Big Boys + Personality Crisis @ San Francisco, CA 1984-05-19

 


LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME

https://pixeldrain.com/l/AG631qiM

Big Boys
On Broadway
San Francisco, CA
1984-05-19 (Saturday)

MYTP 17

Source: SBD > Sony D5M > Cassette Master > CD
Original extraction (Mike Singal): CD > EAC v0.99 prebeta 4 (secure mode) > WavMerge 2.1 > DCWAV 1.97 > Audacity 1.2.6 > FLAC 8 / Align SBE
Rerelease extraction: CD > rubyripper 0.8 (cdparanoia secure rip, cdrdoa TOC) > FLAC
Processing: Audacity (normalize, splits) > FLAC 8 > acxi (tagging, checksums, FLAC data)

Recorded, preserved, shared by micgram
Release processing by teetering

FLAC: 16/44.1 (2 channels)
Quality: 4/4 (17khz, very good)
Time: 35:04.100
Size: 214.5 MiB
Average kb/s: 855
Tracks: 14

Setlist:
01. tuning >
02. feedback intro jam >
03. Prison >
04. Listen >
05. Funk Off >
06. Damage 43 (The Big Picture) >
07. I Do Care >
08. No >
09. Red/Green >
10. The Seed >
11. History
12. Fun Fun Fun
Encore:
13. encore applause, banter >
14. What's The Word? (The Word Is Funk)

Band:
Randy "Biscuit" Turner - vocals
Tim Kerr - guitar
Chris Gates - bass
Fred Schultz - drums

Recording notes:
* Clean recording, which is lucky since this is a really good performance from a really good band!

Processing notes:
* 2 gaps were pulled back together and merged, barely noticeable.

Notes:
* Big Boys headlined, JFA, RIP, Personality Crisis (MYTP 9), Aggression opened.
* He introduces track 6 with: Ok, this one is on the Texas Compilation.. it's wrestling music!" - I think that's what he says anyway. Don't know what compilation that is. And track 11 he introduces as being on the new Rat Music compilation (see below for more on CD Records).
* Unlike many of the bands we've been hearing in this series, these guys don't stop between songs, there's always something going on, usually feedback, between songs.
* This version doesn't have the horn section, which did not tour with the Big Boys, you had to see them in Austin to get that full experience.

* I'm guessing Fred was the drummer on this gig, he was drummer on their 1983 album "Lullabies Help The Brain Grow".
* The skatepunk scene gave us some really good bands, we've already seen JFA twice (MYTP 5, 14), and here's another well known skatepunk band, from Texas this time, Austin, same as the Dicks (MYTP 12). Given Austin also gave rise to the Butthole Surfers, that must have been quite some scene there at the time. Austin, you'll recall, also hosted the '60s early psychedelic groups 13th Floor Elevators and The Golden Dawn, a connection made more direct when Paul Leary recorded an album with Roky Erickson many years later.
* It sounds like one of the band is blowing a whistle into the mics now and then. Unless that's well crafted feedback...
* Rat Music For Rat People Volume 2 (CD Records) compilation had just been released, or was just about to be released (maybe in August 84). It featured Big Boys (MYTP 17), Dicks (MYTP 12), Butthole Surfers, JFA (MYTP 5,14), Personality Crisis (MYTP 9, and who also played this gig). I think it's fair to say Mike's tastes at the time were the same as those shown on that compilation.
* Fun fact, CD Records refered to Carol and David. David Ferguson (RIP 2015-07-24) was the promoter, and Carol was his girlfried at the time. I believe the 'Rat' in those two compilations may have at least in part been referring to Paul 'Rat', a well known and regarded underground promoter, who Dave worked with at times.

