January 1978 - April 1978

This is part 4 of my reminiscences of the L.A. punk rock scene from 1976-1980.

These are the shows that I went to during the first third of 1978.  I decided to split 1978 and 1979 into thirds because I went to so many shows.  It also allows me to stretch this out a couple of more weeks.

1978 begins with a gig at the Masque.  The Avengers and the Dils made their way down from San Francisco, F-Word continued their climb within the scene and a band called the Liars opened.  I wish I could remember them but I don't.  The Masque was THE place for L.A. punk and the L.A. punk scenesters.  Little did I know that this would be my last show at the Masque for years.  Only 4 times and ready to be shut down.

It was a rarity that I missed a Dogs show.  I'll have to go back at the end of this and count the number of occurrences.  I recently had coffee with the band in North Hollywood so I am pleased that I was able to establish a friendship with the band over time.  I even got them a gig here in Phoenix at the now defunct Blue Ox a few years back.

One of the ways to show your enthusiasm for the music was to pogo dance.  This was a dance that was adopted from our English counterparts.  Basically you just jumped up and down, occasionally bumping into somebody next to you.  It was great fun and guys and girls participated equally.

The reason I bring up the pogo dancing is because I remember pogoing for an hour and half straight to the Ramones at the Santa Monica Civic on February 3rd.  I remember it contributing to one of the more enjoyable Ramones shows I ever saw.  I remember they did 3 encores of 3 songs each.  The Quick opened that night.  Leonard Phillips' goal in life was to become a member of the Quick before he and Stan Lee started the Dickies.  They were a part of the scene prior to the actual punk movement and were a power pop band.  The Runaways were every adolescents wet dream (are you listening, Mike?).  Of course, Lita Ford went on to heavy metal stardom, Joan Jett went on to the Blackhearts and DJ's for Sirius radio today.  Cherie Currie just warns young girls about Kim Fowley.  Kim Fowley had a penchant for young girls and started the Runaways as well as Venus and the Razorblades, another female fronted band.  Kim is also a DJ for Sirius Radio these days.

February 25th and 26th were truly memorable dates in L.A. punk history.  The Masque had been closed by the fire marshalls because there was fire exit.  We were just pissed that they would close down our signature locale for L.A. punk (in retrospect I guess a Great White type of occurrence could have happened there but when you're young you never think anything will happen to you).  The two shows on these dates were to benefit the Masque and try to bring it up to code.  The place was owned by an Englishman named Brendan Mullen.  

The two days showcased a veritable who's who in L.A. punk.  I can't think of a single act at the time that wasn't represented in the two days.  Day 1 featured a band that we had purchased a single by called the Flesh Eaters.  Steve always liked them a lot better than me and they were led by Chris Desjardins.  Bands I've talked about before like the Controllers, Zeros, Screamers, Germs, Skulls and Bags also played.  The Bags figured that the bags they were wearing on their heads the first time I saw them were a bit hard to deal with so the people that we would come to know as Alice Bag (I got a recent email from Alice - Thanks!), Craig Lee who was an early AIDS victim, Patrical Morrison who later married Damned frontman, Dave Vanian,  and Terry Dadbag.  Ending the night was a joke band that I believe was led by Bruce Barf.  They said they were the Bitt Pliers.  It was the only time I ever saw them.  I remember driving home from that show thinking that I was a member of this scene now and it was a great feeling to belong.  I believe that if you asked of the first wave of punks that came through L.A., you would find a similar feeling of not belonging in "normal" society and looking for someplace that you could just be who you were.

Day 2 was the first time I ever saw the bands the Plugz (a latino band led by Tito Larriva), the Alley Cats (led by Randy Stodola and Dianne Chai), the Eyes with Charlotte Caffey of the soon to be Go-Go's, the Deadbeats (another Dangerhouse band with the great song "Kill the Hippies") and the Randoms with Rand McNally that put out a single on Dangerhouse and that was about the last that was heard of from them.  Other bands that I had seen previously were Shock, X, the Dickies, Weirdos, Skulls, Black Randy and Arthur J & the Gold Cups.  The two days worth of shows were released as a series of 3 CDs called "Live From the Masque".  My photo is in there if you have the second volume.  I am the person standing in the background behind the intended subject, Cherie the Penguin.

