did you get into photography?

I started taking pictures as a teenager in the late 1970s. I took photographs at concerts and pictures of my friends - trying to figure out what my place in the script was: Who was I? What did I do? Where did I fit in? Where was I going? And I dug it…

I liked taking pictures at concerts, because when I developed the film in the basement at my mother’s house, I could make prints and thumbtack them to my bedroom wall. I was creating my own memorabilia and it felt good! Essentially that’s where I started, for fun – I was just fucking around with a camera, figuring it all out – how to expose film properly and hopefully capturing what was going on in front of me in an honest way.

Were your parents big photographers?

My Father is an Accountant, a CPA by trade – more or less retired now, he’s 85 – and my Father was a very, very serious hobbyist shutterbug. There’s a lot of photographs of us as young kids and he loved to take pictures…he had a good eye and I have some of those old photos. He still takes pictures to this day – not so much with a digital camera anymore – which he did for a long time, but now mostly on his phone. All through his entire adult life, he always took pictures on film cameras and then eventually digital cameras. He always liked it and I definitely think that I got that bug from him and some of that DNA was passed down, because even in the 1960s he had a good eye for composition and knew how to properly expose film.

My parents were encouraging - certainly my father was encouraging. He loaned me his camera when I was 16 years old to bring to a Grateful Dead concert. That was the first time I shot the band, sixteen years old on Labor Day Weekend 1978.

Life changing moment!!

That’s amazing! What attracts you to the medium?

Well, its changed over time. In the early days, I was shooting for fun, I was shooting for pleasure…

I was shooting for me. As I became a professional photographer, I started shooting for other people who were paying me money to shoot for them - and that was a different playbook, a different goal, a different endgame.

What attracts me to the medium, I think, is through all of those decades, the end result has always really turned me on. Looking at my developed photos and now what comes out of my camera on the computer screen – really, really still turns me on!! I’m also inspired by looking at other people’s photographs and now with Instagram and things like that.

I get to see what my friends are doing: people like Dylan Langille, who is the Greensky Bluegrass photographer, or Jesse Faatz, Billy Strings photographer, Adam Berta, who is the Goose photographer and Nuch (Michael Nuchereno - also Goose Photog), who blows my mind every fuckin’ time he takes a picture – I mean the guy is inspiring! And that’s just a handful of the great shooters out there...

Tara Gracer, Josh Skolnik, Aaron Bradley, Josh Timmermans, Andrew Blackstein, Steph Port, Jay Strausser...the list goes on and on with these photographers creating amazing music photos/documentation. I still dig what I create, so that is a good thing - but I’m also turned on by what other people create and by photographs made forty or fifty or sixty years ago. And so, that’s what attracts me to the medium - it still inspires me and I’m still passionate about it.

Back then, we had to wait two or three days until you got back to your lab to drop your film off and wait for it to be processed. Now, when I shoot photos, I can look on the back of my camera and I’m pretty sure I got it - or its close enough where I can manipulate it in Photoshop or Lightroom to make it perfect. But, when I import those photos into my computer and I start editing them; it still inspires me and there’s still passion behind it. Those are the key ingredients for living our lives as creative people: passion and inspiration. Because without them, what do you have? Nothing. Sorry for the long answer!

No apologies necessary, that’s a great answer.

It's amazing what story a single photo can really tell or what it can really bring out of a person: whether it's a certain memory or feelings of joy to sadness.

Absolutely, it can really move you. It’s interesting – back in the day, when we shot for print publications, I might go and shoot a show and shoot 10 or 15 rolls of film. So, 36 exposures on a roll, I might shoot 300-700 photos over the course of a concert and the magazine would run one or two photos – or maybe if it was a cover story, I’d get a cover and then an inside and a third image.

Nowadays we have this infinite thing called the Internet... there’s no limitations, right? We can tell stories in long form or short form: here’s one photo and that’s going to tell the story or here’s ten photos or here’s five hundred photos…We tell stories differently with our photos today.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Continued on page 9

Page Seven

Pictured Above: Jay's first portrait of Goose

"Those are the key ingredients for living our lives as creative people: passion and inspiration. Because without them, what do you have? Nothing." - Jay Blakesberg

Page Eight

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Beautifully said. Roughly how many artists/ bands have you photographed in total?

