Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Dream Bowl, Vallejo, CA February-April 1969 (Solano & Napa County Rock History)

The Dream Bowl in Vallejo would be an entirely forgotten venue except for the fact that a few Grateful Dead tapes from February 21 and 22, 1969 remain in the vaults. Deadhead persistence seems to have unearthed the poster above.  Despite its brief tenure, however, The Dream Bowl has a quite interesting history, and the brief run of shows from February to about April 1969 represent an excellent idea just a little bit ahead of its time.

Known Rock Shows at The Dream Bowl, Vallejo, CA
February 7-8, 1969 It's A Beautiful Day/Country Weather
February 14-15, 1969 Sons Of Champlin/Blues Helping
February 21-22, 1969 Grateful Dead/Dancing Food & Entertainment/Amber Wine
February 28-March 1 Santana/Sanpaku

Although the run of "psychedelic" rock shows at the Dream Bowl is quite brief, it had been a music venue since the 1930s--possibly earlier--and had hosted big bands, Texas Swing music, rhythm and blues, country stars and teen rock and roll dances prior to its hippie incarnation. The Dream Bowl was apparently about 10 miles North of Vallejo on Highway 29 (currently the Napa-Vallejo Highway). Apparently it was near the intersection of Highway 29 and Kelly Road (just past Napa Junction). That would actually put it in the town of American Canyon, but as that town was only incorporated in 1992, the Dream Bowl would have been considered part of Vallejo back in the 60s. Supposedly the building still exists, as a furniture warehouse.

Vallejo, Solano County and Napa County
Vallejo, California is the largest city in Solano County, which is just East of Napa County. Vallejo provided access to San Francisco Bay for farmers from Solano, Napa and Sonoma. The area had become prosperous at the turn of the 20th Century when the San Francisco, Napa and Calistoga Railroad provided electric rail and a ferry connection to San Francisco. The initial Napa to Vallejo leg, along with the Ferry, opened in 1905, extending to Calistoga in 1908 (the same general right-of-way is followed by today's Napa Wine Train).

Solano, Napa and Sonoma Counties shipped produce throughout the West (via Southern Pacific) and was a San Francisco resort area as well. Sometime in the late 1920s or early 30s the Dream Bowl was constructed by contractor Walter Polley as a Dance Hall for Big Band music. Local and touring acts played the hall. Although the railroad waned in the 1930s, the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges allowed increased transit across the area.

Area Music History
In World War 2 Vallejo housed a substantial naval base at Mare Island. As a result of the Mare Island base, Vallejo was also a center for shipbuilding in World War 2. Many workers from the South, both black and white, moved to the Bay Area to work in the Defense industry, which mostly revolved around building Merchant Ships. Other shipbuilding centers around the bay included Hunters Point in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and Marin City (not coincidentally, all those areas have had relatively large African-American populations since then).

Since the wartime Defense industry ran around the clock, there were large numbers of workers with money burning a hole in their pockets, waiting to be entertained. Musicians from the South played substantial shows up and down the West Coast, from San Diego and Los Angeles to the Bay Area, and in Portland and Seattle as well. The audience for these musicians had moved to the West Coast, so the performers did to. San Pablo Avenue in the East Bay had so many venues it was known as "Music Row." All types of music were represented, and the Dream Bowl seems to have done a prosperous business, as did most music venues around the Bay (not to mention bars) during the war. The Duke Ellington Orchestra, for example, played The Dream Bowl on February 7, 1945.

San Francisco Examiner columnist Phil Elwood recalled the Dream Bowl many decades later (published Oct 27, 1995), remembering seeing Big Jay McShann there
In 1944, I drove the family's '33 Chevy with its A-sticker (ask your grandparents) in the window up Highway 29 north of Vallejo to an oversized Quonset hut roadhouse-dancehall-brawl arena called the Dream Bowl to hear McShann's band on its first California gig.

