July 22, 1967 Springhill Road, Lafayette, CA: Country Joe and The Fish

(Country Joe and The Fish performing at a benefit in Lafayette, CA on July 22, 1967-h/t Pat McF for the photos. L-R: Bruce Barthol [bass], Barry Melton [gtr], Chicken Hirsch [dr], Joe McDonald [vcls], David Bennett Cohen [gtr])

Update: Once my friend actually saw her photos blown up to a larger size on the blog, she realized the concert was not in Canyon at all, but at an undeveloped area next to the Buckeye Ranch in suburban Lafayette, not far from Canyon but a different place entirely. Most of my suppositions about the concert that I have promulgated for some time turn out to be incorrect, and I now believe that this concert was July 22, 1967, a show which I have written about elsewhere. The photos are still fantastic, and long lost, although my conclusions are quite different.

Many years ago, a friend of mine recalled seeing Country Joe and The Fish and The Grateful Dead in1967 at a benefit concert on Labor Day weekend in tiny Canyon, California, just over the hill from Berkeley. She proved this astonishing tidbit by unearthing photos she had taken with a Brownie camera. While she ran out of film before the Grateful Dead appeared on stage, the photos provided snapshots--literally--of San Francisco rock when it was still off-the-cuff. She vaguely recalled a few other details, but at the time I talked to her about it the concerts were about twenty years past.

Canyon, California is an unincorporated community just over the hill from Berkeley, but part of the next County (Contra Costa). Even today it is only accessible by some winding, rarely traveled roads, and most residents of Alameda County (which includes Berkeley and Oakland) and Contra Costa County (which includes Walnut Creek, Lafayette and Moraga) can go their entire lives without ever driving through Canyon, or even realizing it exists. Isolated and iconoclastic Canyon became a counterculture outpost in the 1960s. A poster has survived of the first known Canyon rock concert, a benefit held on July 16, 1967, featuring Country Joe and The Fish, The Youngbloods and others.

When I first raised the possibility of a Grateful Dead/Country Joe and The Fish show on Labor Day in 1967, others looked into it, and one intrepid researcher found some evidence of it in a book called Berkeley At War. Country Joe McDonald himself seemed to confirm it. Deadlists summarizes the entry as follows (under the date 9/??/67):

Bill Gallagher: in the book "Berkeley At War" by WJ Rorabaugh (1989), p. 145 it says "In 1967 Canyon's hippies held a benefit concert to raise money to rebuild their general store. Country Joe McDonald, the Grateful Dead and others came to play. The narrow, winding road into Canyon was clogged with flower-painted VW vans." Canyon is a small community over the hill from Berkeley towards Moraga and Walnut Creek. Bill Gallagher contacted Country Joe and he said: "The benefit was held in Canyon, I believe, in the school yard of the little private school. I have a couple of posters of the event. cheers, cjm"

Based on the Grateful Dead's touring schedule, I had assumed that the concert was Monday, September 4. The Dead were playing Santa Cruz on Saturday, and they played Rio Nido Dance Hall on Sunday night (September 3) and possibly Monday night as well (I couldn't confirm two nights at Rio Nido). In any case, it was reasonable to assume they played in the afternoon of either the 3rd or the 4th, and I'm assuming they played on Labor Day itself (Sep 4). Thus I was responsible over a decade ago for both the listing in Deadbase and the listing on Ross's definitive Country Joe Performance History. There were some conflicts with the CJF timeline, but they were in flux at that time, so anything was possible.


Recently, my friend got a scanner, and after some begging from me, sent me the photos and allowed me to post them on the blog. I cheerfully wrote a post explaining how the Grateful Dead and Country Joe and The Fish played tiny Canyon, CA on Labor Day. The original photos were quite tiny, however, and once my friend saw them in a larger size, she realized it wasn't Canyon at all, but rather a place in Lafayette called Buckeye Ranch (sometimes known as Keener Ranch). A little bit of research and speculation suggests the following conclusions, all of which I will free to change if new information comes to light:

• The photographs are from an event on Saturday, July 22, 1967, advertised as "The Fantastic Flight Of The Mystic Balloon." A newspaper article from a few days later describes efforts of the local residents to gain an injunction against any subsequent events. Per the article, the event was on the property of something called The Casa Loma Swim Club, at the end of Springhill Road. My friend, who grew up in Lafayette, recalls a swim club of sorts on Springhill Road, although the grounds were quite small.
• Lafayette was such a sleepy place in 1967, however, that the odds of two events in the Summer of 1967 being held on Springhill Road are pretty small, particularly if there was an injunction preventing further events. The land between Buckeye Ranch and "The Casa Loma Swim Club" was probably contiguous, so whatever then-undeveloped canyon the concert was held in was only accessible at the end of Springhill Road.

The Buckeye Ranch (owned by the Keener family) now appears to be part of Briones Regional Park, as there is a "Buckeye Ranch Trail" at the Southeastern edge of park (The Keener family moved the Buckeye Ranch to Dixon, CA). Springhill Road has been largely developed, but it dead ends in Briones Park, so its unclear whether the site of this concert is a housing development or parkland.

Assuming my supposition about the July 22, 1967 concert is correct, this leads to three prosopographical corrections, all my own fault:

• The Deadlists reference to a concert in Canyon on 9/??/67 is incorrect. Joe McDonald's memory of the concert likely refers to the July 16, 1967 event with the Youngbloods, and the writer of the book has simply added the Dead to a concert they didn't play (a common enough mistake, I might add)
• The September 4, 1967 listing on Ross's Country Joe Performance List for Canyon, along with the Grateful Dead, is also wrong
• Its unlikely that The Grateful Dead played in Lafayette on July 22, 1967, as it seems likely they would have been mentioned in the newspaper article, and they were never booked

In my friend's defense, the Dead were just another band in those days, and she had seen them various times (the Avalon, Human Be-In, etc) and she had simply confused them with Steve Miller Band or someone else. I was the one who was tremendously interested in the photographs--such are the perils of researcher enthusiasm.

With all that being said, the Lafayette event of July 22, 1967 was remarkable in its own right, and these photos are a fantastic window into a forgotten event.

Notice the biggest difference between the above photo and the one at the top of the post: the above one has a tall woman in a white minidress and go-go boots, and a man filming her. The top photo has no go-go dancer, and no film. This does lead to the tantalizing possibility, however, that there is film of this event. I know little about 60s underground film,  but some relatively well known film artistes lived and worked in Canyon (which wasn't far away) and were associated with some of the bands (Robert Nelson, for example, made a 7-minute film of the Grateful Dead around this time), so someone might be able to identify the cameraman (I think he's visible in the same place in the top photo, without the camera).

The crowd at the concert seems distinctly suburban, not surprising for sleepy Lafayette. Lafayette is a prosperous suburb now, but it was a smaller and less well-off (though hardly poor) community then. The Springhill Road site is very near Acalanes High School in Lafayette, so I would guess that Lafayette students make up the bulk of the sparse crowd. Other High Schools, like Campolindo in Moraga, were not far away, and St. Mary's College (and High School), also in Moraga, was also not far away, although there would have been few St. Mary's students around in the Summer. The town of Lafayette was not ready for the psychedelic rock scene of San Francisco and Berkeley (see the article below), but at least some of the students were already waiting for it to arrive.

