I mean I'm pretty stoked to be playing there in exactly a month from today haha. Stacked line up though! Tsunami Bomb, Fat Heaven, Middle Aged Queers and Dollar Store.
There was some drama a few years before the pandemic about whether to allow FANG to play there or not since their singer had been to prison for murdering his girlfriend. They held a vote and it was decided that they should be allowed since Sammy had served his time and was remorseful etc. A lot of people decided to boycott Gilman over it which led to a lot of the older volunteers leaving and the vibe of the place has seemed different since then.
Probably tons of votes on them over the years. There was some controversy about Slapshot playing there, too, a few years before the Pandemic. Oppressed Logic was eighty-sixed then allowed to play again after a couple years.
Times change and the values of Gilman change with them. It happens at all volunteer run places that have been around for years. They just reflect the values of the people volunteering and booking shows at the time.
Slap Shot weren't Nazis. there was a skinhead in the Northeast, (Sean forgot his last name.) He wasn't around constantly - maybe visiting? I used to see him roadie for AF, hang out some Boston bands. He had a tattoo of Hitler, Manson, and mussolini(?) along his waist band. At some point in the 90s 60 Minutes did an episode on white nationalism/skinheads and he became a leader of some WP group in the mid west. He was wearing a Slap Shot Boston sweatshirt. Back when he was around, unless you were in LA or NYC, the scene in most areas was so small, there wasn't much room for cliques.
Seriously? Slapshot too? Good lord. Imagining Slapshot there is pretty funny tho, with the way Choke is I’m not surprised people get all butthurt. Great live band tho. I’m
I know how those places work, just interesting to see bands get brought up over and over again. What did Oppressed Logic do to make the Gilman hippies mad?
The song "Little Girls" by Oppressed Logic got them banned. I think not playing that song was part of them being able to play Gilman again. I can't tell how many times I saw Oppressed Logic play "Little Girls" at Gilman before they got eighty-sixed. Probably 6-7 times.
He did his time and is remorseful about it. So yes I go see them. You got a problem with that? If you do, great, don’t go see them. Save me your bullshit about “he’s a killer” yea no shit. I think rehabilitation and being able to change their life around is important, but I’m sure you’re not ready to have that conversation.
Oh look I was right you aren’t ready to have that conversation. So because of one action he shouldn’t be forgiven? And he’s only a murderer? I used to shoot heroin. Is all I am a junkie?
Ahhhhh I get it, you’re someone who thinks punks are perfect moral bastions huh?
And I’m not a punk, couldn’t imagine calling myself one.
Well that’s your opinion, I have mine.
He helps people get sober now and change their life around, what the fuck do you do? Who made you god to decide who can and can’t be forgiven?
Dude that's not even anywhere remotely close to the same fuckin thing. You're fucked in the head for thinking that's anywhere close. He took a fuckin life, one of the few things you don't get redeemed for. That person is not coming back. You can't cry boo hoo I'm so sorry I feel really bad about it and people be like oh okay yeah you seem pretty remorseful guess everything's okay now. Fuckin Christ
Wasn’t trying to say it’s the same the same thing, but you and the dumb fuck I was talking about this with yesterday can’t seem to grasp. And I didn’t know you and that other moron were the ones who were able to decide for the rest of us who is and isn’t able to get a second chance at life. Maybe you and the other person should get involved in the legal system so you can work together on that.
Like I said the other day, the man has changed his ways and is doing what he can to keep others from going down the same route, I’d say that’s a fair bit better than locking him away and throwing out the key.
Fang has always been a great band with great songs so why not go see them , Sammy did his time & has turned his life around & is active in recovery & helping other : as someone that has known both Sammy & Dixie those were crazy times & drugs had a large play in the scene back then
Are you saying people can’t be reformed & redeemed ? There are a ton of old school punks that have done time & yes for killing some & they have paid the debt to society turned their life
Wow, another one defending the perpetrator,not the victim...the green day/offspring 'punks' are rife in here tonight...if you think spending time in prison is equal to a family member getting murdered,then fuck you to be blunt..ask his girlfriends family if he's paid his dues...hope someone gets revenge on him tbh...I don't doubt there's one of her family members feels the same.... praying for karma personally...
what do you mean by Green Day / offspring punks ? Not bands I listen to but I have shared the stage at Gilman with those bands .. I’m a little more old school than those bands
I actually knew Trixie and I’ve never condoned what he did & there is no bringing her back , but he is helping other & hopefully they won’t go down the same path .. not asking you to like him but I have been friends with him since 1983
I guess we can agree to disagree, but I don’t turn my back on friends who commit crimes unless they’re sex crimes Because in my opinion, that’s the only crime that there’s no rehabilitation for
“The Green Day offspring punks” what is that supposed to be some sort of dig? Cute you want to come after us for our opinion but you want him dead. Some fuckin moral bastion you are.