The Dream Bowl would feature, for example, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys one night, McShann and his Kansas City jazz-blues band the next. Whites (only) went to Wills; blacks flocked to their music, such as McShann's. But any jazz and blues out of the black community drew some whites, like me.

Although the Vallejo shipyards reduced their activity after World War 2, the Naval Base at Mare Island was still active. The Bay Area had a considerably larger agricultural footprint than it does today, and country music was very popular in places like San Jose, Fremont and Vallejo. There are many reports of seeing country stars like Bill Monroe at the Dream Bowl in the 1950s, and Berkeley's Herb Pedersen (later in The Dillards and Desert Rose Band) recalls playing bluegrass shows there in the 1960s (with Vern And Ray).

Very casual googling shows that Vallejo area residents fondly remember going to regular Saturday night dances at the Dream Bowl in the early and mid-1960s, probably dancing to rock and roll. There are other recollections of seeing early performances by Vallejo's greatest musical export, Sylvester Stewart, later to become famous as Sly Stone, and that suggests that the Dream Bowl's history of providing all sorts of music for different audiences remained intact.

Napa Town and County Fairgrounds, Summer 1967
As rock music expanded beyond the confines of San Francisco, teenagers in the surrounding communities got interested. In the Summer of 1967 there were a series of concerts at the Napa Town and County Fairgrounds (at 575 Third Street), probably in the building now called Chardonnay Hall. The Grateful Dead (May 29), Country Joe and The Fish (June 15 ), Big Brother and The Holding Company (June 30), Quicksilver Messenger Service (uncertain) and Blue Cheer (uncertain) all seemed to have played that Summer, often on weeknights.

The Grateful Dead show seems to have been the first of the Fillmore invasions. The show went off without a hitch, but Napa was still quite rural, and when Country Joe and The Fish played two weeks later, some local toughs looking to "beat up hippies" ended up punching out Bruce Barthol and Barry Melton (the local toughs were apparently notorious). When Country Joe and The Fish put out a "board game" as part of their second album, one square said "Napa: You Lose" thus immortalizing the event in a tiny sort of way.

The San Francisco rock community was quite small, however, and when Big Brother played two weeks after the Fish, a few Hells Angels rode up with them and hung around the stage. The local toughs did not choose to harass the band.

I do not know of any interesting rock concerts in Napa in 1968. As the rock market got bigger, more and more Solano and Napa teenagers simply drove to the Fillmore or Avalon. There were a few interesting local bands, like Project Hope, but they were not major Bay Area acts. It does appear that the "false Moby Grape" played there (too long a story to go into here), and its possible that Blue Cheer was in 1968 rather than 1967, but the Napa Fairgrounds seem to have been sized out of the rock market.


The Dream Bowl, 1969
I do not know who was promoting psychedelic rock concerts at the Dream Bowl in early 1969, but it seems a logical progression for the venue. Since it was already a music venue, no special permission would be needed to change the musical lineup. And since it was relatively isolated (as near as I can tell), any noise would not be a bother. It appears that the parking lot had been a teen hangout on weekends anyway, so a mere change in entertainment was probably not so big a change for the community, even if they might not have approved of long haired hippie music.

One unseen hand in rock music in the Greater Bay Area in 1969 was the Millard Agency. The Millard Agency was part of Bill Graham's empire, but they booked talent into different venues rather than promoted concerts. An old Federal Law prevented band managers from acting as booking agents, so Talent Agents acted as middlemen, taking a fee for finding bookings for bands by providing acts for promoters. The Millard Agency, as far as I know, was spearheaded by two agents, Paul Barratta and Barry Imhoff, but there must have been other agents as well.