This otherwise unspectacular photo of Barry Melton (l.) and Bruce Barthol tuning up offers one incredibly intriguing detail: there's a reel to reel tape recorder on stage. So not only might there be film footage of the performance, there could be a relatively listenable tape recording as well. 

I don't see any other band's equipment. This may be because Country Joe and The Fish were headlining, and everyone else's equipment was gone, or it may be because there was a staging area out of site (such as behind the stage). Nonetheless, if the tape deck was running, there may be some cool tapes of Steve Miller and Salvation (aka Salvation Army Banned). Only six of the scheduled groups played, and the only ones we know for certain are CJF, Miller and Salvation, although I have reason to believe a Walnut Creek group called The Virtues played as well (they later became Country Weather).

 We conclude with a mystery. The last shot seems to be a solo performer with an electric guitar. My friends have simply forgotten who this might have been. Could it be Steve Miller, performing solo? He does seem to be performing in front of the Fish's equipment. I do note that the tape recorder is present, too.  Miller, at any rate, was well known around this period for using tape loops.

Regardless of my own fumbling about the date, these are amazing photos of a rock concert in the Bay Area suburbs in the Summer of Love itself, so near and yet so far from Berkeley and San Francisco. 


Appendix
My write-up on the court case about the concert is here.
The article below is from the Oakland Tribune of July 26, 1967

Sanpaku Performance List 1968-69 (Updated)

(I published an earlier version of this list some time ago, but so much information has come to light, particularly thanks to members of Sanpaku, that I am posting an updated list rather than simply revising the post)

Many artists, musical or otherwise, fall out of the public eye and their work remains submerged. One of the benefits of the Internet is that as attention returns to deserving performers, blogs can act as a kind of periscope, providing a snapshot of the ocean as they surface. In 1968 and 69, Sanpaku was a seven-piece jazz rock band from Sacramento with a two-piece horn section, well regarded by their peers but largely unknown today. Some members of the band have recently gotten in touch with each other, so I am presenting this list of their known concert performances--surely just a fraction of their total number of shows--as a starting point for the band's look backwards. 

In the late 1960s, Bill Graham was trying to expand his concert business into a more vertical model, with band management. a talent agency and two record labels. Only parts of these business enterprises were successful, but Graham's Millard Talent Agency gave a lot of opportunity to rising bands. Talent Agencies provide acts to promoters, since no promoter could know every act, nor could an act know every promoter. Sanpaku managed by Bill Graham and was also a client of the Millard Agency, along with The Grateful Dead, Santana, Its A Beautiful Day, Elvin Bishop, Aum, Cold Blood and others.

As a result of Graham's stewardship, Sanpaku played on some very high profile shows in the late 60s where they acquitted themselves quite well, and their future seemed quite promising. Although Sanpaku made a number of studio and live recordings in 1969, some of them are lost and others have not yet surfaced. For various reasons, despite their promise, the band broke up at the end of 1969. Nonetheless, their history provides an interesting window into the expanding rock market in late 60s California.

Genesis: The Working Class
Sanpaku was a Sacramento based band that formed from a Sacramento group called The Working Class. The Working Class featured guitarist Mark Pearson, and they had played a variety of hip and unhip gigs around the Sacramento area in 1967 and 1968. In the Summer of 1968, The Working Class became the house band at a venue called Kings Beach Bowl on the North Shore of the Lake. Lake Tahoe was a Northern California vacation resort that had a unique rock scene in the 1960s that I will explore a different time, but suffice to say major San Francisco and touring bands found time to play both the Kings Beach Bowl and the two venues on the South Shore (The American Legion Hall and The Sanctuary).

By mid-Summer, however, seeing the quality of the Fillmore bands coming through Kings Beach Bowl, Pearson wanted to improve the band. Various members departed and were replaced throughout the Summer. Lake Tahoe based organist Bob Powell, most recently a member of Johnny and The Hurricanes and also the booker for Kings Beach Bowl, had joined the group. An All-Star team of Sacramento musicians was assembled by a variety of means and inserted into the band. They were joined by bassist Kootch Trochim, recently of The Family Tree, who happened to be in Lake Tahoe for other reasons.

The Working Class opened for the Grateful Dead at Kings Beach Bowl on July 12-13, 1968. By this time the All-Star team had been assembled, and the group decided a name change was in order. Bob Powell found the name Sanpaku in a book, and the band accepted the choice, even though they had no idea what it meant (it refers to eyes where the iris is particularly small).

Sanpaku finished out the Summer at Kings Beach Bowl, playing every weekend at the club, as well as occasional gigs at The Sanctuary. Whether they used the name Sanpaku or Working Class isn't clear to me yet, but one of the many peculiarities of the Lake Tahoe scene was that band names didn't matter much in a vacation town. In any case, the band thought of themselves as Sanpaku. The band's initial lineup was

• Mark Pearson-guitar, vocals
• Gary Larkey-saxophone, flute
• Stan Bagdizian-saxophone
• Bob Powell-organ
• Kootch Trochim-bass
• Duane "Motor" Timme-drums

Also on board was road manager Hewitt Jackson, who had ridden to Lake Tahoe from Sacramento with Stan Bagdizian on the back of Stan's Honda 90 (kids, don't try this at home).

List Of Known Sanpaku Performances 1968-69
This list has been compiled from a variety of sources, but it only represents the confirmed shows that I have been able to uncover. In many cases that means high-profile shows, shows where Sanpaku played with an interesting act who had a history of their own, or shows with a surviving poster. Thanks to road manager Hewitt Jackson and some band members, I have been privileged to find out considerably more about the group's performing history. However, anyone who recalls seeing Sanpaku, or knows about additional shows or has other relevant information is encouraged to Comment or email me. As I get new information, I will update and later re-publish the post.

September-December 1968: The Sound Factory, Sacramento
The Sound Factory, at 1817 Alhambra Street in Sacramento, was an effort to capture the expanding rock concert market in Sacramento. This appeared to be a sound strategy, as bands toured the West Coast and were always looking for additional shows in Northern California beyond San Francisco or the East Bay. The proprietor of The Sound Factory, Whitey Davis (worthy of a whole book, not just a blog post), had worked at the Avalon Ballroom in 1966 and 1968 and in between he had booked rock shows at Portland's legendary Crystal Ballroom.

The Sound Factory is another fascinating 60s rock byway that I can't address here, but during its opening weeks in the Summer of 1968 the venue featured a number of collectible posters that circulate widely. The venue was never on a sound financial footing however, a hallmark of many Whitey Davis ventures, so the exact bookings of the Sound Factory after the Summer of 1968 are largely obscure, even though I think there were shows there almost every weekend in the Fall.

However, Sanpaku decamped to Sacramento after the Lake Tahoe Summer season ended after Labor Day. They became the "house band" and the band members recall playing every Friday and Saturday night at the Sound Factory through mid-October. Whitey Davis was very impressed with the band, and wanted to become their manager. Davis helped arrange the band a booking at a Tuesday night audition show at the Fillmore West.

The September 29 Sacramento Bee promoted Traffic in Sacramento on October 5, supported by the Grateful Dead and The Youngbloods. Traffic was replaced by the Turtles. Sanpaku manager Whitey Davis promoted the show.