Based on your experience, what are some of the elements that make up a great concert or pop culture photo?

A great photo can be anything that moves and inspires somebody. It can be great for one person or great for a million people…you just don’t know.

There’s a lot of historic photos, right? You might be a photographer and you’re getting three songs in the pit when Trey and Goose are on stage and you get a decent shot – it’s not a brilliant shot, but that’s a great photo for you because it’s a historic moment that may or may not ever happen again.

Who knows? I have plenty of photographs that I consider great photographs, because they’re historically important - but they’re shitty photographs: this musician sitting in with that musician or this musician playing and they’re no longer with us - and that’s the only photograph that you have of them.

What makes a great live concert photograph is something that’s got energy and captures the moment of what’s happening and translates that story visually to the person consuming it. When people go and they consume your photographs on Instagram or Facebook or wherever it might be, if you make a print or whatever…a week, a month, years later, if it can bring them back to that moment, which was hopefully a magical moment for the viewer - then that’s a successful photograph. It feels good to be brought back to those moments, those experiences– it’s like music. I don’t know about you, but there’s moments when you’re driving in a car and a song might come on the radio and it might bring you back to when you were 8 or 10 or 14 or 20 or your first girlfriend or your first boyfriend or your future ex-wife or your future ex-husband or whatever it might be. It triggers something.

Photographs can do the same thing. They can trigger something to bring you back to that moment that was super special for you – and that’s what I’m hoping to do with my photographs.

I’m trying to create these images that when people revisit these photographs, they’re like, “Aahh, that makes me feel really good” (sigh of relief, warmth) – like I’m hugging myself or it brings me back to that incredible moment with that special person or that group of special people or connection you had to that band.

As you grow older and that band grows older, your relationship to that music changes and your relationship to those photographs changes over time as well. I want the relationship to the photograph to be the bridge to those memories, those feelings. That is a big ask of a static image, but if the image is good - it happens!

Impossible to say…for artists, I do have a database and every artist in that database has their own four digit code…and I believe we are in the high two thousands or low three thousands.

Now, some of that is misleading, because, it might be Keller Williams and Keller’s Grateful Gospel - or there could be some codes in there that we assigned to some things that were shot by other photographers that we manage their archives with, because we manage some other photo archives as well. So, I’m going to say 2,500 different artists over the years. I feel very fortunate that I have that body of work.

I have a new book out called RetroBlakesberg – Volume One: The Film Archives, which is only photographs that I shot on film from 1978 to 2008 and all of those bands you just mentioned are in there – Kurt Cobain was gone long before we shot digital, so the only photographs of Nirvana are on film. Radiohead I’ve shot both digitally and on film. I was lucky enough to photograph Radiohead for the first time in…1993, same year I shot Phish for the first time.

Wow. That’s incredible!

I used to pursue portraiture way more than live shots - because to me, it was a more intimate way of telling the story of who that artists is.

It was a different kind of connection to the photographs I was making. I still love shooting portraits - I did some quick portraits of Goose in Mexico. I did a really fun portrait shot of Orebolo in Mexico which I think will show up somewhere along the way when they do some shows.

The first time I did a portrait of Goose, they were opening for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall, which held 600 people…they were the opening act. They’re managed by the same people Goose and Pigeons – Pigeons was hiring me to do a photo shoot with them, because they needed some new publicity photos.

This was literally weeks before the pandemic, none of us had any idea…and Goose came along for the ride to the photo shoot and I did a portrait of them as well. My first band portrait was with just the four of them, before Jeff was in the band.

Continued on page 11

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Page Nine

Pictured Above: Playing in the Sand 2020 | Pictured Below: Playing in the Sand 2023

"The nature of this changes - in terms of what we shoot, why we shoot it, how we shoot it and what we shoot it for.

It is part of the overall documentation of an artist, it is ‘Visual Anthropology.'" - Jay Blakesberg Page Ten

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

The nature of this changes - in terms of what we shoot, why we shoot it, how we shoot it and what we shoot it for. It is part of the overall documentation of an artist, it is ‘Visual Anthropology”. In 25 years, we’ll look back on these pictures and these guys are going to be in their mid-late 50’s and they’ll be like, “God, look at us when we were 30 years old” historical moments, frozen in time!

