The plaza behind San Jose Metropolis Corridor was stuffed with Deadheads and DJs on Thursday evening, as the town distinctively celebrated its historic connection to the Grateful Lifeless by illuminating Metropolis Corridor in gentle present of swirling colours, with the legendary band’s music ringing out within the courtyard.
The festivities marked the sixtieth anniversary of a momentous evening when the band, simply having modified its title from the Warlocks, performed an LSD-fueled “acid test” at a home on South Fifth Avenue on Dec. 4, 1965. Within the intervening 60 years, the home was moved to make approach for Metropolis Corridor, however a plaque commemorating the spot was unveiled Thursday evening. That includes the band’s well-known “Steal Your Face” brand, the plaque will probably be completely affixed to the wing’s south wall.
“There’s no acid test tonight, but I’m thinking there might be a little acid reflux, looking around,” emcee Kim Vestal, a longtime DJ now doing site visitors for KCBS, instructed the well-seasoned crowd.
Dan Orloff, founder and “chief rock officer” of San Jose Rocks, poses for {a photograph} subsequent to a plaque at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Grateful Lifeless followers watch a “psychedelic light” present on the Rotunda after a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Dan Orloff, left, founder and “chief rock officer” of San Jose Rocks, and Trixie Garcia, daughter of Jerry Garcia, unveil a plaque close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 at San Jose Metropolis Corridor in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Mark Purdy factors to the approximate location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 close to San Jose Metropolis Corridor in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque honoring the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Trixie Garcia, daughter of Jerry Garcia, speaks throughout a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Ira Meltzer, who attended the live performance, speaks throughout a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Followers take heed to a speaker throughout a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Dan Orloff, founder and “chief rock officer” of San Jose Rocks, speaks throughout a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Grateful Lifeless followers watch a “psychedelic light” present on the Rotunda after a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
The Spartan Jam Band performs after a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Grateful Lifeless fan watches a “psychedelic light” present after a plaque unveiling at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
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Dan Orloff, founder and “chief rock officer” of San Jose Rocks, poses for {a photograph} subsequent to a plaque at San Jose Metropolis Corridor close to the location of the Grateful Lifeless’s first live performance, below that title, on Dec. 4, 1965 in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. San Jose Rocks lead the marketing campaign for the plaque. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
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There have been a few shock friends, too. Ira Meltzer was a San Jose State scholar who lived on the home and talked in regards to the wild evening, which had Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Invoice Kreutzmann offering the music and Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters passing out the LSD-laced sugar cubes.
One other visitor speaker was Trixie Garcia, the daughter of Jerry Garcia and Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia. She was born practically a decade after the evening in query — each her mother and father have been there — however stated she thought it was great that San Jose commemorated the second.
“The ’60s changed the world, and what was started here in the Bay Area continues to lead the world and progressive thought and a more mindful way to exist,” she stated.
Whereas passerbys took photos and marveled on the gentle present projected on Metropolis Corridor, guests contained in the Janet Grey Hayes Rotunda received to view a group of Grateful Lifeless posters owned by collector Invoice Guardino and get an up-close have a look at an authentic hand-drawn poster selling the acid take a look at The poster lately offered at public sale for $37,500. It additionally led Orloff and Purdy down a analysis rabbit gap solely to find that the historic home at 38 S. Fifth St. hadn’t been misplaced in a fireplace — as beforehand thought — however was repaired and moved to North Fourth Avenue, simply blocks away.
So what does it imply {that a} band lengthy related to San Francisco performed its first present because the Grateful Lifeless in San Jose? Purdy summed it up fairly effectively.
“I think the Grateful Dead are really the world’s band, No. 1. And No. 2, I think they are a band that was a cultural force all around the Bay Area,” he stated, noting they began out in Palo Alto and Menlo Park, had roots in Berkeley and wound up headquartered in Marin. “But you know what? There’s only one place they played their very first performance. It was right here.”
BUILDERS NEEDED: Valley Well being Basis Government Director Michael Elliott is searching for assist for a great downside. The muse’s Massive Bike Construct for its Turning Wheels for Children program is developing Dec. 13, and due to the help from the Santa Clara Household Well being Plan and different teams, it’ll be the most important one because the COVID-19 pandemic.
Final yr, volunteers assembled about 500 bicycles for youths who want them, and this yr there are 1,000 able to be put collectively and distributed to households for the vacations by way of varied nonprofit and repair organizations.
“That is, assuming we can get all those bikes built on Dec. 13,” Elliott stated. “That depends on volunteers. We are currently at 50% of what we need.”
The Bike Construct will happen on the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, beginning at 8:30 a.m. No expertise is required, and volunteers are supplied with instruments, coaching, meals and a T-shirt. You will get extra info at www.valleyhealthfoundation.org or signal as much as volunteer at eventbrite.com (seek for “2025 Massive Bike Construct).
TRIBUTE TO A COMMUNITY CHAMPION: Loc Vu, a major chief within the Vietnamese-American neighborhood in Santa Clara County who based the Viet Museum at San Jose’s Historical past Park, died at age 92 on Nov. 29.
A colonel within the South Vietnamese Military, Vu and his household settled in San Jose after the autumn of Saigon in 1975 and based the Immigrant Resettlement & Cultural Middle a number of years later, offering companies together with English courses, job coaching and housing help to greater than 20,000 immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos over the subsequent 4 many years.
His work to protect Vietnamese tradition was realized when the Museum of the Boat Folks and the Republic of Vietnam opened at Historical past Park in San Jose in 2008, distinguished by a reproduction of a fishing boat much like these folks used to flee Communist Vietnam. Vu collected artifacts for the museum for greater than 25 years, selecting up some on the flea market and others on eBay. His contributions to the Vietnamese-American neighborhood in Santa Clara County have been acknowledged within the U.S. Congressional Document by Rep. Zoe Lofgren in 2015.
BUILDING HOLIDAY SPIRIT: In the event you’re out attempting to find a Christmas tree this weekend, simply be glad you didn’t must construct it. The Grasp Mannequin Builder staff at Legoland Discovery Middle Bay Space in Milpitas, led by Peter Kochanek-Rogers, spent dozens of hours making a 5-foot tree made out of Lego bricks. It’s the centerpiece of the Vacation Bricktacular occasion on the venue on the Nice Mall, which incorporates a lot of vacation scenes in Miniland, the Bay Space cityscape made out of Lego bricks.
A 5-foot Christmas tree made out of Lego bricks is on show on the Lego Discovery Middle Bay Space on the Nice Mall in Milpitas by way of Dec. 24, 2025. (Courtesy Lego Discovery Middle Bay Space)
Kochanek-Rogers positioned the primary decoration on the tree, a Lego coronary heart he created as a part of the Construct to Give expertise, the place friends also can construct hearts to assist children in want throughout the vacation season. The occasion runs by way of Dec. 24, and you’ll test it out at www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/bayarea.
