1981

Jan 9 The Guess Who. Well, I was working a car show or something akin to that at the Convention Center – ushering took me to all kinds of strange places; I once got to guard Clayton Moore (yeah, the Lone Ranger) at a personal appearance) – and a band called the Guess Who played. There was no Randy Bachman, no Burton Cummings, nobody except the bass player who wasn’t even the original guy who ever played on any of their records. A few years later, I met a guy who was playing in a version of Bachman Turner Overdrive with no Bachman or Turner in it.

Jan 13 The Police / Jools Holland / Sector 27. This was the worst Police show I saw; maybe they hadn’t figured out how to project in a larger space (Kiel Opera House), maybe they just had an off night. Jools Holland had recently left Squeeze, and he played some boogie woogie by himself. Sector 27 was the new band with Tom Robinson in it – John the Mailman and I interviewed him and for some reason drove him to 7-11; was there no feed backstage?

Jan 16 Brown & Langrehr & Friends. This may have been at Billie Goat Hill, and probably included Reed Nesbitt, he who played barre chords only on his guitar, and that by tuning the strings so he merely had to push down all six across one fret.

Jan 17 Brown & Langrehr & Friends.

Jan. 22 Fool’s Face. Oh, how I disliked these guys. Mailman loved them, and that’s probably how I wound up seeing them. Their best songs were at the end, when everybody traded instruments and they rocked harder. Also, these guys were apparently responsible for the stupid tiny pony tails that many men had throughout the 80s.

Jan. 23 The Strikers. Somewhere in here, perhaps this night, I went to the Club OP-P for the first time. It had opened on New Year’s Eve, but that was a very rare chance for my girlfriend and I to spend some alone time, so I didn’t go. The Club Op-P was a storefront down on the Stroll (the run-down strip where the prostitutes walked the street) run by Tony Patti (whose dad owned the building) and Mort Hill. For a few months, it was the place to go!

Jan. 24 The Action. This was a band from Elsah, Illinois who had a really cool power pop sensibility. Never recorded, but I saw them a bunch.

Jan. 27 The Rockats / Ferrari. I’m gonna guess this was at 4^th and Pine. I didn’t remember seeing them a second time. Ferrari was the cover band with Ken Krueger at the time. I hated the band, but I liked Ken a lot. He wanted to move the band in a different direction.

Jan. 30 PG. I loved PG, but Burgett would go on to bigger and better things. And also, didn’t Saltsider abandon them before this to join first the Oui Oui Twins and then the Obvious? Was this PG as a trio?

Jan. 31 The Action / Anti-Mation

Feb. 4 Mama’s Pride. I don’t know how or why I saw them – I’m gonna guess a Convention Center event.

Feb. 6 The Strikers / The Skitzos

Feb. 7 The Action / The Heels. Remember I didn’t like the Heels when I saw them twice the previous year? I loved them to death this night at the Club Op-P. New guitarists Tony Fafoglia and Curt Hendricks were monsters – this was the night they played “Wooly Bully” with Tony on his knees playing the fretboard while Curt played the strings. They became my fave band of 1981, and Tony remains one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen in St. Louis.

Feb. 7 Brown & Langrehr. Okay, where was this and why could I go after Op-P? There was a Masonic Temple two doors down from Op-P, and I wonder if this was a gig there. Not many shows happened there, but if anybody would book a new place, it was Charlie Langrehr. It could also have been the Tivoli for a midnight show, which happened sometime in this timeframe.

Feb. 13 Food & Money / The Heels. Food & Money were from Springfield, Illinois, and I really liked them. Possibly the first out-of-town New Wave band to play Billie Goat Hill.

Feb. 14 Brown & Langrehr

Feb. 27 The Nukes

Feb. 28 The Felons / Zanti Misfits

Mar. 5 Mama’s Pride. Alright, I’m confused. I had an internship at the Riverfront Times, but I thought that was in the fall. Maybe it was spring. If it was, I did a feature on this band, and had to see them a couple times. Ray Hartmann gave me a lecture about my rather critical stance on a popular local band – “If you were covering the Cardinals, you wouldn’t write anything bad about them, would you?”

Mar. 7 Be-Vision / The Action. Be-Vision was the Heels by any other name. A way better name, actually. 