It’s amazing to look back on. Photos are moments in time that are immortalized!

I did my first Phish portrait in 1993. I did my first candid Bob Weir portrait in ’79, when I was a teenager and then I just did a new portrait of Weir right after New Years in 2023…It’s an ongoing swirl that hopefully never ends! The first time was in 1978, so that was forty four plus years ago…and I’m still photographing Bob Weir, so there’s this arc. There’s this anthropological arc, this rock and roll arc…it’s an amazing adventure!

With this body of work that you have, was this one of the reasons why you started the Retro Photo Archive with your daughter?

My daughter Ricki studied Photography and Business at Skidmore and she’s now in a Master’s program in Arts Management in New York City. She’s really interested in my archive and loves working with it. There’s two parts of it: @RetroBlakesberg (an Instagram page she started at the beginning of the pandemic) and Retro Photo Archive.

That’s a business that my daughter and I are running together...she’s slowly integrating in and will eventually take over Retro Photo Archive, which will include my archive. You can see some of this work on Instagram @retrophotoarchive.

At the beginning of the pandemic, my daughter came to me and said, “Hey, I want to do a new Instagram page for you and call it ‘RetroBlakesberg’ and its only photographs that you shot on film.” I was like, “That’s a great idea,” so she started doing that with great success.

RetroBlakesberg: Captured on Film - 1978 to 2008 is the museum exhibit and that was at The Morris Museum - the only Smithsonian-affiliated museum in the state of New Jersey. I had four galleries there: 126 prints, glass cases with ephemera and memorabilia...didactics written about me in the third-person. It’s like the real fucking deal. My work is in a museum! I’m pretty proud of this exhibit and Ricki curated it, and she also curated the book - and of course the Instagram page and that’s basically the gist of RetroBlakesberg. My film photographs are already a part of the Retro Photo Archive, so when somebody uses a film photograph somewhere, the photo credit is Jay Blakesberg/Retro Photo Archive. Its our own little boutique stock licensing agency that we own and operate.

As an artist, you start to think about, “What happens to your work when you’re gone?”

Music lives on in a different way than visual stuff – moving film or photography. I want my work to be around for another fifty years, if not longer, and so I started thinking, "Okay, people are interested in what I do today...how do I keep them interested in 30+ years? How does my daughter keep this alive financially? Can she do it with JUST my work?" So, we started to acquire archival photography collections that have been dormant, either from deceased photographers or elderly photographers that don’t know how to get this imagery out in the world. We’ve acquired several archives over the last few years and that’s what Retro Photo Archive is. We're actively searching for pop culture/music archives that are shot on film, nothing digital. We have an incredible historic collection and it is growing. I found 75 rolls of film of Jazz Fest in 1971 that nobody has ever seen before. Twelve rolls of film with Evel Knievel in Pictured Above: Jay Blakesberg 1972. The Rolling Stones in ’69 and ’72. Bob Dylan with his daughter Ricki in Nov. 2021 in ’74 and ’75. There’s all of this stuff that we’re getting and we’re resurrecting it; getting it out into Photo Credit: Lindsey Ross the world and generating some revenue for the people who took these photos (or their estates). Continued on page 13

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Page Eleven

Pictured Above: Goose with Trey Anastasio & Father John Misty at Radio City Music Hall on June 25, 2022 Pictured Below: Goose with Bob Weir at Playing in the Sand 2023

"If you don’t show up, you can’t capture it, as a photographer.

If you don’t show up to the show…you can’t have the experience. " - Jay Blakesberg Page Twelve

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Looking back on your career, what are some of your proudest accomplishments?

Well, my proudest accomplishments, of course as a father, are my children. I do have two incredible, creative children. Ricki’s working on all of the photography stuff with me. My son is a staff writer on a Netflix television show in LA and he’s also a filmmaker. I got lucky with creative kids, who also don’t want a corporate type career, which is great!

