The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco , California .
33-697: Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall , it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition , on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fillmore neighborhood. Since 2007, it has been operated by Live Nation , which has since named new clubs and renamed existing ones after the Fillmore. The building which became The Fillmore was built in 1912 and initially housed
66-522: A " headliner ". Quite how early poems like the Illiad were first experienced by audiences remains not entirely clear. (But see rhapsode ) American poet Donald Hall described the increase in emphasis on public readings of poetry in the United States in a 2012 New Yorker magazine blog post where he recounted it a phenomenon that grew in the last half of the twentieth century. Hall, who speculates that
99-508: A benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe . After that Graham continued to book shows there on dates Sullivan wasn’t using the space. In their contract agreement it was stated that Graham would take over the Fillmore if anything unforeseen happened to Sullivan. Sullivan was found shot to death in the early morning hours of 2 August 1966, at the age of 57, the case was never solved even after Senator Diane Feinstein’s attempt to reopen
132-420: A consequence of opportune housing supply due to the internment of Japanese Americans . Since then, urban renewal schemes and San Francisco's changing demographics have led to major changes in the economic and ethnic makeup of the neighborhood, as the Fillmore District suffered from crime and poverty while many other districts underwent significant gentrification . The Central Freeway used to run through
165-557: A poem one morning, I found myself knowing that a new phrase was repellent, but realized it would pass if I intoned it out loud. Watch out. A poem must work from the platform but it must also work on the page." Afroamerican poet Maya Angelou was a friend of Malcolm X , and she performanced poetry reading. Radical poet group The Last Poets performanced poetry reading with African conga, and Gil Scott-Heron play poetry reading with jazz music. Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson recorded poetry reggae album "Bass Culture" in 1980. A poetry slam
198-632: A total of 51 concerts at the venue from 1965 through 1969. B.B. King 's well-received performances at the venue served to introduce many fans to the authentic sounds that inspired the blues rock subgenre. He subsequently became a countercultural icon, appearing at many rock festivals. Albert King also played a series of well-received shows here in 1968, with one of them being released as his first live album "Live/Wire Blues." Eventually, two additional shows would be released as "Wednesday Night in San Francisco" and "Thursday Night in San Francisco." The venue
231-515: Is located between Van Ness Avenue , the Richmond District , the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights . Today, the term Western Addition is generally used in two ways: to denote either the development's original geographic area or the eastern portion of the neighborhood (also called the Fillmore District ) that was redeveloped in the 1950s. Those who use
264-638: Is roughly synonymous with the Fillmore and Cathedral Hill neighborhoods. Historically, the Western Addition was first platted during the 1850s as a result of the Van Ness Ordinance . This large tract encompassed some 500 blocks running west from Larkin Street (the city's previous western boundary) to Divisadero Street , (hence the name "Western Addition") creating Jefferson Square, Hamilton Square, Alamo Square , Alta Plaza , and Lafayette Square. The area
297-617: The Grateful Dead , Jefferson Airplane and other Bay Area groups. The Carousel subsequently operated as the Fillmore West , paralleling Graham's Fillmore East in New York City 's East Village . However, both venues were shuttered by Graham in July 1971 as arena bookings on popular music tours became increasingly prevalent. For an indeterminate period from 1969 to 1970, the Fillmore Auditorium
330-504: The 1980s, also remain popular. Voice is an active, physical thing in oral poetry. It needs a speaker and a listener, a performer and an audience. It is a bodily creation that thrives in live connection. The voice is the mechanism by which a "poet's voice" comes alive. Reciting a poem aloud the reciter comes to understand and then to be the 'voice' of the poem. As poetry is a vocal art, the speaker brings their own experience to it, changing it according to their own sensibilities, intonation,
363-701: The Doors , Jimi Hendrix Experience , the Byrds , Big Brother and the Holding Company , Santana , Frank Zappa 's the Mothers of Invention , and British acts the Who , Cream , and Pink Floyd all performing at the venue. Besides rock , Graham also featured non-rock acts such as Lenny Bruce , Miles Davis , Rahsaan Roland Kirk , Charles Lloyd , Aretha Franklin , and Otis Redding as well as poetry readings . The Grateful Dead played