Mar. 14 The Oozkicks

Mar. 19 Martha & the Muffins / the Felons. This was my first time at the Casa Loma Ballroom. I still love “Echo Beach” by these guys, and I still remember being madly in love with the bass player, who had only recently joined the band. There was an interview after the show in which a whole bunch of guys clustered around her.

Mar. 20 The Strikers / the Obvious. The Obvious was Tony Patti’s band; he had originally put together this same band to back up Rommie Martinez and Alisa Feinberg in the Oui Oui Twins, but that was a one gig and done thing. Chuck DeClue, formerly of the Retros, took over the vocal spot, and I loved the results. I think this may well have been the final Op-P show (though somewhere in there Mort had left, and it was called the Change Club).

Mar. 28 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts / Dog People. Jett had signed to her management deal with Kenny Laguna, and replaced Eric Ambel with some less entertaining guitarist. Still, she was Joan Jett, and I loved this show at Fourth & Pine. Were the Dog People Jim Wunderle’s band? I remember seeing him in something back then sometime, and this rings a bell with me.

Apr. 3 The Felons / Trained Animal. This was definitely at the Masonic Temple. It was the debut performance of Trained Animal, a new band with some instrumental virtuosos who didn’t last long, but made it on the Test Patterns album.

Apr. 4 The Gap Band / Cameo / Slave. This was the year I became entranced with WESL, the African-American hit radio station that was the only thing I listened to in the car for months. The Gap Band had a monster smash “Burn Rubber on Me,” and Donna Knott and I had to see them live. I don’t even remember Cameo or Slave, but I was thrilled with the whole night. I mean, I saw Dr. Jockenstein in person.

Apr. 6 Dear John. This was Bob Kuhlman’s band. Bob was a guy I’d seen around town at a lot of shows, and he had one heck of a knack for pop hooks. This might have been at a little bar on Hampton, or it might have been at Billie Goat Hill – those are the places I associate with Bob being on stage.

Apr. 7 U2. They played Hollywood Nights, touring behind or maybe slightly in front of the second album. I called Bono a Christ figure, and this was before he came out as a Christian.

Apr. 11 Trained Animal / Zanti Misfits

Apr. 23 The Strikers

Apr. 25 Brown & Langrehr

Apr. 30 Steel Pulse / the Felons. A major reggae show at the Casa Loma. Rick Gould and Sam Berger had started a production company to bring in the acts Contemporary Productions wouldn’t touch. I remember the singer in Steel Pulse, with that towering mass of dreadlocks, somehow fitting his head in a limousine before the show.

May 1 Earwacks. Earwacks were slightly older than the New Wave crowd (maybe like a year or two older, an eternity at the time in terms of musical taste). They came from a prog-rock background, but they also had a love for New Wave energy. I’m pretty sure this first time I saw them they played at UMSL, but I probably had their album already. I really wish I’d seen them more back then, as these guys were truly talented.

May 2 Zanti Misfits / Be-Vision

May 8 Parliament/Funkadelic / Zapp / Sweat Band. I had seen P-Funk in 76 on the Mothership Tour when I worked at the Arena. This time, the place was called the Checkerdome, and they brought the funk completely. And George Clinton got bare-ass naked on stage, with only an ermine cape behind him, which didn’t prevent anybody from seeing his appendage a waggling around while he danced. Also, Zapp blew me away, right from the moment Roger Troutman was carried into the venue from the back of the crowd and brought to the stage. “More Bounce to the Ounce,” indeed.

May 12 Garland Jeffreys / the Rumour. Graham Parker had split with his old mates, and they hooked up with Jeffreys, who had a new album I loved. This show was at Hollywood Nights, and I remember the Rumour’s opening set including a version of the Spinners’ “Rubberband Man.”

May 14 Shoes / Mopeds. Shoes were one of the first “indie” rock bands, though their second album had just come out on Elektra. Great show at Stages. Don’t remember the Mopeds.

May 16 Trained Animal / the Obvious

May 28 The Plimsouls / Be-Vision. This was a big deal, a majorly hyped power pop band from LA coming to 4^th & Pine. This was pre “Million Miles Away,” and yet they drew a nice crowd of curiosity seekers. Still don’t know how Be-Vision got on this bill, but I was happy to see them.

May 30 Be-Vision / Food & Money.

