CATCH THE GERMS LIVE AT THE STARWOOD
Rhino Handmade Presents The Influential Band’s Legendary Final Concert With
Founding Member Darby Crash In Its Entirety For The First Time Ever
Pre-Order Exclusively At Rhino.com Starting May 24, Arrives June 22
LOS ANGELES – After The Germs’ snarling debut “Forming” helped usher in the West Coast punk scene in 1977, singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Lorna Doom, and drummer Don Bolles returned two years later with (GI), an unrelenting onslaught of primal pounding and verbal venom that influenced a generation. But it was the group’s unhinged concerts—often teetering on the brink of riotous bedlam—that elevated The Germs to exalted status among punk rockers.
Until now, only a few examples of the group’s live shows have surfaced, adding to The Germs’ mystique. Rhino Handmade presents a live album that features, for the first time ever, The Germs’ legendary final concert with Crash. Set for release on June 22, LIVE AT THE STARWOOD: DECEMBER 3, 1980 will be available for pre-order starting on May 24 exclusively at www.rhino.com for a suggested price of $19.98. The unique packaging has a genuine DIY feel including black and white liner notes folded and stapled to resemble a punk fanzine, a reproduction of the handwritten set list, and an 8 1/2" x 11" replica of the original poster for the show.
The disc contains the entire unreleased concert, considered by many fans to be The Germs’ finest hour. Performing together for the first time in a year, the quartet played possessed, blasting rapid-fire through nearly every song in its arsenal. After opening with “Circle One” from the 1978 EP Lexicon Devil, the band bashed its way through all but two songs from (GI)—the band’s sole studio album—including “What We Do Is Secret,” “Our Way,” and “Shut Down (Annihilation Man).” “Caught In My Eye,” an outtake from the (GI) recording sessions (produced by Joan Jett), found its way onto the set list as well.
The disc also features: “Lion’s Share,” a track the band recorded in 1979 with producer Jack Nitzsche for Cruising, a film starring Al Pacino; “No God” from the Lexicon Devil EP; a cover of Public Image Ltd’s; “Public Image”; and “Forming” the first song the quartet recorded together.
LIVE AT THE STARWOOD represents the band’s final performance with founding member Darby Crash, who committed suicide by overdosing on heroin on December 7, 1980—less than a week after this show.
The collection’s liner notes provide a vivid eyewitness account of the show penned by Jonathan Gold. Describing the band’s place in history, he writes: “The Germs are to the Los Angeles punk scene what Brian Jones was to the Stones or Syd Barrett to Pink Floyd—the primal creative force that was both too flatulent to live with and too vital to have come into being without.”
LIVE AT THE STARWOOD: DECEMBER 3, 1980
Track Listing
1. “Circle One”
2. “Manimal”
3. “Caught In My Eye”
4. “Lion’s Share”
5. “No God”
6. “Our Way”
7. “Strange Notes”
8. “What We Do Is Secret”
9. “Richie Dagger’s Crime”
10. “Land Of Treason”
11. “My Tunnel”
12. “Media Blitz”
13. “Communist Eyes”
14. “The Other Newest One”
15. “Let’s Pretend”
16. “Forming”
17. “Lexicon Devil”
18. “Shut Down (Annihilation Man)”
19. “Public Image”
20. “American Leather”
21. “We Must Bleed”
22. “Richie Dagger’s Crime” (Reprise)
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