The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in Santa Cruz County (Revised)

[this is a substantial revision of an earlier post]

On April 24, 2008, the Grateful Dead announced the gift of their archives to the University of California at Santa Cruz Special Collections Library. The archive includes all the non-musical material accumulated by the Dead over the years, from contracts to fan letters, and it will not only provide a major insight into an important California cultural phenomenon in the second half of the 20th century, it will end up being really helpful to the likes of me. Rotating displays of some of the material will apparently be regularly on display at McHenry Library at UCSC.

The Grateful Dead and UC Santa Cruz were always like minded entities, despite a lack of formal connection. Wikipedia summarizes the pre-history of UCSC by saying "the formal design process of the campus began in the late 1950s, culminating in the Long Range Development Plan of 1963." The same might be said of The Grateful Dead. Since the Dead and UCSC were both founded in 1965, they have both been devoted to different ways of doing things, whether dispensing with grades (which UCSC did not give until 1997) or refusing to play a song the same way twice. In honor of the Archive, this post will trace the limited appearances of The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and other Grateful Dead members in Santa Cruz County.

The City of Santa Cruz and its University are isolated from the rest of the Bay Area by mountains, cliffs and the Pacific Ocean. Thus it had remained economically isolated until the last few decades, and part of Santa Cruz's charm was its insularity. This meant, however, that major rock shows were few and far between.

The Grateful Dead in Santa Cruz County
The Grateful Dead were booked in Santa Cruz County twice, and they were definitely in Santa Cruz County at least twice, but whether they played twice remains obscure.

November 27, 1965 Ken Babbs Ranch, Soquel: Acid Test
There was an Acid Test at Ken Babbs' house in the Santa Cruz Mountains, written about in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. By all accounts, the Grateful Dead-who were still probably called The Warlocks, depending on who you believe--were there but did not perform, unless they did. So, to summarize, the Grateful Dead or The Warlocks were there and did or did not perform, probably.

(the poster for the Grateful Dead concert at Cabrillo College Stadium, Aptos, CA on September 2, 1967. Thanks to Ross for the scan. The show most likely did not take place)

September 2, 1967 Cabrillo College Football Field, Cabrillo Junior College, Aptos, CA
Benefit for SCA Santa Cruz
Grateful Dead/Canned Heat/The Leaves/Andrew Staples/Sons of Champlain (sic)/New Delhi River Band/Second Coming/New Breed/BFD Blues Band/Gross Exaggeration/Yajahla/Tingle Guild/People/Jaguars/Art Collection/Morning Glory/Ben Frank’s Electric Band/New Frontier/Chocolate Watch Band/The Other Side/E-Types/Mourning Reign/Imperial Mange Remedy/Omens/Ragged Staff/Talon Wedge & Others.

This two-day Festival (Saturday and Sunday September 2-3) over Labor Day weekend, with music from 3-12 pm each day, is widely known because the poster for it appeared in Paul Grushkin's book The Art Of Rock. The "beneficiary", SCA Santa Cruz, is now unknown to me, but the wording suggests that this was a campus sponsored event (which had to be not-for-profit). The bands listed above were spread out over the two days. The Dead would have been booked to play on Saturday September 2, as they had another gig (at Rio Nido Dance Hall) on September 3. The Dead, Canned Heat,  and San Jose's own Chocolate Watch Band were the big names. The other booked acts were an interesting mixture of mostly South Bay bands, including David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band.

However, intriguing as all this sounded, I looked into it at some length and I don't believe the event ever took place. I talked to a number of old South Bay types, none of whom recalled it. While it's impossible to prove a negative, one member of a band booked at the event (the E-Types) did not recall it either, and he played Cabrillo many times back in the day, so I think this is one of those events that was planned but never happened. 

Cabrillo College (at 6500 Soquel Drive in Aptos) was just 9.1 driving miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance, and Cabrillo is definitely in the UCSC zone, but I have a feeling that this event was planned and then scuttled by whatever powers-that-be were able to do so. More's the pity. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to Comment or email me.

September 24, 1983 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville, CA: Grateful Dead
During this period, the Grateful Dead and Bill Graham Presents were experimenting with different venues around California. While the site was pleasant, and the afternoon weather was great as always, the facility lacked the parking to manage thousands of Deadheads arriving at once, and the venue was somewhat overwhelmed, in the genial pleasant way that Deadheads used to do such things. Still, the band played well, and that's what matters. Nonetheless, I do not recall this venue being used for a major act again, I think mainly due to the parking situation.

The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville (at 2601 East Lake Avenue) are about 21 miles from the entrance to the UCSC campus. As far as I know, this is as near as the Grateful Dead performed to UCSC, unless someone can make a clear-headed case for the Acid Test (good luck with that).

The Barn, Scotts Valley-no, sorry
Due to a 1999 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, there is a suggestion floating around the internet that the Grateful Dead played The Barn in Scotts Valley between 1966 and 1968. The Barn was Santa Cruz County's unique link to psychedelic culture, linked to the Pranksters and many other interesting people. Sad to say, fascinating as the history of The Barn actually is, the Grateful Dead never played there (for the record, the article says bands like the Dead, Quicksilver and Big Brother played there, but only the last two actually did).

Jerry Garcia and other Grateful Dead Members in Santa Cruz County
As Jerry Garcia increased his extra curricular activities outside of the Grateful Dead in the 1970s and 80s, he came to play Santa Cruz a few times. This coincided with the rise in Santa Cruz's population and economic profile, because of the University and its proximity to Silicon Valley. On a smaller scale, the same process occurred with other Grateful Dead members.

The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 307 Church Street, as it appeared in 2011

October 5, 1973 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Old And In The Way/Ramblin' Jack Elliott/Bruce Frye
Old And In The Way was a bluegrass band in which Jerry Garcia played banjo and sang. It was not "his" band, but he was so much more famous than the other musicians that Old And In The Way are remembered as Jerry Garcia's bluegrass band. This show was one of their last, and the other band members were Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Vassar Clements and John Kahn.

An old list compiled by Dennis McNally had a projected show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on Friday, October 5. The band was also scheduled to play outdoors at Sonoma State College in Humboldt two days later (Oct 7). The Sonoma show was canceled, due to bad weather, but a show in San Francisco at The Boarding House was held the night after (October 8), and recorded for the band's groundbreaking 1975 album.  For various reasons the Civic show had dropped on and off various lists; I know the whole story, but its very wonky and boring to explain the whole thing, so I'm sparing everyone. However, you can now read the account of an eyewitness, who not only has a copy of the flyer,  but recalls that the show was broadcast on KUSP-fm .

The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at, 307 Church Street, is an excellent Art Deco style building that was completed in 1940. As Santa Cruz rose in importance, more and more performers started using the friendly little 2,000 capacity hall for warm up shows, or shows on off nights. Garcia played the venue several times in later years. The Civic is just 2.1  miles to the UCSC Campus Entrance, and that is as close as Garcia got to performing on the UCSC campus.

February 16, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Kingfish
Margarita's was a new rock club in Santa Cruz, which was starting to show signs of growth from the University and the early impact of Silicon Valley. Margarita's was at 1685 Commercial Way, near Highway 1, where Soquel Drive turns into Soquel Avenue, near where Moe's Alley is today. Margarita's was about 5.7 miles from the entrance to UCSC. Bob Weir and Kingfish opened the club in a low-key fashion on a Sunday night. 

February 21, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Good Ole Boys
This show had been a mystery for many years. David Nelson and Frank Wakefield had a bluegrass group, and Garcia produced their album (Pistol Packin Mama).  I learned about this date from Dennis McNally's list, but it seemed an oddity, and I doubted its provenance. However, a fellow blogger not only recalled Margarita's, he attended the show and describes it in some detail.

