"I think I'm goin' back, to the things I learned so well in my youth . . ." - Goin' Back, Goffin-King via The Byrds
I'd already seen a part of this concert after a collector sent me a bootleg video of the incomplete segment that was shown on BBC TV a few years back. Then Ben from Classic Pictures e-mailed me last summer, stating that it was coming out on DVD. Months past, no disc. Then, Tuesday, it arrived! I felt as happy as I did in my youth when my X-Ray Specs from Honor House finally appeared in my mailbox!
History lesson: the original LIVE FROM L.A. show was to go on US TV back around 1986, same year as the Miller commercial. Something didn't happen and for years this film was in limbo, along with a pro-shot film of a Berkeley Square show we did in 1984, and the rest of the BBC footage from the Mean Fiddler in April of 1985. As Sid says, THAT would be something to see.
THE GIG
The first thing I remember about this gig was the taxi ride. Originally, we were sharing the show with another L.A. band whose name escapes me but were rather boring and lackluster. However, thinking they'd REALLY MADE IT, decided to be filmed arriving in a limo to their (staged) adoring fans. To counteract this pompousity, we agreed to grab an L.A. garden-variety taxi cab for our arrival.
NOT IN THE VIDEO: my pratfall
When old musicians sit around reminiscing, often the subject turns to "most embarrassing on-stage moment." Mine was going onstage that night. Emerging from backstage doing a brisk "Hello Cleveland!!" trot, my boot somehow got tangled in the Roxy curtain. A futile struggle for balance and momentum somehow resulted in me sliding on my back across the stage. When I came to rest, I found myself face up on the floor, with the neck of my bass locked firmly underneath the drum riser, pinning me. John Aynes, one of our trusted stage roadies that night looked at me with a pitying smirk I'll never forget as he freed me, bless him.
NOTE TO PRODUCERS: if you have that in the vaults, you have my permission to include it in an expanded edition. Honest. I'm over it, and my kids would LOVE to see it.
THE SHOW AND THE MIRACLES OF EDITING
Altough I don't consider this to be one of our greatest performances (I nominate the Gallery in Manchester, England April 1985 for that crown. That show exists in audio thanks to Clinton Heylin's tape recorder), although through some editing techniques it looks like we're just doing our typical, rocking post-European takeover, pre-Two-Fisted Turmoil show, which was still miles better than most of the mid-80s fodder. We kicked ass. By that time we were on top of our game, but the gremlins that lurked behind the Roxy curtains had other ideas.
Stephen's amp quit working mid-show. As amps do when it's their time to die, they never explode, shower sparks, or otherwise go out with a celebratory fireworks. They usually fizzle out, and emit that funny aroma of burning electrical circuitry. I recognized the moment on the DVD immediately, and on-camera you can catch glimpses of stage roadies rushing to the off-camera scene. Sid, Greg & I were a three-piece band for a bit while the dead amp was replaced. Also, sometime later one of the backdrops also fell over - also not on film.
THE DVD
WHAT I LIKE: Sound and picture quality are great. I don't have a Dolby 5.1 decoder but 2.0 sounded great on my meager home system - maybe I should take it to my friendly neighborhood home theater dealer and ask for a demo of 5.1, just to see how they mixed everyone's instruments for all those little speakers.
Despite the external technical problems with our equipment, we still played a great show.
The menus. Not exactly as deluxe as the DVDs of Citizen Kane or even This is Spinal Tap (a running commentary by the four of us would've been HILARIOUS, and worth every penny.)
Nostalgia - I'm not one to live firmly in the past at all, but I'm still damn proud of this part of my history. After 16 years memories get tainted, and of course mine dwell on my pratfall, Stephen's amp, so it was nice to know we kept the damn the torpedoes attitude and still gave a really good show for the crowd and the cameras.
I got a free one! That beats Polygram (and?) on The Long Ryders Anthology - that I had to BUY the damn thing at a CD store to see what it was all about. Bootleggers have been kinder, which tells me something . . .
Speaking of Anthology, on this DVD cover at least someone didn't GRAFT MY HEAD ONTO ANOTHER PERSON'S BODY. Sorry, but if you've been decapitated once, the paranoia lingers . . .
DOWNS:
Will the UK DVD Play on U.S. DVD Players? I can't guarantee that this will play in US DVD players, at least until someone in the US decides to release it. How does it play in my player? Very possibly because I sinned against the whims of the industry and hacked my DVD player when it was scarcely out of the box, rendering the region controls null and void. But unless you're in Europe, the Middle East or Japan, you've been warned.
That AWFUL guitar music during the titles. I pray that anyone seeing our band through this DVD for the first time doesn't think that's us doing that Eddie-Van-Halen-does-a-sports-car-commercial claptrap. You must remember that, within our band's timeline, that we were sandwiched between two loathsome forms of pop music: the UK synth boom (loved Holsapple's old quote of, "giving synths to the Brits was like giving whiskey to the Indians.") and the Motley Crue/Guns 'n' Roses, "shake those hair extensions, darling" variety of financed-to-the-teeth watered down metal din. We were none of the above, though perhaps to some, I guess all electric guitars sound alike.
Nothing about my post-Long Ryders solo career was mentioned in the biography, but hey, remember, I was decapitated!
My haircut stinks.
BTW, despite what the press says, it's Stephen, not Steven McCarthy. Give the guy some respect. (Of course, I'm still listed as "Tom Stephens" in my Long Ryders listing in the All Music Guide.)
OVERALL
BUY IT, it's got the TOM STEVENS seal of approval. Also, if you do and you're not in Europe, Middle East or Japan, let me know how it plays. If you want more of this kind of presentation of us and your favorite bands, support those with the guts and good sense to make it possible.
Tom Stevens
Somewhere in Indiana, January 2002
