Awesome post!!!!
I Love the Dead Kennedys.
I saw the DKs play in a VERY small club back in '84. It was an outrageous show. The Wipers opened up for them. This is from the venue's Web site:
"History
W.O.W. Hall was a well known west coast venue for jam band and reggae music during the 1970s and '80s. In 1984, San Francisco punk band Dead Kennedys played the W.O.W. Hall. During the show singer Jello Biafra
threw packets of Jell-O mix onto the crowded dancefloor, resulting in damage to the floor. Punk bands were banned from the hall until the late 1980s when management agreed to permit a performance in the basement by The Flaming Lips."
Whoever wrote that got it wrong. Jello didn't
throw out the powder. It was a bunch of lunkhead frat guys who did it. But they did indeed ban punk bands from W.O.W. after that, and it worked in my favor. Two weeks after the DKs show Black Flag was booked to play there. The tickets had been sold before the punk ban took effect so everyone including the band showed up on time for the show, but the W.O.W. management came out and told everyone the show was off and to leave. After the crowd grumbled and started to disperse, Rollins himself appeared and asked if anyone knew a place they could play. Some guys said they had a stage in the basement of the co-op where they lived and so the band and about two dozen of us headed over there where Black Flag set up and played for about three hours straight. Priceless. Black Flag playing in the basement of an old frat house to about 20 people for three hours. A highlight of my band-going experiences for sure.