June 5 John Cale / Earwacks. I was actually pretty sick this night, but the chance to see a former member of the Velvet Underground at the Casa Loma could not be passed up. I remember being disappointed he didn’t play “Ready For War” from the only Cale solo album I had at the time, “Sabotage Live.” But it was a great show, and remember, I liked Earwacks.

June 6 The Vapors / Strangers. “Turning Japanese” was an underground hit on all the new wave radio shows at the time. I don’t remember anything about the show except the interview afterwards, with Tony Cornejo pretty much taking over the entire conversation.

June 13 Duchamp. Another out-of-town band at Billie Goat Hill. This time from Kansas City. Inspired Tony Renner to come up with the headline “Scads and Scads of Scanlons” in Jet Lag, as most of the band were brothers named Scanlon. Artsy, but nice.

June 15 The Obvious. I’m guessing this was possibly the New Wave Fashion show at the Divine Miss M’s parking lot. I took great photos that night. Somewhere in this period, Chuck DeClue had left the band, and Tony Patti was singing lead.

June 17 Soulard Blues Band. This was definitely a Riverfront Times related thing, and I remember going with Bob Chekoudjian to see them so I could learn about blues.

June 20 The Strikers / Dear John / Steve Tee & Bob Kuhlman. I don’t know what the Kulhlman duo meant.

June 27 Be-Vision

June 28 The Obvious

July 1 Greg Kihn / Great Buildings / Fools Face. I think this was at Stages, and I remember hating Great Buildings even more than Fools Face, though hearing Kihn sing “Rendezvous” made up for it.

July 3 Tommy Bankhead & the Blues Eldorados. Donna Knott took me to this little hole in the wall on Manchester because she said this was real blues and I had to see it. She was right, though I don’t think I really knew what I was experiencing at the time.

July 14 999 / the Alleycats. The Casa Loma didn’t have air conditioning. It was over 100 degrees inside that night, and we were all gathered in front of the stage dancing like crazy. I actually got high just from dancing. The Alleycats were like X, but not as good.

July 15 Dennis Brown / Infra-Red Funk. Another Casa Loma reggae show, I believe. Infra-Red were a local reggae band, the first I’d ever heard. (Or were they from KC?)

July 17 The Sirens / Foolish Virgins. I can’t place the Sirens at all, but the Foolish Virgins were a trio led by Mike Burgett (of PG fame), with Doug Hagen on bass and Danny Hommes on drums. I almost never missed their gigs from this point on.

July 18 Herald Head. Huh?

July 20 Syl Sylvain & the Teardrops / the Nukes. I interviewed Syl at the Casa Loma before the show – he pointed to his 8 month pregnant drummer and told me, “This . . . .is what happens . . .  when you fuck . . . with Syl Sylvain.”

July 24 Insect Surfers / Strikers / Max Load. I seem to recall this being a Casa Loma event, too. The Insect Surfers were an underground band from Washington, DC. I think KWUR had something to do with this show.

July 25 Isley Brothers / Chaka Khan / Kool & the Gang / Manhattans / Al Hudson. Another Busch Stadium gig that I didn’t appreciate enough at the time, despite my funk fandom.

Aug. 1 The Felons

Aug. 3 Foolish Virgins. I think this was the time they played in a TV studio for cable broadcast, and I worked a camera that wasn’t turned on.

Aug. 6 Skitzos

Aug. 7 Dashboard Idols. I remember this name, I don’t remember this band.

Aug. 8 Delay Tactics 3. This was Carl Weingarten, right? With or without Reed Nesbitt?

Aug. 14 George Jones / Moe Bandy. Yep, I was ushering out in Fenton on a field where one of America’s greatest vocalists performed, and Moe Bandy wasn’t chopped liver, either. I don’t think I knew any songs yet, except “The Race Is On,” but he didn’t sing it. Still, it was thrilling.

Aug. 15 The Studebakers / Foolish Virgins. The Studebakers had been showing up at Billie Goat Hill in their Studebaker limo, and they had ads in Jet Lag for months before this gig. They were good people, especially drummer Jimmy Miller (who came from a jazz background, was a great guy, and who died way too young), but boy I didn’t like their New Wave by the numbers.

Aug. 20 Foolish Virgins. I think this was a gig at Mike Burgett’s house in St. Charles purporting to be the band’s last as he was going away to college. That didn’t last long.

