bottomofthehill: The Mutants ~ The Alley Cats ~ The Temple Beautiful Band --- 12/04/2021

The Temple Beautiful 40th Anniversary

-While the Mabuhay Gardens has been long remembered for the many punk rock shows it produced, people who were not around then might not have heard of The Temple Beautiful, or The 1839 Geary Theater. For two years, March 1979 through March 1981, The Temple produced many shows with all of the leading punk rock bands of the west coast and beyond, including The Dead Kennedys, X, The Avengers, Mutants, D.O.A., Tuxedomoon, and many others. The first show featured The Dils, whose energy and political message set them apart. The Kinman brothers, Chip and Tony, led this dynamic trio. Songs like Class War, I Hate The Rich, and Mr. Big still ring true. The Clash did a secret show there, word of mouth only, and sold the old hall out. The Buzzcocks and Gang of Four played there together on their first US tour, with The Dils opening. The building itself was part of the fun in going. It was located on one of SF's most historic blocks. It stood between the legendary Fillmore Auditorium on one side and the infamous People's Temple on the other. With a big balcony and beautiful stained glass windows that came from Palestine around the horn in 1905, it was about half built in 1906, when the great quake and fire hit. They had to rebuild it. It served as a synagogue until the mid sixties. Bill Graham owned it for a few years, allowing the Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead to rehearse there. Paul McCartney jammed with The Jefferson Airplane at one such rehearsal in 1967. After The Temple Beautiful promoters left it, it was restored as a one-of-a-kind art piece by artist Tony Duquette. Unfortunately it was again damaged by the 1989 quake and shortly thereafter burned down. There is now a U.S. Post Office on the premises.


