:: THE STORIES :: THE SHOWS :: CONTRIBUTORS ::

Jay Loudmouth: I don’t have one favorite, but did see some great shows. The Loudmouths played our first show there with Groovie Ghoulies. I saw the Motards there for the first time. The time Dulcinea Loudmouth was pulled up on stage to play Kick out the Jams with Guitar Wolf was memorable. I believe there is a photo of that out there. Rip Offs were always great. Clap Band. Definitely a favorite show I didn’t even attend is when Carolyn Keddy put on a show with Oblivians during a Rip Off Rumble weekend. I fucking missed it. Really, it was about having a good time with friends. I took a lot of photos (pre-digital of course) and have so many negatives I never printed. Someday I will...

Carolyn Keddy: I put on a show on Monday, May 26, 1997. PO only had shows on Friday and Saturday nights, occasionally a Sunday show. It was the weekend of the 2nd Rip Off Rumble. The Steve McQueens and The Brides were staying at my house. The bands were complaining that they came all the way to SF for only one show. I called Tom and he let me get together a show. We called it The Ripped Off Rumble. It was The Steve McQueens, The Brides, The Illnesses and M. Alice Foster. The Oblivians played the Rip Off Rumble the night before at the Kilowatt. We handed out fliers at the show. I gave one to Greg and Jack and told them they should come by and play. They showed up with their guitars and played. The best!

Michael Lucas: Guitar Wolf’s first SF show! 

Tina Lucchesi: There were so many great bands that played there. Guitar Wolf. Tons of Japanese bands.... so many! All the great SF bands garage to punk bands. I’d go every weekend, and played there a zillion times. Shit, Tom got Moe Tucker (from the Velvet Underground) to play there! So many great nights! Guitar Wolf was pretty wild. I think it was their first time in San Francisco.

Jon von: Trashwomen!!!

Beth Loudmouth: The Motards! The Groovie Ghoulies! So many great Japanese bands like the 5.6.7.8’s! I think Guitar Wolf was everyone’s favorite show because it was just SO OVER THE TOP! Local bands like the Vectors, Seizure Boy, Jack Saints, Mutilators were always fun. I remember seeing the singer for the Mutilators getting a blow job from his girlfriend WHILE he was playing, OMG that was great. I always loved seeing the Rip Offs. And playing with the Loudmouths there, we loved playing the PO.

Jay Hinman: The aforementioned Monoshock/Henry’s Dress was pretty great; the time Doo Rag played was phenomenal; a local band called Marzipan blew me away the one time I saw them; and Teengenerate was outstanding as well. 

Dulcinea Gonzalez: Teengenerate blew our minds. Amazing energy, superpowered rock-n-roll!  It was one of the best shows of SF’s 90’s, period. It was great seeing all those Japanese bands come through: Guitar Wolf, Registrators, Accel 4, 5.6.7.8’s... It just ruled.

Pete Colpitts: There were so many great shows there but some that stick out were seeing the Motards, The Stitches, The Drags really rocked it. Rip Offs, One Man Army... so on and so on. My favorite though were the times that Guitar Wolf played, it was always like a party. I remember one time Dulce ending up with Seiji’s guitar and he was up on the railing and tables were falling all over the place, a real showman!

Beth Loudmouth: There were some cool places nearby that were fun to visit before, after or between bands. Mr. Bing’s was a favorite dive bar. The bartender Bruce was a goofball and would get totally drunk while he was working behind the bar. Sometimes he’d forget to charge you for your drink! I’d go there a lot.

Up the street was a tiny little adult video store that had really nasty,raunchy videos. We’d go in there just to look at the video boxes. Crazy stuff.

Lusty Lady was really close, just up the block. I went in with a guy friend and there was a long line of dudes waiting for the peep show booths and I just marched to the front and no one in line stopped me. You’d go in a booth and put quarters in and a window would slide up and the girls would be dancing naked in this little room. I had friends who worked there - dancers, front desk crew and peep show booth clean-up guys, the jizz mopers! Totally seedy. The Loudmouths did a photo shoot once out in front of the place.

There was a great arcade up the street, around the corner on Broadway. I’d skateboard down there between bands and play my all-time favorite video game, PHOENIX. There was this cop that used to sort of stalk me… he’d come up behind me while I was playing video games and flirt with me. It weirded me out that a policeman would flirt with me! I’d see that same cop around the Broadway/Columbus hood, he’d always be hanging out on his beat just standing around and smoking cigarettes.

What’s a bummer is that all these seedy, cool places are gone now.

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