East Village, Manhattan St. Marks Place. On June 27, 1967, the Electric Circus opened in the same space with a benefit for the Children's Recreation Foundation whose chairman was Bobby Kennedy. The Grateful Dead, The Chambers Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Allman Brothers Band were among the many rock bands that performed there before it closed in 1971. On March 8, 1968, Bill Graham opened the Fillmore East in what had been a Yiddish Theatre on Second Avenue at East 6th Street in the Yiddish Theater District. The venue quickly became known as "The Church of Rock and Roll", with
At Fillmore East Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album five out of five stars and stated, "[it] remains the pinnacle of the Allmans and Southern rock at its most elastic, bluesy, and jazzy". Mark Kemp of "Rolling Stone" gave it five stars in a 2002 review and commented that "these shows [...] remain the finest live rock performance ever committed to vinyl", and the album "captures America's best blues-rock band at its peak". "At Fillmore East" was one of 50 recordings chosen in 2004 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. "Rolling Stone" included at number 49