The Loading Zone - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, 2-10-1968

A few days ago (writing in late February 2026), I posted a 1968 concert by the fairly obscure band the Loading Zone. I was pleasantly surprised by the positive response that got. One commenter noted there is another concert bootleg by this band that took place just two days later. Turns out that is correct, so here it is.

For the basics about the Loading Zone, please check out my write-up for the other concert I've posted by them. Thanks to commenter johncream who pointed me to this recording. It only seems to exist as an audio recording on YouTube until now, so I converted that to audio format and chopped it into mp3s.

What's nice is that although this concert only took place two days after the other one I've posted, the set list is entirely different. Also, there isn't much overlap with their self-titled 1968 studio album. Only three songs from that were performed here: "Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead," "No More Tears," and "Shop Around." 

The only original song written by band members is "No More Tears." That also was a single they released. (It flopped.) The rest of the songs are generally classic hits. The band leans more into soul music here. Note they were a mostly white band but their lead singer, Linda Tillery, was a Black woman, which was rare for the San Francisco scene they were a part of. (She can be seen on the far left in the cover image.)

The album is 50 minutes long. This appears to be the full performance. They played a relatively short set because they were an opening act that night.

01 Got My Mojo Working (Loading Zone)
02 talk (Loading Zone)
03 Summertime (Loading Zone)
04 Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead (Loading Zone)
05 No More Tears (Loading Zone)
06 talk (Loading Zone)
07 Shop Around - 96 Tears (Loading Zone)
08 talk (Loading Zone)
09 Cold Sweat (Loading Zone)
10 talk (Loading Zone)
11 Try a Little Tenderness (Loading Zone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qi1w2bcn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MVWu06AA2ewhv5o/file

I had a hard time coming up with a cover for this album. It seems there are only two even halfway decent photos of the band on the Internet, and I used up the best one for the first album I posted by this band. I ended up using the second one for this cover, but with a twist: I found a version of it the band used for the cover to their single "No More Tears." I kept that for the middle section, with its tinted colors and everything exactly the same. But I got rid of all of the text above and below, and replaced it with my own text (but still with the same font and background colors). 

The Loading Zone - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, 2-8-1968

As I've mentioned many times on this blog before, I think the late 1960s were a special time for music. It's my opinion that often even little known bands from that time were better than most bands that came later. I've been making an effort to post music from such talented less bands. Here's one: the Loading Zone. Although they never found critical or commercial success, somehow there's this one bootleg recording that sounds professionally recorded.

One thing that makes music of that time special, in my opinion, is that a lot of what was happening was brand new. The concert is a case in point. At the time, the Loading Zone were pioneering what would later be called "jazz rock." That would soon be made popular by groups like Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. But "jazz soul" might be a better name, because there's a large soul element here.

The Loading Zone were formed in Berkeley, California at the start of 1966. In my opinion, they stood out by their musical talent, which was on a different level than most Bay Area bands of the time. Their lead vocals by Linda Tillery were a particular highlight. (Note that she had only recently joined the band in late 1967, but that's definitely her on this recording.) However, their weakness was they didn't come up with much original material. Thus, their self-titled debut album mostly consisted of covers. It wasn't that well received, being especially criticized for excessive production. Tillery left the band for a solo career in 1969. After some personnel changes, the band put out one more album in 1970, "One for All," then broke up in 1971.

Here's their Wikipedia page: 

The Loading Zone - Wikipedia 

In my opinion, the band probably would have been wise to release this concert instead of their debut album. It shows their musical talent without the overproduction issue. It's actually quite different from that album as well, with only three songs being on both: "Love Feels like Fire," "I Can't Please You," and "Kali Yuga-Loo."

By the way, it's frustrating that the recording ends with the emcee announcing that Arlo Guthrie would be on stage next. Too bad that recording doesn't exist (or at least hasn't been made public). Also, note that this took place at the Fillmore a few months before it changed its name to the "Fillmore West" (due to a "Fillmore East" opening up on the East Coast).

This album is 38 minutes long. 

01 Watermelon Man [Instrumental] (Loading Zone)
02 talk (Loading Zone)
03 Get Ready (Loading Zone)
04 talk (Loading Zone)
05 Call It Stormy Monday (Loading Zone)
06 talk (Loading Zone)
07 Love Feels like Fire (Loading Zone)
08 I Can't Please You (Loading Zone)
09 talk (Loading Zone)
10 The Monkey Time (Loading Zone)
11 talk (Loading Zone)
12 Kali Yuga-Loo (Loading Zone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ExpkS8BJ 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/nnUwUUvbmvCOi2M/file

I tried finding a photo of this band in concert, but I came up snake eyes. This was the best photo I could find, by far. It was used on the back side of their 1968 album, though more cropped than this. The version I found was in black and white (as it was on the album), but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. The only person I can identify is Linda Tillery, who is the Black woman in the leather jacket and cap second to the left.