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The Mabuhay Gardens, also known as The Fab Mab or The Mab, was a former San Francisco nightclub, located at 443 Broadway Street, in North Beach on the Broadway strip area best known for its striptease clubs. It closed in 1987.
The Mabuhay Gardens was located in the lower level of the 435 Broadway Street building, which also housed the On Broadway Theater, known in 1984–1985 as "Rock on Broadway."
Originally a Filipino restaurant and music club owned by Ness Aquino, it featured many Filipino celebrities, including Eddie Mesa, the "Elvis Presley of the Philippines". [1] Aquino and Amapola also co-hosted a weekly television program, The Amapola Presents Show on KEMO TV Channel 20. [2]
During the late 1970s, Jerry Paulsen was the first promoter of bands to appear at Mabuhay Gardens on a regular basis. He booked them on Mondays and Tuesdays to begin with so he could showcase the bands that he featured in Psyclone magazine to existing record executives. The scene became so popular that he was soon booking two bands a night seven days a week.
Bay Area punk and New Wave bands performed there, and it was an important touring stop for bands from beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. Among the local bands that performed regularly at the Mabuhay Gardens were Avengers, Dead Kennedys, The Contractions, The Nuns, Crime, Dils, Fear, Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, the Tubes and Wall of Voodoo, to name a few. After Paulson left, Dirk Dirksen (the "pope of punk") booked The Dead Boys, Nico, The Runaways, Devo, X, The Police, SVT, The Go-Go's, Motörhead, Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Patti Smith, Primus, The Jim Carroll Band, and REM, and others. Comedians such as Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams also made early appearances at the venue. [3]
Dirk Dirksen, [4] nephew of Senator Everett Dirksen, had a unique style as emcee, deliberately baiting and trading insults with audience and band members, which had the effect of raising the energy of audience and performers alike. In order to maintain the show's fast pace, he would move past an encore to get to the next band and tell the audience, "Eat it." Dirksen's abrasive persona (which was largely a performance) was a central part of the atmosphere of Mabuhay Gardens. [5] He was sometimes referred to as the "poor man's Bill Graham." Dirksen was the sole person responsible for connecting the English punk rockers with those in the United States. By creating an exchange program, punk bands from England and New York City came to the Mabuhay Gardens and vice versa, staying in each city performing a few nights at a time. This spread the "punk" scene globally making it a household word, thanks to Dirksen and Aquino. The alley located next to the Mabuhay Gardens is now named for him.
The Mabuhay Gardens closed in 1987. [1] The building subsequently housed a nightclub called the Velvet Lounge. The venue was again opened in September 2007 under the name Club 443. Currently, Fame Venue operates at 443 Broadway Street, which is used for conferences, concerts, catering and other events. [6]
American visual artist Bruce Conner documented the punk scene at Mabuhay Gardens through a series of concert photographs that featured action shots of Negative Trend, Crime, Avengers, and other notable Mabuhay Gardens mainstays. In a 2014 essay, artist Emma Hart reflected on the legacy of Conner's Mabuhay Gardens photographs writing, "Never holding back while photographing punk rock shows at the Mabuhay Gardens, Conner documents his immersion in the scene, breaking the boundary between spectator and performer and providing a lens into the punk world of late 1970s when Mabuhay Gardens, or Fab Mab, emerged as the center of the San Francisco punk club milieu." [7]
The Mabuhay Gardens featured in a chapter from Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad (Pulitzer 2011). This chapter, "Ask Me if I Care," was also published in the March 8, 2010, issue of the New Yorker. The Mabuhay Gardens are referenced in the song "Looking for Lewis And Clark" by the Los Angeles band The Long Ryders on their 1985 album State of the Union.
Rapper Vinnie Paz named a track Mabuhay Gardens on his, As Above, So Below album.
The Mabuhay Gardens is also featured in Circus of the Sun (2019), J.Macon King's novel set in late Seventies' North Beach. Jack, the main character in the novel, is in a band that plays its first major gig at the Mabuhay, along with the Dead Kennedys and Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Dirk Dirksen is portrayed in a real-life role as show host and MC. (J.Macon King is the founder and editor of the Mill Valley Literary Review.)
The building was built in 1919 and was originally called the Garibaldi Hall, an Italian Men’s Club. [8] During the 1940s the building housed the Italian Supper Club. [9]
The On Broadway Theater was in the upper level of the 435 Broadway Street building in the North Beach area of San Francisco.[ when? ] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] "Oh! Calcutta!" was presented at the On Broadway Theatre, in 1969. [16] In 1984 the upstairs club opened as Brent Turner’s Rock On Broadway. The club was a mecca for glam, heavy metal, and Bay Area thrash metal.
The Broadway Studios opened in 1993, later named the On Broadway Dinner Theater. [17]
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run.
North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, the Financial District, and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's "Little Italy" and has historically been home to a large Italian American population, largely from Northern Italy. It still has many Italian restaurants and a sizeable Italian community, though many other ethnic groups currently live in the neighborhood. It was also the historic center of the beatnik subculture and has become one of San Francisco's main nightlife districts as well as a residential neighborhood populated by a mix of young urban professionals, families, and Chinese immigrants.