* Big Boys fan site: http://www.soundonsound.org/
* Big Boys songkick: https://www.songkick.com/artists/537555-big-boys

* About Big Boys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Boys
"Big Boys were an American pioneering punk rock band who are credited with having helped to create and introduce skate punk as a new style of music, which became popular in the 1980s. They also were famous for bringing elements of funk into their hardcore punk style.
...
Based in Austin, Texas, United States, the band members were Randy "Biscuit" Turner on vocals, Tim Kerr on guitar and Chris Gates on bass. The key members of the band were childhood friends for a decade before the band was started.
...
The hardcore punk style, a development from the earlier punk sound, arose spontaneously in various cities, but in Austin it was represented by MDC, Big Boys, The Huns, The Skunks and The Dicks. The bands often played together; Big Boys and The Dicks jointly released a split single and an LP, Live At Raul's.
...
Big Boys shows were legendary, frequently involving food fights, with "Biscuit" frequently sporting a pink ballerina's tutu and pink cowboy boots.[1] Invitations would be made to the audience to come up and sing along, which often occurred. At the end of early shows, the band was famous for yelling, "OK y'all, go start your own band."
Queried about his sexuality by Flipside magazine in 1982, "Biscuit" Turner replied:
"I don't know if I want to answer that or not because it doesn't make any difference if I'm gay or not, I'm a human being and my sexual preference doesn't play into my lifestyle. It comes from my heart and I want people to look at me and say I'm a human being — don't ask me about what 5% of my life is."
...
Big Boys are credited as well with the introduction of funk rhythms to hardcore punk, producing funk metal, an innovation influential on later bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, who actually opened up for the Big Boys in Hollywood, leading to Red Hot Chili Peppers being referred to as "The Little Big Boys". This credit is due in no small part to the addition of a horn section, The Impromptu Horns, spearheaded by Chris Gates' brother, Nathan. The Impromptu Horns played mainly local shows, and played on some of the funkiest tracks recorded by Big Boys. Horn players included Nathan Gates, David Kitto and Tim Kopra on trombones; Brent Fawns and David Griffy on trumpets. "
* Tim Kerr/Big Boys interview: https://www.furious.com/perfect/timkerr.html
"Every region had its peculiarities and unique sound: the angry skinhead mid-Western bash of the Necros and Negative Approach, the freak olympics of San Fran's Flipper, the insane, righteous thrash of DC's Void and Minor Threat, the LA-gone-mad wail of Black Flag, and the psychedlic, funkish beat of Texas' Butthole Surfers, Dicks and Big Boys.
Well, everyone that's anyone knows about Black Flag and Minor Threat these days, but what of Austin, Texas' Big Boys, who were easily on a par with either aforementioned band? A footnote in rock history? Let me help ratify that situation. Austin, quite simply, had one of the best music scenes of its day in the early '80's: the Dicks, Really Red, Kamikhaze Refrigerators, Offenders... these are bands many more people should know about, and of all of them, the Big Boys were the kings of the scene (though I'm sure they'd deny that very statement). Formed in 1979 by the quasi-drag queen behemoth known as Randy 'Biscuit' Turner, solid-as-a-rock bass dude Chris Gates and that man with the weird hair, Tim Kerr, their music was a holy combination of almost pop/mod harmonies, hardcore abandon and intensely rhythmic bass beats. Their rep as the Minutemen's 'sister band' is well earned: both musically and attitude-wise. Biscuit vs. Boon? Don't even get me started... So like too many great bands before them, the Big Boys released a slew of inspired LPs, seven inches and EP's, toured a lot and pretty much didn't really get anywhere in the wider sense for their efforts. Touch & Go adjusted such a situation a few years ago with their Skinny Elvis/Fat Elvis CD retrospectives on the group - which featured liner notes of praise from everyone from Thurston Moore to Hank Rollins to King Coffey to Ian MacKaye to Byron Coley to Steve Albini - but I'm still waiting for you to buy a copy, because the written word doesn't truly express the insane vibe their music does. Nearly every song is worthy of a desert island: the cover of Kool & the Gang's "Hollywood Swinging", the initial outburst of their debut "Frat Cars" 7" (an anti-preppie song... man, they just don't write 'em like they used to), the blues stomp of "Red/Green", the pop churn of "TV" (an anti-TV song... ugh, them crazy punkers) and too many more. I won't beg, the choice is yours.
...
PSF: What sort of music did you listen to in high school, and how did the punker conversion come about?