Just as I had the feeling on Day 1 that I had become a part of the scene, Day 2 had the potential for ripping that to pieces.  Our old friends Sally and Lauren were up to their old antics and I was getting a regular shoe in the back of the legs by Lauren.  I finally had enough and went up behind her and gave her a shove.  To my horror, she went down like a sack of potatoes as people gathered around her.  I just kind of slinked away wondering if anyone had seen it (apparently nobody except Steve had) and wondering if my days as an L.A. punk rock fan had just come to an end.  If you are out there, Lauren, I publicly apologize now.  I don't condone violence against women in any way.  I have two daughters of my own and would want to rip the suckers balls off that would have done that to my daughter.

March 23 at the Whiskey with another new band, VOM.  I never particularly cared for them but the Dickies headlined so it was a good night, I'm sure.

Back to Larchmont Hall on March 24 and the first appearance of Fear.  Fear had the great Lee Ving on vocals and he would insult the audience and get some really pissed that see through the shtick.  Also on the bill were F-Word, the Deadbeats and the Skulls.  I'm pretty sure this was the show where we were introduced to Geza X and his rantings about Mean Mister Mommy Man.  Bruce Barf had joined the Skulls and he and Geza were up on stage talking while fondling each other.  Anything could and did happen during these years.

Leonard Phillips of the Dickies and Charlotte Caffey of the Eyes dated for awhile and the Dickies and Eyes played the Whiskey on March 25.

A week later it was the Weirdos and Bags again along with a power pop band called the Last, featuring frontman Joe Nolte that put a great single on their own label and later re-released by Bomp!

The Bags are now headlining at Lazaros over X and the Dils.

The Pop! was another of the KROQ Cabaret bands that was pushed to the side by the punk movement.  They had quite a following and have publicly stated that punk ruined their momentum.  I always liked them but their style would have little appeal to the average punk rocker of the day.  They headlined over the Dogs and Breakaways (who I don't remember).  The Dogs had started to move their sound more towards a punk sound to try to fit in although they never really did in those days.  They wrote the punk classic "Slash Your Face" as scathing criticism of the punks.  Funny how 25 years will change you from an outsider to having one of the most sought after "punk" classic singles.

The Jam invaded our shores again on April 14 and the Dickies and Eyes opened at the great Starwood.  My first ever club shows were at the Starwood and the place I saw the Ramones for the first time.

The Screamers at the Whiskey on April 15th, a year since the dawn of the L.A. punk scene that started at the Orpheum Theater.  This may have one of the 3 sold out nights at the Whiskey for the Screamers, who as I have stated were never a favorite.  I did however get to see two of my favorite bands at the time, the Zeros and F-Word.

Rounding out the first four months of 1978 was New York's Tuff Darts and Akron, Ohio's Rubber City Rebels.  Tuff Darts were OK but nothing special and I liked the Rebels a bit more but they didn't do a whole lot for me at the time either.  ( I did see the Rebels a year or two back and it was one of the greatest shows I have seen since the old days).  The Rebels were just about to relocate to L.A.  Lead man Rod Firestone is related (uncle maybe?) to Andrew Firestone, one of the contestants on the ABC show, the Bachelor.

MAY – AUGUST 1978

Things are starting to pick up.  More and more people are discovering the scene.  Steve and I are starting to give people nicknames that we don’t know but see often enough that they are familiar.  There was a song by the English band, the Drones, called Lookalikes.  We gave that nickname to sisters Barbara and Dorothy James who looked and dressed similarly.  We even called them Big Lookalike and Little Lookalike.

Eighteen of the 24 shows that I went to in this 4 month stretch were at the Whiskey so it obviously has become established as the punk locale of choice for most of the L.A. bands.  We started to see some bands on a regular basis and it’s evident by the list you see here.  The Dils, Alley Cats, Zeros, Avengers, Controllers, Shock, Bags, Plugz, Dogs, Weirdos, Dickies, Deadbeats and Screamers are all represented in this time period. 

Bands listed here that I have no recollection of are the Consumers, Permanent Wave, Continental Miniatures, Brothel Creepers, Blow Up, Richie Glover Combo, Kids, Duplicators and L.A. Shakers. 

The Hollywood Squares were a band that put out one single and  as far as I know only did this one show.  They had a song called Hillside Strangler.  When they played that song they threw out a piece of rope.  I still have it.  The Boyfriends were a power pop combo that were alright but nothing special.

Black Randy’s alter ego Mexican Randy took the stage on May 28^th and he pretended to be Mexican instead of black.  That was Randy’s shtick although he was a white guy.  I believe he died of drugs or AIDS, I can’t remember which.

