Another missing piece of the Che Underground puzzle fell into place last night in Los Angeles when Rockin’ Dog-turned-ace-designer Dave Ellison joined forces with Wallflower-cum-mad-barber Todd Lahman. The fruits of the meeting: a handoff of long-awaited and freshly digitized Wallflowers audio tracks.
The three live cuts represent the first incarnation of this great band and comprise the Stooges’ “Raw Power” and “TV Eye” as well as the Wallflowers’ own signature “Wall Drugs.” (I’ve heard the latter so far, and it rocks!) I’m hoping Messrs. Rinck and Howland can provide details on the date and location of this performance.
We’re all doing Wall Drugs!
I remember the first time I saw the Wallflowers. It was at Che Cafe, and it was the first incarnation of the band. It was like the Stooges and Jimi Hendrix got together and jammed out on a really good night! The music was screamin’ in my brain. At the end of their set list, the non-drumming members of the band kept persuading the drummer to play one more song. After a few more tunes, he had to quit out of sheer exhaustion.
I’ve got a few flyers from the era, I’ll send them to Mathew as soon as I can figure out this here scanning contraption, and three of them feature the Wallflowers. The lineups were: Noise 292, Wallflowers, Hair Theatre (I was the lead guitarist of HT) at Che Cafe on Sat. Nov. 5 (no year); Tell Tale Hearts, Wallflowers, Hair Theatre at the Rock Palace on Sat. March 16; and Morlocks, Noise 292, Hair Theatre, Wallflowers, Cindy Lee (Berryhill) at Greenwich Village West on Wed. Oct. 31. I suspect the shows were in that order going by the venues and bands. So, ’84-’85?
Paul: I’ve got no fewer than three different flyer designs for that Nov. 5, 1983, show at the Che! (As usual, every band did at least one flyer.) Interesting footnote: According to the Wendell Kling design, the original lineup (struck out in pen) was supposed to be Noise 292, Hair Theatre and the Rockin’ Dogs — I guess the Wallflowers stepped in at the last minute.
One of two flyers I have for the GVW Halloween show is up in the Che Underground flyer gallery. I’m trying to eke out time to scan the other stuff … Definitely need that March 16, 1985, show at the Rock Palace!
As I recall, the order, if not the names, of bands depended greatly on who drew the flyer.
Oh yes…the “headliner” definitely depended on which band drew up the flyer!
Diplomatic!
That’s was Dave Rinck. Those are his Magic Marker cartoons!
Here’s Mr. Rinck’s color notes on this new discovery:
“Wow, we were a loud little bunch…
“Amazing to hear this stuff! This is the raw stuff, the real steak tartare of the band. These are quite possibly the earliest recordings of the Wallflowers. I think Tom, Paul and I were about 15 when this was done.
“Walldrugs and TV Eye were recorded in a ‘studio’ at Music Power, Raw Power was too, but not until a little later than the other two.
“Walldrugs is about some asthma pills we used to take recreationally, they made us so aggro and dizzy that we’d often take a handful of them before going on stage.”