The Demise of the Matrix, 1971

The Matrix at 3138 Fillmore Street (San Francisco, CA, 94123)
[map | JGBP]:
it’s daunting to type those words and then imagine adding much to what we know,
so meticulously gathered over decades. So I’ll zero in on a relatively blank
space: the venue’s demise in 1971.

Ross Hannan and Corry Arnold’s Chicken on a
Unicycle hosts the data. Here’s what we have from 1971 through the end of
the year. (I won’t discuss the venue’s 1973 manifestation, which was in a
different space, formerly Moulin Rouge, Casa Madrid, Mother’s and Mr. D’s, and
later the Soul Train, Hippodrome and The Stone, at 412 Broadway (San Francisco,
CA, 94133) [map | JGBP].)

Here is an updated table. I have posted this as a Google
Documents spreadsheet which, shockingly, Blogger is entirely unable to
handle other than as a link. I reproduce the table as a picture here. These
data, based mostly on my research in San
Francisco Chronicle microfilm at the amazing San Francisco Public Library,
will be concatenated into the Chicken at some point.

January and February don’t reveal anything particularly
noteworthy. On February 7, Joel Selvin (1971) published an interesting little
piece in the San Francisco Sunday
Examiner and Chronicle Datebook (my beloved SFSECD), retracing the history
of the venue and tying it to Garcia and Saunders experimenting with jazz-rock
fusion in the contemporary period. Identified co-owners Ray Bregante and Peter
Abrams give no hint of trouble in paradise. But then, after the reformed
Sopwith Camel performs in the first week of March, the listings dry up. On
March 8^th, John Wasserman reports “Disheartening news — the Matrix
closed, maybe permanently,” promising more information in the Wednesday
column (Wasserman 1971a). Following up, as promised:

The promised further information never materialized, as far
as I could find. On March 24^th Wasserman (1971c) notes that the
Matrix has reopened –this ended up being about a two-and-a-half week hiatus–,
and listings pick up a little bit. There is no indication that the weekend with
Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller, May 14-15, will bring the curtain down. The
Matrix drops from view, the Pierce
Street Annex moves into the space, and the rest is history, at least until the relative present.

What happened?

I don’t know. There’s no reason to doubt JLW’s rendering, that
people just got burned out. It’s probably just that simple, and is so
characteristic of the human condition, bangs and whimpers mixing company, fraternizing. But I
love the bookending: as the Matrix preceded the ballrooms on the front end of
San Francisco’s psychedelic era, it also anticipated their passing, little more
than six weeks before the closing
of the Fillmore West.

REFERENCES:

Selvin, Joel. 1971. The Matrix Club and the Rise of Rock. San Francisco Sunday Examiner &
Chronicle Datebook, February 7, 1971, p. 4.

Wasserman, John
L. 1971a. Aretha Franklin – Boss Blues Lady. San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 1971, p. 39.

Wasserman, John
L. 1971b. The Real Match Was at the Fillmore. San Francisco Chronicle, March 10, 1971, p. 54.

Wasserman, John L. 1971c. Some Travesties in the Music Biz.
San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1971, p. 42.

See also:

Some recent cites: on 3/3/71, see “Contradictions Are Fun”; on 5/11/71 see “Hey Merl, you wanna do that tune in ‘G’? Get spaced out a little?”; on Jerry and Merl at the Matrix see my lengthy discussion with Corry Arnold, “Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders at the Matrix – A Dialogue“. More generally, click on the Matrix tag to see when it has come up here on the blog.