Although I did not attend the show at the Starwood, it is part of L.A. punk lore and this seems like as good a time period as any to throw this in.  Leonard Phillips was performing fro the Dickies with Alice Bag in the audience.  The dressing room at the Starwood was upstairs.  So Leonard climbs the stairs and jumps off to the stage to impress Alice .  He breaks his leg but completes the song!

One of the pre-punk bands that Steve and I enjoyed a lot was Quiet Riot.  Randy Rhoades that went on to play with Ozzy Osbourne was an absolutely amazing guitarist, maybe the best I’ve ever seen for technical proficiency (I’d take Johnny Ramone any day but you know what I mean).  Randy was killed when the plane he was in crashed into the house that Ozzy was in when it crashed.  I guess by this time punk must have been in my veins because they didn’t sound anywhere near as good as I remembered from before.  I think that was probably the last non-punk show I went to during this period.

We head back to Larchmont  Hall for the third time June 9^th.  We had never heard of the opening band, Middle Class, before.  Holy shit!  The first hardcore band?  Many think so.  Super speeded up music with lead singer Jeff sounding like an auctioneer as fast as he was spewing out those lyrics.  Middle Class were the three Atta boys (sorry, I couldn’t resist), Jeff, Mike and Bruce along with Mike Patton.  We hung out with Mike Patton on many occasions and these were some of the band members that we had the most contact with as friends.

One of the pre-punk bands that we liked a lot was the New York Dolls.  You could certainly make the argument that they were punk because the sound was there.  They were about 5 years ahead of the curve though.  Their lead singer, David Johansen, had a solo career started about this time.  We went hoping to hear some of the New York Dolls old stuff.  As “Personality Crisis” came on we went into a pogoing frenzy which was not well received by the non-punk majority.  Ex-Blondie member, Gary Valentine, opened the show.  He was either booted or left band over artistic differences.  I hope he was able to afford those artistic differences, because Blondie obviously became huge and Gary went nowhere fast.  I really enjoyed his single and style of music.

June 23^rd looks like San Francisco night at the Whiskey.  The Nuns who we had seen before played their typical show, which was always good.  The Sleepers led off with a set of slow moving songs that you would be familiar with if you have heard their EP.  I like the EP but they were just a tad boring live.  The Offs were the first ska band?  Some say so although I think they tended more towards Reggae.  I’m not a fan of ska but I always liked the Offs.  Negative Trend played a form of dark punk that I enjoyed a lot.  The “Meathouse” EP is an essential part of any 70’s punk collection.

June 26^th was a very memorable show.  It was at a roller skating rink in Fullerton , CA .  I had never roller skated before but I laced up the skates and before the evening was through I was skating like a pro.  Middle Class was the headliner and I made a point of seeing them whenever possible.  What made the night memorable was a skirmish outrside the rink between the punks and some guys that looked like they had just come from the beach.  Someone tossed a bottle at their car as they were attempting to leave and they turned around and raced the car through the parking lot where we were going very fast indeed.  The start of the Hollywood vs. Beach punk wars?  Maybe.

In the beginning of July we saw the Suicide Commandos from Minneapolis , MN a couple of times.  They were one of the earliest bands to have records released.  The Controllers opened one of the shows.  I’m not sure if this is the right timeframe or not but at some point a young black girl that they called Mad Dog became the drummer.  She was one of punk rock’s greatest drummers, an absolutely devastating proficient drumming attack!  Mad Dog was another band member that became a good friend.  Unfortunately, in recent years she developed M.S. and has become wheel chair bound.

The rest of July we saw bands that I have mentioned before.  July 3^rd was the 4^th of 4 nights in a row so we were certainly getting out to shows often even though we had a 25 mile drive from Long Beach where we lived to Hollywood for the majority of the shows.  And not only that but gas cost 50 cents a gallon!

On August 4^th we got to see the great Dictators from New York .  They put a “punk” album in 1975 before the Ramones ever did.  Led by wrestler, Handsome Dick Manitoba, they were certainly tongue in cheek lyrically, but they had great songs.  They put out an album in recent years so they are still active.  How Max Webster, whoever the hell that is, headlined over the Dictators, I’ll never know.

Four more consecutive shows at the Whiskey with the local bands that defined the scene at the time.

