Tonight at Otto’s Niteclub and Underground, Blue Cheer will take the stage. Here is what you need to know before you go to the show.

Background: Blue Cheer formed in the late in 1960s. It became a part of San Francisco’s psychedelic rock scene, playing along side bands like the Grateful Dead.However, unlike many bands from the Bay area, Blue Cheer played heavy blues rock and played it loud.

Selected discography: “Vincebus Eruptum” (1968): The album that got the band on the pop charts with a cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues.”

“Outsideinside” (1968): Seven months after releasing its debut, Blue Cheer put out what is considered to be its best album.

“What Doesn’t Kill You … ” (2007): Forty years after the initial lineup formed, the band is reunited and has a new album.

Followers: Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne has said he wanted to do what Blue Cheer did, but more intense. And thus, heavy metal was born.

Queens of the Stone Age: It’s hard to believe “stoner rock” would have existed if Blue Cheer hadn’t combined its heavy rock sound with the psychedelia of San Francisco.