Tim: In high school (and today) I was into Nick Drake, John Renbourne, John Martyn, Bruce Cockburn, etc.. Rock and roll was there, but I was more into acoustic guitar and folk blues. This didn't help my weirdo image at all and because there was nothing better to do, I dutifuly went to see the big concerts in Houston... Humble Pie, Led Zep, but was really not that interested. I graduated high school in ‘74 so the punk thing didn’t happen till my college years. I was working in a record store and the stuff started coming in. At that point the stuff that got my attention was more Undertones, XTC, Stiff Little Fingers instead of the Dead Boys and the Sex Pistols. The actual conversion came about by going to Raul’s (infamous Texan haunt for the punk/new wave crowd) and seeing this whole community thing going on. The crowd was just as important as the band and everyone seemed to be having so much fun. The actual music was secondary. I was sold!
PSF: When, how and why did the Big Boys start up? What were your songs about? Why the emphasis on funk and rhythm? How did you meet Chris Gates and Biscuit?
Tim: We all skated together. Like I said earlier, surfing was a big part of my life, and when I moved to Austin to go to school, the nearest beach was 3 or 4 hours away. Urethane wheels had just come out (remember cadillac wheels?) and to fill the surfing gap, I started skating. We all met through that. Biscuit started going to Raul’s from the start. He was the oldest of our skate circle of friends. I didn't really go to bars much at all at that point and Chris was still in high school and couldnt "legally" go to bars. Biscuit’s hair got shorter and shorter and he would tell us about this wild scene, so Chris, Beth (Kerr), me and a friend Rob all went to see the battle of the bands at Raul’s. Boy Problems, Huns, etc...
As stated above, I was sold hook, line and sinker. (The singer in Boy Problems was later one of the singers in Bad Mutha Goose and the Bros. Grimm.) Chris and I were out at the Plugerville ditch skating one day and started talking about getting a band together to try and play Raul’s once. We would ask Biscuit to sing and since I played acoustic guitar and Chris played electric, we flipped a coin to see who was going to play bass. I got guitar. As for the funk thing, punk at this point was doing whatever you wanted. It didnt really have any rigid rules yet and since the soundtrack for our skating leaned more towards Slave, Shotgun than Ted Nugent, that's where the Big Boys leaned. It wasn’t really a conscience thing. Also, I was writing a lot of the music and I was more into rhythms. Subjects were more in the line of being different, us against them, or silly stuff. Later it turned a lot more introspective. Most every song is about something, someone or some incident and how that affected us.
PSF: What was the climate like for punk back at that time? Was it encouraging or openly hostile?
Tim: Austin has the largest college in the state. It has also always been a sort of mini-San Francisco. Texans joke about the Austin liberals/freaks, so here around campus it wasn’t as dangerous as outside of the campus area. There was lots of yells and cat calls and redneck/jocks wanting to beat your ass because you looked "weird". Even the older so-called 'liberal' hippies felt you were fucking up their vibe they had worked so hard on. It was pretty much Us vs. Them and there were a whole lot more of Them! "Them" would show up at shows to start shit or laugh (which started shit), but if you had grown up in Texas and were different than the average football/homecoming dance participant, you were used to this mentality.
PSF: How did you think your band and its fellow brother/sister groups were different from the watered-down New Wave that received all the attention/money?
Tim: All of us, our friends, were doing it for the love of it instead of cashing in on some "new trend". You know when we first started it was all the same thing... punk, new wave. It was an open field and you could do just about anything. There wasn’t a rigid set of rules to adhere to, which in my opinion was the exact same field that the original beats, hippies, etc. had until they were labeled and given a mascot. That was one major point in Texas’ favor. We didn’t really ever have a set set of rules or dress code. Bands like the Dicks sounded nothing like Really Red who sounded nothing like the Butthole Surfers who sounded nothing like... and in reality, none of these bands sounded "formula hardcore". When Texas bands went out of state on tours, for better or worse they stuck out like sore thumbs and people didn’t know what to think. Jello Biafra told Gary Floyd of the Dicks at their first show in San Francisco that he should think twice about going out in a dress because when the Big Boys were here he didn't think the hardcore scene liked Biscuit singing in a pink tutu.
PSF: What was a typical Big Boys gig like? Any particularly memorable moments?
Tim: There was no barrier between the band and the audience (physically and mentally), so a lot of the time, especially during the later years, you couldn't really see the band because so many people were on stage singing with us. There were too many memorable shows...the principal at a local high school pulling the plug on us, Houston police riot squad stopping a show, bouncers causing a riot at a huge outdoor show, us causing a riot, and on and on... Just a bunch of kids having fun! Biscuit covered in sawdust and motor oil with just a sprinkle of pancake syrup was pretty crazy!
...
PSF: Here's a question I often ask myself: why have you dedicated so much of your life to music? Why do you do what you do?
Tim: I do what I do because it's me. I don't think of myself as a musician/producer/artist/whatever- it's just me. "

