May 1968 saw synchronized cultural and political eruptions in New York and Chicago

Evidence

May 10–11 would be called the Night of the Barricades. In New York, Jimi Hendrix played his first gig at the Fillmore East on a bill with Sly and the Family Stone; out in Chicago, the Doors enflamed 15,000 fans with Jim Morrison bellowing, “We want the world, and we want it … Nah-ow-OW!!!” at a concert that ended with the audience twice storming the stage and twice beaten back by Chicago police. May ‘68! Columbia Records released a Thelonious Monk LP titled Underground with the jazz pianist dressed as French resistance fighter on the cover (which later won a Grammy for “album packaging”). — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1230

Categorization

• XREF: The Night of the Barricades landing on the same dates as Hendrix at the Fillmore and the Doors riot in Chicago illustrates the reader’s thesis that a dense moment produces simultaneous invention across scenes — usable as a concrete counter-example to stagnation claims.