A look at concerts around the Bay Area in 1969 shows the ubiquity of Millard Agency clients. The Millard Agency had a relationship with the Grateful Dead (involving paying back a $12,000 loan from 1968), but the agency also booked Santana, Its A Beautiful Day, Elvin Bishop, Lee Michaels, Cold Blood, AUM, Sanpaku, Country Weather and Frumious Bandersnatch. Although some of these acts are quite well known now, in early 1969 Santana, IABD and Elvin Bishop did not yet have records. Nonetheless all the Millard bands played small and middle sized venues around the greater Bay Area--High School and Junior College gymnasiums, rock nightclubs and outdoor events.

By 1969, rock was big business and fans would make great efforts to see the biggest bands at the Fillmore West. Yet not everyone was able (or willing) to drive to San Francisco, so some of the second tier Fillmore bands could play outlying areas and bring the Fillmore cachet with them. Famous as the Grateful Dead are today, they were not nearly as popular as Janis Joplin or the Jefferson Airplane, so they too played the outlying areas.

The first month of Dream Bowl bookings, on the poster above, is dominated by Millard Agency acts: The Dead, Santana, IABD, Country Weather, Sanpaku and Dancing Food and Entertainment (with Tom Glass and Naomi Eisenberg) were all Millard acts. This seems like a conscious strategy to create a whole new paying venue for the Agency clients. It seems like a great idea, too, but it appears to have been about two decades too early. Other than an April 25-26 show with The Sons of Champlin (who came through the West-Pole Agency, not Millard), the Dream Bowl seems to have disappeared as a music venue of any sort. Either Napa and Solano Counties lacked the population, or the Dream Bowl wasn't a pleasant place to see a rock band, or both. Without direct eyewitness memories, its hard to be certain. One of the few eyewitnesses suggests that the March 1 Santana concert was the last one. I do recall seeing a Sons of Champlin poster for the Dream Bowl on April 25-26, but that is no guarantee it actually occurred.

Update: A Commenter reports that the April 25-26, 1969 Sons Of Champlin show did indeed occur. The billing was Sons Of Champlin/Rose/Amber Whine. Rose was a Marin County band, who were friendly with some members of The Sons. The fact that the April show occurred lends even more mystery to the history of the Dream Bowl, since it didn't quite close after the March shows.

Now, of course, Napa and Sonoma are both world-famous wine-growing regions, with wealthy residents and free spending visitors; the new town of American Canyon and Vallejo itself have expanded substantially (probably too much, for the moment, but that's a different issue) and nearby attractions include the Marine World Park and nearby Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point). A rock venue that presented Santana, Its A Beautiful Day or the Grateful Dead would be welcome indeed by people in the region, but the moment seems to have passed and left only a furniture warehouse.

A number of questions still remain:
  • What was the exact location of The Dream Bowl?
  • Is the building still intact?
  • Who were the promoters in early 1969?
  • Were there any rock shows prior to February 7, 1969?
  • Were there any shows later than March 1, 1969?
Anybody with insights, corrections, speculation or recovered memories (real or imagined) is encouraged to Comment or Email me.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Kinetic Playground, Chicago, IL 4812 N. Clark Street: Performance List 1968-69

(h/t Brad for the scan of the July 24, 1968 poster)

(for an updated version of the 1968 list, see here)

Chicago is one of the world's great cities, by any accounting, and it has a musical heritage to match. While today it is mostly renowned for introducing electric blues to the outside world, Chicago has made memorable contributions to jazz, soul, folk and rock music as well. Chicago had always been a critically important outpost for any touring act, regardless of the style of music. While the weather in Chicago can be daunting, there has always been excellent public transportation and fearless cab drivers, so a patron can always get home at 4am when the bars close.

In the 1960s, Chicago was an essential stop for any rock band looking to make it big. Chicago fans love a good time, but they have high standards too, as the blues band playing down the street in Chicago was better than most blues bands headlining in London or San Francisco. The pace of the city and the barriers of the weather make Chicago fans enthusiastic about good performers and ferociously dismissive of pretenders. Any discussion about music with a Chicago rock fan will immediately lead to stories of over the top concerts that seem to happen every month (a friend of mine once described seeing fans tear apart the Chicago Opera House during a 1970 Iggy and The Stooges concert by saying "If I was born the night I saw Iggy, I'd be old enough to drink now"). Nevertheless, the history of sixties rock in Chicago remains unnecessarily scattered, so I will begin to rectify that now.

