The former site of The Brewery and Tia Theresa– also the filming location for Bon Jovi’s “She Don’t Know Me” video. (Photo by Nick Sestanovich)

I’ve written so much about Benicia in the past year and a half that I’ve been working here that I’ve decided I would like to take occasional detours to talk about one of my passions: music. However, I’m not ready to venture too far out of my wheelhouse just yet, so I figured I’d compromise by talking about music and Benicia.

Benicia fosters a lot of musical talent, and it has managed to draw acts from outside its borders to play live shows. True, the bands who come through here have not exactly been household names, but don’t count them out just yet. After all, two bands who have played here in the past did go on to become household names. Those would be Bon Jovi and Green Day.

Bon Jovi were one of the most popular rock bands of the late ‘80s, but before they were superstars, they shot a music video in Benicia. The song was “She Don’t Know Me,” released two years before the multiplatinum “Slippery When Wet” album, so you’re forgiven if you don’t know it. It was only a minor hit in 1984, having just missed the top 40, but the video has become a bit of a curio for Benicians as it serves as a mini time capsule for the city in the ‘80s. There are shots of the First Street Pier, the old Lido building and the structure on East H Street that used to house The Brewery and the Mexican restaurant Tia Theresa.

So what inspired a band from New Jersey to film a video in Benicia of all places? I don’t know. I’m hoping someone can provide me with an answer on that.

Bon Jovi weren’t the only world famous band to touch down in Benicia. There’s also Berkeley’s very own Green Day, who have quite a few connections to the city. Growing up, I had heard a rumor that lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong had attended Benicia High School for a short period. If that’s true, it must not have been for very long because I have found nothing to confirm it. Nonetheless, it’s pretty evident that he held a certain kinship with the town. One of Armstrong’s many side projects was as a guitarist for the punk band Pinhead Gunpowder, who once recorded a song titled “Benicia By the Bay.” The portrayal of the town is…not flattering, to put it mildly, describing the town as a “cultureless wasteland” with crumbling buildings and a “nice little suburbia still living in the shadow of the Zodiac Killer.” And those are some of the nicer lyrics.

(Side note: When my family was first looking to move into Benicia, one of the baristas at the now-shuttered coffee shop In the Company of Wolves said he liked it. However, to provide an alternate view, he put a CD into a boombox and played “Benicia By the Bay.”)

Despite what the song suggests, I think Armstrong had a fondness for Benicia. Green Day’s first album had a song called “Going to Pasalacqua” (as in the Passalacqua Funeral Chapel?) They even played a few shows in Benicia in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, including one at the Benicia Youth Center in 1992, which you can find on YouTube. The set consists mostly of tracks off their first two independent albums but also features an early version of “Welcome to Paradise” two years before it was released on their 1994 mainstream breakthrough “Dookie.” Just two years after their performance at the youth center, Green Day would perform on the main stages at Lollapalooza and Woodstock. And over the next two decades, they would go on to sell out stadiums, win Grammys and even inspire a Broadway musical. My, they grow up so fast.

My advice to aspiring bands: book shows in Benicia, or at least shoot music videos here. It worked well for Bon Jovi and Green Day.

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