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How Asian America Saved Rock N’ Roll

  • December 1, 2009 1:00 am

Ness-Aquino-MAB-benefit-posterMy last post on Esther Wong and her Madame Wong clubs sparked some of the coolest feedback I’ve received of anything I’ve written here so far. It’s been great reading the comments by others who remembered MW with fondness, but I also received emails from people I hadn’t spoken to in a long time (and frankly were surprised they read this blog at all) who were also a part of the scene.  Read more...

Original Offenders: Esther Wong

  • November 29, 2009 12:38 am

My fellow Offender Alfredo reminded me in his last post of how hot Debbie Harry is. And that made me think of the time I saw her live at a small Los Angeles club called Madame Wong’s West which I can pinpoint as the night I entered puberty (more on this later). But I would not have had that experience if it were not for Esther Wong a.k.a. the “Godmother of Punk.”

MadameWongBorn in Shanghai in 1917, Wong immigrated to the United States in 1949. In the 1970s and ‘80s, she owned two restaurants/clubs—Madame Wong’s in L.A.’s Chinatown and Madame Wong’s West in Santa Monica—that became the beacon for some of the greatest punk and rock n’ roll bands of the era.  Read more...