#015 – 924 Gilman (Berkeley, CA)

Changed to comfortable sneakers; dropped off my stuffy jacket in the car; grabbed the low-light calibrated Sony A7II; and oh some pairs of earplug in case of bombarding sound assault.

Here I am in my late 20s entering the now familiar facade of punk rock mecca otherwise known as Gilman.

My first attendance to punk show was to see a slew of underground hardcore bands in the basement of Shinjuku ACB (live house) in Tokyo. I was 16 or so at the time, and disadvantaged by the fact of living in the remote island every opportunity to visit my homeland has turned into a grand opportunity to check out some cool bands and sound style that I was into at the time. Bands that I saw there — Endzweck, the stiff, Nitro Mega Prayer, and Bane — were raising their hyper realistic parabola antennas to emit cacophonic transmission that intersected with my expectation.

If you haven’t been to punk shows in Japan, let me tell you straight up it’s an experience. It’s quite different from here in the US.
First of all, show goers in Japan doesn’t consider smoking cigarette inside the music venue as impolite activity. I’m pretty sure this is illegal anywhere in metropolitan areas of US, but it is just common thing to see in Japan. Not only this naturally occurring smoke effect inside the venue appears rather strange part of culture, it is also very common to see even a small studio size show is quite well attended by people. I have never attended a single studio show in Japan that was not packed like rush hour commuter train. These smaller shows are usually high in DIY spirit starting from tiny refreshment bar and distribution of zines. To make it even more interesting, most of the bands that play at these venues typically draw large fan followers from wide age range as well as cross genre and music popularity. I am confident to say that musical taste of common music listeners in Japan is quite diverse and ever so open to new discovery in comparison to general audience in the US. There isn’t really a clear border between underground and mainstream music in Japan and many interesting things has happened in the music industry that further blurred that line.

I still remember the inexplicable “thrill” that I felt when I first climbed down the narrow smokey stairways to the bottom of Shinjuku ACB. There was zero sign of hipsters or scenesters down there, just a pack of common people who just finished their shitty day at the office or school standing there waiting patiently for music to start. It was this live house environment that greatly influenced me in digging into underground music and expand my taste palette.

924 Gilman is the mecca of Bay Area punk rock where people in the know go regularly to enjoy the music in the way they are intended. Local legends like Green Day, Operation Ivy, and Rancid all hold their roots deep down at this place and thus it is continued to be recognized as one of the most important cradle of punk rock music in Northern California.

Although its tattered and graffitied interior may quickly arouse alert signal to upper class audience who are used to cocktail serving refined concert venues, this is the place to be if you are going to see the legendary (or soon to be legend) punk rock acts. There is really nowhere like Gilman that makes me feel like going to a great punk rock show and also gives me that thrill that I used to taste when I first attended the show as a kid.
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