Dumpster Fire Breaks Out at Former Grateful Dead Studio in Canal District

A spectacular fire broke out Friday evening in a dumpster outside of 20 Front St., the Canal District space that was best known for nearly two decades as Club Front, the recording studio, tape vault, equipment storage facility and hang-out space for the Grateful Dead.

San Rafael firefighters were called to the scene late Friday afternoon on a report of a fire inside a dumpster. Firefighters were able to quickly contain the blaze the dumpster, though not before it sent huge flames and massive clouds of smoke into the air (see photos by San Rafael Fire Commissioner Larry Luckham).

Fire Chief Chris Gray said a cause of the fire had not yet been determined.

From 1975 to 1994, Club Front was one of the Grateful Dead's hubs. Some of the band's best known output, including Shakedown Street, Go To Heaven, Dead Set, Reckoning, In The Dark, Built To Last, Without A Net, One and Two from the Vault, and Dick’s Picks 1 was produced there.

According to the website for Terrapin Crossroads, the music venue and restaurant opened by Dead bassist Phil Lesh in February 2012, that part of the Canal district is a major part of the band's history. 

"In 1970, the band played a venue intermittently called Pepperland and the Euphoria Ballroom, which to this day remains under a huge neon sign that reads “Litchfields” on the east side of Highway 101 in Central San Rafael," according to the site. The band's July 16 show at the Euphoria that year was the last time the Grateful Dead would share a stage with Janis Joplin.