I’ve got an incredible wife and we have been together for over 30 years - so all of those are personal accomplishments I am proud of.

On a professional level, the fact that I’m still relevant and that people are actually interested in my photography. I’ve essentially had a career as a rock-and-roll photographer now full-time for 35+ years. I quit my last job in 1987 and I’ve been working for myself ever since. I hope what I do still inspires people and they can be passionate about the work like I am. It still feels good to me. And I’m still having fun, because you know what...fun is fucking fun! (chuckles) I hope that doesn’t come off as pretentious or anything.

No, not at all - it’s personally inspiring to see someone who followed their dreams and were so successful! What are some of your favorite venues you’ve visited throughout your career?

Favorite venues? I like venues that don’t have really high stages. Any venue is a good venue to shoot at as long as there’s lighting and you can have access. I do dig venues that have cool history…and the ghosts are friendly…

The Capitol Theatre, built in 1926, has housed thousands of legendary shows from the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Phish and countless others. What does this venue mean to you? Why do you think bands like playing this venue?

Bands like playing rooms where magic drips from the walls. The Fillmore in San Francisco…Jimi played there, Janis played there, the Dead played there, magic happened, it’s part of the building forever...a legendary room. The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY is a legendary room because of some of the artists that have played there. With the Cap, you also have to take into consideration the people who manage it - and the people who run it are the personality behind that room, right?

The Fillmore in SF is a Live Nation room, but it’s got it’s own personality because of the people that run it: Michael Bailey and Amie Bailey and the other staff there. It’s a vibe. It’s the whole package, AND it is in San Francisco! In San Francisco, almost every venue somehow has the "Bill Graham vibe," because someone involved in that venue once worked for Bill or was trained by someone that worked for him.

Many incredible people that ushered in the modern day concert experience from San Francisco worked with Bill: Peter and Bob Barsotti, Sherri Wasserman, Gregg Perloff, Danny Scher and David Mayeri - to name just a handful.

The Cap has got a lot of magical history, but the one thing that the Cap has that no other venue has is Pete Shapiro. Pete is what makes sure that the vibe is the vibe. I just recently finished Pete’s book…

Pete and I are good friends, but after reading his book, I feel like I know so much more about him and what his motivations are and the way that he thinks.

The way his brain works and how he conjures magic.

The Cap is a special venue because of the people that run it. It’s a special venue because of the projections they put on the walls and the ceilings.

It’s a special venue because of the carpeting and the wallpaper they chose to put in there. It’s a special venue because of the bands that choose to come back there…I’m not a local but I love the Cap! I live in California, but its still my venue, you know what I mean? That’s my take on the Cap: is that it’s the people, the vibe and the vision of Pete Shapiro and the people that are under him that share his vision. That's what makes a great venue!

Given your storied career, what is it like seeing younger generations of musicians today collaborating with those who paved the way that you’ve grown up with, like Bob Weir?

Nothing turns me on more than seeing these sit-ins happen. I did a book called Jam eight or ten years ago that’s about bands sitting in with bands, collaborating. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of: “no risk, no reward.” And when you put Rick and Bob Weir on stage together – maybe they rehearsed a song backstage a couple of times – there is still risk in there and if it works, the reward is grand.

Trey…nobody knew what this Trey/Goose thing was going to be. Do you know anybody who walked away from that saying, “Oh, that sucked!” Right? No risk, no reward. They took the risk, and the reward was great – for them, as players and it was fucking fabulous for the fans. I love that and I love photographing those moments. And if I want to photograph those moments, I have to show up….because if I don’t, I can’t capture those historical moments!

That was something that was in Pete’s book and something I’ve always said. If you don’t show up, you can’t capture it, as a photographer. If you don’t show up to the show…you can’t have the experience.

Continued on page 15

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

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Pictured Above: Playing in the Sand 2020 | Pictured Below: Red Rocks 2022

"A lot of people laugh at us for what we do and the amount of time and energy and money that we put into this - but for us, that’s where we get to touch that magic: as photographers by capturing that moment and as fans by experiencing those collective moments." - Jay Blakesberg Page Fourteen

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

This used to drive my wife crazy in the old days, when I’d be like, “Yeah, I heard that, Bobby’s gonna sit-in with so and so down at The Great American Music Hall or the Warfield or Sweetwater” and she’d be like, “C’mon!

