Jerry Garcia - Save the Whales Greenpeace Benefit, Pier 31, San Francisco, CA - 8.12.77

Here’s Jerry, with his sleeves rolled up, Travis Bean in hand on a magical afternoon in San Francisco.

This is the first really good shot I took of Jerry. I had acquired a Konica Rangefinder 35mm camera the year before and began taking it to shows. 

After reading Kerouac’s On the Road and Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, I was determined to visit San Francisco. Right after I graduated from high school, I turned that dream into reality.

By the summer of 1977, I had already seen the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, and Kingfish about 50 times, but was eager to see them on the West Coast.

The first thing I did after arriving in San Francisco was to make my way to 710 Ashbury Street. The shot I took of the famed Victorian became my first published photograph, appearing in Relix magazine later that year. 

During my exploration of the city, I spotted a poster announcing that the Jerry Garcia Band would be playing a benefit concert for Greenpeace in a few days at Pier 31 on the Embarcadero. I was stoked!

While I was waiting in line to get into the show, Jerry pulled up and parked his car. Guitar case in hand and waving to all of us, he walked past the line and into the venue.

The whole scene was pretty low key for this (then) East Coaster!

Print will be hand-signed by Bob Minkin.