Despite, or perhaps because, of its financial importance, Chicago did not have a single venue that was Nationally recognized like The Fillmores. The city of Chicago had numerous old buildings that could easily be converted to rock concert duty, even if all of the buildings had a variety of flaws. As a result, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw numerous venues rise and fall, such as The Cheetah, which became The Aragon Ballroom (at 1106 N. Lawrence) and the Chicago Coliseum, which became The Syndrome (on Wabash Avenue). Other venues were also regularly used for rock shows, like The Auditorium Theater and  the International Amphitheatre. However, Chicago's principal stop on the 60s rock circuit was The Kinetic Playground, at 4812 N. Clark Street.

4812 N. Clark Street was originally known as The Rainbo Gardens, and it was a sort of dance hall and entertainment center. It was used for various functions over the years, but in 1968 Brooklyn-born promoter Aaron Russo (then 24 years old) took over the ballroom. The building itself was somewhat larger, and included a skating rink, but Russo opened a rock nightclub in the former Rainbo Gardens Ballroom on April 3, 1968, and named it the Electric Theater. Russo had worked in his family's garment business and put on rock shows as a High School student, so despite his young age he was well prepared for the cutthroat rock business.

The Electric Theater opened in April of 1968, and by June, 4812 N. Clark Street in Chicago was an essential stop on the "Fillmore Circuit." Bands that played such venues as the Fillmores, the Boston Tea Party and The Electric Factory always played on N. Clark Street as well. Talent agent Frank Barsalona, all but single-handedly responsible for breaking English bands in America, made The Electric Theater a critical stop for his bands, and many of the most legendary concerts in Chicago were early appearances by groups like Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Ten Years After.

What follows is my working list of known performances at 4812 N. Clark Street, as both the Electric Theater and later the Kinetic Playground. It appears that it was only open on weekends, but there may have been additional shows that I am not aware of. This list has been constructed from surviving handbills and from the chronologies of the various bands. The existing handbills for the venue are primarily just lists of upcoming shows, with little in the way of collectible or interesting artwork, so Chicago handbills did not stay on people's dormitory walls the way posters did from San Francisco or Detroit, making research somewhat harder.

I believe the venue was open every weekend, even in the Winter, from April 3, 1968 until November 7, 1969, so there are many more shows to be discovered. Anyone who has additions, corrections and memories (real or imagined) regarding shows is encouraged to Comment or Email me.

1968

April 3-5, 1968 Electric Theater The Paupers
The Electric Theater opened on April 5 1968 with Toronto's Paupers as the headline act

April 23, 1968 Electric Theater Harumi

April 26-28, 1968 Electric Theater Little Boy Blues/The Rush

May 3-4, 1968 Electric Theater Siegal Schwall Blues Band

May 10-11, 1968 Electric Theater Finchley Boys

May 17-19, 1968 Electric Theater Canned Heat

May 22-26, 1968 Electric Theater Steppenwolf

May 31-June 1, 1968 Electric Theater Muddy Waters/Holy Om

June 7-9, 1968 Electric Theater Love/Chicago Slim Blues Band

June 10, 1968 Electric Theater Loading Zone 
This was a Monday night show, probably a relatively rare occurrence. The Loading Zone were a San Francisco band getting a big push from RCA behind their debut album. The record company probably rented the hall for the night and distributed some (or all) tickets through radio stations.

June 12-15, 1968  Electric Theater Rotary Connection
Rotary Connection was a popular "psychedelic soul" band from Chicago. They recorded for a Chess subsidiary, and featured singer Minnie Ripperton. 

