Winterland
History
Winterland began as the New Dreamland Auditorium, a large ice-skating arena that opened June 29, 1928 at Post and Steiner Streets in San Francisco; it took the name "Winterland" in the late 1930s. Its rock-era significance dates to September 23, 1966, when Bill Graham first rented the roughly 5,400-seat hall — for a Jefferson Airplane / Paul Butterfield Blues Band bill — to handle crowds his nearby Fillmore Auditorium could not. After closing Fillmore West in 1971, Graham made Winterland his regular weekend room. It hosted The Band's farewell "The Last Waltz" on November 25, 1976 (filmed by Scorsese) and the Sex Pistols' final concert on January 14, 1978. Winterland closed on New Year's Eve 1978 with the Grateful Dead, and the building was razed in 1985.
Its Place in the Scene
Winterland was the big room of Bill Graham's San Francisco operation — the overflow and graduation hall above the more intimate Fillmore and Fillmore West. Its scale let the Bay Area's psychedelic acts, above all the Grateful Dead, perform to arena-sized audiences while keeping the loose ballroom feel. By hosting landmark events like "The Last Waltz" and the Sex Pistols' breakup, it bridged the 1960s San Francisco sound and the punk era; its New Year's closing marked a symbolic end to Graham's classic ballroom epoch.