Cyclone Warehouse
Encyclopedia
Cyclone Warehouse is an underground
venue in the Butcher Town area of San Francisco, California, between Potrero Hill and Hunter's Point. Though many art and event venues have been ephemeral, the Cyclone has lasted, and is known for hosting eclectic and extreme underground events, and serves as headquarters to a loose collective of artists and artisans.
The space adjoins a series of other warehouse spaces—a mix of artists studios and small business workshops. The space was founded in 1992 by Troy Shelton, Nicolas Desbons, Todd Martinez, Jeff DenBroeder, and Geordie Stevens, a group of renegade students from the California College of Arts and Crafts. They built the space primarily from "obtainium", or found materials left over from the city's industrial past. Cyclone's penchant for closing off the adjoining cul-de-sac and putting on extralegal public events http://www.sfweekly.com/1999-05-19/calendar/night-day/ has kept its existence in a precarious position since its inception. Yet the combination of its discreet location, an understanding community, and sheer moxie has kept the place running solid as a hidden cultural mecca for many years.
Cyclone was able to weather the dot-com boom that turned the live-work housing market upside down and caused an exodus of artists to relocate to the East Bay. Developers were kept at bay because an ordinance kept the area zoned "Heavy Industrial" until 2022. However, it was again threatened by city planning's bridge construction project, which would cross Islais Creek
by cutting down the street which was used for events, parking, and storage of unused materials.
A discussion of the bridge can be found here: "Bridge Too Near" Eventually, the bridge was constructed, with a marked decline on the quality of life in the neighborhood. However, Cyclone and its neighbor spaces have managed to continue and look forward to growing in the coming years.
), Who's on Third Studios, The Lodge, and Bay Area Metals (recycling center).
Underground art
Underground art, as with underground music and underground film, is a term that seeks to describe art forms that are aloof to the mainstream art world, are illegal, taboo, unconventional, rebellious or revolutionary...
venue in the Butcher Town area of San Francisco, California, between Potrero Hill and Hunter's Point. Though many art and event venues have been ephemeral, the Cyclone has lasted, and is known for hosting eclectic and extreme underground events, and serves as headquarters to a loose collective of artists and artisans.
The space adjoins a series of other warehouse spaces—a mix of artists studios and small business workshops. The space was founded in 1992 by Troy Shelton, Nicolas Desbons, Todd Martinez, Jeff DenBroeder, and Geordie Stevens, a group of renegade students from the California College of Arts and Crafts. They built the space primarily from "obtainium", or found materials left over from the city's industrial past. Cyclone's penchant for closing off the adjoining cul-de-sac and putting on extralegal public events http://www.sfweekly.com/1999-05-19/calendar/night-day/ has kept its existence in a precarious position since its inception. Yet the combination of its discreet location, an understanding community, and sheer moxie has kept the place running solid as a hidden cultural mecca for many years.
Cyclone was able to weather the dot-com boom that turned the live-work housing market upside down and caused an exodus of artists to relocate to the East Bay. Developers were kept at bay because an ordinance kept the area zoned "Heavy Industrial" until 2022. However, it was again threatened by city planning's bridge construction project, which would cross Islais Creek
Islais Creek
Islais Creek or Islais Creek Channel is a small creek in San Francisco, California...
by cutting down the street which was used for events, parking, and storage of unused materials.
A discussion of the bridge can be found here: "Bridge Too Near" Eventually, the bridge was constructed, with a marked decline on the quality of life in the neighborhood. However, Cyclone and its neighbor spaces have managed to continue and look forward to growing in the coming years.
Neighbors
Cyclone is one of 15 bays in a larger warehouse southwest of the Illinois and Marin intersection. Some of those neighbors have been "The Cave" (a rock venue in the 1990s run by Beky Bonk), Phase (seminal noise venue), Seemen (robotics artist), Ovarian Trolley (on Candy Ass RecordsCandy Ass Records
Candy Ass Records is an independent record label run out of Portland, Oregon by Jody Bleyle, a member of the band Team Dresch as well as member of Hazel and formerly of the queercore bands Family Outing and Infinite Xs....
), Who's on Third Studios, The Lodge, and Bay Area Metals (recycling center).
Hosted artists
Cyclone Warehouse has hosted a long list of memorable events. Punk shows, industrial art, house/techno parties, dance performance, theater productions, circus, cabaret, and puppets have all been part of the repertoire:- T.V. Homicide
- Survival Research LaboratoriesSurvival Research LaboratoriesSurvival Research Laboratories is a machine performance art group credited for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance. After about 30 years in San Francisco, California, SRL spent most of 2008 moving to Petaluma, California....
- Cyclecide Bike RodeoCyclecideCyclecide is an American bicycle club based in San Francisco, California that is composed of clowns, altered bikes, and a traveling show called "The Bike Rodeo".-In the beginning:...
http://www.sfweekly.com/1999-03-17/news/night-crawler/ - Mia ZapataMia ZapataMia Katherine Zapata was the lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits.-Life and career:Zapata was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky...
Benefit - Big Top 23
- Captain Ricks Cabaret
- Seven Year Bitch
- Victims Family
- Steel Pole Bath TubSteel Pole Bath TubSteel Pole Bath Tub was a hardcore punk/noise rock band, formed in 1986 in Bozeman, Montana by Mike Morasky and Dale Flattum .- Band history :...
- Woodpussy
- Idiot Flesh
- Hickey
- All You Can Eat
- Shellac http://csua.com/1998/05/26/#14139
- Seemenhttp://www.seemen.org/history/seemen99.html
- NeurosisNeurosis (band)Neurosis is a post-metal band, based in Oakland, California. They formed in 1985 as a hardcore punk band, and their sound progressed towards a doom metal style that also included influences from dark ambient and industrial music as well as incorporating elements of folk music...
- Ovarian Trolley
- The Chasm of Spasms
- The Islais Creek Fair
- Cookie Mongoloid