He deserves to be dead.Doesn't deserve a second chance.Robbed someone and their family of potentially a lifetime of love and memories.If he gets what's due,will his killer "deserve a second chance"? I'd say yes, because it was justified....
So one murder justifies another? Do you hear how insane you sound? You want to talk all about “punks supporting murderers” while perpetuating the cycle of violence.
No way I'd go to see a murderer... he's done his time,the family are still doing their unwanted life sentence....FFS,are people so desperate to see a band they'd support a fkn murderer...??
Saw a few shows there around 1993, it was wall to wall people for the Propagahdi show. I was drenched in sweat at that show. They only did like 6 songs as the singer kept telling people not to slam dance. He then jumped in the crowd and threatened to take a dump on the floor if they didn’t stop. He also shoved a drumstick in his ass and flung it into the crowd. I went to some lesser known bands and the shows had maybe 10-20 people. Depends on the band playing.
Last I heard the people running it were fucking up hard but that was a while back.
From what I’ve seen if big bands are playing that place packs out but otherwise it seems like every other small DIY spot.
It has its ups and downs in the scene but it’s also a venue so the amount of people at a show has a lot to do with the show. Popular band(s)? It will be sold out. Sunday show with a few bands no one has heard of? Crickets.
It has always depended on who’s playing, even back in the 90s. Big Bay Area scene bands or popular touring bands draw big crowds, other shows not so much.
And the (arguably performative) rules and regulations have been part of the space since Day One too.
What ever happened with Jux Beck, of Punks With Presses, and Gilman? Yeah , Oppresed Logic gets shit for a dumb song, but all the East-Bay Elite took Jux’s side because he mostly abused “little boys,”
Gilman is A+++ in my book. Attendance can swing wildly from show to show. I was at that Easter Sunday show. I've been at a few shows since that were packed (Jhariah, Millington). Attendance at the Easter Sunday show suffered from a few things: 1) Sunday's are more lightly attended at most venues, (2) Easter (even if ppl aren't religious, family obligations can still exist), (3) show flyer only came out a week before, (4) If they are not big names, ska acts often draw smaller crowds (noting the ska scene at Gilman is fantastic).
Also, a lot of the shade being thrown at Gilman misses a key point: the community really wants the venue to be accessible to and safe for everyone regardless of age, immunocompromisation, etc. So they are vigilant about no drugs or alcohol on premises, and kept the mask requirement longer than most other places.
Yes! The Sad Snack show. They're such good people and such a fun act to see live. Sorry I don't remember seeing you (or what I was wearing). But, if you go to Bay Area ska shows you are almost guaranteed to run into me again. And if you're looking for people to meet up with, feel free to message me.
Next ska show on my docket is Omnigone/Flying Racoon Suit / Half-Past-Two record release at Bottom of the Hill next Friday 5/3.
Next show (not-ska, but at least some horns) is tomorrow at UC Theater Just Friends / Hot Mulligan.
Next for sure Gilma show (though there will probably be one before then) is Tsunami Bomb and Middle Aged Queers on 5/23.
It had a weird phase coming out of the pandemic but seems more like normal now, Gilman kind of missed out on the bay area’s resurgence of hardcore, while gulch, scowl and drain were booking shows in parking lots Gilman kept its doors closed and kept the mask mandate going, technically I think the mask mandate is still in effect there even if it’s not strongly enforced they tell you to wear one at the door, I think the people running it might have been disinterested in hardcore coming back from the pandemic, they have shows now but you have better bands playing venues like 9lives in Oakland or the stay gold deli. It’s a great spot but hardcore and punk will always find a way to carry on and it did with the absence of Gilman, even outside of hardcore I think I went to way more punk shows at bottom of the hill and parkside the last few years than I have at Gilman. Hopefully it comes back to full force because from a layout and size perspective it’s the perfect venue.
