Avalon Ballroom

The Avalon Ballroom is a legendary music venue in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco that operated briefly from 1966 until 1968, and again from 2003 to the present. It is located at 1268 Sutter Street, on the north side, one building east of the corner of Sutter and Van Ness. Large upcoming events include Pagan Fest USA which will be on May 9th.

History

The building that housed the Avalon Ballroom was built in 1911 and was originally called the Colin Traver Academy of Dance. The Avalon was founded by impresario Chet Helms and his music production company, Family Dog Productions, which had offices on Van Ness.

In its 1960s heyday, two bands typically performed during the evening beginning about 9:00 p.m. Many local bands, such as Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Steve Miller Band, served as backup bands, as did the early Moby Grape and headliners such as the 13th Floor Elevators, the Butterfield Blues Band, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, which Helms organized around singer and performer Janis Joplin in spring 1966. Joplin and Big Brother performed in June 1967 on several occasions.

Bands were frequently booked to perform at the Avalon on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Extraordinary posters advertising each event were produced by psychedelic artists, such as Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly, and Victor Moscoso.

One of the first bands was the 13th Floor Elevators with lead guitar and singer Roky Erickson, famous for his head-shaking yells ending a stanza or musical phrase. Tommy Hall and Erickson wrote many of the lyrics, and the entire band developed the music both during live jam and in appearances in Austin, Texas and Houston, Texas during summer and fall 1965. Hall, and occasionally his wife, Clementine, provided vocals, and Hall played the electric jug to the rhythms of Stacy Sutherland's lead guitar rifs and several drummers, Danny Galindo among them, on their first album.

Description

The Avalon occupied the two top floors of the multi-story building at 1268 Sutter. An "L" shaped second-floor balcony surrounded the first-floor along the south and western walls, and the dance area was in front of the elevated stage in the northeast corner where musicians performed. The entrance doors were downstairs, and opened onto Sutter Street.

The Family Dog maintained a hippie residential house that functioned as a commune at 1812 Bush Street, a block away from the Avalon, frequented by Helms and his friends. The Avalon was not as large as the Winterland or Fillmore music venues, which had been used by Helms before Bill Graham violated their partnership agreements. However, the Avalon was large enough to hold 400 to 500 spectators. The ballroom was 80 to 100 feet wide and 160 to 180 feet long. This area included the stage, which was 40 to 50 feet wide. The dance floor could accommodate several hundred dancers. An omnipresent light show was created by several different local lighting companies.

Closure and restoration

The Avalon lost its lease in November 1968, and Helms moved on to other pursuits. It was converted to the Regency 2 movie theater, which operated until 2001. In 2003, after learning from Stanley Mouse that the building was available, neo-hippie Steve Shirley (aka Morning Spring Rain) of the Hog Farm commune restored and re-opened the Avalon Ballroom as part of a larger "Regency Center" music hall and special events space.

External links

• Regency Center - houses the renovated Avalon Ballroom
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