DEAD BOYS - Return Of The Living Dead Boys: Halloween Night 1986 {MVD} Filmed live at NYC’s Ritz, this is the reformation show by the late, great DEAD BOYS. You can read what I thought of the band in my review below, so needless to say this was/is totally mandatory viewing for me.
JOEY RAMONE introduces the band, which launches into ‘Sonic Reducer’. It’s a visually different band than on the DVD below and when Stiv bounds onto the stage he looks more like ALICE COOPER than the snotty Punk upstart. Yep, long hair, general’s cap and a tight PVC outfit while Cheetah looks haggard in a leopard print shirt, Stetson and no hair. Blitz, Magnum and Zero have aged but changed little. The set consists of all the classics (bar ‘Not Anymore’ which is a let down - maybe Cheetah couldn't play that killer guitar solo anymore) along with a few highlights of the much-maligned second album. The performance is kinda together, although Stiv is often found waiting for the band to hit the song after his introductions - which in turn leads to the smart-assed Bators mouth to go into overtime. He’s heard saying to Cheetah, "Tell ‘em a joke - tell ‘em about your life." That’s followed by an Uncle Fester comment! Jeff Magnum gets merciless taunted before ‘High Tension Wire’ too. Gotta say though, Magnum’s playing is spot on - his runs during ‘Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth’ are particularly impressive. ‘3rd Generation Nation’ falls apart on the second verse, ‘Won’t Look Back’ has a brilliant PISTOLS pastiche, ‘Search And Destroy’ is pretty ropey but Stiv out-Iggys IGGY mixing it with the crowd and getting his PVC pants virtually ripped off for it. The second, set-closing ‘Sonic Reducer’ is ragged, contemptuous and riddled with animosity culminating with Stiv naked, cock between his thighs. Gloriously unrehearsed - it makes many a reunion tame in comparison.
You get a neat ‘Extra’ too in the form of a 15-minute interview with Stiv and Frank Secich dating from 1980 and a rare promo for ‘Sonic Reducer’. Thankfully the interview proves Stiv hadn’t mellowed when the joke question of, "I heard you were gonna do a benefit concert for Ronald Reagan," was raised only to be met with a simple, "No." After a slight pause, Stiv says, "We’ll do one for Nuke the Whales instead." (Talking of Reagan, there's a guy in the audiance of the show who stage dives - wearing a flasher mac and Reagan mask!  No shit!!)
The footage throughout is a bit grainy but the songs still stand today as seminal slices of arrogant US Punk and Stiv still has/ had an aura about him that has never been matched (even if it was fused with a slight rock-star attitude by this stage).
It’s really not the DVD for repeated viewings or for the curious - that’s the disc below - but for those who are fans it’s pretty addictive viewing.

DEAD BOYS - Live At CBGB 1977 {MVD} To me, the DEAD BOYS is the definitive example of Punk Rock - certainly from that ‘77 era. The band’s sound, look, attitude all exude the ultimate ‘fuck you’. The band still represents danger, excitement and that whole ‘to hell with tomorrow let’s live for today’ ethos. Not only did the DEAD BOYS have all that, the band could also play like few of their contemporaries and rock without parallel. You understand what I am trying to convey? The DEAD BOYS was the real deal. End of story.
This DVD captures an incendiary 10-song set recorded at CBGBs in 1977. It’s recorded on a multi-camera set up which doesn’t focus purely on Stiv and Cheetah, but documents the whole band as it performs. Kicking off with the band’s anthem, ‘Sonic Reducer’, from there it’s one wild ride. The set is culled mainly from the band’s classic debut album, ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’ with the exception of ‘Revenge’, ‘Flame Thrower Love’ and the ubiquitous cover of IGGY AND THE STOOGES’ classic, ‘Search & Destroy’. The actual performance is intense, taught and stunningly muscular increasing in intensity as the band progresses to the point where ‘What Love Is’ becomes an unstoppable slab of noxious, totally focused Punk that finishes with an abrupt, precise crunch that hits like a speeding juggernaut.
Visually, it’s very much Stiv and Cheetah’s stage - even colliding and having a bout of pushing and shoving towards the end. Most astounding maybe is the performance of Johnny Blitz. His drumming is powerful, visual and echoes the great Keith Moon - had Keith been a NY Punk in ‘77! Stiv’s performance is explosive and electric as he contorts his face and body, eats chewing gum from the stage floor, eats his own snot and physically throws that skeletal frame around with a fury and sense of danger that Johnny Rotten could but dream of.
While this all-too-rare high quality footage is virtually priceless, the extras make for an essential document of the band and era. You get interviews with the band from ‘77, all of whom prove to be really quite articulate - although Cheetah goes some way in making an argument against that statement. Stiv is quite subdued when compared with his reputation, while Blitz sounds like an Italian-American hood and Jimmy Zero is animated and insightful. Then there is a recent interview with Hilly Kristal of CBGBs about his memories of the band and finally a recent interview with Cheetah Chrome which proves to be the highlight of the post-’77 band interviews. He recalls, from the confines of what appears to be CBGBs while drinking Guinness, what life was like as a DEAD BOY. His conversation is laced with notable quotes, but the best of the bunch is his only regret: that the DEAD BOYS didn’t hang around long enough to make sure Limp Bizcuit didn’t exist!! There doesn’t seem to be any air of egotism about him, and his proclamation about the DEAD BOYS never reuniting as ‘Stiv was like a brother’ is very pleasing to hear.
The additional extras are interesting but throw away; a Johnny Blitz-cam version of ‘All This And More’; a ‘77 promo clip and, finally, some footage of the terrible STEEL TIPS notable only for the hilarious scene of a guy with about 24 firecrackers going off - all of which are attached to his torso.
The packaging is neat with director’s comments and a small biog. Put that together with the material on the disc and you are looking at one of the finest visual documents of the DEAD BOYS imaginable. Not only essential viewing for DEAD BOYS adicts like myself, but it mandatory viewing for anyone who claims affiliation with, or affection for, Punk Rock.