* Tim Kerr went on to play with many bands, including Poison 13, Bad Mutha Goose, Monkeywrench, Jack O Fire, Lord High Fixers and, in 2004, The Total Sound Group Direct Action Committee.
* Chris Gates was also with Poison 13, Junkyard and Charter Bulldogs. Gates can currently be heard fronting Big Chris Gates and Gatesville, a southern-fried country group based in Austin.
* Horn player Tim Kopra became an astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Ok, how often do we get a guy in a punk band becoming an astronaut and commander of the ISS? I'm going to guess set of people includes precisely one person, Tim Kopra.
* Drummer Rey Washam has played consistently with such groups as Jerryskids,[2] Scratch Acid, Rapeman, and Ministry. Original drummer Steve Collier switched from drums to guitar and formed Doctors' Mob, whose first album was produced by Chris Gates, and later played in the Sidehackers and the Rite Flyers.
* Randy Turner (RIP 2005-08-18) performed with The Slurpees, Cargo Cult, and Swine King.

* About the On Broadway (435 Broadway, at Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA):
The On Broadway was basically the 2nd floor of the Mabuhay Gardens. It was not quite as grungy as the Fab Mab in its heyday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabuhay_Gardens
"The Mabuhay was in the lower level of the 435 Broadway building, which also housed the On Broadway Theater, known in 1984-1985 as "Rock on Broadway."
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. Dirksen’s abrasive performance was a central part of the atmosphere of the Mabuhay.
Dirksen and Aquino dissolved their agreement in the early 1980s over disputes concerning Dirksen booking all his higher profile shows at the venue directly upstairs from the Mabuhay, The On Broadway Theater."
* More on the On Broadway/Mab: https://oldpunkflyers.tumblr.com/mabuhaygardens
"After booking both venues for a period of time Dirksen moved his entire operation upstairs. Aquino brought in two young booking agents, Michael Reidy and David Kaplan who started "Punk Nights" on Monday's with free spaghetti featuring bands like Urban Assault, Fuck Ups, MDC, Code Of Honor and Sick Pleasure. In their 4 year tenure post Dirksen, Reidy and Kaplan soon started doing weekends as well with bands like Social Distortion, Agent Orange, Wipers, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders as well as goth bands like 45 Grave and Specimen. The two venues engaged in booking wars, Reidy and Kaplan finally left in 1986.
The Mabuhay Gardens closed in 1988, at the very end Aquino attempted to move his operation upstairs to the On Broadway (by then vacated by Dirksen) under the moniker of “The Mab On Broadway."
* Even more about the On Broadway: https://acidheroes.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/the-on-broadway-theater/
"People still talk about the legendary Mabuhay Gardens and the Elite Club. But you rarely hear about the On Broadway Theater these days. Which is odd, because it was the primo venue for San Francisco punk bands back in the 1980s.
The On Broadway Theater was run by the legendary Dirk Dirksen.
...
The On Broadway Theater itself was a beautifully laid-out piece of architecture. It had the vibe of a decadent and decaying haunted mansion right out of the Addam’s Family. You walked up a narrow staircase to get into the place. The seating and the balcony was akin to the most cozy and comfortable, beat-up old movie theatre. Then there was a bar in the next room. And an outdoor patio where you could sit and drink around tables and clear your head with some fresh air. And if the bands sucked, you could always go downstairs and check out the more intimate setting of the Fab Mab. Outside there was the narrow alleyway where the roadies loaded and unloaded the bands, and where drugs were scored and beefs were settled (usually over cracked heads and bloody noses)."
* San Francisco renamed that small alley next to the On Broadway/Mabuhay "Dirk Dirksen Place" to honor Dirk's contributions to the cultural heritage of San Francisco. The alley next to City Lights Books (founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, at 261 Columbus, right by Broadway, a few blocks from the Mab... and somewhere the more literate people in the scene would have spent time) was similarly renamed Kerouac Alley to honor the famous beat writer. It was originally named Rowland Ave but Kathy Peck of the band Contractions and founder of H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education & Awareness for Rockers) spearheaded a movement to get the name changed to dirk dirksen Place.
* Dirk and his DMP production company stopped doing shows at the On Broadway, upstairs from the Mabuhay, 1984-06-16, and as far as I know, did not do more shows downstairs at the Mab after that, though other promoters, including Ness Aquino I believe, kept doing shows at both venues for a while longer.
* To give you an idea of how much times have changed since then, the 433 Broadway building was recently listed at around $10,000,000!!!

