The Avengers: San Francisco’s defining punk band who never released an album
A revolution was brewing in the American underground music scene of the 1970s. Taking on the inspiration of pioneering artists like The Stooges or The Velvet Underground, young musicians across the nation began to tear down the conventions of popular music, crafting something raw, abrasive, and DIY from the rubble. Often, the conversation surrounding punk rock in America relies heavily on the New York scene; the rebellion soon spread to every major city in the States, with San Francisco fostering a particularly vibrant scene.
Admittedly, the scene in San Francisco was indebted to the artists occupying the stage in New York clubs like CBGB or Max’s Kansas City, but the California city took the revolutionary new style of rock into bold new directions. San Francisco’s eclectic punk scene was an environment in which boundaries were well and truly demolished, giving rise to now-iconic groups like Dead Kennedys, The Nuns, The Mutants, and Negative Trend. An often overlooked outfit of San Francisco’s punk days, however, is The Avengers.
Formed at the peak of the global punk movement in 1977 by Danny Furious and Greg Ingraham, The Avengers typified the sound of the Bay Area punk movement. Earning their stripes as a live band around California, the band’s one and only release during their tenure was an EP entitled ‘We Are The One’. A three-song release on the independent Dangerhouse Records, the short EP established the political and cultural manifesto of the trailblazing group.
Featuring a similarly rebellious, anti-fascist message as multiple other San Francisco punks – Dead Kennedys, for instance – The Avengers boasted a much more polished, palatable sound in contrast to many of their contemporaries. Punk was built upon the idea of creating songs even if you had no musical skill whatsoever. Still, The Avengers managed to embrace the DIY aspect of the genre while also showcasing clear musical skill – both in terms of instrumentation and songwriting.
The stunning performance style of frontwoman Penelope Houston was an essential aspect of that quality. Despite its apparently all-welcoming attitude, punk on the whole was still largely dominated by male artists. Houston, on the other hand, offered an essential female influence for the scene, not only marking The Avengers as a stand-out group in San Francisco, but providing a role model to other women who could start creating defiant music and art in a similar vein.
Arguably, The Avengers’ notoriety peaked in 1978 when they were asked to support the Sex Pistols. Although the band was originally manufactured by Malcolm McLaren – in defiance of punk’s inherent ethos – the Pistols were essential in popularising the attitude and sound of punk rock globally. As such, being their opening act was already a big opportunity for The Avengers. Moreover, that 1978 show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco turned out to be the final show of the Sex Pistols until their reunion in the 1990s.
The Avengers certainly rose to the occasion, so much so that Pistols guitarist Steve Jones approached the group with a view to producing a record by them. However, fate was against the band. Shortly after that Winterland gig, guitarist Greg Ingraham left the group, and a few months after that, The Avengers parted ways for good. Throughout their time together, The Avengers played countless awe-inspiring gigs around San Francisco, but they only managed to release that one EP.
On one hand, the existence of The Avengers reflects the spontaneity and DIY nature of the punk years; they were an energy best shared in a live scenario, unable to be contained within a recording studio. On the other hand, their lack of recorded material means that the band are not often afforded the same lasting legacy as some of their peers within the San Francisco punk scene of the 1970s.
Thankfully, a self-titled compilation album was created by Danny Furious in the years after The Avengers split up. Compiling the tracks from their first EP, along with the self-titled EP which was released shortly after their 1979 split, and a few other recorded tracks too, the album acts as a good anthology of the band’s time together. Unfortunately, by the time the album was released in 1983, interest in the Bay Area punk movement was waning, and many artists and listeners had already moved on to the next new sound.
So, while they may remain in relative obscurity for the punk layman, The Avengers represented the essence of the punk rock revolution better than most. During their two year tenure, the California band burned incredibly bright, before disappearing just as quickly as they began. Even today, decades later, their music still packs the kind of punch that can only come from stunning DIY punk anthems.
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