San Francisco · 1965 to 1970
The band in 1967, looking down into the glass.
3138 Fillmore Street · 13 August 1965
Marty Balin opened the Matrix with three partners, partly because folk clubs would not book a band with electric guitars and drums.
3138 Fillmore Street, Cow Hollow, San Francisco
Jefferson Airplane played the opening night, 13 August 1965.
Balin had met Paul Kantner at another club, the Drinking Gourd, and found Signe Anderson there through her brother, who tended the bar.
The Matrix closed early in 2018, and the room became a bar called White Rabbit.
Now a bar. See the front on Fillmore Street, between Greenwich and Pixley.
Change the singer
Signe Anderson, found at the Drinking Gourd, sang on the first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off.
The ballrooms · 1965 to 1972
Glenn McKay painted with light: inks, dyes and oils on overhead projectors, thrown up behind the Airplane on stage and on television. A 1968 bill names his Headlights beside the band. Pick a ballroom, drop its dye, and press the glass.
Magenta for The Fillmore. Drop the dye into the glass.
Magenta · December 1965
1805 Geary Boulevard, at Fillmore Street, San Francisco
Bill Graham, then business manager of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, put on his first rock dance and light show here in 1965, as a bail benefit for the troupe.
The Airplane played the hall’s inaugural concert in December 1965, and more than ten times in 1966.
In 1967 they played it with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and again on New Year’s Eve.
A working concert hall. See its own listings; the corner of Geary and Fillmore is open to all.
Amber · 24–26 October 1968
10 South Van Ness Avenue, at Market Street, San Francisco
In February 1968 the Airplane took a 10 per cent share in the Carousel Ballroom with the Grateful Dead.
The Airplane, the Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother and the Holding Company briefly ran the room themselves.
Bill Graham opened it as the Fillmore West on 4 July 1968 and closed it on 4 July 1971, three years to the day.
Tapes from 24 to 26 October 1968 went into the live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head.
After years as a Honda dealership the ballroom reopened for events in June 2018, as SVN West.
Now SVN West, open only for its own events. See it from the corner of Market and South Van Ness.
Teal · September 1972
Post and Steiner Streets, Western Addition, San Francisco: now apartments
It was built in 1928 as the New Dreamland Auditorium, an exhibition hall and skating rink, on the block of Sutter, Post, Pierce and Steiner.
The Airplane played New Year’s Eve 1969 here, and the last show of their original run in September 1972.
That last show fed the live album Thirty Seconds Over Winterland.
Bulldozers cleared it in the week of 17 September 1985, for a 304-unit apartment complex.
Gone. Apartments fill the block at Post and Steiner; the photograph shows Geary Boulevard, a block south.
Fulton Street, Richmond District, San Francisco: a private home · June 1968
The band bought the house as its headquarters in June 1968 for $73,000.
It held their rehearsal room, a recording studio and the business office, and some of the band lived there, Grace Slick among them. R.A. Vance of the Vance Lumber Company built it in the Classical Revival style, with wood brought in from all over the world.
The band kept it until the mid-1980s. On 9 June 2026 the Board of Supervisors began making it a city landmark.
A private home. Named here, never mapped; the photograph shows Fulton Street a few blocks east, not the house.
The city calls them the first band of the San Francisco Sound signed by a major label.
14 January 1967 · September 1989
The Human Be-In filled the Polo Fields on 14 January 1967: between 20,000 and 30,000 people, with the Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
A flatbed truck and an amplifier were the whole stage.
The 1989 reunion tour ended with a free show in Golden Gate Park in September 1989.
Open parkland. Walk in from John F. Kennedy Drive.
Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco
A hotel at 750 Stanyan Street, across from the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park and a walk from Fulton Street. Book direct on the hotel’s own site.
See rooms
April 1969
Wally Heider Recording opened here in 1969.
Volunteers, produced by Al Schmitt and recorded in April 1969, was the first LP finished in the building.
It still runs as Hyde Street Studios, which calls itself the longest-running multi-room studio in the Bay Area.
A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from Hyde Street.
West 45th Street · 19 November 1968
At 7.45 on the morning of Tuesday 19 November 1968 the band played from the roof of the condemned, nine-storey Schuyler Hotel. The song was The House at Pooneil Corners, from Crown of Creation.