For this show, the Good Ole Boys were a quartet, with David Nelson on guitar, Frank Wakefield on mandolin, Garcia on banjo and Pat Campbell on bass. Garcia sang no lead vocals. There was a sparse crowd.  In 1975, while Garcia and the Dead were extremely popular in Santa Cruz, the city itself was still far enough from the Bay Area mainstream that Garcia could play a stealth gig without the club being swarmed.

March 7, 1975 Crown College Dining Commons, UCSC, Santa Cruz: Kingfish
I recently learned that the first performance of an active member of the Grateful Dead on the UCSC campus was Bob Weir and Kingfish performing at the Crown College Dining Commons on March 7, 1975. My source is a sure thing--he booked the show--and he promises to Reveal All, so I will link to the revelations when they appear.

A long lost poster for Keith & Donna & Friends at Kresge Town Hall, Kresge College, University of California at Santa Cruz, on May 11, 1975. (scan courtesy of JGBP; recconstruction thanks to JGMF)

May 11, 1975, Kresge Town Hall, UCSC, Santa Cruz: Keith and Donna and Friends/Eric Andersen
Another recent discovery was an early performance by Keith and Donna Godchaux's band at Kresge College a few months after Kingfish's appearance at Crown. This was an early lineup of the Keith and Donna band, with Tom Donlinger on drums instead of Bill Kreutzmann. Folk-rocker Eric Andersen was Bob Weir's neighbor, which is how he came to write some lyrics for "Weather Report."

I have written about the implications of this booking elsewhere. In any case, following on the Kingfish appearance, Keith and Donna were the other active members of the Dead to play on the UC Santa Cruz campus itself.

June 7, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz, CA: Kingfish

An ad for Keith and Donna at Margarita's (h/t CryptDev)

June 20-21, 1975, Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Keith and Donna
Bill Kreutzmann had joined the Keith And Donna band by this time.

The poster for the Jerry Garcia Band shows at the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz on October 8, 1975

October 8, 1975 Del Mar Theatre, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins
The Del Mar Theatre is at 1124 Pacific Avenue. The theater opened on August 14, 1936. By the 1970s the theater was not in great shape, and the operators started filling out weekends with rock shows. Quite a few good shows were held there in the 1970s. The theater probably seated about 900.

This was one of the earliest shows by the newly organized Jerry Garcia Band, with the great pianist Nicky Hopkins joining stalwart bassist John Kahn and drummer Ron Tutt. Tutt also drummed for Elvis Presley, and the Garcia Band's touring schedule was limited to dates when Elvis Presley and The Grateful Dead were not performing. Due to the small size of the venue, the group played both early and late shows without an opening act.

The Jerry Garcia Band played the Del Mar Theatre twice more before it became a multiplex in 1978. The venue (still a movie theater, now refurbished), is 2.3 miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance.

The Del Mar Theater on 1124 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, as it appeared in 2011

February 26, 1976 Del Mar Theatre, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
Grateful Dead pianist Keith Godchaux had replaced Hopkins, and his wife Donna had joined as vocalist.

Spring 1976, New Riverside Szechuan Restuarant, Santa Cruz: Robert Hunter and Roadhog
The New Riverside, opened in the early 70s,  introduced Szechuan cuisine to Santa Cruz. It was on the site of the Riverside hotel at 600 Riverside Avenue. There were sometimes performances in the "Back Room," and an eyewitness recalls a three-set show by Robert Hunter and Roadhog, including Hunter dancing on a table.

(Santa Cruz artist Jim Phillips's poster for the Del Mar August 19, 1976 shows)

August 19, 1976 Del Mar Theater, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
Link Wray apparently opened one of the Del Mar shows, but I'm not sure which one.

December 16-17, 1977 Crossroads Inn, Santa Cruz: Robert Hunter and Comfort
The Crossroads Inn was at the Old Sash Mill complex, the site of a long ago sawmill at 303 Potrero. The Old Sash Mill was at the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 1 (River and Mission for you locals), hence the name 'Crossroads.' I don't know exactly when it opened or closed, but I do know that Neil Young's mystery band The Ducks played there during this period. To some extent, the Crossorads may have tried to pick up the slack caused by the disappearance of Margarita's as a venue.

I don't know which building in the Old Sash Mill the Crossroads may have been in. Anyone researching this critical issue is advised to stop in to the excellent Storrs Winery Tasting Room in the same complex. The Old Sash Mill is about 2.5 miles from the entrance to the UCSC campus.

Robert Hunter and the band Comfort were in the process of recording an album that was never released. They were an excellent live band with excellent original material, and its a shame the wide world never got a better look at them.

February 19, 1978 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort
Parts of this concert were recently released as part of the archival live cd Jerry Garcia Band: Bay Area 1978 on Grateful Dead Records.  Robert Hunter and Comfort opened the show.

The Catalyst, at 1011 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, as it appeared in 2011

March 30-31, 1979 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Reconstruction
Reconstruction was Jerry Garcia's jazz-funk excursion with Merl Saunders. From 1979 onwards, Jerry Garcia regularly played a circuit of larger Bay Area nightclubs, and The Catalyst in Santa Cruz became a regular stop. The Catalyst had opened somewhat earlier, as a coffee shop in the St. George Hotel at 833 Front, but it didn't start booking rock bands until it moved down the street in late 1978 to a converted bowling alley. The Catalyst, at 1011 Pacific Avenue, was the site of many fine Garcia shows for the next decade.  The Catalyst is 2.3 miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance.

Jerry Garcia played Santa Cruz 13 more times. For complete notes, see The Jerry Site.

May 27, 1979 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Reconstruction
February 7, 1980 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 18, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 29, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
April 21, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
June 25, 1981 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band with Phil Lesh
February 2-3, 1982 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
October 13, 1982 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 18, 1983 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
March 5, 1983 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
October 16, 1985 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn (early and late shows)
February 24, 1987 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band

Appendix: Other Performances
September 18, 1980 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Bobby And The Midnites
Bob Weir and Bobby and The Midnites made their Bay Area debut at the Catalyst on September 18, 1980. I have written about that run of shows elsewhere, as well as about the history of Bobby And The Midnites. Bobby And The Midnites also played the Catalyst on August 10, 1983 and August 11, 1984.

May 20, 1983 Dining Commons, Porter College, UCSC: The Dinosaurs
From 1982 through 1984, Robert Hunter was a member of The Dinosaurs. Other members of the band were John Cipollina (ex-Quicksilver), Barry "The Fish" Melton, Peter Albin (ex- and future Big Brother) and Spencer Dryden (ex-Airplane, ex-NRPS). Without trying, the group sounded like an old San Francisco psychedelic band, because that was who they were. Hunter was with the group when they played the Dining Commons at Porter College (College V for old-time Banana Slugs) on the UCSC Campus. There may have been a poster for this event. (Hunter and The Dinosaurs also played three shows at The Catalyst: Oct 14 '83, Feb 4 '84 and May 26 '84).

Jefferson Airplane Footnote
The Jefferson Airplane don't have an archive, to my knowledge, and it wouldn't be as interesting as the Grateful Dead's in any case. Nonetheless, just in case, the Jefferson Airplane played the UCSC "Spring Thing" dance two years in a row: first at the Cocoanut Grove on May 14, 1966, and then on May 11, 1967 at the  Cowell-Stevenson dining hall, right before a show at the Civic.


View Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in Santa Cruz in a larger map

October 31, 1986 Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA: Jerry Garcia Band/Kingfish with Bob Weir

my notes from Oct 31 '86 Oakland

One of the remarkable things about Grateful Dead historiography is the startlingly high level of documentation. Thanks to Deadlists, Dead.net, Deadbase, TheJerrySite, Weirworks, The PhilZone and numerous other sites, there are numerous links to tapes and very accurate setlists for most shows by the Dead and the various spin-off bands featuring Dead members. Once we get into the 1980s, there is very little that has not been taped and integrated into the various sites and databases. However, a peculiar side effect to the admirable effort to categorize all Grateful Dead knowledge is the tendency for tapes to become decontextualized. While this is inevitable, some concerts take on a different meaning when considered in their moment, independent of whatever fine music may have been preserved.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Jerry Garcia Band/Kingfish concert on Halloween 1986 at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland. The setlists and tapes circulate, and others do a better job of analyzing tapes, so I will generally step aside from the music and consider this unique event in the framework of its time. There are quite a number of things about this concert that set it apart from events at the time, and the post will allow me to consider some interesting aspects of this period that are rarely remarked upon today.

Backdrop: Jerry's Coma
In a typical year, the Grateful Dead were usually on tour during Halloween, often in the Northeast. Halloween equals skeletons, and skeletons equal the Grateful Dead, so the synergy has been self-evident since 1967. Once Jerry Garcia lapsed into a coma on July 8, 1986, the balance of the year became anything but typical. The Grateful Dead generated a lot of cash from touring, but touring was their only meaningful source of income in the mid-80s. With Garcia's health uncertain, all tour dates for the balance of 1986 were canceled. The various sound and lighting professionals who worked Dead tour scrambled to find other paying gigs, and some of the individual members of the band went on tour by themselves. The unique 'Ranch Rock '86' event, featuring multiple bands with Dead members, including a rare electric appearance by Robert Hunter, was one of the byproducts of Garcia's absence.

Although information was hard to come by in the pre-Internet era, there was a little bit of coverage by Joel Selvin in the San Francisco Chronicle as well as elsewhere. After several weeks it was clear that Garcia was going to recover, but the timing of his return to performing and the Dead's return to touring was still unsettled. The seminal event for Deadheads was the Jerry Garcia Band performance at The Stone in San Francisco, on October 4, 1986. A low-key JGB show at a familiar haunt was a lot less of an effort than a long, stressful Grateful Dead concert or tour, and it made perfect sense. I did not go, but I heard from various people that it was a joyous occasion, with a happy Garcia making good but not spectacular music, much to the relief of the entire community.

Surprisingly, however, Garcia's return to active duty did not presage a flurry of Dead shows. One of the admirable features of the Grateful Dead's self-definition was that every Grateful Dead show was planned as the maximum Grateful Dead experience, with a full complement of band members, sound equipment and lights. When the balance of the year's Dead tour had had to be canceled following Garcia's coma, the sound and light equipment and their accompanying crews had to commit to other rock tours. Thus the Grateful Dead would not have been able to play without their preferred sound and lighting rig, and the band implicitly refused to undermine their own credibility by doing otherwise.

As a result, the Jerry Garcia Band spent much of the Fall of 1986 playing The Stone in San Francisco. I have discussed Garcia's professional relationship with the Keystone family of clubs at great length elsewhere, but in general they were the easiest place for the Garcia Band to have a quick, profitable performance. Nothing could be more valuable to an operation whose principal source of income--Grateful Dead concerts--had been abruptly interrupted. By the end of 1986, however, the "Keystone Family" was down to just The Stone, since the Keystone Berkeley and Keystone Palo Alto had closed. Thus the Jerry Garcia Band played The Stone 9 times between October 4 and December 21, 1986.

In fact, prior to the Grateful Dead's return to performance on December 15, 1986, Garcia made 18 performances. While a few were benefit performances and personal favors, the Halloween show at the Henry J. Kaiser (capacity: 7,000) was far and away the biggest show that Garcia played in the Fall. From one point of view, it may seem surprising that Garcia played a large hall on October 31 show, just 27 days after his return to performing, and less than 4 months from the hospital. The presence of Bob Weir and Kingfish on the bill leads me to think that the purpose of the concert was to provide cash for Grateful Dead operations for the next few months, until regular touring revenue started to return.

If my thesis is correct, it implicitly suggests that the Dead were unwilling to have a Grateful Dead show without their full complement of lights and sound. I think their experiences with "outside" sound systems over the years were poor enough that they refused to consider it. It is also an interesting indicator of Garcia's commitment to the Grateful Dead that he played a high profile rock show so early in his recovery, apparently because the band needed the cash. It is easy to assert platitudes like "The Grateful Dead are like a family, man, and Garcia would never let down his brothers," but bands have broken up over lesser things. And while the Grateful Dead were (and are) like family, try borrowing several thousand dollars from your brother while he's recovering from an illness, and see how that goes. Garcia's commitment to the Dead was so integral that no one seems to have even commented on it.

Bob Weir And Kingfish
Kingfish had formed in 1974, and Bob Weir joined the group later in that year, performing and recording with them while the Dead were on hiatus. Although Weir had dropped out of the group in mid-1976, leader Matthew Kelly had kept the group going ever since, if somewhat intermittently. At various times in 1984, '85 and '86, Weir, Brent Mydland and Bill Kreutzmann had performed with Kingfish, although not usually at the same time. In late 1984, Weir had done a number of shows with Kingfish where they performed their own set, Weir had played solo and then joined Kingfish for a reprise of their older material. Kingfish had undergone various personnel changes over the years, but Weir returned for a few more shows with the band in early 1986.

When Garcia had lapsed into his coma, it might have seemed like a perfect idea for Weir to temporarily hitch his wagon to Kingfish, and perhaps it would have been. Unfortunately for Weir, however, he had injured his shoulder in a mountain biking accident, and his musical activities were limited to singing. Weir did perform at the Ranch Rock event as vocalist, and sang with a jazz group called Nightfood, featuring drummer Brian Melvin and bassist Jaco Pastorius, but in general Weir had had to lay low during Garcia's hiatus, which can not have helped his own or the Dead's cash flow. Thus when Weir and Kingfish were booked with the Jerry Garcia Band, it heralded Weir's return to active duty performing as well as Garcia's, even if it was fraught with considerably less tension.

Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA, near Lake Merritt

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, 10 Tenth Street, Oakland, CA
The Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center was the name of the newly remodeled Oakland Auditorium Arena near Lake Merritt. The Oakland Auditorium had been built in 1913. Strictly speaking, the Oakland Auditorium was a smaller, seated venue in the same complex, rarely used for rock shows, while the Arena had been used for trade shows, sports events and even a rodeo (Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, in the early 20th century) as well as major rock events. Nonetheless, by the 1980s just about everybody in the Bay Area called the Arena the "Oakland Auditorium." Although the Dead had played there a few times in the past, after Winterland closed the Arena became the Grateful Dead's new Bay Area home court. The Dead's first BGP promoted shows at the venue were on August 4-5, 1979.

The Oakland Auditorium looms large in Grateful Dead history, because the beginnings of a promoter-sanctioned camp out began in 1980, when BGP casually allowed numerous traveling Deadheads to put up tents on the lawn across from the Arena. The story is too long to go into here, but suffice to say that outdoor camping was perfectly viable in Oakland in December, and a new tradition was born literally overnight. By 1986, however, the neighborhood around the Auditorium did not appreciate the Deadhead invasion every time the band played a run there, and the band would soon graduate to the much larger Oakland Coliseum Arena few miles away. In Fall 1986, however, the Oakland Auditorium Arena was still the Grateful Dead's home court, and a concert there headlined by Garcia and Weir definitely counted as a home game.

