This show, which I was not in attendance, has long-fascinated me, because these kinds of things do. It's Black Flag headlining a mammoth lineup at the large (5,000 heads, according to reports) venue in LA known as The New Olympic. Henry Rollins wrote about it in his Get In The Van book in the '90s, but only briefly. In fact, he didn't even mention any other bands playing on the bill, other than the Blasters, whom he gave high praise. The band had just finished their first cross-country (and international) tour w/ Hank up front, Damaged had been released and the band played a show in Chicago w/ Husker Du on the 29th of December, 1981, which gave them two days to hightail it across the country and make the show. According to Hank lore, time was of such the essence that you'd have to relieve yourself out the window or at the rare gas-station stop, as not a second could be wasted. The band made it just in time for a late soundcheck.

The reason this show recently entered my conscience again over this southern summer has to do w/ my regular reading regime of music books, which I promised myself I'd get through over the January break. Two of them concerned early LA punk rock, one being Kid Congo's autobiography, the other being a belated once-over of John Doe's Under The Big Black Sun, A Personal History Of LA Punk, first published in 2016 but one I kept putting on the backburner until I guess I felt I needed a suitable easy-read page-turner for the beach (I read none of it on a beach).

This hesitancy probably had/has more to do with having read just about everything regarding the early LA punk scene the past 35 years of my life than anything else, wondering if such a book would really illuminate anything I hadn't read a thousand times before. Probably under half the book is actually written by Doe himself, the rest is by his contemporaries, as well as a couple of pointless ones (the weakest aspect of the book) by his editor, Tom DeSavia. Some participants are getting awful close to boomer-level of annoyance w/ their constant we-changed-the-world-maaan reminiscences, and the best ones are provided by Mike Watt, Chris D. and Dave Alvin of the Blasters, who brings a greater insight to the show in question, as well as the history of the Blasters, which dates back to the early/mid '70s. The chapter is entitled "No Slow Songs Tonight, 1979 - 1982", which was the band's mantra as they nervously prepared for the concert.

Being New Year's Eve '81/'82, it was at the height of LA punk violence, and there's no doubt that if you weren't providing the baldies w/ an evening of one-two-fuck-you entertainment, then you might be in trouble. I've never read any reports of how Saccharine Trust went down, though Suburban Lawns, who were more cerebral but high-energy New Wave w/ an arty disposition (I'll assume you've all heard their sole LP, recently reissued, which is a knockout), lasted two songs, diminutive singer Su Tissue hit w/ a projectile after a couple of songs, the band exiting the stage. So many assholes. Fear were the preeminent knucklehead HC band of their day, or certainly LA's, and no one would fuck with Lee Ving if they didn't want to get decked, so I imagine they handled it just fine. His first words to the audience were, "We're Fear. Fuck you!"

Earlier that evening, Ving had passed the Blasters in their open dressing room, yelling, "Those of us who are about to die... salute you!", seemingly relishing the doomed look on the band's faces. They survived the show via the mantra of No Slow Songs Tonight, and I really dig their first two albums, American Music and The Blasters: roots-rockabilly done right, a band who straddled several different musical worlds w/ style.

Black Flag viewed the show as a massive success, the local media finally giving them a modicum of respect as being returning hometown heroes, though their legal problems w/ Unicorn were about to start for real. That's another story, and this has been a live review for a rock concert which I was not at. More to come...