As described yesterday in a piece by Martin Dunphy, the legendary Pete Seeger paid a visit to Vancouver at one of the turning points in the city’s history. The great and now late folk singer, who passed away on Monday at the age of 94, came to play an outdoor benefit show back in May 1986, just as town grandees and merchant leaders were getting their leisure suits dry-cleaned for the newly opened World’s Fair down on the waterfront.

This was the moment when Vancouver officially made itself over from weather-beaten dock worker into glossy lifestyle model—a time of fewer sleek retail experiences and more high-decibel politics. Among the protests against Expo-related evictions was the May 25 Malkin Bowl show featuring Seeger, Arlo Guthrie (son of Seeger’s iconic one-time colleague Woody), and hometown heroes D.O.A. The bill says much about the social-justice roots of the hardcore-punk scene here, which set it apart from all others in North America at the time.

Vancouver writer and photographer Connie Kuhns documented the event for the Georgia Straight, in a story titled “Music: Songs for a Cause” that went on the cover of the paper’s May 30–June 6, 1986, issue. The gallery above shows for the first time some of the images Kuhn captured backstage before the concert, at a moment when an older, floral-printed generation of muscial activism shook hands with a younger, mack-jacketed one.