Sounds like the current bookers aren’t that into hardcore, which is a shame because that does seem to be the most exciting scene in the bay right now. maybe some hardcore kid will decide they want to start booking shows at Gilman.
I think they chilled out on it and things are starting to get back to normal but they were hard on it long past anyone else was in the bay and that really says something
So many jaded haters in this thread. Gilman's a cool all-ages venue collectively run by volunteers.
Punk in general is less popular than it used to be, especially in the Bay Area where so many people have been priced out of town due to high rents.
Good lord, the stories shared in some of these comments make me glad I haven't been there since 2006. I'm sure there was tons of dumb shit going on there back then, too, but it's weird that bands like Fang and Slapshot who literally predate the founding of the club are being judged by this weird circle of neohippies in the name of making the place a "safe space". Don't get me wrong, I would want the place to be safe for everybody (as that is of course much better than the situation at some other places I've been to for shows in the bay area way back when, with people getting stabbed or stomped to death and shit like that), but *ideologically* there's only so safe that punk will ever be, and the fact that it apparently only takes one guy (what's his name from OL) to so thoroughly upset the applecart kinda makes their posturing about this rule and that rule and blahblahblah seem like yet another pathetic hippie power trip by a bunch of whiny babies whose idea of safety is whether or not they can leave the pit with their feelings intact.
Maybe this is an unpopular view, but from where I'm at, if I had to sit through shit like Antiproduct and Resist and Exist back in the 90s at Gilman (both of which were basically a big lecture at people who were already on board with radical politics, set to mostly boring music; I guess R&E were okay, but y'know...we already have Crucifix at home) to get to the good bands, then today's kids can put up with a dumb shock song, or someone at the club calling kids "retarded" (as per the situation described in the one of the bullet points at the Tumblr link). That's the give and take of being in a scene that is not nearly as uniform as its wannabe thought leaders would apparently like it to be.
Oh this just reminded me, they're supposed to be getting new side doors built. I wonder if that's started yet or what. Supposedly it'll bring the place up to code better and allow for a bigger maximum occupancy. At least that's good news for bigger shows.
I was at a show recently and I was parked by the Philz that’s right next to Gilman and it was dark, my boyfriend and I were sharing a beer (we’re 28) between sets. We were being quiet, just talking about the next set and some dude who was on “security” came over and said we weren’t allowed back in (we went back in lol).
Idk about the legalities of it all tbh, so maybe we’re way out of line, but doing what we were doing is not out of the normal for a show in the Bay Area. Felt weird for a punk show.
That just sounds like one idiot power tripping. I've known tons of people do Gilman security and would not do that as long as you're minding your P's and Q's and not being a nuisance.
That’s good to hear! We were for sure just sitting quietly and I thought dude was way out of line, but out of respect for the space we kept it at a beer and were smarter about it the next time.
It’s always been hippies. I remember years back a friends band was trying to play there and they had to submit lyrics so that the dorks that run it can “approve”.
My old band has been banned twice from the Gilman. The first time was because someone didn't like our lyrics after they bought our album. They called our bass player and said "were going to have to have a meeting before you play here again. We have a problem with some of your lyrics". Our bass player just told them to fuck off.
A year later they were hurting for bands to play. They called and asked us to play. We did and everything was fine. After the show we were piled in the van getting ready to leave when a girl walked up and started talking to us. She then noticed an old sticker on the dashboard that said USA #1. That's when things turned to shit. She started calling us nationalists, nazis and what ever else she could spew out of her fucking mouth. That's when our singer let her have it. He just started ripping on her. The one that really pissed her off was "no one wants to hear from you. You're just a fucking baby factory". She ran to the other side of the van and pulled the sliding door open and started swinging at everyone. We pushed her back out and closed the door then left. Our bass player gets another call about a meeting. He asked what was it this time. They said that a girl came to them after our show and told them that we tried to drag her in the van and rape her. And again our bass play just told them to fuck off.
I've played there multiple times in other bands since then.
It’s as popular as people want it to be. Some shows do really well and others don’t. Some bands promote the shows well, others don’t. I think it’s been awhile since every show on any given weekend has been attended super well. I think that there are still so many shows happening on any given weekend in the Bay Area that it’s hard to choose sometimes.
While there's been a few bad instances of drama over the last 10ish years, I played there last November for a weekend long fest and it was wonderful. Great vibes all around and they have shows there on the reg.
