Honey, quick, the Polaroid

Fab Mab Reunion featuring the Dead Kennedys, Flipper, The Avengers, and The Mutants
The Fillmore
April 8 2006

Brief history lesson: The Mabuhay Gardens (aka the "Fab Mab") was a San Francisco club where you could see anything from drag performances to punk rock shows. It closed in 1984.

I knew it was going to be a good night when...a very nice gentleman standing on the corner of Fillmore and Geary treated us to a wonderful rendition of Holiday in Cambodia on the accordion. It made the song sound, somehow...French.

We ran into some friends outside, and then ventured upstairs for The Mutants and The Avengers. We sat and traded stories of past shows and bands we're listening to now. East Bay Ray walked right past us. There were so many gray-haired, tattooed, leather jacket wearing, legs in fishnet stockings, old-school punks that it made me smile. I saw a lot of punk-rock parents with their 7 to 11 year old kids. But the weirdest thing was: everyone was so nice. I accidentally bumped into someone on my way out of the bathroom, so I apologized. She started laughing and said, "we're all so polite!" There was no pretension, no posing, and most of the people there were 30 or 40-somethings. It was refreshing.

Despite being one of those 30-somethings, for a few hours I felt like I was 15 again.

The time warp started while we were standing on the main floor waiting for the Dead Kennedys to take the stage...and one of the DJs played TSOL (ohmigod - I loved that band). Highlights from the DK set: Winnebago Warrior, Buzzbomb, Let's Lynch the Landlord, Moral Majority, Rawhide, Halloween, MTV Get Off the Air, To Drunk to F*#k, and Police Truck. The crowd sang to California Uber Alles and Kill the Poor, and I even shouted the chorus during Nazi Punks F*#k Off (sorry mom!).

They didn't play I Am The Owl and Bleed for Me (the latter has one of my favorite East Bay Ray signature guitar riffs). One of my friends commented that it was sorta like DK karaoke, but even without Jello these guys look and sound really good.

They ended with Viva Las Vegas and...brace yourself, my dear...Holiday in Cambodia (sans accordion).

People outside for cigarette breaks: about 50 (I've never seen that many people smoking outside The Fillmore)
Mohawks and liberty spikes seen: about 8 total (and all on people under the age of 15)
Fishnet stockings: at least a dozen
Misfits shirts: 2 (I've been to dozens of shows with Umlaut, and this is the first time that I've actually seen people wearing Misfit's shirts)
Fight: 1

In the parking garage, we found a stuffed purple elephant with pink polk-a-dots lying next to my car. He'd been abandoned. I took him home and named him Oliver.