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Listings are
in the opposite order of appearance: headliner is listed at the top,
next is the support band(s),
and the last band listed is the opener.
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Saturday November 14
2026
8:30PM doors -- music at 9:30PM ••• 21 AND OVER $25 $30.81 in advance [25 face value +5.81 service fee] The Avengers facebook.com/avengerspunk77 Punk rock Pansy Division pansydivision.com power pop queercore punk The Avengers -from San Francisco, CA -One of the first and finest bands to emerge from San Francisco's punk scene, the Avengers were originally together for only two years, and they didn't release an album during that period. But their passionate music and uncompromising viewpoints proved to be a major inspiration in a scene that would grow and flourish long after they broke up, and the handful of singles they left behind documented a band of uncommon power and force. Just as importantly, lead singer Penelope Houston was one of the pioneering women of American punk, proving there was a place for female artists in the new music. The Avengers came together in early 1977, not long after Penelope Houston arrived in San Francisco from her hometown of Seattle, Washington. Houston was a new student at San Francisco Art Institute when she met Danny Furious, a recent SFAI graduate who was still a common sight on the campus. Houston was a fan of musicians like Lou Reed and Patti Smith, and she soon discovered that Furious had similar tastes. Furious, who played the drums, was interested in starting a rock band, and he talked an old friend, Greg Ingraham, into coming to San Francisco from Orange County to play guitar. Houston showed up at the fledgling group's rehearsal space one day before the musicians had arrived; after singing along with a stereo through the band's PA system, as Houston put it, "I was so enamored with the power of amplification that I said, 'I'm gonna be your new singer.'" In June, the Avengers played their first show, opening for the Nuns at San Francisco's pioneering punk venue the Mabuhay Gardens. In August, Jimmy Wisley joined the band as bassist (replacing Jonathan Postal, who went on to form the Readymades), and the Avengers' classic lineup was complete. The band soon became one of the most popular bands on California's budding punk rock scene, though at that time this limited the band to a handful of clubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1977, L.A.'s premier punk label Dangerhouse Records released a three-song EP from the group, featuring "We Are the One," "Car Crash," and "I Believe in Me." The record received enthusiastic reviews and relatively strong sales, but no larger labels were interested in signing the group. In early 1978, the group scored what seemed like a golden opportunity: opening for Sex Pistols at San Francisco's Winterland on the final date of the notorious British punk band's first American tour. By all accounts, the Avengers delivered an impressive set (stronger than the Pistols, according to many eyewitnesses), and the group struck up a friendship with Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, who agreed to produce a record for the group. But the Avengers' first brush with the larger music business left them somewhat disillusioned; Danny Furious later told a journalist, "It was obvious at Winterland -- everyone knew how to behave, everyone knew how to spit, how to dress -- everyone knew how to pack the place. But it was just sensationalism, a spectacle." Adding to the sting was the breakup of the Sex Pistols days after the Winterland show, which led much of the music industry to regard punk as a spent force, making it all the more difficult for bands like the Avengers to be heard. In late 1978, Steve Jones did in fact produce a session for the group, which would yield a four-song EP, but 1979 was not destined to be a good year for the Avengers. Tensions had grown between Greg Ingraham and Penelope Houston, and at the end of 1978, Ingraham quit the group. He was soon replaced by Brad Kent, but the band's foundation began to crumble, and in late June, after a pair of sold-out farewell shows, the Avengers called it a day. The Jones-produced EP came out later that summer. After the band's breakup, Houston went on to a career as an acoustic-oriented singer/songwriter, and Jimmy Wisley became a longtime member of Chris Isaak's backing group; he died on December 24, 2018. In 1983, a San Francisco-based indie label, CD Presents, bought the rights to the Avengers' material, and released a superb 16-song compilation (the self-titled Avengers) that collected their vinyl releases to date, along with some unreleased studio material. However, when CD Presents went out of business, the group's recorded legacy went into limbo, and for the next ten years Houston found herself questioned by fans who were eager to obtain Avengers' recordings. As a result, Houston began collecting live recordings of the band being traded by fans, and with the help of Greg Ingraham, she compiled highlights of the group's live shows and uncirculated demos into an album, Died for Your Sins. Houston and Ingraham decided to cut new studio recordings of three Avengers songs for which they could find no adequate recordings; Wisley and Furious opted not to participate, so Houston and Ingraham recorded them as the Scavengers with Joel Reader on bass and Danny "Panic" Sullivan on drums. In 1999, following the release of Died for Your Sins, the Scavengers played a handful of live dates in San Francisco, though Houston and Ingraham parted ways again shortly afterward. Following the release of The American in Me in 2004, the two bandmates reconvened once again, this time touring the country for several years with the help of bassist Joel Reader and drummer Luis Illades. