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Jimi Hendrix arrives in the USA by Paul Sommer |
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Mid June in 1967 at the Monterey Fairgrounds, Jimi Hendrix rocked the world with his "on fire" performance where he literally burned his guitar. During his American debut performance at the "Monterey Pop" festival, no one had ever seen or heard anything like it before (or since). I was 16 years old and had been learning guitar and listening to the 1967 English import LP "Are You Experienced" that included "Red House". Jimi Hendrix played at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, about an hour from my home in Palo Alto. I had purchased a ticket at a local record store for $3.00, for the show on the 25th (my birthday), just a week after Jimi's Monterey debut. After the hour and a half bus ride and long walk through the tough Fillmore neighborhood in San Francisco, I walked up the plushly carpeted stairs to the main floor of the Fillmore, grabbed an apple from the galvanized metal can and a lolly pop form the other container by the entrance and sat on the floor with my feet touching the stage. |
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The two story ballroom had two huge walls, covered with moving images and projections of Dan Bruhn's light show, projected from the balcony. The stage was set and right in front of me was Jimi's new 100 watt Marshall stack. Jimi was the first person to tour with Marshall amps in the USA and he was louder than anything I had ever heard before. Jim Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell came out and changed everything. I had never heard anything like it before. This was the second stop in Jimi's first real tour of the US. Jefferson Airplane did not play the night I went, the word I heard was that Grace Slick was sick. Instead, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin played instead. The poster (above) is one I saved from that show. You can see a lot more in an excellent book called "The Art of the Fillmore." |
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| The stage set up of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, has been recreated with much of the original gear in the Hendrix Gallery at Paul Allen's Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle, including the guitar that Jimi lit on fire and then destroyed at Monterey. Go check it out for yourself if you get the chance. It is too cool. | |
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Bill Graham is no longer with us but the concert hall he started a long time ago is still going strong. The influence of this series of shows has carried on for decades. |
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