October 5, 1968 Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA: Grateful Dead/The Turtles/Youngbloods/Sanpaku/Initial Shock/Family Tree
Whitey Davis promoted this show at the 3600-seat Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. Initially, Traffic had been booked as the headliner, but they had canceled, as Dave Mason had abruptly quit the band. The Turtles replaced them on the bill. The Grateful Dead did not have a big following in Sacramento at the time, so according to the local Pony Express paper there were only about 2000 in attendance. Express critic Mick Martin praised the band, saying

SANPAKU were the musical highpoints of the evening. SANPAKU's hornmen are so beautiful, their solos are always different, and yet they build to a completely emotional climax. Their original material is well arranged and worth repeated listens.

October 26, 1968 Freeborn Hall, UC Davis: Glass Thunder/Sanpaku
Freeborn Hall was the biggest auditorium at UC Davis. I do not know who Glass Thunder were, nor why they could headline Davis's largest hall. I assume this was some sort of student event.

December 6-7, 1968 New Committee Theatre, San Francisco: Initial Shock/Sanpaku/Devils Kitchen (6th)/Notes From The Underground (7th)
The Committee, the Bay Area's groundbreaking improvisational comedy troupe, had opened a new Theatre at 836 Montgomery. The venue also put on rock shows as well as the regular improv fare.

January 4, 1969 Sound Factory, Sacramento: Glad/Country Fog/Sanpaku/Rush/Big Foot
This was a benefit for the FM station that became KZAP. Incidentally, Big Foot featured Reed Nielsen, then probably the band's drummer. Nielsen would switch over to keyboards and go on to work with Mark Pearson in the Nielsen-Pearson band, who had a pretty good run of success in the late 70s and early 80s (releasing three albums and some semi-hit singles on CBS and Capitol), but that was far off in the future. Reed Nielsen has gone on to become a successful Nashville country songwriter.

January 21, 1969 Fillmore West, San Francisco: Crystal Syphon/Sanpaku/Crazy Horse
This was the show that brought Sanpaku to Bill Graham's attention. It is a very little known fact of Fillmore West history is that from September 1968 until it closed in July 1971, the Fillmore West had a concert almost every Tuesday night. Almost none of these were on the famous poster series, and as a result these shows have been ignored by Fillmore historians. They generally featured a popular local band and two new bands, or at least newly-arrived-in-town bands. Admission was $1.00 or $1.50, and it was a popular stop for record company reps and managers to see what might be happening. There is an extant flyer for this show (it says “1.00 Jam”).  Crystal Syphon and Crazy Horse were both Merced bands.

A flyer for the January 21, 1969 Tuesday audition at Fillmore West with Sanpaku and the bands Crystal Syphon and Crazy Horse from Merced. Most Tuesday night shows did not have flyers. Probably the flyer came from the Crystal Syphon side.

Hewitt Jackson and Bob Powell recall that although Whitey Davis helped Sanpaku get the Tuesday audition and hoped  to be Sanpaku's manager, he did not attend the Fillmore West show. After a smoking hot set, Graham came back to talk to the group, and when he discovered they had no manager, immediately volunteered his own services. Sanpaku had gone from being a struggling Sacramento band to hooking up with the West Coast's biggest rock promoter (note: in an earlier version of this post, I had incorrectly dated this show as October 22, 1968, but better evidence has confirmed that it was January 21, 1969).

In any case, newly outfitted by Graham with equipment from Leo's Music in Oakland, Sanpaku began to play regularly around the Bay Area and beyond. What follows is the shows that I have been able to confirm. 

February 28-March 1 Dream Bowl, Vallejo: Santana/Sanpaku
The Dream Bowl was on Highway 29, between Vallejo and Napa, in the general vicinity of Sears Point Raceway (now Infineon Raceway). The venue dated back to at least the 1940s. During World War 2, so many transplanted Southerners were in California working in the defense industry that the West Coast became a key entertainment center (Bob Wills even moved to California). There was substantial shipbuilding in Vallejo, so there were many country music fans. The Dream Bowl was an important stop on a local country music circuit around the Bay Area.

After World War 2, Vallejo returned to being a sleepy suburb, but the Dream Bowl continued to present country style music, at least into the early 1960s. There seems to have been a brief effort to make it into a suburban rock venue in 1969, but it seems to have been some years before Sonoma and Solano Counties had enough population to support their own venue.

Note that almost all the groups on the poster were booked by the Millard Agency.

March 13-16, 1969 Fillmore West, San Francisco: Creedence Clearwater Revival/Jethro Tull/Sanpaku
Bands who did well at a Tuesday audition were given a chance to open a show, and if they succeeded they were given a chance to be 'on the poster.' Sanpaku's presence at this high profile gig indicates that they must have been signed up by the Millard Agency by this time.

Influential San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph Gleason gave a favorable notice to the band in his march 17, 1969 column. He wrote

Sanpaku, which is a young band from Sacramento, was also on the bill. They appeared at one of the Tuesday night Fillmore sessions a few weeks back and blew everybody's mind. They are one of those marvelous mixtures of free form jazz and blues and rock. They opened with "Parchman Farm" and went on to do an exciting set with good solos from the two horn players. The lead singer is very good, too.

March 17, 1969 Winterland, San Francisco: Jefferson Airplane/Grateful Dead/Sons Of Champlin/Sanpaku
Bob Powell recalls opening for the Airplane, the Dead and the Sons at Winterland. The most likely date seems to be this last-second Monday benefit. I have written about it elswehere. The exact lineup for the evening's performance remains unknown, so its hard to confirm. Hewitt Jackson recalls that The Sons wore mock prison jumpsuits, symbolic of their recent signing to Capitol Records.

March 20, 21 or 22, 1969 Winterland, San Francisco: Janis Joplin and Her Kozmic Blues Band/Savoy Brown/AUM/Sanpaku
Hewitt Jackson and Bob Powell recall opening for a very sloppy Kozmic Blues Band at Winterland, and a dismayed Janis Joplin grumbling about having to come on after the tight and flexible performance of Sanpaku.

It was common for opening acts to be added or subtracted from larger shows at the last second. Since AUM were a Millard band, I would guess that Sanpaku stood in for them one night when AUM had a different show elsewhere, but I don't know that for a fact.

March 26-30, 1969 Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood: Aum/Sanpaku
The Whisky A Go Go was a high profile club in West Hollywood. Bands actually played for Union Scale, but so many record company and industry professionals saw the bands that it was worth it to play the gig. Both Aum and Sanpaku were Millard Agency bands, and this was the organization's way of showcasing the groups outside of San Francisco. Aum was a power trio led by guitarist Wayne Ceballos.

April 4-6, 1969 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco: Grateful Dead/Flying Burrito Brothers/Aum/Sanpaku
This show looms large in the taper universe, as the Dead, Burritos and Aum were all broadcast live on KPFA-fm. That night and the first night (Friday April 4) were also part of an archival release of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Yet Sanpaku members recall playing that weekend, and an account book references the fact that the band got paid for the weekend. So they were definitely there (top level operatives are researching the details).

April 18-19, 1969 Rose Palace, Pasadena: John Mayall/Deep Purple/Sanpaku
John Mayall would have had his acoustic Turning Point lineup (with Jon Mark and John Almond) and Deep Purple's first American tour would have featured the "Hush" lineup (with Rod Evans on vocals and Nick Simper on bass).

