Tenderloin Museum and Great American Music Hall co-present Flipper (ft. Fletcher from The Garden on vocals), The Mutants, & Longshoremen together for a special evening of live music that celebrates punk’s under documented roots in the Tenderloin, and its crossover with the edgy performance art world of the 1980s. 

This show is programmed as part of Punk/Performance in the Loin, a gallery show and series of oral histories organized by the video artist Dale Hoyt that explore how punk rock and performance art blurred together in the crucible of the gritty 1980s Tenderloin. On view in the Tenderloin Museum gallery May 5th - July 2nd 2022, Hoyt’s exhibition is organized around three Tenderloin hotspots for the intersection of punk/performance: Sound of Music, Club Generic, & A.R.E./Jetwave.

Located at 162 Turk St. in the heart of the TL, Sound of Music hosted many punk bands that were too outre or just plain amateurish for the more mainstream punk scene that developed at iconic North Beach venues like the Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway. Flipper’s slowed down, heavier than hell sound was idiosyncratic for its time, running against the speedy ‘hardcore’ that was revving up amongst the post Mabuhay SF punk scene. Nevertheless, Flipper developed a cult following and influenced countless bands, including the Melvins and, most famously, Nirvana. Flipper’s TL bona fides run deep: not only did they frequent the Sound of Music, they practiced across the street at Turk St. Studios, cut records at Hyde Street Studio, and even leveraged their non-musical skills in construction work to build out the studio during its 1980s remodel.

The Mutants and Longshoremen are both prime examples of what happens when punk and performance art collide. The Mutants brought a raucous theatricality to punk music, and their songs oozed with zany wit that captured the zeitgeist of American counterculture in the late ‘70s &  early ‘80s. The current lineup of The Mutants features both Connie Champagne and Mia d’Bruzzi, the latter of whom tended bar at the Sound of Music and frequently performed at the club with her band Frightwig. The Longshoremen combined spoken word with art rock, earning the band the evocative description in the Trouser Press as a “cryptic poetry damage vocal trio.” Comprised of a poet named Dave Swan (fka “Dog”) and Judy Gittelsohn and Carol Detweiler from a campy new wave ensemble known as the Inflatable Boy Clams, the Longshoremen ushered the spirit of Beat poetry into the punk generation. 

Don’t miss this rare chance to see three groups that are actively sustaining the Tenderloin’s spirit of punk rock and performance art in the TL’s most iconic venue, the Great American Music Hall! Tickets are available online and in-person at the GAMH box office (859 O’Farrell St. SF, CA 94109). This special evening with Flipper, The Mutants, & the Longshoremen is part of the Sounds of the Tenderloin, a live music series organized by the Tenderloin Museum and generously funded by Hardly Strictly Bluegrass that aims to animate the neighborhood’s undersung cultural history through live music.

Thursday May 26, 2022 | Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm

*show takes place at Great American Music Hall! 859 O’Farrell St. SF, CA 94109*

$28 advance tickets available online here or in person at the GAMH box office (no fees) | $33 at the door