Boston Tea Party (June 1969) "Allman Brothers Band, CTA & Alice Cooper" – Concert Poster

SOURCE DETAILS   Venue: The Boston Tea Party, 

53 Berkeley St., Boston, Massachusetts Date: June 1969

Country: United States Section / Pages: Promotional Poster Calendar Title: Allman Brothers Band, CTA

 & Alice Cooper – Boston Tea Party June 1969

This horizontal calendar‑style poster advertises the June 1969 concert lineup at The Boston Tea Party, one of the most influential East Coast rock venues of the late 1960s. The design features a curved calendar layout with bold typography and a sunburst motif on the right side, listing weekly performances by major acts.

Highlighted shows include:

• June 5–7: 

• Delaney & Bonnie & Friends with

•  The Serfs

• June 12–14: 

• Johnny Winter & The Raven

• June 19–21: 

• Dr. John the Night Tripper & The Allman Brothers Band

• June 26 28: 

• Chicago Transit Authority & Alice 

  Cooper

  
  

The poster also credits ticket outlets such as Krackerjacks, Headquarters East, George’s Folly, and New Directions, with WBCN 104.1 FM listed as the promotional partner.

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS   Event: Boston Tea Party June 1969 concert series poster

Era: 1969 –

Late‑60s psychedelic rock period Tone: Vibrant and archival Photography: Graphic calendar design 

with illustrated sunburst motif

CONTEXT AND NOTES

The Boston Tea Party was Boston’s answer to San Francisco’s Fillmore and Avalon 

Ballrooms — a hub for emerging rock acts and counterculture audiences. With a modest capacity of 550 at its original Berkeley Street 

location, the club hosted legendary performers including Led Zeppelin, The Who, Velvet 

Underground, Fleetwood Mac, and 

Pink Floyd. Posters like this were printed in small quantities, making surviving examples highly collectible today.

The Allman Brothers Band, CTA, Alice Cooper 1969 Boston Tea Party Calendar Concert Poster. An original horizontal calendar-style concert poster covering the month of June 1969 for performances at the Boston Tea Party in Boston, Massachusetts. There was a lot of talent stacked up that month the Allman Brothers Band, Chicago Transit Authority with newbie Alice Cooper opening up for them, Doctor John the Night Tripper, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, and albino blues-guitar wizard Johnny Winter. This first-ever Heritage offering measures 17 x 11 and grades to Near Mint condition. From the David Swartz Concert Poster Collection. COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information The Boston Tea Party was to Boston as the Fillmore & Avalon were to San Francisco, the Whisky-a-Go-Go to Los Angeles and the Grande Ballroom to Detroit. The capacity started off at only about 550 but that limit was often exceeded. It was the place to see & be seen in Beantown, and drew a cross-section of college students, hippies, fashion models, Brahmins, bikers, local celebrities, media people, professionals and local white and Black high school kids.

The BTP first opened in January 1967, changed locations to larger quarters in July 1969 and ran until December 1970, when it closed after a glorious four-year run when bands started requiring larger venues. Similar to the format that Bill Graham used, older blues, soul, R&B and jazz acts were often paired with contemporary rock bands. Posters and fliers used to promote the shows were generally minimalist in design... in sharp contrast to the dramatic psychedelic posters being produced on the West Coast.

BTP posters are also infinitely more scarce than the West Coast psych posters of the same era... they were run in extremely small quantities, with a goal of just getting the word out and no aftermarket sought or desired. Thus, most of them were discarded after the engagements. Decades later, they became highly collectible.

That's because the roster of musicians who played the Boston Tea Party is quite head-spinning. They included Led Zeppelin, The Who, the Grateful Dead, Velvet Underground, Chicago, Kinks, Small Faces, Elton John, Jethro Tull, Neil Young, the J. Geils Band, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, the Allman Bros. Band, the Yardbirds, Van Morrison and Jeff Beck.

In 1968, the legendary WBCN-FM, the first FM rock station in Boston, began broadcasting from a dressing room in the club, as the station was owned by the same owners as the BTP. Peter Wolf, the frontman for the popular local group the Hallucinations, was also a late-night DJ at 'BCN. He would later front the J. Geils Band, who broke through nationally. The Boston Tea Party was first managed by Steve Nelson, who booked the bands, and then by Don Law, who went on to become a major concert promoter in the 70's and onwards.

The Tea Party was founded by lawyer Ray Riepen and MIT grad David Hann at 53 Berkeley St. in the south end of Boston, again with a typical club capacity of around 550. Then in July '69 it moved to 15 Lansdowne St. in Kenmore Square behind Fenway Park, with the expanded capacity measuring more like 2,000. That held them over for another year & a half, but the exploding rock-concert business of the early seventies was needing even more capacity. So the club was simply outgrown by the end of 1970.