A Commenter has a particularly fond memory of Sanpaku's great performance as the opening act.


April 22-23, 1969 New Orleans House, Berkeley: Its A Beautiful Day/Sanpaku
The New Orleans House was a popular rock club in Berkeley. Bands played gigs like this on weeknights (this was a Tuesday and Wednesday) in between opening for larger shows. Its  A Beautiful Day was a very popular local group, but they did not yet have an album. They too were booked by the Millard Agency.

May 10, 1969  Pacific Memorial Stadium, U of Pacific, Stockton: Santana/Cold Blood/Sons of Champlin/Elvin Bishop/Counry Weather/Sanpaku/  
“Pacific Pop Festival” (noon to 7 pm)
Pacific Memorial Stadium was a modest sized football stadium. Every one of these bands was a Millard Agency client. Santana had not yet released their first album, although they had probably signed to Columbia by this time and may have begun recording it already.

May 20-21 The Matrix, San Francisco, CA: Jerry Garcia and Friends/Sanpaku
Sanpaku opened for Garcia on a Tuesday and a Wednesday at the Matrix. It remains a mystery who Garcia actually played with--most likely some sort of Mickey and The Hartbeats setup (h/t JGMF for this).

May 30, 1969 Merced County Fairgrounds, Merced: Memorial Day Rock Festival
Santana/Elvin Bishop Band/Sanpaku/Crystal Syphon/Crazy Horse/2 others
Santana, Elvin Bishop and Sanpaku were all Millard clients, and Crystal Syphon and Crazy Horse were Merced-area bands.

Around this time, Sanpaku added another member, singer and conguero Rico Reyes. Reyes was part of the Santana crowd, and he provided vocals and percussion on various early Santana albums. He later went on to help found the terrific band Azteca in the early 1970s.

May 31, 1969 Berryessa Bowl, Napa: Sanpaku/Crystal Syphon
Beryessa Bowl was a amphitheatre at man-made Lake Berryessa. This relatively local gig, in the Bay Area but many miles from San Francisco, was probably typical of a lot of Sanpaku gigs

June 13, 1969 Convention Center, Fresno: Grateful Dead/Aum/Sanpaku
The Grateful Dead were booked by the Millard Agency in 1968-69, mainly as a way to pay back money they had borrowed from Bill Graham. During this period, many of the opening acts at Grateful Dead shows were Millard clients. At this show, Sanpaku flautist Gary Larkey, Aum guitarist Wayne Ceballos and legendary singer Ronnie Hawkins all joined in with the Dead to play "Turn On Your Lovelight."

June 20-21, 1969 The Barn, Rio Nido: Country Weather/Sanpaku/Jaybyrd
The Barn in Rio Nido was probably another name for the Rio Nido Dance Hall, but I'm not certain of that.

June 24-26, 1969 Fillmore West, San Francisco: Iron Butterfly/Cold Blood/Sanpaku

July 19, 1969 Gym, Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey: Santana/Sanpaku/Fritz
Once again, San Paku opened for a Millard client. I'm pretty sure that the opening act Fritz was the Menlo Park band, featuring bassist Lindsay Buckingham and singer Stephanie (Stevie) Nicks.

The Monterey Peninsula College gym was a modest sized venue, which probably held about 2000 in a festival seating type arrangement.

Around this time, some band members recall a meeting in which Bill Graham explained to them that Santana rather than Sanpaku would be going to a large rock festival in upstate New York called Woodstock.

August 5, 1969 The Matrix, San Francisco: Sanpaku/Bigfoot
The Matrix, at 3138 Fillmore, was still a musicians' hangout. While not a big gig, it was an important place to be heard. Chronicle critic Ralph Gleason regularly mentioned the bands scheduled to play The Matrix (to the delight of all Rock Prosopographers). The clip above is from Monday August 4, 1969.

August 8-9, 1969 The Poppycock, Palo Alto: Sanpaku/Terry Dolan
The Poppycock, at 135 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto, was that city's venue for the original rock club circuit. Second-tier bands played clubs like The Poppycock, New Orleans House and Matrix regularly between higher profile gigs.

August 14, 1969 Coliseum Arena, Oakland: Blind Faith/Delaney & Bonnie & Friends/Free/Sanpaku
The band played unbilled at the Bay Area stop of the biggest rock tour to date.

August 20, 1969 El Roach, Ballard, WA: Grateful Dead/NRPS/Sanpaku
The Dead, New Riders of The Purple Sage and Sanpaku were supposed to play Seattle's outdoor Aqua Theatre, but they got rained out. Instead, they went to the nearby El Roach Tavern (at 5419 Ballard Avenue in suburban Seattle) and put on a surprise show. I'm not certain exactly who played, but Sanpaku members were definitely there.

August 21, 1969 Aqua Theatre, Seattle, WA: Grateful Dead/NRPS/Sanpaku
The bands finally got to play their show the next day. The interesting venue was not in good repair, and this was the last concert at the facility. However, flautist Gary Larkey joined the Dead for a few songs. For many decades it was arbitrarily assumed that the guest performer was Charles Lloyd, but in fact it was Larkey.

The Grateful Dead and probably the New Riders played a rock festival in Oregon on Saturday, August 23 (The Bullfrog 3 Festival at the Pelletier Farm in Helens, OR), so I would not be surprised to find out that Sanpaku played it as well.

September 8, 1969 Quad, Irvington High School, Fremont: Aum/Sanpaku
A September 11, 1969 Fremont Argus "Teen" section article reported (above) that a Monday night dance in the School Quad was a huge success, with over 1000 students attending. Gigs like this, besides being a nice payday on an otherwise non-working night, helped build a band's audience as well.

September 10, 1969 The Matrix, San Francisco: Sanpaku/Ice

September 16-18, 1969 The Matrix, San Francisco: Sanpaku/Mendelbaum
Mendelbaum had arrived from Wisconsin in the Summer, and had become almost the house band at the Matrix. Bands played weeknight gigs at tiny clubs like The Matrix (this was Tues-Wed-Thurs) because it gave them a chance to have fun and work on stuff for the bigger gigs on the weekends. 

September 24, 1969 Fillmore West   
Bay Area Drug Committee Presents At Bill Graham’s Fillmore West A Benefit Show Save The Children 
It’s A Beautiful Day/Sanpaku/Sons of Champlin/Ace of Cups/The Outlaws (Dino Valenti and Garry Duncan)/Terry Dolan

October 5, 1959 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford University, Palo Alto: Its A Beautiful Day/Cold Blood/Sanpaku
Benefit for MidPeninsula Free University
Photos exist of Sanpaku performing at this Sunday afternoon event (the clip above is from Ralph J Gleason's Chronicle column of October 3, 1969). By this time, New Jersey born trumpeter David Ginsberg had replaced Stan Bagdazian. Ginsberg had been at the University of Wisconsin, and had recently moved to San Francisco. Ginsberg was only in the band for a few weeks.

October 9, 1969 Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley, Berkeley: Sons of Champlin/Sanpaku

October 11, 1969 Cal Expo, State Fairgrounds, Sacramento: Janis Joplin and Her Kozmic Blues Band/Blues Image/Sanpaku
Sanpaku opened for Janis on their home turf, at the fairly new State Fairgrounds.

