Toad’s Place on York Street in New Haven has hosted acts like The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Snoop Dogg, and more since 1975.
“We started this from scratch. No one else ever did this.”
Anthony 'Tank' Dunbar looked around the wide-open space of Toad’s Place, and a tear gathered in the corner of his eye as he thought back on the 45 years that he helped keep the peace at the iconic music venue.
“I’ve sweated, you know I’ve bled, I’ve laughed. I’ve had more fun than anything else. This is all I know.”
Dunbar is almost as famous as the music hall itself, where people gathered Wednesday to celebrate 50 years of the famous lily pad.
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“Springsteen, Snoop Dogg, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper - they all came here to Toad’s Place,” said Andy Billman, director of the upcoming Toad’s Place documentary.
A stage full of elected and local leaders shared memories of bands like the Ramones, Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon and Billy Joel. There are 75 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that have graced the stage. And there was an expansion into the early, growing hip hop scene.
“Even some of the early hip hop stuff with Grand Master Flash. He was just coming through, people didn’t really now hip hop yet. It was still the early ages,” explained Toad’s owner Brian Phelps.
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“When I came to the Slick Rick concert, when I came to the Method Man concert, when I didn’t have money to go to the bigger venues,” said Alder Jeanette Morrison, speaking to Phelps, “You providing those types of opportunities for communities to come in, that’s priceless.”
One memory that several shared was the night of a big surprise performance.
“We got lucky, really lucky, and we scored the Rolling Stones,” Phelps said. “It was a warmup secret gig prior to their Steel Wheels tour.”
“We had 5,000 people out there in the streets,” Dunbar said of that night. “We had to get in front of the bus and very carefully get that bus down to Park Street to the highway.”
Wednesday was a chance to recognize 50 years of Toad’s and owner Brian Phelps. Mayor Justin Elicker recalled the night he saw the Gin Blossoms as he presented Phelps with a city proclamation.
Phelps said he wants to continue building on the history of Toad’s Place as they look forward to the next 50 years.
“We’re going to try and keep on massaging our ideas with everything else that we did, and keep building on those ideas.”
