The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Soft Machine - Sun Devils Gym, Tempe, AZ, 1968

More than fifty years ago, the students at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona put on a fraternity show. The concert was performed in what was then known as the Sun Devil Gym and was the University’s main basketball and gymnastics facility. Three thousand fans, turned out on a Monday evening for the show. Admission was just $3 and the concert was a sell-out. The support band were the English rock band the Soft Machine fronted by the unique talent that was Robert Wyatt. Hendrix took to the stage wearing a Native American choker, Afghan-style coat, bell-bottoms and his signature hat and wearing his white-and-rosewood Fender Strat. A search reveals there are no recordings of the show and there is not even a trace of a setlist. However a 2018 article on the ASU news website “Hendrix rocked this house with his wailing guitar and his feedback and distortion,” said University Archivist Rob Spindler. “… Along with the setlist, the name of the artist that produced this fantastic Jimi Hendrix Sun Devils Gym poster has been lost to time. It’s possible the poster was created by the students of the university.