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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.
It sound as if he were one of the lucky few to live out their dreams. May he rock'n'roll in peace.
namaste
RIP
I always liked the SF punk groups more than the NYC bnds. The Nuns and the Avengers being two of the most underrated, even these days where all that old punk has been discovered. Somewhere there is a fuzzy out of focur photo of my brother and I standing in from of the adress that was once the Mabuhay Gardens..... guys like Dirk were responcible for helping to foster that scene.... so thank you.
interesting, thanks
thanks MG - Visited SF in January and wandered the neighborhood you refer. Not hip to punk sound - other than reading and an occasional listen - this post lends to my learning.
Bob, There really aren't any great recordings of the SF punk groups, but if you haven't listened to the debut albums from Patti Smith, Television, The Ramones, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, you really should. And also the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks... is a classic as are the first three from The Clash. For starters...
and thank you again, Michael - this I love about MOG ...Patti Smith, THe Ramones (got vinyl) and the Sex Pistols I've heard - time to revisit. The Clash is somewhere in this vacuum, too.
Bob... I have to say that I think that there are solid recording fromSF punk groups...
The Dead Kenndys of course, The Nuns first album and the Avengers stuff. As far as punk in genral goes, I'd add The Damned, Cocksparrer, The Misfits, and The Deadboys are all worth a listen...
Well written post, Michael. This city has a poor way of celebrating its musical heritage beyond those acts that made up the "Summer of Love" or traditional Jazz revival scene. Hopefully Dirksen, The Mabuhay and similar artists/promoters/venues will get their civic recognition someday.
Iren, Hey, I dig The Avengers recordings and The Mutants “Fun Terminal,” and Romeo Void’s debut album and some of the other early 415 recordings, but the pale besides the The Avengers and The Mutants live. There was a night, not at the Mab, but at a movie theater on Market Street that I witnessed a performance by The Mutants that was as great as rock ‘n’ roll can be. And live shows by Leila and the Snakes and No Sisters and The Readymades and Crime and The Dils and Rank and File and The Dead Kennedys were mindblowing. So when I saw that there are no really great recordings of the S.F. punk bands, it’s because the recordings that exist just can’t be compared to what the bands could deliver live. None of them got the studio time, the budgets nor the producer who could translate their music to vinyl.
Great post, Michael. Dirk Dirksen seems like an unlikely hero. He made a huge contribution to the culture, though, and deserves to be remembered for that. I used to drop into the Mab back in the day and was amazed when I saw Dirk on stage, introducing the bands and abusing the audience (as if they gave a fuck, eh?) Rather than a punk impressario, he more closely resembled some degranged high school chemistry teacher, high on fumes, possibly, who wound up on stage at the Mab by accident. Thanks for the reminder of his legacy and what a talent-laden scene that was in the mid- to late '70s. Maybe somebody has some good live recordings out there that nobody knows about. Wouldn't it be great if they posted some of that material (with permission, of course). I'd like to hear Crime do "Murder by Guitar" just one more time.
When you read an obituary of someone who crossed your life it always feels like a bit of the scenery got taken away. I managed The Weirdos and The Go-Gos at different times and sparring with Dirk at Mabuhay gigs was always part of the fun of a weekend in SF. You brought back several memories -- especially the stage insults. It always got really entertaining when a young punk gave as good as he was getting and more than once I saw Dirk with a satisfied smile, as though the point was to find the bright kid in the crowd. RIP .