Geekfest is the name of a series of free, all-ages concerts organized by California indie label S.P.A.M Records during the 1990s. The first Geekfest was held in June 1996 on the shoreline at Point Molate in Richmond, California. This site, a former Navy fuel depot at the foot of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, became the default location for dozens of Geekfests, though other locations were eventually used.
In the mid-1990s, local ordinances and economic considerations led to difficult times for San Francisco Bay Area bands whose members were under 21. Multiple bars and nightclubs were driven out by the bustling dot-com economy. Others, fearful of losing their liquor licenses, stopped allowing minors to attend or perform on their stages. By 1996, 924 Gilman Street was the only one all-ages music venue in the East Bay.
With the rise of Green Day, Rancid, and other former underground bands who had popularized the punk rock genre, Gilman had become an insular community, rejecting those who did not fit an increasingly narrow definition of punk. Though Gilman was not by design exclusively punk rock (they were and are explicitly devoted to independent music and arts), a combination of internal politics and aesthetic tastes of the Gilman staff kept other types of music off the stage. S.P.A.M. Records grew out of the efforts of underage musicians and artists from Pinole, California frustrated with the situation. The fringe Gilman band, The Hope Bombs, encouraged the S.P.A.M. crew, most notably by letting them jump on stage at Hope Bombs shows to play as "The Bob Weirdos" (whose shows consisted of crazed songs like "Help I'm On Fire" which actually involved setting singer John Geek on fire). But this support was the exception and the bands were generally deprived of any meaningful access to the Gilman audience.
S.P.A.M. Co-founder John Geek (now vocalist for punk band Fleshies) alluded to this in an interview:
Various States of Disrepair Complete Works 1994-'96
2002
CD
PUG-050
Rock N Roll Adventure Kids
Live on Berzerkley Radio - Split release with Soul Not Style Records
2002
12"
PUG-051
Sharp Knife
Sharp Knife
2002
CD/LP
PUG-052
Shotwell
The Devil Has Its Day
2004
CD
PUG-053
Clan Of The Bleeding Eye
Self-Titled
2002
CD
PUG-054
The Blottos
The Blottos
2002
CD
PUG-068
Zero Tolerance Task Force
Z.T.T.F. Mania
2003
CD
PUG-069
Nebulus
Interactive
2003
CD
PUG-076
The Clarendon Hills
All Day All Night All Right
2003
CD
PUG-077
S.H.A.T.
Stupid Has a Target
unknown
7"
The S.P.A.M. bands, most notably Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, had been rejected by the punk scene due to perceived superficial differences in dress and musical style [citation needed]. Label co-founder Corbett Redford, who was the singer for Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, said "We were all living in Pinole and we couldn't play Gilman because they said we weren't punk. We couldn't take out an ad in MRR because they said we weren't punk. ... We were thrashfunk and silly folk I suppose."[2] They decided, in a DIY spirit, to create their own venue, one where nobody would be rejected for having the wrong fashion sense.
The name "Geekfest" was chosen partly because the S.P.A.M. collective saw themselves as geeks; they realized their idiosyncrasies made them unpopular at parties, but made no effort to change. Their rejection by the punk scene was viewed as just another chapter in a long history of being uncool; but, as John Geek says, "Our pride in maladjustment ran too damn deep."[3]
First Geekfest
S.P.A.M. founder John Geek set up a hotline, (510) BAD-SMUT, to circulate event information. Applying the guerrilla tactics of rave culture, photocopied handbills listed the telephone number, but not the location of the event to try to prevent the show being shut down by law enforcement.
Point Molate was selected as a location, partly because it was already in use one Sunday a month for free outdoor "Sunset raves".[citation needed] It was far from any residential area, beneath a large bridge, and under confused jurisdiction as a Navy Superfund site.
Politically, the concept of Geekfest took an anarchist bent. It addressed issues of public land use, the role of the audience in art (since much of the time, the audience consisted of the other bands playing that day), and issues of hierarchy in a supposedly egalitarian punk scene.[citation needed]
Approximately 12 bands played the first show, most of who were made up of minors and bands who shared S.P.A.M.'s sense of humor and disenfranchisement. S.P.A.M. members rented a gas-powered generator, and hired a local sound engineer to work the jury-riggedP.A. The concert lasted from about 1 p.m. until sunset.
Successive Geekfests
S.P.A.M. continued to organize Geekfests, usually about one per month during the summer months and occasionally during the winter, when they could find a suitable indoor location. The locations and the bands varied widely, although many bands had repeat performances, but the shows were always free and all-ages.