June 26-27, 1968 Electric Theater Hello People
June 28-30, 1968 Electric Theater Blue Cheer/Hello People
The Hello People were a peculiar mixture of mime, vocal harmonies and rock. I believe they headlined themselves on Wednesday and Thursday (26 and 27). Blue Cheer, at the time, touted itself as the loudest band in the world, with a tower of Marshall Stax turned up to the max. Who do you think Chicago liked better?

July 3-4, 1968 Electric Theater Country Joe and The Fish/Hawk
Besides being Berkeley's leading rock export, Country Joe and The Fish were acutely aware that the 1968 Democratic Convention would be held in Chicago from August 25-29.

July 5-7, 1968 Electric Theater Rotary Connection/Growin Concern
Rotary Connection seems to have been the only Chicago-based headliner in 1968, but of course since we do not have a list yet of every show, I don't know if that was entirely true.

July 24, 1968 Electric Theater Jefferson Airplane/Iron Butterfly (two shows)
Note the nice poster above. I don't know how many shows had custom posters.

July 25-28, 1968 Electric Theater Iron Butterfly

August 1, 1968 Electric Theater The Who 

August 14-15, 1968 Electric Theater Mothers Of Invention/Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity  

August 23, 1968 Electric Theater Country Joe and The Fish 

August 30, 1968 Electric Theater Litter/Nova
August 31, 1968 Electric Theater Nova/Chicago Transit Authority
September 1, 1968 Electric Theater Litter/Nova
The groups replaced Pink Floyd, who canceled. 

September 2, 1968 Electric Theater Eric Burdon and The Animals

Soon after the opening of The Electric Theater, a well-known New York "hippie discoteque" called The Electric Circus had sued the Electric Theater for copying its trademark (or something like that). For whatever reasons, Aaron Russo changed the name of his club to The Kinetic Playground. Some flyers still included some representation of the name Electric Theater (like "The Electric Theater Presents At The Kinetic Playground"). It appears that the sound company associated with the club retained the name Electric Theater, and many Chicagoans seemed to have used the names Electric Theater and Kinetic Playground interchangeably. 

September 13-14, 1968 Kinetic Playground Pride/Illinois Speed Press
Pride was the new name for the Lemon Pipers


September 20-21, 1968 Kinetic Playground Kensington Market

October 4-6, 1968 Kinetic Playground John Mayall/Pacific Gas & Electric
I do not know the exact date of the name change of the venue. The gap in known performances on this list is only because I have not found any flyers for August or September of 1968. 

October 11, 1968 Kinetic Playground Jeff Beck Group/Pacific Gas & Electric/Fever Tree

October 12, 1968 Kinetic Playground Steppenwolf

October 18, 1968 Kinetic Playground Steppenwolf

October 21-22, 1968  Kinetic Playground Moody Blues/Rotary Connection

October 25-26, 1968 Kinetic Playground Quicksilver Messenger Service/SRC

November 1-2, 1968 Kinetic Playground Moby Grape/Eire Apparent/Rotary Connection (1 only) 

November 8, 1969 Kinetic Playground Spencer Davis

November 9, 1968 Kinetic Playground Canned Heat

November 15-16, 1968 Kinetic Playground Moody Blues/Charles Lloyd

November 22-23, 1968 Kinetic Playground Blue Cheer/Creedence Clearwater Revival

November 27-28, 1968 Kinetic Playground Grateful Dead/Procol Harum/Terry Reid


November 29-30, 1968 Kinetic Playgroud Tim Buckley/Terry Reid/Canned Heat

December 6-7, 1968 Kinetic Playground Buddy Miles Express/Deep Purple
I assume that Deep Purple was not the headliner of this show. This was the original version of Deep Purple, best known for the song "Hush," and featuring Rod Evans on vocals.

