Here’s a cut from the only extant video I know of 3 Guys Called Jesus, the band I formed in 1985 with Steve Duke (bass, vocals) and Robert Labbe (drums, vocals) and played in until I left San Diego in February 1987.
This performance of my song “Small Vegetables” dates from May 16, 1986, when 3 Guys opened for Specimen and the Tell-Tale Hearts at the North Park Lions Club. (Ray Brandes and I have swapped anecdotes about Specimen’s antics that night; the conditions were just awful at the time but made for a funny story in retrospect.)
More shots of 3 Guys Called Jesus!
Many thanks to Jimmy Jazz for shooting this performance and to Dave Fleminger for adding it to YouTube’s Che Underground video channel!
Editor’s note: Dave Fleminger kindly digitized a demo of “Small Vegetables” 3 Guys recorded in my garage on my four-track cassette deck:
BTW, Dave Fleminger’s going to digitize a performance of this song by the Ho Hos, which Robert and I formed in SF with Jeff Lucas and Steve Lam … That recording is actually intelligible, although I sort of like the frenetic quality of this horribly mixed, chaotic version. 🙂
Great song, Matthew! I remembered 3 Guys as having a more punk edge than Noise 292, so I guess I was right. Did you guys record any demos?
>>Did you guys record any demos?
Dave: Thanks! There’s some demo stuff floating around, and lots and lots of really lo-fi live cassettes.
I’m a little scared to share them … I was totally punching above my weight class as the sole guitarist in this group (after the departure of the very talented Ryk Groetchen) … Reliving my technical limitations makes me wince a bit, but I am proud of some of the songs, and Robbie and Steve were so cool to play with!
Here the Amazons’ live version of the song, recorded in 2001 with Jason Brownell (bass, vocals) and Todd Barker (drums, vocals).
… And I just updated the post to include this crunchy garage demo 3 Guys recorded at about the same time the NPLC video was shot.