A TRAIN RIDE DOWN MEMORY LANE
My first conversation with an OG SF metalhead
NPZ #1 — NOVEMBER 2024 — PAGE 8
I noticed a smattering of people I’d seen at the show heading for the station with me, including a guy with a vest and a Testament hat. As per usual, I was on the back and forth of approaching and saying something. I’m introverted, it’d been a long night, and my phone was dying. But I saw he had a Sepultura Roots back patch, and decided fuck it. As we transferred from the orange to yellow bart line, I followed the guy and asked, “yo can I take a photo of your vest?” (My friend Nico, see pg. 6, loves Roots). I made small talk about the recent Sepultura farewell tour at the Warfield that I ended up missing, and he was kinda questioning: is it really the same without the Cavalera brothers? We ended up talking the rest of the way back to SF.
He told me about being an SF native, and was more part of the second wave of thrash, like Death Angel and Testament; I asked for Testament album recs but I can’t remember them for certain, that’s my bad. We also talked about old venues in the area, “Man, I miss The Stone”, and how the venues started to have conflicts with the scene and would shut down shows that got rowdy, especially as the bands would attract larger crowds than smaller venues would tolerate. He also told me stories about getting beat up by hardcore punks before thrash really blew up, since the punk shows were the only alternative shows to go to, and there were conflicts between the punks, skinheads, and metalheads that would turn physically violent. I was pretty speechless, it sounds like something from a movie to me, who has gone to a good amount of punk and metal shows, where the vibes are definitely more inclusive. The guy himself reflected how it was the governments/oppressors way of pitting people against each other so they wouldn’t focus on the real-world problems. I’d be curious to learn more about this, especially considering the super politically charged punk scene, versus the metal scene that perhaps isn’t as based around political activism.
I asked some questions about how the scene has changed through time, and is there a comeback right now? He talked about how, following the historical 1990s Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, and Suicidal Tendencies, he said the aftermath felt a little bit “like graduation.” Like, after such a significant accomplishment, it felt weird to go back to the small clubs. We also talked some about how the scene kind of changed as people started to mix genres on show lineups, like introducing death metal, then grind core, then grunge, etc. which would catch the attention of people and leave thrash behind through the 90s. But obviously, with social media, it’s not likely that a scene can grow in the way it did back in the 80s.
Something else that really stood out to me was when he told me about “the first metal band in SF” which was called Stone Vengeance; I hadn’t heard of them before, and later discovered they started in 1978! He said they were from Hunter’s Point, and had black members, which was unexpected in the scene, and perhaps part of why they didn’t gain the same recognition as other Bay Area bands. He also told me to check out Overkill, also an older East Coast band from 1980.
I did talk a bit about wanting to go to the Exodus/Havok and Death Angel shows later on. He told me a story about having a friend who was connected in some way to Death Angel, forgot the exact details, and going up to his room to find it covered with Death Angel photos. Also, the first show of the Filipino-American band being “half metalheads, half Filipinos” including family members of the bands, even grandparents, who had come to support the band. As an Asian American (more on that pg. 12), that kind of story is just so endearing and funny to imagine.
I can’t remember everything the guy talked about, especially being on the loud ass Bart, but maybe I could get in contact to hear more anecdotes (he said he was part of the SF City College radio station back in the day I think? Pretty sick). He said he’d be at a 11/29 show at the DNA lounge, one of the few surviving venues from the older days 1985, so I might track him down there. Not gonna drop a name for privacy, but also don’t know if I totally caught the pronunciation since we introduced ourselves as I was leaving for the M, sorry dude!
On the way home, I reflected that I am still really new to the scene and should definitely try to talk more to people. And not just talk, but rather listen to people’s stories. I have a pretty narrow perspective of the culture, being only 22 and not growing up around anyone from the old scene days, and there’s only so much I can get from reading books or wikipedia articles. The Bay Area Thrash era is really alluring to metalheads like myself, but I’m also finding like it wasn’t some shiny golden era that was deliberate and intentional, but really just a bunch of people passionate about the music finding a strong community.
Photos: (Top) AN OG BAY AREA "2ND WAVE" THRASHER; (Bottom) FLYER BY DNA LOUNGE
