Sound Explosion (San Francisco)
Neighborhood(s): Excelsior
School(s): Balboa
Members: Rafael Restauro, Richard Restauro, Eduardo Restauro, Sam Beltran, Renel Bautista
Disbanded: 1981
Description: As far as we know, Sound Explosion was the first Filipino American mobile DJ crew in the Bay Area (at least out of the S.F./D.C. scene). The crew formed between family and friends at Balboa High School, including brothers Rafael and Richard Restauro plus their nephew (who happened to be nearly the same age), Eduardo Restauro, plus close family friends Sam Beltran and Renel Bautista. All were involved in the local JROTC drill team - Rafael Restauro was team commander and Beltran was his executive officer.
The decision to form Sound Explosion came both from both watching local mobile DJs (such as Dr. Funk or the Music Masters) perform at local functions and a timely visit to The Firehouse, a discotheque in Danville (East Bay). Their first gig was a Balboa school dance: “It was the first school dance of the year…down in the cafeteria,” Rafael recalled. “That’s when we said, ‘ok, let’s break out Sound Explosion.’ We had a little paper sign that we plastered up on a little 4 x 8 plywood and had this little shiny paper on top of it.”
In comparison to so-called “phone book DJs,” Sound Explosion wanted to replicate the sound and visual style of city nightclubs within the available spaces of suburban San Francisco, often through the do-it-yourself ingenuity. For example, to create a fog machine, they dropped dry ice into a 50 gallon tub of water. Likewise, their light stands were often made from pouring concrete into tire rims. Their most dramatic - and dangerous - visual stunt was to engineer their own pyrotechnic displays by pouring flash powder into hubcaps and using toilet paper as a make-shift fuse.
Their “street promotions” were also innovative, installing Klipsch La Scala performance speakers into the back of a van and driving to nightclub locations. As they played music out of the back of the van, thus attracting curious club-goers waiting in line, they would hand fliers out. The crew’s largest event was a December 1, 1979 party/dance contest at San Francisco’s California Hall, drawing an estimated 1,000+.
By 1980/1, the crew’s core members were beginning to age of high school and turned their attentions elsewhere. Combined with their frustration with younger crews under-bidding them for gigs, the crew disbanded in 1981. However, given their prominence in the mobile scene at the very beginning, they helped inspire other crews to begin, especially at Balboa where four more crews followed in Sound Explosions’s footsteps between 1979 and 1980.
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Sound Explosion Founders (2002) (L-R: Rafael Restauro, Sam Beltran, Eduardo Restauro) Photo by Oliver Wang., Sound Explosion Business Card #2, Sound Explosion Founders (L-R: San Beltran, Rafael Restauro, ?, Eduardo Restauro), Sound Explosion (San Francisco), Sound Explosion 12-1-79 Flier, Sound Explosion Set-up #2 ~1979 (L-R: Rafael Restauro, Sam Beltran, Eduardo Restauro), Sound Explosion 7-26-80 Flier, Sound Explosion Business Card #1 View all tags
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