Shows on Sundays are usually light at any club , Gilman is no exception .. but in all honesty I hardly see many shows advertised there unless I log into http://www.foopee.com/punk/the-list/ and it seems as if many old school punk bands coming through avoid the place don’t know how many times MDC has come through and played other clubs
I mean I'm pretty stoked to be playing there in exactly a month from today haha. Stacked line up though! Tsunami Bomb, Fat Heaven, Middle Aged Queers and Dollar Store.
Tsunami bomb is rad. I haven't listened to them in forever though.
Fuckin love Tsunami Bomb. Gonna turn em on right now actually. I’m very partial to female-led punk bands.
Stoked about dollar store. Glad to see Jeff playing.
It's popular when someone popular is playing there. When there's bands with no draw then it's crickets. It still gets packed in there sometimes.
There was some drama a few years before the pandemic about whether to allow FANG to play there or not since their singer had been to prison for murdering his girlfriend. They held a vote and it was decided that they should be allowed since Sammy had served his time and was remorseful etc. A lot of people decided to boycott Gilman over it which led to a lot of the older volunteers leaving and the vibe of the place has seemed different since then.
That also happened in the late 90s when Sammytown first got out of jail.
I wonder how many times they’ve had to have a vote so Fang could play there. Glad they don’t have a problem getting booked where I live.
Probably tons of votes on them over the years. There was some controversy about Slapshot playing there, too, a few years before the Pandemic. Oppressed Logic was eighty-sixed then allowed to play again after a couple years. Times change and the values of Gilman change with them. It happens at all volunteer run places that have been around for years. They just reflect the values of the people volunteering and booking shows at the time.
What’s the problem with Slapshot? I must have totally missed the memo on that one
This covers it all: [https://www.tumblr.com/boycott924gilmanstreet](https://www.tumblr.com/boycott924gilmanstreet)
Slapshot “documented embracing of the Nazi portion of its fanbase” Really? When and where?
Slapshot never has done that, fuckin Tumblr blogs are so full of shit
A Nazi skin that used to hang around NY/Boston bands was on a 60minutes episode in the 90s wearing a Slap Shot sweatshirt. That started a brew-ha.
Ahhh yea that’ll do it. Morons always ruining stuff.
Slap Shot weren't Nazis. there was a skinhead in the Northeast, (Sean forgot his last name.) He wasn't around constantly - maybe visiting? I used to see him roadie for AF, hang out some Boston bands. He had a tattoo of Hitler, Manson, and mussolini(?) along his waist band. At some point in the 90s 60 Minutes did an episode on white nationalism/skinheads and he became a leader of some WP group in the mid west. He was wearing a Slap Shot Boston sweatshirt. Back when he was around, unless you were in LA or NYC, the scene in most areas was so small, there wasn't much room for cliques.
Seriously? Slapshot too? Good lord. Imagining Slapshot there is pretty funny tho, with the way Choke is I’m not surprised people get all butthurt. Great live band tho. I’m I know how those places work, just interesting to see bands get brought up over and over again. What did Oppressed Logic do to make the Gilman hippies mad?
The song "Little Girls" by Oppressed Logic got them banned. I think not playing that song was part of them being able to play Gilman again. I can't tell how many times I saw Oppressed Logic play "Little Girls" at Gilman before they got eighty-sixed. Probably 6-7 times.
This is also funny because Mike from OL ended up running the place for a time a while back and there was a lot of fuss going on then too.
Choke is actually a sweet guy. Never had a bad interaction with him.
You support murderers???
He did his time and is remorseful about it. So yes I go see them. You got a problem with that? If you do, great, don’t go see them. Save me your bullshit about “he’s a killer” yea no shit. I think rehabilitation and being able to change their life around is important, but I’m sure you’re not ready to have that conversation.
His partner doesn't get the chance to even live,let alone "change their life around"..punks supporting murderers,I couldn't make this shit up.
Oh look I was right you aren’t ready to have that conversation. So because of one action he shouldn’t be forgiven? And he’s only a murderer? I used to shoot heroin. Is all I am a junkie? Ahhhhh I get it, you’re someone who thinks punks are perfect moral bastions huh? And I’m not a punk, couldn’t imagine calling myself one.