December 13-14, 1968 Kinetic Playground Iron Butterfly/Group Image

December 20-21 Kinetic Playground New York Rock and Roll Ensemble/Amboy Dukes/Charlie Musselwhite

December 22, 1968 Kinetic Playground Rotary Connection

December 31, 1968 Kinetic Playground The Byrds/Muddy Waters/Fleetwood Mac

1969

January 3-4, 1969  Kinetic Playground Muddy Waters/Fleetwood Mac/The Byrds
On Friday (3), Muddy Waters left the stage after just one number, as he was not well.

Kaleidoscope were originally booked for Friday, but ended up canceling.

January 10-11, 1969 Kinetic Playground Albert King/Linn County

January 17-18, 1969  Kinetic Playground Buddy Rich/Genesis
This would not have been the English band. Most likely it was the Los Angeles band called Genesis, but there could have been a regional band by that name. An alternate (and reliable) source has Taj Mahal.

January 24-25, 1969  Kinetic Playground Spirit/Velvet Undergound 
Another poster has Buddy Rich and His Orchestra/Buddy Miles Express/Rotary Connection on this weekend.

January 31-February1, 1969 Kinetic Playground Grateful Dead/The Grass Roots

February 7-8, 1969 Kinetic Playground  Vanilla Fudge/Led Zeppelin/Jethro Tull
Led Zeppelin was on their first American tour, and their first album had just been released. As if that wasn't enough, Jethro Tull was opening the show. Chicago has loved Jethro Tull since this day.

February 14-15, 1969 Kinetic Playground Tim Hardin/Spirit/The Move
The Move were an English band, but they canceled their American tour because bassist Trevor Burton quit.

February 19-20, 1969 Kinetic Playground Flying Burrito Brothers
According to John Einarson's fine book about Chris Hillman and the Burritos, these shows came after a long train trip, and Gram Parsons was much the worse for wear. Despite the power of their songs, the band's performances were less than stellar. February 19 and 20 were a Wednesday and Thursday, so I don't know if there were other acts on the bill.

February 21, 1969 Kinetic Playground Jeff Beck/Savoy Brown/Mother Earth
February 22, 1969 Kinetic Playground Blood, Sweat & Tears/Savoy Brown/Aorta
Jeff Beck canceled his American tour and didn't play. I don't know who replaced him. An earlier poster has Mother Earth opening on the 22nd, but they seem to have been replaced by the Chicago group Aorta.

February 28, 1969 Kinetic Playground Paul Butterfield/B.B. King/Albert King
March 1, 1969 Kinetic Playground Paul Butterfield/Albert King/Lumpy Gravy
An earlier poster had the Bob Seger System as one of the opening acts. Seger was from Detroit, and had played Chicago many times. I assume he played Kinetic Playground on occasion, as I think most Detroit bands probably did, but I have yet to be able to demonstrate that.

March 7-8, 1969 Kinetic Playground John Mayall/Richie Havens/The Flock
The Flock were an interesting band, a sort of only-in-Chicago concoction of progressive rock and soul. The group featured electric violinist Jerry Goodman leading a horn section. During this period, Columbia had signed four bands from Chicago, and chose to put out all their albums at the same time (May 1969)to make it seem like there was a "happening scene" in Chicago. In fact, there was a lot of great rock music coming out of Chicago, but stunts like this made fans suspicious (the other groups were Aorta, Illinois Speed Press and Chicago Transit Authority).

The Flock’s horn section joined Mayall for his last set on Saturday night. Mayall was very enthusiastic about the group, and wrote the liner notes for their debut album.

March 14-15, 1969 Kinetic Playground Jeff Beck Group/Sweetwater/Van Morrison

March 21-22, 1969 Kinetic Playground Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity/Magical Mystery Tour film

March 22, 1969 Kinetic Playground Sam and Dave Revue
Although the Kinetic Playground was a rock club, rock fans in Chicago were all generally big fans of Soul and Blues music as well, part of what made Chicago music so exciting. I don't know if the Sam and Dave show happened, or it was an afternoon show with Jools and Brian in the evening, or what.