--------------------------------------------------------

No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.

Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these MYTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

--------------------------------------------------------
About Michael Young and the MYTP:

Michael: "I lived in the bay area 1980-92. Being a Deadhead I had a lot of friends who recorded shows, so when I got a nice Sony D5M (in 83, I think it was) I would bring it with me to the Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway and other places as well. I would ask the sound man if I could plug in and they usually said yes. I did this mostly in 1984 a few in 85. My first punk show was in my hometown of Philadelphia at a place called the Hot Club in 1978. I was hooked on the high energy and the fun of slamming around... I think my first SF hardcore punk show was Flipper at Kezar Pavilion in May of '81. I might have seen some other bands around town before that but that one sticks out for sure."
[teetering: I was also at that Kezar TG/Flipper show. Flipper was great that night.]

TECH:
Michael used a Sony D5M portable cassette recorder, plugged into the soundboard outs, to record most of these shows. This was for the time a very expensive unit, with some advanced features, which probably accounts for why these recordings are so good in general.

* D5M manual: https://transom.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/02/om.tcd5m.pdf
* About D5M: https://transom.org/2005/sony-tc-d5m/
All metal, reliable, simple, and fixable, it runs on two D-cells

* More on the D5M: https://www.cassettedeck.org/sony/tc-d5m
This Sony TC-D5M is a stereo cassette deck with Dolby B noise reduction, it was first sold by Sony in 1979 with a recommended retail price of USD $680 [about $2500 in today's dollars] and discontinued a year later.
The main features of the Sony TC-D5M are: 2 heads, mechanical 3 digit tape counter, manual tape type selection and capable of handling normal, chrome, ferro-chrome and metal tapes, belt driven single-capstan transport.
Typical of this deck is the 70's top loading layout with the cassette compartiment located on the left side of the deck. Tape eject is operated mechanically and the cassette needs to be placed with the side to be played facing forward in the cassette well.
Level meters used on the TC-D5M are analog needle VU reading meters. Mechanical transport controls for reliable TC-D5M transport function selection.
The Dolby-B system reduces tape hiss on tapes recorded on the TC-D5M by as much as 10 dB at the highest frequencies. The 19kHz multiplex pilot slgnal present in FM stereo broadcasts can cause false triggering of the noise reduction system. The switchable MPX filter of the TC-D5M filters out the pilot signal, and assuring proper Dolby processing of FM stereo programs.
To make live recordings this deck has 2 microphone inputs to connect microphones with a jack connector.

