Screamers Live In San Francisco

Like any good punch in the face, this ultra-rare video of a live set by the Screamers is brief but devastatingly effective in delivering its intent. Largely unsung heroes of the LA underground scene circa ’77-81, the Screamers bridged the gap between the meat-and-potatoes thud of proto-punkers like Black Flag and the burgeoning New Wave movement. The four-piece, dominated by the ferocious avant twitching of their late frontman Tomata du Plenty, roared and seethed with the same volume and bile as their guitar-driven cohorts, but added a mechanical howl of alienation and anguish courtesy their dual keyboards (one piloted by SST vet Paul Roessler) that pushed them away from the blues and garage-based sound of their peers and closer to such electronic pioneers as Devo and Suicide. But despite a rabid following and praise from people like Jello Biafra and Exene Cervenka, the Screamers left a staggeringly tiny recorded output, which makes this video, captured by San Francisco’s Target Video at Mabuhay Gardens in fall of ’78, all the more valuable. Sure, the picture quality looks like a third generation VHS dupe (which it is), but the visuals and rudimentary direction can’t mask the band’s sonic force as it rips through seven tunes, including such “hits” as “Vertigo,” a brutal “Punish or Be Damned,” and a tear through “The Beat Goes On” that would’ve induced cardiac arrest in Sonny Bono had he heard it. Tomata is a riveting presence at front and center, looking for all the world like Danny Elfman’s Devil in Forbidden Zone in what appears to be yellow raingear, flailing his arms St. Vitus-style while the band remains impassive behind him, preferring to let their instruments do all the howling. Pungent stuff. I won’t go into the usual “oh, the missed opportunities” or “look how much they influence the current alternative scene”—you’ll have both of those thoughts if you watch the DVD. Just be happy that it’s available for viewing.

Music Video Distributors makes up for the relatively short set length by including a handful of videos the band made at Target Video, including two separate ones for “Vertigo”; they’re as primitive as can be by today’s standards, but again, Tomato’s presence is all the special effects they needed. Also included is a vintage promo reel for Target’s vast library of live footage, which includes in-their-prime performances by the Ramones, X, Rank and File, the Exploited, Flipper, Dead Kennedys, the Cramps, Throbbing Gristle, Bauhaus, D.O.A., Mark Pauline and Survival Research Labs…the mouth-watering list goes on and on and on. Here’s hoping these long-out-of-circulation films will join the Screamers disc on store shelves in the very near future.

—Paul Gaita