From Corry: Jerry said in an interview, long ago, that he started out playing pedal steel behind John Dawson at coffee shops. I'm not sure where or what the Underground was, but this sounds like one of those gigs. Incidentally, I remain convinced that Garcia crystallized his desire to play in the NRPS after the Flying Burrito Brothers opened for the Dead at the Avalon on 4/4-6/69. This fits my (admittedly unprovable) theory. I've got the Burritos set from 4/6/69 tho and it makes my theory sound mighty plausible. From Michael: The Underground was a coffee house/pizza parlor on El Camino Real in Menlo Park. It was a block north of the original location of Kepler's and two doors north of the old Discount Records. As I understand it (I regrettably never found out about it until after the fact) Jerry and Dawson played there weekly for several months.