BEST SHOW IN TOWN

It's heard to describe the sense of community and grassroots pipeline of information that was California punk rock in 1977-1978 to someone who wasn't there. At that point, there wasn't the plethora of bands that would come down the pike within the next couple of few years. There were just a handful of bands in each of the major cities, and even the biggest names would play venues with capacities of only a couple hundred or so. No one was making it rich, or necessarily trying to get signed. The labels were small DIY outfits, and many of the deals were done on a handshake (or less). When you wanted to book a band, you might get their phone number from another band, and call and ask that they tell you when they'd be in your area. So it was that a couple friends and I would book shows in a teen disco, rented out one night a week, for a run of Monday nights in the summer of 1978.

One particular night we had a bill that, in retrospect, was a decent representation of where things were at the time. The Avengers from San Francisco, the Last from L.A., and a very early Crawdaddys, from San Diego. It was a good show. And, thanks to a page of a old tour diary, in the booklet that comes with the Avengers' The American In Me posthumous compilation, I see that we paid them $150. I think the sound guy was about $50. Who the hell knows what the Last and the Crawdads were paid. Anyway you look at it, it was a damn bargain.

Just a month later, the Avengers would be in the studio with Steve Jones producing. Those sessions, long out of print, were just reissued in an expanded version today. You can read about it here. Their cuts below are from their first record, released either late '77 or early '78.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Avengers - We Are The One mp3 at Killed By Death
The Avengers - I Believe In Me mp3 at Killed By Death
The Avengers - Car Crash mp3 at Killed By Death
The Avengers - Corpus Christi mp3 at Combat Music Radio
The Last - She Don't Know Why I'm Here mp3 (via DivShare) at Student Drivers
The Last - Bombing of London mp3 (via DivShare) at Student Drivers
The Last - Century City Rag mp3 (via DivShare) at Student Drivers
The Crawdaddys - Oh Baby Doll mp3 at Che Underground
The Crawdaddys - I'm Dissatisfied mp3 at Che Underground
The Crawdaddys - I Just Don't Understand mp3 at Che Underground