Units were an American synthpunk band that was founded in San Francisco in 1978. It was active until 1984. They were one of America's earliest electronic new wave bands, and have been cited as pioneers of synthpunk, also retrospectively known as "electropunk". The Units were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and multimedia performances featuring multiple projections of satirical, instructional films critical of conformity and consumerism.
Romeo Void was an American new wave/post punk band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. The band primarily consisted of saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, vocalist Debora Iyall, guitarist Peter Woods, and bassist Frank Zincavage. The band went through four drummers, starting with Jay Derrah and ending with Aaron Smith. The band released three albums, It's a Condition, Benefactor and Instincts, along with one EP. They are best known for the songs "Never Say Never" and "A Girl in Trouble "; the latter became a Top 40 pop single.
Bay Area thrash metal referred to a steady following of heavy metal bands in the 1980s who formed and gained international status in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Along with Central Florida, the scene was widely regarded as a starting point of American thrash metal, crossover thrash and death metal.
The Nuns was an American rock band based in San Francisco and New York City. Best known as one of the founding acts of the early San Francisco punk scene, the band went through a number of hiatuses and periodic reunions, lineup changes, and changes in style. Overall, The Nuns performed and recorded on and off from the mid-1970s into the 2000s. While the band was centered on Jennifer Miro and Jeff Olener through its various incarnations, Alejandro Escovedo, who went on to later success as an Americana and alternative country musician, was also a key member during its years of fame in late 1970s San Francisco.
Dead Kennedys: DMPO's On Broadway is a concert video by the American punk rock band Dead Kennedys, documenting their entire June 16, 1984 performance as the headlining act on the closing night of the On Broadway, a former avant-garde theatre and nightclub located in the 435 Broadway building, which it shared with the Mabuhay Gardens nightclub, in the North Beach area of San Francisco.
The Deaf Club was a notable music venue located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18-month period. Its main attraction was punk music. The name comes from the fact the building it was in originally began as a deaf people's clubhouse in the 1930s.
Polkacide was a band based in the San Francisco Bay Area that played "punk polka."
The Mutants are an American band, notable in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics. They are credited with being one of the first "Art-punk" bands in San Francisco, and were one of the most popular bands of the San Francisco punk scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Target Video is a San Francisco-based studio, founded by artist Joe Rees, collaborating with Jackie Sharp, Jill Hoffman, Sam Edwards and others. The studio archived early art performance, punk and hardcore bands on video and film. Performers such as the Sex Pistols, the Dead Kennedys, The Screamers, The Cramps, William S. Burroughs, The Clash, the Avengers, Mark Pauline, Survival Research Labs, The Go-Go's, John Cooper Clarke, Bauhaus, X, The Dils, Johanna Went, Talking Heads, Black Flag, Flipper, D.O.A and Crucifix were recorded in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. In addition, videos often included interviews with members of the bands.
Dirk Dirksen was a music promoter and emcee of the San Francisco punk rock clubs Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dirksen was nicknamed the "Pope of Punk."
Negative Trend was an American punk rock band active between 1977 and 1979. Before they disbanded, the band released one self-titled EP in September 1978.
Formed circa 1978, The Offs were a punk/ska band from San Francisco, started by guitarist Billy Hawk and singer Don Vinil, and later joined by former Hot Tuna drummer Bob Steeler and a rotation of horn players including Bob Roberts, Richard Edson and Roland Young. The Offs were active in the early days of the San Francisco punk rock scene.
Frank James Moore was an American performance artist, shaman, poet, essayist, painter, musician and Internet/television personality who experimented in art, performance, ritual, and shamanistic teaching since the late 1960s.
The White Trash Debutantes are an American punk rock band from San Francisco, California, United States, active since 1986.
Valencia Tool & Die, (VT&D), was a 1980s San Francisco music venue and art gallery founded by Peter Belsito and Jim Stockford, that presented punk, new wave, and new music performances, as well as performance art, film, and visual art shows from 1980 through 1983.
The Sound of Music club was a punk music concert venue and bar located at 162 Turk Street in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, California, active from 1980 to 1987.
Maria Amapola Cabase, better known by her stage name Amapola, is a Filipina singer, actress, musician, television and radio host. She is widely known in the Philippines as the original artist for the song "Kapantay ay Langit", which was later popularized by Pilita Corrales. Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos dubbed Cabase as a "Music Ambassador" for the country in 1973 in celebration of Amapola's first concert in New York, November 3, 1973, at New York's Town Hall. In 1984, she released her international debut album produced in collaboration with jazz pianist Bobby Enriquez, who led the Cal Tjader Trio for Amapola's debut jazz album, Sophisticated Lady.
Housecoat Project was an avant-garde punk rock band started in 1984 in San Francisco, California, by Meri St. Mary, Eric Rad Yuncker, Michel Schorro and Erol Cengiz. The band opened for many punk bands of the time and was a headline act at many clubs.
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