Into the Void

Let's keep November flowing properly with the first of several anniversaries of shows from this wild THTP series that dominated much of the last year's archival discoveries.

These all come from Bay Area venues and date from the advent of the 1980s, when the Punk scene in that part of the world was really moshing.

They were all taped by the engineer who did the sound for them, using a separate 12-track desk and discrete cabling.

There are over 130 of them now, and the vast majority of them could be issued, with minimal alteration, as official live documents of some pretty obscure -- and in some cases, unrecorded -- bands.

The engineer was the legendary Terry Hammer, and these were all prepared for disclosure into the trading community by a great dude who calls himself Teetering.

Today's was recorded exactly 40 years ago today in one of the most beloved SF punk venues from back in the day, and features a band who, right after this period, exploded onto MTV with one of the greatest '80s songs.

Fronted by one of the most strikingly unique characters with one of the most distinct vocal deliveries ever, their songs are like the "fuck you and everything about you" equivalent to "Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee, smothered in excoriating Punk onions.

In this 42 minutes of jackhammer mayhem, we see the seeds of something that, soon after this time, the diabolical and likely US-intelligence-agency-controlled music industry would no longer allow into the mainstream.

Romeo Void

Mabuhay Gardens

San Francisco, California USA

11.14.1980

01 Big Macho

02 Dedication

03 What Works for You Don't Always Work for Me

04 Make It Past Noon

05 Charred Remains

06 On the Double

07 I Help Myself

08 White Sweater

09 Talk Dirty to Me

10 Fear to Fear

11 Double Shot

Total time: 42:28

Deborah Iyall - vocals & percussion

Peter Woods - guitar & vocals

Frank Zincavage - bass & vocals

Benjamin Bossi - saxophone & vocals

Jay Derrah – drums & percussion

48K multichannel soundboard/audience matrix recorded by legendary Bay Area soundman Terry Hammer

#20 in the THTP series, assembled by Teetering
261 MB FLAC/November 2020 archive link

I will be revisiting this THTP series throughout the next few weeks, with some truly seminal and undersung sounds coming forth from the heyday of Bay Area Punk and postpunk, fasho.

Until then, hang on in there and thanks for reading!--J.