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Handsome Dick Manitoba, punk progenitor, is coming

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They were the big bang of punk, releasing their first album, the ragged, outrageous, hilarious The Dictators Go Girl Crazy, a year before the Ramones. On the cover was Handsome Dick Manitoba, the most outrageous of all. A Bronx-born wrestling fanatic, Manitoba started as the band’s “Secret Weapon,” but quickly graduated to singer. They played CBGBs in the day (and reunited to close the joint), and in a pop culture miracle, got to make three major-label records. But it would be decades before they’d get the acclaim they deserved. Handsome Dick went on to found the punk bar Manitoba’s, to serve as singer for Wild Kingdom and a reconstituted MC5, to co-author The Punk Rock Book of Lists, become a top-rated DJ on Sirius and compete in the reality series Bar Wars. And with the Dictators more popular than ever, he and guitarist extraordinaire Ross the Boss are back touring the world. His red-sequined jacket is in the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame and, one day, if there’s any justice, he will be, too. For now, for the first time in 10 years, he’s back in the Bay Area and coming to the Tip for an onstage interview with an old friend.

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