Sanpaku had formed a basketball team to challenge Bill Graham's Fillmore Fingers on Tuesday nights. They named their team the Paku Jets, and had t-shirts made up. They lost, big time. But they won in a way, since their friend Carlos Santana wore one of the shirts when Santana appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV on October 24, 1969. On the video (Youtube), the "K" in Paku is visible on Carlos's t-shirt as the band launches into "Persuasion."

October 28-30, 1969 The Matrix, San Francisco: Sanpaku/Mendelbaum

October 31, 1969 Gym, Monte Vista High School, Danville: Country Weather/Sanpaku/First Time Around  
“Barefoot Dance”
The flyer for this just says "M.V. Gym." Many flyers for school dances had very little such information, since the only audience was students who knew the location of the gym (thanks to a Commenter for suggesting the correct location).

November 6, 1969 Gym, College Park High School, Pleasant Hill: Mike Bloomfield and Friends/Country Weather/Bronze Hog/Sanpaku/Orion/Daybreak
This concert was mentioned in Ralph Gleason's column on November 5. I'm not sure why six bands would play a High School gym on a Thursday night--I assume this wasn't a school event. The High School was across from a Junior College (Diablo Valley) so perhaps it was associated with that institution.

November 7, 1969  Gym, Contra Costa College, Richmond: Cold Blood/Sanpaku/Little John
There were actually quite a few rock concerts at the Contra Costa College gym in the 1960s.

November 8, 1969 [venue], Hayward State College, Hayward: Sanpaku/Dry Creek
I assume this was a student event at Cal State Hayward, but it was on a Saturday night and presumably open to the public, as it was mentioned in Gleason's column. I'm not certain of the exact venue. Hayward State (now known as Cal State University, East Bay) was opened in 1957. At the time, there was only the main campus above Mission Boulevard.

November 14-15, 1969 The Old Fillmore, San Francisco: Country Weather/Sanpaku/Floating Bridge
A series of shows were put on at the original Fillmore Auditorium (at 1805 Geary) in 1969, but the venue had gotten too small for the booming rock market(h/t Colin for the long-lost poster).

Floating Bridge were from Seattle.

November 20-23, 1969 Fillmore West, San Francisco:  Jethro Tull/MC5/Sanpaku
Sanpaku played again with Jethro Tull, this time on Tull's triumphant return to Fillmore West as headliners. The ad above is Bill Graham Presents regular display ad in the Sunday Chronicle. Each ad had the same format, listing the bands and with a picture of a prominent member of the headline group (in this case Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull).

Sanpaku were advertised for a Friday night (Nov 21) show at the Santa Rosa County Fairgrounds in Sonoma, supporting Its A Beautiful Day and Cold Blood, but they were replaced by Joy of Cooking, as a Fillmore West show always took precedence over one in the hinterlands.

December 3, 1969 Fillmore West, San Francisco: Creedence Clearwater Revival/Billie Joe Becoat/Gary Wagner/Clover/Sanpaku/Joy of Cooking
In his November 30 column (above), Gleason tantalizingly mentioned a Wednesday night Fillmore West concert, headlined by Creedence and featuring numerous popular local club acts. The show was a benefit for KPFA-fm in Berkeley, as Wednesday was the usual night for such things (this show is outside the known list of BGP events). Yet by the next week, Sanpaku was off the bill (replaced by Commander Cody), and it they broke up shortly after this. It appears that one member of the band was not available due to getting framed in a drug bust--a common enough occurrence for 60s longhairs--and while the legal problems were resolved, the band did not survive the hiatus.

There are many fascinating twists and turns in the Sanpaku tale, well beyond the narrow confines of my concert blog, and I am confident that much of this information will be forthcoming in the future. In the meantime, Sanpaku road manager Hewitt Jackson continues to carry the flag, making sure the band stays together in spirit as well as in fact (see the band blog here). The rise and demise of Sanpaku is a fascinating tale, and this chronology only sketches a broad outline. Anyone with additional information about Sanpaku shows, please post them in the comments and I will update as needed.

2201 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA The Electric Factory: Concert List July-December 1968 (Philadelphia II)

[this post continues the series about rock concerts at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia in the 1960s]

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of America's great cities, but its proximity to New York has always made an unfair comparison. Philadelphia has an exciting music history, and an exciting rock music history in the 1960s, but that history can only be documented in the most fragmented of places. These posts about the Electric Factory marks the beginning of my effort to organize and analyze Philadelphia rock history in the 1960s. There are considerably more dates to be found, but these posts will make a good starting point.

The Electric Factory, 2201 Arch Street
The Electric Factory, a former tire warehouse, opened in early 1968 at 2201 Arch.  The owners were the Spivak brothers, all experienced bar owners in the Philadelphia area. Their booker was Larry Magid.  They rapidly dominated the concert scene in Philadelphia, and the Electric Factory were the most important promoters in Philadelphia until they ultimately were purchased by larger corporate interests in the 1990s.

The Electric Factory was a critical stop on 60s concert tours, and an integral part of the "Premier Talent" (Booking Agency) circuit that included both Fillmores, the Boston Tea Party and Chicago's Kinetic Playground. Philadelphia was a big, important city and Philadelphia fans were not shy about showing their appreciation or displeasure (a trait that has endured). However, since the Electric Factory did not generally use posters with collectible art for advertisements, the venue has been somewhat lost to 60s rock history. There were many relatively trivial 60s venues that had a famous poster or two, often printed in The Art Of Rock or otherwise promulgated, that are recalled much more often than the Electric Factory. Outside of Philadelphia, the early history of the Electric Factory is largely ignored, and I am attempting to begin to correct that here.

This post represents my best efforts at determining late 1968 shows at the Electric Factory, as well as shows promoted by Electric Factory concerts. Anyone with additional information, insights, corrections or recovered memories (real or imagined) is encouraged to Comment or email me, and I will update the list accordingly. This post presents the lists of Electric Factory concerts from July through December 1968, as well as major Philadelphia rock events during that period.

(For earlier efforts at psychedelic ballrooms in Philadelphia as well as the first half of 1968 for the Electric Factory, see here)

Electric Factory, Philadelphia July-December 1968
I have almost no dates for the Electric Factory throughout the Summer of 1968. However, I believe they put on concerts every weekend, and probably many weekdays as well. They also probably put on at least some free concerts at the Belmont Plateau in nearby Fairmount Park. Nonetheless we have almost no record of any of these events. I am assuming that this was because the Electric Factory rarely used colorful, artistic posters to advertise the shows. Our knowledge of shows at venues like the Fillmore, the Avalon or Detroit's Grande Ballroom comes from the wonderful (and collectible) posters that lived on in dorm room walls long after the venues ceased operating. I think the Electric Factory advertised on the radio and with print-only ads in various newspapers, making it harder to discern their schedule.

This list includes what concerts I have found for the second half of 1968, and I have included a few other major Philadelphia rock concerts as well.

July 17, 1968 JFK Stadium The Rascals/Country Joe and The Fish/The Box Tops/Delfonics
Schmidt’s Beer Presents The Philadelphia Music Festival
I do not know if the Electric Factory had any involvement in this early effort to have a rock show in a huge football stadium, but I am including it anyway because it is such an interesting bill. The Rascals were a popular East Coast band, while Country Joe and The Fish were one of San Francisco's leading musical exports. The Box Tops, while in fact an excellent band, were marked as sort of a "pop" band, and The Delfonics were a major Philadelphia soul band. Their big hit at this time was "La-La-La Means I Love You."