August 25^th finds us at Club Azteca which I think was in East L.A.   Besides the fact that it was a great show musically with the Weirdos, Dils, Negative Trend and Middle Class playing, this was a show where Geza X was dangling his wares to the crowd while telling his usual humorous stories about Mean Mister Mommy Man.   The club had hired a female rent-a-cop and when she saw what he was showing she was over him like a fly on shit.  He was wailing like a baby, begging not to be arrested.  Fortunately for Geza, the punk fans are a close knit group and were not about to see him hauled off by this woman.  She was surrounded by a group of folks, myself included, and she decided that perhaps it wouldn’t be such a great idea to push the issue so he was freed with a slap on the wrist.

August ends with two very good local bands making their first appearance on these lists, the Scientists and Rhino 39, as well as one very famous band.  Rhino 39 put out an excellent single on Dangerhouse called Prolixin Stomp.  Their lead singer whose name eludes me right now was killed in a car accident in the early 80’s.  Also, on this bill was the first time I had seen the Go-Go’s.  Their early shows were not very musically competent but they had the Charlotte Caffey from the Eyes on guitar, Jane Drano and Belinda with Margot on bass.  Margot made the mistake of getting sick about the time the Go-Go’s actually struck it big so that was one expensive illness.

SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 1978

The last third of 1978 is significant for two events:  the emergence of the best damned live band ever (more on that later) and the opening of the Other Masque, Brendan Mullen’s new location after the demise of the original Masque.

Only eleven shows in this four month period, which could be considered a bit of a drought for me. 

The first of the new bands to appear during this time was the Brainiacs that put out an excellent EP.  I’m pretty sure they were a local band, but this is the only time I saw them.  The Plugz and Avengers headlined with their usual great shows.  The great thing about the L.A. scene was that were no race or gender boundaries.  The Plugz were Latino as were the Zeros, Alice of the Bags and many others to follow.  There were many female led bands and half the fans were female.

September 22^nd finds me at the Whiskey for the Heartbreakers.  I find it a bit disturbing that I can't remember having seen the Heartbreakers.  Did I see Johnny Thunders and just forgot I did?  I asked Steve and his recollection was vaguely that we had seen them although he remembers very well having seen them approximately 2 years after this date.

The Go-Go’s come into play here more and more as they establish themselves as a regular act before hitting the big time.  Walking in the Sand is the one song that really sticks out in my mind from that time period.  They were much rawer then than they became on their sweet sounding debut album.

October 6^th finds us at Bace’s Hall which became a regular spot for shows throughout the ‘78/’79 time period.  This first show was a truly memorable one.  The Visitors opened but I don’t recall anything about them.  Fear played their usual contentious set.  Next up was the Mutants from San Francisco .  They put out a really good single about this time, Insect Lounge, and later an entire LP.  What was unique about them was that they had topless dancers on each side of the stage.  That was an unexpected treat!  There was this asshole during the show that was hassling anybody who got too close to the stage.  Not only that he was a big black dude that was probably twice as big as anybody in the place.  We were wondering what the hell that idiot was doing.  Steve and I went out after the Mutants set to get something to drink (our usual soda).  As we got closer to Bace’s Hall again, we heard the next band already playing and it sounded great!  Super hard driving guitar and melodic punk rock with power.  Imagine our surprise to find the big black guy on stage with Carla on drums.  I wrote in my gig log that his name was Snoopy, only to find out later after getting his excellent first EP that it was actually Snuky Tate.  The Dils wrapped things up with their political punk tunes.

October 27^th finds us at the Rock Corporation for the Weirdos, Rubber City Rebels and the Girls.  What I remember most about the Girls was not their music which wasn’t that great, but the fact that the drummer was familiar from a bunch of B-movies where she removed her top in each and every one of them.  These were the teenage sex flicks that were popular at the time.  Flicks like The Van and the Pom Pom Girls and such.  Of course being young guys like we were, watching these movies were part of what we liked to do.

November saw old favorites The Avengers, Go-Go’s and Weirdos as well as the first first sighting of the Flyboys.  The Flyboys were really saccharine power pop but this was a genre that I really enjoyed and I liked the band a lot.

