December 11, 1965: The Velvet Underground Play Their First Paid Show in a High School Auditorium

When The Velvet Underground played their first paid show at Summit High School in New Jersey, they shocked those in attendance and created a lasting effect on the audience, which was made up mostly of teenagers. Most likely, they had never heard anything like The Velvet Underground before, being 25 miles outside of New York in a relatively sheltered town. However, the band clearly made an impact and a statement, one that lives on in the 2017 short film The Velvet Underground Played at My High School.

The gig came about because the band’s manager, Al Aronowitz, wanted The Velvet Underground to serve as support for The Myddle Class, his other project. The entire thing was almost a disaster, however; drummer Angus MacLise didn’t want to be told when to show up to gigs and despised the idea of “selling out” by playing paid shows. He quit the band before the gig, and they were tasked with finding a new drummer.

Moe Tucker, the sister of a friend of Lou Reed’s, stepped in to cover the drums, with her first practice occurring mere hours before the show. However, the original Velvet Underground lineup was now complete: Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker.

The band played “There She Goes Again,” “Venus in Furs,” and “Heroin” to the gathered crowd of teens. Allegedly, many people made a beeline for the exits after the set, stunned by what they had heard and seen. Still, for those who remained, their perceptions of what music could be were forever changed.

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The Velvet Underground Played First Real Gig at a High School, Changing Lives Forever

Some of the teens in attendance later recalled the encounter. Rob Norris, who would later be part of the power-pop band the Bongos and toured with The Velvet Underground in 1972, wrote about the experience in Kicks Magazine in 1979.

“There stood the Velvet Underground—all tall and dressed mostly in black; two of them were wearing sunglasses. One of the guys with the shades had VERY long hair and was wearing silver jewelry. He was holding a large violin. The drummer had a Beatle haircut and was standing at a small, oddly arranged drum kit. Was it a boy or a girl?” wrote Norris.

He continued, “Before we could take it all in, everyone was hit by a screeching surge of sound, with a pounding beat louder than anything we had ever heard. About a minute into the second song [sic], which the singer had introduced as ‘Heroin’, the music began to get more intense. It swelled and accelerated like a giant tidal wave, which was threatening to engulf us all. At this point, most of the audience retreated in horror for the safety of their homes, thoroughly convinced of the dangers of rock & roll music. My friends and I moved a little closer to the stage, knowing that something special was happening.”

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