Label: Decay/Target Video Format: DVD,VHS
Originally released on VHS in 1987, this collection of the Dead Kennedys live in concert and the studio finds them in fine Punk Rock form. As is to be expected, the sound quality of the gig footage (mostly recorded at Mabuhay Gardens 1979-80) is less than optimal, but at least it’s in stereo and captures the band’s tightly-whipped performances in the lo-fi essentials. One simple expedient to improve the viewing experience is of course to turn up the volume. As far as DVD extras go, they’re minimal – song selection, concise biographies for each band member after they called it a day in 1986, and the amusing addition of singalong subtitles for each song. DKs karaoke anyone?
Each track is intercut with short sections of handgun headshots, Ronald Reagan slapping Nancy upside the head and other jibes at the Eighties establishment. Best of all is Jello Biafra‘s interview on San Francisco local TV on the occasion of his mayoral candidacy, and includes his attempt to clean up a rich Nob Hill neighbourhood with a vacuum cleaner. As he observes “it is no more of a joke and no less of a joke than anyone else they care to name” standing for election, promising to “solve all of San Francisco’s problems whether it likes it or not”. Tongue in cheek or not, Biafra’s sensible policies for a sensible city didn’t get him much more than a cheeky piece of publicity at that time, but it spices up an already charismatic and energetic stage presence on the videos. As the band bursts out from the intial red lit glare of the scathing “California �er Alles” in 1979, it’s strange to note from the perspective of twenty-three years just how easy it was (and unfortunately stiill is) to get a bunch of dissafected kids Seig Heiling, however ironically, at the end.
As the set proceeds through the 1980 gig, the crowd are soon moshing and stage diving as Biafra twists and rolls in a bath of reedy feedback. The band are on top form through a rapid-fire “The Man With The Dogs” and a celebratory “Let’s Lynch The Landlord”, while “Insight” is delivered in a clattery rush which both band and crowd seem to enjoy hugely. Two tracks were recorded with the Dead Kennedy’s performing live in Target Studios for the shoot: “Bleed For Me” finds Jello leaping, miming and cavorting in a horrid pink shirt and green gloves while the band give the song their best breakneck rendition; from the same session, “Holiday in Cambodia” opens with the obligatory Huey landing shot to that most horripilatingly great of Punk intros to a blistering ride through the classic. Intercut with TV footage of burned babies, explosions and warfare in general, East Bay Ray gives the guitar a good shivery reworking as the napalm rains down. As the credits roll through a tinny “Viva Las Vegas” straight out of Berkeley, there’s a sneaking temptation to hit the rewind button for “Holiday In Cambodia” just once more…
-Antron S. Meister-
