Saturday, November 14, 2020

Into the Void


Let's keep November flowing properly with the first of several anniversaries of shows from this wild THTP series that dominated much of the last year's archival discoveries.

These all come from Bay Area venues and date from the advent of the 1980s, when the Punk scene in that part of the world was really moshing.

They were all taped by the engineer who did the sound for them, using a separate 12-track desk and discrete cabling.

There are over 130 of them now, and the vast majority of them could be issued, with minimal alteration, as official live documents of some pretty obscure -- and in some cases, unrecorded -- bands.

The engineer was the legendary Terry Hammer, and these were all prepared for disclosure into the trading community by a great dude who calls himself Teetering.

Today's was recorded exactly 40 years ago today in one of the most beloved SF punk venues from back in the day, and features a band who, right after this period, exploded onto MTV with one of the greatest '80s songs.

Fronted by one of the most strikingly unique characters with one of the most distinct vocal deliveries ever, their songs are like the "fuck you and everything about you" equivalent to "Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee, smothered in excoriating Punk onions.

In this 42 minutes of jackhammer mayhem, we see the seeds of something that, soon after this time, the diabolical and likely US-intelligence-agency-controlled music industry would no longer allow into the mainstream.


Romeo Void
Mabuhay Gardens
San Francisco, California USA
11.14.1980

01 Big Macho
02 Dedication
03 What Works for You Don't Always Work for Me
04 Make It Past Noon
05 Charred Remains
06 On the Double
07 I Help Myself
08 White Sweater
09 Talk Dirty to Me
10 Fear to Fear
11 Double Shot

Total time: 42:28

Deborah Iyall - vocals & percussion
Peter Woods - guitar & vocals
Frank Zincavage - bass & vocals
Benjamin Bossi - saxophone & vocals
Jay Derrah – drums & percussion

48K multichannel soundboard/audience matrix recorded by legendary Bay Area soundman Terry Hammer
#20 in the THTP series, assembled by Teetering
261 MB FLAC/November 2020 archive link

I will be revisiting this THTP series throughout the next few weeks, with some truly seminal and undersung sounds coming forth from the heyday of Bay Area Punk and postpunk, fasho.

Until then, hang on in there and thanks for reading!--J.