December 17^th at Park View Hall introduces L.A. ’s all time greatest live band, the Red Army!  Steve and I and maybe the band members themselves may be the only ones that agree with that sentiment but that’s the way I feel.  Holy crap could they churn out a punk tune and make you feel it!  Rat Cage and Special School still reverberate through my skull all these years later.  Every band member had red hair.  Dave Sutherland on guitar, Ray Cyst on Bass, Spider (Earl) on lead vocals and Dan Wasko on drums.  Dan had the unenviable distinction of being the only one who wasn’t a true redhead so he had to dye his hair.  I have been fortunate enough to make contact with Dan and Dave in recent years.  Dave is still in music as a roadie and Dan is a Crime Scene Investigator (a real life CSI!) in New Mexico .

Five days later the “Other” Masque opens and we have one more place to call our own.  The Other Masque was a pretty large place and could probably fit several hundred people.  The Red Army have the distinction of officially opening the new place and are followed by the Flyboys, Eyes (I’m sure Charlotte has officially left at this point since she is in the Go-Go’s) and Plugz. 

Christmas Day at the Other Masque finds us with the Suburban Lawns and the great Sue Tissue on vocals.  Their Gidget Goes to Hell single is a classic.  Snuky Tate is back it and I guess I got the correct spelling somewhere because it’s right in my listings.  The Controllers are next and Mad Dog Carla should be firmly ensconced as the drummer by this time.  Larry Fisher is up next and I remember nothing about him.  Nicky Beat and Friends are the headliners although I have forgotten who his “friends” were.

The last of the 58 shows that I went to in 1978 is at the Whiskey and feature the best band of all time, the Ramones.  I saw the Ramones so many times and I don’t think I’d ever be able to come up with more than a ballpark figure for the number of times I actually did see them but what I can say is that every time was great experience.  There is a big hole in the soul whenever I think that 3 of the 4 original members are dead now.  Without these 4 guys, I would not be writing this now and the world would be a much bleaker place.  Take it Dee Dee.   1-2-3-4!!!!!

1979 will see me going to 80 shows so I am breaking 1979 into fourths.  January through  March 1979 coming next week.  

I'm going to start this week off by publishing an email I got from Dan Wasko, drummer of the Red Army (and later with Rock Bottom and the Spys and the Cartwrights).  Reprinted by permission of Dan course - although I'm printing verbatim even though he did ask me to edit it first.  I just thought the thoughts would come out a lot more powerful as written.

"#1. You mentioned that on Oct. 6, '78 at Bace's Hall you didn't remember The Visitors. I too was at that show and well remember them, although not all of the members. I recall that the drummer was " Dave Drive" who later was drummer for the Gears. On bass was Kira Roessler. I remember her because my brother ended up banging her steadily for a few weeks. I don't remember the name of the guitar player, but he was a tall, thin guy with a sort of mullett haircut and played a clear acrylic Ampeg Dan Armstrong guitar like Greg Ginn of Black Flag. Lastly, the vocalist was this weird dude named "Spazz Attack" who would do all of these crazy flips and stuff on stage. As I recall they were pretty decedent, but then, this was my very first L.A. punk rock show, so I was easily impressed.
#2. Christmas Day '78 at the Other Masque you mentioned not recalling who Nicky Beat's "special friends" were. Well, they were none other than the Dead Boys. So actually, this was a Dead Boys show only with Nicky Beat filling in on the skins. I remember them all coming down to the Masque while we (the Red Army) were living there and playing their set with Nicky Beat in the rehearsal room right next to the Masque office room. Of course this was several days before the show. This was when the Dead Boys regular drummer was in long term hospital care for treatment of sepsis from abscesses caused by IV drug use..as I recall he almost died and nearly had to have his arm amputated. I remember DB guitarist " Cheetah Chrome" got into a fight down in the Masque with a guy named "Rock Bottom", with whom I was briefly in a band with called "Spys". I have no idea why Rock was there during those rehearsals..probably seeking drugs. What I remember most about all of this was that I felt rather bitter about them not letting me sit in at rehearsal and just "jam" with them on drums for a few songs...just for the fun of it. I mean, what could it have hurt??? But NO!!!!!!!!! Actually, I later got to know the band rather well. Several months later they returned to L.A. with a new full time drummer and played several shows at the Whiskey. I did temp work at the Whiskey and did drum set up and tuning etc... for them at that time. Of course I saw all the shows for free,actually getting paid, and got my friends in each night on the guest list. Sat up on stage by the drums and pushed people off stage who got up there; drank with Stiv Bators on his bar tab (even though I wasn't yet 21 )and watched him try to score with women. He really wasn't a bad guy as I recall. Too bad about him getting killed".   -  Dan Wasko