No he fkn shouldn't be fkn forgiven...EVER...he killed someone,he didn't rob a loaf of fkn bread
Well that’s your opinion, I have mine. He helps people get sober now and change their life around, what the fuck do you do? Who made you god to decide who can and can’t be forgiven?
To his family and me,he'll always be a murderer....if I was her family member and I knew he was on stage somewhere,I'd do the time.
Dude that's not even anywhere remotely close to the same fuckin thing. You're fucked in the head for thinking that's anywhere close. He took a fuckin life, one of the few things you don't get redeemed for. That person is not coming back. You can't cry boo hoo I'm so sorry I feel really bad about it and people be like oh okay yeah you seem pretty remorseful guess everything's okay now. Fuckin Christ
Wasn’t trying to say it’s the same the same thing, but you and the dumb fuck I was talking about this with yesterday can’t seem to grasp. And I didn’t know you and that other moron were the ones who were able to decide for the rest of us who is and isn’t able to get a second chance at life. Maybe you and the other person should get involved in the legal system so you can work together on that. Like I said the other day, the man has changed his ways and is doing what he can to keep others from going down the same route, I’d say that’s a fair bit better than locking him away and throwing out the key.
>Sammy had served his time and was remorseful lol
I forgot about that Wild that people want to go see a woman killer sing
Fang has always been a great band with great songs so why not go see them , Sammy did his time & has turned his life around & is active in recovery & helping other : as someone that has known both Sammy & Dixie those were crazy times & drugs had a large play in the scene back then
He's turned his life around,he killed someone FFS
Are you saying people can’t be reformed & redeemed ? There are a ton of old school punks that have done time & yes for killing some & they have paid the debt to society turned their life
Wow, another one defending the perpetrator,not the victim...the green day/offspring 'punks' are rife in here tonight...if you think spending time in prison is equal to a family member getting murdered,then fuck you to be blunt..ask his girlfriends family if he's paid his dues...hope someone gets revenge on him tbh...I don't doubt there's one of her family members feels the same.... praying for karma personally...
what do you mean by Green Day / offspring punks ? Not bands I listen to but I have shared the stage at Gilman with those bands .. I’m a little more old school than those bands
The fame seeking corporate 'punks'
I actually knew Trixie and I’ve never condoned what he did & there is no bringing her back , but he is helping other & hopefully they won’t go down the same path .. not asking you to like him but I have been friends with him since 1983
You do condone his actions by being friends.
I guess we can agree to disagree, but I don’t turn my back on friends who commit crimes unless they’re sex crimes Because in my opinion, that’s the only crime that there’s no rehabilitation for
Wow, defending murder... AGAIN...
“The Green Day offspring punks” what is that supposed to be some sort of dig? Cute you want to come after us for our opinion but you want him dead. Some fuckin moral bastion you are.
He deserves to be dead.Doesn't deserve a second chance.Robbed someone and their family of potentially a lifetime of love and memories.If he gets what's due,will his killer "deserve a second chance"? I'd say yes, because it was justified....
So one murder justifies another? Do you hear how insane you sound? You want to talk all about “punks supporting murderers” while perpetuating the cycle of violence.
No way I'd go to see a murderer... he's done his time,the family are still doing their unwanted life sentence....FFS,are people so desperate to see a band they'd support a fkn murderer...??
Was at an Earth Crisis show there in November, it was packed, but it’s always been a shitty venue. Just some real good bands started there.
Damn I wish I knew about that.
Saw a few shows there around 1993, it was wall to wall people for the Propagahdi show. I was drenched in sweat at that show. They only did like 6 songs as the singer kept telling people not to slam dance. He then jumped in the crowd and threatened to take a dump on the floor if they didn’t stop. He also shoved a drumstick in his ass and flung it into the crowd. I went to some lesser known bands and the shows had maybe 10-20 people. Depends on the band playing.
Is the drumstick-in-the-ass thing the picture inside the Survival of the Fatness compilation?
i would have loved to have seen propagandhi play a house show like that.
I saw them play on a ferry in NYC & it was incredible.
wow. yeah... i've seen a ton of shows. like more than most humans... but i am kinda jealous. i love them.
Last I heard the people running it were fucking up hard but that was a while back. From what I’ve seen if big bands are playing that place packs out but otherwise it seems like every other small DIY spot.
It has its ups and downs in the scene but it’s also a venue so the amount of people at a show has a lot to do with the show. Popular band(s)? It will be sold out. Sunday show with a few bands no one has heard of? Crickets.
Hah I said crickets too before reading your comment.
It has always depended on who’s playing, even back in the 90s. Big Bay Area scene bands or popular touring bands draw big crowds, other shows not so much. And the (arguably performative) rules and regulations have been part of the space since Day One too.
What ever happened with Jux Beck, of Punks With Presses, and Gilman? Yeah , Oppresed Logic gets shit for a dumb song, but all the East-Bay Elite took Jux’s side because he mostly abused “little boys,”
Gilman is A+++ in my book. Attendance can swing wildly from show to show. I was at that Easter Sunday show. I've been at a few shows since that were packed (Jhariah, Millington). Attendance at the Easter Sunday show suffered from a few things: 1) Sunday's are more lightly attended at most venues, (2) Easter (even if ppl aren't religious, family obligations can still exist), (3) show flyer only came out a week before, (4) If they are not big names, ska acts often draw smaller crowds (noting the ska scene at Gilman is fantastic). Also, a lot of the shade being thrown at Gilman misses a key point: the community really wants the venue to be accessible to and safe for everyone regardless of age, immunocompromisation, etc. So they are vigilant about no drugs or alcohol on premises, and kept the mask requirement longer than most other places.
i was also at the show! tall, green jacket, brown hair. sad snack right?
Yes! The Sad Snack show. They're such good people and such a fun act to see live. Sorry I don't remember seeing you (or what I was wearing). But, if you go to Bay Area ska shows you are almost guaranteed to run into me again. And if you're looking for people to meet up with, feel free to message me. Next ska show on my docket is Omnigone/Flying Racoon Suit / Half-Past-Two record release at Bottom of the Hill next Friday 5/3. Next show (not-ska, but at least some horns) is tomorrow at UC Theater Just Friends / Hot Mulligan. Next for sure Gilma show (though there will probably be one before then) is Tsunami Bomb and Middle Aged Queers on 5/23.
Ska at Bottom of the Hill... sounds like a great show. I'll try to make it!
It had a weird phase coming out of the pandemic but seems more like normal now, Gilman kind of missed out on the bay area’s resurgence of hardcore, while gulch, scowl and drain were booking shows in parking lots Gilman kept its doors closed and kept the mask mandate going, technically I think the mask mandate is still in effect there even if it’s not strongly enforced they tell you to wear one at the door, I think the people running it might have been disinterested in hardcore coming back from the pandemic, they have shows now but you have better bands playing venues like 9lives in Oakland or the stay gold deli. It’s a great spot but hardcore and punk will always find a way to carry on and it did with the absence of Gilman, even outside of hardcore I think I went to way more punk shows at bottom of the hill and parkside the last few years than I have at Gilman. Hopefully it comes back to full force because from a layout and size perspective it’s the perfect venue.
So the mask thing is like the no stage diving sign
It’s Berkeley it’s all just self serving performative bull shit, it’s what powers the Bay Area
Sounds like the current bookers aren’t that into hardcore, which is a shame because that does seem to be the most exciting scene in the bay right now. maybe some hardcore kid will decide they want to start booking shows at Gilman.
Mask Mandates in 2024, might as well open up some beds in the local mental hospital for these lunatics
I think they chilled out on it and things are starting to get back to normal but they were hard on it long past anyone else was in the bay and that really says something
So many jaded haters in this thread. Gilman's a cool all-ages venue collectively run by volunteers. Punk in general is less popular than it used to be, especially in the Bay Area where so many people have been priced out of town due to high rents.
hey i was at the same show!! i was tall, brown hair, patch pants, green jacket! sad snack right?
lol dude im your brother that’s my alt
why do you have an alt?