--------------------------------------------------------
About Dirk Dirksen and the Mabuhay Gardens/On Broadway:

Dirk Dirksen (RIP 2006), aka 'The Pope of Punk', was the music promotor and MC (but really more accurately, the impresario) of the Mabuhay Gardens/On Broadway punk clubs. Dirk was an incredibly interesting, sharp-witted, biting, cutting element of the original San Francisco punk scene. His legendary introductions and post set commentaries are preserved in many of these recordings. Dirk was a nephew of United States Senator Everett Dirksen.

Shows at the Mabuhay started probably in 1977. The On Broadway was an upstairs night club right next to the Mabuhay that opened in summer 1981 and closed 1984. When the On Broadway opened in 1981, they initially only did Friday/Saturday night shows.

The Mabuhay Gardens was originally a Filipino night club/restaurant run by Ness Aquino (RIP). One fateful day he was approached by Jerry Paulsen, who offered to try to fill the club on slow nights (Monday/Tuesday) with punk shows. Dirk took the booking and MC duties over from Jerry, and the rest, as they say, is history.

"...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 the Mabuhay.
...
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 for England and NY came to the Mabuhay and vice versa, staying in each city performing a few nights at a time."

Terry Hammer: "[Dirk] believed in theatre and group participation that's why he was sarcastic. He wanted to get a rise in people and get them to participate. He was a really nice person if you got to know him."

Dirk was also active with the organization H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers), the organization started by Kathy Peck of the Contractions (also part of this THTP series).

It was hard to really know how diverse his interests were until I went to his memorial service in San Francisco, where his punk friends and connections were only a fraction of the people who spoke in his memory. He was involved in various charities, the Mission Recreation Center, the list was quite large.

A book on Dirk was released 2021-01-15:
Shut Up You Animals!!! The Pope is Dead. A Remembrance of Dirk Dirksen: A History of the Mabuhay Gardens

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabuhay_Gardens
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Dirksen
SF Gate obituary: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dirk-Dirksen-pope-of-punk-amused-insulted-2466523.php

--------------------------------------------------------
 - teetering





Personality Crisis
On Broadway
San Francisco, CA
1984-05-19 (Saturday)

MYTP 9

Source: SBD > Sony D5M > Cassette Master > CD
Extraction: CD > rubyripper 0.8 (cdparanoia secure rip, cdrdoa TOC) > FLAC
Processing: Audacity (soft limit -0.1db to remove light clipping, phase correct, splits) > FLAC 8 > acxi (tagging, checksums, FLAC data)

Recorded, preserved, shared by micgram
Release processing by teetering

FLAC: 16/44.1 (2 channels)
Quality: 4/4 (17khz, very good)
Time: 6:41.03
Size: 40.3 MiB
Average kb/s: 842
Tracks: 2

Setlist:
01. //The Jam >
02. Piss On You

Band:
Mitch Funk - vocals
Richard Duguay - guitar
Jimmy Green - guitar
Duane Eddie - bass
Jon Card - drums

Notes:
* A short moment in time, then.. "Apparently we can't play anymore... so, goodnight..."
* Obviously, this is a partial show, the last 2 songs only, the rest, lost... like tears... in the rain.
* It appears that Personality Crisis occasionally tours, so keep an eye out for them.
* Includes gig flyer.

* Bandsintown: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/556599-personality-crisis
* Songkick: https://www.songkick.com/artists/21381-personality-crisis
* About band: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_Crisis_(band)
"Personality Crisis was a Canadian punk rock band formed in 1979 in Winnipeg. Originally named Le Kille, the band played a complex yet powerful form of 1980s punk.
...
The band was formed in 1979 as Le Kille by bassist Mitch Funk, who would remain the group's only consistent member, guitarists Tommy Wharton and Walter Kot, drummer Ed Asselin, singer Doug Bauer, and wind instrumentalist J. LePlume. Bauer, LePlume and Asselin departed the following year, moving Funk to lead vocals, while Wharton left in 1981. The arrival of drummer Mark Halldorson and bassist Richard Duguay coincided with the name change to Personality Crisis later that year. Following Kot's departure in 1982, the group began its final, longest-lasting lineup, including Funk, Duguay (now playing guitar), guitarist Jimmy Green, bassist Duane Eddie, and drummer Jon Card.
Personality Crisis released one LP, 1983's Creatures for Awhile [sic] on Risky Records, as well as several demo tapes."
* The band broke up shortly after this show, sometime in 1984.
* Jon Card went on to play in SNFU, D.O.A. The Subhumans, then later, alternative country artist Linda McRae, and Ani Kyd's band.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Card
* Mitch Funk played in some other bands, including Honest John.
* Richard Duguay went on to work with, of all bands, Guns and Roses.