The roof, 7.45am. Press Keep playing.
West 45th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The street is public; the roofs are not.
9 days later · 28–30 November 1968
105 Second Avenue, at East 6th Street, East Village, New York
The building opened in 1926 as a Yiddish theatre and became a cinema; Bill Graham opened the Fillmore East here in 1968 and closed it in 1971.
The Airplane recorded here from 28 to 30 November 1968, the East Coast half of Bless Its Pointed Little Head.
The auditorium behind was pulled down in 1997 for apartments. Apple Bank uses the old entrance and shows photographs of the venue.
The old entrance is a bank, with photographs of the venue in its lobby. Open in banking hours.
Monterey · Bethel · Altamont · Rotterdam
Booked to close the Saturday at 10.30pm, the band went on at about 7am on Sunday 17 August 1969 and played for about two hours, with Nicky Hopkins on piano.
10.30pm: The booked slot: the Airplane were to close Saturday night.
June 1967
2004 Fairground Road, Monterey, California
In September 1966 the Airplane played the Monterey Jazz Festival here, the first rock group to do so.
They came back in June 1967 for the Monterey International Pop Festival.
The ground is 22 acres, owned by the state, and still holds the Monterey Jazz Festival.
A state-owned events ground, open for fairs, festivals and shows.
17 August 1969
200 Hurd Road, Bethel, New York
Grace Slick opened by calling it a new dawn. The set included songs from Volunteers, three months before it came out.
The Museum at Bethel Woods is open daily from 1 April to 31 December, 10am to 5pm. Adults pay $19.69 in advance.
The festival field can be visited on guided or self-guided tours, but not on show days.
The Museum at Bethel Woods: daily 10am to 5pm, 1 April to 31 December; adults $19.69 in advance. The field is seen on guided or self-guided tours, not on show days.
Bethel, New York
The museum on the Woodstock site. Open daily 10am to 5pm from 1 April to 31 December; adults $19.69 in advance, $22.69 at the door; youth $5; under-6s free.
Plan a visit
6 December 1969
Altamont Pass, Alameda County, California
The speedway was settled on as the site of the free concert only on 4 December 1969, two days before it.
During the Airplane’s set a Hells Angel knocked Marty Balin unconscious. The Grateful Dead heard and left without playing.
Later, during the Rolling Stones’ set, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death in front of the stage.
Private land. The old track is not open to the public.
June 1970
The Holland Pop Festival of 1970 here was the first pop festival in Europe where people could sleep on the grounds.
Tens of thousands came despite heavy rain. The Airplane were on the bill with Santana, the Byrds and Pink Floyd.
A public wood and lake on Rotterdam’s east side, open every day.
24 years after the Matrix, the reunion tour ended with a free show in the park across from Fulton Street.
12 places you can visit in San Francisco, California, New York and Rotterdam. The band house on Fulton Street is a private home: named, never mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now a bar. See the front on Fillmore Street, between Greenwich and Pixley.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working concert hall. See its own listings; the corner of Geary and Fillmore is open to all.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now SVN West, open only for its own events. See it from the corner of Market and South Van Ness.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Gone. Apartments fill the block at Post and Steiner; the photograph shows Geary Boulevard, a block south.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open parkland. Walk in from John F. Kennedy Drive.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from Hyde Street.
3138 Fillmore Street, Cow Hollow, San Francisco
Marty Balin opened the Matrix with three partners, partly because folk clubs would not book a band with electric guitars and drums.
Now a bar. See the front on Fillmore Street, between Greenwich and Pixley.
1805 Geary Boulevard, at Fillmore Street, San Francisco
Bill Graham, then business manager of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, put on his first rock dance and light show here in 1965, as a bail benefit for the troupe.
A working concert hall. See its own listings; the corner of Geary and Fillmore is open to all.
10 South Van Ness Avenue, at Market Street, San Francisco
In February 1968 the Airplane took a 10 per cent share in the Carousel Ballroom with the Grateful Dead.
Now SVN West, open only for its own events. See it from the corner of Market and South Van Ness.
Post and Steiner Streets, Western Addition, San Francisco: now apartments
It was built in 1928 as the New Dreamland Auditorium, an exhibition hall and skating rink, on the block of Sutter, Post, Pierce and Steiner.
