Porch Notes
For a Few Electric Years, a Detroit Dance Hall Was Rock's Wildest Room
History and culture
In the late 1960s, the most exciting room in American rock might have been a faded old ballroom on Detroit’s Grand River Avenue: the Grande Ballroom.
It had opened back in 1928 as an elegant dance hall, and by the mid-’60s it had fallen on hard times — at one point it sat boarded up. Then a Dearborn schoolteacher and radio DJ named Russ Gibb visited San Francisco, saw the psychedelic rock scene at venues like the Fillmore, and decided Detroit needed one of its own. In 1966 he took over the Grande, hung a giant screen for swirling light shows, and opened the doors.
The first night, in October 1966, only about 60 people showed up to see a local band called the MC5. But the scene caught fire fast. The MC5 became the Grande’s house band, and soon the room was packed with kids from the city and suburbs. The MC5 even recorded their explosive debut album there. Touring giants rolled through too — Led Zeppelin, The Who (who launched their “Tommy” tour at the Grande), Cream, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, and many more. Bands loved the Grande’s wild, fanatical audiences.
By the early 1970s, the action moved to bigger arenas, and the Grande’s final show came on New Year’s Eve, 1972. The building still stands today, weathered and mostly empty — a quiet ruin that was once one of the loudest, most important rooms in rock.
Where to see it
The Grande Ballroom building still stands on Grand River Avenue in Detroit, though it's derelict and best admired from the outside. Preservation efforts continue.