Aerosmith, Boston Garden, April 18/19, 1975

In early part of the '70s, I was hanging out with a local CT band called White Chocolate. I'd been a roadie for them for a while, but doing that and my day job at the family store was too much for me, so I shifted to being a friend and the designated driver to the gigs. Anyway, the band was packing clubs all over CT, when the manager tells us we're blowing off the Friday and Saturday night gigs we had planned, and opening for a band (I'd never heard of) at the Garden in Boston. Personally, I was looking forward to the gigs in Ledyard - I liked the club and the girl I was dating was from there - but I wasn't controlling the shots.  Boston, here we come.

I picked Patti up after work, and we drove to Boston. Following the instructions we were given, we went to the will-call window, gave them our names, and were handed backstage passes.  A security guy pointed to a door by the loading ramp and said, "Go in there." 

Once we were "in there", there were no signs. Just a lot of people running around who weren't stopping to help us find our way. Eventually, we found a corridor where the dressing rooms were located. We walked into the first one we saw. Someone asked us who we were, and we said we where there with White Chocolate. Some else yelled "Fuck off - wrong dressing room" and told us to go down the hall. We finally found the right dressing room. 

It turns out that the dressing room we'd wandered into was Aerosmith's. The guy who yelled at us was Joe Perry. And this gig was Aerosmith's first performance ever at Boston Garden. It was also the first time I'd ever been on stage to shoot photos (which explains the shitty quality).