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من طرف the witch الإثنين نوفمبر 26, 2007 7:00 am

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Hi Punk Fans,

Last weekend was a rare treat indeed. A 30 year reunion show of L.A. punk to help promote the book "LIVE AT THE MASQUE: Nightmare in Punk Alley", with hundreds of photos from the Masque and the Other Masque, L.A.'s legendary punk rock cabaret. To celebrate the event, several bands that had not played in nearly 30 years reformed for the one-off show. I saw many new and old friends that shared that wonderful experience with me 30 years ago. The good news is that it was a sell out (estimated 1000 people) and the books sold out. Not only that, but they drained the bar. No beer or booze left by the end of the night.

The announcer during the sets was Bruce "Barf" Moreland who had the same job as Masque announcer. I still remember New Year's Eve, 1977, when Bruce said his wish for the coming year was that Led Zeppelin would die in a plane crash. Apparently the years have softened him quite a bit because his hair is now as long as Led Zeppelin's. He added a touch of humor to the festivities.

The book itself is extraordinary. I'm still waiting to get my copy in the mail but I had the opportunity to skim through it and found my picture 3 times which was very cool. It is an oversized coffee table type book and has a list price of $45 but you can order from Amazon.com for $30. A fine investment if I do say so myself.

I went to the show with Steve Stiph, my long time (since kindergarten) friend who attended the Masque and other L.A. shows with me in the 70's. One of our favorite bands was the Red Army. It was my pleasure to meet Dan Wasko from the Red Army who I had only communicated with via email for a couple of years now. Dan actually lived in the Masque for 6 months.

Other "celebrities" that I personally saw were Trudie, Billy Zoom, Pleasant and KK.

I had the opportunity to speak to both Jenny Lens and Rover.

I understand other early L.A. punks such as Dim Wanker, Lee Ving, Paul Roessler and Helen Killer were also in attendance although the show was so huge, it was near impossible to see everybody that you might have hoped to say hello to.

There was an area of the club upstairs where they were doing photos and interviews. This was guarded like Fort Knox and only a select few were allowed admittance. I guess some of us forgot our Nazi armbands to gain admittance. My only disappointment on the evening was that there were people who had come long distances for the show and were hoping to say hello to some of the people they hadn't seen in 30 years but didn't get the opportunity because some never left the upstairs environment. The great thing about the original scene was that there were no rock stars and everybody was accessible.

Here's a run down on each of the bands:

The Diffs: They did a Germs greatest hits tribute. I had two different people tell me that they sounded better than the original Germs. Anybody who experienced the Germs in the 70's knows that their stage shows were normally very sloppy. The Germs G.I. album is great and benefited from the structure of the studio. The Diffs did a superb job of making the show sound very close to the album.

The Dogs: The Dogs were punk before there was such a term and I saw them originally before the whole L.A. punk scene erupted in early '77. They did a fairly short set including their hits, Fed Up and Slash Your Face. They never got the respect they deserved in the old days but they certainly do now. The audience was really into things. So much so, in fact, that Loren's son had to be hoisted up on stage so he wouldn't get squashed. Loren introduced him as the future of punk rock. Brendan Mullen gave them a nice tribute by crediting them with providing the P.A. for the original Masque. There may not have been a Masque without them. They were off to Japan the next day to help promote their Dogs tribute CD, "Doggy Style" which Loren gave me a copy of. Fuck yeah!! Thanks!

Wild Weekend: Wild Weekend is a Zeros tribute band consisting of 3 women and one guy on drums. They did a commendable set of the Zeros greatest hits.

The Stitches: The Stitches never played they Masque. They are product of the 90's and 00's. They do have a '77 punk style however and fit in nicely with other bands. I asked Johnny, guitarist, how they weaseled their way on the bill and he said their livers were as old as any of the original punks at the show. Nice selection of tunes mostly from their full length release of a few years back.

The Gears: What can you say except they are awesome! Axxel G. Reese, Dave Drive and Kidd Spike. I managed to say hello to Dave and Axxel after their set. Some of the nicest guys in punk rock. I believe the 2 elderly folks that were there may have been Dave's parents but I'm not absolutely sure. Brendan asked Kidd Spike if he was getting enough to eat. If you've seen him lately, you'll know the answer.

Shock: I ran into Kip and Paul at the photo shoot done a couple of years ago but this was the first time I had seen Steve Reina since 1979. We used to hang out with Steve and his second band, The Silencers, in the old days. Since I had put out the split CD of Shock and the Silencers a few years back, this was one band I was really looking forward to. They didn't disappoint, belting out a nice selection of their greatest hits. Really nice guys too. I got to spend a bit of time with them during the evening.

Holly Vincent: The Italians were missing but Shock provided the instrumental backing for Holly who looked hot and sounded hotter.

The Crowd: Representing the Other Masque, O.C.'s, the Crowd, played a set of poppy tunes.

The Flyboys: John Boy lost some hair along the way but the band sounded great. Power pop was the order of the day.

The Controllers: The first Masque band, the Controllers, played a set that might have come right out of '77. It would have been great to have seen Mad Dog on drums but that would be impossible given her health isues. They played all the old favorites including my favorite, Hot Stumps.

The Eyes: Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's, DJ Bonebrake of X and

Billybones/Skulls: Billy Bones is maybe the nicest guy that came out of the L.A. punk scene. With his new band, the Billybones, they blasted out a nice selection of old Skulls tunes. Great stuff.

The Deadbeats: If you like artsy, discordant music then the Deadbeats are for you. They're not for me. They were just as I rembered, good for a laugh but musically not my bag at all.

The Plugz: He may not be a rock star, but Tito Larriva certainly acts the part. Coming out in his suit and sunglasses, he strutted around the stage like he owned the place. Judging from the crowd, he did. The Plugz played the entire Electrify Me album. Good band who did their thing very well although they were never one of my favorites. All in all, a pretty great day. Let's do it again, Brendan.