Bill Graham Presents, The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia
The Grateful Dead had had a long professional and personal relationship with Bill Graham. Whatever their earlier points of contention may have been, by the mid-80s the Grateful Dead and BGP had a close working partnership. It was both appropriate and lucrative for the last two intact survivors of the San Francisco 60s to depend on each other. However, although Jerry Garcia genuinely liked Bill Graham, he had a somewhat different professional relationship with BGP. As I have documented elsewhere, Jerry Garcia had his own set of loyalties for his performing aggregations. In particular, Garcia had worked regularly with the same club promoters since the 70s, particularly Freddie Herrera and the Keystone family. Garcia had played a fair share of shows for Bill Graham Presents, but only in cities such as San Rafael, where one of his favored clubs was not operating. There were very few exceptions to this practice (I will eventually address all the exceptions, but not in this post).

By 1986, however, Freddie Herrera's Keystone Berkeley had closed, so Garcia would not have been faced with a question of loyalty for booking a show with Bill Graham in Oakland. Given the need for money, would Garcia have played the Oakland show if Keystone Berkeley had been open? Its impossible to say. Nonetheless, with only the Stone remaining, I don't think its a coincidence that Garcia played an Oakland venue rather than a San Francisco one, even if the Oakland Auditorium was the best choice for a proxy Dead event in any case.

October 31, 1986
The Kaiser Convention Center Arena was full on Halloween, though I am not certain that the show was actually sold out. The atmosphere was extremely positive, as you might expect, but it was different than a regular Dead show for any number of reasons. For one thing, there seemed to be almost no one from out of town. Most runs at the Kaiser had been filled with people making the trek from wherever to see the Dead "at home," and it made the Kaiser crowds among the most interesting to query (if you were me, and the internet hadn't yet
been invented). Also, I think a lot of Deadheads who rarely went to Garcia shows because they saved their money and time for the Grateful Dead made an exception for this show. Finally, a lot of people were not able to go The Stone either because it was a nightclub or because the late night hours of the club made it an ordeal. In my own case, I had to be at work at 6:00am in those days, so even a weekend event that went until 2am was very difficult for me. All in all, everybody was happy to be in Oakland that night, no doubt starting with Jerry and Bob.

Although BGP had provided their usual full, professional sound system, the stage was generally bereft of the paraphernalia of a Dead show. The elaborate backdrops and painted amplifiers were nowhere to be found, and the "backline" of equipment was considerably smaller as well. There was a pro lighting rig--it was BGP, after all--but it wasn't the multi-faceted extravaganza that was par for the course at a Grateful Dead concert. I am never late, but that isn't true of all Deadheads (or members of the Grateful Dead, I might add). Mine was a fortunate habit, however, since there was no opening act and a quick glance at the equipment on stage made it clear that the Jerry Garcia Band would be opening the show.

I had seen the Jerry Garcia Band and Kingfish at concerts twice before, on October 17 and December 19, 1975. While that was 11 years prior to the Oakland show, 11 years isn't much in Jerry time, so I wasn't surprised to see that Garcia was preceding Kingfish. In both previous shows, after some opening acts (Clover and Keith and Donna), Garcia had played his usual show, without an encore, leaving the harder rocking Kingfish the duty of getting the crowds to let it all hang out. I do know that when the Jerry Garcia Band had toured the East with Bobby And The Midnites in 1982, the bands had alternated closing sets. This may have had something to do with the load-out, but in any case Garcia was rare among rock stars in that he had no stake in closing the show even though he was the headliner (does anyone know if Garcia closed the June 8, 1975 Garcia/Kingfish show in Palo Alto? Amazingly, I didn't go).

The Jerry Garcia Band played one extended set on Halloween at the Kaiser, to a rapturous reception. My impression was that much of the crowd mainly felt relieved, although perhaps I was just projecting. There was nothing particularly special about his choice of songs or Garcia's soloing, but he played with a lot of feeling if not with stunning dexterity, and that was enough. Garcia never played encores at the Keystones, and sometimes didn't play encores even at concerts, but there was no way he was getting away with that on this night. After thunderous applause, the Garcia Band returned with "Werewolves Of London." It wasn't a special version, and indeed it was more of a fun song than an interesting song, but in any case it was a Halloween encore celebrating Jerry's return--"A Day Of The Dead" indeed. Jerry said nothing to the crowd, as per his practice, but there was no need, not on this night. I saw Jerry Garcia on Halloween, and his hair was perfect.

After the usual "short break," Kingfish came on stage, without Weir. Really, this had to be quite daunting. It's tough to follow the headline act in any case, but to follow Jerry Garcia returning from a coma, on Halloween? Very difficult indeed. Over the years, Kingfish had had various members, with Matthew Kelly as the only constant. The band had a consistent sound, but its personnel changed over time. Keyboardist Barry Flast was Kelly's main partner, singing many of the lead vocals. Flast was from Boston, and had been in a group (with Billy Squier) called The Tom Swift Electric Band. It's likely that the Tom Swift Electric Band had opened for the Grateful Dead in 1967 at Boston's Psychedelic Supermarket. Other vocals were handled by Anna Rizzo, formerly of the Berkeley groups Sky Blue, Grootna and Country Joe's All Star Band. The lead guitarist was Steve Kimock, a relatively new addition to the Bay Area scene. Bass and drums were handled solidly by Steve Evans and Jimmy Sanchez, respectively.

Although Kingfish personnel had changed dramatically over the years, to Matt Kelly's credit their sound remained consistent. Kingfish had a spare, rocking sound with just enough extended soloing to keep Deadheads engaged. They played their usual mixture of covers and originals. At the time, I was very interested in hearing Steve Kimock play, since I recognized his name as a hot new player in the area (he was from Pennsylvania, I think), but I had not yet heard him. Ironically, I though Kimock was the weakest link for Kingfish. Kimock, at least at the time, was already a very fluid, melodic player, but he lacked the stinging drive that had been provided by his predecessors Garth Webber and Robbie Hoddinott. The rest of Kingfish didn't really "space out" very well, as it wasn't their sound, so Kimock's solos seemed out of place to me. Kimock could probably fit in well with the band now, not that he has any need for that, but at the time he sounded like a mismatch to me. Of course, he was coming on right after Garcia, so that was a pretty high bar to jump over.

After about 40 minutes of Kingfish, Bob Weir joined the band. At some club shows, Weir had played a solo acoustic set, but this wouldn't have been good night for that. Weir jumped right into it with "Festival," and then "Winners." Weir always insisted on keeping his solo material separate from the Grateful Dead, but by the same token his original material outside of the Dead wasn't always that strong. Then Weir and Kingfish played some classics from their old Kingfish days, like "Youngblood" and "Battle Of New Orleans" (sung by Weir, per my notes, whereas previously it had been sung by the late Dave Torbert), and then a few other numbers.

I recall enjoying Weir and Kingfish well enough, but I can tell by my own notation (the down arrow on the last song) that I actually left before it was over. It was Friday night, probably past 1:00 am by that point, and I would have been up since 5:00 am or so. Although it wasn't options expiration, I had probably had a fairly intense day at work (for those who care, I think I was the Sell Clerk at the X15/AMI pit) and I was probably simply wiped out.

Some searching today reveals what I missed for the last few numbers. It was probably nice, but I was happier to have taken the quick drive around Lake Merritt and gone home. In any case, I can tell from my last note, listing "Minglewood" as the last song before I left, that I wasn't paying attention at that point, since it seems Kingfish didn't actually play it. Jerry was back in black, the Garcia Band had played a nice show and I had seen my share of Weir shows over the years, so it was definitely time to call it a night.

