Phil Kettner remembers the primary time he noticed Metallica reside. “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 large factor, however this was one thing fully new.
Metallica performed their first present in San Francisco at The Stone in September 1982. Inside a number of months, they’d relocated to the 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 steel.
“‘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 Steel Mania fanzine, which exhaustively coated the San Francisco steel 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 believe it was extra in 1984, with speedsters like Exodus, Slayer, Possessed, and Suicidal Tendencies, that we referred to as them thrash and never simply steel or punk.”
No matter what it was referred to 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, Demise 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 everywhere in 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 report shops and hangouts, a wholesome faculty radio scene and a smattering of enthusiastic fanzines masking 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 commonly reported within the annals of steel?
“[SF radio stations] KUSF and KALX had been taking part in excessive steel in 1982, so NWOBHM was outdated hat by the point,” says Quintana. “Lars and firm might play two Diamond Head and one Blitzkrieg tune at any viewers, however there have been two superb report import shops and tons of Tower LP shops supplying the maniac habits of followers.”
“The unbiased report shops had been nice,” says Rob Cavestany, guitarist and co-founder of Demise Angel, one of many first and absolutely the youngest of the Bay Space thrash bands. “There was the File Trade and the File Vault. These had been the principle outlets, the place all of the metalheads would come down and discover the most recent new releases and listen to in regards to 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, nonetheless, 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 manner 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 certain.”
“The exhibits had been all the time completely packed,” provides Kettner. “There have been a variety of 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 truly 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 a variety of future musicians in these crowds,” remembers Quintana. “However there have been a lot 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 outdated 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 happening, there have been events, issues like that we performed. And the opposite occasions, when there was some type of age restriction, they mainly 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 properly.”
Punk Rock was alive and properly in San Francisco in 1982, though not all the steel bands on the town embraced it. “It was fairly segregated,” says Kettner. “I’m certain there have been individuals from each these scenes that went to completely different exhibits however we didn’t guide 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 believe it will have opened individuals’s eyes. That’s the place the thrash factor got here from, it crossed over from the punk component. Take into account the circle mosh and stage diving and stuff like that – that got here instantly from the punk scene.”
In contrast to Lääz Rockit, Demise Angel dived headfirst into the metal-punk crossover motion. “We performed with a variety of 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 steel 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 a lot of good, often pleasant competitors within the Bay Space.”
By the mid Nineteen Eighties, the punk affect on the San Francisco steel scene was embraced and championed. However the glam bands? Not a lot. “We knew a variety of youngsters 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 truly produced our album, Frolic By means of The Park (1988). We performed exhibits with a few of them within the early days, till thrash obtained the ‘kill poseurs’ vibe, after which the strains of separations occurred, the place these youngsters wouldn’t be caught useless at one in all our exhibits.”
“Like rats, glam was in every single place,” snarls notorious poseur-hater Quintana. “Van Halen was king and even clone bands had large followings, too.”
Exodus, arguably probably the most musically violent band within the Bay Space thrash motion, had been additionally probably 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 happening within the viewers, for certain,” says Kettner. “Individuals had been throwing one another round, however you then’d exit for a beer afterwards. I’m certain there have been a number of those that had been identified for not becoming in inside the scene, or for attempting to behave like one thing you’re not, and people individuals would almost certainly be ostracised and/or crushed 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 in all them round.”
“We did get very wild and loopy at factors,” says Kettner. “I’m not likely certain how to have a look at all that as a result of on the one hand, yeah, it was loopy and aggressive, however there was a variety of camaraderie on the similar time. I simply keep in mind considering, ‘Why aren’t we getting arrested?’”
By the late Nineteen Eighties, when Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth had all graduated to arenas, SF thrash started to mutate into completely 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 combo. 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 superb, this big outdated theatre. I keep in mind seeing Metallica supporting Raven there, Mercyful Destiny… If you went to a present there, you realised simply how large this factor was actually turning into. I believe 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 quite small metro space, Bay Space thrash bands both obtained signed, moved on, broke up or mutated,” says Quintana. “And few might exchange that unique vitality and energy.”
Initially printed in Steel Hammer Presents Metallica And Thrash Steel, July 2008
