Remember back in 1975, when America was still great (i.e. before Jimmy Carter and solar panels on the White House roof) and attendees at a so-so rock band concert “rioted” at Albuquerque’s Civic Auditorium and police “threw smoke and gas bombs” at said attendees?
Yeah, that happened…
Here’s a short glossary regarding the story above:
Grand Funk Railroad: So-so rock band perhaps most known for that really, really, overly long song that repeats “I’m getting closer to my home” about a million times too many.
Civic Auditorium: Pretty nice event center, or so old-timers tell me, located at roughly the current SE corner of the Big-I that we blew up for a bunch of reasons, including (at least indirectly) this “riot.”
Rock Music: A now-lost form of artistic expression considered by cops/old people of the time as catalyst for “riots,” but actually more apt to devolve into overly long songs repeating “I’m getting closer to my home” about a million times too many.
“…Auditorium gunfire broke out”: Everybody pretty much agreed afterwards that there was no such gunfire.
Your humble blogger has had the pleasure of hearing from a few folks who attended this “riot” and their general reflection is that the Back When America Was Great police kinda overreacted and made things significantly worse. Of course, attendees likely to contact your humble blogger constitute a highly skewed sample (and I greatly thank each and every one of them in their skewedness and skewodosity), but it is worth noting that the ACLU got involved in the aftermath of the event.
The City’s response was to declare “a 120-day ban on rock concerts,” befitting the Great America of Liberty and Freedom in which us old-timers were so fortunate to have endured experienced back in 1975. Note below how the Journal’s emphasis changes from “gunfire” the day after to “discharged tear gas that sent about 4000 rock fans stampeding for the exits” two months later.
Eventually, the problems of Grand Funk Railroad, rock music, overzealous Great America police, and much else led the City/St. Joseph’s to close/demolish Civic Auditorium and eventually mostly turn it into another blessed part of our Great America: automobile storage.
Today, there’s just a small marker commemorating the life/death of rock music Civic Auditorium near its old site.
If you’d like to check out this marker, it’s at the red circle outlined below in the rather confusing Roma Ave. becomes High St. becomes Fruit Ave. residential area north of St. Joseph’s and south of Lomas
It is interesting to consider how attendees, police, newspapers, and we as Burqueños would have acted/reacted today in 2024 to anything like what happened during The Grand Funk Railroad Riot of 1975. It’s also interesting to ponder how economics, music, policing, and social interaction have changed in ways that might likely make such a “riot” generally impossible these days.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. It’s just the way it is. We’re getting closer to our home, but it’s not the house we grew up in.
Better Burque 
“Back When America Was Great police kinda overreacted and made things significantly worse” — same as it ever was for the police; now, of course, half the audience would be shooting, too. // It’s a nit, but the Interstate speed limit dropped to 55mph in 1973. The year before Tricky Dick resigned. AI confirms my memory but maybe it’s just trying to make feel good.
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Thanks for reading and the correction. The mph to solar panel switch is actually a better, more depressing in its brevity example anyway). That EPA starting, 55 mph, Native rights supporting Nixon…we tend to forget about that version.
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Venues go up, and venues come down, but O, the Nostalgia! I would have been a HS freshman and everyone would have been talking about it, and one’s coolness would have shot through the roof to have been an eyewitness.
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Got to see Yes, Peter Tosh, and Stevie Ray Vahn in the early 80’s. Always able to walk right up to the stage..
Terrible sound quality though, as the venue was shaped like and upside down bowl made of concrete with no method of sound damping.
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Missed that one but saw Bad Company at the Civic in 76! (And many others without a ticket stub to help recall them.)
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I met Dee Snyder there, which was very awesome.
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cool, was looking for a blog about not getting good music…
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Mark Farner was most exciting front man of the day. The riot show happened due to the Akal security not being able to control the crowd outside the front doors. APD was not originally on the scene , control was lost by time they appeared. Also the comment that you could walk right up to the stage is ridiculous. Was no holds barred wrestling match once the show had began. Was Golden age of Classic rock, Bad Co, Skynard, TYA, Heart, Foghat, Heart, SteppenWolf, was a crime city tore it down, can’t expect much from them, then and now.
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so grand funk was a so-so band? Spoken like a man that never saw the band, correct?
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I just found this article and it brought back memories. Grand Funk Railroad was the second concert I had ever seen as a 16-year-old. The night before I had been to a Chicago concert which was vastly different and very calm with a lot of pot smoking going on. The night of GFR was quite different. I couldn’t remember how far into the concert it was but all I remember was hearing a loud crowd and the next thing I saw smoke everywhere. Fortunately our seats were kind of close to the top and the exit. I vaguely remember running out with my friends to the parking lot but remember nothing after that. I remember our eyes were burning and having trouble breathing. I don’t remember gunfire or anything but I do remember thinking that GFR had encouraged people to run towards the stage and I thought that was a little crazy. I think that was because they were trying to help them exit.
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I was at that concert when I was 16 years of age. Grand Funk Railroad was the headliner, and Ray Manzarek former keyboard of “The Doors”, performed first. The incident occurred while GFR were playing when the band stopped playing and the lead singer whispered “tear gas”. I went up to the lobby to buy snacks in between performances. There was no one trying to get in to the Civic Auditorium nor were gun shots fired. It was staged by APD to prohibit concerts in Albuquerque. As we tried to exit one of two ramps, the police entered and fired tear gas into the auditorium. We had no choice but to exit behind the stage to the outside to recover from severe tear gassing. I put my jacket over my face to wipe mucus from my face. We ran to the car to prevent being beaten by a hostile police force. What an experience!
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