August 24, 1975 Trenton Speedway, New Jersey State Fairgrounds, Hamilton, NJ: Aerosmith/Kingfish/Poco/others

Continued research into the touring history of Bob Weir and Kingfish has uncovered a hitherto forgotten outdoor concert in the Summer of 1975 featuring the band opening for rising stars Aerosmith at an auto racing venue in New Jersey. The actual listing would be

August 24, 1975 Trenton Speedway, New Jersey State Fairgrounds, Hamilton Township New Jersey
Aerosmith/Kingfish/Poco/Slade/Nils Lofgren/Mohagany Rush/Hootchie Kootch

The concert was a Sunday afternoon event beginning at 1:00 pm. Trenton Speedway was a 1.5 mile oval track (IndyCar/NASCAR) inside the New Jersey State Fairgrounds. Hamilton Township is the town right next to the capital city of Trenton, so both the Fairgrounds and and the Speedway were usually referred to as in Trenton. The ad prior to the concert is from the Bucks County Courier Times of August 15, 1975. Promoters Hollow Moon Productions apparently insisted that only 8000 people would be allowed inside the bowl of the oval track of the concert.

The promoters seemed to have underestimated the appeal of Aerosmith, whose album Toys In The Attic had been released in April and was steadily climbing the charts. The first single from the album, "Sweet Emotion," was climbing the charts, and "Walk This Way" would follow later in 1975. By the next year, an earlier single, "Dream On" had re-entered the charts, and Aerosmith was one of American's biggest rock bands. Hollow Moon productions correctly anticipated that Aerosmith could headline an 8000-ticket event, but even they must have been caught by surprise at the turnout.

As the post-mortem review from the Bucks County Courier Times on Monday (August 25, 1975) revealed (above), the concert rapidly gotten out of hand. A huge crowd stormed the chain link fence, and despite the best efforts of baseball bat wielding security staff, eventually everyone was let in for free. The problems at this concert were still being mentioned in the Courier Times the next Summer, and seem to have put a damper on big outdoor events at the State Fairgounds.

Notes on the bands
Aerosmith: Toys In The Attic, released April 1975, was Aerosmith's third album. They remain major concert headliners to this day.
Kingfish: Kingfish, with Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead and Dave Torbert of the New Riders, had come together after the Dead went on a touring hiatus in late 1974. Up until this show, save for one show in Reno, the band had not played outside of California.
Poco: Poco, an excellent if not quite headlining band, was now a four-piece, featuring guitarists Paul Cotton and Rusty Young, bassist Tim Schmidt and drummer George Grantham (everyone sang). Their current album Head Over Heels (ABC Records, July 75) had just been released.
Slade: Slade was an English "Glam" hard rock group, managed by former Animals bassist and Hendrix manager Chas Chandler. Hugely popular in England, their mass appeal never translated to the United States. Nonetheless, Gene Simmons of Kiss cited them as a big influence, and Quiet Riot had huge hits with remakes of some Slade songs in the 1990s. However, the Courier Times reviewer singled out their music as "typical of...all the poorer aspects of rock music," which was a standard American response to the band.
Nils Lofgren: Guitarist/singer Nils Lofgren had played around the Northeast with his band Grin from 1969 to 1974, and he had also worked with Crazy Horse and Neil Young. He had just released his first solo album (on A&M).
Mahogany Rush: Mahogany Rush was a Canadian power trio led by guitarist Frank Marino. I saw them a few months before this (at Winterland), and I can assert that despite all protestation to the country, Marino sounded like a Hendrix knock-off. That being said, it was pretty enjoyable. Their current album was probably Strange Universe.
Hootchie Kootch: Hootchie Kootch was a local band.
note: the excellent Poco site has an ad featuring Ambrosia instead of Mahogany Rush.

Notes on the venue
Auto races at the New Jersey State Fairgrounds near Trenton had been held as early as 1900, and continuous racing began in 1912. A new oval dirt track was opened in 1946, and it was paved in 1957. It was a regular stop on the Indy Car circuit in the 1960s, where stars like AJ Foyt and Parnelli Jones raced (Jim Clark drove Indy Cars there in 1963 and 1964). NASCAR raced there with some regularity from 1967 to 1974, and Richard Petty won three Grand National Events.

The Allman Brothers Band headlined a huge show on October 7, 1973. Apparently over 60,000 attended and the concert security was completely overwhelmed, ending outdoor concerts there until the Aerosmith event.

The race track closed in 1980, and the Fairgrounds closed three years later. The site is now a huge outdoor museum called Grounds For Sculpture.

Bob Weir and Kingfish Tour History, August-December 1975 (Kingfish III)

After the Grateful Dead "retired" from performing in October 1974, Bob Weir started to play some gigs with his friend Matt Kelly and former New Rider Dave Torbert in their band Kingfish. After a few late 1974 gigs, Weir became a member of the band, and the group started to learn new material and gig seriously around the Bay Area. This post covers the period from August to December 1975. The Grateful Dead were working on the album in Weir's home studio that would become Blues For Allah, but save for a few stealth dates they were not a performing entity. Weir and Kingfish performed steadily however, and I suspect the dates listed here are only partially complete.

Kingfish 1974-76
Robbie Hoddinott-lead guitar
Matt Kelly-harmonica, guitar
Bob Weir-rhythm guitar, vocals
Dave Torbert-bass, vocals
Chris Herold-drums

This is the third installment on Kingfish's performance history (for the first two, see here and here). The sources from my dates include Deadbase IX (to which I was an initial contributor), the fine Weirworks site, some contemporary newspaper archives and a few other sources. I believe there are still many dates to add to this list. If you know of one from this period, please Comment or contact me, and I will add them to the list.
(note: dates added to the original post are shown as added).

August 9, 1975 Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford University Eric Clapton/Kingfish
I am aware of no Kingfish gigs between June 20 and August 9, and there are almost no Jerry Garcia gigs for that period also. I have to assume Garcia and Weir were focused on finishing off Blues For Allah. Although Kingfish had its own throwback sound, they communicated well as a conventional rock band, and opened a number of big shows around the Bay Area. Stanford University, after some bad experiences with Frost Amphitheatre in the early seventies, still alllowed the occasional rock show. Eric Clapton had only returned to performing the year before, and this was a very big deal of a show.

I attended this show, and Kingfish absolutely knocked me out. I had seen the Dead a few times, and I understood they weren't the Dead, but Kingfish managed to get a lot of motion out of a very few notes. Weir and Torbert's experience in larger venues really showed. Torbert was a terrific presence, too, for those who weren't lucky enough to see him, and his Cowboy Surfer cool made a nice contrast to Weir's dynamic presence (I'm pretty sure the girls really liked him too).

Clapton and his band were great, and Carlos Santana showed up to jam on the encore, but that's for another blog.

August 14, 1975 Fox Theater, Venice, CA Kingfish
The Fox in Venice was a converted movie theater. Commenter RD reports there were two shows this night.

There are probably a number of gigs I am missing from this period.

August 15, 1975 La Paloma Theater, Encinitas, CA Kingfish
A commenter recalls this show quite clearly (added). There was also a show at the Orange Theater in Orange around this time.

August 24, 1975 Trenton Speedway, New Jersey State Fairgrounds, Hamilton Township, NJ Aerosmith/Kingfish/Poco/Slade/Nils Lofgren/Mahogany Rush/Hootchie Kootch
14,000 people attended this outdoor event at a race track in New Jersey, for Kingfish's first journey away from the West Coast. I have written about it extensively elsewhere. [added]

August 29, 1975 Olympic Gold Ice Arena, Modesto, CA: Fleetwood Mac/Kingfish
Commenter David uncovered this remarkable booking. Even more remarkably, he found some professional quality photos of both bands at the show.

Fleetwood Mac, newly-reconstituted with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, had just released their Fleetwood Mac album. The band had been very well-received at an Oakland Coliseum Day On The Green on August 3. They were now playing shows around California. Mick Fleetwood had jammed with the Dead a few times in 1970 (the other band members who had played with them were no longer with the group).