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#1732894185598396-527: The Fillmore Auditorium's prestige and image and served as the basis for the systems subsequently used at the Fillmore East and Fillmore West venues. In the mid-1960s, the Fillmore Auditorium became the focal point for psychedelic music and the counterculture in general, with such acts as the Grateful Dead , the Steve Miller Band , Jefferson Airplane , Quicksilver Messenger Service , Moby Grape ,
429-696: The Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach, Florida . The Fillmore Charlotte opened in June 2009. A Fillmore in the Washington, D.C. , suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland , broke ground in 2010 and opened in late 2011. The 2,000-seat Fillmore New Orleans opened in 2019 on the second floor of Harrah's New Orleans casino. The Central, Minneapolis Fillmore venue opened in February 2020. The Fillmore brand
462-518: The Fillmore in San Francisco. One is a large tub of free apples for concert goers positioned near the entrance. Another is a "greeter" who welcomes each guest as they enter with: "Welcome to the Fillmore!" Western Addition 37°46′57″N 122°25′42″W / 37.78250°N 122.42833°W / 37.78250; -122.42833 The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco , California , United States . The Western Addition
495-772: The Majestic Hall and Academy of Dancing. Its name was changed from the Majestic Hall in 1936 to the Ambassador Dance Hall . From 1939 to 1952, it operated as the Ambassador Roller Skating Rink . "In 1954, Sullivan took over the lease on a dilapidated dance hall and roller rink named the Majestic Ballroom and christened it the Fillmore Auditorium, hosting integrated dances and booking the biggest names in Black music." - SFGate In 1954, Charles Sullivan, one of
528-526: The change may have been due to the star power of Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), wrote, "It used to be that one poet in each generation performed poems in public. In the twenties, it was Vachel Lindsay , who sometimes dropped to his knees in the middle of a poem. Then Robert Frost took over, and made his living largely on the road." Hall suggests that poetry readings have shifted the focus of poetry more towards sound, adding that "In concentrating on sound, as in anything else, there are things to beware of. Revising
561-473: The continuing socioeconomic deterioration of the surrounding neighborhood and the modest capacity of the venue compelled Graham to abandon the Fillmore Auditorium only two years after his famous association with the venue commenced. That July, he assumed ownership of the Carousel Ballroom at nearby 10 South Van Ness Avenue . The venue had been previously managed as a cooperative venture for several months by
594-624: The ear, the silent reading eye thereof, thereafter, hears what it is seeing. Sound that was imagined through the eye gradually gave body to poems in performance. A public reading is typically given on a small stage in a café or bookstore , although reading by prominent poets frequently are booked into larger venues such as amphitheaters and college auditoriums, 'to take poetry public'. Poetry readings almost always involve poets reading their own work or reciting it from memory but readings often involve several readers (often called "featured poets" or "featureds"), although one poet can be chosen as
627-471: The first official reopening show the following night. The Fillmore has once again become a San Francisco hot spot with frequent shows. For a standard show, the capacity of the Fillmore is 1,315 guests. Since 2007, the Fillmore is leased and operated by Live Nation . Live Nation has since named several of its existing and new clubs after the Fillmore. This includes clubs in Denver , Detroit , Philadelphia , and
660-439: The investigation. On May 27, 28, and 29, 1966, The Velvet Underground and Nico played the Fillmore Auditorium as part of Andy Warhol 's Exploding Plastic Inevitable avant-garde multimedia show. Their light show engineer Danny Williams, who pioneered many of today's standard practices in rock music light shows, built a light system at the Fillmore that included stroboscopes, slides and film projections onstage. The system
693-505: The matter of sound making sense; controlled through pitch and stress, poems are full of invisible italicized contrasts. Reading poetry aloud also makes clear the "pause" as an element of poetry. "The hearing knowledge we bring to a line if poetry is a knowledge of patterns of speech we have known since we were infants." Every speaker intuitively course through manipulations of sounds, almost as if we sing to each other all day. Even after three millennia of writing, poetry retains its appeal to
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#1732894185598726-475: The mid-1980s, but it was damaged and closed by the Loma Prieta earthquake of October 1989. After Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991, those close to him decided to carry out his final wish to retrofit and reopen the original Fillmore, which required much structural work. The Fillmore reopened on April 27, 1994, with the band The Smashing Pumpkins playing an unannounced surprise show, and Primus playing