* About the On Broadway (435 Broadway, at Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA):
The On Broadway was basically the 2nd floor of the Mabuhay Gardens. It was not quite as grungy as the Fab Mab in its heyday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabuhay_Gardens
"The Mabuhay was in the lower level of the 435 Broadway building, which also housed the On Broadway Theater, known in 1984-1985 as "Rock on Broadway."
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. Dirksen’s abrasive performance was a central part of the atmosphere of the Mabuhay.
Dirksen and Aquino dissolved their agreement in the early 1980s over disputes concerning Dirksen booking all his higher profile shows at the venue directly upstairs from the Mabuhay, The On Broadway Theater."
* More on the On Broadway/Mab: https://oldpunkflyers.tumblr.com/mabuhaygardens
"After booking both venues for a period of time Dirksen moved his entire operation upstairs. Aquino brought in two young booking agents, Michael Reidy and David Kaplan who started "Punk Nights" on Monday's with free spaghetti featuring bands like Urban Assault, Fuck Ups, MDC, Code Of Honor and Sick Pleasure. In their 4 year tenure post Dirksen, Reidy and Kaplan soon started doing weekends as well with bands like Social Distortion, Agent Orange, Wipers, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders as well as goth bands like 45 Grave and Specimen. The two venues engaged in booking wars, Reidy and Kaplan finally left in 1986.
The Mabuhay Gardens closed in 1988, at the very end Aquino attempted to move his operation upstairs to the On Broadway (by then vacated by Dirksen) under the moniker of “The Mab On Broadway."
* Even more about the On Broadway: https://acidheroes.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/the-on-broadway-theater/
"People still talk about the legendary Mabuhay Gardens and the Elite Club. But you rarely hear about the On Broadway Theater these days. Which is odd, because it was the primo venue for San Francisco punk bands back in the 1980s.
The On Broadway Theater was run by the legendary Dirk Dirksen.
...
The On Broadway Theater itself was a beautifully laid-out piece of architecture. It had the vibe of a decadent and decaying haunted mansion right out of the Addam’s Family. You walked up a narrow staircase to get into the place. The seating and the balcony was akin to the most cozy and comfortable, beat-up old movie theatre. Then there was a bar in the next room. And an outdoor patio where you could sit and drink around tables and clear your head with some fresh air. And if the bands sucked, you could always go downstairs and check out the more intimate setting of the Fab Mab. Outside there was the narrow alleyway where the roadies loaded and unloaded the bands, and where drugs were scored and beefs were settled (usually over cracked heads and bloody noses)."
* San Francisco renamed that small alley next to the On Broadway/Mabuhay "Dirk Dirksen Place" to honor Dirk's contributions to the cultural heritage of San Francisco. The alley next to City Lights Books (founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, at 261 Columbus, right by Broadway, a few blocks from the Mab... and somewhere the more literate people in the scene would have spent time) was similarly renamed Kerouac Alley to honor the famous beat writer. It was originally named Rowland Ave but Kathy Peck of the band Contractions and founder of H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education & Awareness for Rockers) spearheaded a movement to get the name changed to dirk dirksen Place.
* To give you an idea of how much times have changed since then, the 433 Broadway building was recently listed at around $10,000,000!!!

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No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.

Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these MYTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

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About Michael Young and the MYTP:

Michael: "I lived in the bay area 1980-92. Being a Deadhead I had a lot of friends who recorded shows, so when I got a nice Sony D5M (in 83, I think it was) I would bring it with me to the Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway and other places as well. I would ask the sound man if I could plug in and they usually said yes. I did this mostly in 1984 a few in 85. My first punk show was in my hometown of Philadelphia at a place called the Hot Club in 1978. I was hooked on the high energy and the fun of slamming around... I think my first SF hardcore punk show was Flipper at Kezar Pavilion in May of '81. I might have seen some other bands around town before that but that one sticks out for sure."
[teetering: I was also at that Kezar TG/Flipper show. Flipper was great that night.]