This was quite a daring booking, as white rock and black R&b acts rarely played on the same bill, but I don't know anything about the concert itself. The show was on a Wednesday night. According to the excellent book The Who Concert File (McMichael and Lyons, Omnibus Press 1997), a series of concerts were held at JFK Stadium throughout the Summer (see July 24 below). I presume these concerts made up "The Philadelphia Music Festival."

JFK Stadium (formerly Philadelphia Municipal Stadium), at the far Southern end of Broad Street (at Pattison), was built in 1925 and had a maximum football capacity of 102,000. The Beatles had played there on August 16, 1966. From the late 1970s onward, many rock concerts were held in the stadium, most famously the American half of Live Aid (July 13, 1985). The stadium was torn down in 1992.

>July 19-21, 1968 Electric Factory Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac were booked for these shows, but canceled and never played them, as Mac had returned to England by July 18.

July 24, 1968 JFK Stadium The Who/The Troggs/Mandala/Pink Floyd/Friends of The Family
This seems to have been another part of the series of concerts at JFK Stadium.  Pink Floyd had replaced Procol Harum, who couldn't get work visas. An attendee reports that rain began during Pink Floyd’s set, and there were no provisions to cover the stage, and the show was abruptly halted.

Once again this show was on a Wednesday night. I'd be very interested to find out who played the other shows of this "Festival."

I have been unable to find out anything about other Electric Factory concerts in the Summer of 1968. Its not impossible the venue took some kind of hiatus at some point, but I would be surprised if there weren't quite a number of shows yet to be found.

September 13-14, 1968  Electric Factory  Butterfield Blues Band/Eric Andersen/American Dream

September 20-21, 1968  Electric Factory The Nazz/Velvet Underground/Colwell-Winfield Blues Band
By this time Todd Rundgren had joined The Nazz.

September 27-28, 1968  Electric Factory Amboy Dukes/James Cotton Blues Band/Elizabeth

October 4-5, 1968  Electric Factory Moby Grape/Albert King/Woody’s Truck Stop

October 16, 1968 Electric Factory John Mayall
From the Mayall Fan Club, via Christopher Hjort's fine book Strange Brew. Not confirmed—date approximate.

October 19, 1968 The Spectrum “Quaker City Rock Festival”
Big Brother and The Holding Company/Moby Grape/Vanilla Fudge/Buddy Guy/Chambers Brothers/others?
The Spectrum was at 3601 S. Broad Street, just across from JFK Stadium. It was an 18,000 capacity indoor arena that had opened in Fall 1967. Electric Factory promoter Larry Magid had put on the first event at the Spectrum, the Quaker City Jazz Festival, on September 30, 1967. The Spectrum was also home to the NBA's 76ers and the NHL's Flyers. The Quaker City Rock Festival appears to have been an effort to book some larger acts that may have been too big to play the Electric Factory.

There appears to have been two ‘Quaker City Rock Festivals’ at The Spectrum in 1968 (see December 6, 1968 below), and time seems to have confused the memories of various eyewitnesses.

October 25-26, 1968  Electric Factory Jeff Beck Group

November 1-2, 1968  Electric Factory Big Brother and The Holding Company
This must have been some weekend in Philadelphia, with Big Brother riding high on top of Cheap Thrills, and Cream on their 'Farewell Tour.'

November 1, 1968 The Spectrum Cream/Sweet Stavin Chain
This show was near the end of the American leg of Cream's 'Farewell Tour' (the last show was in Rhode Island on November 4). For some pictures of the show, see here. Note that Cream were in the center of the floor, on a revolving stage. Note also the comparatively tiny amount of equipment. Ginger Baker's drums seem to have very few or possibly no microphones.

[update 16 February 2023: David Starobin, former bass player of Sweet Stavin Chain gives us the 411 on the band: 

I was the original bass player with my brother Danny’s band, Sweet Stavin Chain.

We were managed by Lew Linnet and played at The Second Fret, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Kaleidoscope,  Temple’s Amber Campus outdoor venue with Lucas Foss and the Pittsburgh Symphony, a gay club in town (I forget the name), a concert hall in NYC and other venues.  By the time I was replaced with another bass player the band was playing the Factory regularly.  I remember them opening for The Chambers Brothers, Country Joe and The Fish, opening for Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Academy of Music on Mother’s Day and playing the Spectrum.  By this time they were managed by Larry Magid, hence their “in” with The Factory and The Spectrum. 

November 7-8, 1968  Electric Factory Moody Blues/Ars Nova

November 15-16, 1968 Electric Factory Steppenwolf
From Billboard (Nov 16, 1968). Not necessarily a conflict with the Airplane, as they could have played together (below), although given Steppenwolf's popularity by this time it seems surprising that the bands would be double billed.

Novmeber 16, 1968  Electric Factory Jefferson Airplane

November 27-28, 1968 Electric Factory The Byrds/American Dream/Yum Yum

December 5, 1968 Civic Center Chambers Brothers/Spirit
The Philadelphia Civic Center, an Art Deco landmark at 3400 Civic Center Blvd (near U. Penn), was built in 1931 and was the main Philadelphia venue for sports and events until 1967 (The venue was also known as The Municipal Auditorium and The Convention Center, depending on the exact configuration). Once The Spectrum was complete, however, the building nearly became obsolete. However, the 12,000 capacity hall was still used for some events. It was torn down in 2005.

The Chambers Brothers were particularly big at this time, as their single "Time" had re-entered the charts.

December 6, 1968 The Spectrum “Quaker City Rock Festival”
Grateful Dead/Sly and The Family Stone/Iron Butterfly/Steppenwolf
Al Kooper remembers being the MC.  Apparently Creedence Clearwater Revival canceled, but this edition Festival had a distinctly West Coast feel, with two bands from San Francisco and two from Los Angeles. This show was the Grateful Dead's first of 53 appearances at The Spectrum.

Various eyewitnesses remember The Chambers Brothers and Vanilla Fudge, but its not clear whether those bands played, or the memories were conflated with the previous Quaker City Rock Festival (see October 19, 1968), or else the Civic Center show from the day before.

December 29-30, 1968   Electric Factory Fleetwood Mac
Guitarist Rick Vito described seeing the group in Vintage Guitar, quoted at length in Chris Hjort’s Strange Brew. Apparently, the band was a Peter Green-led powerhouse the first night, and a Jeremy Spencer-led bunch of goofballs the second night.

Anyone with additional information about Philadelphia rock concerts in 1968 should Comment or email me, and I will update the posts accordingly. See here for shows at Philadelphia's Electric Factory in the first half of 1969.

Kinetic Playground: 4812 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL Performance List 1968 (New! Improved!)

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

[I have received so much great information about the Kinetic Playground that I am updating my original post]

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. Thanks again to everyone who sent me amazing clippings, recollections and corrections in order to improve my previous post.

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 21, 1968--according to the Chicago Tribune, the police raided the Electric Theater and shut it down. I do not know for sure how long it was closed, but at least some of the following shows must have been canceled. I suspect they were up and running by the next weekend (Friday May 24), although the Friday entertainment music listings in the Tribune (below) had probably been prepared in advance.

