Watch: EXODUS Returns To Newly Reopened San Francisco Venue Mabuhay Gardens For First Time In 40 Years

San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal pioneers EXODUS played a special hometown concert last night (Saturday, May 30) at the legendary venue Mabuhay Gardens which recently reopened after closing nearly 40 years ago. Video of the performance can be seen below, courtesy of Walter Morgan.

The setlist for the show was as follows:

01. Bonded By Blood
02. And Then There Were None
03. 3111
04. Deathamphetamine
05. Blacklist
06. Goliath
07. The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)
08. Brain Dead
09. Metal Command
10. A Lesson In Violence
11. War Is My Shepherd
12. Piranha
13. The Toxic Waltz
14. Strike Of The Beast

Encore:

15. Hell's Breath
16. Impaler

When EXODUS's Mabuhay Gardens concert was first announced earlier in the week, guitarist Gary Holt said in a statement: "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!"

Prior to last night's gig, EXODUS last played at Mabuhay Gardens in 1986.

At EXODUS's February 1983 Mabuhay Gardens show, which marked one of the band's last gigs with guitarist Kirk Hammett as a member of EXODUS, METALLICA frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich and then-METALLICA guitarist Dave Mustaine reportedly jumped onstage during EXODUS's set for drunken fun. METALLICA had just relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Los Angeles, in part to accommodate bassist Cliff Burton, who agreed to join the band on the strict condition that they leave Southern California and move north to the Bay Area.

In a 2020 interview with Gibson TV, now-METALLICA guitarist Hammett described his first meeting with Hetfield and Ulrich at Mabuhay Gardens — and how it didn't leave much of an impression on the METALLICA founders. "It's really funny, because years after that, people would ask me, 'When was the first time you ever talked to those guys?'", Kirk said. "And I would say, 'I first met 'em at the Mab.' And Lars was, like, 'Really? I don't remember that.' James was, like, 'Huh? Really?' They don't even remember."

After operating in recent years under the name Fame, the venue — located on Broadway between Montgomery and Kearny in San Francisco — has been rebranded as Mabuhay Gardens 38 years after it closed.

Among the other artists who played in the original Mabuhay Gardens venue were the DEAD KENNEDYS, the RAMONES, DEVO and Patti Smith.

According to SFGate, the new Mabuhay Gardens is set up to be a 400-capacity, catch-all event space that intends to host everything from slam poetry to comedy to neighborhood association meetings, and live music.

Only Holt and drummer Tom Hunting remain from the EXODUS lineup which played at the old Mabuhay Gardens. The rest of the current EXODUS lineup consists of guitarist Lee Altus, bassist Jack Gibson and vocalist Rob Dukes.

On Friday, May 29, EXODUS played the last show of the band's North American tour as the support act for SEPULTURA in Los Angeles, California. Also appearing on the bill was BIOHAZARD.