S.F. Punk Rock Promoter Dirk Dirksen Dead
San Francisco punk rock entrepreneur Dirk Dirksen, best known for the mid-70s to mid-‘80s concerts he promoted at the Mabuhay Gardens (featuring many of the most important punk rock bands including The Ramones, Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys, Iggy Pop and The Minutemen,), died in his sleep the night of Sunday, November 19, according to Punk Globe’s Ginger Coyote. 
Dirk Dirksen, the Bill Graham of Punk.Dirksen had been working for the past few years on a documentary/ performance DVD on S.F. punk legends The Mutants, and we had spoken earlier this year about it. Dirksen had sent me a rough edit, which suggested that the finished DVD would be quite exceptional. It was fitting that Dirksen’s final project was a film about one of the important punk combos that got their start playing his venue. Dirksen’s heyday began in 1976, when he turned the Filipino supper club on Broadway where he’d been presenting campy novelty acts such as Les Nickelettes, into San Francisco’s answer to C.B.G.B.’s. Surrounded by topless joints, a block away from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookstore and other remnants of the Beatnik, the Mabuhay Gardens – which held about 100 people -- became the coolest club in the city. The Mabuhay was a place where you could hang out. It was dark and funky, and had a few levels. You entered at the rear of the club off Broadway, and immediately to the left were tables. Descending, you would arrive at the always-packed dance floor, directly in front of the stage, where San Francisco kids, each with their own D.I.Y. version of the punk look, showed off their version of, first, the ‘pogo,’ and later, the ‘slam-dance.’Local journalists including Michael Snyder, Howie Klein and myself would stand around in the back, scoping out the scene, occasionally trading barbs with the always argumentative Dirksen, while some now-forgotten warm-up punk outfit would bash away on stage.The Mabuhay became both a magnate for and an inspiration to punk rockers and would-be punk rockers. Punk had emerged in New York in ’74 and ’75, with Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads and others. Word of a new sensibility (and new sounds) spread quickly to the West Coast (many of us read about the New York scene in the Village Voice), and punk bands including Crime and The Nuns formed. Dirksen was the first Bay Area promoter to pick up on the change in the cultural wind, and with the help of Howie Klein, he booked The Ramones, Blondie, the Dictators and other punk ‘stars,” alongside the local bands that seemed to be forming daily, such as The Avengers, Negative Trend and the Readymades.Dirksen himself was an eccentric figure who loved nothing more than to stand onstage, insulting the audience before introducing the Nuns, Crime or The Mutants. Those of us who were there at the beginning, will miss him.
Dirk Dirksen, the Bill Graham of Punk.Dirksen had been working for the past few years on a documentary/ performance DVD on S.F. punk legends The Mutants, and we had spoken earlier this year about it. Dirksen had sent me a rough edit, which suggested that the finished DVD would be quite exceptional. It was fitting that Dirksen’s final project was a film about one of the important punk combos that got their start playing his venue. Dirksen’s heyday began in 1976, when he turned the Filipino supper club on Broadway where he’d been presenting campy novelty acts such as Les Nickelettes, into San Francisco’s answer to C.B.G.B.’s. Surrounded by topless joints, a block away from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookstore and other remnants of the Beatnik, the Mabuhay Gardens – which held about 100 people -- became the coolest club in the city. The Mabuhay was a place where you could hang out. It was dark and funky, and had a few levels. You entered at the rear of the club off Broadway, and immediately to the left were tables. Descending, you would arrive at the always-packed dance floor, directly in front of the stage, where San Francisco kids, each with their own D.I.Y. version of the punk look, showed off their version of, first, the ‘pogo,’ and later, the ‘slam-dance.’Local journalists including Michael Snyder, Howie Klein and myself would stand around in the back, scoping out the scene, occasionally trading barbs with the always argumentative Dirksen, while some now-forgotten warm-up punk outfit would bash away on stage.The Mabuhay became both a magnate for and an inspiration to punk rockers and would-be punk rockers. Punk had emerged in New York in ’74 and ’75, with Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads and others. Word of a new sensibility (and new sounds) spread quickly to the West Coast (many of us read about the New York scene in the Village Voice), and punk bands including Crime and The Nuns formed. Dirksen was the first Bay Area promoter to pick up on the change in the cultural wind, and with the help of Howie Klein, he booked The Ramones, Blondie, the Dictators and other punk ‘stars,” alongside the local bands that seemed to be forming daily, such as The Avengers, Negative Trend and the Readymades.Dirksen himself was an eccentric figure who loved nothing more than to stand onstage, insulting the audience before introducing the Nuns, Crime or The Mutants. Those of us who were there at the beginning, will miss him.
Comments (12)