Punk Bands Take Over Great American Music Hall
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A line-up of influential punk outfits that have made a lasting impact on the scene comes the Great American Music Hall Sunday night when T.S.O.L. tops a bill of classic bands including SF icons the Avengers and M.D.C, the Lewd and Kicker.
Founded in Long Beach in 1978 by singer Jack Grisham and guitarist Ron Emory, True Sounds Of Liberty have charted a unique path across musical sub genres over the course of four decades that have run the gamut from politically charged hardcore to gothic deathrock to bluesy metal. Filled out by bassist Mike Roche and drummer Todd Barnes, the group issued its seminal eponymous debut EP in 1981, followed by the more gothic full-length album Dance With Me later the same year.
While the EP was filled with left-leaning hardcore anthems, Dance With Me would prove a far more eclectic and influential effort, focusing on Grisham's horror-themed lyrics and ominous atmosphere that predated the dark-hearted sound of the Misfits and the Lords of the New Church. The album remains a certified SoCal punk classic that still makes up a solid portion of any T.S.O.L. setlist to this day.
On the band's subsequent EP (Weathered Statues) and second album Beneath the Shadows in 1982 for Jello Biafra's SF-based imprint Alternative Tentacles -- the first to feature new keyboardist Greg Kuehn -- T.S.O.L. would move further into a post-punk, gothic rock direction that confused some hardcore fans but broadened their base. Unfortunately, interpersonal turmoil would lead to Grisham, Barnes and Kuehn departing acrimoniously the following year.
Despite the loss of Grisham's creative direction (he went on to lead new projects Cathedral of Tears and Tender Fury into the early '90s), T.S.O.L. would continue under Emory's leadership with new singer Joe Wood, gradually moving from their Doors-influenced gothic sound to a more straightforward hard rock approach over the course of three albums for Enigma Records. Eventually Emory and Roche would depart from their own band, leaving Wood and drummer Mitch Dean in control of the T.S.O.L. name.
Grisham and the rest of the original line-up reunited to lead a competing version of the band in 1991, but the reunion was short lived. The members would branch off on other projects for much of the decade while engaging in an ongoing legal battle with Wood over the rights to the band's name, eventually regaining ownership in 1999. Sadly, drummer Barnes died at the young age of 34 of brain aneurysm late that same year.
Despite that tragedy, the remaining original players have since toured regularly and recorded four albums of new material, most recently 2017's The Trigger Complex that was produced by noted LA punk pioneer Paul Roessler (the Screamers, Nina Hagen, 45 Grave). This evening at the Great American Music Hall marking the band's 40th anniversary will gather a host of T.S.O.L.'s San Francisco contemporaries and for a marathon five-band bill.
SF punk legends the Avengers were only around for a couple of years during their initial existence, yet they have managed to influence legions of punk disciples. Founding guitarist Greg Ingraham and drummer Danny Furious (aka Danny O'Brien) started the band in 1977, inviting charismatic lead singer Penelope Houston to join the group (bassist Jimmy Wilsey filled out the quartet).
The band's debut three-song EP We Are the One showed off Houston's ferocious vocal style and Ingraham's fiery riffs. The Avengers opened for the Sex Pistols at the group's notorious final show at San Francisco's Winterland, a gig that led to Pistols guitarist Steve Jones producing a recording session, but the departure of Ingraham in early 1979 was the beginning of the end. The quartet had split up a few months later prior to the release of their second self-titled EP drawn from the sessions with Jones.
The posthumous Avengers compilation in 1983 would further spread the legend of the band's potent punk songwriting. Houston would reinvent herself as an acoustic singer/songwriter, but the release of the new collection Died for Your Sins by Lookout Records in 1999 led to the Houston and Ingraham putting together a new line-up with bassist Joel Reader and drummer Luis Illades. That version of the group has been playing regularly since 2004, including a tour with Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers last year that took the Avengers to parts of the U.S. the quartet had never played before. Politically charged SF-via-Austin, TX outfit M.D.C. (which stands for "Millions of Dead Cops") and Seattle/SF hardcore group the Lewd led by original singer J. Satz Baret also perform. Opening old-school punk crew Kicker -- fronted by the ubiquitous Pete the Roadie and featuring members of Operation Ivy, Dystopia and Neurosis -- starts off the festivities with a set of rambunctious two-fisted tunes.
T.S.O.L. and the Avengers
Sunday, Feb.23, 8 p.m. $20-$50
Great American Music Hall
