A Night At The Family Dog

San Francisco was the epicenter of the Psychedelic Rock movement of the mid '60s through early '70s. Three of the bands who did the most to define the San Francisco Sound, as it came to be known, were Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Santana.

In addition to reporting on the San Francisco music scene for newspapers and magazines (he was a co-founder of Rolling Stone) Ralph Gleason was one of its biggest promoters.

Gleason produced dozens of programs about the emerging genre for what was then called NET - National Educational Television (later to become today's PBS) throughout the 60s and early 70s.

In February, 1970, Gleason filmed a concert at a private party at The Family Dog at The Great Highway in San Francisco's Richmond district. The result was a one-hour NET program, and now, a DVD from Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Just as the featured bands personified the Bay Area's influence on rock music, the songs they performed were those most descriptive of each band's style.

Santana opens the show with "Incident At Neshabur" and "Soul Sacrifice." At the time, the band was just beginning to emerge on the national scene, having released their debut album and performed at Woodstock the year before. These performances highlight each band member's outstanding musicianship.

Grateful Dead had released four albums by the time this performance was filmed. With the original lineup (Garcia, Weir, McKernan, Lesh, Kreutzmann, Hart) still together, the performances of "Hard To Handle," "China Cat Sunflower" and "I Know You Rider" are smooth and tight.

Jefferson Airplane was the headline act, with five albums behind them and riding the crest of their popularity. "Eskimo Blue Day" and "The Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil" are perfect choices.

The show's finale was a little disappointing. It featured all three of the featured acts, along with some of the guys from Steve Miller Band and Quicksilver Messenger Service, so it had huge potential.

While it was billed as a "jam" it came off as very much staged, almost perfunctory. A true jam is something that just happens. This performance (of an unmemorable, repetitive chord progression) was too scripted to be a jam.

The sound quality (upgraded from its original mono to 5.1 Surround) is excellent. The video, not so much. This is not so much a failing as it is a product of the market for which it was produced. Programs on the NET of 1970 were shot much like those on C-SPAN today -- locked down cameras, little changing of shots, minimal movement.

As a result, it wasn't long before I was listening more than watching.

Overall, there are far more plusses than minuses. The DVD captures three of the most influential bands of the day, during a time when they were doing some of their best live performances.

The visual opportunities that were missed are far outweighed by the upgraded audio.

This is not a documentary. There are no voiceovers, no backstage interviews, and not much in the way of audience interaction. It's just an hour's worth of the kind of music that reminds us why it was we felt compelled to even consider putting flowers in our hair.