They say home is where the patio is. Especially when it’s empty.
This weekend the San Jose Fountain Blues & Brews Fest expands to two days for the first time in its decades-long history. Friday night a special VIP kickoff party will unfold with the Bob Gonzalez Band presiding over a Boardroom Blues Jam at Kaizen Lounge, a nightclub on San Fernando Street in the space formerly occupied by Gordon Biersch.
Since the VIP party will take place inside a dark nightclub and not outside on the sun-soaked patio, where 28 previous years of live music unfolded, I just couldn’t separate the spatial aspects of the building with the temporal history of the building. With so many memories of live music outdoors at GB, I felt a tinge of homesickness just thinking about the place. To cop a phrase from the great travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, the memories began to take on a glow of retrospective magic which the intervening years have only enhanced.
When I see the empty patio at GB, I hear a thousand notes. Saxophones, trap sets and horn sections fill my head. Vocals, keyboards and stand-up bass players come back to life. I hear the clinking of plates and beer steins. Loud conversation. Lots of families and kids. People standing elbow to elbow, blocking the walkways while watching the bands. Servers running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
The San Jose Jazz Summer Fest used to include an official stage on the Gordon Biersch patio. It was a madhouse. All day long, Saturday and Sunday, year after year, going back to the days when the festival was primarily free and everyone came into town for a weekend drunk, GB would host jazz sets, one after the other. Dan Gordon himself would occasionally sit in with his trombone.
Whenever Oktoberfest came around, the Internationals would play for a few hours. The patio was even more packed.
The scene felt distinctly San Jose, almost even urban. Beer, sun and loud jazz that everyone else in the whole neighborhood could hear. Many people miss that patio. I can’t even calculate how many Blonde Bocks I drank on that patio.
As a Steinholder, I was so tight with numerous GB managers that when someone like Jed York of the 49ers rolled in, I could ask the manager to tell me what he ordered. Then I’d blast the info on social media, as if I was a “man about town” celebrity on the high society beat. At those moments, San Jose felt like a real city.
Perhaps that was the best thing about the patio. GB was an upmarket place, but anyone could watch the music. I could show up dressed like a slob, unshaven, ripped-up jeans and faded T-shirt, all of which drew horrific looks from the fancy customers. I’d then order a drink from my own personalized stein of beer, shocking the upmarket people all over again. Thanks to the bartenders at GB, I confused all the attorneys, the business majors, the frat boys and the suburban nuclear families, none of whom had steins. For someone that already lived in his own head, this was fantastic.
Then, in one of the most ridiculous moments I’d ever seen, Bret Michaels, lead singer of the ’80s hair-metal band Poison, played at a private super-secret party on the Gordon Biersch patio. I was the only member of the general public to infiltrate the event. I conned the general manager into sneaking me through the kitchen.
The party had been planned for quite a while, but it was so hush-hush that even the employees were not allowed to attend. Arena-style security goons in yellow polo shirts lurked everywhere. Black drapes blocked off any possible view from outside. The band spent all afternoon loading in a lighting truss, two Marshall stacks and a 48-channel soundboard just for the monitor mix. They did an arena-style sound check. All for the 60 people who attended the private party.
The patio has been empty ever since 2018, but this Friday night, human beings with musical instruments will be gigging inside. Bob Gonzalez, who has played shows in San Jose longer than I’ve been alive, will run the show. And it will feel like home again.