The Olympic Gold Ice Arena had opened in Modesto in 1972, and was used for occasional concerts. It burned down in 1976. The site is currently a parking lot for Modesto Junior College. [added]

August 31, 1975 Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe, CA: Boz Scaggs/Kingfish
Alpine Meadows was a ski lodge in the Lake Tahoe area. In the summer it was used for the occasional concert. Boz Scaggs was a big star in the Bay Area at the time, and played with an orchestra (local string players playing charts). Kingfish opened the show. Some photos have recently surfaced. Looks like a nice day outdoors...[added]

August 31, 1975, at the Alpine Meadows ski lodge. Kingfish opens for Boz Scaggs, on another beautiful day in Lake Tahoe, CA (photographer unknown)

September 13, 1975 Stanford Music Hall, Palo Alto Kingfish/Link Wray/Barry Melton
Kingfish returned to the Stanford Music Hall, where they had played the previous New Year's Eve. This was the second time I saw them, and they played a lengthy, dynamic show. It is easy to listen to old Kingfish tapes and shrug that their playing seems rather simplistic, but it had a very powerful effect in concert.

Barry Melton was added to the bill at the last minute, and opened the show with a solo performance. 

September 26, 1975 Acker Gym, Cal State Chico U., Chico, CA: Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Commenter David found this Friday night show in the Chico State student paper.

October 4, 1975 Winterland Kingfish/Sons of Champlin/Keith and Donna
Kingfish was a terrific live band, but many California Deadheads had seen them a number of times by now. One friend of mine who attended the concert said that while Keith and Donna and The Sons were great, he felt that Kingfish wasn't playing anything new. In that respect Kingfish was acting like a normal rock band, but Deadheads were used to constant variation, even at the cost of sloppinesss.

October 17, 1975 Concord Pavilion Jerry Garcia Band/Kingfish/Keith and Donna
I attended this show, and once again Kingfish played great, although even I noticed that I was starting to become awfully familiar with Kingfish's material on only my third show. Even though Jerry Garcia was the advertised headliner (the ad above is from the October 5, 1975 Oakland Tribune), Kingfish closed the show. In the Bay Area, at least, when Kingfish and the Garcia Band shared the bill, Kingfish usually closed.

Although the show was well attended, it was nowhere near sold out. Garcia and Weir were so omnipresent in the Bay Area that there wasn't an air of specialness to their performances. For Bay Area fans, that lead to a relaxed atmosphere at local shows.

October 21, 1975 River City, Fairfax, CA Kingfish
River City was a tiny watering hole, reputedly favored by one Philip Lesh.

November 6, 1975 Elting Gym, SUNY, New Paltz, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Kingfish and Keith and Donna toured the East Coast in November. In the Bay Area, with Jerry Garcia a regular in nightclubs since 1970, Deadheads were very casual about the opportunity to see Grateful Dead spinoffs. In the East, however, the chance to see 4 members of The Dead (Weir, Kreutzmann, Keith and Donna) plus an ex-New Rider (Dave Torbert) in the same night was somewhat of a big deal. The Kingfish/Keith and Donna bill played medium sized theaters that neither band could have played at home. I have to presume that the bands also only used one crew and one sound system, another efficiency.

November 7, 1975 Beacon Theater, New York, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 9, 1975 Pritchard Gym, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
We only have scattered dates from the East Coast tour, mostly based on what tapes have survived. The Beacon show was on a Friday, and the Stony Brook show was on a Sunday. I have to believe the bill played somewhere in the Tri-State Areaon Saturday night. I don't think the tour played every night, but most tours make sure they fill in their weekends.

November 10, 1975 War Memorial Auditorium, Trenton, NJ Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Kingfish returns to Trenton. The small auditorium is only two-thirds full (per a review), but that's pretty good for a Monday night. A Commenter reports that there was an early and a late show. [added]

November 12, 1975 New Century Theater, Buffalo, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
The tour hit Buffalo on a Wednesday night. Thanks to commenter David for tracking this down. Also, he found excellent photos of the show.

November 14, 1975 Brooklyn College, New York,  NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
Again, this show was a Friday night, and I'm sure the bands played somewhere Saturday night.

November 15, 1975 Passavant Center, Thiel College, Greenville, PA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
A commenter writes

Somewhere between Nov 22-29, 1975, Kingfish & Keith & Donna played a small college (Thiel Coll) in rural western PA. And for our little coterie of Deadheads adrift in northeast Ohio at the time, it WAS A BIG DEAL! We showed up expecting a Dead show type crowd experience but instead were greeted by a practically deserted sleepy college town and equally sparsely populated theatre! We have an amazing story surrounding this adventure, perhaps for another time...It DOES get stranger

I have assumed that the date was Friday, November 28, although I don't know that for certain [update: I now believe the date was Tuesday, November 25] A correspondent adds

The show was in a (small) theater, probably in the student center (it definitely was not in a gym).  I'm not sure if the Passavant Center on campus was there in 1975 (2,000 seat) but if it was the venue, it would have been (way) less than 1/4 filled for that show.

This hitherto forgotten event serves as a nice reminder that when a band featuring a member of the Grateful Dead came to a smaller city or a more out of the way place, it was still a memorable event for those in attendance. Deadheads lucky enough to live in the Bay Area or New York City could be casual about regular Deadheads and accessible Garcia appearances, but part of the Dead's magic was their relentless journeying to unconquered territory.

Update:  Commenters report that the event was on November 15, and have even included a poster (thanks Nick and Mark)

November 18, 1975 My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY Kingfish
Two shows. Keith and Donna probably didn't play this club date. 

November 19, 1975 [outdoors], Nassua Community College, Garden City, NY: Kingfish
Kingfish played a free outdoor concert at this Long Island JC, starting at noon or 1:00. The band probably got paid, at least a little bit. Keith and Donna also didn't play this date.

November 20, 1975 Fieldhouse, Sullivan County Community College, South Fallsburg, NY: Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 21, 1975 Loews Theatre, Syracuse, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 22, 1975 Masonic Temple, Scranton, PA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
I do know a Scranton native who attended this show, and it was a very big deal for any Grateful Dead related bands to play in Scranton. He had nothing much to compare it to, but he thought it was a terrific show (and he went to Harvard).

November 23, 1975 Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA Kingfish/Keith and Donna

November 24, 1975 Palace Theater, Albany, NY Kingfish/Keith and Donna
This was a Monday night show, which suggests that the tour played a lot more than just weekends.

November 25, 1975 Student Union, U Mass-Amherst, Amherst, MA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
There were early and late shows.

November 29, 1975 Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA Kingfish/Keith and Donna
This was the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Once again, a Friday show somewhere seems likely.

Reader sdwinkler sent in a flyer for the Lisner Auditorium show on December 2, 1975

December 2, 1975 Lisner Auditorium, GWU, Washington, DC Kingfish/Keith and Donna (early and late)

December 4, 1975 Roxy Theater, Northampton, MA: Kingfish/Keith and Donna

December 5, 1975  Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ Kingfish/Keith and Donna

December 6, 1975 My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY Kingfish
I assume we are missing numerous dates from the East Coast tour. 

December 7, 1975 [gym], Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY: Kingfish free concert
WLIR-fm, based in Uniondale, was the hip rock station for Long Island, remembered for sponsoring many live broadcast. WLIR promoted a free concert on the Nassau CC campus in nearby Garden City the afternoon after My Father's Place, as recalled by Commenters.The show would not have been advertised in advance, since that might have cut into ticket sales at MFP. In the Grateful Dead tradition, Kingfish was amenable to free concerts in a way that many contemporary bands were not.

