Swirling liquid light projections born in 1967 give a Tesla guitarist’s love letter to San Francisco its glow. Frank Hannon has released a new remix and striking video for “San Francisco,” the latest from his instrumental solo guitar album ‘Reflections’.
Built around improvisation, atmosphere, and cultural memory, the track works as both a tribute to the city and a window into the exploratory side of Hannon’s musicianship. The video is anchored by the analog, hand-crafted psychedelic visuals of Brotherhood of Light Show artist Chris Samardizch, whose organically created oil-light imagery has illuminated stages for generations of boundary-pushing musicians. His swirling, liquid visuals become a living, breathing reflection of the city’s creative DNA.
The Brotherhood of Light Show’s lineage stretches back to the Summer of Love in 1967, when pioneering liquid light projections became an essential visual counterpart to the San Francisco Bay Area’s music explosion. The collective’s work traces all the way to landmark moments like the Monterey Pop Festival and decades of historic performances at venues such as the Fillmore, helping define the immersive psychedelic concert experience, from Jefferson Airplane to the Grateful Dead.
Hannon and Samardizch first connected at the Fillmore, where Hannon was performing alongside Devon Allman and Duane Betts. That shared lineage, rooted in improvisation, feel, and communal musical exchange, carried naturally into the collaboration. Working with longtime partner and drummer-videographer Kelly Smith, the pair assembled Samardizch’s imagery into the final edit, letting the visuals move and evolve with the music rather than dictating it.
Musically, “San Francisco” stands apart within ‘Reflections’ for its fluid construction and stylistic range. Recorded as an improvised jam, it began with a live bass performance and built outward through one-take guitar overdubs. Hypnotic bass lines, flowing electric leads, and swelling acoustics evoke the city’s early psychedelic sound before the song breaks into a fiery flamenco-inspired bridge, a nod to the Spanish and Mexican influences woven into Northern California’s history.
“San Francisco has always been my favorite city,” Hannon shares. “It’s the gateway to the West, a cultural melting pot, and a place where so many different musical ideas collided and became something new. The artists that came out of this city in the ’60s and ’70s shaped how I hear harmony, melody, and freedom in music.” He cites the exploratory spirit of Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana, and It’s a Beautiful Day, along with players like Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, and David LaFlamme, as foundational to his musical vocabulary.
That affinity runs back decades. In the late 1980s, Tesla’s acoustic set at the Bay Area Music Awards helped spark the idea that became ‘Five Man Acoustical Jam’, often credited with helping usher in the unplugged movement of the 1990s, complete with a Tesla version of the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’.” ‘Reflections’ stands as Hannon’s most personal release to date, recorded as raw first takes on his cell phone using an Audigo wireless mic and mobile app, capturing instinct over polish. Recent singles “One More Time,” “Our Father’s Love,” and “This Is Goodbye” each explore different emotional terrain, while “San Francisco” reveals the communal, improvisational heart beating just beneath the surface.