http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AXnMNK98PA&feature=related some of you may get a laugh outta this, a few videos surfaced of me "singing" with my old band, Half Life, from Pittsburgh. The video was us opening for the Exploited in San Diego, 1987! The bass player went on to start Gearhead magazine/records- Mike LaVella. The drummer is Damon Che' later of Don Cabellero. I showed this to my 8 year old daughter who couldn't stop laughing at me. I still have the coat!! The plum smuggler pants are long gone...
. . . before you discovered the joys of In & Out Burger . . . none of us are as 'tiny' as we were at 17!
Excellent Chris! I thought we played pretty good... we were about two weeks into riding across the US in a van with no air conditioning. We were pissed because they made us play first, opening for the local bands. We never did that in Pittsburgh, if you drove more than 30 miles you got a better slot. So yeah we were angry/miserable/dirty etc. But other than that, the crowd was nice and people treated us well. I ended up becoming friends with Wattie from the Exploited, he was effing my room mate at the time too, so that helped. She's the one on the left in this picture, the girl on the right is my old girlfriend. Note the Ultraman poster on the wall! It came from an Ultraman soundtrack album.
Wow, Damon Che seems like he was pretty amazing on drums even when he was playing crusty punk. That's awesome!
Damon's drumming definitely was a stand out, here's a link to an older website with some of his work.. http://www.halflifepunk.com/ He had a doubla bass pedal and a pretty specific set up that he still uses today. He's a good dude too.
Ah. 1987. I was just about to graduate high school and my girlfriend was yet to be born. Great video, Jeff!
Man you supported some great bands back then.Raw Power and Riistetyt. I saw you open for the Bad Brains in Pittsburgh.Great memories.
That's rad to hear. I always hear that story about the band dudes that he left at a show and about how much of a jerk he is, so it's good to know that someone who knew him on a personal level thinks he's a good dude.
Awesome footage! Sometimes it pains me that I wasn't born around the time Punk and Hardcore were truly alive. There are so many great shows I would have loved to see. Though according to Chris, I would have never survived the San Diego punk scene at the time.
alas poor punk rock I knew him skullbrain, a fellow of infinite beer, of most excellent spiked leather.He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it.
That sounds very much like San Diego. SD has always been a hostile place to bands. On behalf of San Diego, I apologize. Start another band and tour to SD and I'll book a show for you and let you headline. Heh.
