Sure, you knew about the famed Fox and Paramount theaters downtown, where lots of early rock and pop acts performed. Even 9th Street's Prospect Theatre (now a C-town between 5th and 6th avenues) hosted the Dave Clark Five, among other groovies.
But did psychedelia ever make its way Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn? Sure enough, it did.
From November 11 through November 14, 1970, a fantastic double bill featured Hot Tuna with the Grateful Dead as an opening act at the "46th St. Rock Palace - Brooklyn, NY". This shows the early prominence of the Airplane and its personnel (Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady), while the Dead were still relatively less known, before becoming the enormous cultural phenomena (and pop cash machine) that it did in larter decades until guitarist Jerry Garcia's death in 1993.
I vaguely remember seeing a later version of Garcia's bluegrass spin-off, Old and in the Way, only with another musician substituting for Jerry Garcia on banjo, along with Peter Rowan and David Grisman, at Brooklyn College's Student Union (SUBO), in the early 70s, but my details are hazy.
But the idea of a Tuna/Dead show in Bensonhurst is fabulous. The 46th street theatre was located at 4515 New Utrecht Avenue. According to www.Cinematreasures.org,
Loew's 46th Street Theatre, now closed, seated 2,675 with a single screen, and an atmospheric theatre style. Architect: John Eberson. Closed in 1973, the Universal Theatre, better known as the 46th Street Theatre, was converted into retail space.
Theater photo courtesy of The John Chappell Collection