Somethin's Happening Here
Bay Area Rock 'n' Roll 1963-73

MPD charts the magic time in the Bay Area rock scene from the folk-infused early ‘60s to the last days of the Fillmore West an unprecedented, in-depth examination of this incredibly diverse era—charting its trajectory, identifying its causes and effects, dispelling its myths, and offering a fresh look at this well-known subject.

Download a two page self-guided tour (pdf) here.

Seminal local bands like The Beau Brummels, The Charlatans, Country Joe and the Fish, and Quicksilver Messenger Service receive their due alongside better-known Bay Area names like The Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Grateful Dead and Sly and the Family Stone. Above all, the show celebrates the timeless appeal of this signal moment in 20th-century popular culture, enveloping visitors in a blaze of sight and sound.

Co-curators Melissa Leventon and Alec Palao evoke this rich era using a wealth of rarely seen footage, posters, images, and costume from private and public collections and from the artists themselves. Visitors are able to sample extremely rare audio and video clips, some of them drawn from the important archive of recordings from San Francisco’s KSAN that are now in MPD’s permanent collection.

Just a few of the key original items on display include:

• Costume pieces worn by Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, and others
• the full-sized original painting featured on the Grateful Dead’s Anthem of the Sun album cover
• The famed “Captain Trips” hat worn by Jerry Garcia
• original posters from classic Bay Area venues, including the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium
• Rare letters, documents and one-of-a-kind ephemera from the Bay Area's 1960s rock'n' roll heyday
  
• Iconic and previously unseen photographs from the archives of photographers such as Baron Wolman, Herb Greene, Bob Seidemann, Bill Brach, and Elaine Mayes
• Musical instruments used by John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Merl Saunders, Dan Hicks, and others

The exhibition will be open to the public September 25, 2009-August 28, 2010.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $5.

Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12:00-5:00 pm.