Published in the Madison (WIS) Journal
By John W. English
(Of The State Journal Staff)
Jim Morrison lead vocalist of The Doors, demonstrated his explosive style Friday before a half-filled Dane County Memorial Coliseum crowd of hard-rock devotees.
The effect was both chilling and numbing. The Doors’ music, while emphasizing mood rather than meaning, switched from gentleness and love to death, pain, and even violence.
AT ONE point during “Light My Fire,” Morrison even destroyed his microphone but continued his intense performance in his uninhibited style.
The four rock musicians form the Los Angeles area appeared onstage at 9:50, after the Midwest Hydraulic Co. had played a complete set.
BUT WHEN Morrison took over, the show turned into a musical séance. His abandoned and sexuality stirred the audience’s emotion. Many fans who were sitting far away from the stage poured down onto the floor, but were chased out of the aisles by police and ushers.
Morrison began with “Back Door Man,” and mixed in poetry and wails along with his screaming singing. During “The End,” he reached his fans with his screech, “We want the world and we want it now.”
Morrison’s mellow voice took over in “Crystal Ships.”
AFTER A CIGARET break the Coliseum forbids smoking), the Doors concluded their concert with a theater event, a relatively new happening in music, called “Celebration of the Lizard.”
A stream of poetry containing numerous images and a theater-like enactment, along with musical accompaniment, kept the audience involved and left them unable to muster an applause for the finale.
The other three musicians—Ray Manzarek, piano bass and organ; Robby Krieger, guitar; and John Desmore, drums—provided able support.
THE ROCK concert opened with the Midwest Hydraulic Co. of Chicago, who turned in a credible performance, showing some inventiveness, talent, and promising lyrics in several original songs. Their drummer was especially hard working.
But it was clear that The Doors fans were impatient to hear only the Elektra recording stars. Morrison and company, who command five figure dollars for their shows, finally put out on the spellbinding musical entertainment the crowd had come to see.