Rediscovering San Francisco's Punk Scene in a Box of Old Negatives

March 1, 2015 10:24 AM

In the late 70s, John Roberts was a visual arts major at San Francisco's Institute of Art who spent his free time documenting the Bay Area's blossoming punk scene. His photos—a mix of street photography, portraiture, and concert shots—uniquely captured the last moments of the city's pre-AIDS and post-hippie era. Roberts's best shots were from a tiny punk venue called the Deaf Club on Valencia Street. The Deaf Club was a deaf community center that hosted hardcore shows from 1978 to 1980—the resulting scene was grungy, sweaty, and truly bizarre, and Roberts's photos captured it perfectly.
posted by rtha (16 comments total)

Kewl.

I got the Dead Kennedys live at the Deaf Club album, but never knew it was an actual deaf club.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:03 AM on March 1, 2015

There's an album recorded there, called "Can You Hear Me." I bought it, opened it, and pulled out the sleeve with some anticipation. Sure enough, I was in the crowd on the photo printed there. That was a good bet, since I went to pretty much every show there.

Any photos on the inner sleeve of your purchase, MartinWisse? I didn't miss any DK shows. To the point that Jello Biafra sat down next to me on the bus and introduced himself.

At one show I remember Jello saying, "We were at the Mabuay last night, but the real show starts here right now."
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:15 AM on March 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

That has got to be one surreal fucking moment right there.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:18 AM on March 1, 2015

The great thing about the Deaf Club was that they would book bands with only two songs, so it really encouraged a lot of people to get going. It was an actual club for the deaf that served beer, you could tell who they were because they were the ones standing right in front of the speaker stacks.

Harvey Milk was the Clubs biggest supporter whenever there were noise complaints.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:24 AM on March 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

Was the punk/hardcore scene in San Francisco as white as these (few) photos would suggest?
posted by yaymukund at 11:35 AM on March 1, 2015

As far as I saw, there was only one black guy that came to the Deaf Club occasionally.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:39 AM on March 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

And to be clear, I love the photos and this fpp and generally reading about the history of punk/hardcore. Thanks for the post.
posted by yaymukund at 11:39 AM on March 1, 2015

yaymukund, Michael Franti had a little group called the Beatnigs, but yeah, pretty white.

This negative old punk thanks the OP for posting this.
posted by humboldt32 at 11:41 AM on March 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Harvey Milk was the Clubs biggest supporter whenever there were noise complaints.

Feinstein wasn't.

That is a partial scan I made from one of my old punk magazines. I am sure I have the rest of it somewhere but that's all I could find.
posted by charlie don't surf at 12:05 PM on March 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

More background on the Deaf Club. The location is now a Thai restaurant.
posted by gingerbeer at 12:23 PM on March 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

I have a childhood friend who is a fire dancer in a performance group that uses a lot of drums and other percussion instruments. I don't remember the name or I would link to them. Anyway, they are frequently asked to perform at deaf schools because the students there can "hear" the vibrations of their instruments. I wonder if something similar happened at the Deaf Club.
posted by apricot at 1:17 PM on March 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Speaking of the DKs, somebody put videos of the show that the "Night of the Living Rednecks" recording is from on Youtube.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:21 PM on March 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

In gingerbeer's "background" link, there is this photo. I'm the left-most tiny background person, but I think that the right-most guy with the beard is Mike Kuchar, who was part of a well-known experimental film making team along with his brother George Kuchar.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:09 PM on March 1, 2015 [5 favorites]

I knew of Can You Hear Me - Live at the Deaf Club, but I never actually knew that it was in fact a club for the deaf. The Tuxedomoon cover of In Heaven on that is just amazing - they were one hell of a great live band in their early day - and it was neat to see the article mentioning them.
posted by Palindromedary at 5:50 PM on March 1, 2015

I love this post!
posted by latkes at 7:59 AM on March 2, 2015

This is cool. I wish there were more photos!
posted by starscream at 2:12 PM on March 2, 2015