March 28-29, 1969  Kinetic Playground TBA/Pacific Gas & Electric
The flyer does not list a headliner yet. Pacific Gas & Electric were a Los Angeles blues-rock band.

April 11-12, 1969 Kinetic Playground Ten Years After/Buddy Guy and Junior Wells

April 18-19, 1969 Kinetic Playground Everly Brothers/Cannonball Adderley/Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation

April 20, 1969 Kinetic Playground The Flock

April 25-26, 1969 Kinetic Playground Grateful Dead/Velvet Underground/SRC
This memorable pairing of two sixties opposites was covered in depth in Richie Unterburger's fine Velvet Underground chronology (White Light White Heat). The first night, the Velvet Underground played an extended set, and as a result the Grateful Dead were limited (by their standards) to one set. The next night, of course, the Dead came on before the Velvets and played an extended set, thus limiting the Velvets. Whether this was a result of some imaginary "feud" or just poor scheduling (I suspect the latter), it makes for a great sixties story.

As if the New York/SF pairing of the Velvets and the Dead wasn't enough, SRC was a famous powerhouse Detroit band, if lesser known, so three great bands from three great scenes were represented. It must have been some evening.

May 2-3, 1969 Kinetic Playground Albert King/Aum

May 14, 1969 Grant Park, Chicago  Jefferson Airplane
Over 50,000 people attended a free Jefferson Airplane show in one of Chicago's biggest parks. It was a legendary show in Chicago rock history, but unlike bucolic San Francisco, there were numerous cops and much craziness.

Apparently the Airplane were playing at least one Chicago concert around this time, but I don't know if it was at Kinetic Playground or elsewhere.

May 16-17, 1969 Kinetic Playground Buffy St. Marie/The Nice/Colwell-Winfield

May 23-24, 1969  Kinetic Playground Led Zeppelin/Pacific Gas and Electric/Illinois Speed Press
May 25, 1969 Kinetic Playground Illinois Speed Press
The Illinois Speed Press had actually moved to Los Angeles by this time, as had Chicago Transit Authority, but they were still being pitched (fairly enough) by CBS as a Chicago band. They featured guitarists Paul Cotton and Kal David, later in Poco and the Fabulous Rhinestones, respectively.

May 29-30, 1969  Kinetic Playground The Who/Buddy Rich and His Orchestra/Joe Cocker and The Grease Band 
May 31, 1969 Kinetic Playground The Who/Joe Cocker and The Grease Band/Soup
The Thursday show (29) reduced a double show into a single performance.

June 6-8, 1969 Kinetic Playground Vanilla Fudge/Muddy Waters/Rotary Connection
Vanilla Fudge was not scheduled to play on Sunday night (8).

June 13-14, 1969 Kinetic Playground Eric Burdon/The Zombies/It’s A Beautiful Day
June 15, 1969 Kinetic Playground The Zombies/It’s A Beautiful Day
Eric Burdon had broken up his "New Animals, " but he had undertaken a brief tour to support his Best Of album. I believe he was backed by Blues Image.

The Zombies had broken up in 1968, but thanks to Columbia staff producer Al Kooper, their last album (Odyssey and Oracle) had become a big hit behind the single "Time Of The Season." However, the lineup of The Zombies that toured did not feature any original members of the group, and was somewhat bogus.

June 20-22, 1969 Kinetic Playground (headliner not yet listed)/Crazy World of Arthur Brown/Youngbloods
Arthur Brown was not scheduled to play on Sunday (22).

June 27-28, 1969 Kinetic Playground Canned Heat/Black Pearl/Soup

July 3-4-5, 1969 Kinetic Playground Grateful Dead/Buddy Miles Express/Sir Douglas Quintet
The Dead seemed to have played the Kinetic Playground more than any out of town band, but that was true of a lot of 60s venues.
[update] A Commenter observes that the Grateful Dead actually played in Colorado on July 3. My presumption is that the other two acts played without them. Since the Colorado show was outdoors, it's not totally impossible that the plan was for the Dead to fly to Chicago and play a late night set, and it's not even totally impossible that it happened, but it's more likely the Dead's gig started on Saturday July 4.

