Peter Crowley

While so many documentaries and hooks about the 70’s music scene in New York talk about Hilly Kristal and CBGB, Max’s Kansas City always seems to get overlooked, despite being just as important of an anchor as CBGB was. Peter Crowley didn’t own Max’s but he was responsible for booking the bands at Max’s during these years. Prior to that, he managed Jayne County.

Peter has begun documenting his own life in his memoir Down At Max’s. Despite the name, Down At Max’s is more about Peter and his own wild life than Max’s, and stories about Max’s occupy only a minority of the book. It’s a short read, but it’s interesting for many ways – reading about Peter’s own life, how the circumstances that put him at the center of Max’s unwound, and more generally, what life was like in those times (for those who, like me, were born too late.

Volume 1 has been out for a while now, and there seems to be a promise for volume 2 but i haven’t seen it