Arts and Culture

The San Francisco-Vancouver punk connection

By Chris Hoff on February 14, 2011 - 4:41pm
Photo courtesy of Susanne Tabata
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San Francisco’s Independent Film Festival has been running for about a week and a half in theaters all over the City. In this interview, KALW’S Chris Hoff sits down with director Susanne Tabata to talk about her documentary film, “Bloodied But Unbowed,” a chronicle of the rise and fall of Vancouver’s punk scene – which all started in San Francisco.

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SUSANNE TABATA: San Francisco is home to one of the greatest punk clubs in North America – the Mabuhay. The Mabuhay was an open club and programmed in an open manner, so they were open to music that came from Canada. And that’s how Canadian punk rock basically got seeded in the States – was coming into San Francisco.

CHRIS HOFF: One thing that I noticed by watching your film, there was this idea that the Vancouver punk scene was a scene for outsiders, for people who felt out of place, for people who didn’t know where they belonged. That to me sounds like the genesis of any punk scene.

TABATA: Yeah.

HOFF: What were some of the major differentiating characteristics? Was there something special?

TABATA: There probably wasn’t anything special that sparked a genesis. I think the punk movement as it was triggered in many towns across North America – I think those were all triggered by the same mechanism. In Vancouver, I think the mechanism that triggered it was boredom.

HOFF: So this is more of a middle class punk scene?

TABATA: Yes, I think it is more of a middle class punk scene. Now people get very upset about that when we say this was a middle class punk scene with a lot of the musical players coming in from the suburbs. But the musical players who go on to create the biggest body of musical work that is now revered or held up as a tomb of political punk, were from the suburbs, and did come from houses. For better or for worse, the comparison to another city like London, I mean there is no comparison. It was a middle class thing.

Catch “Bloodied But Unbowed” tonight at the San Francisco Indie Filmfest at 7:00 at the Roxie Theater.