Phil Kettner remembers the primary time he noticed Metallica dwell. “My first response was, ‘Oh wow, it’s punk rock with lengthy hair,’” says Kettner, who was guitarist with San Francisco proto-thrashers Lääz Rockit on the time. Kettner’s personal band had been tipped because the Bay Space’s subsequent huge factor, however this was one thing utterly new.
Metallica performed their first present in San Francisco at The Stone in September 1982. Inside a number of months, that they had relocated to the town from their native LA, recruiting bass wunderkind Cliff Burton the method. A model new scene shortly grew up round them, and the Bay Space turned the epicentre of the quickest, loudest, heaviest music on this planet: thrash metallic.
“‘Thrash’ wasn’t used that a lot as a time period in 1982,” says Ron Quintana, one of many architects of the Bay Space thrash scene. Quintana was the editor of the seminal Metallic Mania fanzine, which exhaustively coated the San Francisco metallic and punk scenes in a rage of caustic humour, slapdash cut-and-paste layouts, and inky newsprint. He was additionally a DJ at KUSF, a community-run radio station that operated out of the College of San Francisco. “I feel it was extra in 1984, with speedsters like Exodus, Slayer, Possessed, and Suicidal Tendencies, that we known as them thrash and never simply metallic or punk.”
No matter what it was known as in its infancy, the sound produced by these early San Francisco bands was like nothing ever heard earlier than. Younger, fleet-fingered savages like Metallica, Dying Angel, Exodus, Lääz Rockit, Possessed, Blind Phantasm and a handful of others had been pushing musical boundaries, taking part in sooner and with extra intricacy then appeared humanly doable.
There have been a myriad of locations for these bands to play all around the metropolis, at now-infamous golf equipment like Ruthie’s Inn, Kabuki Theatre, The Fillmore, The Keystone, The Stone and The Mabuhay Gardens, which was host to the equally envelope-pushing hardcore punk scene. There have been file shops and hangouts, a wholesome faculty radio scene and a smattering of enthusiastic fanzines protecting all of it. So how did this occur? Was it the work of perpetual schemer Lars Ulrich and his assortment of Angelwitch imports, as is usually reported within the annals of metallic?
“[SF radio stations] KUSF and KALX had been taking part in excessive metallic in 1982, so NWOBHM was previous hat by the point,” says Quintana. “Lars and firm might play two Diamond Head and one Blitzkrieg track at any viewers, however there have been two wonderful file import shops and tons of Tower LP shops supplying the maniac habits of followers.”
“The unbiased file shops had been nice,” says Rob Cavestany, guitarist and co-founder of Dying Angel, one of many first and certainly the youngest of the Bay Space thrash bands. “There was the Document Change and the Document Vault. These had been the primary outlets, the place all of the metalheads would come down and discover the most recent new releases and listen to concerning the newest bands. This was even earlier than Metallica, after we had been first listening to about bands like Tygers of Pan Tang, Loundness, Riot. These had been the bands we had been tripping on.”
Issues modified drastically, nevertheless, as soon as Metallica got here to city. “I don’t know precisely after they shaped in relation to after we did,” says Cavestany, “however I do know they made a wave faster than we did, we had been method into them, and had been very influenced by them. We noticed them play on the Keystone in Berkeley, and it was an eye-opening night, for positive.”
“The exhibits had been at all times completely packed,” provides Kettner. “There have been numerous offered out exhibits again then. On the time, we had a supervisor who was very tenacious about getting out-of-town bands to play. We really introduced Metallica as much as play their first present on the Previous Waldorf. We did a well-known present again in 1983 with Metallica headlining. We supported them, and Exodus opened up. That was at The Stone.”
“There have been numerous future musicians in these crowds,” recollects Quintana. “However there have been plenty of every kind, even posers.”
“We performed with Metallica for the primary time on the Kabuki Theatre,” says Cavestany. “It was with Metallica and Armored Saint. However we’d been taking part in for years earlier than that. We began taking part in out in 1982. I used to be about 13, 14 years previous on the time. Andy [Galeon, Death Angel drummer] was about 9 or ten. I imply, we had been very younger. However there have been all-ages golf equipment occurring, there have been events, issues like that we performed. And the opposite instances, when there was some form of age restriction, they principally simply snuck us in. We performed with Exodus, Legacy – who later turned Testomony – Slayer, Megadeth, Mercyful Destiny, Lääz Rockit. And we performed with all of the punk bands as nicely.”
