08/19/2026
Did you go to this show at the Annapolis Armory?
On the night of August 18, 1967, the Doors pulled off something they never did again: two full concerts, at two different venues, in a single evening. First, a 7:30 show at the National Guard Armory in Annapolis, then a late set across the river at the Alexandria Roller Rink Arena. “Light My Fire” was in its third week atop the Billboard charts, and both shows sold out.
For Jim Morrison, the Alexandria stop was more than a tour date. He’d spent much of his childhood in the area while his father, a Navy rear admiral, was stationed at the Pentagon. Morrison attended George Washington High School in Alexandria, where friends remembered his basement room packed with books, original poetry, and artwork. He was a reader and a writer long before he was a rock star — though, characteristically, he probably wouldn’t have told anyone what the homecoming meant to him.
The Alexandria show billed the Doors atop a “Flower Power Hour,” a battle of twelve local teen bands competing for an audition with Columbia Records, and one Maryland paper described a psychedelic crowd of 4,000 that looked like DuPont Circle had been transplanted into a roller rink.
But for Morrison, it was not a very happy homecoming. Find out why on WETA’s Boundary Stones at the link below. And if you were at either of the shows, be sure to share your memories in the comments.
