.Nick Veronin & Mike Huguenor

It's a hot Thursday afternoon and the founder and artistic director of Empire Seven Studios is sitting in a folding camping chair taking a break from the mural he is helping a Los Angeles-based duo known as The Draculas to paint on the side of the failed Redevelopment-era Pavilion shopping center in downtown San Jose.

Fifty years ago this June, Jimi Hendrix made his major American debut at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival-catalyzing the counterculture with a positively electric performance. The then-23-year-old guitarist played with his teeth, coaxed torrents of terrific feedback from his amplifier and then set his Fender ablaze in one of the most iconic moments in rock & roll history.