	>>back to listings calendar >> back to picture calendar Saturday December 4 2021 8:30PM doors -- music at 9:00PM ••• 21 AND OVER $13 in advance / $15 at the door THE TEMPLE BEAUTIFUL 40th ANNIVERSARY #2 SHOW The Mutants www.sfmutants.com/ punk The Alley Cats randystodola.com/ Punk rock, Dance/Electronic The Temple Beautiful Band www punk rock, post punk The Mutants Fritz Fox (aka Freddy Mutant) —vocals Brendan Earley — lead guitar Connie Champagne — vocals Mia Simmans — vocals John Gullak — guitar Peter Conheim — bass Dave Carothers — drums Sue White — vocals -from San Francisco, CA -The Mutants joined together to perform at the San Francisco Poetry Festival in 1977. They quickly became regular performers in the San Francisco punk rock scene, headlining at the Mabuhay Gardens (aka The Fab Mab), The Savoy Tivoli, The Berkeley Square, The Deaf Club, The Temple (aka 1839 Geary Street), The Old Waldorf, The Warfield, and other punk clubs. They were also noted for being one of the few pop bands to ever perform live at Napa State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital. They also opened for such bands as The Ramones, Iggy Pop, New Order, Lene Lovich, The Cramps and the Talking Heads. The Mutants were booked to open for Joy Division's first U.S. tour which was canceled due to Ian Curtis' suicide two days before the tour was to begin. Their first extended play single was on 415 Records and included "Insect Lounge", "New Drug" and "The New Dark Ages". Many compilations, such as Wave Goodbye, Can You Hear Me: Live From the Deaf Club and 415 Music included both live and studio recordings of The Mutants. In 1982, The Mutants' only album, Fun Terminal, was produced with the help of Snakefinger after the first producer, Paul Wexler, who produced their e. p., left the project and was released on MSI Quality Records. In 1983 the Mutants appeared in Rick Schmidt's independent film, Emerald Cities. Footage of a live performance was interspersed throughout the film, showcasing four songs: New Dark Ages; We Need A New Drug; War Against Girls; Sofa Song. Following the release of Fun Terminal, The Mutants embarked on another successful national tour, headlining at major punk venues such as CBGBs and Hurrah. However, the stress encountered while recording Fun Terminal, drug abuse, alcoholism, and family commitments changed the scope of the band. By the mid-eighties many of the original musicians left the band. The three vocalists attempted to keep the band going with new musicians, and new songs were written to feature the female vocalists. An EP documenting the later version of the group was recorded in the studio in 1984, but the material has not been commercially released as of this writing. In 1989 The Mutants had a reunion show at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. By this time, most of the band was clean and sober. In 2002, Fun Terminal was re-released as a CD (mastered from a vinyl LP copy, as the master tapes were lost but have since been recovered) on White Noise Records and included three additional tracks of live recordings, a 1980 4 song unreleased demo session and the 415 Records-released EP. Interest in the band re-surfaced and The Mutants began once again playing small clubs in San Francisco, such as SOMA Arts, Thee Parkside, Studio Z and Cafe du Nord. A "Fab Mab Reunion" took place on April 8, 2006 at The Fillmore and featured performances by The Mutants and several other notable bands from the early San Francisco punk scene. Dirk Dirksen and Damon Malloy produced a DVD documentary of The Mutants titled Mutants: Forensic Report which was released in 2007. The Alley Cats Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals) Apryl Cady (bass and vocals) Matt Laskey (drums) -from Los Angeles, CA -ALLEY CATS are a Los Angeles based punk rock band formed in 1977 The original line-up, featuring Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals), Dianne Chai (bass an vocals) and John McCarthy (drums) Currently the band is made up of Randy plus Apryl Cady (bass and vocals) and Matt Laskey (drums) Alley Cats were one of the first bands signed by Dangerhouse records in the late '70's among the other label's illustrious pioneering punk rock bands X, THE AVENGERS, THE DILS, THE WEIRDOS, THE BAGS. They also helped launch the LA punk rock scene playing the legendary Masque then later The Whiskey A-GO-GO, The Hong Kong Cafe, Madam Wongs, and were on the bill with X, The Go-Go's, and The Plugs but never got to play in the infamous LA police riot St Patrick's Day 1979 at The Elk's Hall. They played San Francisco regularly playing The Fab Mab and probably played at The Temple Beautiful and other halls we produced in more than any other out of town band. They were featured in the 1982 British documentary Urgh! A Music War with The Police, The Dead Kennedys, Devo, Joan Jett and many more. Songs in their repertoire featured Nothing Means Nothing Anymore, Give Me a Little Pain, To Much Junk, Night of the Living Dead. Producing four albums in the '80's including two under the name The Zarkons. The Temple Beautiful Band Andy Henning Kevin Moore Michael Peppe Geoffrey Pond Mike McKevitt -from San Francisco, CA -The band was originally formed in 2019 to perform only at the 40th anniversary of The Temple Beautiful show at BOTH. We got such a great reaction at the show and two earlier warm up shows that we decided to continue and have played many more times since then. The band is made up of veteran Bay Area musicians ranging from original drummer Greg Langston who actually played at The Temple Beautiful with No Alternative to musicians who have played or are playing in various bands currently. The Temple Beautiful 40th Anniversary -While the Mabuhay Gardens has been long remembered for the many punk rock shows it produced, people who were not around then might not have heard of The Temple Beautiful, or The 1839 Geary Theater. For two years, March 1979 through March 1981, The Temple produced many shows with all of the leading punk rock bands of the west coast and beyond, including The Dead Kennedys, X, The Avengers, Mutants, D.O.A., Tuxedomoon, and many others. The first show featured The Dils, whose energy and political message set them apart. The Kinman brothers, Chip and Tony, led this dynamic trio. Songs like Class War, I Hate The Rich, and Mr. Big still ring true. The Clash did a secret show there, word of mouth only, and sold the old hall out. The Buzzcocks and Gang of Four played there together on their first US tour, with The Dils opening. The building itself was part of the fun in going. It was located on one of SF's most historic blocks. It stood between the legendary Fillmore Auditorium on one side and the infamous People's Temple on the other. With a big balcony and beautiful stained glass windows that came from Palestine around the horn in 1905, it was about half built in 1906, when the great quake and fire hit. They had to rebuild it. It served as a synagogue until the mid sixties. Bill Graham owned it for a few years, allowing the Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead to rehearse there. Paul McCartney jammed with The Jefferson Airplane at one such rehearsal in 1967. After The Temple Beautiful promoters left it, it was restored as a one-of-a-kind art piece by artist Tony Duquette. Unfortunately it was again damaged by the 1989 quake and shortly thereafter burned down. There is now a U.S. Post Office on the premises.