On October 23, 1978, The Police — three unknown Englishmen just days past their American debut at CBGB — played Frivolous Sal’s Last Chance Saloon on Crannell Street in Poughkeepsie to four paying customers. The take at the door was twelve dollars, and one of the club’s co-owners felt so bad helping them load their rented gear into a rented van that he gave Sting twenty dollars out of his own pocket. The trio pushed on to Syracuse the next night, working the Northeast club circuit behind their debut album, Outlandos d’Amour, with a song called “Roxanne” still waiting to break. Forty-eight years on, that freezing Monday night ranks No. 1 on our list of the greatest concerts in Poughkeepsie history — proof that some legends begin in front of almost nobody.
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