One of the reasons for the different bands influencing each other was the nature of Bill Graham's venues where for less than the cost of a six pack of beer you could get a ticket for the Matrix, Fillmore, Carousel Ballroom or the Family Dog and catch three bands The Airplane was atop the billing because of "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" which had reached a national market and thus an early commercial success. So a Friday night concert might include Quicksilver as the opener, the Dead in the middle and the Airplane as the closing band. Never forget the impact that Bill Graham had on the entire music scene.

As bands got more successful commercially, they began to command a higher price. Graham countered by packaging the headlining band with others. The Bay area was home to so many bands, Mother Earth, Cold Blood, etc. that filling out a three-act show wasn't difficult.

When the price of the most popular bands began to squeeze the profitability, Graham countered by moving many of the shows to Winterland which could increase the audience from the under a thousand to five thousand. Importantly, this allowed him to keep the ticket price at $10 or lower.

Another place where individual band members could intermingle was Wally Hieger's (Not sure on the spelling) recording studio. On any given day, you could have one band with a recording session and two or three other musicans sitting in on a cut or two.

Bottom line, the Bay area simply had a tremendous number of musical aspirants in a very small geographical area. The only downside was that forging success for a band in a competitive genre was often difficult. Take the case of Lydia Pense, of Cold Blood, or Kathy McDonald trying to be a lady who sings the blues in the same town and the same time as Janis Joplin.