Who cares!” And I knew it was important to capture, so I'd respond: “No! Bobby’s gonna sit-in with x-groovy musician…and I gotta be there!” Now, 25+ years later, I look at photos from special nights or sit-ins and I was like: “Fuck yeah I was there and here’s the fuckin’ photos to prove it!” It’s not just for me, it’s for all of us. It’s for our collective pop culture history.

A lot of people laugh at us for what we do and the amount of time and energy and money that we put into this - but for us, that’s where we get to touch that magic: as photographers by capturing that moment and as fans by experiencing those collective moments.

People wonder, "Why are you going to 20 Goose shows this year?" Because there’s a good chance that you’re going to get to touch magic. Connections are made by musicians connecting with musicians. Jeff and Ben sitting in with Dead & Co, Bob with Goose were both epic moments at epic events! Older generations of musicians playing with younger generations…fucking unreal, I live for it, I live to photograph it.

I love it! How did you first hear about Goose? What draws you to the band and their music?

I believe I first heard of them from friends of mine, who are big Pigeons fans – a family from Richmond, Virginia. I’m friends with the mom and everyone in the family, from shows.

I missed the Goose show at Peach, the one where Rick was sitting because of the leg injury. I missed that show although I was at the festival, but I don’t know why I missed it.

But everyone was talking about Goose.

Even before that I had been hearing about it, but when Ben Baruch and Dave DiCianni, who (now) manages Pigeons and Goose, started saying, “I think we’re going to start working with this band Goose.” And I was like, “Yeah, I’ve heard of them but I haven’t heard their music.” They were both saying to me, “Oh yeah, you gotta hear Goose, you are going to love this band.” It didn’t take long to go down that road of Love, Devotion and Surrender!!

My first Goose shows were in Mexico when they did the late-night stuff with Dead & Co and I fell in love with it right there. I met the guys and got introduced to them by Dave and Ben on the beach, and we did a quick photograph of the band and their crew and families. On that trip, I met Sam (the monitor mixer), Murph, Goedde, and Coach - that was the first time I met Coach (Jon Lombardi). They were excited I was there and I was Dead & Co’s photographer and I was coming to shoot their show. I became friends with all of them pretty quickly. Very generous and very warm people across the whole Goose family/crew.

I was on the East Coast doing my Grateful Dead slideshow, and Ben, Peter & Jeff all came to see me at the FTC in CT. When they came out to the West Coast and we did that photo shoot - I shot their shows and our friendship deepened. I was supporting them, because I liked them as people and musicians!! I was into it - and I would show support by being there and shooting. Then they started inviting me to stuff: “Hey, are you going to come to Red Rocks? Can you come to Goosemas?

We want you to get a shot for us.” Ben asked me to come to Goosemas to get a picture of him proposing to Sam. Everyone in the band, crew and family are just super real, down to earth groovy humans… That’s how I met those guys. I’m thirty years older then them, but we all travel on the same frequency. I did a book in 2008 called Traveling on a High Frequency and its really about musicians and what they do. Sometimes I get to ride on that frequency with them…and bring my camera!

Thank you so much for your time, Jay! Again, it’s been an honor and a privilege to be able to have this discussion with you and reflect on your storied career.

If our readers would like to learn more about how to purchase Jay’s new book or look at the Retro Photo Archive, please visit: www.rockoutbooks.com www.retrophotoarchive.com For additional content not in this article, including additional photos provided by Jay Blakesberg, scan the QR code below!

* All photos featured in this interview are by Jay Blakesberg, except where otherwise noted.

All Rights Reserved.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

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Jam Vehicle Designs

JVD

Unique Shirts, Hats, Slaps, Pins, Prints, & More j a m v e h i c l e d e s i g n s . e t s y. c o m Port Chester Local Recommendations Written by Amanda Cad

WELCOME TO

Welcome to Port Chester! For some of you, this will be home for the next five days. For others, you may be stopping by for a one-night visit.

