Strand Theatre (Ithaca, NY)
In November of 1980 I went to see the New Riders in downtown Ithaca. I liked NRPS a lot, even as a separate entity from the Dead. Until then I had seen the NRPS only as openers for the Dead.
This show and six of the next bunch of shows I would see over the following twelve months took place at the old Strand Theatre in downtown Ithaca. Unfortunately, it closed and was demolished shortly after I graduated from school, which is a real shame. Later on the old State Theater was revived as a concert venue, however, as an effort at remedying the situation, and recently bands like Hot Tuna have played there...
In the Spring of 1981, the Cornell Daily Sun published an article about the prospects for the Strand, which turned out to be too optimistic. But in a stretch of only one year starting here, I would get to see not only NRPS, but David Bromberg, BB King, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters, and Peter Tosh in that old building. There’s a photo of the Strand in the article below.
