Dead Kennedys — Mabuhay Gardens, San Francisco

The Mabuhay Gardens at 443 Broadway in North Beach was San Francisco's answer to CBGB — the club that incubated the West Coast punk scene and served as home base for the Dead Kennedys, the Avengers, the Mutants, and dozens of other bands from 1977 onwards. The Dead Kennedys, formed in 1978 with Jello Biafra (Eric Boucher) as vocalist, were the most politically confrontational and musically adventurous American punk band. Their debut single, 'California Über Alles,' a savage satire of Governor Jerry Brown, established their template of radical politics wrapped in fast, precise hardcore.

Jello Biafra ran for Mayor of San Francisco in 1979 on a platform that included requiring businessmen to wear clown suits in public, finishing fourth out of a ten-candidate field. The band's albums — Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, Plastic Surgery Disasters, Frankenchrist — were released on their own Alternative Tentacles label and became landmarks of American hardcore. The obscenity trial triggered by a poster included in Frankenchrist, in which Biafra and the band were charged with distributing harmful material to minors, became a cause célèbre of free speech activism.

The Mabuhay Gardens no longer exists in its original form. The Broadway address in North Beach has seen various subsequent tenants. San Francisco's North Beach neighbourhood retains its bohemian character — the City Lights Bookstore, Vesuvio bar, and Caffe Trieste are all within walking distance — and the club's location is part of a rich cultural geography.