An extremely rare original concert poster advertising two August, 1967 shows by The Doors at Boston’s short-lived Crosstown Bus.  These were The Doors’ first East-Coast performances.  Just weeks before these shows, “Light My Fire” spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Charts.   As a Boston history website noted, The Doors were booked at the Crosstown Bus in Brighton Center as a new promising act but by the time they performed at the Crosstown Bus, they were stars.

We acquired this rare poster from a former Crosstown Bus employee, who kept it as a souvenir of the shows.  He noted the poster was designed by then local artist Jim Phillips.  Printed on card stock, the poster is in excellent condition, and has undergone some expert restoration to remove old clear tape stains on the edges, and flatten some light creasing. The colors are bright and bold and it will frame beautifully.  16 3/4″ x 21 3/4″.

A rare and important early Doors poster, acquired from the original owner.

Some reviews of the Doors Crosstown Bus shows:

Singer Jim Morrison was like an unleashed psychopath, staggering around and sprawling on the stage, looking to be in a shamanistic frenzy (bigger eyeballs I’ve never seen) and establishing an explosive tone of hurt and anger, ending in catharsis. Pianist Ray Manzarek played his dapper opposite – a Van Cliburn character who acted straight enough to be in a classical piano competition until you looked further at his granny glasses, and realized he was an emissary from Pluto. Guitarist Robbie Kreiger, meanwhile, was a shy, poetic figure in the background. The first time I saw them was at the short lived Crosstown Bus in Brighton, a psychedelic atmosphere complete with absurd silver foil covering the walls and go-go girls in cages. An eye-opener.

-Steve Morse – Boston Globe

Morrison’s descent wasn’t pretty, but anyone who saw him in his prime saw a visually unsettling psychodrama. I caught him twice — once in Providence and once at the short-lived Brighton club the Crosstown Bus, where he writhed on his back and assumed a fetal position at times, while go-go dancers boogied in cages and lights reflected off tinfoil placed on the walls. The band often just vamped behind him, as he rolled his trance like eyes, twitched and paused for occasional silences to rivet attention. It was a strange, wondrous and occasionally terrifying experience as he muttered, moaned and then exploded to life during the songs’ climaxes.

-Steve Morse – Boston Globe

Sadly, the Crosstown Bus lasted only last a few months but it has a place in Rock and Roll history because of the Doors concert.  The Hallucinations fronted by Peter Wolf (before J Geils Band) had the distinction of being the last act to play there. Peter Wolf said “We had to go down the fire escape with a lot of equipment because they didn’t have the right licenses and the cops were coming in to bust the place.”