The Best Gigs Ever Part 1

The bills at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco were simply the best and most varied of any place I have ever experienced or come into contact with. You would see opening acts like Son House, Bukka White or Taj Mahal followed by Booker T., Charles Lloyd or the Youngbloods to the local headliners, (Quicksilver, Big Brother, Its a Beautiful Day) all in rotation each doing two sets. It was too cool. Best of all, for some reason Kaleidoscope became kind of a weird uncle house band and as time progressed actually headed a few of the bills.

   All these handbills are from the Avalon Ballroom. The first one, the 5 Moons, is by Victor Moscoso. It was late 1966 and the first time the Kaleidoscope played in a SF venue. It was an unequalled experience. The “dressing room” was pretty much a room off of the dance floor (without “security”) and Janis Joplin wandered in between sets and did a stagger dance with Charlie Musselwhite. The Sparrow (later Steppenwolf) were playing great dance music and the whole place was dancing. The light show (by filmmaker Ben Van Meter) was by far the best and most varied I ever saw. But most of all there was the place… large, friendly and reflecting the spirit of the guy in charge, Chet Helms.

The second “Mr. Natural” handbill

(R. Crumb) is from the very last weekend at the Avalon in ‘68 and for me was every bit as special as the first. Kaleidoscope was now at the top of the bill, but the supporting acts were impressive and legendary.

   Opening, Johnny Winter did pretty much his first set in San Francisco by playing solo guitar and playing the bass drum with a pedal on a set on the stage. It was hair-raisingly good (and seemed to presage Stevie Ray in an odd way) and when he finished to awed applause Magic Sam took the stage with sweet rocking blues. He moved the crowd to their feet. Magic Sam died very shortly after this and seeing him was a cherished rare experience.

   I have read in a few places that the event on this handbill never actually took place but it sure as hell did. It was a wonderful party and end to a venue that truly reflected the spirit of the city and its times.  Below is a beautiful Rick Griffin handbill featuring Quicksilver, Kaleidoscope and Charlie Musselwhite.

   What you ask about the Fillmore? Well, what about it? In comparison there was no comparison. The original Fillmore was a toilet and the one that moved into the Carousel Ballroom suffered from the same disease that killed all the fun at the first location… Bill Graham. 

   For over four years I got to watch this whining, screaming power hungry jerk finally beat down every rival in the city for supremacy (and eventually exclusiveness) all the while dissing it and its entire scene as he poured most of the available dollars into his machine.

   A typical hands-on evening  for the attention hungry fool started with hassling customers in line to see if they had correct change or not, screaming at roadies in various macho poses and generally making sure who the Big Man was.

   When he finally left town for New York of course he blamed it all on San Francisco for being so lame but he did pretty much make sure to take the last blood drained dime with him. He certainly was the biggest phony from the “Man of the People” school of self-promotion. All Helms got was the satisfaction at having  helped  oversee hundreds of hours of good music and fun shared in a non-competitional stetting. The Avalon was rock  heaven in San Francisco; The Fillmore was Purgatory for tourists by comparison.