759-512: The most successful African-American businessmen in San Francisco at the time, started booking bands and renamed the venue The Fillmore Auditorium . He was the first to allow black attendees there. Charles became the most successful concert promoter on the west coast introducing the biggest black acts to the San Francisco concert scene, such as James Brown, Ike & Tina, Louis Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, and more. In December 1965, Sullivan let Bill Graham use his dance hall permit to book
792-460: The neighborhood to Turk Street, but that section of the freeway was closed immediately after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and later demolished. Since the early 1990s, the Western Addition has undergone significant gentrification . The San Francisco Police Department Northern Station serves the Western Addition. Poetry readings A poetry reading is a public oral recitation or performance of poetry . Reading poetry aloud allows
825-404: The reader to express their own experience through poetry, changing the poem according to their sensibilities. The reader uses pitch and stress, and pauses become apparent. A poetry reading typically takes place on a small stage in a café or bookstore where multiple poets recite their own work. A more prominent poet may be chosen as the " headliner " of such an event and famous poets may also take
858-399: The stage at a bigger venue such as an amphitheater or college auditorium. How early poems like the Illiad were transmitted to audiences is not clear. Modern poetry readings only became popular in the last half of the twentieth century, at least in the United States, with stars like Dylan Thomas and Robert Frost . Live poetry reading competitions, called poetry slams and beginning in
891-449: The term in the former sense generally consider its boundaries to be Van Ness Avenue on the east, Masonic on the west, California Street on the north, and Fell or Oak Street on the south. From there, it is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods such as Lower Pacific Heights , Cathedral Hill , Japantown , the Fillmore , Hayes Valley , Alamo Square , Anza Vista , and North Panhandle . The San Francisco Association of Realtors defines
924-404: The term more closely to the latter sense, treating it as "District 6D" (not to be confused with Board of Supervisors districts; much of the Western Addition is in supervisors District 5), bounded by Geary Boulevard in the north, McAllister and Fulton streets, and Golden Gate Avenue on the south, Van Ness Avenue in the east, and Divisadero Street on the west. By this definition, the Western Addition
957-466: Was also attached to Irving Plaza in New York City from 2007 to 2010. The Fillmore is also well known for its psychedelic concert posters by artists who in the 1960s included Wes Wilson and Rick Griffin . Copies of the night's poster are given to fans free of charge as they exit selected, sold-out shows. A curated collection of these posters is on display in the mezzanine level of the auditorium today. Other traditions are carried on to this day at
990-583: Was initially used for small-scale farming; but, following the invention of the cable car during the 1870s, the Western Addition developed as a Victorian streetcar suburb . It survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake with its Victorian-style buildings largely intact. After the Second World War , the Western Addition — particularly the Fillmore District — became a population base and a cultural center for San Francisco's African-American community,
1023-528: Was known for its ambience as well as for the musical performances, often with swirling light-show projections, strobe lights and uninhibited dancing. The cultural impact of the Fillmore was very large. It is referenced by Hunter S. Thompson in his 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in a description of the counterculture of the 1960s in the San Francisco Bay Area . In the summer of 1968,
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1056-796: Was operated by new management as the New Old Fillmore ; during this period, the Grateful Dead and The Stooges performed notable engagements at the venue. The original Fillmore location became a venue called The Elite Club . For several years in the early 1980s, punk promoters Paul Rat and Wes Robinson booked punk rock shows at this venue. Punk bands that performed at The Elite Club include Crucifix , Discharge , 45 Grave , FEAR, D.O.A , Verbal Abuse , Social Distortion , Bad Religion , Black Flag , Bad Brains , Dead Kennedys , Red Rockers , T.S.O.L. , Flipper , Gang of Four , and Public Image Ltd. The Fillmore reopened under Graham's management in
1089-505: Was partially inspired by Jonas Mekas ' earlier film projections at concerts held at The Cinematheque in New York. As conceived by Warhol and Williams, the show also included wild, free dancing both in the crowd and onstage. Although The Velvet Underground's proto-punk aesthetics failed to resonate with the incipient San Francisco counterculture , Graham retained Williams to build additional light systems. These innovations were to become part of
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