May 22-26, 1968 Electric Theater Steppenwolf/Influence

May 31-June 2, 1968 Electric Theater James Cotton Blues Band/Holy Om
According to the Chicago Tribune (h/t Joe), James Cotton seems to have replaced Muddy Waters.

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/The McCoys/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. The McCoys, from Indiana, were trying to remake themselves into a psychedelic blues band, which was a long way from "Hang On Sloopy."

July 12-14, 1968 Electric Theater Spirit/Peanut Butter Conspiracy/T.I.M.E
Although the dates are slightly approximated (the Chicago Tribune said "this weekend"), all the groups were from Los Angeles. Spirit were rising stars, and Peanut Butter Conspiracy somewhat fading ones. T.I.M.E was connected to the Steppenwolf/Toronto crowd, now relocated to LA.

July 17-21, 1968 The Electric Theater Earth Opera/Sunshine Company (19&20)
Thanks to a Commenter, we know from a flyer that Peter Rowan and David Grisman's baroque-psychedelic-folk rock band, Earth Opera, headlined for a four day stretch, joined by the airy pop of the Sunshine Company (from LA) for the last two days.

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 

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 ultimately 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. 

August 9, 1968--the club officially changed its name to The Kinetic Playground (per the Trib)

August 14-15, 1968 Kinetic Playground Mothers Of Invention/Canned Heat
Earlier ads featured Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger, but it appears that Canned Heat took their place.

(a clip from the Chicago Tribune entertainment listings for Tuesday, August 16, 1968--h/t Joe)

August 16-17, 1968 Kinetic Playground Mothers Of Invention/Them
This would have been a Tuesday and Wednesday night, but Frank Zappa was much beloved in Chicago and this would have still been a very big deal. Van Morrison had left Them two years earlier, but the 1968 configuration was still apparently a pretty good live band.

August 18, 1968 Kinetic Playground Them/Litter

August 24, 1968 Kinetic Playground Litter/Bangor Flying Circus

August 30, 1968 Kinetic Playground Litter/Nova

August 31, 1968 Kinetic Playground Nova/Chicago Slim Blues Band
Chicago Slim Blues Band replaced Chicago Transit Authority, who had been advertised earlier.

September 1, 1968 Kinetic Playground Litter/Nova
The groups replaced Pink Floyd, who canceled. 

September 2, 1968 Kinetic Playground Eric Burdon and The Animals

September 6-7, 1968 Kinetic Playground Procol Harum/Mandrake Memorial
September 8, 1968 Kinetic Playground Mandrake Memorial

Mandrake Memorial were Philadelphia's leading underground psychedelic band. 

September 13-14-15, 1968 Kinetic Playground Illinois Speed Press/Pride
Pride was the new name for the Lemon Pipers  

September 20-22, 1968 Kinetic Playground Kensington Market

October 4-6, 1968 Kinetic Playground John Mayall/Pacific Gas & Electric

( a clip from the music listings of the Chicago Tribune for Thursday, October 10, 1968--h/t Joe)

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

October 12-13, 1968 Kinetic Playground Rotary Connection/Pacific Gas & Electric/Fever Tree
P,G & E were a Los Angeles blues-rock band. Fever Tree was often thought to be a Bay Area band, because of their hit "San Francisco Girls" but in fact they were from Houston, TX.

(a clip from the Chicago Tribune entertainment listings on Friday, October 18--h/t Joe)

October 18, 1968 Kinetic Playground Steppenwolf/Ten Years After
October 19-20, 1968 Kinetic Playground Ten Years After
At this time, Steppenwolf were huge stars, and Ten Years After were just another up and coming English band. They were probably on their second American tour at the time. Ten Years After made it big by touring constantly, and no city loved them more than Chicago.

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, 1968 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
Buddy Miles was the headliner, as Deep Purple was not yet well known. 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

For 1969 shows, see the original post here. I will continue to update this post as more information comes in, and re-post when there is enough information. Thanks again to everyone who helped.

2201 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA The Electric Factory: Concert List February-June 1968 (Electric Factory I)

(An ad for shows at Philadelphia's Electric Factory starting on March 24, 1968, from the April 1968 issue of Distant Drummer [#5]--h/t Joe for the scan)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of America's great cities, but its proximity to New York has always made an unfair comparison. Philadelphia has an exciting music history, and an exciting rock music history in the 1960s, but that history can only be documented in the most fragmented of places. This post about the Electric Factory marks the beginning of my effort to organize and analyze Philadelphia rock history in the 1960s.

1967: Early Philadelphia Psychedelia
Philadelphia had an exciting music history, with Dick Clark's American Bandstand and great soul and jazz music, and Philadelphia was an important stop on the Folk music circuit in the early 1960s. As a result, however, psychedelic rock came a little later to the city.

The Trauma
The Trauma was at 2121 Arch Street, near Logan Square. The proprietor of The Trauma was Manny Rubin, who also ran The 2nd Fret on Sansom Street, Philadelphia's leading folk club. The Trauma was a pretty small place, more like a club than a ballroom. Rubin seems to have figured out that the market was moving away from folk towards rock, and his timing was excellent. A number of excellent and interesting bands played The Trauma, although details are hardly complete.

The first show I know about at The Trauma was February 24-26, 1967 with Lothar and The Hand People. The last I can confirm was The Mothers of Invention playing 6 nights at The Trauma at the end of 1967 (December 26-31). Unfortunately, Rubin's excellent timing merely provided a "proof of concept" for the Electric Factory, which opened up in February 1968, just a block away. Apparently The Trauma survived into early 1968, but it could not compete with its larger rival.

The Kaleidoscope
Another early Philadelphia area psychedelic venue was a club called The Kaleidoscope, in a converted movie theater n Main Street in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Mayanuk. I do not know the exact address. The proprietor was one David Carroll. I'm not sure how long it was open (a Commenter reports that it opened after The Trauma). Among the only groups that I know for sure that played The Kaleidoscope were The Mandrake Memorial, who was one of (if not the) founding underground groups on the Philadelphia scene, and The Ultimate Spinach (from Massachusetts). A New Jersey garage band called The Satyrs recalled opening for the Spinach and Mandrake Memorial at The Kaleidoscope, but other than that I know little about the venue. Apparently the Kaleidoscope did not survive the opening of the Electric Factory.

The Electric Factory, 2201 Arch Street
The Electric Factory, a former tire warehouse, opened in early 1968 at 2201 Arch.  The owners were the Spivak brothers, all experienced bar owners in the Philadelphia area. Their booker was Larry Magid.  They rapidly dominated the concert scene in Philadelphia, and the Electric Factory were the most important promoters in Philadelphia until they ultimately were purchased by larger corporate interests in the 1990s.

The Electric Factory was a critical stop on 60s concert tours, and an integral part of the "Premier Talent" (Booking Agency) circuit that included both Fillmores, the Boston Tea Party and Chicago's Kinetic Playground. Philadelphia was a big, important city and Philadelphia fans were not shy about showing their appreciation or displeasure (a trait that has endured). However, since the Electric Factory did not generally use posters with collectible art for advertisements, the venue has been somewhat lost to 60s rock history. There were many relatively trivial 60s venues that had a famous poster or two, often printed in The Art Of Rock or otherwise promulgated, that are recalled much more often than the Electric Factory. Outside of Philadelphia, the early history of the Electric Factory is largely ignored, and I am attempting to begin to correct that here.

