Dead Kennedys on vinyl: Live at the Old Waldorf, multiple labels, same recording

 

[review by Rev. Keith A. Gordon]

DEAD KENNEDYS

Live At the Old Waldorf, San Francisco

(Mind Control Records, Europe)

VENUE: The Old Waldorf, 444 Battery Street, San Francisco CA; October 25th, 1979. 

SOUND QUALITY: Says that it’s a FM radio broadcast, but it sounds more like an average audience recording to these aging ears. There is a (mostly) clear distinction between instruments, and the vocals are strong and up front. There’s an overall shallowness to the recording, though, with little effort paid towards stereo separation, and a slight aural haze shrouds the entire performance. The audience sounds like it’s a mile away when clapping, so this could instead be a shabby soundboard recording. No matter, it’s good enough for hardcore punk and the band’s performance is the real deal.

COVER: Varies somewhat depending on which version you run across at your local green grocer. This 2019 Mind Control Records release offers a front cover photo of DKs’ frontman Jello Biafra crowd surfing with a microphone in his hand. The 2018 Suicidal Records release features an action shot of Jello on stage singing. The back cover of both LPs is identical with track listing and a kinda kool, high-contrast photo of the band members stacked atop each other. Jello looks like the Caesar Romero version of the Joker from the 1960s-era Batman TV show!

TRACKLIST: Side A: 1. Kill the Poor • 2. Funland At the Beach • 3. Back In Rhodesia • 4. Dreadlocks of the Suburbs • 5. Police Truck Side B: 6. Ill In the Head • 7. Short Songs • 8. California Über Alles • 9. Holiday In Cambodia • 10. Chemical Warfare

COMMENTS: The Dead Kennedys – incendiary vocalist/lyricist Jello Biafra (née Eric Boucher), chainsaw guitarist East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell), rock solid bassist Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall), and drummer ‘Ted’ (a/k/a Bruce Slesinger) – were at the forefront of the late ‘70s American hardcore punk movement, a scene which then included Black Flag, the Germs, and the Misfits, among others. Featuring a gatling-gun musical approach of assaulting the audience with instrumental shrapnel, the band’s whiplash sonic overkill was paired with Biafra’s politically-charged and often-times controversial lyrics. 

Even the band’s name raised the hackles of ‘polite’ Bay area society, and area shows at punk hotspots like Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco were often credited to “The DK’s” or “The Pink Twinkies” to downplay the band’s inciteful moniker. The LP at hand – the Dead Kennedys’ Live At the Old Waldorf, San Francisco – captures an October 25th, 1979 live performance at the Old Waldorf venue that was broadcast by KALX-FM radio, a student-run station operated by the University of California in Berkeley, California. The band itself was barely a year old at this point, and had lost its second guitarist, ‘6025’ (i.e. Carlos Cadona) earlier that year. 

The DKs released their first single, “California Über Alles,” on their independent Alternative Tentacles Records label and had suffered through an unsuccessful East Coast tour that lost money due to the band’s obscurity. They were a hot property in the Bay Area, though, and a natural choice for the legendary Old Waldorf stage, which had also hosted performances by a diverse range of artists like Spirit, Metallica, Rory Gallagher, Blondie, Iggy Pop, and others between 1976 and 1983. The Dead Kennedys may not have been the most polished of live performers after spending a year in the trenches, but they were definitely one of the most exciting. 

Although Biafra’s high-register vocal snarl was derided by mainstream critics (Robert Christgau of the Village Voice likened his singing to Tiny Tim’s), it has since become one of the most easily recognized and imitated voices in punk rock. Side one kicks off with the lyrical barbs of “Kill the Poor,” the band then ripping ‘n’ roaring through tunes like the oddly-syncopated “Funland At the Beach,” the haunting “Back In Rhodesia” (later reworked into “When Ya Get Drafted”), the supercharged cod-reggae of “Dreadlocks of the Suburbs,” and the explosive social commentary of “Police Truck,” with its barbed-wire garrote of a circular guitar riff and elements of the Batman TV show theme song.             

Side two cranks off with the cacophonic “Ill In the Head,” which does a great job of approximating the sound of insanity with discordant instrumentation and Biafra’s angular, disjointed vocals. The short, sharp shock of “Short Songs” is delivered at breakneck speed (under a minute) while the band’s first single, “California Über Alles,” combines all of the band’s best aspects, from Biafra’s eerie vocals and anarchistic lyrics to the unrelenting barrage of instrumentation, the charge led by East Bay Ray’s flamethrower guitar. 

“Holiday In Cambodia” was the band’s second single and, perhaps, their best-known song. Lyrically juxtaposing yuppie consumer culture with Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge, the song is devasting in its reach, delivering one of hardcore punk’s most memorable performances with wiry amphetamine guitar licks and Biafra’s strident vocals, which are delivered atop a tsunami of clashing instrumentation. The show-closer, “Chemical Warfare,” sounds downright pedestrian by contrast, its traditional machinegun H/C instrumentation supporting Biafra’s caustic lyrics, with a touch of whimsy injected into the song’s chaotic ending. 

Most of the material on Live At the Old Waldorf, San Francisco would land on the band’s 1980 debut, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Originally released by Cherry Red Records in the U.K. the album would subsequently be released by I.R.S. Records stateside before finally landing on Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Drummer ‘Ted’ left the band after the album’s release, replaced by the D.H. Peligro, who would remain with the DKs until their break-up in 1986. The enduring influence of the Dead Kennedys on rock ‘n’ roll is inestimable, with artists as diverse as Green Day, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Slayer, and Sepultura all citing the Dead Kennedys as an influence.

This particular DKs’ show has seen a lot of mileage over the past five years. Best as I can tell, it was originally released as a European “copyright gap” LP in 2016 by the Interference Records imprint, which has some pretty cool titles by folks like the Dictators, Meat Puppets, Pere Ubu, Hüsker Dü, Slaughter & the Dogs, and others that seem worth your time to track down. The aforementioned Suicidal Records release is one of a handful of albums by what seems to be a real fly-by-night label (their catalog only includes releases by the DKs, the Minutemen, the Misfits, and the Descendents). This Mind Control release offers the same bootleg quality sound as its predecessor, and the vinyl sports the exact same black labels and typeface, making one wonder if this just isn’t a reworked version of the Suicidal disc. Mind Control also has a slew of intriguing live discs available by punk-related artists like the Ramones, the Cramps, Alice Cooper, the Gun Club, and Bad Religion, to name but a few. 

No matter which version you grab, the Dead Kennedys’ Live at the Old Waldorf is a decent representation of the Dead Kennedys early’ sound, which improved somewhat once the band put the talented Peligro behind the kit. Unlike many of their peers, the DKs weren’t exceptionally prolific, with only four studio albums to their credit after eight years together. There’s not a wealth of live DKs to be found, either – two legit releases, to be exact – with 2001’s Mutiny On the Bay an amalgam of various performances circa 1982 to ’86, and 2004’s Live At the Deaf Club, which documents a March 1979 performance that includes original guitarist ‘6025’ and a longer set list than the Old Waldorf show. If you’re a DKs fan, though, you’re gonna want them all, and Live at the Old Waldorf is worth your time and money.

Front cover, Suicidal Records version:

Editor Bill's bonus pick (This one would make a fine vinyl consideration for bootleggers)