A Hell On Earth: Discharge live in San Francisco, 1986
Flyer from the collection of Nate Wilson
Stories of Discharge's disastrous 1986 US tour quickly spread while it was still happening in the pre-internet age era. Tales of the band being heckled off stage, jeered, and essentially assaulted have remained the stuff of punk lore ever since. One of the more fabled events during the tour was when HR from the Bad Brains infamously heaved a bag of wet garbage from the balcony of the Ritz in New York City on band. It landed on guitarist Fish's pedal board below and cut their set short. But there were numerous other events.
One of these was their gig at San Francisco's The Farm. It was one of the final stops on the tour, and the band had taken already been subjected to nightly abuse across the country. Unfortunately for Discharge, a similar scene unfolded with unruly fans who were expecting to hear the hardcore protest punk that had made them popular. But it was not to be, as they were playing tracks off their new "Grave New World" album exclusively.
In the audience at that San Francisco gig was Nate Wilson (later of Gloom Records, Devoid Of Faith, and more). Nate had his Walkman with him and captured the debacle on tape. It sounds like quite the spectacle to say the least with all of the anger hurled at the band captured on cassette. Here he details his memories of the gig…
The Farm was a truly amazing San Francisco Bay Area venue during the 1980s. It was an actual farm with vegetable gardens, goats, cows, pigs, chickens etc., but also had a huge upstairs space that had been converted into a concert hall with a large stage. They would put on hardcore punk shows every weekend. It was an odd set up, but it was our version of NYC's CBGBs.
As a young man in the mid-'80s, I would go the Farm every weekend and sometimes record the gigs with my little Walkman tape player. This was one of those times. I believe this gig was the last show Discharge played after touring the entire U.S. for their then-new "Grave New World" LP.
Keep in mind I was still a bit of a metalhead with my long hair, leather jacket and Exodus t-shirt, but I was fully immersed in the speed, politics and DIY ethics of hardcore punk. Like everyone else at the Farm, I was ready to hear classic Discharge hits like "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing". In this pre-Internet era, I had no idea yet that "Grave New World" existed. I was unaware that they had put out what can only be described as a bad cock rock record.
When they started playing this shit on stage in front of me it was a complete shock. Visually the band looked like everything on MTV that us punks had grown to resent and hate. The vocalist, Kelvin Morris, was prancing around like David Lee Roth and screaming as though he were in some second rate hair metal band that might be opening for Dokken or Great White at Madison Square Garden. I could not fathom how a band with their politics, sound, and integrity could change so drastically for the worse.
I wasn't alone: EVERYONE was bummed out and let down by what we were seeing. Starting from the very first song you can hear the crowd chanting over and over: "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" All through their opening songs, full cans of beer were bouncing off band members heads as they tried to continue playing.
Original cassette of Discharge at the Farm recorded by Nate Wilson.
There were at least a thousand people in attendance, and you could hear their outrage even over the music. Everyone was relentlessly screaming and chanting in disgust. Keep in mind we'd just gotten done thrashing, stage diving and singing along to Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Possessed, and Attitude Adjustment. This horrible version of Discharge didn't belong on this bill at all.
After about 10 minutes of the worst abuse I've ever seen a band take, Discharge finally gave up. They walked off stage with one member in tears. They were still being pelted with beer bottles and anything else the angry crowd could find to throw at them.
It is seriously a great memory for me hearing the entire Farm chant "DRI! DRI! DRI!" in hopes that the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles would come back out and play more speed andbrutality to satisfy our need for more hardcore punk music.
For the next 30 minutes or so, random dudes came out on stage to yell at the crowd and tell us that the cops were coming, and that we needed to leave. We were lectured for bring a bunch of "closed-minded assholes" and told that the band would not play what people were asking for. Chants of "PLAY THE OLD SHT! PLAY THE OLD SHIT!" were shouted in return, over and over. The band's roadies, The Farm's stage managers, and even scenesters like Andy Anderson from Attitude Adjustment and Scotty from Verbal Abuse all took turns trying to talk the vicious crowd down. They all failed. The show was on the verge of a complete riot.
Eventually the Farm promoters realized we weren't leaving until we got what we came to see, and so Discharge came back out to give it another go. To the band's credit, they tried to appease the crowd with the classic track "State Violence State Control," but it was too late to make amends. At this point some of the locals walked up to the stage with an overflowing trash can filled withrotten garbage and mercilessly hurled it at Discharge. Again, members of the band just broke down crying.
On the tape recording I can be heard talking to my longtime friend Zoran about how Discharge sounded worse than the likes of Ratt (who I now actually like) and wondering out loud if anyone from the original lineup was even in the band. It was truly impossible to recognize Kelvin Morris as the same singer from "Hear Nothing" and all the great early '80s Discharge singles.
Zoran and I eventually skated home, not realizing what we had just seen would be etched in our minds forever, and decades later would be bootlegged on a record for people to hear for themselves.
Many years later my friend Jim MacNaughton, who I played with in Devoid Of Faith, told me that he had seen Discharge in NYC at the very beginning of that tour and the same exact thing happened. (There is even a rumor that H.R. from the Bad Brains supposedly dumped a bucket of ice on the band from the balcony at that show.) Jim and I both found it hard to believe that they toured the entire USA getting booed and berated every single night. No wonder they broke down in tears by the time they got screamed off the Farm stage!
Like I mentioned earlier, the recording I made was done on a little Walkman-type tape player, but it sounds awesome. There are only a few actual songs played; most of the tape is filled with great banter by roadies and SF scene dudes. I'm very glad I was there to bear witness to this bizarre gig.
Listen to the full gig recording here: Discharge - live at the Farm, San Francisco 9/7/1986
There are also several videos sourced from the audio that can be found on YouTube.
Check out Nate's original write up on the infamous Discharge gig and recording the tape on his excellent True Punk & Metal blog.
