THE OPENING ACT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD

 I always thought is was over-the-top-cool that Mike Porco was friends with John Lee Hooker to begin with. John Lee Hooker would be at the bar if he wasn't on stage. And Dylan watched every move Hooker made when he was closing the show. The performers had to do 2 sets each night, except for Fridays and Saturdays where they had to clear the club for 3 shows each. Dylan-Hooker-Dylan-Hooker-Dylan-Hooker in one night.!!!!!!!!!!!!

"There were earlier nights, at Izzy Young's Folklore Center on MacDougal Street and out in East Orange (where Dylan played Jimmie Rodgers's "Southern Cannonball"); later, there was Carnegie Hall, and the gone-electric boos at Forest Hills. But Gerde's was the official coming out, the start."

That, a quote from this LIVE FROM NEW YORK piece from New York Mag. 

http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/music/features/5287/

Some new details given....setlist, Hotel Dylan stayed at....nice touch. Accurate and tight paragraph in a New York nutshell. Couldn't have done it better myself. (Of course I can. It's my fucking blog, and what I say goes). But in a New Yorker's 'voice,' this paragraph says: Don't question whether Dylan starting at Gerde's matters. It matters, trust me.

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The HuffPost got the word out in their entertainment section yesterday:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/bob-dylans-first-new-york-city-performance_n_3060900.html?#slide=1233155


Dylan's opening act night at Gerde's was the "Opening Act heard 'round the world!"
Dylan's fan base, like the universe at this moment, continues to expand into regions unknown. They all learn, sooner or later, that he shot off like a rocket from Robert don't-call-me-Shapiro Shelton's review of the week of shows at Gerde's Folk City.

Mike Porco's copy in a menu sleeve