The Deaf Club - Founding

Founding

Robert Hanrahan, manager of the The Offs discovered the San Francisco Club for the Deaf, and was able to rent it on a nightly basis.

The first show as the Deaf Club on 9 December 1978 featured the Offs, The Mutants and On The Rag. Over 100 bands such as Northern California's The Units, The Zeros, Crime, The Dils, Flipper and Southern California's The Bags, Alleycats, The Germs, X and Dinettes would play this small underground club.

Given the unique nature of the venue and its location in the Mission District near 16th Street and the Roxie Theater, it was enthusiastically supported by the punk and arts community, visited by film greats like John Waters and occasionally challenged by the officials of the San Francisco noise abatement patrol, the police, fire department, health department and the alcohol and beverage control until it closed.

The house DJs were Enrico Chandoha who worked on the editorial staff of the early Thrasher Magazine; Jack Fan (an Offs road manager and chef at the Zuni); BBC celebrity Johnnie Walker; and Robert Hanrahan.

About such venues, Brendan Earley of The Mutants comments:

"The earthiness, I guess, of playing places like the Deaf Club seemed to have a lot more energy to them. You know the crowd that started coming to this music in '77, it was maybe a peak of their scene, or the scene at that time. They were not normal kinds of clubs, they weren't places like the Stone, or even the Mabuhay, really. They were neat places to play; often good audiences, and good energy going on."

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