Scar Stuff

I wish it was under better circumstances, but here’s the debut entry from a series of live tapes I made of Punk Rock bands in the mid ’80’s back when I lived in Kansas. I’m kicking it off with this one because Jason Sears, the singer for RKL, died this week (compounding this is that the original drummer Bomber — the guy drumming here — passed away only a few months ago.)

I made this recording on a crummy handheld Sony tape deck upstairs at the old Foolkiller in KC, which is where I saw a lot of my first punk gigs. I took the trip up from Lawrence to KC for shows all the time, but since I was under the driving age and lived about an hour & a half away from the club I was totally dependent on others for the rides up and back. Usually it was no problem, but for some reason this time it wasn’t happening — either no one was interested enough or they weren’t able to pull it off, and I was getting desperate. The lineup looked so good too; it was not only RKL (who I knew from their debut single on Mystic which I had been playing constantly), but also Dr Know who were great when they’d come through 6 months earlier (on their “Plug In Jesus” tour). Eventually it was looking SO grim that I called up the local college radio station (KJHK) and begged them to announce my situation; “15 year old kid wants a ride up to KC to see a hardcore show. Any takers?”. Seemed pretty last ditch to me but as luck would have it, a friend of mine I hadn’t thought to call WAS listening and offered to hook me up (thanks Gil!). My evening was saved, the show was great, and I’m proud to be able to present it to you in all it’s lo-fi glory 21 years later. Like I said, I just wish it was under happier circumstances.

Oh, and the flyer here is one I made for a show that ended up falling through about a year later (I still have the original lurking around). I can’t remember now if the Melvins ended up playing by themselves or if the whole thing was scrapped, but as you can see I more or less just swiped the art from the “It’s A Beautiful Feeling” single whole hog.

UPDATE: Stunt from 7 Inch Punk has graciously offered to host the file off his 12 Inch Punk server, so now there are two download options. Thanks man!

Link One: RKL “Live At The Foolkiller in KC, MO May 5, 1985” (192 kbps)

Link Two (12 Inch Punk): RKL “Live At The Foolkiller in KC, MO May 5, 1985” (192 kbps)