December 19-20, 1975 Winterland Jerry Garcia Band/Kingfish/Keith and Donna/Clover
A Poco/Kingfish/Keith and Donna bill scheduled for Winterland on December 19 was converted to a Garcia Band/Kingfish/Keith and Donna bill for two nights. I attended the first night. Marin stalwarts Clover opened the show (Clover guitarist John McFee had played pedal steel on "Pride Of Cucamonga"). Keith and Donna played a brief but excellent set, joined by Matt Kelly of Kingfish on harmonica for the set closing "Scarlet Begonias." After a great set by the Jerry Garcia Band, Kingfish closed the show. For the final number, Keith Godchaux and Nicky Hopkins sat at the same piano, while saxophonist Stephen Schuster played along as well.

Kingfish continued to tour throughout 1976, and they also recorded an album at Weir's studio, released on Round/UA in March of 1976. However, once the Dead returned to action, it was clear that Weir's role in Kingfish was part time at best. Weir stayed with Kingfish until August of 1976, when his Grateful Dead schedule took over permanently. Weir would continue to guest periodically with Kingfish over the next few decades.


Until I complete my research on 1976 Kingfish dates, the best source is Weirworks, which I have not yet been able to improve on.

Bob Weir and Kingfish Tour History, January-June 1975 (Kingfish II)

After the Grateful Dead "retired" from performing in October 1974, Bob Weir started to play some gigs with his friend Matt Kelly and former New Rider Dave Torbert in their band Kingfish. After a few late 1974 gigs, Weir became a member of the band, and the group started to learn new material and gig seriously around the Bay Area. This post covers the period from January to June 1975. The Grateful Dead were working on the album in Weir's home studio that would become Blues For Allah, but save for a few stealth dates they were not a performing entity. Weir and Kingfish performed steadily however, and I suspect the dates listed here are only partially complete.

Kingfish 1974-76
Robbie Hoddinott-lead guitar
Matt Kelly-harmonica, guitar
Bob Weir-rhythm guitar, vocals
Dave Torbert-bass
Chris Herold-drums

This is the second installment on Kingfish's performance history (for the first, see here). The sources from my dates include Deadbase IX (to which I was an initial contributor), the fine Weirworks site, some contemporary newspaper archives and a few other sources. I believe there are still many dates to add to this list. If you know of one from this period, please Comment or contact me.

January 3-4, 1975 Chateau Liberte, Los Gatos, CA Kingfish
At the time, Kingfish was playing regular shows at this tiny joint in the Santa Cruz Mountains, between Santa Cruz and San Jose. 

January 14,1975 Winterland Kingfish/Valley Boys/Little Roger
Bill Graham had begun presenting local bands at Winterland on Tuesday nights for just $2.00, calling it "Sounds Of the City." This was an attempt to make Winterland into a competitor to local nightclubs, a strategy he had employed with Tuesday nights at The Fillmore West and Fillmore East. Generally there was a fairly popular local club headliner, and some lesser known bands. Kingfish fit nicely, as Weir and Torbert were well known but Kingfish was not.

Buddy Cage of the New Riders of The Purple Sage sat in for most of the show, and he sounded great. Interestingly, Kingfish played two songs with Cage that I am not aware of them playing any other time, both sung by Torbert: Buck Owens "A11" ("Don't play A11 on the jukebox") and Dolly Parton's "My Blue Tears." They also played "Groupie," a Torbert song from the Riders Panama Red album. I suspect that these numbers were leftovers from the pre-Weir incarnation of the band.

Little Roger and The Goosebumps were a local band featuring Roger Clark and Dick Bright. They became infamous with their song "Stairway To Gilligan's Isle" (The Gilligan's Island theme done to the tune of "Stairway To Heaven." I saw them do it once at Winterland, and they brought down the house).

January 15, 1975 Sophie's, Palo Alto, CA Kingfish/Fever
[update] Sophie's was at 260 S. California Avenue, in the older "Mayfield" section of Palo Alto. At the time, Sophie's was run by Ken Rominger, who also managed the Bodega, in Campbell (near San Jose). Two years later, the venue would become the Keystone Palo Alto.

January 16, 1975 The Bodega, Campbell, CA: Kingfish

January 18, 1975 Longbranch, Berkeley Kingfish
The Longbranch, at 2504 San Pablo Avenue, mostly featured local bands on the way up.

January 24-25, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish/James And The Mercedes
A tape survives of Friday, January 24. Kingfish has begun doing Weir's blues version of "CC Rider," which will ultimately be adopted by the Dead. They have also begun closing shows with "One More Saturday Night, " the one original Weir Grateful Dead song that Kingfish will do, as a concession to Weir's fan base. The second night is known from a newspaper listing.

James And The Mercedes was fronted by James Ackroyd, formerly of James And The Good Brothers. I believe Bob Weir's girlfriend Frankie was a backup singer for James And The Mercedes.

January 26, 1975 Chateau Liberte, Los Gatos, CA Kingfish/James And The Mercedes
For a great eyewitness account of this show, complete with pictures, see Cryptdev's great blog post.

February 1, 1975 The Gold Rush, Walnut Creek, CA: Kingfish
The Gold Rush was a club in Walnut Creek, then a sleepy middle class town in Contra Costa. There were still a lot of walnut trees in the city limits at this time.

February 8, 1975 King's Castle, Incline Village, NV; Kingfish (two shows)

February 14-15, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish/Grayson Street

February 16, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz, CA Kingfish
Margarita's was a new rock club in Santa Cruz, at 1685 Commercial Way. Kingfish opened the club on a Sunday night.

February 19, 1975 The Gold Rush, Sacramento, CA Kingfish
[update] Originally known from Weirworks, where the show was listed as "River City, Fairfax." River City was a tiny watering hole in Marin County, where Phil Lesh was a regular, but a Kingfish gig seemed unlikely. A terrific board tape has surfaced, however, and the show was actually in Sacramento. The "River City" was a 19th century nickname for Sacramento, so the transposition wasn't implausible.
[update 2]: a Commenter suggests that Kingfish played the Gold Rush in Walnut Creek (in Contra Costa County, East of Berkeley). They were booked this night, and some other nights.

February 21-23, 1975 Golden Bear, Huntington Beach, CA Kingfish
A tape survives from February 23, which is how we initially knew the date. The band played the entire weekend.

February 28, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish
Known from a newspaper listing.

March 2, 1975 Winterland Kingfish/Alice Stuart/West
Kingfish headlined another Tuesday night "Sounds Of The City." At one of the Winterland gigs, New Riders pedal steel player Buddy Cage sat in with Kingfish again. The BGP list has Terry and The Pirates instead of Alice Stuart, but a contemporary newspaper listing has her, and I am inclined to that. West featured guitarist Ron Cornelius.

March 7, 1975 Crown College Dining Commons, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA Kingfish
[update] An intrepid UCSC student managed to hire Kingfish to play at the school. For the complete, unexpurgated story, see cryptdev's blog here.

March 8, 1975 The Gold Rush, Walnut Creek, CA Kingfish
Kingfish was also booked on March 7 at the Gold Rush, but we are certain of the UCSC show (above), so I am assuming they just played on March 8.

March 14, 1975 East Gym, Humboldt State College, Arcata, CA
Known from Weirworks.

March 20-21, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish/Soundhole
The dates are from a contemporary newspaper listing in the Hayward Daily Review. Soundhole was a popular Marin band who had worked with Van Morrison.

March 22-23, 1975 Pitschell Players Cabaret, Los Angeles Kingfish
This date has circulated for awhile as March 21, based on a tape. However, it conflicts with the Keystone date, which I have seen listed.Thanks to Commenter RD, we know that Kingfish played Pitschell Players Cabaret on both March 22 and 23, with two shows each night.