DEAD KENNEDYS - In God We Trust, Inc - The Lost Tapes {MVD} For me, ‘In God We Trust’ was always the best DK’s release. It took the thrashy, ultra-fast HC bands on at their own game and proved that songs of less than a minute could be intelligent, structured, witty and more than just a hyperbole of machismo, noise and fury.
To understand fully what’s on this disc, you need to know the history of the record. In June 1981, the band recorded the original version of the EP but, come mixing, the tape was discovered to be defective and already deteriorated. In August the same year, the tracks were re-recorded and formed the official release. Those original versions were preserved, albeit as rough mixes direct from the recording consol, onto a portable video recorder - which is what we have here.
There seems to be little difference in composition between these versions and those on the actual record, but it’s interesting to watch the interaction among the band’s members - especially in light of the big acrimonious split between Biafra and the rest of the band a few years ago. Jello and Klaus definitely seem close in the studio laughing and talking, while East Bay Ray appears slightly withdrawn. This could be due to the presence of the cameras, or his lack of a microphone, but the minor bust up he and Jello have before ‘Religious Vomit’ kinda tells a tale.
The other half of the DVD features some blazing live performances of tracks from the EP dating from 1979 to 1986. All the live performances are, as you would expect, intense and essential viewing. You get ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’, recorded in Texas 1982, which is unbelievably confrontational; a crazed ‘Kepone Factory’, recorded with original drummer Ted at San Fran’s legendary Mabuhay Gardens in 1979, that sees Ted and Ray with gaffer tape over their mouths; ‘We’ve Got A Bigger Problem Now’ also from a crazy, phlegm-flying angst-ridden Mabuhay Gardens show in 1981, that’s less jazzy and more direct than its studio counterpart. Only ‘Hyperactive Child’ is not featured live - instead you get a montage of live footage over the studio recording. Jello is visually captivating as the songs literally shred the senses. Musically the band is tight and on the nail. Ray also appears more animated and inclusive here, but it still seems Jello’s and Klaus’ band.
The last addition is a five-min feature about the contents of the DVD which has a few additional points about the recording process.
The DVD is worth more than a single viewing for the music alone. Given a bit of hindsight and the aforementioned bitter split between Biafra and the band, it becomes a great visual document of a legendary band, a fantastic recording and a glimpse of how the unit worked, communicated and ultimately fell apart.
For the record, going back to my initial statement, if ‘In God We Trust’ is my favourite release, then ‘Frankenchrist’ is my least favourite with ‘Bedtime For Democracy’, ‘Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables’ and ‘Plastic Surgery Disasters’ continuously changing places in between the two - just in case you were wondering!

DEK - Wattatata {Something Weird} I think these fellas have stuff releaed on Finger Records, and quite an oddity the band is. The lead track on this DVD-R is ‘Wattatata’ that comes on like B-52s meets AGENT ORANGE playing WEEZER! There’s a heap of witty sexual innuendoes in the lyrics, lots of scantily clad chicks and... Well... It’s pretty throwaway stuff to be honest. The other two tracks come on like ANGRY SAMOANS meets early REDD KROSS - much better!! It’s gnarly, snotty youth-core and really hits the spot. There’s a profusion of TSOL T-shirts too - no bad thing. The band look real young too - let’s hope they ditch the kitsch niceness and head ‘Back To Samoa’ rather than to the rock lobster.

