What’s that saying—history repeats first as tragedy and second as a high school theatrical production? Because the L.A. punk (well, “new wave,” more correctly) scene is reincarnating for a moment at the Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts’ Retrofest: An Evening At Madame Wong’s, in which the long-defunct Chinatown venue is brought back to life to serve as lens for an examination of the club-level rock scene in L.A. circa 1980. As historians and collectors know, Wong’s—counterpart to the harder core Hong Kong Café—saw plenty of action via sets by the Go-Gos, the Plugz, Los Lobos and other bands, and now Retrofest will be celebrating this time of “strange haircuts and stranger fashion,” as the press release puts it. Think of it as an extra-credit assignment once you’ve finished studying the first Decline of Western Civilization.
May 7-9, 7:30 p.m., 2015
