FD-136 · Roger Weil
San Francisco
Sir Douglas Quintet + 2
Pulse
Womb
FD-136
On September 6, 1968 — a Friday — the Avalon Ballroom opened a three-night run behind FD-136, Roger Weil's poster, with the James Cotton Blues Band headlining over the Sir Douglas Quintet + 2, Pulse, and Womb (chickenonaunicycle; worthpoint FD-136 listings). By late 1968 the Family Dog's Avalon was past its 1966–67 peak — Chet Helms's operation was under real financial strain, and the room would close within months…
Read the full story →Also on September 6
Matrix
The Blues Project and Robbie Basho played the Matrix again on Tuesday, September 6, 1966 — the last night the listings give them together before the Blues Project finished the week alone. Basho is the reason to slow down here, because he is the least famous name on any bill in this chronicle and am…
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BG-135 — Fillmore West
Friday, September 6, 1968 was night two of the Fillmore West's fall-season opener: Chuck Berry, the Steve Miller Band and Kensington Market, under Lee Conklin's skulls on BG-135. Kensington Market, third-billed, were a Toronto band named for the market district in their own city, signed to Warner B…
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BG-190 — Fillmore West
Saturday, September 6, 1969: night three of Santana, Sea Train and Yusef Lateef at the Fillmore West on BG-190. Yusef Lateef's presence third on this bill is the detail worth keeping. He had been recording since the 1950s, played tenor saxophone, flute and oboe alongside the Middle Eastern reeds he…
Read about this poster →Matrix
Mendelbaum and Shag closed their Matrix stand on Saturday, September 6, 1969. A closing night with a one-line listing, for a band whose album would not be released for decades — which makes it a fair place to say what the Matrix was by 1969, because it outlived both ballrooms and is remembered leas…
Read about this poster →Family Dog on the Great Highway
There is a September 6, 1969 entry for the Family Dog on the Great Highway that this chronicle records with its uncertainty intact, because the primary source records it that way. The Family Dog listings give the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane for September 6–7, and then immediately qualify i…
Read about this poster →Were You There?
Do you have memories of this show, or an original FD-136 poster? On This Day in Art Rock History celebrates the people who lived through the psychedelic era. Your stories and collections matter to this archive.