The Orphanage was the hot North Beach rock club for a brief moment in the early 1970s. Located just off Broadway at 807 Montgomery (at Pacific), it was the former site of a North Beach topless club called Roaring Twenties. Even Roaring Twenties had a brief rock history, as the venue tried rock in 1967, and featured The Wildflower and then six weeks of The Charlatans before giving it up in late July. By 1973, the Orphanage was a happening spot for up and coming rock bands, as rising local bands like Graham Central Station got their start there, and veterans like Van Morrison were willing to play the room as well.
The above clipping is from the Entertainment Listings of The Fremont Argus of Friday, May 25, 1973. Besides featuring the exceptional Azteca, a groundbreaking San Francisco Latin rock band, the booking for Tuesday and Wednesday, May 29-30 for Kingfish is the earliest booking I have seen for that band. Now, since it was my belief that Kingfish did not even form until spring of 1974, until after Dave Torbert left the New Riders and re-upped with his old friend Matthew Kelly, it is entirely possible that this is some other band named Kingfish, and has nothing to do with the Matt Kelly-led band that worked in some form from 1974 to the 1990s, featuring Torbert, Bob Weir, Patti Cathcart and many others over the years.
On the other hand, I know that Matt Kelly was working on an album in 1973, originally intended as a harmonica instruction album (tracks from these sessions were released as part of Kelly's 1985 solo album A Wing And A Prayer). Kelly had also been working with a group called Slewfoot, a sort of proto-Kingfish, backing singer David Rea. I believe David Rea had moved on by 1973, but its plausible to think that Kelly might play a few gigs, and he always called his band Kingfish, so its reasonable to think that he started in 1973. Slewfoot featured Kelly, guitarist Bill Cutler, bassist James Ackroyd and drummer Chris Herold (backing David Rea).
Its entirely possible that the "Kingfish" at the Orphanage had nothing to do with Matt Kelly. However, the venue was at the top of the local tree, and was not going to book an amateur group. Although Matt Kelly was hardly known at the time, he had been a professional musician since the mid-60s, and he's the sort of solid local musician whose band would play The Orphanage on a weeknight. For now I'm going to assume that these performances are a the first live iteration of Matt Kelly's Kingfish.
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