Aug. 21 Rude Pets / the Sirens. The Rude Pets were another new band that changed styles now and again. Their drummer was always pretty good.

Aug. 28 Strikers / Felons

Aug. 29 The Obvious / the Nazi Seamen / Leaky Faucets. It was inevitable that I had to get up on stage myself. The Nazi Seamen was an ad hoc organization that included this night that included Tony Renner, Dana Ong, and myself. We had never practiced, we couldn’t play anything, and we had no songs. I made stuff up, and had the time of my life as vocalist. I’m pretty sure Leaky Faucets backed us up, too. We were hooked. This would continue.

Sept. 9 Soulard Blues Band

Sept. 11 Be-Vision / the Happy Chemicals. Billie Goat Hill wanted music to start at 9 pm. Bands wanted to play later, when the crowd would actually be there. We were an opening act that only wanted to play, not get paid. Match made in heaven. Oh, the name change to Happy Chemicals was because it was embarrassing to call ourselves Nazi Seamen. I’m pretty sure Tracy White and Mike Wineke played with us this time.

Sept. 12 Delay Tactics 4 / the Philosophic Collage. Now Jim Saltsider was playing with this art-damaged trio the Philosophic Collage, along with Trained Animal drummer Jeff Kersting, and Timothy Tyme. Tyme and I had an adversarial relationship, and I didn’t much like his singing, but I loved the sound of the band.

Sept. 16 The Go-Go’s / Mopeds. First, I fell head over heels for Kathy Valentine when I saw her playing pin-ball with a briefcase attached to her leg. Then later, after the show, the band threatened to tie me, Tony Patti, and John the Mailman up and take us to Chicago. That’s an adventure I should have had.

Sept 20 The Felons / AKA. I think AKA was a post Zanti Misfits band with Mark Sheridan, and if my mind isn’t completely going nuts, it was also a post Anti-Mation band with Tony Cornejo?

Sept. 22 Pretenders. Was this at Graham Chapel? I don’t remember the gig at all, but people tell me they saw them there, and clearly I saw them somewhere this time.

Oct. 2 Jay Berry Band. This smells of something I didn’t want to see.

Oct. 3 Acts. Same thing. I think it must have been at the Convention Center.

Oct. 3 Sonny Vincent & the Extreme. Rockabilly show I don’t remember at all.

Oct. 14 The Blasters / the Felons. Mississippi Nights was back and rocking. I guess the Go-Go’s must have been that triumphant return. Oh, the Blasters were magnificent – every song was a blast!

Oct. 15 Rick James / Teena Marie / Carl Carlton. “She’s a Bad Mama Jamma.” “Square Biz.” “Super Freak.” Live while they were all huge hits. And a 20-minute version of “Fire and Desire” with Rick and Teena.

Oct. 17 Felons

Oct. 23 Langrehr Band. I think this was at the bowling alley on Olive that burned down a few years back – Kenny Brown had left, and Charlie had a bassist and drummer now.

Oct. 30 Bangkoks / AKA. I don’t remember the Bangkoks, but they were probably from out of town.

Nov. 20 The Studebakers / AKA

Nov. 26 The Kings / Sommerville/Scarfina Project / Fools Face. Tony Renner’s 21^st birthday was celebrated with me and Bob Chekoudjian, and we hated all the bands. Fun night, though.

Nov. 27 The Morells. My first time seeing Lou Whitney and Donnie Thompson. I fell madly in love right away.

Nov. 28 The Morells. They played a lot at Billie Goat Hill, and I was always right up front on the dance floor.

Nov. 29 The Studebakers / The Foolish Virgins

Dec. 4 The Embarrassment. From Omaha, I think, came this incredibly intense four-piece band that had trouble drawing an audience besides me, Tony Renner, Tony Fafoglia, Bob Kuhlmann, and his friend whose name I forget. I loved them to death.

Dec. 11 Kelley Hunt & the Kinetics / the Innocents. Really, some things just don’t jog the memory banks at all. What was this? I’m gonna guess it was at Billie Goat Hill, because I’d go see anything there if there wasn’t anything else happening.

Dec. 15 Joan Jett & the Blackhearts / Sirens. Interesting. I didn’t remember seeing Joan Jett a second time this year, but obviously I did. Was this at 4^th and Pine, too?