Exodus Slay the Mabuhay
- Hectic
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Mabuhay Gardens
San Francisco, CA
May 30, 2026
I’ve been to the On Broadway, the upstairs concert hall also known as the Rock on Broadway, but the Mab was closed a few years before my time in San Francisco. This legendary venue and Filipino restaurant at 443 Broadway in San Francisco was a key venue in the Bay Area’s punk scene in the 1970s and ’80s, hosting acts like the Dead Kennedys, Devo and Blondie until it closed in 1987.
While the larger upstairs On Broadway was popular with glam, heavy metal, and Bay Area thrash metal bands, many also played downstairs at the Fab Mab. Notably Metallica in 1982, and Exodus played there in 1983 and 1985.
Exodus Guitarist Gary Holt puts it much better:
“When one of the clubs you started this out at reopens, you play there. You return to the scene of past crimes. You once again darken their doorstep and crush everything and everyone to the ground. The Mabuhay Gardens. The Fab Mab. OUR Mab. Open once again and Exodus knew we must heed the call! One night only. We will once again call this hallowed venue home. As old school as it will ever get. See you there!”
So when Exodus announced a pop-up show at the Mabuhay Gardens as a special end on their tour, I was lucky enough to snag tickets before they sold out (in less than 3 hours!) And so that is how I ended up seeing Exodus at the Mab, a 250 capacity club, after seeing them support Sepultura two days earlier at a 1400 capacity venue.
I’m told the new owners expanded the Mabuhay Gardens space slightly, the layout reminded me of Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland, but with much lower ceilings and a barely 2 foot high stage. Either way, it was an intimate space to see the mighty Exodus in, and the crowd was in great spirits.
Union Jack and the Rippers, a cover band focused on the likes of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, started the show out. I missed the first part of the set getting a drink down the street at Spec’s, a must for any North Beach evening. What I did see was pretty good though, some Sabbath and Def Leppard’s “Let it Go” if I remember correctly. For the last couple of songs, Phil Demmel and his wife Marta came on stage to join in the celebration and lend additional guitar and vocals to the tunes.
Then Exodus in that small club, at the end of 2 months on the road, what can I say? It was an amazing performance, and the energy of a crowd of fans barely separated from the band at all was special.
The setlist contained all of the tunes they had been playing supporting Sepultura, plus a whole lot more. It was intense.
Over my many years of seeing shows I’ve seen some large bands before they got big, or at least early on their way up. High on Fire in multiple tiny punk clubs, Primus at a fraternity party, plenty of death metal greats like Death and Entombed before most people were paying attention.
But I don’t think I’ve ever got to see a huge band return to one of the small clubs they began in. It was a real treat.
–Hectic