This concept of inclusion was central to the Geekfest concept, and extended to the booking policy. As word spread about the festivals, bands began calling to ask for shows, and sending promotional packages to the label's P.O. box. S.P.A.M. avoided listening to demo tapes they received, booking bands on a "first-come, first-served" basis. This was done to remove the bias of musical taste that S.P.A.M. blamed for their own exclusion from Gilman. As a result, the bands were often unskilled, untalented, or conversely, so polished and professional that they seemed wildly inappropriate at a no-frills, guerrilla concert. Geekfest organizers observed the conflicts that arose between different musical subcultures with a bemused detachment.
Due to the length of the concerts, which were sometimes over 8 hours, and the inconsistent quality of the acts made Geekfest less like a traditional concert and more like a carnival. Since the schedule was never listed, it was difficult for people to show up to see one band in particular. People tended to stay for most of the day and began to come as much for the playful atmosphere as for the bands.
Several Geekfest organizers, including Dan Abbott, Shawn Martin, and Dylan McPuke, were affiliated with the Amtgardlive action role-playing game, bringing Amtgard to Berkeley, California. They brought homemade foam-padded swords for attendees to battle with during concerts. From then on, random foam sword battles were an integral part of Geekfest. Between bands, organizers held costume contests, raffles, and trivia games, and videogame tournaments: usually with a nod to traditionally geeky themes like Dungeons & Dragons, "Weird Al" Yankovic, or Atari games.
Gradually, Geekfest attracted a community of disparate individuals, and become something of a scene itself. Several bands made inroads into the Gilman scene, and several Geekfests were eventually held within the Gilman club itself.
Geekfest's esoteric aesthetic also became popular among organizers within the Cannabis Action Network (CAN), which allowed S.P.A.M. Records to book second-stage performances at their annual 420 festivals, including at least one at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco on April 20, 2001(video).
Geekfest and Libertatia
In 1997, the Geeks (as S.P.A.M./Geekfest organizers had come to be known) decided to celebrate the first anniversary of Geekfest by having a three-day campout in Lake Ladoga, part of East Park Reservoir near Maxwell, California. It was hot, dusty, and inhospitable land under jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the lake was a man-made body used for irrigation of nearby farms. Organizers arranged the stage so that attendees could watch the bands from the lake. The attendance was estimated at around 150 to 200 people. Drug use was rampant, mostly psychedelics, with ubiquitous drinking during the daytime. Organizers fed attendees two meals a day using kitchen equipment borrowed from Food Not Bombs: gruel in the morning and spaghetti at night.
BLM supervisor Bill Bird objected to the concert, but was overruled by the Sheriff and local merchants, who were happy for the increased business [citation needed]. Nearly 40 bands performed at the Geekfest Anniversary and, according to the Official Program and Event Schedule, the bands were [citation needed]:
The Mac Swanky Trio
Stark Raving Brad
Defile
Subincision
Harbinger
Visitor 42
The Blue Sky Smokers
Blah,Blah,Blah
Adjective Noun
Skitzo
976
Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits
Lapis Lazuli
NME
Impact
Stinky Puffs
The Keeners
Ubzub
Soda Pop F*ck You
Pork and the Spork
Magic Pinecone Band
Shatousky
Banana Hammock
Hungry Hungry Hippeaux
My Sunny Disposition
The Enemies
Orka Pickles
Soundcurrent
White Trash Debutantes
Supernovice
The Frught Lupes Human Ass Orkestra
The Human Beans
Astrolloyd
Glamazon
Moxie
Erik Core
Sixence
Tone Def
Suckerfish
Wet Nap
The Pilgrims
Inslight Weights
Fetish
In the intervening year, show promoter and artist, Marcus Da Anarchist, organized "Pyrate Punx Picnics" out of San Francisco's Mission District. S.P.A.M. and the Pyrate Punx collaborated on the next campout, dubbing it "Pirates vs. Geeks". John Geek and Marcus each booked half of the bands.
For the third anniversary, the Pirates and Geeks resumed an uneasy alliance, organizing a week-long Libertatia, after the anarchist pirate utopia on Madagascar founded by Captain Mission during the 18th century. It was also referred to as the "Week of Geek". As it had been before, it was free and all-ages, and organizers fed the roughly 400 attendees two meals a day. Although 100 bands were booked, only 82 attended to perform. Each day of entertainment lasted from approximately noon until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. Several Bay Area journalists also attended, and the event received coverage in local press[4] Subsequent Libertatia festivals were noted enthusiastically by local weeklies[5]
The demise of S.P.A.M. Records in 2003 (closely linked to the breakup of flagship band Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits in 2001) spelled the end of Geekfests, though the Pyrate Punx continue to organize Libertatia annually.
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