April 4, 1975 The Gold Rush, Walnut Creek, CA Kingfish

April 5, 1975 Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA Kingfish
[update] Hot Tuna was at their peak as a draw, and at a musical peak as well, with Greg Douglass added on slide guitar. Kingfish opened their headline show at the 11,000-seat Cow Palace.
[update 2] JGMF figured out the details from a Melody Maker column by local correspondent Todd Tolces. Kingfish headlined an afternoon show at the Civic, and Hot Tuna headlined the Civic later that night (I have the Tuna tape, by the way, and it's absolutely killer, with Greg Douglas on slide guitar).

April 7, 1975 Odyssey Room, Sunnyvale Kingfish
The Odyssey Room was a popular beer joint in the South Bay, at 799 E. El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale was between Palo Alto and San Jose. On weeknights, the club sometimes had "name" Bay Area bands (with records). On weekends, it was just jammed with beer drinking Silicon Valley factory workers. 

April 14, 1975 Lucky Lion Edgewater, Oakland, CA Kingfish
The Lucky Lion was a big bar across the freeway from the Oakland Coliseum, perched on the San Francisco Bay. The previous year, the Grateful Dead had headlined a Day On The Green at the Coliseum Stadium (June 8, 1974), and now Weir was playing at the bar.

April 18, 1975 Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA: Joe Walsh/Average White Band/Kingfish

April 19, 1975 Palomino Club, North Hollywood Kingfish  
The Palomino was a country club in North Hollywood, although by the mid-1970s it was more like a Cowboy bar. This gig has a unique setlist. Dave Torbert and Robbie Hoddinott apparently had some sort of altercation with the law and were not present. Doug Sahm, a Grateful Dead associate of many years, played bass on an emergency basis. A person who attended the show described it as "almost a Weir solo show." The setlist includes a number of songs not associated with Kingfish, like "El Paso," "Big River" and "Me and Bobby McGee." I'm not aware of Weir or Kelly ever speaking about the circumstances.

April 20, 1975 County Bowl, Santa Barbara Joe Walsh/Kingfish
Unlike Jerry Garcia's various aggregations, Kingfish functioned quite well as a normal rock band, and Weir seemed to enjoy playing in regular concert settings. Santa Barbara County Bowl was a small stadium (by football standards), used for medium sized events.

April 25, 1975 Union Ballroom, U. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Kingfish/Smolder Bros
The Grateful Dead had played this venue in April 1969.

April 27, 1975 Gym, U. Nevada-Reno Kingfish/Sutro Sympathy Orchestra
Reno is only about a five hour drive from the Bay Area. The listing for the show is above, from the Reno Evening Gazette of April 26, 1975. Sutro Sympathy Orchestra was a Reno band.

Ad in the Stanford Daily, April 29 1975

April 30-May 1, 1975 Sophie’s, Palo Alto Kingfish
Sophie's was at 260 South California Avenue in Palo Alto. It was later better known to Deadheads as the Keystone Palo Alto. The listing up top is from the Hayward Daily Review of April 25, 1975.

May 3-4, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish
Known from a newspaper listing.

May 8, 1975 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati Kingfish
From a flyer. Discovered thanks to other scholarly work.

May 14, 1975 Lane County Fairgrounds, Eugene, OR Kingfish
Kingfish began a tour of the Pacific Northwest, playing some familiar places (thanks to scholar David for figuring out the OR/WA dates). The tour commenced on a Wednesday

May 15, 1975 [unknown venue], Seattle, WA Kingfish
Possibly Friday, May 16 (which would change the Portland date at Reed, below)

May 16, 1975 [venue], Reed College, Portland, OR Kingfish

May 17, 1975 Quad, U. of Oregon, Eugene, OR Kingfish daytime free concert
The band played a free concert to "make up for the bad sound at the Fairgounds" [on the 14th]. Date confirmed by eyewitness.

May 17, 1975 Gill Coliseum, Oregon State U., Corvallis, OR: Kingfish
Intrepid scholar David found this one. He can't pin down the date precisely, but this one seems the most likely. The remarkable thing was that he found a picture in the OSU Yearbook, which complained about excessive smoking. 

May 18, 1975 [venue], Pendleton, OR Kingfish
Kingfish road manager Rex Jackson was from Pendleton.  There is a chance that this show was on Tuesday May 13.

May 24, 1975 Chateau Liberte, Los Gatos, CA: Kingfish

May 25, 1975 T-Car Speedway, Carson City, NV: Kingfish/Cold Blood/Country Joe McDonald/Booker T/Stoneground Memorial Weekend Spring Rock Festival
Carson City is in between Lake Tahoe and Reno. This all-day event began at 10am on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. At this time, Booker T Jones was based in the Bay Area, so this was all San Francisco acts.

May 26, 1975 County Bowl, Santa Barbara Jefferson Starship/Kingfish
Kingfish opened for Jefferson Starship at Santa Barbara County's modest stadium.

May 29-30, June 1, 1975 Roxy Theatre, Los Angeles Kingfish/Beau Brummels
The Roxy was a high profile rock club in Hollywood. It's a bit uncertain if Kingfish played on Saturday, May 31 (Beau Brummels definitely did). There's also a chance there was an afternoon show in Orange County earlier in the week (possibly May 29).

June 6, 1975 Gold Rush, Walnut Creek, CA: Kingfish

June 7, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz, CA Kingfish

June 8, 1975 El Camino Park, Palo Alto Garcia-Saunders/Kingfish/Rowan Brothers
In their first co-billing, Garcia-Saunders and Kingfish play a Sunday afternoon benefit at El Camino Park in Palo Alto. The park, at 100 El Camino Real,  was an easy walk from both the site of The Tangent and Kesey's Perry Lane haunts (by then redeveloped). It was also the site of the 1967 Palo Alto Be-In.

June 13, 1975 The Gold Rush, Walnut Creek, CA Kingfish

June 14, 1975 [Sonora County Fairgrounds?], Sonora, CA: Kingfish

June 15, 1975 Calaveras County Fairgrounds, Angels Camp, CA: Boz Scaggs/Jesse Colin Young/Peter Frampton/Kingfish Mountain Aire Festival
This somewhat annual event was an all-day Sunday affair in the Sierras. Note Boz and Jesse Colin Young headlining over Peter Frampton. Frampton, always popular in San Francisco, had already recorded Comes Alive at Winterland, but the album would not be released until the next year. Kingfish was scheduled to open the concert at the un-rock-and-roll hour of 10am.

June 17, 1975 Winterland Jerry Garcia and Friends/Kingfish/Keith and Donna/Mirrors
The Grateful Dead did a benefit for the recently deceased poster artist Bob Fried, the famous "Bob Fried Memorial Boogie." Kingfish played two sets, prior to the Dead's huge set.

June 19, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish/Heroes
June 20, 1975 Keystone Berkeley Kingfish/Paul Pena
Heroes was a local band connected to the Dead indirectly. Leader Bill Cutler was an engineer and the older brother of future Dead soundman John Cutler. Paul Pena, although a solo performer, wrote the song "Jet Airliner" that was later a huge hit for the Steve Miller Band. 

June 29, 1975 Oakland Coliseum Doobie Brothers/Eagles/Commander Cody/Kingfish
Once again, Kingfish was willing to open a major Bay Area rock concert. This was a huge "Day On The Green" at the Oakland stadium. Elton John joined the Doobie Brothers for a few numbers.

There are no further Kingfish concerts until early August. Given that Jerry Garcia does not perform either during this period, I have to assume that Garcia and Weir were focused on finishing Blues For Allah, which would be released in September of 1975.

update: not quite true. An eyewitness reports on a couple of Kingfish shows in July.
July 4, 1975, Toulomne County Fairgrounds, Sonora, CA: Kingfish/Commander Cody and The Lost Planet Airmen/Stoneground/Keith And Donna
An eyewitness reported seeing this show. Sounded like a good time.

Next: Kingfish performance history from August through December 1975.