On This Day in 1964: The Beatles Play Their First US Concert at the Washington Coliseum — Crowd Pelted Them With Jellybeans

On February 11, 1964, just two days after their famous appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles played their first public concert in the United States. The show took place at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and was watched by more than 8,000 fans. The performance marked a new chapter in what became known as Beatlemania, as the band brought its sound and energy directly to a live American audience for the first time.

The crowd that night was intense, thrilled by the band’s arrival in the country and eager to hear hits like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.” A heavy snowstorm had canceled all flights, so the Beatles traveled by train to the nation’s capital, where they were greeted by fans at Union Station before making their way to the Coliseum.

A Night of Screams and Songs

The Washington Coliseum was a boxing arena that had never hosted a rock show of this size before. Promoter Sid Bernstein filled the venue with about 8,092 fans, making it one of the largest crowds the Beatles had played to at that point. The band took the stage in the round, surrounded by fans on all sides.

Inside, excitement was so loud that security and police struggled to maintain order. One police officer reportedly stuck bullets in his ears to block out the noise as teenagers screamed through every song. Fans were so close to the platform that the band had to stop several times to turn Ringo Starr’s drum riser and adjust microphones so that they could face different sections of the crowd throughout the show.

 

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Jellybeans Instead of Flowers

The atmosphere took another unexpected turn when fans began throwing candy at the band. George Harrison later recalled that they had been “absolutely pelted by the fuckin’ things.” He explained that some fans believed the band liked jelly beans because Harrison had said so, but the crowd used hard jelly beans instead of the softer British “jelly babies,” turning the performance into a rain of small sweets falling from all sides.

Harrison said the candy could be dangerous and even disrupted the music at times. “Imagine waves of rock-hard little bullets raining down on you from the sky,” he said. One bean even hit a guitar string and made a wrong note during a song.

Setting the Stage for Beatlemania

Despite the snow, screaming fans, and unexpected jellybean bombardment, the Beatles delivered a set of twelve songs that night, including “Roll Over Beethoven,” “All My Loving,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and “Twist and Shout.” Their shows in the round, with equipment moved multiple times to meet the crowd, made the concert feel electric even when the music was hard to hear over the screams.

The performance was filmed and later shown in U.S. theaters, helping to expand their popularity further. That February concert grew into a moment that defined the early days of British rock bands breaking into the American music scene, and it set the tone for the Beatles’ first U.S. tour that followed.

Watch their first ever US live performance below: