Mabuhay Gardens

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The Mabuhay Gardens (aka The Fab Mab) was a San Francisco nightclub located at 443 Broadway, on the Broadway strip of North Beach, an area best known for its strip clubs.

Originally a Filipino restaurant and club owned by Ness Aquino, it featured many Filipino celebrities, including Miss Amapola Cabase. Aquino and Amapola also co-hosted a weekly television program, The Amapola Presents Show on KEMO-TV Channel 20.[1]

In 1976, Aquino agreed to have rock promoter and television producer Dirk Dirksen book punk and new wave bands there; it soon became one of the main venues for punk rock in San Francisco in the late 1970s and early 1980s (a sort of west coast CBGBs). Virtually every early Bay Area punk and new wave band performed there at one time or another, and it was an important touring stop for bands from beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. Among the bands that performed there were the Dead Kennedys, Flipper, Romeo Void, The Sheets, Black Flag, The Dictators, Roky Erickson, The Nuns, The Offs, The Mutants, The Avengers, Anti-Matter, The Damned, Devo, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Hüsker Dü, D.O.A., The Screamers, Minutemen, DRI, Redd Kross, JFA, Blind Illusion, Anvil Chorus, Black Wülf, Megadeth, and Metallica. Comedian Whoopi Goldberg also made early appearances at the venue.[2]

Dirksen had a unique style as emcee, deliberately baiting and trading insults with audience and band members, which had the effect of raising the energy of audience and performers alike. Dirksen's abrasive persona (which was largely a performance) was a central part of the atmosphere of the Mabuhay.

The Mabuhay Gardens shut down in 1986. As of 2006, the building housed a "Yuppie" nightclub, which was called The Velvet Lounge. The Velvet Lounge booked a few punk shows in 2003 with the intention of promoting them as "Fab Mab" shows. However, Dirksen denied them the use of this name, to which he held the trademark. A "Fab Mab Reunion" -- emceed by Dirk Dirksen -- took place on April 8, 2006 [3] at The Fillmore and not at The Velvet Lounge.

The venue was again opened in September 2007 under the name Club 443, endearingly called the "Old Mab" by its faithful patrons. T&T Presents, an SF based music promotions agency which booked many punk and metal shows at the Mabuhay from the late 1970's through early '80's, are collaborating with Club 443 to bring metal back as it was in its heyday.

An upstairs section of the same building also housed the On Broadway, a second nightclub run by Dirksen upon his departure from the Mab.