Mission Mission

Ever wonder what the Mission looked like before “all those CCA taggers and fixie kooks” arrived?  Well, MM reader Eric Shea was kind enough to pass along this video, which he got from his buddy Joe Bay, who presumably got it from creator Patrick Gleason.

Check it out for some neat High8 footage of skating through the Mission in 1994 (around the same time that Fugazi would routinely play shows in Dolores Park).

Link:  http://vimeo.com/14287360

Our recent post where Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch expresses regret for having missed the Fugazi show in Dolores Park back in 2000 elicited all sorts of nostalgia from readers who lived here at the time.  Knowing that my friend (and bandmate) Eric was around back then, I asked him about it at practice last night.

Turns out, not only was he (along with the rest of the Mission) at the park for the show, but Ian Mackaye also borrowed the Marshall Cab that now resides in our practice space in order to play.  While I was still grappling with this information, Eric moved aside the head and revealed a surviving piece of masking tape on which was written, “IAN Return to j,” so that all of the equipment Fugazi borrowed for the Dolores Park show would get back to their owners.

It’s obviously been a rough decade for the cab after its pinnacle in the park, as this hulking relic is now merely used as a PA for our singer when we practice.  Nonetheless, stop by Secret Studio to give it some Pope-style reverence if you feel like your music is in a rut and need some transitive inspiration from one of the greatest bands ever.

Oh, and buy our record if you get a chance!