From the late Chris Dixon's 30th Anniversary Series © C S Dixon

25 May 1999 marks 30 years since the Experience appearance at the 'Northern California Folk-Rock Festival' at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, Ca. Although the preceding is the correct event and location info, this show is commonly called 'San Jose Pop'. With acts like Jimi, Zeppelin, the Airplane and Santana, someone must've tagged it a "folk-rock" fest just to ease the fears of the locals! This was the first of three festival gigs the Experience would play in their waning days (also Newport and Denver in June).

The tape of this show is an audience recording, probably made from right in front of Jimi as the guitar is quite loud and clear (almost soundboard-like at times) while the vocals are very tinny and distant. Pictures show quite a large sound system, one of the largest I've seen in concert pics of the era (there's a good wide shot of the stage/lights/PA, though not during Jimi's set, in Baron Wolman's book). Since it's the San Francisco region, could well have been McCune Audio, they of Beatles @ Candlestick and Monterey Pop fame. With 7 huge cinema-type bass cabs, some 12 radial horns per side and assorted Voice of the Theatre fill speakers it should've been louder, but if the taper was right down front then they were between and below the speakers and that could account for not hearing much of the main PA. The balance does get a little better during the set, either a result of the taper changing position and/or the PA sound improving. The drums have more than usual number of mics and their sound improves some as well, though the overall sound never really gets 'hifi' (the two way system meant that an awful lot of program material went through the high frequency "squawker" horns, and they were probably underpowered for that true (cup hand over mouth) "Number 24, your fries are ready" sound!). There are mics visible on the guitar and bass amps as well, so the potential was there for a soundboard recording but none has surfaced. One other gear note: now that he's playing big outdoor shows, it looks like Jimi is using all three Marshall stacks, whereas pics from earlier in the tour show one stack unplugged, presumably standing by as a spare. There are many fine photos from this day and virtually all show Jimi with eyes shut (then again, Jimi playing in sunlight is a rarity!), lost in the music.

(Setlist): Hear My Train; Fire; Spanish Castle Magic; Red House; I Don't Live Today; Foxy Lady; Purple Haze; Voodoo Child (SR)

• Jimi does the "forget everything else" rap and a minute and a half of tuning leads to some offhand blues riffing which morphs straight into 'Hear My Train' - unique as an opening number. Jimi then gives his spoken intro, running down the song's story, over the music whereas he usually talks then plays. Long solo gives way to lighter, cleaner toned soloing (sounds like he's using one of the Strat's 'in between' pickup selector positions) around 7:00 - this is one of the places where the guitar is almost 'soundboard' quality, with every little nuance audible. This makes it even more of a shock when the 'transistor radio' voice comes back in! He changes one of the repeated refrains near the end to "I hear my freedom train a comin...".
  
  
• 'Fire' starts normally with Mitch's fills being featured after the first chorus. Jimi starts riffing over Mitch, starting with the 'Gypsy Eyes' melody, then continues soloing using quickly strummed chords (almost sounds like a 'Leeds'-era Townshend to me at times). They return briefly to the 'Fire' riff at around 3:30 and Jimi may have tried to start the "gimme your money" vocals, but then the guitar drops out and they go to a drum solo. Evidence of PA problems include audience yells of "turn on the mics!" and sounds of "testing, one two" just before the end of the drum solo. At around 6:15 Jimi re-enters playing the SCM riff with a clean tone then hits the song's usual opening....
  
  
• ...and when the the SCM vocal enters, well, "It's very far away" ! Jimi's solo includes some nice octave work and a descending variation on the main riff but he comes back for the final verse at around the 4:00 mark, making it a fairly short version compared to recent outings. They never do get back to 'Fire'.
  
  
• 'Red House' year of origin this night is 1784 (at Ben Franklin Studio, natch). Ends the first verse with "..I ain't been back to see my fat baby...been in jail for 99 1/2 days". Clever jazzy turnaround at about 4:00 (another notable one at the very end, too, just before "my sister will"). The unaccompanied 'wah' section leads straight back to the last verse this time (it sounds for a moment like he's going to keep soloing but he may have changed his mind when the band's re-entrance was a little off).
  
  
• 'I Don't Live Today' not only gets it's last known performance by the Experience here, but it's also Jimi's second to last performance ever of the song (it would be resurrected one last time at Berkeley, May/70). Spoken intro includes Jimi's advice to "...get your own self together so you can be ready for the next world...". The guitar is invaded by some radio interference at the start and it also makes an appearance at the very end, but neither lasts long. Jimi's first solo includes a quote from the national anthem and the "ain't no life nowhere" section includes some great 'banshee wails'. Short final section and ends, like the previous day's version, with a few 'Machine Gun' type strums.
  
  
• 'Foxy' dedicated to the "girl back there with the yellow underwear...yeah, you, that's right...". Lore has it that "back there" meant sidestage and the girl in question was a folksinger from earlier in the day named Stevie Nicks! The song itself gets cut on the tape and suddenly we're at the end of the 'Purple Haze' solo in time for that song's end. Audience calls for 'Wild Thing' afterward prompt Jimi to scold "Hey man, I know *exactly* what I'm gonna do...so when I say toilet paper....".
  
  
• Jimi intros VC(SR) as "...a self acceptance song, not coming from us to you but coming from a message to you". We get a long version here, with a number of surprises (and I like surprises!). The first solo leads back to the "sweet time" verse at around 4:30 and then to a percussive guitar section (possibly the drumstick thing at one point). He switches to the 'flamenco' style playing around 7:45, an excursion wherein he touches briefly on Bolero and Message Of Love and then returns to the VC(SR) intro riff. Takes off on more improv and can be heard very faintly singing the 'Roomful of Mirrors' words (mic off again?). He then starts the 'MoL' riff in earnest, its second (first brief outing was at RAH 18 Feb 69) in-concert appearance (he had just been experimenting with the riff a few days before, during the so-called 'Message From Nine To The Universe' studio jam with Buddy, Devon and others). After a couple of minutes he announces "We're finished now, we're just jamming..." then returns to the 'Roomful of Mirrors' riff and words, much more audible this time. After a couple of more minutes he switches suddenly to 'Sunshine of Your Love' then finally leads back to a quick VC(SR) reprise. Jimi's 'stream of consciousness' in full effect here for a total medley time of over 20 min!

Chris