Dave Michaels

David Miotke (b. December 15, 1944, Chicago, Illinois) is an American musician and singer, who under the name Dave Michaels was best known as co-founder of the '60s acid rock band H.P. Lovecraft.

While primarily the band's keyboard player and co-vocalist, Michaels had studied music composition and theory before joining the band, and played several instruments. The tone and style of the band's two LPs were agreed to be a synthesis of both founders, Michaels and George Edwards.

Michaels left the band in 1968 to return to his studies, a decision which contributed to H.P. Lovecraft's break-up. He eventually earned a master's degree in applied piano. He declined to join any of the subsequent "spin-off" bands formed throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He continues to work as a musician.

Dave Michaels in "The Fillmore Shoggoth"
Dave was the keyboardist and vocalist for the band HPL. In Spring, 1968, the band had a gig at the Fillmore in San Francisco. It was a somewhat ominous time for the country; in addition to all manner of political unrest, an iceberg that had broken off from the Ross Ice Shelf in 1966 had finally made its way north, without melting, to the San Francisco coast line.

Arriving in the city early in the day, George the band decided to go to San Francisco Zoo to see the cave penguin exhibit. Upon hearing a recording that bragged that the San Francisco Zoo was the only zoo to have bred the penguins in captivity, Dave suggested somewhat seriously that the iceberg contained Old Ones, who wanted the baby penguins. Fellow band mate George nervously laughed the idea off.

After leaving the zoo, the band bought lunch and then went on to the Fillmore to rehearse. The band was surprised to see a pair of Old Ones in the audience. With them was famous author Howard Phillips, who'd written extensively on the Miskatonic Antarctic expedition that first alerted humans to the existence of the Old Ones, and Phillips' wife, Sonia.

The presence of the Old Ones prompted the band to actually give a good rehearsal. The Old Ones enjoyed the music. Phillips was not as enthusiastic in his praise. Dave was astonished to discover that the rumors that Old Ones liked noise and the beat of rock music were in fact true.

During the concert that evening, the band was only part way through their second song when the house emcee announced that the iceberg had landed near the Zoo, and deposited shoggoths in the city. The Fillmore began to evacuate, but then a shoggoth arrived. Dave watched as the shoggoth decapitated both of the Old Ones and then Howard Phillips in short order. Dave then witnessed the shoggoth destroyed by napalm, and then the band helped evacuate the grieving Sonia Phillips to nearby Lafayette Park.

Dave lamented the likely loss of their vehicles, and hoped that they would still get paid. After taking shelter, Dave slept through the night and into the morning.

Dave was a very versatile keyboardist and instrumentalist. George was in awe of Dave, privately viewing the keyboardist as "Deep".

Literary comment
While Turtledove never explicitly gives "Dave" a last name, he provides enough clues in the story to confirm that Dave is indeed meant to be Dave Michaels.