This list represents my best efforts at determining early 1968 shows at the Electric Factory, as well as shows promoted by Electric Factory concerts. Anyone with additional information, insights, corrections or recovered memories (real or imagined) is encouraged to Comment or email me, and I will update the list accordingly.

Reader Alex, a scholar and a gentleman, sends along a scan of a handbill given out on the opening night of the Electric Factory

February 2-3, 1968  The Chambers Brothers/First Borne
This was the first show at The Electric Factory (confirmed by Commenter Alex). I assume there was a show the next weekend, too (before the Peanut Butter Conspiracy on Feb 16)  In the Winter, the Electric Factory usually just had shows on Friday and Saturday night, although sometimes for bigger acts they played other days of the week as well. Sometimes there were Saturday afternoon matinee shows (3-7 p.m.). I assume there were shows every weekend, but I have not been able to locate all the dates.

FIrst Borne, the opening act, is unknown to me.

February 16-17, 1968 Peanut Butter Conspiracy/Woody’s Truck Stop
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy list has the group playing the entire week (February 13 thru 18, Tuesday thru Sunday) but weekend gigs only seem more likely.

Woody’s Truck Stop had featured teenage phenom guitarist Todd Rundgren, but he had left by this time.

February 21-22, 1968 Jimi Hendrix Experience/Soft Machine/Woody's Truck Stop
Jimi Hendrix played early and late shows both nights. These dates were a Wednesday and a Thursday, so presumably other acts played the weekend.

March 1-3, 1968 Country Joe and The Fish

March 15-17, 1968 Big Brother and The Holding Company

March 22-24, 1968 Mothers of Invention/Nova Local
The handbill says that each Saturday has a matinee show from 3 to 6, so the Mothers would have played both afternoon on Saturday March 23. I assume many of the other billings had Saturday afternon matinees as well, but I haven't yet pinned that down for sure.

March 26-31, 1968  Muddy Waters American Blues Band/American Dream
American Dream was a Philadelphia band featuring lead guitarist Nick Jameson, who became the bassist for Foghat in the late 70s.

There would have been a Saturday matinee show on March 30.

April 2-4, 1968 Beacon Street Union
The flyer (above) has Boston's Beacon Street Union as the headliner from Tuesday through Thursday. A different source has legendary jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery (along with locals The American Dream) from April 1-4 (Monday through Thursday). These aren't actually incompatible. If Montgomery actually played the Electric Factory, it would have been his only known performance at a rock club. Montgomery was a truly epic guitarist; when he died on June 15, 1968, the Grateful Dead dedicated "Dark Star" to him at the Fillmore East, the only time they ever dedicated that song to anyone.

April 5-7, 1968  Butterfield Blues Band/Pandora’s Box
April 8-11, 1968  Butterfield Blues Band/Hugh Masakela
Butterfield Blues Band would have headlined a Saturday matinee on the afternoon of April 6.

>April 12-14, 1968 Cream/Woody’s Truck Stop
Cream canceled, and played the next week.  Its not clear if there were shows these nights.

April 16, 1968 American Dream
This was a Tuesday night. It appears that as Spring came on, the Electric Factory made an effort to be open six days a week, at least some of the time.

April 17-18, 1968 Stan Kenton & His Neophonic Orchestra ‘Concert and Lecture’
West Coast Big Band leader Stan Kenton was a very important figure in jazz, although he was never a huge commercial success. It does appear there was an effort to book jazz artists on weeknights (given the April bookings for Wes Montgomery, Hugh Masakela and Kenton).

April 19-21, 1968 Cream/Woody’s Truck Stop
Cream was rescheduled from April 12-14. Cream would have headlined the Saturday matinee on April 20.

>April 19-21, 1968 Blood, Sweat & Tears/Elizabeth
Al Kooper had just quit Blood, Sweat and Tears, so they canceled out.  It appears that Cream took over BST’s dates because Kooper had quit.

April 22, 1968 ‘Dance Marathon’
This would have been a Monday afternoon show, probably featuring local bands.

>April 23-28, 1968 Woody's Truck Stop/American Dream/Elizabeth/Edison Electric
This was billed as "The Sound of Philadelphia" on the March poster (above), but the Grateful Dead ended up as headliners for the weekend. Perhaps these four groups still played Tuesday thru Thursday, before the Dead moved in as headliners.

(An ad for shows at Philadelphia's Electric Factory starting on April 26, 1968, from the May 1968 issue of Distant Drummer [#6]--h/t Joe for the scan)

April 26-28, 1968 Grateful Dead/Amboy Dukes/Edison Electric Band/The Amazing Beymont
Based on the two advertisements, the Grateful Dead seemed to have been added rather hurriedly. I have written about the peculiarities of the Dead's April 1968 itinerary elsewhere--suffice to say it appears a Miami sojourn was cut short.

Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully has an hilarious description in his book of the Dead's stay in Philadelphia on their first visit to the Electric Factory. The Dead were housed in a "hotel" that appeared to be a house of prostitution on top of a blues bar. The boys in the band were very unsettled by this, and forced Scully to find students willing to put them up for the week--except for Pigpen, who loved the place and spent the whole time hanging out and playing blues at the bar. Since the Grateful Dead continued to work with the Electric Factory throughout their entire career, presumably better accommodations were provided in later visits.

The Amboy Dukes, a Detroit band featuring lead guitarist Ted Nugent, were riding a big hit with the newly-released "Journey To The Center Of Your Mind."

May 1-3, 1968 Blue Cheer/Elizabeth/Henry Crow Dog
Blue Cheer had cachet insofar as they came from San Francisco, but their music was pretty far from the sinuous folk rock improvisations typical of the Fillmore. Blue Cheer was a loud, loud, loud and proud power trio, playing through veritable wall of Marshall Stax amps. Their first album Vincebus Eruptum, and their hit single "Summertime Blues" were mostly regarded as curiousities except by those who thought they were awesome. Although Blue Cheer was modeled on Cream, their overwhelming sonic assault sort of prefigured Led Zeppelin and Heavy Metal.

May 8-10, 1968 Iron Butterfly/Henry Crow Dog
Iron Butterfly was a Los Angeles-based band (they were actually from San Diego) whose debut album on Atco was fairly popular. The band's mega hit album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and the accompanying title track would not come out until the next month (June 1968). Iron Butterfly are somewhat unfairly recalled as one-hit wonders today, but in fact they were probably the second band to break out of the Los Angeles underground and tour nationally (after The Doors) before they hit Platinum record status (the Platinum record was invented by Atco for Iron Butterfly, incidentally).

My sources run dry for identifying any shows for the rest of May and June, except for the Canned Heat show. I have every reason to believe there were shows at the Electric Factory every week, and probably most weeknights throughout the Summer. At some point during the Summers, the Electric Factory held free concerts at the Belmont Plateau in nearby Fairmount Park, advertised as "Be-Ins." They apparently mostly featured the local groups like American Dream, Elizabeth and Edison Electric Band, but I don't know precisely who played, and if any of the National headliners ever showed up.

June 7-9, 1968 Canned Heat
Canned Heat was another band that had broken out of the LA underground and was touring Nationally. They had had a big hit with "On The Road Again" in late 1967, and they were a very popular live act.

For the next entry in the Electric Factory series, see here.