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi Pansy Division -from San Francisco, CA -There have been gay musicians hidden throughout rock music history, but Pansy Division when began in 1991 in San Francisco, they were the first to be so boldly open about it. Founded by guitarist/singer Jon Ginoli and soon joined by bassist/vocalist Chris Freeman, with the intent of forming a gay rock band, Pansy Division blew the closet doors open. Raised on a diet of 60s pop and 70s punk, their sound was suitably crunchy and catchy as hell. They wrote in-your-face lyrics, but did it with a sense of humor. Not only did their music and stance defy stereotypical norms of rock musicians being openly gay, they also broke gay cultural stereotypes that rock wouldn’t interest gay people. With album titles like Undressed and Deflowered, and song titles like “Bill & Ted’s Homosexual Adventure,” their bluntness and humor stood out amidst the ’90s alterna-rock scene. Says Chris Freeman, “there was a lot of gay culture we couldn’t relate to, so we tried to invent a place for ourselves in it, an alternative for other queer misfits.” Having had the experience of being ostracized by other musicians for being gay and by other gays for being into rock, “we tried to turn our alienation into something positive,” says Ginoli. “Instead of being depressed about it, we tried to make music that would make us—and our audience—happy. We could laugh about it, so we put that joy into the music.” Beginning in 1993, they put out an album a year for six years on Lookout Records. Their music caught the attention of former Lookout labelmates Green Day, who took Pansy Division on tour for a couple of months in 1994 at the height of the mania surrounding their breakthrough album Dookie. Says Ginoli, ”When we started our band we thought we’d be playing our music to people in their 20s & 30s who were gay or gay-friendly. Suddenly we faced thousands of high school kids each night, an amazing opportunity we never expected to have.” The response was decidedly mixed, but their popularity soared. Pansy Division toured and recorded almost non-stop during the 1990s, a long the way recruiting a permanent drummer (Luis Illades) and a lead guitarist (first Patrick Goodwin, now Joel Reader). 1998’s Absurd Pop Song Romance was a departure from their earlier work, a more serious album both lyrically and sonically. The followup album Total Entertainment! (for a new label, Alternative Tentacles) found a happy medium between the broad humor of the early records and the more (dare we say it?) mature approach of the previous album. In 2006, they released a 30-song career overview titled The Essential Pansy Division, including a DVD of videos and concert footage. In 2009 the band released That’s So Gay, both raucous and raunchy as well as being serious-minded. With some of their catchiest and most rocking songs ever, they’re still loads of fun without being ironic or cynical. From that album came the 7” single of “Average Men,” containing a new non-album track (a cover of a Green Day’s “Coming Clean”). A documentary film about the band, Pansy Division: Life In A Gay Rock Band, played film festivals throughout 2008, and came out on DVD (with a bonus live DVD) at the same time. Also out in 2009 was Jon’s book Deflowered: My Life In Pansy Division, a memoir of Pansy Division stories and experiences. After that the band released two digital-only archival releases. Lost Gems & Rare Tracks is exactly that, 14 songs from compilations, singles, and outtakes that never found their way onto a regular album. Pansy Division Live 1992-2003 is a whopping 53-song double disc that comprehensively documents the many phases of Pansy Division’s sound. We created a Bandcamp page (http://pansydivision.bandcamp.com), where our entire catalog can be streamed for free and downloads can be purchased. With bands members living in 4 cities on two coasts, gigs have been infrequent. In 2015 they recorded a new album, Quite Contrary, in time to commemorate the band’s 25th anniversary. Released in September 2016 on Alternative Tentacles Records, tours of the U.S. East and West coasts followed. After a quiet couple of years, the band has played a handful of shows in 2019, including their first European shows in 20 years. In 2020 PD had hoped to play a number of 3-day weekends, but after a trip to Texas at the end of February COVID hit. In 2022, the band played the Mosswood Meltdown festival in Oakland opening for Bikini Kill, who PD had opened for 30 years before at Gilman Street in Berkeley. And in 2024 we played the Meltdown again, opening for our heroes the B-52s! Our long-time goal of playing 1000 shows was reached April 19, 2025, in San Francisco. It’s not the end, but if you want to see us live, don’t wait till next time, because there’s a good chance this will be the last time around. The Band: Chris Freeman—bass, vocals Jon Ginoli—rhythm guitar, vocals Luis Illades—drums Joel Reader—lead guitar, vocals |
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