Winterland

VINYL FORMAT. On Thursday, October 10th, 1968, Jimi Hendrix walked onstage with his Experience, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, for the opening set of a long weekend at Winterland in San Francisco. The trio would play six sold-out shows over three nights at the 5400-capacity hall. Throughout the run, Hendrix would rotate several different legendary songs through his set lists. Amid the hits and road standards from his 1967 debut, Are You Experienced? – "Red House," "Foxey Lady," "Purple Haze" – were a furious, rarely aired "Manic Depression," the concise rapture of "Little Wing" from 1968's Axis: Bold as Love and thrilling previews of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" from Hendrix's bold new double LP, Electric Ladyland, which would come out the following week. Hendrix played with a volume and advanced ferocity that stressed even the best technology available to him, but the tapes were shelved, literally for decades.

Hendrix's October '68 shows in San Francisco were among the best he ever played with the Experience, and this collection – the first, official in-depth presentation of that legendary stand – is the evidence. Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell were at a visceral connected peak in their performing life, and the dream-show sequences on DISCS 1-3 feature multiple heated explorations of songs from all over their repertoire up to that point, including the murder ballad "Hey Joe" and the National Anthem – first played live by the Experience in the summer of '68 and already a searing triumph, in a firefight medley with "Purple Haze" a year before Woodstock.

The fourth disc features further magic – like the way Hendrix's glowing feedback ring and Mitchell's free-form thunder gradually resolve into the seductive march and invitation of "Are You Experienced?," the first song from the early show on the 10th – and a revealing interview with Hendrix a month after Winterland, at the Boston Garden.