Fate Music

Mickey and the Hartbeats, October 28, 1968, Matrix, San Francisco, CA

Deadlists no longer lists (if it ever did) a Hartbeats show at the Matrix on Monday, 10/28/68. It doesn’t appear on the Chicken on a Unicycle Matrix list, either. But what are we to make of this tidbit, from Deadlist’s 10/29/68 Hartbeats entry?

On page 26 of issue #34 (Summer 1996) of Dupree’s Diamond News, Dick Latvala stated in an interview “What I know exists in our Vault are the shows, and they are on four-track 15 i.p.s.” and “There are two dates, 10/28 and 10/29, both of which have four reels.”

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7 responses to “Mickey and the Hartbeats, October 28, 1968, Matrix, San Francisco, CA”

  1. Unknown Avatar
    Unknown

    It sure sounds like there is more material from this run in the Vault than what circulates. I'd always thought that maybe Dick misspoke – or perhaps the Vault tapes are mislabled (he doesn't mention the 31st, but the newspaper said they'd be there).

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  2. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Some expost action from Ben Fong-Torres: Garcia, "freaky lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead, dropped by to jam with three or four friends, and the club made its usual closed night an admission-free affair."

    Fong-Torres, Ben. 1968. Back at last – a soundproofed Matrix. San Francisco Bay Guardian, November 1, 1968, p. 10.

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  3. Light Into Ashes Avatar
    Light Into Ashes

    "An admission-free affair"…what a loose club!

    The "usual closed night" didn't stay closed much longer… This may have been the first of the Monday jam nights that would soon become a weekly routine at the Matrix; and now I wonder whether Garcia & friends single-handedly (so to speak) got the Matrix to open its doors on Mondays for jams.

    At any rate, once the doors were opened, Garcia seems to have regularly dropped in every Monday he could for the next few months.

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  4. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Great observation. I hadn't even thought of that.

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  5. Light Into Ashes Avatar
    Light Into Ashes

    Yeah, the Matrix being open on Mondays for jams seems to be accepted as a given, but it started as someone's decision, and now I suspect it started specifically at Garcia's instigation.
    No way to know for sure unless another source pops up, but no one in San Francisco is more likely to have been asking the owners for an open jam night at this club than Garcia – the main participant and beneficiary, fresh from the jam nights at the Carousel, and later to request MORE jam dates at the Family Dog the following year…

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  6. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Gary Jackson is around – I will try to ask him. This is a super cool catch, LIA!

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  7. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Sure enough, there's a listing for Jerry Garcia and Friends in the SFC Datebook "Opening Today" box 10/28/68 p45. So this gig is confirmed three ways – QED!

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