Last Friday night on the way to see Kurt Vile at the Fillmore, a friend who hadn't yet been gestured to the iconic indie music temple, a bit baffled. "That's... the Fillmore?" he asked, and I couldn't blame him, remembering my own initial reaction to the basically unmarked venue.

Once inside, of course, you can be sure that you're in a historic spot, with chandeliers and ringing music and maybe Bill Graham's ghost or something. But now as the Examiner reports that the big-name venue would like a marquee to match, and who could blame them?

Board of Supervisors President London Breed, who represents the Fillmore neighborhood, envisions an exterior vertical sign perhaps as large as 125 square feet, up to 60 feet high. The venue put in a request a couple years back, and now she's introducing legislation, first through a public hearing at the Planning Commission, to get it done.

“This legislation will allow the auditorium to provide signage that is more appropriate for both the size and scale of its building as well as its location adjacent to the Geary expressway,” Breed said today introducing the proposal.

The comparison Breed makes is a natural. “A large sign for the Fillmore Auditorium will help brand the neighborhood as the Fillmore similar to how the Castro Theatre has branded the Castro,” she remarked. In that same way, it could also demarcate and "brand" the 'hood. “I think there’s a lot of great businesses there,” she said of the area. "It’s an amazing corridor. It has so much potential.”

At the very least, the word "Fillmore" in bright lights would foster a bit of neighborhood pride, would it not?