Adolescents - May 30, 1986

Dice, rats, pistols, bubbles, no kitchen sink. That's May ...

Max Havoc - May 26, 1985

The world famous Roxy. Weird to think how influential Van Halen was on the rock scene in L.A. One often thinks of their particular style of rock as an 80's thing, but the members of all those 80s acts (Motley Crue, Ratt, etc) as kids watched Van Halen at the Roxy in the late 70s. By the summer of 1980, Van Halen had three monster hit albums already.  By the time of this show, Van Halen released three more totaling six now. And since you were wondering who the hell Max Havoc were here's a short little bio: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/max-havoc-mn0001506034

Dead Kennedys - May 25, 1985

The modal male in my college experience couldn't be better described than "Terminal Preppie" - I mean to a T, every line an accurate summation: "John Belushi's my hero, I lampoon and I ape him" - these shits were a dime a dozen. I never found SNL funny and its so called "golden age' is a pretty sad contribution to American comedy. Belligerent boorish awfulness is a singularly unfunny approach and appeals to the worst of us.

Above was the creative version and here the logo drop version. The Subhumans were pretty popular with me and my fellow punkers . Like in so many areas, the English punk bands really deserved my admiration: G.B.H., Sex Pistols, Toy Dolls, etc, etc.

Complete Disorder - May 23, 198x

San Anselmo is a little town in Marin County - just north of San Francisco. I don't know any of these acts. Though "Red Asphalt"probably doesn't mean a thing to kids today, but then it referred to a public safety film from the 60s dealing with fatal car accidents that was screened to students in classrooms. It was very gory and gruesome, an attempt to scare kids straight about safe driving. I see it's been remade many times.

D.O.A. - May 23, 1985

Punks then and today are largely left wing in their attitudes sans the statist parochialism. Toleration, anti racist attitudes permeated the culture up and down, so there would not have been any peace for a band called "Beat Nigs" under the obvious interpretation of the name.  That said, the Beat Nigs were a San Fransisco experimental hardcore band of African Americans, riffing on the name Beatniks. Aware of the problematic nature, they made their name one word sometime after all this.

TSOL - May 22, 1986

In my time, there were basically two promoters in town, Ground Chuck and Clear & Distinct Ideas. The latter was run by a relatively successful attorney, the former was literally one of the street kids. Their slots in society then couldn't have been more different. Chuck remains a local legend in Sacramento and is still very visible as a chalk artist, musician and promoter. I doubt' he'd recognize me today - it's been 30 years since I last seen him, but we used to be pals through all this.

Likir - May 20, 198x

It's a funny practice of coming up with a band name by simply misspelling a term that in some way hints at some sense of your music. In this case, I'm not certain if the "likir" here substitutes for liquor or licker? Nor is there a band member named Likir in the same way that Bon Jovi, or Van Halen are. Whatever it was, I am certain that they were tickled by the ambiguity. I can't find much about this apparently short lived band other than they were big in Stockton, had a reunion gig in 2012, and the original lead has died of natural causes. Best guess is that this show was in 1987.

D.R.I. - May 18, 1986

Another one from Phoenix - the art work on their flyers has steadily improved.

D.O.A. - May 17, 1985

Pretty sure this was my first concert I ever went to - even before my first arena show: Huey Lewis and the News at Cal Expo. Been a huge fan of the Circle Jerks ever since.

Matrix - May 13, 1988

What's to say about this one? I must have known somebody in one of these - maybe Matrix? Otherwise, all defunct bands, none recorded as far as I can tell. Non recordatus.

Death Angel - May 12, 1987

Poster sized flyer - Death Angel, an integral and original part of the speed/thrash metal scene in SF, are still around today - always just the one band outside of the Big Four.

Hüsker Dü - May 11, 1986

The Hüskers were another band held in very high esteem that I just could not get into at the time. I've poked around recently though and I think I'd like them today. There's a time and place thing about these old acts where they resonated with you at a point in your life when they felt really important, but this one never spoke to me.  Now, the Descendents are another thing entirely who I adore all out of proportion. Their latest album Hypercaffium Spazzinate from 2016 is amazing. I had a demo tape of the Sea Hags around this time and that got a fair amount of play though they didn't record officially until 1989.

Logo arrangement for the poster one here and the more creative handout version above

Witch - May 11, 1985

I knew or had met someone in this band, otherwise I don't remember a thing about this. There's a band called Witch out there doing what's called "stoner metal" (zzzzz), but not the same guys.

This Witch, who was a big deal in the LA scene in the 80s, has an interesting and comprehensive website here: https://www.witchtheband.com/