More than 30 years later, here’s a performance of a Hair Theatre staple at the Che Cafe Nov. 17, 1983. “Phantom of Delight” was part of a set that featured the debut of Dave Fleminger on lead guitar. The rest of the lineup was original Hair Theatre, if memory serves: Sergio (vocals); Sergio Castillo (bass); Cesar Castillo (rhythm guitar); Howard Palmer (drums).
Watch Hair Theatre perform “In Obscurity” at Che Games for May, 2009!
Followers of the Che Underground may recall that this gig also featured Eleven Sons (a last-minute replacement for Guy Goode and the Decentones) as well as my own band, Noise 292. There’s plenty more where this comes from, if we can sort out the song titles and other vital information!
Hair Theatre plays “Phantom of Delight”: Listen now!
Hair Theatre photos and videos:
- More photos of Hair Theatre and friends
- Photos from the Coleman Collection
- A decade of Hair Theatre from the Allen Collection
- Hair Theatre onstage and backstage
- Hair Theatre: “What Should I Say”
- The kids stays in the picture
- The Cyndie Jaynes Collection, Part One
- Hair Theatre in living color
More Hair Theatre MP3s:
Wow, this is great! I like the slide guitar… is there more?
Yeah, the whole set! Except we don’t know the names of some of the (excellent) songs … And with Sergio non-computerized, it’s hard to get him to review the stuff and explain what’s going on. 🙂
“$2 if you can afford it. $1 if you can’t.”
Those are 30 long years ago…
This really is an amazing track. Christ, I wish there’d been proper recording.
You get half the idea of what’s going on -- pure power from the drumming. Little Sergio is doing one of those boogie-figure bass things he always made so fundamental to a groove -- so many bands around didn’t get. You can just catch it, barely… 🙂
Then the Dave and Paul blister guitar show! Like the Unknowns covering Moonlight Drive.
Mr Sergio himself? Well -- it takes video to do him justice. Still all of the presence is clear in his vocal -- if the tape is not itself so clear.
It makes me want more. Actually, it makes me want to be in Copa Club’s mirrored room and checkered floor, 1984.
Every time I end up in a public space and see the sea of smartphones capturing the action in high definition, I feel a stab of envy that we couldn’t document our early days that way!
Then again, there’s a type of self-curation that happens when the artifacts are limited … Although I do wish at least that more of the audiovisual artifacts were higher fidelity.
I have no idea what condition Mystic Records’ Doug Moody or his Oceanside garage are in by now, but there’s still a possibility that an album’s worth of studio-quality Hair Theatre is still in there. (They recorded with Moody, but after a falling out with him, the band walked away.)
Come to mention it, there’s potentially a whole world of San Diego music in Mr. Moody’s garage. Perhaps, perhaps someone could go up and look. I know that within the tight circle of bands first described here, the Answers and Wallflowers also recorded with Mystic.
I’d like to salvage what can be while it still exists …