July 11-12, 1969 Kinetic Playground Spirit/Pentangle/Alice Cooper

July 18-19, 1969 Kinetic Playground Led Zeppelin/Savoy Brown/The Litter
[update] Correspondent Michael M writes in to point out that The Litter canceled, and were replaced by Jethro Tull. Tull's presence is confirmed by the ever-reliable Ministry Of Truth site. Keep in mind that not only were Tull and Zep soon-to-be rock legends, but Savoy Brown was a great band too, featuring 3/4 of the future Foghat.


July 25-26, 1959 Kinetic Playground Richie Havens/Jethro Tull/Spooky Tooth

August 1-2, 1969 Kinetic Playground Jeff Beck/Terry Reid/Blues Image
Jeff Beck canceled—the last Jeff Beck Group show was July 26 in Detroit. I do not know who replaced them on the bill. Another flyer has Fleetwood Mac in place of Blues Image.

August 8-9, 1969  Kinetic Playground Al Kooper Revue/Mountain
Al Kooper canceled, due to illness. This would have been one of Mountain's first gigs. They would play Woodstock just a week later.

August 15-16, 1969 Kinetic Playground Paul Butterfield/Johnny Winter/The Flock

Both Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter were playing at Woodstock the same weekend. 

August 22-23, 1969 Kinetic Playground Country Joe and The Fish

September 5-6, 1969 Kinetic Playground Ten Years After/Bo Diddley


October 4-5, 1969 Kinetic Playground Farioso The Lion

October 10-11, 1969 Kinetic Playground Pacific Gas & Electric/Lee Michaels/Lonnie Mack/Bonzo Dog Band
I don't know if the Bonzo Dog Band actually played in Chicago, as they did not play all their American dates.

October 17-18, 1969  Kinetic Playground B.B. King/Albert King/Santana

October 19, 1969 Kinetic Playground Led Zeppelin/Santana/Lighthouse (two shows)

October 24-25, 1969 Kinetic Playground Spirit/Joe Cocker/Blodwyn Pig

October 31, 1969   Kinetic Playground The Who/The Kinks/Liverpool Scene
The Kinks had not toured America since 1965, because Ray Davies had apparently punched a Musicians Union honcho backstage in Los Angeles. Thus they missed the height of "British Invasion" tours and the first waves of American touring at places like the Fillmore. Things were settled by Fall 1969, however, and they finally began their belated assault on America.

The Kinks found themselves in Chicago opening for The Who, who had formed much later than them. Pete Towshend announced from the stage “in the old days, we used to dream about opening for The Kinks.  So its come to this. This show’s for them.”

November 1, 1969  Kinetic Playground Poco/Liverpool Scene
Poco replaced The Kinks.

November 7, 1969 Kinetic Playground Iron Butterfly/Poco/King Crimson
A fire after the show caused the November 8 show to be canceled, and closed the Kinetic Playground. 

Aaron Russo continued as a successful rock promoter in Chicago and Detroit (at the East Towne Theater) throughout the 1970s. He also successfully managed the career of Bette Midler. He produced her breakthrough movie The Rose. In the 1980s he went on to produce many other successful movies like Trading Places and Wise Guys.

The Kinetic Playground did not reopen. The building had various uses until it was torn down in 2003. After it was torn down, bones were discovered under the foundation. Chicagoans were sure that they were human bones, and that the original Rainbo Gardens were built over a mob burial ground. True or not (probably not), it made a great Chicago coda to the Electric Theater and the Kinetic Playground.

This has only been a start on the history of the Kinetic Playground and Chicago rock in the 1960s. Anyone with additional information, corrections or insights is actively encouraged to Comment or email me. As I get more information, I will update the post.