TECH:
Michael used a Sony D5M portable cassette recorder, plugged into the soundboard outs, to record most of these shows. This was for the time a very expensive unit, with some advanced features, which probably accounts for why these recordings are so good in general.

* D5M manual: https://transom.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/02/om.tcd5m.pdf
* About D5M: https://transom.org/2005/sony-tc-d5m/
All metal, reliable, simple, and fixable, it runs on two D-cells

* More on the D5M: https://www.cassettedeck.org/sony/tc-d5m
This Sony TC-D5M is a stereo cassette deck with Dolby B noise reduction, it was first sold by Sony in 1979 with a recommended retail price of USD $680 [about $2500 in today's dollars] and discontinued a year later.
The main features of the Sony TC-D5M are: 2 heads, mechanical 3 digit tape counter, manual tape type selection and capable of handling normal, chrome, ferro-chrome and metal tapes, belt driven single-capstan transport.
Typical of this deck is the 70's top loading layout with the cassette compartiment located on the left side of the deck. Tape eject is operated mechanically and the cassette needs to be placed with the side to be played facing forward in the cassette well.
Level meters used on the TC-D5M are analog needle VU reading meters. Mechanical transport controls for reliable TC-D5M transport function selection.
The Dolby-B system reduces tape hiss on tapes recorded on the TC-D5M by as much as 10 dB at the highest frequencies. The 19kHz multiplex pilot slgnal present in FM stereo broadcasts can cause false triggering of the noise reduction system. The switchable MPX filter of the TC-D5M filters out the pilot signal, and assuring proper Dolby processing of FM stereo programs.
To make live recordings this deck has 2 microphone inputs to connect microphones with a jack connector.

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About Dirk Dirksen and the Mabuhay Gardens/On Broadway:

Dirk Dirksen (RIP 2006), aka 'The Pope of Punk', was the music promotor and MC (but really more accurately, the impresario) of the Mabuhay Gardens/On Broadway punk clubs. Dirk was an incredibly interesting, sharp-witted, biting, cutting element of the original San Francisco punk scene. His legendary introductions and post set commentaries are preserved in many of these recordings. Dirk was a nephew of United States Senator Everett Dirksen.

Shows at the Mabuhay started probably in 1977. The On Broadway was an upstairs night club right next to the Mabuhay that opened in summer 1981 and closed 1984. When the On Broadway opened in 1981, they initially only did Friday/Saturday night shows.

The Mabuhay Gardens was originally a Filipino night club/restaurant run by Ness Aquino (RIP). One fateful day he was approached by Jerry Paulsen, who offered to try to fill the club on slow nights (Monday/Tuesday) with punk shows. Dirk took the booking and MC duties over from Jerry, and the rest, as they say, is history.

"...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 the Mabuhay.
...
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 for England and NY came to the Mabuhay and vice versa, staying in each city performing a few nights at a time."

Terry Hammer: "[Dirk] believed in theatre and group participation that's why he was sarcastic. He wanted to get a rise in people and get them to participate. He was a really nice person if you got to know him."

Dirk was also active with the organization H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers), the organization started by Kathy Peck of the Contractions (also part of this THTP series).

It was hard to really know how diverse his interests were until I went to his memorial service in San Francisco, where his punk friends and connections were only a fraction of the people who spoke in his memory. He was involved in various charities, the Mission Recreation Center, the list was quite large.

A book on Dirk was released 2021-01-15:
Shut Up You Animals!!! The Pope is Dead. A Remembrance of Dirk Dirksen: A History of the Mabuhay Gardens

Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabuhay_Gardens
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Dirksen
SF Gate obituary: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dirk-Dirksen-pope-of-punk-amused-insulted-2466523.php

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 - teetering