D.O.A. - Smash The State {Sudden Death/ MVD} This is a retrospective compilation of live material of Canada’s seminal Hardcore Punk band, D.O.A. It dates from 1978 through to 1981 and features the original, classic line-up of Joey Shithead (vocals/guitar), Chuck Biscuits (drums), Randy Rampage (bass) and Dave Gregg (guitar) - that’s the line-up responsible for the classic ‘Something Better Change’ album and ‘Hardcore 81’ release.
The material is culled from five shows plus a couple of TV shoots. It starts with arguably the best of the shows, a stunner from 1980 filmed at On Broadway in San Francisco. The late Dirk Dirksen introduces the band, which then launches into a scathing ‘New Age’. A few songs further and you are treated to a near-perfect blitz of ‘Woke Up Screaming’. There’s only one camera (but with an incredible, well-focused zoom) and, for the era, superb sound quality. The next show, filmed a year later at the Old Waldorf in San Fran includes a hyper ‘Fucked Up Baby’. This is filmed side-on and really highlights what a shit-hot drummer Biscuits was.
The final of the live shows is the Anarchist Anti-Canada Day show from 1978. The band looks incredibly young and Joey is in his finest, obnoxious Punk form spitting on his hand and wiping it in his hair! There’s a particularly banal interview, some flag burning and a rather pedestrian performance when compared with those later (although, the version of ‘Disco Sucks’ here is bitter and blazing). The cops (or 'Bulls' as Joey names them) show up and seem incredibly tolerant when compared with their American counterparts even allowing Biscuits to cuddle one of them!
Other features include some incomprehensible backstage footage featuring the band + CIRCLE JERKS and THE LEWD, a couple of TV shoots including ‘World War III" that features some super-snappy editing and an interesting news report from 1979 about the ‘state of Punk’ and D.O.A.
There’s over an hour of footage here and, not including that backstage stuff, there is not one minute of throwaway material. The energy and fury with which D.O.A. performed at this stage is simply breath taking. It was incendiary stuff with a heap of movement from Rampage (who, incidentally, looked especially wild-eyed at the Bay Area Mystery show in 81), tight as hell songs and, as stated, powerhouse drumming from Biscuits.
Easily one of the best DVDs of vintage gear that has sprung up of late and one that absolutely ANY ONE with an interest in Punk/ Hardcore and the genres’ histories really needs to check out. As stated elsewhere on this website, band’s like D.O.A. are few and far between these days and this DVD captures the band at its era-defining, insolent best.

D.R.I. - Live At CBGB’S 1984 {Beer City} My god - what a whopper! This 80-track plus (yep, over EIGHTY tracks!) DVD is the visual accompaniment to the recently released live disc on Beer City. The core of the disc is obviously the show mentioned in the title. It’s an intimate affair, filmed on just one camera allowing the band to give it as it was: no thrills, no gimmicks, no tricks - just 100% pure thrash Punk the like of which had never been heard before. But that’s just the selling point.
For fans and obsessives, the rest of the DVD is essential. You get a sparsely attended show from the same era at Portsmouth, New Hampshire that features way over 40-songs filmed in what appears to be the village town hall and includes all the classics. Sure, the sound (recorded on a cine-camera and, I’m guessing, without any post-filming mixing) is poor but the footage is riveting. This was long before Punk became another accessible fashion and DRI are seen slugging it out for about 12 Punks going ape at the front and several more bemused fans loitering around the edge of the venue. It’s a great document of what bands used to face and what they had to endure - there was no ready-made market, no national PR - this was just real, determined Punk Rock from a band that broke barriers and divisions. Essential stuff. It’s kinda humorous too as, at the NH show, there’s a guy in the audience who starts to slowly thrash as opener, ‘I Don't Need Society’, kicks in with its slow intro. When the band kick into the fast thrash core of the song, he stands bemused, unsure of what he’s hearing; then he grasps it and steps up his own personal thrashing!! Classic!
Also included is a promo video of professional skater, Kristian Svitak who was sponsored by the band. Not stunning viewing when compared with the live action, but a neat way to fill out the disc and add a little variety. Blazing stuff ... All together now ... WHO AM I? D R I!