South Bay Flashback

San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, and iconic music venues like the Fillmore Auditorium are well-known hubs of the 1960s Rock and Roll wave. Yet curators and authors Bill Guardino and Brian Conroy argue that just South of the City by the Bay, the Valley of Heart’s Delight had a booming music scene of its own in the 1960s. Can you dig it?

History San José’s latest exhibit South Bay Flashback: Riffs, Rhythms, and Revolution chronicles the bands, venues, publications, and radio stations that made up San Jose’s Rock and Roll landscape. Learn about the local bands that originated in the South Bay, and the world-famous acts that performed in local venues. Additionally, South Bay Flashback explores the politics of the counterculture that underpinned much of the music of the era. Explore five galleries with over 200 pieces from Bill Guardino’s private collection, including posters, fliers, underground newspapers and business cards. Step through the beaded curtain to our blacklight room, to not only see the groovy posters up close, but experience them as they were intended to be experienced!

South Bay Flashback opens Saturday, November 22nd in the McKay Gallery at the Pasetta House in History Park at 1650 Senter Road in San Jose. The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm to 4pm, with the last admission at 3:45pm. Exhibit entry is free, unless there is a ticketed event in the park. Please note that gallery hours may change if there is a ticketed event in the park. To confirm gallery hours ahead of your visit, please call 408.287.2290 or email info@historysanjose.org. South Bay Flashback will be on view through December 21, 2026. 

Guardino & Conroy’s book South Bay Flashback: San Jose’s Forgotten Music Scene of the 1960s is available for purchase in G&A’s Gift Shop at History Park. 

About the Gallery:
The Pasetta House was moved to History Park in 1985. Thanks to a generous gift from the Pasetta family, restoration of the house began in 2004; the building was dedicated in 2005. Leonard McKay was instrumental in planning this space as a gallery with climate control and lighting that would meet museum standards suitable for exhibiting art and artifacts. This generosity has afforded History San José the opportunity to host multiple exhibits and to display countless works from its collection. History San José wishes to thank these families for their significant and permanent contribution to History Park and to the community.