Punk Rock was alive and nicely in San Francisco in 1982, though not all the metallic bands on the town embraced it. “It was fairly segregated,” says Kettner. “I’m positive there have been folks from each these scenes that went to totally different exhibits however we didn’t e book any exhibits with, like, Black Flag or TSOL. We by no means booked exhibits with these guys, which I remorse, as a result of I feel it might have opened folks’s eyes. That’s the place the thrash factor got here from, it crossed over from the punk component. Think about the circle mosh and stage diving and stuff like that – that got here instantly from the punk scene.”
Not like Lääz Rockit, Dying Angel dived headfirst into the metal-punk crossover motion. “We performed with numerous punk bands,” says Cavestany. “That’s how the crossover factor happened, actually. We performed exhibits with Cro Mags, GBH, DRI, Verbal Abuse, Suicidal Tendencies, DR. Know – we performed with these guys on a regular basis.”
“Poor LA music followers had solely hair bands or punk exhibits, there was no crossover,” says Quintana. “However punks up north went to metallic exhibits, and vice versa. In LA, hardcore punk exhibits had been extraordinarily violent. Suicidal Tendencies couldn’t even play their hometown. They needed to come up north to play. That crossover created plenty of good, normally pleasant competitors within the Bay Space.”
By the mid Eighties, the punk affect on the San Francisco metallic scene was embraced and championed. However the glam bands? Not a lot. “We knew numerous children again then who had been actual adamant about the entire ‘Bang the pinnacle that doesn’t bang’ factor,” says Kettner.
“There have been glam bands in SF, and a few of them had been cool guys,” explains Cavestany. “You bought Jetboy, Sea Hags, Useless. Davey Useless really produced our album, Frolic By means of The Park (1988). We performed exhibits with a few of them within the early days, till thrash bought the ‘kill poseurs’ vibe, after which the strains of separations occurred, the place these children wouldn’t be caught lifeless at one among our exhibits.”
“Like rats, glam was in every single place,” snarls notorious poseur-hater Quintana. “Van Halen was king and even clone bands had huge followings, too.”
Exodus, arguably essentially the most musically violent band within the Bay Space thrash motion, had been additionally essentially the most vocal of their hatred of fishnet-wearing glam-rockers, usually calling for his or her followers to “Kill the poseurs”, wherever they could be discovered. As such, SF thrash exhibits usually devolved into mayhem.
“There was violence occurring within the viewers, for positive,” says Kettner. “Folks had been throwing one another round, however you then’d exit for a beer afterwards. I’m positive there have been a number of those who had been identified for not becoming in inside the scene, or for attempting to behave like one thing you’re not, and people folks would probably be ostracised and/or overwhelmed within the alley. However I wasn’t witnessing that.”
“It was actuality, although,” says Cavestany. “Poseurs did get their asses kicked. Don’t let [original Exodus singer Paul] Baloff catch one among them round.”
“We did get very wild and loopy at factors,” says Kettner. “I’m probably not positive how to take a look at all that as a result of on the one hand, yeah, it was loopy and aggressive, however there was numerous camaraderie on the identical time. I simply keep in mind pondering, ‘Why aren’t we getting arrested?’”
By the late Eighties, when Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth had all graduated to arenas, SF thrash started to mutate into totally different, much less punk-derived strains. Second-wave thrash bands like Testomony and Machine Head added their very own twists, from progressive parts to ‘groove’ into the combination. The unique wave of bands had been both millionaires, cult heroes, or on their final legs. After which the golf equipment began to go up in smoke.
“They closed the Kabuki Theatre,” sighs Kettner. “That place was wonderful, this big previous theatre. I keep in mind seeing Metallica supporting Raven there, Mercyful Destiny… Once you went to a present there, you realised simply how huge this factor was actually turning into. I feel that’s kinda what killed the scene, within the later 80s and early 90s. The Keystone Berkeley burned down, Wolfgang’s burned down, The Stone burned down…”
“Bands and scenes are cyclical, and being a somewhat small metro space, Bay Space thrash bands both bought signed, moved on, broke up or mutated,” says Quintana. “And few might exchange that unique power and energy.”
Initially printed in Metallic Hammer Presents Metallica And Thrash Metallic, July 2008