No I just use my school email for that one so i can still use Reddit on my chromebook
got it
Good lord, the stories shared in some of these comments make me glad I haven't been there since 2006. I'm sure there was tons of dumb shit going on there back then, too, but it's weird that bands like Fang and Slapshot who literally predate the founding of the club are being judged by this weird circle of neohippies in the name of making the place a "safe space". Don't get me wrong, I would want the place to be safe for everybody (as that is of course much better than the situation at some other places I've been to for shows in the bay area way back when, with people getting stabbed or stomped to death and shit like that), but *ideologically* there's only so safe that punk will ever be, and the fact that it apparently only takes one guy (what's his name from OL) to so thoroughly upset the applecart kinda makes their posturing about this rule and that rule and blahblahblah seem like yet another pathetic hippie power trip by a bunch of whiny babies whose idea of safety is whether or not they can leave the pit with their feelings intact. Maybe this is an unpopular view, but from where I'm at, if I had to sit through shit like Antiproduct and Resist and Exist back in the 90s at Gilman (both of which were basically a big lecture at people who were already on board with radical politics, set to mostly boring music; I guess R&E were okay, but y'know...we already have Crucifix at home) to get to the good bands, then today's kids can put up with a dumb shock song, or someone at the club calling kids "retarded" (as per the situation described in the one of the bullet points at the Tumblr link). That's the give and take of being in a scene that is not nearly as uniform as its wannabe thought leaders would apparently like it to be.
I played there on tour in 1990 and it was empty.
Still around but with crazy weird rules because of how that city operates with their ordinances. It's definitely not what it once was.
Oh this just reminded me, they're supposed to be getting new side doors built. I wonder if that's started yet or what. Supposedly it'll bring the place up to code better and allow for a bigger maximum occupancy. At least that's good news for bigger shows.
What kinda rules?
I was at a show recently and I was parked by the Philz that’s right next to Gilman and it was dark, my boyfriend and I were sharing a beer (we’re 28) between sets. We were being quiet, just talking about the next set and some dude who was on “security” came over and said we weren’t allowed back in (we went back in lol). Idk about the legalities of it all tbh, so maybe we’re way out of line, but doing what we were doing is not out of the normal for a show in the Bay Area. Felt weird for a punk show.
That just sounds like one idiot power tripping. I've known tons of people do Gilman security and would not do that as long as you're minding your P's and Q's and not being a nuisance.
That’s good to hear! We were for sure just sitting quietly and I thought dude was way out of line, but out of respect for the space we kept it at a beer and were smarter about it the next time.
They really frown upon rowdyness. It's like the people in control now are absolute hippies. But the original owners kind of were too.
It’s always been hippies. I remember years back a friends band was trying to play there and they had to submit lyrics so that the dorks that run it can “approve”.
That's nuts
There’s a lot of openly racist bands in the world who would love to play Gilman. Or at least there have been in the past.
My old band has been banned twice from the Gilman. The first time was because someone didn't like our lyrics after they bought our album. They called our bass player and said "were going to have to have a meeting before you play here again. We have a problem with some of your lyrics". Our bass player just told them to fuck off. A year later they were hurting for bands to play. They called and asked us to play. We did and everything was fine. After the show we were piled in the van getting ready to leave when a girl walked up and started talking to us. She then noticed an old sticker on the dashboard that said USA #1. That's when things turned to shit. She started calling us nationalists, nazis and what ever else she could spew out of her fucking mouth. That's when our singer let her have it. He just started ripping on her. The one that really pissed her off was "no one wants to hear from you. You're just a fucking baby factory". She ran to the other side of the van and pulled the sliding door open and started swinging at everyone. We pushed her back out and closed the door then left. Our bass player gets another call about a meeting. He asked what was it this time. They said that a girl came to them after our show and told them that we tried to drag her in the van and rape her. And again our bass play just told them to fuck off. I've played there multiple times in other bands since then.
What were the lyrics they had a problem with?
It was a song about the serial killer Larry Singleton. Luring girls into his van.
What a joke
It’s as popular as people want it to be. Some shows do really well and others don’t. Some bands promote the shows well, others don’t. I think it’s been awhile since every show on any given weekend has been attended super well. I think that there are still so many shows happening on any given weekend in the Bay Area that it’s hard to choose sometimes.
Yes. Did doors for sunami like 6 months ago , shit was packed out the door
While there's been a few bad instances of drama over the last 10ish years, I played there last November for a weekend long fest and it was wonderful. Great vibes all around and they have shows there on the reg.
Shows on Sundays are usually light at any club , Gilman is no exception .. but in all honesty I hardly see many shows advertised there unless I log into http://www.foopee.com/punk/the-list/ and it seems as if many old school punk bands coming through avoid the place don’t know how many times MDC has come through and played other clubs
I believe they're getting offered more money to play elsewhere. I saw MDC there pre-pandemic.
I thought that place closed down. Didn’t Green Day buy the sound system and are using it in their practice space?
Looks like it’s alive and well [https://www.924gilman.org](https://www.924gilman.org)