Relive the '90s Mission Music Scene Via This Cable Video of Pre-Internet S.F.

Here's an arresting history lesson for all us San Francisco parvenus: via the good folks at Mission Mission, an undated (although extremely dated) five-minute snippet of a public access show called San Francisco Live, focusing on what's hip and happening in the Mission music scene. (Use the Mission Mission link if you want to skip the unwieldy two-minute intro, but soldier through it if you want to remember what cable television was really like in the 1990s.)

How many landmarks and bands did you recognize? I got Kilowatt -- which apparently used to book all the hot Merzbow disciples -- and the Elbo Room, and that's about it. But whither 16th Note Records? Teenage 13? Playing Field? Whither Spoto, mainstays of the Rodent Records roster? Whither Men's Club, "the Grand Funk of the '90s"? (Talk about your pre-Google band names.) Cruel winds of change, huh?

The video was unearthed by a YouTube user called sflivetubeful, who's uploaded two other clips -- from the same episode? -- one of which is worth the clickthru just for the sight of what Apple computers used to look like, vintage MUNI footage, a dude playing chess alone in a graveyard -- you know, the usual. The other has an interview in the Castro on Halloween in 1995, which is ironically the least dated-looking scene of the lot. Well, besides the cans of Rolling Rock.

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