Berkeley was the birthplace of Californian punk. Today, the music plays on

Berkeley, best known for its genteel university campus, was perhaps not the most obvious place for a punk rock revolution. The coastal city, just across the bay from San Francisco, has in fact long held a rebellious spirit, perhaps most notably along central Telegraph Avenue in the 1960s and ’70s — back then, it was a bohemian boulevard of hippies, free-speech activists and anti-war protesters. It was here, among the galleries, theatres and boutiques, that the spirit of punk emerged.Today, the 4.5-mile avenue runs like an artery of punk music. From the University of California’s Berkeley campus (UC Berkeley) all the way to the city of Oakland to the south, you can find old-school music shops like Rasputin sitting alongside thrift stores, burger joints and the Bay Area’s largest independent vinyl emporiums.

Punk is, at its core, anti-establishment, and its influence first grew in reaction to sociopolitical issues such as racism, segregation and gender identity. In 1964, UC Berkeley students were at the forefront of the radical free-speech movement, protesting in response to university administrators banning on-campus political activity. It remains one of the biggest anti-establishment protests in history, putting the city at the heart of the punk revolution.

By the late ’70s, punk pioneers Iggy Pop and the Ramones were gigging in venues such as the Mabuhay Gardens, a San Francisco nightclub. But punk music fans across the Bay Area soon bemoaned the lack of local opportunities. In the mid-’80s, a punk-metal crossover finally took place at Berkeley venue Ruthie’s Inn, and from here regular performances led Bay Area bands such as Metallica and Slayer to become the thrash behemoths they are today.

Ruthie’s Inn closed in the late ’80s, paving the way for an altogether different kind of venue that surfaced in a disused warehouse in rough-and-ready West Berkeley, now a neighbourhood of craft brewers, artisan bakers and boutique retailers. 924 Gilman Street opened in 1986 as a nonprofit community venue, with an all-ages, no-alcohol and no-racism ethos that still stands today.

Now, 924 Gilman is still the kind of gritty, graffiti-filled room where new bands thrive. Worn sofas and an indoor basketball hoop flank the bar, and anyone can get free entry in return for some volunteering — working the door, perhaps, or sweeping up. It remains the only venue of its kind left in California — a place with no owner, where takings are split evenly between bands and young children can watch their older siblings perform.

The band Green Day, which formed in Berkeley, cut their teeth at 924 Gilman Street — back then, they were called ‘Sweet Children’, and you can find some of their original graffiti on a beam above the stage. Such is the renown of the venue, fledgling bands from all over the world still request shows here on tours, sometimes even swerving San Francisco in favour of it.

Beyond 924 Gilman, the punk music scene in Berkeley is thriving. UC Theatre, an all-ages nonprofit, is a key venue with room for 1,400, and the city’s oldest theatre (founded in 1917). Acts like Green Day, Pussy Riot and Descendents have passed through here in recent years, transforming the genteel auditorium into a raucous mosh pit. And, with its youth education programme — training teens in the art of promotion and sound engineering — it’s safe to say that the future of Berkeley’s punk spirit is in good hands.