Either way, we’ve got some of the best local recommendations for food, drink, and fun here. From our team to yours, have a great run!

NEW YORK The Empire State

Food & Drink T&J’S PIZZA AND PASTA 227 Westchester Avenue (914) 939-4134

QUERIA LA PICARDIA 118 Westchester Ave. (914) 937-2003

Walking distance from The Capitol Theatre. Casual, family-run Italian restaurant serving Neapolitan pizza & Italian mains.

A short walking distance from The Capitol Theatre! This compact spot with a funky, laid-back vibe serves tacos, fajitas & other Mexican staples.

JOEY'S 538 Willett Ave. (914) 312-9049 15% off before or after the night’s event with a Capitol Theatre ticket stub! Delicious Food, Unique Atmosphere, Awesome Vibe. Kitchen is open until Midnight SUN-WED and until 3AM THU - SAT Page Sixteen

SALTAIRE OYSTER BAR 55 Abendroth Avenue (914) 939-2425 Roomy warehouse bar & eatery offering fine ocean fare & artisan spirits in stylish surrounds.

Hubba’s Chili 24 N Main St (914) 305-3107

Sam's Bar and Grill 1 Mill St (914) 939-2001

Open until 1 AM on the weekdays and as late as 4 AM on the weekends.

OPEN DAILY 4PM - 3:30 AM Time-tested American restaurant & bar.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

Things To Do Lyon Park 331 Putnam Ave (914) 939-2354

Clay Art Center 40 Beech St (914) 937-2047

This park is open 8am-6pm every day and is great for walks or biking. Features a 9/11 Memorial, Bush Lyons Farmstead, Firefighters Memorial, Veteran's Memorial Walk, Vietnam War Memorial and more.

Open 10am-5pm most days. The Clay Art Center is the largest and most active ceramic facility in the tri-state area and hosts various exhibitions and classes.

Just In Case CityMD Rye Brook Urgent Care Urgent Care Center 108 S Ridge St · In Rye Ridge Shopping Center (914) 219-0187

Open Door Family Medical Center- Port Chester Medical Office 5 Grace Church St (914) 632-2737

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Hours are 9:00AM - 9:00PM (Mon-Fri); 8:00AM - 5:00PM (Sat-Sun).

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Hours are 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM (Mon-Thur), 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Fri) and 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Sat). Closed Sundays.

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Has online care.

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Has online care.

SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

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Crossword The Capitol Theatre Trivia Edition Down

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1. The Capitol Theatre is located in _______ County.

4

2. Born in 1870, this Scottish-born, American architect designed The Capitol Theatre in the early 1920s.

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3. The grand opening on August 18, 1926 included a performance of this anthem by a 10-piece orchestra.

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7. Village in New York State where The Capitol Theatre is located.

8 9 10

9. The _____ _____ played The Capitol Theatre eighteen (18) times between 1970 and 1971.

The February 19th show was released under Three From the Vault and features the debut of “Bird Song” and “Deal.”

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10. Their April 22, 1970 Capitol Theatre performance has become a treasured bootleg, which includes an early version of “Atom Heart Mother."

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14. Concert promoter that's partnered with The Capitol Theatre, The _______ Presents.

Across

4. Under the direction of __________, the likes of Janis Joplin, Traffic, Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead all graced The Capitol Theatre in the 1970s.

5. The owner of The Capitol Theatre since December 2011 who has breathed new life into this legendary venue under his vision and leadership.

6. This American film industry executive - founder of what’s now known as 20th Century Studios - owned the theater for a short stint in 1929.

8. The Capitol Theatre, as we know it today, reopened on September 4, 2012 with ________ as its first act.

11. On March 7th, 1984, The Capitol Theatre reopened with a performance of ________, after being purchased the year prior by local developer Marvin Ravikoff.

12. The Capitol Theatre christened its "lobby bar" as __________ in honor of the late Grateful Dead guitarist and singer, who counted the Cap among his favorite venues in the country.

13. There are 271 ________ built into the architecture at The Capitol Theatre.

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SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

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Non-Commercial, Freeform Community Radio Serving Bridgeport & Beyond via WPKN.org SPECIAL EDITION: Capitol Theatre | March 2023

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