Somethin's Happening Here: Bay Area Rock'nRoll 1963-73 is an unprecedented exhibition currently on display at the Museum Of Performance And Design in San Francisco. Curated by fashion historian Melissa Leventon and Ace's man on the west coast Alec Palao, the exhibit is an in-depth celebration of the golden years of San Francisco rock in a blaze of colour and sound, using a wealth of photos, posters, memorabilia, clothing, video and audio - much of which has rarely, if ever, been on display to the public.

Without spoiling the many, many surprises in store, there's eye-popping items such as outfits worn by the Charlatans and Janis Joplin, instruments from John Cipollina of Quicksilver and Greg Errico of Sly & The Family Stone, paper items and posters from the Family Dog archives, and the mind-bending - literally - original painting seen on the cover of The Grateful Dead's Anthem Of The Sun. The exhibition strives to avoid the stereotypical view of San Francisco 60s rock to tell the whole story, and Palao proudly declares the space a "tie-dye free zone."

Fans of Big Beat's Nuggets From The Golden State will be particularly interested in this exhibition. On opening night, several luminaries from the scene whom have been showcased in the Nuggets series performed to a packed crowd, including Bev Bivens of We Five, Sal Valentino of the Beau Brummels, Ron Nagle of the Mystery Trend, Blackburn & Snow and the Wildflower.

Somethin's Happening Here runs until August of 2010, with a major rotation of objects occurring in March - so you may want to visit twice. Also, several unique programme events are planned during the exhibits run, including nights or fare audio and video, so stay tuned to the MPD website:

http://mpdsf.org