Gone. Apartments fill the block at Post and Steiner; the photograph shows Geary Boulevard, a block south.
Golden Gate Park, off John F. Kennedy Drive, San Francisco
The Human Be-In filled the Polo Fields on 14 January 1967: between 20,000 and 30,000 people, with the Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Open parkland. Walk in from John F. Kennedy Drive.
245 Hyde Street, Tenderloin, San Francisco
Wally Heider Recording opened here in 1969.
A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from Hyde Street.
Stay
The Stanyan Park Hotel, across from Golden Gate Park and a walk from Fulton Street.
Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco
A hotel at 750 Stanyan Street, across from the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park and a walk from Fulton Street. Book direct on the hotel’s own site.
See roomsGo there
The museum and the festival field at Bethel, and San Francisco music tours on the marketplace.
Bethel, New York
The museum on the Woodstock site. Open daily 10am to 5pm from 1 April to 31 December; adults $19.69 in advance, $22.69 at the door; youth $5; under-6s free.
Plan a visitBethel, New York
A guided golf-cart tour of the 1969 festival field, $19.69, Wednesday to Sunday at 10.45am in season. A self-guided iPad tour is $10. Neither runs on show days.
See the toursSan Francisco
Live marketplace results for walks and drives round the city’s 1960s music history. Check each itinerary for the Fillmore and Golden Gate Park.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
No Jefferson Airplane or Hot Tuna date after today could be confirmed.
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Take it home
Two 1967 first-edition posters from our own store, Jeff Tamarkin’s history of the band, and four RCA albums from 1966 to 1969.
A first-edition 1967 poster by Wes Wilson for the Airplane at the Fillmore Auditorium. 13.7 × 20.1 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterA first-edition 1967 Family Dog poster by Alton Kelley for the Airplane in Denver. 14 × 20 in, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterJeff Tamarkin
The band’s history, published by Atria in 2003.
Find the bookJefferson Airplane · LP, RCA Victor LPM 3584, 1966
The first album, with Signe Anderson.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyJefferson Airplane · LP, RCA Victor LSP-3766, 1967
The first album with Grace Slick.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyJefferson Airplane · LP, RCA Victor LSP-4133, 1969
Live at the Fillmore West and the Fillmore East, autumn 1968.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyJefferson Airplane · LP, RCA Victor LSP-4238, 1969
The first LP finished at Wally Heider’s Hyde Street studio.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 15 of 15 Moments
3138 Fillmore Street, Cow Hollow, San Francisco
Jefferson Airplane play the opening night of Marty Balin’s club.
1805 Geary Boulevard, at Fillmore Street, San Francisco
The Airplane play the Fillmore Auditorium’s inaugural concert.
10 South Van Ness Avenue, at Market Street, San Francisco
The band takes a 10 per cent share in the Carousel Ballroom with the Grateful Dead.
Live tapes at the Fillmore West for Bless Its Pointed Little Head.
Post and Steiner Streets, Western Addition, San Francisco: now apartments
The last show of the original run, later Thirty Seconds Over Winterland.
Fulton Street, Richmond District, San Francisco: a private home
The band buys 2400 Fulton Street as its headquarters.
Golden Gate Park, off John F. Kennedy Drive, San Francisco
The Airplane play the Human Be-In on the Polo Fields.
The 1989 reunion tour ends with a free show in Golden Gate Park.
245 Hyde Street, Tenderloin, San Francisco
Volunteers is recorded, the first LP finished at Wally Heider’s Hyde Street studio.
2004 Fairground Road, Monterey, California
The Airplane play the Monterey International Pop Festival.
Altamont Pass, Alameda County, California
Marty Balin is knocked unconscious by a Hells Angel during the Airplane’s set.
57 West 45th Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York
The band plays from the Schuyler Hotel roof for Godard until the police stop it.
105 Second Avenue, at East 6th Street, East Village, New York
Live tapes at the Fillmore East for Bless Its Pointed Little Head.
200 Hurd Road, Bethel, New York
The Airplane go on at Woodstock at about 7am on the Sunday.
Kralingen-Crooswijk, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
The Airplane play the Holland Pop Festival in the Kralingse Bos.
